I'm struggling in a big way at the moment with Lily and a huge lack of patience. Lily is seven at the end of the month, and usually she goes to bed at 7pm, has a bit of a story and listens to relaxing music, (her long standing favourite is Juliana with skyfire, so very relaxing) and then she is usually asleep by 7.30 / 8pm but for some unknown reason the past 2 nights it has been after 10pm when she has finally gone to sleep. Which hasn't gone down very well with me... unfortunately for Lily.The pattern of the previous 2 nights has been ..... bed normal time followed by endless trips up and down the stairs, it was starting to do my head in, but I tried to be patient ........ but not tonight on her second trip down the stairs I blew my stack, big style and consequently she hasn't been back down since .... must check that she is ok. mmmm still awake at 8.30pm. Wonder what would be a normal expectation for a seven yr to be in bed and a sleep .... ideas anyone.
Consequently we slept in today, we needed to be out of the house by 8.30 but didn't wake till 8am, so we didn't get out until 9am.
It was our first visit of the year to Nature's World, Which is in Middlesborough. My parents live in Redcar and they asked us over for lunch after Nature's World, but because it would otherwise mean patch being in his cage for a very long time, it was decided that we would set of very early and take Patch to my parents house, while we went to Nature's world. Which was good for Patch as my mum and dad took him out for a long walk which they all enjoyed.
Lily and I went of to Nature's world where we meet up with other Home Educating families and generally good fun is had by all. This week there was no organised craft activity, which there usually is, but instead there were lots of boxed board games, Lego, k'nex and play dough activities. All the kids were so excited to see each other that they organised there own games and didn't want much interruption from the adults. It's lovely seeing everyone get on with each other, it is very rare to hear any bickering, fighting ( other than being part of the game), crying etc. It is just so nice being in a relaxed friendly environment and being able to chat to similar like minded people of varying backgrounds.
On more of a mundane note, there has been some interludes of maths ( Horizen), reading by Lily, currently using oxford learning tree, but will try other things like the old Janet and John's, which are making a bit of a come back and lots of playing with Christmas toys.
Tomorrow I think we are going to have a bit of chilled out bonding day at home. Might have a look at doing some baking / cooking together. :-)
Wednesday, 9 January 2008
Tuesday, 8 January 2008
Well it's been a bit of an interesting day today, took me a while to get motivated. I'm not sleeping particularly well lately and feel like I have bags under my eyes the size of suitcases and it is taking me a while to pull round.
Lily received a lovely gift of a good friend for christmas, it was a Venture portrait photography sitting, so today was the planned day to have the photograph session. Lily really enjoyed the session, dancing, running, jumping and generally prancing around for a hour, had me exhausted just watching. Lily had decided to take along two outfits to change in to, one being her christmas day dress and one being a witches out fit that she had for halloween. The gentleman who took the photographs was very good with Lily, making her laugh, pull different face etc Our preview session is next Tuesday, the man took 106 pics and said that they would put a selection of 30 to 40 pics for me to choose one from ..... think that will be tricky, choosing one photo out of all of them, but I do look forward to seeing them all.
Lily received a lovely gift of a good friend for christmas, it was a Venture portrait photography sitting, so today was the planned day to have the photograph session. Lily really enjoyed the session, dancing, running, jumping and generally prancing around for a hour, had me exhausted just watching. Lily had decided to take along two outfits to change in to, one being her christmas day dress and one being a witches out fit that she had for halloween. The gentleman who took the photographs was very good with Lily, making her laugh, pull different face etc Our preview session is next Tuesday, the man took 106 pics and said that they would put a selection of 30 to 40 pics for me to choose one from ..... think that will be tricky, choosing one photo out of all of them, but I do look forward to seeing them all.
Monday, 7 January 2008
Picked Lily up today at 5pm, ready to take to her Badger sett, which she does on a Monday night. http://www.sja.org.uk/sja/young-people/badgers.aspx Lily loves going here, meeting with other people, having tuck money to be able to spend on appropriate food stuffs. But on our way to Badgers, Lily pleaded with me to leave her by herself tonight and after an earlier disscussion in the day , I agreed to leave the building once she was settled.
