THE FROG-ACADEMY

Just Ticking along...

2009-07-15T23:07:00.006+01:00

Not much to blog really... life has just been ticking along since the weekend. The girls made scones today :D Tomorrow was supposed to be our last day of school before the summer, but I had a phone call from a friend today to say they are back in the country for 5 weeks and could the girls come to play tomorrow. Of course I was not going to say no to that, so it turns out school finished today!! I'll mow the lawn, catch up on the washing after all the rain these last few days and maybe clean some of the windows tomorrow instead ;-) That should keep me busy and if I don't get it all done I will have something to do on Friday!!

The Tot-Trays seem to be working fairly well for NJ and intermittently through the day he comes and ask to do something on there which is nice. Then some of the time he tries to join in with C & E (who work together a fair amount, at least at the same kind of activity) and a lot of the time he just pootles about making messes here there and everywhere! I'm looking forward to having a few weeks when I can spend a bit more concentrated time on him - I want the other children to get used to that idea a little!

This evening, while the jacket-spuds were in the oven, P went outside to sit in the garden and read his paper under a parasol. Would the smalls leave him be ... you must be joking! But it made from some pretty pictures as they all messed about under the parasol ;-) Then NJ enjoyed about half an hour messing with the rain water that had accumulated in the 'not-in-use' paddling pool (a bit ewwww, but he was quiet so I was able to get a bit of hoovering done inside :D )

Crazy Family Fun Day

2009-07-11T23:47:00.003+01:00

Today was the annual Nantwich Family Fun Day and our church were involved in the event this year in a bigger way than ever before. Usually we have a promo' stand with balloons and face-painting, but this year we had a group of our young people performing a puppet show and dancing in the main arena - twice!! This was obviously a great opportunity, but also major hard work in terms of prep' and practice. Paul was down at the park about 7.30 this morning setting up and returned home about 6.30pm tonight - with Chish and Fips in hand (only our third plate of chips today then!!) - NOTE TO SELF - remember to make up packed lunches next year to avoid exorbitant over-pricing on burger stands & seriously unhealthy eating for the whole day!! The weather held off its rain, with only a few light showers here and there and generally warm - kind of sticky warm iykwim. (It's tipping it down outside now!!).

In the middle of all that my girls all had ballet and as P has an exam coming up VERY soon it was important not to miss her lesson. Then back to the park for the second set in the arena!

The puppets and the dancing were all brilliant - imHo!! In one of the songs JAH was operating two puppets (one on each hand) doing different parts of the backing track to "Walking on Sunshine" offset to each other - really no easy task (just ask J&J), but he was amazing! :D

Just a few snapshots to give a taster of the day. Click the little 'from NFFD' at the bottom if you want to see the pictures in an album, or the whole collage if you just want to see it bigger :D

From NFFD

Tomorrow is Sunday School Prize Giving day - so another early start and busy morning - now that I am, in part, Sunday School administrator!

No School - Really?

2009-07-10T23:31:00.006+01:00

As most of you know we don't do school on Fridays - well not 'real' school, but today was gardening day and JIH was a brilliant helper as after my 1 1/2 mowing the back, he then came and really got stuck into weeding the front with me. This did, at one point, involving disturbing a very sizeable ants nest and the appearance of several earwigs. JAH thought the earwigs were in for a feast - and I think they thought they were too - but to our surprise it turned out the other way round and the children (several of them by this point) stood and witnessed a positive army of ants gang up on one earwig and slowly kill it. It was really quite astonishing to watch (albeit a little gruesome and creepy), but really quite difficult to photograph! Click the photo to see it bigger. A valuable lesson learnt in science and nature studies - and without me even having to try ;-)

New Tools for Smalls!

2009-07-09T23:56:00.012+01:00

I woke up to the sound of noisy dinn this morning. That never bodes well for me and put me instantly into an "I can't deal with this today!" kind of mood, so to avoid monstrous levels of confrontation I hid as much as I could all day! Of course I was physically present, but I think the kids knew all too well that in mind I was 'not in'! Despite that they seemed to have a relatively OK day. I had planned their boxes back on Saturday, so despite not having filled them last night (in favour of watching a film with Paul) they were able to quickly stock them up from my list and carry on with school.

Later in the day some more of my order of new resources for my under 5's came - bearing in mind that I will not likely be sending NJ to playgroup unless I learn to drive, I thought I'd better get sorted with him. I must confess some of the inspiration for this bean-baggy order came from Carisa over 1+1+1=1 . So here are some photos from today and yesterday & my 'tot-tray' shelf which I just got organised. Some of NJ's were completely self-instigated (the dominos), some were him mucking in with CT (finger painting), some were 'tweeked' by him - beads go from threading to pouring! and others he played along with my plan for - well almost!! I've discovered this week he can thread round beads on pipe-cleaners and flat beads on laces, he can colour match red, blue and yellow and he can picture match, with some pretty nice attempts at finding labels for the pictures (I used one lotto board & tiles for this - he loved it).

