A whole family update...

I have so many little things that I need to blog about, and so little time to blog these days. It's been 8 weeks since Grace was born, and it's been 8 very busy, hectic weeks. I'm posting a lot of photos with this blog, at least one of each of us. You can see the larger photos by clicking on them.

We are very proud of Annabelle who came 2nd for her age group in the UK National Archery Championships! Way to go girl! There is a photo below of her with her new silver medal. She has been progressing at Archery for a few years now, and recently won a bronze medal for overall achievement in her class. It's great that she has her own interest and something that is just for her. Jimmie did Archery for a term, a few years back, but soon lost interest.

Sunday was Dan's 37th birthday. We had a pretty quiet day until my sis H and her hubbie D came round. Daddy was spoilt with lots of lovely presents including DVD's, books, new clothes etc. I think he had a nice enough day, all in all. He was touched that Annabelle spent all her pocket money on his birthday present. How sweet of her. Next week it will be our 15th wedding anniversary. How time flies! There is a photo below of Dan on his birthday, and one of my sister H cuddling Grace and Barney.

Yesterday Daddy and the kids made some home made ice cream cubes, filled with raspberries, marsh mellows, chocolate and nuts. They are going to eat them tonight after dinner. Barney loves to create with food in the kitchen, and luckily for him his Dad is only too happy to help. Threre's a photo below of Barney making his ice cream cubes.

Grace is growing up so fast. She is getting into a good routine now. She's pretty good at night time, waking up for feeds at about 1am, 5am and 8am. In general she drinks her bottle, then I change her nappy, then we cuddle for a few minutes while I enjoy her almost constant smiles, then I pop her back into her moses basket and she generally just goes back to sleep. I couldn't ask for a better behaved baby, and for that I am very grateful! In the mornings Dan takes her for an hour or so while I catch up on sleep.

I need to concentrate on her daytime routine a bit now. I've noticed that she tends to have a good long sleep in the afternoons and I want to get her used to sleeping in her cot for that, so that the eventual transition at night time from moses basket to cot goes easier. I am so relieved that she doesn't suffer from constant colic like her eldest brother did. I had a nightmare time coping with him for the first few months as he never stopped crying at night. It's been a very stressing couple of weeks due to a certain attention seeking individual who has seemed incapable of leaving me alone. I'm sure I wouldn't have coped with all that if Grace had been a more difficult baby. Hopefully this poisonous person who insists of twisting the truth, back stabbing, and creating drama has finally decided to leave me alone. I have blocked her from contacting me in every way that I know how, so I'm pretty sure I'm safe from any more stress.

It does seem very strange having children at such different stages in life. Jimmie is a full on teenager, Barney is just starting primary school and learning to read etc, whilst Grace is still at that stage where she needs feeding every three hours. Let me not kid, it is very hard work! But also very rewarding. I do sometimes feel that I am stretched too thinly between them all, and I'm sure the older two get a lot less attention from me than they would like.

I am thinking of having a civil naming ceremony for Grace in the summer. Our other three children all had dedications in the church that we were in, but that isn't going to be happening for Emily. I was looking at the civil ceremony website and have some ideas now for a celebration of her birth. It's much like a christening, without the religious aspect. It would be a great day for our family to all enjoy some special time together. Instead of God Parents, some people are chosen to take a special interest in the child's life. They chose different aspects of the child's life that they wish to contribute to. People can say prayers, or read poems or basically whatever they like. I am looking forward to doing something like this without the interference of the fellowship using it as an outreaching activity. The only thing that's dampening my enthusiasm to organise it is that I was going to ask one friend to be one of her 'godparents' (for want of a better name) but that person is now not a part of my life any more. Anyway, I really must start to think about it a bit more.

More of Steves portraits

Ok, I couldn't resist putting some more on. They are all so adorable, especially because they are my kids, so I just had to post them.

Don't forget to click on them for a better view.

Steves Portraits

This evening I looked at some of the photos Steve took in the college photography studio last week, as part of his course. I just had to come and put some of them on my blog. These aren't necessarily the ones he is entering for his course, but a few of the ones I liked (there were hundreds - it was hard to pick!) I'm sure I'll be posting more over the coming days. The session was primarily shooting pictures of Jude but he took a few group ones of the kids too...

What have we been up to?

It's been quite a while since I posted normal family news stuff here on the blog so I thought I'd do a very quick catch up post. Here are 3 photos from the last 2 weeks. I was ill with a nasty cold, which turned into a bad chesty cough. Just about managed to get through the days but crawled into bed as soon as Steve got in from work every night. That lasted almost a week so not much got done. Although Steve finally finished painting the hall, stairs and landing!!! Woo hoo (no less than 18 walls of varying sizes and heights!!!)


