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.