Really cold!

I went with everyone to the girls last riding lesson a month ago (last week of November). It was FREEZING, and turned out to be the day before it began to snow so no wonder! I took a few pictures, but you can see how cold they all look.







Peter and Michael saying hello to a new horse.



Peter and I were especially grateful for a plug-in heater they have in a room next to the arena. It kept us going for a while! The girls needed it to warm up with afterwards too. That lesson was definately the last for the winter months!

I think it was the next day that it began to snow. Peter could hardly be kept indoors for any length of time, except when he got too cold outside. Samuel wanted to be outside too with everyone else, as he always does, but he wouldn't touch the snow for anything (not even with his shoes!)




After shovelling the snow away from our car and drive, Peter really wanted to go sledging. It wasn't the kind of snow for building snowmen anyway, so we went sledging round the corner from our home (or at least they all did - I watched!)





He was of course frozen to the bone when we'd been there just a short time (it didn't help that they were in the shade), and went home with Michael and Samuel after a while. His sisters enjoyed it though, although Rebekah was also frozen through and crying on the way home - as soon as she stopped sledging!

All upside down

Peter has a habit right now of enjoying life to the full through turning our house upside down. The most regular places are his bedroom (with a little or sometimes a lot of help from all of the interesting things he finds in the storeroom), and the living room, although now that the weather is starting to not get quite so cold, and he wants to be outside much of the time, the shed and garden are also places that are great for experimentation and making things just the way he likes them. The living room just the way he likes it ALWAYS involves pulling all four cushions off our one sofa and either laying them out as crash mats for doing super jumps and dives onto, piling them up high to scramble over assault course style, or making houses tents and any other imaginable thing out of them. The other children don't tend to mind in the least, unless some of us are trying to use the space for something else, like sitting on the chairs to read (Rachel can get pretty upset when she is sat on that brown sofa and Peter gets behind the cushion and tries to encourage her off with a little collapsing and pushing! He often says he doesn't want to have our devotional in the living room (sometimes it's sat around the dining table), and it is normally because that means he's not free to create some sort of chaos, I mean imaginative scene, in there.

Here they all are on one of the days when he and Rebekah (often his side-kick) had created a little house with a tunnel to go through to get in and out. Or rather out, as he had great fun climbing over the arm of the chair to get inside then diving through the tunnel on exit. Everyone thought it was a great idea. :o)



Another occasion when they build a sort or rabbit warren, complete with various living areas, cupboards for storing food, and cubby holes.



Rachel happily sporting one area.



Peter soon had her out of there as he wanted to go and eat his stash of grapes in there that he had raided from the fridge, as he does.



Sarah caught happily playing the piano.



Rachel doing her beloved piano practise and Hannah typing something up onto the computer.



Then another afternoon shortly after the other pictures, where several new homes were created (this time by all), many imainative stories created and acted out and a lot of fun had by all (Samuel included, who suddenly had a whole lot more things to stand holding onto and to peer into to see what was going on inside).

BOO!!

Well we've been hiding for ages it seems. Not deliberately, just extremely busy. There's no real available time to put things on here normally anyway, but less than normal. As I said to Michael's Mum recently, I haven't been able to justify spending the bit of time needed to add to this recently, but at the same time, I've realised again how unsettling it is not to be doing it. Much like when I don't manage to write in my journal for ages (I suppose it's a little bit of a family journal for us, but also the best kind of communication we are able to have with family and friends. I have 5 people I am trying to write e-mails or regular letters to, and have been trying to for a couple of months at least, but there's never a moment to do it it would seem. So I figure that doing something here will probably help me feel better, share at least some fairly recent photos with all of you, and I'll be communicating with somebody again (if anyone looks that is!) and recording something too, even if it isn't in my journal. :o)

Another problem I've had for most of Samuel's short life now, is our camera not working. It won't stay charged even for one photo most of the time, and despite needing to invest some time to investigate why exactly that is (is it the battery charger, batteries or camera failing?), and it being important to me to have some good photos of him and everybody else in the family as they grow, the right time never presents itself. Luckily Michael and I each have a mobile phone now, with camera, albeit not very good ones, so that is where all pictures are being taken right now and have been for at least a couple of months. So the pictures are pretty grainy, but they're all we have. I hope you enjoy them anyway.

Here's a few from our "Not Back to School Picnic" just over two months ago (you could call it a celebration of "home" education), including one of Samuel the first time I put him in a swing. He was delighted, and giggled so much, but I never can catch that in a photo. I hope I'll manage to remember it without. :o)







More of Samuel in a swing, this time after going to a home-ed sports group. There's a park nearby, and as we rarely make it to playgrounds here with none properly nearby, and with Peter sitting through games of football, basketball and tennis but being too young to join in with everyone else, we make a stop at the park afterwards so he gets to play too. Rachel and Hannah, are of course playing at being a horse and jockey in the one of all four girls at that park. Somehow Peter never made it into a picture, but that's probably becasue he doesn't stay still long enough to get one of him (it's not always for want of trying!)






