I love being a homeschooling mummy. It is particularly a privilege to watch my teens figure out their strengths and weaknesses, and then blossom when given enough time to explore their interests. But there are moments of wistfulness too. I think probably caused by watching my elder twin becoming an incredible artist. She improves every week and it is a truly beautiful process. And I kind of want to join in. In fact, I think I might need to carve out time in my incredibly busy day to make, fiddle and create.
We are trying out a three weeks on one week off in school; three weeks being as long as our steam runs when we follow our very full schedule. I figure we generally get such a large amount done in a week, we can probably afford to take the fourth week as a break. But the one week off will not actually be off. Oh no! Y’know that whole thing about a change being as good as a break? Well, this is what we are intending to do. For one week in every four we will be exploring all those ‘non school’ learning opportunities, and for me this will be a week of using my hands to create. Whether it be soap, natural products, making items to help make our cottage feel even more homey or even making clothes, I will working alongside my children to create, rather than to use up. And I can’t wait!
A few weeks ago I began a few pinterest boards to give me ideas. Feel free to follow along 🙂
Fashion Parade
A short while ago we were taking some clothes to the local charity shop and saw another one across the road from it which was having a shutting down sale, with everything priced at £1 or less. Gary sent me off, on my own, with £10 to have some fun! I am so blessed by a man who fully understands me 🙂
I spent every single pound, mainly on clothes for the girls, dvds for Gary and T and a basket for myself. When we got home we had the obligatory fashion show to find out what fitted and what didn’t. So much fun and almost everything was a hit! We bought a gorgeous fairy nighty for A, and two tops for B:
Two tops for C, a vest and a cardigan for L:
A bag each for the girls:
And my basket with the men’s dvds in:
How blessed were we?! I think I shall be turning the basket into a gift making basket, to hold all my supplies:)
Wibbly Wobbly Jogging
Is jogging really good for one’s health? I had to ask myself this a thousand times before 5am came around on Monday morning. I mean, did I really want to wobble my way around a very public village park, all in the quest of good health? More to the point, would said wobbling cause good health, or would I end up flat on my back from my heart complaining under the extra pressure?
It was with a tentative first step that I began my jogging journey. The jogging, actually, was surprisingly easy. Well, not easy, but easier than I thought it would be. There were, however, two issues which I was less than enamoured by. The first was my eldest twin sprinting past me then stopping and cheering me on by clapping her hands (!!!) I mean if I wanted the whole world and his wife to know I was jogging, I would have announced it on my blog….(ahem). The second issue was my see-through trousers. I have decided I do not like Lycra. It is not a good look on my over insulated body. I particular don’t like cheap (ie see-through) Lycra. I tied a black polo neck top around my waist, making sure it covered the rather large expanse which is my bottom but I was still very aware of the whole look being, really, not a good one. Clearly I need looser, thicker jogging trousers because the very thought of going out in my see-through ones again was terrifying enough to stop me jogging anymore this week. But I managed once and once is one more time than I managed the week before, or, in deed, the week before that…in fact it is more than I have managed in the last decade or so.
Gift Making
I am currently making some knitting kits for my little ones for Christmas. I went through my material stack yesterday and found two old skirts I thought might make cute bags:
Here they are with their bottoms sewn up (they need an iron but you get an idea):
After I iron them, I need to make a decision about fastenings and whether to have a handle or not, but I’m fairly happy so far 🙂
My dear friend Leizel, who runs her own very successful Etsy shop selling the most gorgeous crochet items for newborns, has offered to send me all her left over balls of wool to pop in their bags. Thank you so much Leizel – the girls will LOVE them!
Hope Chests
I’m still reading through the above book. It is so rare for me not whiz through a book, but this one is so full of goodness, I want to treasure the moments I spend reading it. I have got so many ideas from it for my four girls and can’t wait to start working on their very own ‘Hope Chests’
Well, that’s it for this week. I hope you all are having a lovely weekend. I am off to tidy my bedroom which very well may have been hit by some sort of explosion last week 😉