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.

Muliple Activity Day 1

Today several families came round to our house for a day of activities. The dad's built a tennis ball morter from Pringles tubs, we blew up lots of coke with lots of mentoes and the bubble snake makers we so popular that every available plastic bottle in the house was emptied to make more.

The weather wasn't really on our side for Bar-b-quing, but some of the dad's braved the weather and wwe managed with a combination of umberella's and hiding inder the garage roof. I think this will become a regular event ...

Cherry Pickers 1

Sarah M has started a new group for people who live autonomous or non coersive lifestyles and today was the first meeting.

She has called it Cherry Pickers because many of us had said that we don't just follow one philosophy, we 'herry pick' the bits we like from each on and then just create our own path.

We met up in Edinburgh, initially at the playpark, but then we moved to a church hall, where we set out a pot luck supper and sat down for a discussion. It was nice to talk to people and learn about their lifestyles, and discuss the challeneges they faced. It was also nice that some of the older children chose to sit in on the discusion too. Hopefully this will become a regular fixture of our lives, it is nice to go meet up with like minded peoplem and for the children to have a space where no one is asking them about bedtimes and homework.

Holiday - day 9

Today we are in Estonia. We started our tour by looking round the old part of Tallinn, and then boarded a coach to go visit a farm in the country where they make cheese. While there, we looked round the dairy and sampled some of their cheeses. Then finally we went back into the outskirts of Tallinn to look round a typical home. We were made very welcome by Peter the taxi driver, who let us look round his home, and then told us about his life while we enjoyed coffee and cake in his garden.

Holiday - day 8

Today is our second day in Russia, and we have decided to split up into groups. Mollie and Guy have gone on 2 tours, a walking tour in the morning, and then a trip by hydrofoil over to see the Fountains at Peterhof.

Hannah and I opted for a long, one day tour to visit the Romanov palaces, firstly Catherine's Palace, then Alexander's Palaces, and then after lunch, Paul's palace in Palovsk.

The weather was terrible, we are all now the proud owners of Russian umberella's, but the sights soon made up for that.

Holiday - day 7

Today is our first day in Russia, in St Petersburg. We can't get off the ship and wander about like we have in the other ports, we have to go as part of a group because of our visa's.

We opted to go on a tour called Modern Russia, which took us on the metro, then to a market and finished off with coffee and cakes in a cafe. Once we got into the metro station we were thankful that we had a guide with us, we would never have managed to navigate around - we are not good at languages at the best of time, let alone when we don't even recognise the letters.

Holiday - day 6

Today we are in Helsinki. It's our first visit to Finland, but none of the ships tours took our fancy so we opted instead to meet up with a colleague of Guy's who took out for a traditional Finnish meal. We all tried reindeer, and we disapointed to find that it tastes pretty much the same as beef - well at least it didn't taste of chicken.

Holiday - day 5

Today we are in Stockholm and we have forgone sightseeing to meet up with our Swedish friend Jenny and her three lovely children, Lucas, Beppe and Frode. The weather was not on our side, so our original plan for a picnic in the park had to be abandond, but Mollie and the boys really enjoyed the oppertunity to go look round the toy shop and they all came away with treats.

Holiday - day 4

Today was another sea day, as we moved from Copenhagen to Stockholm, so we enjoyed more of the onboard facilities of the ship.

Close to midnight we headed up to the top deck at the front to the ship to watch as we went under the Great Belt Bridge. The sea was amazingly calm, and it was very quiet and dark - almost eerie. We could see the bridge from quite a distance away, but has no way to judge distance. Eventually we went under it, and although the Captain assured us that we had 10m clearence, it certainly didn't look like that, and we weren't the only ones who ducked.

Holiday - day 3

Today we are in Copenhagen. The girls and I have been here before so we decided not to go on one of the ships tours, but to get off and go on the standard Copenhagen tour bus. We caught it on the dock so it was quite straight forward, but were quite disappointed to find that the Little Mermaid is also on holiday, she has gone on a tour of China.

We stopped off near Tivoli gardens to have lunch and then got back to the ship in plenty of time for departure.

Holiday - day 2

Today was a sea day as the ship made it's way toward Copenhagen. Once we had worked out where everything was on the ship the girls went for a swim. Then Hannah went to get her hair done in the spa, ready for formal night. Both girls looked very grown up when they were dressed for dinner

Holiday - day 1

We boarded the Jewel of the Seas today. Once we got through the long queues at check in we made our way to our cabin, and were pleasently surprised how spacious it was.


Once we had unpacked it was time for lifeboat drill, then we went back to the cabin to change for dinner. We had a pretty relaxed day, and tomorrow will be nice too as it is a day at sea.

Holiday - Setting off

Following last months holiday disater we once again set off on holiday, this time heading for Harwich to catch a ship to Scandinavia. Not having a flight to catch means the only restriction on luggage is what we can get in the car - I think we did well.

From home we are heading off, calling in Lincolnshire at Auntie Wee's 50th birthday party and then we are having a couple of days at Guy's mum's before boarding the ship on Wednesday

Beach day

The home ed group met up on the beach today. The smaller children really enjoyed climbing amongst the rocks and gathering drift wood.
The older children then really enjoyed sitting round the fire we made from it, cooking sausages and toasting marshmallows.