Catching up with myself

It's been a busy few days.  We went to Granny and Grandad's for the weekend.
Betsy took her amazing families (aka Sylvanian Families!) and played with anyone who sat still long enough.  Granny, Grandad, Sara and Steve all got to play at various points over the weekend, and Betsy was very happy.

Freddie took the Wii so was mostly found on the sofa.  He did have the odd break for cricket in the garden, or a game of Subbuteo with Rob.  As usual, it was Freddie rules with the set up on the pitch...

Betsy and her auntie were cooking up secret Mothers Day plans on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.  The result was a homemade arctic roll and Mothers Day flag!  So sweet, and delicious.

We got back on Sunday evening, and Meg has been under the weather since then.  
Monday the sun was out, and Meg was miserable.   I took the executive decision to wrap her on my back and go for a short walk.  It was absolutely the best thing to do.  We were only out for an hour, but we saw lots of things and all enjoyed the sun on our faces.
We walked the tow path to the supermarket.   Freddie pointed out the reflections on the wall of the bridge.

Meg was interested in the birds flying overhead.

We saw half a dozen ducks flying along the canal.

Two contractors were measuring the depth of the canal, to see if the water needed more dredging.  One of them told us that a few locks up, a 300 metre pound has lost all water and is completely dry.  I think we'll go and find it one day soon, it sounds too interesting to miss.
The kids threw sticks into the lock, and over to the bank on the other side.  There was a duck in the lock today, way down at the bottom.

The next bit of tow path was full of sticky muddy puddles.  

When we got home, the kids decided to wash their scooters.  They found a couple of sponges and a bucket of water, and did a great job!

Meg seemed to be feeling rough after we got home, and went to bed before lunch.  Betsy wanted to decorate a cake so we did that after we'd eaten.  She helped make the buttercream icing, spread it on the cake, and add the decorations.  It was fun, and she was so pleased with the result.

The day went quite badly after this.  Meg was very unhappy, and Freddie and Betsy were bored.  I was pinned to the sofa with a lethargic baby.  Rubbish afternoon.
Today has been nearly as challenging.  Meg is feeling better but I'm suffereing from the effects of very disturbed sleep for the last 4 nights.  I'm a bit loopy, actually, and out of patience. 
I did help Betsy to make some spring flowers, but that is the high point.  

 So, dinner and CSI.  Then  hopefully some sleep tonight zzzzzzzzzz........

A stroll to the chalk pit

We've had a lovely couple of days here. Yesterday it got cold again - well, not cold but it felt freezing after the hot weather of the last couple of weeks. The kids played at Jarvis's, the last day before he goes to school full time. Freddie will be bereft.

I made an enormous ragu with the leftover roast beef, enough for 6 meals! I froze 4, and we'll have 2 later in the week with rice. I almost prefer that to the original roast *yum*.

In the afternoon we went to the garden centre. I picked up some seed potatoes half price. It's late to put them in but I'm sure they'll be fine.

In the cafe I took advantage of the others going to the little soft play area to think about Freddie. He's regularly complaining of boredom, and is really going to miss having Jarvis to play with most days.

I made a list of the things that he likes the best:

I checked it with him and he had nothing to add. So I somehow want to work his favourite things in to our every day, whilst thinking about Meg's naps and Betsy's wants. Hmm. I'm going to spend some time mulling this over. I joined a couple of unschooling lists (alwayslearning and unschoolingbasics) to help me. I feel like we're in a transition to something closer to unschooling, but am increasingly feeling that I could do with some serious deschooling! Again, will be mulling this over.

Betsy hung out with me for a while, making me a nice cup of tea.


Today was our home ed co-op day. We went to Joelle's in the morning for a play with Archie. They had a ball in the garden with the hose.

At the co-op about half the families were away (3 were moving house, something of a coincidence). We decided to leave the planned stuff and play outside instead.

Meg had a little al fresco boob.


We played some parachute games.


Then we took a walk to the chalk pit, just a short way down a lane.

It was fab. The kids climbed up a 'cliff' (according to Freddie)

and they found a big mountain of the chalk to scramble up.


We took a big chunk home with us.

Meg (teething, poor love) was out of sorts and really tired by the end, thank goodness for wraps!


We'd left Rob at home to get on with some jobs. He put up skirting boards, hoovered everywhere and took my pea seedlings to the allotment on the bike.
Here they are planted up with foraged pea sticks.