Category Archives: General

musical mondays – late again! music to breathe to

i adore this man and this music – what a wonderful world if i listen to this back to back for a bit it REALLY helps!

and a bit of satchmo and ella – summertime!

for a different summertime version. i enjoy heifetz playing i think he had a really light touch with the violin – ideally suited for gershwin, as really easy to be overly indulgent with the music – singers get away with it, the violin doesn’t! He arranged a fair number of gershwin’s pieces, and was particularly good at sounding like 2 violins! a violin hero of mine – click through some of the other links!
this also helps – i believe it is also a favourite of Jax – somewhere over the rainbow

anyone else needing a chillpill and a musical rescue remedy?

ahh, hmm, ohhhhhhhhhh

yes well, sunday.

i was at work for a lot of the day [and lets gloss over that shall we!], but did get to spend the afternoon and early evening at home with the girls. Although it was yesterday, my brain a bit weak on what we did! i know there was a lot of geomagging, kids k’nex and pattern blocks. SB did an excellent violin practice. we read some books together – and did some french simple words and a lucy chat. i think she had done some maths earlier? not sure!!

Anyay, we bailed out into the garden and played in the tent, and hama beaded. i watered some of the potted veggies. ermm, i think there was more, but the day at work proved stressful, and i guess i have just got a poor memory! i do know that when i got home at nearly midnight both girls were back up again, so i went to bed with sb, and chris with bb. i do believe i would have had no sleep at all without the reassuring presence of a child.

today i have been told SB has done maths and piano. she also has hama beaded, pompom crafted and made ams a t shirt, and we promised not to blog what she wrote on the back [bless her spelling mistakes] but i believe chris alluded to it in a twitter. since that bit wasn’t ironed [fabric pen] might it come out in the wash??

BB also did her t shirt and hama-ed, and happily geomaged and k’nexed. oh, and starfalled some alphabet stuff.
when i got home we played dinosaur ludo, SB to ballet, then to swimming. me and BB just pottered and played on the swings mostly, and collapsed in front of pingu and magic school bus. i must go to bed now as shattered!!

no-tent saturday

not such a good camping weekend, also not such a good weekend to try and show someone one of the tents – that I had as a teen with my parents. lots of happy memories tied in that tent. we have passed it on anyway, and I hope it is still in working order [and that the new owners do take a digiphoto of the tent step by step as they unfold it so it can be back in order]

I was at work for the morning, but got back in time to have some playing time with the deependers. the children all seemed happy playing together [well, mostly] haven’t found l’s trousers though. wonder if they are playing sardines somewhere!

we did – at BB’s request some ‘speriments. i was trying out the beginning of electricity. though both wanted to do it, they didn’t want to do it together as it were, and i guess i am not being the model of patience at the moment, but we got there, had fun – particularly with static in balloons! i think i might start to have to do lesson plans!

We moved onto violin practice with SB, her in charge of how long, and she enjoyed – got to hovis advert! lots of cuddling, did a bit of french [things in the house!] and girls watched some magic school bus. BB to bed and SB and I read the isle of immeter [in the sir cumference series, which she really enjoys]

watching heros and listening to beat of talent free band at pub across the way [with sundry woos and wails!!] . thanks for hugs.

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one liners

BB, no its not sandstone, its sand rock! [so literal that girl, she has a favourite rock, so it can't be a stone]

SB enjoying reading the sir cumference books with me in an evening, also various biography style – bell, edison, franklin etc

i am enjoying the smell of may blossom. my infant school had lots of hawthorns, and so this time of year always makes me think of the dusty den amongst them. i have def been feeling old of late. [mid life crisis?]

BB really enjoying doing stuff – she often asks for crafs, speriments, baking or her maths or writing books. cute really.

SB coming downstairs at nearly 11, rubbing eyes and pretending she has been trying to sleep, when i can tell what she has been doing is playing animal crossing for 2 hours!

I find it a bit amazing we have now done 4 photoblog thingies!

hmm an atypical home ed day.

i am going to nominate today as the home-ed day in photos meme [please see previous in sidebar!], and will hopefully get the photos up! it is atypical, because i was at home, because i bailed out of a group today and declared duvet, and rainbows was cancelled. maybe chris will do one as well! thing is, i prob need the photos to remember what we did :smile:
8:00 they were both up with chris, so they prob watched something! had breakfast

9:00 I’m up! BB is doing alphabetting [using alphabet stencils to write the letters] SB is colouring in a rainbows picture, and then looking at the difference between the roman alphabet and ours. i read some dinodoor books with BB, we all do family members in french.
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10:00 getting dressed and cleaning teeth. i look round at house and decided to spend the day in the garden! [ in fact t-bird gave me the idea with her tent-ed] SB makes a great go at putting up mini-tent [with BB being not too unhelpful, and even nearly helping on occasion!] . I shew them my bag of selected options [not exclusive, they could have gone and got somethig else], and both started with colouring. BB with crayons in a bible book [bought by chris's parents] and SB in pencil on nice paper. She drew the garden first, and then started drawing my portrait.BB did some before the code.

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11:00 sees us discussing the weather in french – well, learning some of the weather words and popping them into saying it is hot and sunny. we read part of a book about food chains, and then had a fruit break. SB chose the ladybird book about the spanish armada [no I'm arder!] for me to read to her. BB liked the guns, and then went off to play in the garden. [I am concerned about her!]

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12:00 sees SB doing singapore maths 2B [halfway through] and BB and i looking at the extremely greedy starlings eating all the fat balls, and deciding to have a go at making our own. with a break for a who has the silliest face competition. SB finishes her maths and does it with us.

