Cycles

The wheel of the year is moving and it feels like a change in the weather is here.  The days are drier, in the main, the sky is occassionally blue and it is slightly warmer.  We are emerging slowly from the grey and wet of this past winter.  It feels like we are emerging from a period of hibernation, it is good to be outside.

At the beginning of last Autumn our week started to evolve into a new rhythm following some major changes in our family life.  At that time we were doing different activities each day at home, coupled with time out side the house with friends, joining groups and being outdoors.  As we moved into the Winter months the rhythm changed again we stopped attending one of our groups and spending so much time outside.  I was really concerned that we would become stir crazy being at home all the time but in reality it hasn't been like that at all.  The last time we had so few organised plans in our week was in the early days of home educating, we hardly knew anyone then and didn't have the confidence to organise things ourselves.  A few years down the line things are very different, if we do have a quiet week it is usually in between busier ones but not so busy that they are hectic, I have learnt that lesson too!

Our mornings are spent at home, in the main, Thursdays we go out late morning.  This is our family time for doing things together.  I offer activities etc based on which day of the week it is but these are not always taken up which I am not concerned about.  I often find that if the are not interested at the time they are later on in the day or the week.  I am not regimental.  Monday is numbers, maths and baking, Tuesday is making things, painting etc, Wednesday is music, Thursday is language, Friday is Science.

We usually have lunch at home together at the table.  We sometimes sing songs, we usually read a chapter or story from a book and some poems related to our theme or interests bringing our morning to a close.

The afternoons are slightly more adhoc, Monday is singing group at a friends house, Thursday is our day to go into our local town, we shop and go swimming.  Tuesdays, now that the weather is changing, is our afternoon outside.  We have had this planned in our week before, to go for a walk once a week on the same day but it didn't really work, we didn't stick to it.  The children were not really interested in going for a walk every week, although they do love being outside.  So I am trying something else for now, a walk, a bike ride, some bird watching, a local ruinous castle with extensive grounds which the children never tire of exploring, alternating between the activities one each week through the month.  The other days?  Well they are time for play dates, visits to musuems and always a day at home for rest and recharging.  We invite friends to join us on a Tuesday if they want to, if they don't we go anyway.

Not so long ago I couldn't manage an adhoc rhythm, I needed regularity knowing that something was going to happen every week on the same day.  I am sure this was a reaction to those early days when I would go for days on end not seeing any other adult other than my husband at the beginning and the end of the day.  I am more confident now, not rebuffed by folks saying no to offers we make.  Our lives are just as busy, with plans made a week or so in advance.  It has a flow to it that I am enjoying. This is how our lives are now in a few months I have no doubt our rhythm will be different as the seasons and my children's interests and needs change.  I am good with this too, in the past I needed it to be a constant.  The future is an exciting place.

Knitting

I have not been knitting much these past few weeks, after the mad rush to get my Christmas presents and then my mums birthday present knitted up I am having a wee rest.  Only picking up my knitting every now again knitting the odd row, progress is slow but I happy with that for now.   I have two projects on the needles and no urge to cast on any more for now.  My shalom is nearly to the point where I have finished the twisted rib and then I need to do so more measuring to work out how many more rows, if any, I need to do before dividing for the sleeves.  I am liking this type of knitting, not just following the pattern but working with the pattern to divise my own version of it, making it mine.

What I have been doing a lot of this week is reading.  I have finished one book, read two from cover to cover and started a fourth.  I ordered my own copy of Mathematics Minus Fear and finished up reading it early this week, I have loved this book from start to finish, there were lots of maths problems to solve on each page which were great for reminding me how to do things!  I have read a lot about Life after Life by Kate Atkinson and really wanted to read it for myself.  I have loved all the books of hers that I have read, which is most of them, bar one Human Croquet.  Life after Life was a wonderful read, it did take me a while to get into it, but once I had I could not put it down.  It seems like a strange concept for a novel, the life of one person, Ursula Todd, which she lives over and over again from her birth to retirement, but it works.  Dearest Rose by Rowan Coleman was a completely different book, tackling the difficult subject of domestic abuse.  I have really struggled to read books of this nature, particularly when children are included, since becoming a mother.  A friend of mine has recently walked away from an abusive marriage, I had no idea that it was.  This has helped me to understand why I didn't know and a bit more on why she may have chosen to stay as long as she did, I have never judged her for this I just needed to understand for myself.  I cried at the end of this book, it has left me with so many thoughts which I am now trying to process.  I am now reading another book, Kith by Jay Griffiths, which I have read lots about, this has been sat in my waiting to be read pile since Christmas and I can't think why I waited so long.  I am a few chapters in and it is a wonderful read.