So my next problem, What to do with my self for a hour in Spennymoor, not a lot of choice believe me. Anyway I took my self of to Asda and had a wander round. In the end I was rather self indulgent ..... I bought my self some flowers. I love flowers, but I can count on one hand how many times I have bought them for my self in the last few years, and I'm sad to realise that I have only done it two or three times. I think nothing of buying them for other people and have done on a very regular basis. I seem to have a problem in justyfing the expense for my self, any I saw some beautiful red and yellow Tulips and was drawn to them, but it took me a while to convince myself to buy them, but they are now sitting in an over sized vase on my mantle, looking very nice.
Poppies are in my opinion the most beautiful flower of all, so fragile.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4WTwA_vGbdKokvTqGxhsvyfr8YPsaFThlUp7JZ4U3_f6aV2w9kG7pPXzAa8ZdgE1n-Ol7jnoRpM-H8mvvlJzrYnmaLEVfqtYXP6pTwLvPp6ExpVB8tUxFP9m1_Wr5xxlmru_qwbYgqPe7/s1600-h/PICT2089.JPG
And this is ( if I have done it right ) one of my favourite scenes, and it is a field near where I live, some where between Coxhoe and Sedgefield in county Durham.
So my next problem, What to do with my self for a hour in Spennymoor, not a lot of choice believe me. Anyway I took my self of to Asda and had a wander round. In the end I was rather self indulgent ..... I bought my self some flowers. I love flowers, but I can count on one hand how many times I have bought them for my self in the last few years, and I'm sad to realise that I have only done it two or three times. I think nothing of buying them for other people and have done on a very regular basis. I seem to have a problem in justyfing the expense for my self, any I saw some beautiful red and yellow Tulips and was drawn to them, but it took me a while to convince myself to buy them, but they are now sitting in an over sized vase on my mantle, looking very nice.
Poppies are in my opinion the most beautiful flower of all, so fragile.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4WTwA_vGbdKokvTqGxhsvyfr8YPsaFThlUp7JZ4U3_f6aV2w9kG7pPXzAa8ZdgE1n-Ol7jnoRpM-H8mvvlJzrYnmaLEVfqtYXP6pTwLvPp6ExpVB8tUxFP9m1_Wr5xxlmru_qwbYgqPe7/s1600-h/PICT2089.JPG
And this is ( if I have done it right ) one of my favourite scenes, and it is a field near where I live, some where between Coxhoe and Sedgefield in county Durham.
Sunday, 6 January 2008
Quiet day around here today. Lily went of to Marlene's late yesterday afternoon and is there till mid-afternoon tomorrow.
So there is lots and lots of quiet to do some thinking about life, the people in our lives and the things that we do to each other, the pain we cause, expectations that we have of one another, whether they are realistic expectations or not. I have been desperately unhappy of late, having depression, but during this bout I have hurt some people badly on an emotional level. For which I deeply regret and am hugely sorry for.
A while back I posted on a blog that I felt angry about something, I have come to realise that it was possibly not anger but disappointment and because I could not express my self clearly it projected it self as anger. I've learnt a very very difficult lesson this week and it has come with a huge huge price tag and has left me reeling. I have realised that when you set out to look for help and answers that very often the help and answers are not where you had hoped / or expected to get them .... leading to the disappointments and that in the majority of events one should look to the self for the answers . Looking to friends and family for help and answers, especially those who you have deepest respect and love for is just a recipe for huge disappointment and angst, feelings of being let down by those closest to you, which places an untold amount of strain on any friendship / relationship . I need to look to myself to find the answers and stop the progression of destruction.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=p8yMI03q17g
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bJeHk1gDT68&feature=related
On a brighter note today has been really beautiful in respect of the weather, so much so that Patch I took our selves of for a 2 hour walk around Hardwick Hall, I have always really liked this place, but even more so at the moment. The amount of people who stopped and chatted to me was amazing, for me, almost spiritual in some respects. People generally seemed a lot happier to be out and about on a lovely day. One elderly couple stopped me and chatted for about 20 Min's, telling where they lived, and about coming to Hardwick when the were young children and telling me lots of the history.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wear/content/image_galleries/hardwick_hall_buildings_gallery.shtml?10 This is apparently the family vault, and when the elderly gentleman was a teenager the vault used to be regularly vandalised and broken into for the lead caskets. What an eery thought.