TRAY-SHELVING

THREADING BEADS ON PIPE-CLEANERS

EXPLORING THE ROLL OF DIFFERENT SHAPED BEADS

COLOUR SORTING (NO PROBLEM MUM!!) - AND NAMING!

BEAD POURING - NOW THAT'S MORE FUN!!

FINGER PAINTING - TIME TO GET MESSY!!

REALLY - MESSY!!

LINE-UP, LINE-UP!!

THREADING BUTTON BEADS ON STRING - EASY!!

(BUT IT DOES TAKE A LITTLE CONCENTRATION ;) )

TIME TO LINE-UP AGAIN - AND THEN STACK BACK UP.

NOW LETS SEE HOW ELSE THEY LINE UP...

NOW FOR THE NEW STUFF - HOW MUDDLED CAN I MAKE THIS!!

NOT SURE WHAT TO DO WITH THESE YET, BUT THEY LOOK LIKE FUN :D

DO YOU LIKE MY SMILE? ;D

Aside from Tot-school, CT has been very keen to 'do school' and his big question atm is "What's that letter?" So I think my alphabet buy will be a big hit with him too. Perhaps even better for him that NJ, but hey-ho - whatever. It seems he already knows 'curly c', 'kicking k', 'o' and 'ex' - so that's a good start considering I've taught him nothing so far! He was also making an attempt to write his name free hand today which is great :D (see pictures). He has also pretty much mastered lacing cards this week. He kept going back to it until he completed his way around one whole picture and despite the frustration of entanglement, he still persisted to the end - major progress :D

Ellie also suprised me today with the way she was able to play with the pattern shapes. She made some lovely pictures with them :D

PATTERN SHAPES AND LACING - YUP SUSSED THAT THEN!

LOOK - I WROTE MY NAME ALL BY MYSELF!!

I have decided to have a quick fly through Jolly Grammar with Phoebe as when going into Year 3 she tell me "I don't know how to write a sentance!" I feel a little paniced!! I'm not really sure this is true, but she obviously is not confident with her writing skills, so we are going to cover some 'ground rules' and then hopefully she will feel better equiped, and after all - I never actually did do JG with her because her reading was so far behind, so I guess there probably might be some gappy holes that need patching :D.

There has been a stack of cartoon drawing going on too - with the purchase of 6 whiteboards. The ones I've posted are JAH's and one is a bit gruesome, but is pretty brilliant all the same. I'll try to get some the others do over the next few days too - they really are pretty cool - even if they do rapidly consume my whiteboard markers!! :D

GRUESOME BUT AWESOME - by JAH

TOO COOL! by JAH

MUMMY'S FAVOURITE SHOT OF THE DAY!! :D

Seriously Cool School!!

2009-07-07T01:32:00.006+01:00

All is going well with our new system so far :) Boo tells me it is like having non-book day every day and even J1 is almost finished by Lunch time. He took one look in his box today and said "looks like an exciting day...a couple of not so good things, but good in all." so that is praise indeed of the system to hear positive stuff coming from him! J2 is doing as he always does and finishing before everyone else, but I can't doubt the quantity of work he does because he has to do what I set out for him! Boo is loving it and often carries on finding things to do even after she has 'clocked out' and Beefie is doing well with it too, keeping going and getting finished every day. She is finding the typing a little difficult I think (and is very slow), but that just gets easier with practice doesn't it :D Belle is managing to stay the course of her 10 activities (which is more than she has EVER done before) and even Bleb is (C) is pretty much getting the hang of working with us until his box is empty :D I am definitely less stressed with them only doing 10-a-day and so are they. It IS a lot of effort to get organised with the planning at the weekend for the full week and then the replenishing of the boxes each night is tiring, but I think once I get more in the swing of it all it will definitely be hugely worth it!

SO today, despite my trays for Natty only still being on order, I did manage to set up a little bit of TOT-SCHOOL and here's what he did :D

Of course the others could not resist joining in, but he was not complaining - he likes to work with the others and it made him feel that what he was doing 'must' be fun if the others wanted to too ;) The spaghetti posting didn't last long, he decided it was much more fun to break it into tiny pieces and throw it around! The bead threading he kept going back to over and over all day - I lost count the number of times I gathered those beads together again! The misfit monsters he enjoyed, but in reality that was something for Bleb and he didn't really get it. The magnetic 'pictures' again he revisited all day. So all in all a successful day. I have additional fun stuff lined up for tomorrow ;) He may not have had a great deal more attention from me today but he was certainly a lot more positively stimulated than he has been of late.

And lastly - for my nice regular readers who know my older three children, they have each set up a blog. If you want to comment you have to be invited, so if you want to do so, just give me a shout and I will invite you - they would love visitors of course, but I want to monitor it closely.