So what about you what have you been doing this week?  Any knitting or reading?  Joining in with Tami for sharing of yarn works in progress head on over to see what others are making….

Moments...

It is the beginning of the month so, once again, I have a slightly different Moments post.  This is a reflection on the month using the goals suggested over on Slow Living Essentials, so here are mine for February and head on over to see what others have been up to.

…nourish some time before Christmas I started to buy raw milk from a local farm to make yogurt.  I had met the farmer at our local farmers market a few years ago but had yet to take the plunge and buy the milk.  I was given a cheese making book and a few items to make cheese with by my mother for Christmas.  It was the perfect present and she was unaware I was already making yogurt.  I have made several different cheeses, including cream cheese, feta, mozzarella and the best, for me, Halloumi.  I am not sure I will make feta that often again it was fiddly and tasted odd, the cream cheese was great but made too big a quantity, the mozzarella I have made several times and is very quick and easy, but the Halloumi is just wonderful.  It tastes nothing like the stuff I buy in the shops but nonetheless it has a wonderful taste.  I suspect that this is down to the milk I am using, it is probably not the same as they use in Cyprus where this cheese is usually made.  Making my own works out so much cheaper and as the milk has only come from five miles down the road the distance it has had to travel is considerably less!

…prepare in the Winter months we love to eat soup.  It makes a welcome addition to our picnics.  Last year I started to batch cook a large amount for freezing with veg I have bought from our local Farmers Market, our market is monthly, this year I have been doing the same.

…reduce early in the month my husband went to our village recycling point with our recycling and returned with a child's bike that had been abandoned there.  He spent a couple of days working on it, buying a few small pieces that he did not have, and we now have a bike that my eldest can ride.  We bought him a bike last year which is a little on the big side, that too was secondhand and a very good price.  For now he will ride the smaller one, until he has grown a little.

…green we have lived in our house for eleven years.  Slowly, over that time, we have been redecorating each room.  The most recent one to be decorated is a bedroom for my youngest.  We finished painting it and building furniture for it a while ago and it is in real need of a new carpet.  Our income has been precarious over the last year so we did not want to make any large expenditure, now that my husband has returned to being an employee we are confident in our income.  We visited a local carpet shop and came home with some samples.  The choice was between 100% wool or a wool and acrylic mix.  We spent some time deciding and researching which was the better of the two.  We knew that we really wanted the 100% wool carpet but had to be sure that this was the best option for the room and not just based on our desire for natural materials.  We have opted for the 100% wool.  The carpet in the room is a very old and worn wool one which has now been cut up and put in the compost bin to assist the decomposition by keeping the contents warm.

…grow I finally got round to buying myself a new calendar for garden planning.  Last year I gave biodynamic gardening a go for the first time.  It was in the main successful.  It was an unusually warm summer for us last year, the hottest in the eleven years I have been at my house.  I would like to give this method a few more years before deciding whether it really does work.  What I really love about it tho is the framework it provides for me to ensure that I make time and spend time in the garden.  As you only do particular tasks on particular days it does not feel onerous and overwhelming.  A gardeners work is never done!  I have spent some time planning, and buying seeds and am all set to go for the this year, here is hoping it will be a good one…..

…create we made a wee felt snowdrop fairy for our seasonal table and lots of birthday cards.  The first part of the month, for me, was taken up with a shawl that I knitted for my mother for her birthday.  This was my first shawl and I was really pleased with how it turned out, my mum loved it too!  The pattern is Guernsey Triangle.  I have also been knitting up two cardigans which are still work in progress.

…discover last month I posted about my quandary regarding the future of my eldest's education.  At the moment he is home educated and I was unsure if I should continue once he reached the age, in the UK, where he as due to start at Secondary School.  I have spent this month reading and researching about education from the age of 11 both at home and in a school.  I have talked to friends, had some wonderful comments from fellow bloggers and talked to my family.  I still have more thinking and reading to do but I feel a little clearer now as to what my options are and how I feel about them.