So there is lots and lots of quiet to do some thinking about life, the people in our lives and the things that we do to each other, the pain we cause, expectations that we have of one another, whether they are realistic expectations or not. I have been desperately unhappy of late, having depression, but during this bout I have hurt some people badly on an emotional level. For which I deeply regret and am hugely sorry for.
A while back I posted on a blog that I felt angry about something, I have come to realise that it was possibly not anger but disappointment and because I could not express my self clearly it projected it self as anger. I've learnt a very very difficult lesson this week and it has come with a huge huge price tag and has left me reeling. I have realised that when you set out to look for help and answers that very often the help and answers are not where you had hoped / or expected to get them .... leading to the disappointments and that in the majority of events one should look to the self for the answers . Looking to friends and family for help and answers, especially those who you have deepest respect and love for is just a recipe for huge disappointment and angst, feelings of being let down by those closest to you, which places an untold amount of strain on any friendship / relationship . I need to look to myself to find the answers and stop the progression of destruction.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=p8yMI03q17g
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=bJeHk1gDT68&feature=related
On a brighter note today has been really beautiful in respect of the weather, so much so that Patch I took our selves of for a 2 hour walk around Hardwick Hall, I have always really liked this place, but even more so at the moment. The amount of people who stopped and chatted to me was amazing, for me, almost spiritual in some respects. People generally seemed a lot happier to be out and about on a lovely day. One elderly couple stopped me and chatted for about 20 Min's, telling where they lived, and about coming to Hardwick when the were young children and telling me lots of the history.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/wear/content/image_galleries/hardwick_hall_buildings_gallery.shtml?10 This is apparently the family vault, and when the elderly gentleman was a teenager the vault used to be regularly vandalised and broken into for the lead caskets. What an eery thought.
Friday, 4 January 2008
Thursday, 3 January 2008
Snow has fallen all around me .....
We seem to be developing a bit of a regular luxury round here at the moment ..... and that is being able to stay in bed till nearly 8am. I knew the weather had been rough during the night, as it disturbed me. So the first thing we did when we we got out of bed was to look out side..... and their was glorious white crunchy snow all around.
No sooner had we got down stairs and Lily asked if we could get dressed and go out in the snow, so being the old fogey that I am after a bit of debating I relented ... well we don't get snow that often.
Quick search in the out-house to retrieve the sledge, once again donned our coats, scarfs, hats and gloves and with Patch in tow of we went to Hardwick Hall. It was fabulous seeing this beautiful place covered in snow. We found a nice little area that has a little hill and Lily was happy sledging there for ages, I call this area Rapunzel's Tower. http://www.bbc.co.uk/wear/content/image_galleries/hardwick_hall_buildings_gallery.shtml?13
I think we must have been there nearly hour and half walking around the grounds and sledging. I'm amazed at how many people will stop and chat to you, when out walking their dogs, very friendly, it's quite nice really. While we were their we looked at all the different foot prints in the snow, it was quite easy to differentiate webbed feet and non- webbed feet birds. We looked at other foot prints, humans, dogs, horses etc , all in all fun was had by all. Lily wanted to continue to play out in the snow when we got home, building a rather small snowman, Eventually came in with soaking wet gloves and hands and very cold.
It continued to snow through out the day, quite heavily at times, Had an email saying that we could have something of free cycle, we had to travel to Ferryhill and with all the snow driving became quite hazardous, the car skidded at one point, we were going down a bank, heading towards a T-junction, which lead to the main road of the village. So I had to stop ... well you can imagine what happened, we skidded and the car ended up in the opposite direction, fortunately there were no other cars at this point. Phew. Decided that once we got home I was staying in for the rest of the day.
Lily completed the purse that she started yesterday, she is very chuffed to have completed it, along with the fact that she did most of it her self. She wants to start the bag tomorrow. :-)
We read more of 'Sophie is Seven' by Dick King Smith, Lily is starting to really enjoy this book and has also decide that tomorrow she is going to find her pastels and pad and draw some of the animals out of the story .... watch this space. Must put on my to do list ... to find my camera charger, so that I can uploaded on to the PC.... but it is misplaced in a friends house and may never be seen again ... only joking Claire :-)
On the down side to today though is , Lily became unwell with a sore throat and cough and lost her voice shortly after Christmas and has been slowly getting better, but seems to have taken a slight turn for the worse this afternoon. Her cough seems to be getting worse again along with a hoarseness of her voice. She was very disappointed on Sunday gone 30Th of Dec as she had to miss a pantomime that her Badger group were going to and it looks like she is going to miss her friend Will' s birthday party on Saturday coming, she is very upset :-( . We are really missing our friends, it seems to affect me the most, when we don't see our friends. Ho hum, part of life I suppose.