Their blog addresses are;

Boo @ www.babsyboosblog.blogspot.com

J1 @ http://crazyjakesplace.spaces.live.com

J2 @ www.machillinplace.blogspot.com

Another activity I tried for the first time today was to try and alleviate some of the stress of writing that Beefie exhibits. I wanted her to write some 'news' but knew she would struggle with it, so I decided to do something new :D I took her somewhere quiet (yes, that can be done in this house) and got her to record onto my phone what she wanted to say - warning her first that she was going have to write it all down, so probably best to try not to say too much! She did it - once she got past the giggles ;) - and then went on to produce a good (for her standard) piece of writing with no fuss whatsoever :D - Big Hit! Will do that again! Here's what she looked like whilst writing up - how sweet does she look ;) -

So That Didn't Take Long Then...

2009-07-04T18:12:00.002+01:00

Only 2 1/2 hours to mow the grass then!! That with a flymo and without even doing the edges nicely - glad I started early before the day got hot! It's growing so fast atm that might be an every weekend task - I just hope it doesn't fall to me every time - I'm exhausted - lol!!

Just TOO Hard…

2009-07-04T00:27:00.001+01:00

This evening we had our first guests over for a meal, but it was a farewell meal for our close friends H&G. That’s H that is always there when I need her, who my children adore as their adopted granny and would gladly be with anytime, H whose house has been like our second home these last seven years, H whose door is always open, H who has been my ‘titus women’ and whose wisdom and love I shall sorely miss. G whose gentleness of spirit reaching down and reads you like a book! G whose hospitality (alongside H) knows no bounds, G who nothing is too much trouble for, G who loves you with his eyes! And their daughter E - funny, quiet, thoughtful, arty, loving - and my babysitter! This family leave a hole in our lives and I am sad that they are leaving :( When they drove away tonight I went inside and sobbed. The children saw, but I couldn’t hold back the tears, not even for them - and I can’t now either. Me and goodbyes have never been good with each other! I know we will see them from time to time as they have a good many strong ties in this town, but somehow it just wont be the same here without them. We have inherited their huge dining table and it will be an honour, a challenge to me and a legacy to them, to use it to feed as many guests around it as they have over the years. It will remind me of them daily and of it I am glad. I didn’t want them to leave - I still don’t but they have and I must get used to the idea :( ! I know they have work to do where they are going, and I pray God will show them what that is as soon as, and as they move on with God this will be their next level of ministry - whatever they do , I know God will be blessed by them and they will be blessed by Him also.

Goodbye H&G (&E) - see you soon!

Lazy day...!

2009-07-02T15:36:00.009+01:00

Decided that it was too hot today and I was just too tired to fill boxes last night, so in the end the kids filled their own this morning with whatever 10-12 activities they chose! I know that is seriously not the way it is supposed to be done, but Thursday is our non-book day and at least this way they have had some structure to their day - and they have been able to feel like they have achieved something! The little ones (E, C & N) have muddled in with what the others have been doing and it's worked fairly well considering I have cossetted myself away in the study (which tbh is so close to the school room that it can be considered not that detatched really) catching up on my 365 a bit more! It's been just about every 3 minutes that one or other of them has come to me with a "Muuuuummm" but that's not been so bad without the pressure of having to be with any one of them at any point. Now two bigs have gone out to practice a puppet show for the Nantwich Family Fun Day and C is 'running' (crazy boy - too hot for that) on the Wii. Nearly time for tidy up - might wait till it's just a little cooler before I tackle todays big job of mopping floors ;)

Boo did manage to make this today and when I asked her how the seats rise, she said "it goes so fast and the pressure pushes them up." - pretty good conclusion then :D Not-bad for un-schooling ;)

And then the day was topped off with this (making use of borrowed equipment!);

Our New Home

2009-07-02T11:20:00.001+01:00

Thought some of you might like a tour of our new home :D - enjoy! It's not quite how I want it yet, but nearly enough for photos ;)

PLEASE PRAY...!

2009-07-01T23:46:00.002+01:00

I have a friend who's little boy of 5 is in a critical condition. They live in the countryside and about a week ago the children were out playing. They went near a field they had been told not to go near and the little lad had a farm gate fall on him. The little girl ran back to get my friend (Mum), who fortunately had another friend with her at the time who is a Dr, but when they got to the lad he was not breathing and had no heartbeat. They did resuscitate him, but he is now on life support and are not sure if he is going to live. The Dr's are saying that if he does live he will have severe brain damage and the information (not 1st hand) I received tonight said that an MRI scan has showed little or no brain activity.

We are praying for a miracle here - please join me. I have not used names here as I have not actually spoken to the little lad's mum myself (this is news through another closer friend) to get her OK. For now just pray for 'River' and pray for his life!!

