Daybook

Outside my window it is overcast but bright, it was forecast to rain all day but it has yet to arrive.....

I am thinking about some dear friends who I don't get to see that often.  Today is their wedding anniversary, we travelled to Utah, to be with them on their wedding day eleven years ago.  They have had a really hard month, coping with the news that one of them has been diagnosed with cancer.

We have just returned from a wonderful family holiday, I am thankful for this time we were able to all spend together enjoying each others company.

In my kitchen is two sourdough starters bubbling away, a container awaiting granola to be made, pumpkin seeds soaking before baking to make a tasty snack, a box of seeds, a pile of washing up on the side.

A friend of mine is having a baby at the end of the month, I am creating a small knitted item as a present.  It is a long time since I have knitted a baby knit and forgot how quickly they knit up, unlike the cardigan for myself which I also have on the needles.

We are staying at home today, a much needed day at home.  I am going out later to do a D of E pre-expedition check.

My garden has survived my being away and grown loads, I am wondering whether I should sow some more seeds soon so that I have a good steady supply of some of my vegetables.

I am reading Solar by Ian McEwan one of my favourite authors.  I have yet to decide whether I like this book, the main character is abhorrent.  I have had many reading 'failures' recently so am feeling a little unsteady about my ability to find a good book to read.

A home educating friend, who returned to her homeland in the US a couple of years ago, is coming over for a visit.  I am looking forward to hanging out with her on Sunday and Wednesday next week.

Around the house the children are creating a huge lego village upstairs, books are on tables, chairs and floors, the holiday washing is hanging to dry and sitting in piles waiting to be ironed or put away, the top step of the stairs holds a pile of bits waiting to go into the loft, for once the house is reasonably tidy, I always tidy before going away, and it has yet to be lived in enough for it to any messier.

I have been reading a recently published book on Home Education, it is providing me with the support I need right now, particularly a favourite quote which I have written out for myself for those times when the words of others are hurting 'You are not doing it wrong; you are just doing it differently from them.  But some of them cannot see beyond the confines of mass thinking'.

I thought I had managed to keep July to be a fairly quiet month but somehow it has become rather full, I am working to keep just a few plans for August, a week of camping and nothing else in the diary for now.

We don't stop our rhythm and learning for the summer, it continues to rumble along in its gentle way, but I also use that time to think about and plan the coming year for Cameron (I do so for Alice at Easter).  I am pondering and looking at different curriculums, picking the bits I want, to make our own.

I have started to use my camera entirely on manual mode, I am learning, slowly, the different features and settings.  I have tried reading about it but it goes in one eye and out the other, by doing it I am learning so much more.

I am wearing the same blue linen trousers I had on when I lasted posted a daybook, along with a jumper and my wooly slippers, it is chilly here today.

As I sit and write I am listening to the children laughing upstairs, downstairs it is still and quiet.

A peek in to my day.