No sooner had we got down stairs and Lily asked if we could get dressed and go out in the snow, so being the old fogey that I am after a bit of debating I relented ... well we don't get snow that often.
Quick search in the out-house to retrieve the sledge, once again donned our coats, scarfs, hats and gloves and with Patch in tow of we went to Hardwick Hall. It was fabulous seeing this beautiful place covered in snow. We found a nice little area that has a little hill and Lily was happy sledging there for ages, I call this area Rapunzel's Tower. http://www.bbc.co.uk/wear/content/image_galleries/hardwick_hall_buildings_gallery.shtml?13
I think we must have been there nearly hour and half walking around the grounds and sledging. I'm amazed at how many people will stop and chat to you, when out walking their dogs, very friendly, it's quite nice really. While we were their we looked at all the different foot prints in the snow, it was quite easy to differentiate webbed feet and non- webbed feet birds. We looked at other foot prints, humans, dogs, horses etc , all in all fun was had by all. Lily wanted to continue to play out in the snow when we got home, building a rather small snowman, Eventually came in with soaking wet gloves and hands and very cold.
It continued to snow through out the day, quite heavily at times, Had an email saying that we could have something of free cycle, we had to travel to Ferryhill and with all the snow driving became quite hazardous, the car skidded at one point, we were going down a bank, heading towards a T-junction, which lead to the main road of the village. So I had to stop ... well you can imagine what happened, we skidded and the car ended up in the opposite direction, fortunately there were no other cars at this point. Phew. Decided that once we got home I was staying in for the rest of the day.
Lily completed the purse that she started yesterday, she is very chuffed to have completed it, along with the fact that she did most of it her self. She wants to start the bag tomorrow. :-)
We read more of 'Sophie is Seven' by Dick King Smith, Lily is starting to really enjoy this book and has also decide that tomorrow she is going to find her pastels and pad and draw some of the animals out of the story .... watch this space. Must put on my to do list ... to find my camera charger, so that I can uploaded on to the PC.... but it is misplaced in a friends house and may never be seen again ... only joking Claire :-)
On the down side to today though is , Lily became unwell with a sore throat and cough and lost her voice shortly after Christmas and has been slowly getting better, but seems to have taken a slight turn for the worse this afternoon. Her cough seems to be getting worse again along with a hoarseness of her voice. She was very disappointed on Sunday gone 30Th of Dec as she had to miss a pantomime that her Badger group were going to and it looks like she is going to miss her friend Will' s birthday party on Saturday coming, she is very upset :-( . We are really missing our friends, it seems to affect me the most, when we don't see our friends. Ho hum, part of life I suppose.
Wednesday, 2 January 2008
We 've had quite a good day today in this household.
Firstly my parents and sister came to visit and it went much better than I thought it would. I took the bull by the horns, so to speak, and declared that Lily received far to many christmas presents this year, namely from my sister. My sister is in her 4o's and is now unable to have children, she is single and lives with my parents. But in her infinite wisdom, ( largely due to the fact that she can't have kids,) she thinks that Lily should be allowed to have absolutely anything that she asks for, which does not lend it self to a very nice respectful child at the moment. I therefore declared that for the next christmas they are only allowed to buy 1 or 2 presents and if they feel that they have not spent sufficent on Lily, I have suggested that they put any other money into a bank account that can be acssessed by my self to help fund educational trips that may / will crop up through the year for Lily. Lily is home educated and frequently goes out on trips to varoius educational places, for which there is often a cost. I feel that instead of an excess of un- nessesary toys their money would be more wisely spent on things that Lily actually needs and hopefully I won't end up with a disrepectful, spoilt child. Well that's my theory and astoundingly my parents agree.
secondly I joined Durham Freecycle yesterday and have successfully found new homes for the 3 wheeled urban detour buggy and fire guard that we had just taking up space. My 2 children are 15 1/2 and almost 7, there are definitely no more babies coming in to this house, so it was time to give the buggy etc away. I'm going to look out other stuff that I can recycle on to others. It's a good feeling being able to pass on things that are still useable.