Thankyou - and spread the word to pray - the more that do the better. Let's nag God to let this little man live and live in abundance. That see those Dr's agast by our miracle :D

Wishing I was Wonder-Women

2009-07-01T22:53:00.004+01:00

As I sit here tonight, with stuff still to do and feeling so hot I can hardly breath, I am wondering just how some women do it all! It's not been a bad day, but one of those when towards evening I really begin to resent Paul's calling because he has 'committments' that call on his time and energies. School went well again today and the kids definitely like the new system - as do I, but boy is it intense! Can you imagine trying to ensure that all 7 children do each of 12 activities and that each one of them gets to do some stuff with you too - the younger ones more. That's 84 activities a day going on around me!! Couple that with all the ordinary house-hold stuff like making lunch, chivvying kids to do their chores, doing my own chores (Weds = hanging washing out and getting in, endlessly loading dishwasher, hoovering through this rather big house, cleaning down kitchen at the end of day), a million trips to the toilet with a drinking-lots-just-trained toddler, finding the bits of things I forgot to put in the boxes and answering the cry of "Muuuuuum!" to the point of distraction! Even with only 4 help tickets each that's still at least 28 pleas for assistance above and beyond that which I have already assigned them!

And then to boot P is out from 6 on a Weds, so cook tea and clean up after it, put kids to bed after chivvying to shower and tidy rooms (again) before they hit the sack. All this to the whimpers of "It's too hot, I'm too tired, can I do it in the morning?..." (all of which are echoing loudly in my own thoughts as I tell them "no!" - and myself too, knowing that tomorrow is likely to be little different and then there will only be double the workload - never good!).

Now, after blogging, I have to go and stand in a room infested with tiny flies (someone left the window open & light on last night) and think up 84 activities for tomorrow (it's almost midnight now)! I only stood it for a little while last night then felt I was so crawling with flies I gave up, only leaving me even less time this morning to shower and get myself and two small boys dressed etc... (which I eventually managed to do late morning).

I'm thinking that I need to drop to 10 activities a day because, although they are not complaining and the activities are varied enough, some are struggling to complete them all and today they would have been working longer than I really want them to - for my own sanity! I need to think more imaginatively for tiny too - he is so Mummy hungry bless him, but unfortunately so is C. Today I was looking at a book with N, but it was like none of the others could see this; it seemed a grand time to themto ask me a million questions about nothing in particular and it was the moment when E lost all common sense about her own work and when C chose to throw a tantrum about doing a puzzle I knew he could do relatively easily with some thought put into it. Poor N just kept tapping my arm and calling "Muuuum" quite loudly to draw my attention back to him and his book (which he was really trying to enjoy with me). I got quite annoyed with the others tbh, as N really does not get enough time with me and even when I try to make it happen it gets kyboshed and he ends up being a bit sad :( He had a box full of activities to do today, but I only managed to do about 5 of them with him - it was just too hard to concentrate the time on him :( I'm hoping that as E & C get more used to the system they will afford me more time to work with him and he will get used to being part of 'school time' - he is only just 2 afterall.

So - multi-Mums out there - how do you do it all? How do you homeschool several ages, keep a clean and tidy home - not spotless, just respectable - and have happy, thriving-on-your-love kids - and not feel a complete wreck by the end of the day?

Good moments of the day were when E & I realised that she knows all but 3 of the letter sounds of the alphabet now :D & C did a 24 piece puzzle completely unassisted (once he got over the grumbles)! :D

Work-Boxes, Bees and Seriously Warm!!

2009-06-30T22:47:00.004+01:00

Today was the first try out of our new work-box system for real. Yesterday I had a little try of it with C and he really seemed to enjoy it - eager to move on to the next number, but still making a decent attempt at all of the activites. Today the others were having none of it - they all wanted me to fill up their boxes and get cracking on it. It did seem to work really well today. There are bits that need some fine tuning admittedly, but on the whole it was met with enthusiasm, a general understanding of the idea and a good attitude. Not quite all the activities got completed but that was mainly because we didn't start on the dot of 9 and we needed to finish on the dot of 3.30 to get the girls to their drama group :D

I'll post up some links to the system another time. In our home it has required a little modification, but it think this will work OK - it did today ;)

On the way home from drama Boo spotted something on the ground in the undergrowth and asked what it was. On closer inspection it was this;

I think it's honey bees - correct me if I'm wrong! That'll be one to keep an eye on over the summer for more reasons than one!

Later in the evening R came over for a couple of hours and this is what ensued... It was scorching hot, yet sticky and humid here with spatterings of rain on and off all day. This was good way to cool off before tea and bed :D

Updating...

2009-06-28T23:26:00.004+01:00

I'm busy updating my 365 blog these next couple of days and coupling that with getting the new work-box system hopefully up and running for a trial run before summer break. So take yourself over and have a look at my piccies - comments always welcome :D

Human Body Lapbook

2009-06-28T02:08:00.002+01:00

Check out the pictures :D We completed this just before we moved.