…enhance regular readers of my blog will now that I occasionally post about home education and what that means to me and my family.  One of my biggest worries about home educating was how I would feel with the adults, the parents of any children my own children made friends with.  I had always considered myself to be someone who finds it hard to be part of a big group, who doesn't make friends easily.  I have come to realise that this is not actually true, yes I am not keen on big groups but I do make friends.  It takes time and effort to build a true friendship.  I now have a small group of people who live near to me who I can truly count on as friends.  I really feel that I am part of something, I am really comfortable with all these people and want to spend time with them.  This last month I have managed to do this, and it has made me realise that if you really value a friendship you have to work hard to make it work but it is worth it.

…enjoy the absolute highlight for me this month has been spending a few days with my whole family.  I have two younger brothers, one lives near my parents, the other nearer to me.  We are spread out, busy people who rarely come together and spend time together so when we do it is really special.  This is the first time we have all actually been together since the birth of my nephews last year.  It was my mums birthday, a special one, her only request was for us all to come and spend a weekend with her, how could we refuse?

**********

...continuing from my usual moments posts...

...reading these picture books*, with a short review here, 52. Sparkly Shoes and Picnic Parties by Sophie Tilley, 53. Grandma and Grandpa's Garden by Neil Griffiths, 54. When Dragons are Dreaming by James Mayhew, 55. Going Swimming by Frances Lincoln, 56. Bop's Hiccups by Joel Stewart, 57. Friends by Eric Carle, 58. A Big Operation by Richard Scarry, 59. Peepo by Janet and Allan Ahlberg, 60. Oliver and the Noisy Baby by Nick Maland, 61. I am not sleepy and I will not go to bed by Lauren Child, 62. Jack and the FlumFlum Tree by Julia Donaldson.

* Joining in with 300 Picture Book Challenge

Gratitudes

Joining in with Taryn for her heartfelt Sunday tradition.

A time to slow down, to reflect, to be grateful.

This week I have been grateful for...

...a spring feel in the air

...drier days

...blue in the sky

...catching up with friends

...last minute arrangements

...a wonderful book and time to read it

...my children's good health

...my husband collecting wood for next winter

...a quiet hour in a bird hide
Taryn

Odds.....

It feels like it has been a funny kind of seven days, an odd week.  In reality it probably hasn't, I may just have remembered more odd moments from this week than normal.  We came home from being away on a Saturday afternoon, I usually shop for food on a Thursday but decided we would eat from the cupboards for the rest of the week.  We have limped along with our meals with no planning, it has made me glad I do bother.  Trying to make coleslaw without carrots and pizza without cheese is, well, interesting.

I spent an hour, at home, on Sunday afternoon on the phone trying to get my husband, three adults and six Explorer Scouts through a four foot stream of water that was blocking the road.  They had been out on an over night expedition and this was the only route out of the valley they were in.  To add to the mix one of the vehicles they were in was refusing to start.  Three hours later they were through with the help of a local farmer and a long tow rope.....

We gave our eldest a Meccano set for Christmas which he opened and set to with immediately.  There are lots of little pieces in a Meccano set, all of which are vital for construction.  He did this in a ideal location the way into our living room, the rest of the floor was taken up with other presents.  Our house is open plan downstairs we have little wall between our dining and living rooms just a large opening half of which is taken up by a chair, ours is not green and is in need of a little attention, the rest of the opening is the way into the room.  So to get into the living room you had to step over or through Meccano in action, is my child the only one who does this, plays in less than ideal places!  This is his first set so when he couldn't find a piece we had no box of spare bits, like we do with Lego, which we could ratch through to find a replacement.  So after the initial excitement it was cast to one side as it could not be completed.  In January I contacted Meccano to ask them if we could have a replacement piece, we searched high and low for it the day it went missing and concluded it may not have been in the box in the first place, a quick trawl on tinterweb revealed others had had the same problem.  This week an envelope arrived with a Calais postmark, at first I thought it might be a random object my husband had ordered on eBay, the account is in my name, but no it was the missing part from Meccano!  So eight weeks later the set is being worked on this time on the children's worktable rather than the floor!