Thirdly Lily and I had a fairly structured day in an unstructured kind of way. Lily received some lovely craft activities for Christmas, one bing a felt bag and puse set that you sew together your self, Lily wanted to start on the purse today, so she did with so assisstance from me, as this is the first proper sewing thing she has attempted. We managed to sew on the flowers, beads and buttons and part way around the purse, then Lily decided to have a break from iy, hopefully we will finish it of tomorrow. http://www.docrafts.co.uk/asp/products/product.asp?id=69770. We also have the matching bag to do as well. We also started on another craft activity today which is a bit trckier, it involves making princessess out of pom-poms. http://www.johnadams.co.uk/fantasiaprincesses.php not my cup of tea but lily seems to like it.
We have also started a Dick King-Smith book today 'Sophie is Seven', Lily seems to like this, so will let you know how we get on with it.
It got to 2.45 pm this afternoon and I decided that we would all benefit from a bit of fresh air. So Lily and I donned our fleeces, coats, wellies and walking boots. put Patch on his lead and bundled oursleves in to the car and went to Hardwick Hall. Lily took some bread to feed the ducks, Patch was let off his lead for a good run around, and we thoroughly enjoyed our walk. we left at 4pm when it was starting to turn cold and a little dull. It was a very beautiful walk. http://www.bbc.co.uk/wear/content/articles/2006/05/25/hardwick_hall_country_park_feature.shtml
A very beautiful place to be, something for everyone to look at.
All in all Lily and I have had a very good day.
Firstly my parents and sister came to visit and it went much better than I thought it would. I took the bull by the horns, so to speak, and declared that Lily received far to many christmas presents this year, namely from my sister. My sister is in her 4o's and is now unable to have children, she is single and lives with my parents. But in her infinite wisdom, ( largely due to the fact that she can't have kids,) she thinks that Lily should be allowed to have absolutely anything that she asks for, which does not lend it self to a very nice respectful child at the moment. I therefore declared that for the next christmas they are only allowed to buy 1 or 2 presents and if they feel that they have not spent sufficent on Lily, I have suggested that they put any other money into a bank account that can be acssessed by my self to help fund educational trips that may / will crop up through the year for Lily. Lily is home educated and frequently goes out on trips to varoius educational places, for which there is often a cost. I feel that instead of an excess of un- nessesary toys their money would be more wisely spent on things that Lily actually needs and hopefully I won't end up with a disrepectful, spoilt child. Well that's my theory and astoundingly my parents agree.
secondly I joined Durham Freecycle yesterday and have successfully found new homes for the 3 wheeled urban detour buggy and fire guard that we had just taking up space. My 2 children are 15 1/2 and almost 7, there are definitely no more babies coming in to this house, so it was time to give the buggy etc away. I'm going to look out other stuff that I can recycle on to others. It's a good feeling being able to pass on things that are still useable.
Thirdly Lily and I had a fairly structured day in an unstructured kind of way. Lily received some lovely craft activities for Christmas, one bing a felt bag and puse set that you sew together your self, Lily wanted to start on the purse today, so she did with so assisstance from me, as this is the first proper sewing thing she has attempted. We managed to sew on the flowers, beads and buttons and part way around the purse, then Lily decided to have a break from iy, hopefully we will finish it of tomorrow. http://www.docrafts.co.uk/asp/products/product.asp?id=69770. We also have the matching bag to do as well. We also started on another craft activity today which is a bit trckier, it involves making princessess out of pom-poms. http://www.johnadams.co.uk/fantasiaprincesses.php not my cup of tea but lily seems to like it.
We have also started a Dick King-Smith book today 'Sophie is Seven', Lily seems to like this, so will let you know how we get on with it.
It got to 2.45 pm this afternoon and I decided that we would all benefit from a bit of fresh air. So Lily and I donned our fleeces, coats, wellies and walking boots. put Patch on his lead and bundled oursleves in to the car and went to Hardwick Hall. Lily took some bread to feed the ducks, Patch was let off his lead for a good run around, and we thoroughly enjoyed our walk. we left at 4pm when it was starting to turn cold and a little dull. It was a very beautiful walk. http://www.bbc.co.uk/wear/content/articles/2006/05/25/hardwick_hall_country_park_feature.shtml
A very beautiful place to be, something for everyone to look at.
All in all Lily and I have had a very good day.
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