2009_05_04 Human Body Project

School in Alternative Forms…

2009-06-25T13:25:00.000+01:00

Sometimes life just haps upon your path and great things happen. Today we needed to get access to the room where the swallows were nesting (to install a TV point) and to our pleasure the babies had fledged this morning, only into the room instead of outside. So when we entered they were a little disturbed by us and we were worried the babies would hurt themselves flying into the windows. Fortunately the aerial man was a bird watcher (how excited was he to find four little newly fledged baby swallows sitting on the door of the room!) and knew exactly what to do :D With a little tuition from him, Joel was able to capture four little ones and release them outside, followed not far behind by mum swallow. I was so glad Joel had learnt how, as just a bit after the TV man left, Joel decided to investigate the loft of the room (boys will be boys!!) and out flew another baby (stunning itself on the window for a moment or two). He knew exactly how to catch and release it and this afforded all the other children the opportunity of a tiny little stroke of its head whilst Joel was holding it - and me a photo op!! :D We now have two families of swallows swooping around our yard (and pooping everywhere)!

Today in brief…

2009-06-22T13:22:00.000+01:00

J1 - Bible study, reading (for English), drawing, maths, science & ????

J2 - Bible study, made bird feeder, maths, English, science, spellings

A - Bible study, spellings, maths, did a bit of origami, science, English

P - Bible study, spelling, mental maths, watched me do some origami,

E - worked with the letter j and reviewed the ones we have done so far.

C - pottered about, danced to some music, played on Reader Rabbit & Alphabet express.

Natty - did more wees on the loo!! Enjoyed the dancing :D

We are getting there - just in time for summer holidays ;D !!

Another lovely thing we saw this morning was a family of swallows fledging the nest from the outbuilding next to us. We saw the mother literally teaching them to fly around our yard :D It was a beautiful thing to witness. There is another nest in there of about four babies who are yet to fly, but they are out of the nest, so maybe in the next day or so we will see it again. I don’t know if swallows return to the nest after flight or whether they are gone now.

This is the family yet to fly;

The End of and Era

2009-06-22T12:11:00.000+01:00

As Natty has turned two, so he has also come out of nappies and, without any more children on the horizon (although I’m not promising there never will be of course) so heralds the end of an era - no more nappies in the Hampton house (except for the packet that is reserved for night-time use for the next week or so - hopefully he’ll go 24-7 dry). It seems odd to be considering how/if I am going to try and redeem some of the money I have spent on very many re-usable nappies in varying forms, some of which are barely used, if at all.They can’t be sold on Ebay these days and I’ve never had much success anywhere else…anyone interested let me know and I’ll tell you what I’ve got (I may post up some pictures anyway). Odder still is the concept that my potentially last baby is now officially not a baby any longer, he is now a little lad in pants - not that he hasn’t in reality been a lad for some time in attitude! As he moves swiftly through toddler hood - a stage that I simply adore, a time of discovery, rapid development both physically and mentally, a time of exploration and innocence that has not yet moved into whining and constant ‘why’ questions, a time when independence and with that defiance are beginning to rear their heads, but are still quite easily diffused and manipulated, a stage that bridges between baby (dependent, snuggly and small) and child (independent and characterful), as he moves on from here I know I wlll quietly mourn the thought of never having a toddler in my home (actually brings tears to my eyes to think it). In my heart I really feel Natty has made my family complete - my perfect balance of boys and girls, my perfect 7 - and that I won’t have and don’t really want any more. I’m not sure, organised and relaxed as others think I am, that my patience or parenting would withstand the strain of another. I love my children, would not want to be without a single one of them and would exchange them for none, but I’m not sure I want to add another into the mix! All that said, if God were to choose to bless us with another we would embrace and love the child and I know I would cope, because I’d have to, but I would really like to do more than just ‘cope’. I actually feel that just now I am beginning to be a point where I am enjoying my children (more of the time than I was) and I don’t want to go back to less than that. So, much as I shed a tear about the thought of never having another child growing in my womb, or suckling at my breast, or toddling around in a nappy/bare bum, making silly faces at me just to make me laugh, plunging to the ground in mortal despair at the word ‘no’, and all those other lovely trade marks of baby and toddlehood - the deep heart truth is I do want more of it and love it and crave it, the REALITY truth is I don’t - and in case you hadn’t spotted it yet, this is our biggest ‘without child’ space we have had our whole married lives!

Sail on little Natty boat - sail on til’ manhood!

May your journey be safe and your seas be calm.

May the tiller of God’s word steer you straight.

May the distant shores of Heaven shine bright in your eyes.

May the wind of Praise be strong in your sail

May your anchor of Love be fast and true.

Sail on little Natty boat,

Sail on to manhood!