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13:00 mostly lunchtime. SB made lunch whilst i put lard [yuk what a truly awful smell, but the birds have never eaten them when made with veggie fat] over our nut, fruit, seed and mealworm mix. SB made peanut butter sarnies for BB, avocado sandwiches for me [using same knife, so slightly unusual!] and cheese for her [fresh knife!] and we watched some nina and the neurons. About now i thought, ooh, we have done alot today, lets make it our photoblog day! luckily i always take a lot of photo when i am at home to prove i was there. BB did some fab geomags – she wanted to make a square [cube]

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14:00 BB did a short violin practice – mostly just enjoying making noise. chris and BB went off to get some pallets from the orchard down the road to use to make an ad hoc empty compost bin [we have filled all of ours] . SB was going to do violin, but took rather a long time getting organised about it! we did do a violin practice too.

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15:00 has us back out in the garden. BB in the sandpit and SB drawing with fabric pens on a white t-shirt. both then did lots of playing in sandpit, with water, on slide etc. chris made compost bin, i played hide and seek, and took some flower photos.

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16:00 children happily playing, SB did some pot watering and had an icecream. i potted up the yard long beans and put into greenhouse [oops, forgot to say that in the garden blog - must put that right!]

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17:00 no more photos. both girls in desperate need of a bath!! after that some tidying up in the garden by me, whilst they watched pingu. a recap on french words we have looked at today.
18:30 judo for SB, i read bob the builder books to BB, we had tea and I put BB to bed.

19:30 SB home and fed, a short look at zoo tycoon for DS and then also to bed [by chris] whilst i potted up toms and cucurbits.

21:00 with the binging of the church bells, the tv switched on and we watch the apprentice and blog. the end of atypical home ed day. with thanks to katy for being understanding of me need to duvet, as we should have been doing science and latin in the morning, which we do all really enjoy. i just needed some home time.

photos to be sourced and added [of course, to make it actually a photoblog!]

ooh, forgot to blog yesterday – v remiss!!

was RSPB walk day. we got there bright and early, which was nice, so all set off in the warmth rather than the heat. What a change a few weeks makes! def a nature walk, we looked at oak apples, saw how ‘the photo tree’ had suddenly become covered in leaves, listened to birds, saw the bracken growing, the bluebells fading, and actually saw a greater spotted woodpecker!

was a lovely walk, and we all really enjoyed it. bB wore herslef out a bit with all the running up and down the steps [her absolute favourite bit!] and we stopped just in time for a picnic on what shall henceforth be called Michelle’s bench! a gentle meander back to the car, and then to the manor house. girls didn’t quite gel. i think late nights, having seen quite a bit of each other and the heat. however, bit of stage-manageing here and there, and a number of apologies from my girls and it was OK. SB a bit all legs and arms though, and had hurt C a number of times, so went home wailing because she had upset her, and now worried about visiting again :roll:

oh, and BB calls ants and woodlice ‘antistons’ at the moment. not sure why! she does seem to have a thing for squishing them.

musical mondays – a bit of jingoism!

not very pc, but i was listening to jerusalem on classic fm, reminding me of this cd leeds festival chorus made whilst i was in it. it was good fun! so listen to a few excerpts! or youtube another version of jerusalem and i was glad

aargh fly bites!!

my left leg is covered in gysnormous and extremely itchy fly bites. my right leg totally not! of course i have scratched the tops off etc, but aargh the itch!

anyway, on return from work today i baked cinnamon shortbreads in gingerbread man shape with BB, read to both bB and SB some french words book [ la famille and les jouets] and a book about bees. i took sb to swimming, and she is coming along nicely. cannot for the life of me remember which badge she is going for though. no doubt we will get one at some point this term.

SB had also been to group sport this am, which she reallly enjoys, and ballet, which she adores, so always a busy sporty day for her.

Oh BB and i filled up the bird feeders, as michelle says, we keep the RSPB afloat with the amount of birdfood we get through at the moment.

i am seeing if we can afford for me to consider being part time – ie 3 day week. if we can [with chris earning something] then i might try and wangle that by next april if i can. i think i night currently have work phobia – i wake up nervous as if i either have exam, or if something dreadful about to happen. don’t think this can be normal. i am not sure we can really afford it, but then i think that i might not be able to afford to not do it IYSWIM. however, must have a bit of job security before i decide to make it riskier!

summer is here – now official!

well here anyway, as SB and BB had a row about it!

before i start, why is it that as soon as i friends ans family flickr due to an overly persistant re-contacter, chris links to our blog from an everone view photo!! sigh!

anyway, it was another hot one today! started off in the cool with piano practice with SB. she wants to do more piano than violin at the moment, so i am hoping to facilitate that, but keep the violin ticking over. certainly her piano playing is coming on in leaps and bounds at the moment, and i guess this increases the enthusiasm. i’m going to try and find an easy duet book as well for that. [actually if i did more violin duets with her that would prob be a good thing too!]

SB then got on with some maths and handwriting whilst BB and I made some cheese scones [had to hide some so we would have some for tomorrows picnic!!]. we then did some lucy chat books at the beach – v helpful i now know the word for shark! and BB did some alphabet recognition.

All piled out into the garden under the gazebo to do some more crocodile making. SB has embellished hers so much with papier mache that hers is more of a thorny devil. bB’s was more minimalistic, and then she wailed because it was too wet to play with :roll: general outside play. chris and i both did bits of hoeing fruit bed, chris weeded some veg patch, i planted and SB watered. we have started hacking at the yew trees as well.

had some camping pancake mix left, so added cocoa powder to it for a chocolate pancake treat [bB's idea] we all prefer plain! Then put up one of our tents in the garden for the girls to play with [the cheapy 2 person 'festival tent']

cooling down now – phew!