Return to Blogging

Well I have quite neglected my blog recently, it's almost a year since I last posted, but life has been anything but dull.

We bought a new pony, and brought both of them with us when we move house in the new year. I have almost finished my degree, and Hannah has started working towards a High School Diploma with Clonlara school. We have had more new additions on the animal front, 2 crazy Labradors (Harry and Draco) and 2 hectic Degu's (Lucius and Severus) and 4 quail ... so it is becoming quite the zoo round here.

So, now things have settled down again, I'll get back to typing :o)

Multiple Activity Day 2

Today we had hoards of people round for our second Multiple Activity Day. The weather was pretty rubbish, but a good time was had by all. Even though the potato gun failed to fire, all the dad's seemed to be having a great time trying to fix it and the Wii was a favourite of many as it was last month.

In addition we have people making biscuits and pizza's in the kitchen, fabric painting in the extention, creating characters for stories in the dining room, playing lego on the landing and watching DVD's in the bedroom.

We had planned a bit of stargazing late in the evening, but the weather was against us, however it was nice to sit into the eening and chat with those who were staying over. Then on Sunday morning a group of children went along to the stable to groom the pony before everyone went home.

Sushi making

Today our friends Ruth and Julia came over for the afternoon and we made sushi for lunch. The girls really enjoyed making up interesting combinations of fillings fo maki's and Mollie got an improptu Japanese lesson when Julia, who knows lots about these things, told her what al the different characters on thr Wasabi packaging meant. After lunch the girls built dens in the trees and had a quick dip in the pool, while Ruth and I had a nice relaxing afternoon.

Broody Hen

Bella the chicken has decided that it is time for her to become a mummy hen. Because we don't have a cockeral we went down to see our friends a Feufields to see if they had any eggs that she could sit on. They did, and they supplied us with half a dozen, and so now she is sat happily on them and we all have a tense 3 weeks coming up while we wait to see what hatches.

Cherry Pickers 2

Today we had a meeting of the cherry pickers group at Dalkeith Country Park. It was a good oppertunity for the children to spend some time with each other, and for the mums and dad's to chat about parenting. education and general lifestyles.

These types of get togethers are really useful in Home Edcationg because they are a chance to meet like minded people and make plans. At this meeting we planned for Ruth and Julia to come over a nd make sushi with us, and also arranged that Jo, and her children Tom and Annie are going to join us for our Georgian week. Without these chances to stand and chat lots of opertunities would probably never arise.

Beach Day 2

Following last months successful gathering we met up again on the beach a Gullane. It is really nice that we have these once a month meetings where there are no expectations and no particular point, it is just a chance to meet up, hand out and chat. It is good to see people you haven't seen for a while, and it's really nice to see the children play in a diverse group

D of E practice walk

Today Hannah went for her first practise walk for her D of E bronze award. She went off in the car with dad, her friend Taegan and a huge rucksack at 11 am,heading for the local village of Broughton. When she returned home about 5pm Dad had to carry her in from the car and deposit her in the armchair - I don't think I have ever seen her look so tired, and tonight will consist of keeping her topped up with painkillers, but we are amazingly proud that, even though she has cerebal palsy, she has managed to complete the walk. However, we don't have much planned for the next few days, so she can recover.