An Eventful Month, or so…

2009-06-20T12:35:00.000+01:00

Landlords - as hinted we have had a little hassle in this department. Our old landlords have decided that we are not going to get ANY of our deposit back because they have had to spend too much getting the house back to rentable standard. We asked for a break down of the costs and lets just say, there are a quite a few things we would contend. That said he is a lawyer and as the ‘upgrade’ is now done and it would be our word against theirs, I don’t think we really stand much chance! Looking at the inventory of the condition of certain things when we moved in we would contend that we were to blame (beyond reasonable wear and tear over almost 4 years) for excessive damage. A number of things we would not take great issue with except for to say that they did not give us a CHANCE to get the house & carpets to a standard we would have liked to hand them back in. They were literally moving in as we were moving out - which we felt was a bit much really. They even had the nerve to put down £40 in ‘cleaning substances’!! The most we are left with is the ability to right a letter in our defense and see what comes of it, which I suspect will not be much :(

Weekend in Lakes - A week after our move was half term. The three eldest were booked out to Energi Kids Retreat (a Christian youth camp organised at Quinta Hall) and 4 & 5 arranged to be spending a couple of days at their cousins’ in Birmingham (while their eldest was also away). Just leaving the two smallest home with us. As my Mum also spends her holidays with us we decided to cease the opportunity to only leave her with two and escaped for a couple of nights away in The Lakes. We stayed at a stunning B&B called Ella’s Crag, nestled on the lower slopes of Causey Pike. I would highly recommend it :D Our original plan had been to do some serious climbing and a half day of Gill walking, but the exhaustion that sets in with a house move meant that neither of us really wanted that after all, so we had to think what we could do that we might not otherwise do with kids in tow. We decided to give sailing a go! It wasn’t the cheapest option by any means, but we had a three hour ‘starter’ tuition session and we loved every minute of it. I enjoyed keeping it at a leisurely pace and an even keel, Paul preferred to give some lean and speed!! definitely something that, if i was rich enough, I would like to get into.

Conference - the last week of May usually sees us at the Elim annual conference in Prestatyn. This year all but Natty were well occupied with children’s clubs. If nothing else conference is a good fun break that leaves us almost kid-free for best part of a week - that is refreshing in itself ;D Spiritually - no thunderbolts this year, but for me a quite knowledge of the presence of God at work in my life. It was good :D

Car - Our wonderful bus has done a fair few miles just lately. I think Paul counted almost 1000 in one week of to-and-fro’ing with the kids to various camps and things in May. Not long before it had needed a new alternator, and this week that alternator needed replacing (thankfully under warranty) then not two days later the starter motor gave up the ghost! Now it seems fine again - just in time for summer expeditions :D

Oven - When we moved into this amazing new house, with it’s brand new fitted kitchen, one of the first things we discovered was that the oven shorted out the whole house!! So for the first three weeks we cooked on the hob. No big problem as we do a lot anyway, but it is nice to have the oven working now. It needed a replacement thermostat.

Toilet Training - can’t call it potty training because he isn’t using one! I knew Nat was ready, but didn’t expect him to suss it in just one day! The first day he had his nappy off full time he was totally dry - and CLEAN! I was more than a little stunned, he is more than a little proud of himself, and rightly so!! :D Now I just need to get him in trousers ready for tomorrow (Sunday) so we can go to church nappy-free. So far today he has wet two pairs. What is it about fabric on bums that confuses them so much? Commando works so well, but I haven’t given him a full week (silly me), and I need him decent tomorrow - looks like I might be carrying a lot of spares!

Sad Goodbyes - As Regents College (the Elim College where Paul trained) prepares to move from here down to Malvern, we are having to say a few sad and some very sad goodbyes. Amongst those moving is my (and the children’s) very close friend Helen. She had a barbeque last Sunday and invited everyone to come and buy bits of their furniture, as they are seriously down sizing. The money is to be donated to an African orphanage we have connections with. As I looked around there were so many people there that I knew (and a fair few that I didn’t) and it was glaringly apparent what a huge hole the departure of this family will leave in the life of our local community. It is weird too, to think that physically speaking we have already moved out of that immediate community, but are still part of it in many ways. I am not looking forward to saying this “goodbye”. I am not good at them at the best of times, and this will be one of the worst! They move on July 3rd :( There are others leaving too who it will be hard to see go - our church is going to feel this quite sorely (we will be losing some pretty key people), but it will provide some opportunities for still others to step up to the mark :D

Another sort of ‘goodbye’ will be in the middle of July. my Mum retires from the school in two weeks time and will departing for the south on July 17th. As yet she has not replaced her car so I am not sure when we will next see her after that. Although in some ways I am relieved that this weekly thing is over (although it doesn’t seem nearly so difficult in this much bigger space), I know that I will miss her and the kids will miss her a lot, alot. I hope she gets a car reasonably soon and then it won’t seem so bad! Of course we can always take the tent down and camp at the local camp site in Gosport (Kingfisher) if we want to go and see her, but there is rarely any such thing as free accommodation for us lot!