It is definitely moving towards Spring in these parts.  The temperatures are still on the cool side but the sky has changed.   After months of heavy, gloomy grey skies they are now white and fluffy with patches of blue.  It makes me want to spend afternoons outside even if we are still having the odd shower.  So I planned to go out on Tuesday afternoon regardless of the weather.  The children really wanted to go to a local National Trust place to visit the bird hide there.  I had not banked on the closed signs being up when we got there, we live in a tourist area, in the Winter the area closes, sod the locals.  This is an unusual site tho' as you pay an entrance fee to visit the gardens and some of the grounds but there is a public footpath running through parts of it, so it is not closed completely.  Despite this, as we wandered around, I still felt like we were interlopers we did see several members of staff doing winter maintenance who didn't seem too perturbed to see us.  We had a lovely hour in the bird hide drinking hot chocolate, eating biscuits and watching our feathered friends.

...and ends on a sadder note.  Every Monday we go to a friends house to a singing group she runs, it was cancelled this week as her youngest was unwell.  The next day the little one was in hospital having tests.  Last night a gangrenous appendix was removed.  I am deeply shocked at how quickly it all happened.  So, so grateful that the GP she went to see on Tuesday referred them immediately to the hospital.  So, so grateful that it was picked up in time.  My thoughts are with this lovely family as they come to terms with their week.

Fear

Last night I had a conversation with a fifteen year old.  I have known this lad for about a year.  When I first met him he was very quiet.  Now he has revealed himself to be very funny, he has perfect timing and is very quick with his quips.  I can guarantee he will make you laugh, a lot.  I have realised that he is quiet when he is out of his comfort zone, when he feels that he has taken on something that he doesn't feel able to handle or is capable of.  He seeks me out, alone, to ask me and tell me things.  Inside the comedian exterior he is lost.  He has lost his identity, his sense of self.  I had a conversation with someone this last week about two children who were the same.  They feel very scared, as opposed to trepidatious, about doing something new.

A baby is completely dependant on its parents to care for it and meet, or attempt to work out, it's needs.  Within their first year they start to make small steps away, coming back to the parent, the safety net.  As the child grows as does their desire to explore, to make sense of their surroundings.  But as they explore we naturally want to keep our children safe, away from harm.  If we tell our children to be careful or suggest that they may not be able to do something is this really that helpful.  Who is really fearful you or your child.  By using these words you are planting your fears into your child's head.  They may have not even considered whether or not they could do what they are about to  do but your words have planted some doubts into their head.  You are their wise protector and you think they cannot do it so maybe they can't, rather than enjoying the moment this becomes their overriding feeling.  When we are distracted, we usually fail. If it really is that dangerous should you be there in the first place.  The best way to keep a child from harm is to give them freedom to explore and let them get on with it.  This may feel counter intuitive but they will become better able to anticipate and avoid dangers as they get older, but they can only develop these skills if they are given the support they are need and treated with trust and respect.

Last nights conversation made me sad.  Sad that a young man on the brink of going out into the world independently has not been able to build the resources he needs.  I have heard his parents speak to him.  He doesn't trust himself or his abilities, he has no sense of who he really is.  The restrictions placed on him are necessary because he has not been able to build a framework for himself, he doesn't know what he could be capable of because he has not had the freedom to explore.  His parents fears have become his.

Moments...

...happiness time with my whole family, my mothers face when she opened her present, not having to cook for a week, rest and peace

...sadness at a comment my mother made this week which really shocked and surprised me

...creating music, two cardigans, drawings, plans for next month

…reading Mathematics Minus Fear by Lawrence Potter and these picture books, I have written a short review of each one here* 47. Who's Like Me by Nicola Davies, 48. Animal Homes by Debbie Martin, 49. The Hedgehog's Balloon by Nick Butterworth, 50. The Fox's Hiccups by Nick Butterworth, 51. The Badger's Bath by Nick Butterworth

...learning about musical instruments, rhythm, music scores, Lord Nelson, cannons, bones, animal families, mammals, animal homes and habitats

...thinking about my nephew who is really unhappy at the moment

...hoping to catch up with friends this week

...looking forward to a visit to our local Fire Station this week

* Joining in with the 300 Picture Book Challenge