Swings again!! Peter was trapped twice in this park though, so you can see him too! Sarah was working out what trees were growing within the playground here, and doing a tally of how many of each kind there were. While she was busy studying the trees, Rebekah, Peter and Samuel had a lovely time playing in a park again! In fact, after such a long break from going to any playgrounds, and then quite a few in not such a long time, Peter is most days now telling me which park he wants to go to. He has the funniest 3-year old ways of describing them to me though, and I invariably can't quite work it out! We notice such different things at each place, me being 30 years older than him, that our descriptions don't usually match up too well, and it really does take some investigative work to understand!







Here's a dressed up little Samuel. Rachel was holding Samuel while Michael and I were both unable to, and when we looked again, she had him all dressed up, and he was totally happy with it too. :o) That was about a month ago. Yet again, he has grown through the next size of clothes, and those don't fit him anymore. At nearly 6 months old now, he's wearing 9-12 month clothes. He's a big, heavy baby, but so beautiful with it. :o)



Here's a cuddle with Rebekah. Rebekah is still going through a highly panicky/fearful stage and being with Samuel is one of the things that calms her just beautifully. She loves him dearly. One other great thing is a homeopathic remedy, and sometimes having her feet rubbed with massage oil helps too. I did a homeopathy course one morning a week for three weeks in October, which has started me off with being able to use homeopathic remedies at home without seeing a homeopath. There is a homeopath that has a clinic at our local Children's Centre every other week at the moment, so we are able to see her for some things, but first aid / acute things we're able to do at home with great success. It's been a real blessing for us.



To finish, a few fun sleeping pictures of Samuel. He is such a fun boy. He loves to feed, and play - always reaching out for things, and of course EVERYTHING goes in his mouth. He likes to sit or stand up with help, and most of all be carried, but wherever he is he rarely keeps still. Peter loves him a lot and loves to come and find him in our bed each morning, and spend sometime there with him wherever possible before the day really starts. Samuel hasn't been very happy the last few days - extra clingy and needy, crying more and not being settled at all at night (if Mummy's not there it's time to scream and scream until she is!) I think it's probably the teething going up a level, so hopefully will calm back down again soon. Here are those sleepy pictures:

Two months ago (at 3 1/2 months old)...



One month ago (at 4 1/2 months old) - playing sleeping lions... :o)




There is so much for quite a while now that hasn't even been made mention of on here. Things like our holiday, a special visit to the temple, a craft stall we ran in the summer, or anything else that we've been up to really!

We've also been having an extended clear out and move around. Five out of eight of us now sleep in a different place in the house! We've been weaving, tangling up our fingers, reading, going places, studying (that's Michael), doing church things, and generally living life. We also had a sweet new cousin/niece join our family, as my brother and his wife recently had a little girl called Elodie join their family. When I manage to, I'll add bits here and there, so keep looking. :o)

What Peter likes to do

Peter found Rebekah's remote control car in a toy box a few weeks ago, and knowing it didn't work, started asking for it to work - he said it needed new batteries. :o) Michael fiddled about with it a bit, and he had a wonderful evening, along with Sarah and Rebekah who were equally as excited, having it chase them around. It was well and truly broken the next day - no hope of fixing it this time, but it hasn't stopped him asking. I think it's something he'd really like for his birthday. We'll have to see...







He loves to eat, make things, stick stickers, play with cars, and trains, eat, be with his sisters, read books, jump, run, shout, sing, play, eat, play with trains, draw with felt pen on things he shouldn't, eat, give me hugs and kisses, give my bump hugs and kisses, draw pictures, paint with water outside, ride on the ride-on toys and scooter outside, play horses, do jobs, ...

A couple of months ago he went and sat on his tricycle, and did the seat belt up (which took a bit of struggling) and then with great determination kept on and on trying until he could ride it himself. He has normally gone for the ride-on toys he can push along with his feet, or done t he same with his tricycle to be able to keep up with his sisters. He was doing it on the bumpy slabs out the back, and on a slant, which didn't make it very easy. So we pulled him to the top of the slant to start with so he wasn't working against gravity while he worked out how to peddle properly. He was very pleased that he managed to do it, and we were all very excited for him too. There's not much opportunity for him to do it round here, as the hills make it impossible, so it won't happen often, but he's getting there.