A Month of Birthdays!!

2009-06-19T12:12:00.000+01:00

From the end of May to the middle of June we celebrate four birthdays in this house.

Nat turned 2

Paul grew a year ~~older~~ wiser! We went to Pizza Hut to celebrate as we are always at conference for the occasion and it makes a change from pot-cooked stodge!

Caleb turned 4

I grew a year ~~older~~ wiser! Of course - I am the photographer in this house!! LOL.

Picture Post

2009-06-18T16:36:00.000+01:00

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The Big Move - in retrospect!

2009-06-17T01:26:00.000+01:00

I had intended to keep up with my blog off-line and then just post all the entries when I was hooked back in, but guess what … nope, it didn’t happen!! This is the first time I have really set to putting anything down, so it’s all going to be retrospective, which never makes for such a good read, but hey-ho, sorry folks!!

‘Big’ move is perhaps a slight understatement!! We hired a big Luton, with tail-lift and I think it took about 6 loads (the last two not being quite full, but bulky bitty stuff, like garden accessories). We had also run a whole load of boxes over in our Tourneo a couple of nights preceding, so I think we might have filled all six in reality! We are eternally grateful to our very good friends, who without their help, it would have been almost impossible to do ourselves. By the end of moving day my kitchen was virtually unpacked and functional (thanks to my super efficient girl-friends), the majority of the house had been wiped down and out and some of the windows had even been cleaned. The garage was well stacked (cough, cough - another serious understatement) and although there were boxes everywhere I was amazed that we still had space to move about. Whilst packing up in the old house, we had really run out of anywhere to put the packed boxes, but whilst they were all just being piled in here thick and fast at the end, we still had room to put mattresses down to sleep on and space to move and sort in. I don’t think I had really realised how big this house actually is until I started to move our things into it. When we had looked around it empty, perhaps we were tainted by thoughts of another certain house, but we had perceived this one as not being very big, or workable enough for us (layout wise). In REALITY though this house is HUGE. The only place that is not so big is Paul’s study. It is much more of a work space and less the kind of ‘comfy Pastor’s space’ than he had been looking forward to, but none-the-less, with a little modification of our desk arrangements, it is perfectly functional. The rest of the house is so big that the ‘comfy’ spaces can be found in other ways anyway :)

I was very grateful too, that Paul’s mum was able to come and spend moving week with us. She was a tremendous help - and managed to land herself the job of staying behind at the old house giving it a rough clean through, whilst the landlords ‘moved in’ around her! They decided they did not want us to have the weekend to clean up behind ourselves (which I was very unhappy about as to be perfectly honest, after a month of packing and pulling dust out of every crack and crevice, it was filthy. I did not want to hand it over that way and given my choice would have given it a thorough scrub down - it was not to be - but that’s another story…) Once firmly seated in the new abode she was more than helpful here too - cleaning down stair railings (cast iron trellis sort), bathrooms, windows, you name it, she cleaned it - and she helped with the kids a lot too, which was a true blessing in itself. I know she went home totally wiped out, but at least she could take her time to recover now that she is retired :) Two weeks following she joined us (with Dad this time) at conference for a ‘relaxing’ family holiday - glutton for punishment or what!! :D

One thing that slowed me up a lot over the whole time (and still is a bit) was that that my right hip has been giving me a lot of pain. It clicks a lot and constantly throbs and aches. Most days I would get to a point where I could barely walk anymore and bending over was agony. I know I put a lot of weight through that hip when I lift and carry things (and being over weight doesn’t help at all), but the more I did the worse it got, and that was very limiting and frustrating - not just to me! Compensating for my painful hip I began to use my arms more and consequently my right shoulder became painful again (I’ve had problems with that in the past). I became very aware of how reliant I am on my right side - even though I am left-handed!!

I have tried to maintain my photo-a-day, but to little avail and in all honesty there was not a great deal to capture other than towers of slowly emptying boxes. The children have just played a whole lot and have been amazing to be honest - quietly amusing themselves together in quite elaborate games of Mums and Dads (and other things) with not very available to them to play with. This has continued on in the new house too :D Before we moved we had pretty much managed to keep school running too, with internet access making it viable, but since we moved, school has been pretty non-existent and I now realise how important the net is to our school life! I have to keep telling myself that it doesn’t matter if they have extra weeks off, perhaps we can do a little over the summer - on rainy days maybe..! Back to photography - I have taken some pictures as when it’s been worth it so do check over on my 365 to see the ‘catch up’ post :D

Funny Things…

2009-06-10T11:02:00.000+01:00

You know how sometimes over the dinner table the strangest conversations can take place…well we had one of those tonight. We were doing the quizzes on the mini-smarties packets, leading to chatting about the planets and how ‘Uranus’ is such a funny word - of course leading to sniggers from my older boys. I then chipped in that I remembered a time when Joel was obsessed with the word ‘faeces’ after learning in when we were doing our original body project some years ago - he had forgotten! After bantering the word about for a few minutes making a few silly sentences with it, Phoebe pipes up “My dolly has a ‘Fifi’ in her bottom!” - Bless her - we all burst into hysterics, much to her dismay ;( She has not yet quite learnt to laugh at herself too well, added to the fact she did not really know what she had said that was so funny!

