Happy New Year for 2012

It's January.  Our Christmas did not go quite as planned.  I was ill before Christmas with a bad cough and some kind of flu-like virus and then on Christmas Eve Springy said she wasn't feeling too well.  On Christmas Day she woke up with a fever and no appetite.  We didn't have Christmas dinner 2011 and most of the next few days were spent on fever management with a cold flannel.

She spent the entire Christmas week at home and no friends round (one of her best friends' father is undergoing cancer treatment so we didn't want to risk giving him an illness either).  Anyway, in some ways the break was just what we needed.  It was simple:  simple meals, simple activities, lots of cuddling up together.

She's now back to Irish Dancing and Cubs (her last term and has just been made a Sixer).  She also got walkie talkies which is what she wanted for Christmas and an American Girl book on the body.  The book is excellent - just what I could have done with at her age in order to prepare for puberty.  It's very matter of fact but also deals with some of the feelings girls have about changes in their bodies.  Springy is a few years off puberty still but some of her friends have started to alter and I think it's useful because she can help them too with the information and it's opened her to knowing that she can trust and ask me about anything she wants.

This week and a bit since the start of the New Year has seen us returning gently to a rhythm for our home education (although it never really stops).  Springy has been painting, we did some maths involving graphs and bar charts (from Galore Park) and also today she has been modelling with Fimo, before going out this afternoon for her aunty's birthday lunch.  I must admit that I was in a panic last year - I felt stretched in so many directions.  As well as home educating I work and the work has not been as busy as we need to pay bills etc.  So I've been worrying about getting another job and then wondering how I could fit that in with home educating and already working.  I'm also studying for a degree and also a BTEC.  This year I'm not able to afford much of my BTEC studies so although I would love to do them (and not doing them is going to affect my therapy business as well the likelihood that I will ever finish the course), it's one less stress in many ways. 

On Wednesday we went down to the harbour to watch the sunset.  It was beautiful. There were loads of swans, oyster catchers, sandpipers and curlews - eerie bird noises along the shoreline and soon the owls were due out.  The tide was going out so the shapes in the mud flats and the bare winter trees looked spectacular.  We've also been watching a series called Earthflight which is about birds, on the BBC.  Although the script is rather 'dumbed down' in places, the visuals have been wonderful.

Winter Reads

Schoolroom in the Parlour by Rebecca Caudill
The Children of Green Knowe

Christmas 2010

After a very  long and stressful night drive (6 hours + stops)) with 1 child, 1 dog, 2 hens, 2 guineapigs we arrived at my folks. They had snow.  It was the kind of snow that is powdery and looks like it has glitter in it.  My dad's garden has an old-fashioned decorative lamp-post so it gave it that Narnia look.  Any second a lion could have run through the snow, along with fauns and a sleigh but they didn't.  Springy went outside on Christmas Eve to sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn (oats).  She left a glass of milk, a home-made mince pie (Jamie Oliver's recipe) and some carrot sticks for the reindeer too.  She heard jingle bells as she lay in bed.  "I heard them mummy but I wasn't asleep so Santa must have gone away again until I was," she said.

On Christmas Day for some reason we didn't get around to opening gifts until almost evening.  Springy was incredibly good waiting that long and it descended into chaos as there was so much going on. This is the first time we have ever stayed elsewhere at Christmas.  We normally have a very quiet Christmas (essentially we are quiet people) but since my MIL died we didn't have her this year. Christmas Day was still snowy so it still looked incredibly pretty outside. 

Poor Lily was in trouble on her stay.  After a very long journey she ran into Grandma's house and emptied her bowels onto Grandma's wool carpet.  Not only that but she had a really bad case of diarrhoea -oops!  She also went into season and had to wear a nappy (diaper) during her stay.  We really missed cuddling her because at our home, which is very small and messy, she goes up on the bed at night. At my folks' house she was banished to the kitchen.  It was also too cold for our bantam hens to go into the shed my father had provided (-7) so they had to stay in the utility room. The piggies stayed there too.

Christmas 2009

We had a lovely Christmas so far. We didn't put the decorations up until Christmas Eve which worked really well. We had springy's Birthday and C's birthday as well.

Springy had a number of birthday playdates. We made gingerbread, decorations and so on.

N came round for Christmas Day, Boxing Day and yesterday too. We had some old films to watch like The King and I and Singing in the Rain which was nice.

I just finished sewing up a third gnome sleeping bag from the Wee Folk Art pattern I've been using. The first was a present for Springy for Christmas. I think she wants me to go into fullscale production for each and everyone of her little toys but I think three is enough for now.

Springy had a Brer Rabbit story last night. I'm going to read it to her again later and then tomorrow I'm hoping she will do a picture and a summary.

Today's story - The Fir Tree

Tonight Springy had the story of The Fir Tree (my voice is a little better but the trees all had nasal congestion). ;) We've been making a few Christmas decorations (with tissue paper - sort of stained glass window effect) ready for Sunday.