Springy made her own cheese omelette this morning for her breakfast. It tasted and looked amazing - proper omelette (not scrambled at all) and under the supervision of trained chef Daddy. We did a charity market  - can't do it again as a stall holder as it cost us more than we made (didn't make anything in fact) but Springy had a great time and even did an impromptu Irish Dance which made £6.32 in tips which she donated to the charity.

Currently reading

I recently read Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book.  I really enjoyed it.  My other regular reads are on musculo-skeletal anatomy and deep tissue massage at the moment.

Springy is reading "lots of stuff."  She has pet books, Jack Russell Dog Detective, and Timothy and the Two Witches.  She also loves the Guiness Book of World Records.

Two Lessons poem

Two Lessons

by John Ciardi

I.

A frightful Scowl met an Owl sitting in a tree.

The Owl said, "Who?"

---If it was you

who answered, "It is me,"

Then hide your face. You're in disgrace.

And the next time you reply

to a bird in a tree

Don't say, "It is me."

Say, properly, "It is I."

II.

People who say nooz for news

Must think that kittens' cries are moos.

Kittens, properly, say mew,

Rhyming it, properly, with you.

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.

St Nikolaus poem

1. Advent, Advent, ein Lichtlein brennt,
Bald kommt die frohe, selige Zeit.
Weihnacht, Weihnacht ist nicht mehr weit.

2.
Der Schnee, der Schnee kommt von der Höh',
Draußen im Wald der Tannenbaum
Träumt schon seinen Weihnachtstraum.

3.
Und huckepack mit seinem Sack
Geht nun bald von Haus zu Haus
Der gute alte Nikolaus.

Happy 10th Birthday

‎10 years ago today a certain Springy was born at 1.30 a.m. She whooshed out and looked like a little bunny rabbit baby. I was shaking so much with exertion that I couldn't hold her myself so our midwives and C took it in her turns to hold her to me, wrapped in a towel, so I could start to feed her. She was very little, at around 6lbs, and kept falling asleep. I ate a huge box of chocolates that C had got for me (oblivious to the fact caffeine goes through breastmilk and also that eating them at that time in the morning was not so great for me either but I was very hungry). And she pooped shortly after her birth and I had my first moment of "Oh no, that's what they do...!". :) So Happy 10th Birthday Springy.

Sinter Klaas

St Nicholas visited our house last night. Springy cleaned her shoes and she found a mandarin orange and a little poster on yoga in them this morning.  My  parents also arrived late afternoon.  It was the first time they have both seen her on her birthday (on the 8th) and they retired earlier this year which freed them to come along.  They brought Lebkuchen including a St Nikolaus one and Krampus (who is a rather scary figure from Austrian folklore!).