A Busy Week

It's been a really busy week.
    We took delivery of a 5 ft potted Nordman Fir - I love a real tree in the house and it must be alive, bringing the last bit of greenery into the house a very ancient Yule tradition. Ours had a little extra something, despite the cold weather

W celebrated his 7th (!!) birthday.  He had a lovely day and seeing his fabulous friends at his tea party was the icing on the cake for him. He really enjoyed himself. 

  H is just delightful at the moment, she's such a little sweetheart. Seeing her growing and learning more each day is amazing.

R's thrills this week have stemmed from her new shoes, she was SO excited waiting for them to arrive, couldn't get into the box quick enough  and she loves them so much she wears them with her pj's.

My week has been full of crochet, I have started my granny stripe blanket, following the fabby instructions on the beautiful Attic 24 blog and I can't wait to see it grow and cover my new super-king size bed which should be arriving next week.

Work Hard Play Hard

After a lovely relaxing weekend involving a log fire, mulled wine and some crochet it was a busy Monday morning.
  Advent calendars needing sorting and then everyone sat down to some work.

  R got on with some jigsaws

     

Then everyone made some snowflakes

  Another busy day planned for tomorrow preparing party food for W's birthday party on Wednesday.

Winter is here

 For the first time this year I have had to break the ice on top of the chooks water - looks like December has finally brought the cold weather to us. We've had a cosy day snuggling in front of he fire, lots of warm soup and story telling. Even the woolly sling's come out of hibernation for milky snuggles.

  It was W's turn to open the Advent string today. He got a really cute little hedgehog.

My crocheting is going well, too well really because I'm supposed to be knitting A a Weasley Sweater for Christmas and I really think there's no chance of getting it done in time, I just ordered the yarn for my granny stripe blanket and can't wait to get going on it.

Christmas Fete

  December began with great excitement, advent calendars galore. R was especially excited as she had first turn at the Advent string. She found inside a stunningly hand made star, which we have now put on the window to catch the sun.

This evening we went to the local school Christmas fete where we found a beautiful snow queen, shetland pony rides and some gorgeous hand made decorations.

Advent Excitement

 We've been looking at leaves this morning. We found this little book at the library last week and we have been reading about why leaves change colour and fall from the trees in the autumn and how they compost and feed the tree throughout the winter.

  We've also dodged the showers to get some outdoor time.

 The children are all very excited about starting their advent calendars tomorrow. They each have a calendar containing some chocolate but the real excitement is around our beautiful Steiner Advent String. Each day  on the countdown to Yule/Christmas someone will get to open a little parcel containing a handmade gift . It's been decided that R will go first and so she'll get a parcel in the morning.

Catching up....

It's been a while so I thought I really should catch up a bit.

Lots has been happening. We celebrated Samhain in style with friends, I celebrated my 40th (!) birthday and W has had a new pet hamster.

I have finally got around to learn to crochet, something I have been talking about doing forever and a day. The coveting of the granny ripple blanket has, at last, forced me into becoming a Happy Hooker.

This is the last month in pics -

The Great Outdoors

We've had a fab day, the sun was shining this morning and we went for a walk to the local shop - going in a straight line :)
We had a lovely view of our house from across the valley.
It took a few hours but was so much nicer than going in the car.
D did some baby wearing and M & R had a brilliant time marching through the fields and chasing pheasants :)

A Stroll....

We're enjoying our first week of home edding, just chilling and deschooling.

Yesterday we went to Steiner group in the morning and had a fab time making bread, sewing felt and singing.

Today we discovered a puncture on the 'Landy' so we had to drive to the garage and then walk home. Along the way we discovered an amazing old Oak tree.

The Spelt bread is cooking and all is well.

Start As You Mean To Go On

Home ed day 1 and we've had such fun.
Shopping this morning - working out prices, checking change.
Baking chocolate cake, making casserole.
This afternoon Snakes and Ladders, Jigsaws, Lego and friends to dinner.
Tonight we had 'story time' and started reading Stig of the Dump.
Little chick is doing well too, thankfully he seems to have recovered from his chill.

A Quiet Day

We awoke this morning to the amazing smell of honey and sunflower bread in the bread maker, ready just in time for breakfast.
I was expecting to take D to his rugby match this morning but a lovely friend offered to take him, so I had a free day.
A, M, W & R went off to grandparents for the day so it was just H and me left for a quiet day at home.
We sorted some old toys, had a tidy up and even found time to read - I'm reading the totally inspiring Life Without School by Veronika Robinson and her amazing family. Along with Jean Liedloff, Veronika has had an immense impact on how I parent as well as how I view the world and society in general.

This evening I found one of our Orpington chicks looking pretty poorly. He was very drowsy and cold. I stuck him into my shirt to warm him up and M helped me syringe feed him some water. He's in an incubator at the moment to keep warm, time will tell but he's not looking great.

Truly Autumn

For the first time this autumn I lit a fire. We were a little chilly this morning when we got up so we collected some sticks and logs and within a few minutes we were toasty warm.

Later we collected the last of the apples and blackberries and made a pie.

Now after a lovely day in the autumn sunshine everyone is exhausted.

The last day of school

Well M & W have had their last day of schooling, for a while at least. Unschooling has now begun :) .
R has been indulging in her current dough obsession. We made salt dough this morning, dyed yellow with tumeric and she had a fun hour or so with rolling pin and cutters.



This afternoon we had a stroll and picked ourselves a few blackberries.

Mad day!

After lots of thinking we have come to the conclusion that, at the very least, our youngest children deserve unschooling. So tomorrow is M & W's last day of school :) We are starting out on a big adventure for all of us, it's very scary but very exciting too :D

Other than the big 'decision' R & H have been to the beach, building sand castles and collecting shells.

There was even a little collaboration :)

Also our chicks have been madly hatching, what looked like lots of eggs yesterday, now looks like this -

Chilling out

R, H and I had the loveliest morning at our local Steiner Playgroup. We made gingerbread, sang songs and listened to stories, such a relaxed and chilled atmosphere. Can't wait for next week.
This afternoon R was in the baking mood so we made biscuits.

Today is hatch day for my incubated eggs, several have begun to hatch but by tomorrow I should have a bundle of yellow fluffiness cheeping away.