Talking of comical words we have another new one in our family, created in honour of Nathanael - it is ‘Natastrophy’ and relates to just about everything this little man does!! In one week (at the Elim annual conference) he managed to get a golf ball in his eye, burn his hand rather nastily (he was so determined to get his hand in that oven despite endless warnings of its heat, he snuck down from the table an in a second had opened the oven door!), and get himself knocked out/passed out by falling backwards out of the doorway onto the rough concrete path outside (with Caleb landing on top of him!). He really is all the crazy bits of each of my others all rolled into one - he knows no fear, is scarily daring, incredibly agile, and boundlessly full of energy. He is strong willed and determined (a good and bad thing) and will persist with anything until he has it mastered - even if it is something he should NOT be doing!

2009-05-13T22:21:00.001+01:00

The Big Pack-Up!!

The Destination.

Yes - it IS happening :) We go offline for a month as of Friday. Really looking forward to the space of the new house. Many boxes already moved over to the garage so that we can actually move here! As you can see from the girls room - it's a pretty mammoth job. Getting thoroughly exhausted, but the end is in sight. Tomorrow I pack the kitchen and it's fish & chips tomorrow. Then it's odd and ends and we're done :D Then it's just the legistics of getting it all over there!!

If I don't blog tomorrow - see you all in a month :D

Yet Another Change of Plan..!

2009-05-10T01:40:00.003+01:00

Some people are just unbelievable - and for all you facebook-ers out there you know some of the story, but basically it goes like this...

...SHE PULLED AGAIN!!

Only this time she didn't even bother to let the Letting Office know that the Sales Office were processing a sale and it was only when our agent rang to confirm go ahead on the tenancy agreement for us (just to double check) that she found out! Poor woman, you can imagine how she felt having to break the news to us AGAIN - just one day before we were due to sign the papers!

So here we are (Friday), one week to moving day, surrounded by mountains (you think I'm kidding..!) of boxes - and no-where to go!! I called P home from a planned counselling session to discuss what we should do (kind of urgent really!!) and we agreed to take another look at a previously viewed property where we knew the LL was not averse to our troop of kids and was willing to make the propery 'fit the bill' for us. We all trooped off up there to chat with him some more and agreed that this was the best option for us all. Having been very angry at first when we told them about losing the 'big' house again, the children soon fell in love with this new place when they saw it and more-especially where it is. I JUST KNOW we are going to be very happy and settled there at least for the next year (or so...). We are surrounded by fields and countryside. The next closest neighbour (aside from our milkman LL) is an older couple who breed rare breeds. I know the lady definitely sells goats milk and likelihood is, eggs too. Of course our milk can come from our LL :D I'm hoping too that there might be opportunities for the boys (if not just J1) to earn a bit of pocket-money helping on the milk-floats - you never know :D And I know the little ones are going to love all the animals around the place - sheep, cows, goats, geese, chickens... all within close walking distance. The best of it is though that it is a short stride into the village, where there is a good little shop/PO and a school with a pre-school. That said, it may be a bit too far to walk every day with all the children - there and back remember (esp in the winter as it's all across fields and/or tracks). I think we will be somewhat reliant on our wellies wherever we go come winter month ;) All the same, IF I can actually go through with my plan to learn to drive this summer, that would solve that problem and N would be able to go to pre-school, as it would only be a 15 min round trip in the car (that's including loading times)! Other than that I'm going to have to get Jake strong enough to collect him on his bike (just kidding)!

In many, many ways this house is much more 'our thing' and I am actually really glad of it. It has been a roller-coaster ride getting here, but now the papers are signed, the house is being 'finished off' according to a list (quite a long one!) of things that will make it livable & comfortable for us and we STILL move on Friday :D

Thank you all for your many prayers that we know you have been sending up for us. They have not gone unheard and we now know, with a great amount of peace in our hearts, that this is God's best for us :D - Oh and did I mention - the rent is SIGNIFICANTLY less than the original house would have been - so that's one less stress and a lot less of a stretch for us too.

We will be going off-line on Friday 15th (hope to blog again before then though) for about 20-25 days while our phone-line changes exchange and the B/band moves over - then I guess there will be a lot to talk about!. I might just blog-offline and post it all up when we go back on.

House Decisions...

2009-05-07T11:28:00.002+01:00

The decision has been made. The landlord of the 'better' house said he was concerned by the number of children, so basically said 'no' ! So back to the original house it is - and we move next Friday

We trust that this decision is in God's hands and we will trust Him every step of the way :D