Recently the children have been playing a lot of games outside, and our friend Kathryn has taught them a few more. They always drag her straight outside as soon as possible and for as long as possible to run around with them. I was trying to catch Peter being in charge of playing Simon Says with them the other week - it was so funny. He did a great job of it. As soon as I had the camera there though he said, "Simon says play stuck in the mud", which immediately changed the game again. So this is the best I could get. :o)



He does love to be outside. He doesn't like anything tiny that flies, but is forever watching ants and things. He loves to do gardening, and loved helping to plant some more bulbs and seeds recently when I finally got organised enough to get back out and get some things started. He loves to water them too, and often himself in the process. He loves spreading sand all around the garden too. That's ever since we went to the beach a month ago. I guess he realised sand doesn't just come in sandpits! Only problem is there won't be any in the sandpit before long!

He is excited by so many things, and is just great at expressing himself, so conversations with him are just really fun. You can see him filling in bits of knowledge when he realises he's missing some or he doesn't quite understand something. He'll always ask - often some really thoughtful questions.

He loves to go places, and especially with his Daddy. I don't know if that's because it's him who often does o places or not! If you're putting on your shoes he always wants to know - where are we going? If it's something he knows is without him, the next question is always, "Yes, but where are we going together?", or "Where am I going with Daddy later?"

He's good at exerting his influence now, so there are often highly tense moments between him and normally Rebekah right now. As a result he's not quite the calm happy boy that he always was before, but it's especially lovely to see it again when all is going well in his world. We love him to bits!

Rebekah's 5th birthday

Rebekah celebrated her 5th birthday on Tuesday. She had really wanted to go ice-skating for her birthday, but in searching again for somewhere to go, we couldn't find anywhere nearer than at least 1 1/2 hours away by motorway!

So she opted for a bit more of a home day doing various bits and pieces, which also allowed Michael to join in a bit more / us to do what she chose on her birthday rather than on another day.

So here is the first captured smile of the day - time for a morning snack.



She opened all of her cards, which she loved, and chose a birthday badge to wear, and then we played pass-the-parcel - her one particular request for party games.




The things in the layers were all about Rebekah and her likes, and at the end a load of glitter glue pens, which were immediately used to make some more birthday decorations - pretty butterflies and flowers. My little crafters were in their element for a while there. Peter couldn't squeeze the glitter glue out on his own, but did the drawing with them while I squeezed, and used felt pens, as well as discovering ways of making 3 different sizes of circle impressions with lids and things - so half of his things were decorated like that. Rachel was well away, loving some easy to make things.






Just before we ate lunch, Michael (just popped back from uni to have lunch with us) changed Peter's nappy, and afterwards he just lay there and promptly fell asleep! He was so sweet - gently snoring like a little lion cub. :o)





We had lunch, and let Peter sleep for an hour or so so that he'd feel alright for the rest of the day. Meanwhile Rebekah opened up a parcel from some special friends, in which she found an ant farm (minus the ants) and bug jar, and there was also a bug catcher for each of the children. They were very excited about them.



By the time we left to the home-ed meeting we were going to for a while in the afternoon (late because of letting Peter sleep), Michael was able to come with us. The camera ran out of battery on the way. They were making things from wood, and Rachel and Hannah set to work on making a wooden box - a pen holder for in their bedroom, Rebekah and Sarah decided on name plaques, but didn't get very far with them really at the time, and we cut out a car shape for Peter. He had been enjoying using a hand drill to make holes in wood (he was amazingly good at it!) after watching another boy do it, and so he made the holes where the wheels are going to go. He was desperate to use the hammer too to bang some nails into his car, but settled with trying that on some other wood at the time. Tools are so much fun! For several days afterwards he was asking to bang nails in his car. This next week he can finish it!

The children played outside for a while when we got back - mostly playing "stuck in the mud" and catching ants to look at in their bug catchers. Then Rebekah's treasure hunt was ready, so she did that - racing excitedly all over the house with Sarah hot on her heels. At the end she had to put all of the clues together to see what picture it showed her on the back so she could find her treasure.








Still smiling, sitting at the head of the table for her birthday tea.



Spot the cheesy grins!



Peter LOVING the corn on the cob that we haven't had for ages - a real treat.



Rebekah with some pretty birthday decorations (now dry), her birthday flowers (real ones), and her butterfly birthday "cake"...







... which was quickly demolished, and very yummy it was too.



Enjoying some silly big sisters.




Then it was time for a pyjama party, watching a DVD they'd not seen before - Frankie and Hazel, which they enjoyed and found highly entertaining at times.



It got very late, and it was an extremely tired little 5 year old (just properly 5 by then as she was born in the evening) that was carried up to bed. :o)

* * * * *



On Friday we remembered Elizabeth's birthday, partly with singing to her and a birthday cake chosen and made by Rebekah in the evening. It was hard not being in Coventry that day, but felt better having spent some proper time together later in the day thinking about her and her wonderful family, and being grateful for blessings, including for all we learnt from them, and how trials help us to grow stronger.