SNOW!

Happy New Year! Many of my Christmas cards have not even been sent, but they soon will be - Christmas or not! So my apologies if you have not heard from us - yet. The thought was there, the time just wasn't. Christmas has been and gone, almost in a blur it is over so quickly, but with some lovely slow moments that we have enjoyed a lot and just might manage to post about soon. If I don't start somewhere, I never will, so the snow it is. On Tuesday evening the children went to bed delighted to see snow was coming for the SECOND time this winter! We enjoyed it a lot just before Christmas, and various children were hoping it wouldn't snow again, as they had had enough of being cold. :o) Well, it didn't last long, and although we weren't out first thing on Wednesday morning, we made it outside to enjoy the snow together in the afternoon having packed our Christmas decorations away until next December. This time, like last year, we made a huge snow bear on our little front lawn, planted firmly in place by the contraption we spent ages wondering over last winter and this time was quick and easy....



Here most of us are with the finished very big, friendly and cuddly, if a little cold, snow bear. There was a little snow cat and snow penguin too, one either side.



Samuel spent just about the whole time having a ride on my back, which allowed me to carry him and help at the same time. He came out for just a little before going inside though, and was very excited to properly be with me.




While some of us did that, and Michael made a smiley face in snow balls on our porch roof, Rebekah was desperate to get sledging again! The TO LET sign we used last year and now keep down the side of the shed worked brilliantly on the drive again, and I thought for a while by the way I kept hearing a crunch of snow as people fell to the ground, and then saw someone skidding off on the fronts, that I belonged to a family of penguins. Michael did an especially good Emperor penguin impression. :o) Here's Michael, Hannah, Rachel, Sarah and Rebekah ...







Peter was too cold to be out for long - he just couldn't stand it! So he watched through the window part of the time, and raided the fruit that was bought just that afternoon when he and Michael went shopping! He enjoyed a whole punnet of strawberries, which was a feel-good food for him and Rebekah as we've been ill between Boxing Day (26th December) and now, but very helpfully told me there was another whole pack left in very much a 'don't worry Mum' kind of a way. I settled down to read him and Samuel a snow bear story, and Samuel loved it at least as much as Peter. Here he is enjoying the feel of the textured pages of the book we read, and enjoying some swinging time with Sarah....





Today, the snow had turned to ice over night, and so it was a lot more crunchy, slippery in places, and not really wet enough to build with any more - more powdery. Michael helped dig our neighbour's car out so he go and do their shopping, and then we enjoyed a walk in the woods over the road from our house before lunch. This time Samuel fell asleep just as I was getting him ready to go out, so he had a very warm cuddly walk - not even a cold face today.




This is the path we would normally take through the trees - flatter for me and Peter! It looked beautiful!



The girls were straight off through the trees though. The normal restrictions to paths between rough foliage wasn't there in the snow. Just a different world to explore, and so like an ice palace stood in amongst the trees with the white snow reflecting the light.



We ended up noticing the animal tracks in the snow as we ventured off the path onto fresh snow. There were so many rabbit tracks. It was very sweet to see the two back feet beautifully shaped side by side. Maybe a fox track? We know there are some foxes here as we see one occasionally. A dog, and something else we couldn't work out, but may be a bird? It was fun to follow the tracks to where they disappeared into burrows.




This was my favourite image of fit all though - the tracks criss-crossing each other. The same animal, or several different ones? We started to wonder if they also enjoyed the difference of the snow, and came out to play?!




We were interested when Sarah noticed this sight too - quite a few snails apparently sheltered together.



We made our way back through the trees to the flatter path once Rebekah's and Peter's feet started to get just too cold, so it was easier for them to get walking. It was just beautiful there too.




Here are Michael, Rebekah and Peter tracking me!



The walk home was fun too.




Here are some of the wonderful icicles on the front of our house,



some snow angels in the making,




and Rachel and Rebekah playing in the back garden later in the afternoon.



The rest of us girls were warm inside, and Michael had taken the boys out to get some more oat milk. One more play in the snow for all of them, freezing hands and feet, warm pyjamas and food, and a chapter of Paddington Bear, and everyone was pretty quickly in bed. Snow is lots of fun, and so tiring too! Peter will want to be in it again tomorrow though. :o)

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

News coming soon! :o)

Wow - 6 months old!

Amazingly, our super sweet Samuel is six months old today! He celebrated the day by having a rotten cold with a bit of a cough (definately better in the day and upright though than he has been for the previous couple of nights), but also by having his Mummy a bit more than he has over the past few days (Young Women in Excellence was last night so the hard work is all done for just a short while), and by having a bit more of a family day as we celebrated Thanksgiving - a day late! :o)

It was more of a relaxed day than it would have been yesterday. We still didn't get as much time as I'd hoped we would - no surprise there as there is always something - today it was half of the family waking up ill, and the two oldest in the family (you guess who!) waking up very tired again after two little boys being awake and crying through the night. Well, by lunch time we were able to have our devotional, read a lovely thanksgiving book together, and get a fair way with each child making a Christmas decoration of their choosing - all similar, with personal variations. Then when I put some white fairy lights up in the living room and dining room just for fun (I wanted to last night, but just went to bed like a good girl), suddenly all of the children were amazed, excited, and all in a VERY Christmassy mood. Impromptu dancing, singing and playing of Christmas carols on the piano and a Christmas CD! Wow - what an impact! So they played while Michael and I got our dinner ready and cleared up from all the crafty things we'd been up to. Here are a couple of pictures to share from there on in...



Samuel especially loved the roasted butternut squash,



... and also the chicken he pinched off my plate while I wasn't looking (actually I was picking up some food he'd dropped on the floor)



He is enjoying a few different tastes of food at the moment - pineapple, parsnip, squash, brocolli, green beans, pitta bread, etc. He is leading the way with starting on solids, and so for about a week now has been 'eating' a few things. He hasn't actually got to the stage of eating yet - just chasing around a bowl or the table, holding, squishing, chomping, tasting, moving the food around a bit in his mouth, then back out it comes - the actual swallowing is next to develop, so when he's ready ... For now, he's enjoying being a slightly messy part of family meals though. :o)

Samuel was playing happily with his feet this evening, before a nappy change, and I find it so enjoyable to watch him do that, that I tried to take a photo. First sight of the camera always means stop what you're doing though! Well, I liked the pictures anyway. Do you see those lovely blue eyes he still has? The last one is a bit too dark, but he looked so funny. His tongue was working over-time, like it does at meal times.





We thoroughly enjoyed our very unplanned but pleasant celebration of Thanksgiving today. Unintentionally planning Young Women in Excellence for the day of thanksgiving left it as just happening on its own. I wouldn't change that though - YW in Excellence was a lovely evening, and I am thankful for it and for my counsellors and the young women who did a fantastic job. :o) It was not such a rainy day today, but dry and sunny in some parts of the day, and a walk in the woods would have been lovely if everyone had been well enough. Rebekah was too ill with a cold to go outside as she just needed to keep warm, but just seeing the sun was a pleasant change.

Did you notice the corn smiley faces on our dinner plates? Everyone had a lot to be thankful for, and kept asking for more pieces of corn to put on the heart plate after using up the eight I'd given to everyone. The plate was half full when we were done. A very joyful evening. It feels nice to be grateful, not least for a wonderful little boy in our lives called Samuel.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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)