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)

Horses, horses, and .... more horses!

I ended up parking in Stanmer Park for a short time on Thursday morning, and was surprised to see that field where we flew the kites packed full of cars, caravans, and horse boxes. There were caravans all over the place, and people going past in traps (carriages) pulled by horses. So I ended up finding someone to ask what was going on. They were all setting up for a horse driving competition starting on Friday. The man I first asked was helping to set out a series of gates for the competition on Saturday, and only mentioned Saturday's events to me. Michael took the children there late afternoon on Thursday though for an hour to see all the horses, and luckily some ladies they met told them about the Friday as well.

These ladies had called them over to their stables, saying they were in a hurry, but they could come and see the horses for a minute if they wanted. Rachel and Hannah ended up happily holding the lead ropes of the two horses, Jack and Joe, while they munched on grass in the field, and the two ladies took advantage of the extra hands and both set to work mucking out the stables etc.

So Friday morning, Michael went off to uni, and we went off to watch the Dressage competition. We walked there rather than driving, and it rained on us all the way there, so it took us half an hour or so. We just missed seeing Jack and Joe do their bit in the morning, but stayed until about 4.30pm and watched an awful lot of horses, and Rachel, Hannah and Sarah got some more time with Jack and Joe, and some other horses around them that they were getting to know.

If you don't care much for horses, you probably won't be bothered by all of these pictures, but if you're anything like my children, you could look at them for hours. In fact, they could stand and pet a pony for a whole day quite happily, which it turned out is all they wanted to go back for! So here you go .. some very smart looking horses...



We had watched a lot of teams taking their turns without the camera, before Michael went home to get the camera (he was there for a little while with us in the afternoon before his last lecture at 4pm). Mostly they'd been wearing their rain hats and coats because of the cold, wet weather. It was lovely once it was dry enough for them to take those off - everyone looked so smart! There was an especially wonderful looking team that we watched right before Michael arrived with the camera.





We watched a lot of teams with four horses in the morning in one arena, and doubles in the second arena. There were single horses pulling lots of carriages too.
I noticed these two horses had their tails plaited too beforehand. You can just see in the second picture that they unplaited them just before their turn. I guess it was to keep them tidy, maybe with all of the wind that day (?), but it made them lovely and wavy - just like my girls like to do before church sometimes. :o) The driver isn't really about to whip the horses by the way in that picture, although it does look like it! They used them ever so gently to just touch the horses on one side or the other when needed.








Rachel loving some time with Jack...



Sarah and Hannah with Joe...




They had very fancy portable stables! They folded out from the side of their horse van (lorry really!) The other stables weren't quite that big, there's were a bit like a meccano set to put together rather than just opening out from the van, but it gave the horses more space which was nice. The other side of the van opened out too - they were using that for a place for them to sit and eat etc., then they lived in the main part of the lorry. I guess the main back part was for the horses to travel in.



One of the smart buggies / carriages ...



Rachel befriending a horse across the way ...



A couple of teams with four horses:





The children all thought it was especially clever that the horses were able to back up the carriages.



We were back this morning in time to see Jack and Joe take part in the marathon. It was better weather today - no need for rain coats and extra warmth from the wind. (I managed to burn both days whatever the weather!) Yesterday though, all of their lovely foliage was forever being blown over, and people's hats flying away in the wind and having to be chased down.

The marathon was a 20 min (ish) course around much of Stanmer Park, including 7 sets of gates. Each set of gates had to be gone round in the correct order, and the teams were times at each point. Some were very careful, some extremely quick, and a few managed both. One single horse carriage we hated watching as the poor horse was being whipped so much and spoken to so harshly, and not surprisingly wasn't responding very well at all. The rest of them were a lot of fun to watch, and the drivers were much kinder in how they called out to the horses. Hannah was impressed that the horses understood the verbal calls of 'left' and 'right' as well as a few other things.





This is Joe and Jack pulling Sue (driver) and her friend (groom - I never got her name, but a very friendly lady!)





Sue, and Lady Braybourne (below), were the only two drivers with tandem carriages (front and back like a tandem bike or pushchair). It seemed a lot harder that way. They did really well, but both of them seemed to find it hard some of the corners, and weren't nearly as fast as some of the double and single carriages.



A four-horse team.



Our friendly team - nearly done.



There were some lovely children there to watch too. :o)
Running like horses,



rolling down hills,




just being happy,





of course, spending time with some very clever horses,




watching other teams get ready to go for their turn,



and waiting for their sisters who could not bear to leave the stables and horses behind!



There was another event - cones - which we didn't go to as it was on the Sunday. Saturday was a lovely relaxing day (when I was allowed to stay still!) Walking wasn't so easy, but nice to go all together and just be there for a few hours without doing too much. We made up for it mid-afternoon though when we dragged Rachel and Hannah away and went home to get a few things done before Sunday and a very busy week next week.