I had to take a pic of these animals. I came downstairs on one of the mornings that I was feeling ill and this was the sight in our living room. Steve had been playing with Luke, with Sam's old animals that he collected when he was little. They had arranged them in such a good order, dinosaurs in the middle, animals around the outside, with the humans guarding them all along the perimeter. Luke has taken to playing with these animals a lot, and often arranges them in different group variations.



I took great enjoyment taking this photo of Steve. After a full day of working, running errands, popping in and out of various places of business, he came home, looked in the bathroom mirror and exclaimed "Who let me go out looking like this?" His hair was wild. I laughed myself silly and he agreed to pose for the blog.





One day last week we took a family trip to the cinema to see Flushed Away. We very rarely go as a family because of the cost (£20! - and that was with cheap sweets from the corner shop, not expensive cinema treats) The film was very good. Luke laughed so much every time the singing slugs came on - I thought they were a nice touch to the film, very entertaining. I could watch that film twice, which is saying something for a kids film.


On the education front, Sam has been doing well at his new High School. He gets his end of term exam results back soon, so that will be a sign of how he's doing. He had some results back already, but when he gets his report it will also show the class average for each exam result. He scored no less than 98% on his geography exam! I don't know what the class average was yet though.



Jude has been quietly working away at home. She was quite neglected while I was ill and just plodded on with the work she had been doing all term. I really need to sit down and look at her maths work to make sure she fully understands it. Today she is starting a lap book project. She hasn't quite decided what to do yet. Last night she went on a Brownies trip to see Santa and came home with lots of goodies and stories to tell (from all accounts Santa flashed at the congregation of young Brownie girls, when he stood up and his trousers fell to his ankles!!!)

Luke is getting more and more excited about Christmas as every second passes. He has started waking at the crack of dawn in order to retrieve the next chocolate from his advent calendar. Not a good idea. We should have been opening them at bedtime, to get him to bed earlier. Hes' asking me every day when we will be putting the tree and decorations up. I'm holding off for as long as possible as he will drive me insane once it's up, with constant questions of "is it Christmas yet?" People here in Northern Ireland do put their decorations up very early. I think the general trend here is to put them up on 1st December, or round abouts, but I have seen many houses in Belfast decorated from as early as 1st November. In the south of England when I was a lass I'm sure we didn't put them up until nearer Christmas. When the schools broke up, about a week before the big day we'd put up the decorations, and they stayed up for about 12 days (the 12 days of Christmas, right?) I'm sure I'll get comments from people in England saying they have them up for longer, but I'm sure that's how it was at home. A full month or more seems such a long time to have the house decorated. Oh well.

I'm sure there is loads of other news but I can't spend any more time on the blog... things to do.

Well done Steve!

Oh, I'm loaded with the cold. I managed to stay on top of things all day but now that Steve is home I'm off to bed, leaving him to cope with the kids. But I just had to come online quickly to post this message.
Today Steve got the marks for the first part of his Photography HND back. This is the course that he started in October. The first part of the course was a 12 week module in which he had to take 12 prints, develop them and print them himself in black and white, to make a calender. It was quite a hard module and he spent a lot of time on it. Today he starts the next module, which is portrait photography in the studio. Anyway, the calender module was marked in 3 sections, with an overall mark. One mark was for the workbook, one mark for the essay (Steve's very first essay ever, I might add!), and one mark for the actual photographs. Well, much to our surprise and delight he got a distinction for his workbook, a distinction for his essay (!@*@! - no I didn't help him with that!) and a distinction for his photos, giving him a distinction overall!
Well done Stevie!
He was also commissioned and paid for his first bit of photography work this week too! For a local estate agents.
Right, I'm off to bed, sniff.

Geneva - October 2006

Our short trip to Geneva in Switzerland was wonderful, as expected. We left here on Saturday morning at about 8.30am. My Mum and Hannah were taking care of the kids for the few days that we were away. I was worried about how Luke would cope without me, but he seemed happy enough knowing that we would bring him home a present. Our flight was 2 ½ hours long and we arrived in Geneva Airport at lunch time. We hopped straight onto a train and arrived in Geneva centre 5 minutes later. Steve said that the hotel was near the train station, and as we walked out of the station there was the hotel! Easy as that. Sometimes finding your way around public transport can be a nightmare when you don’t speak the language.
So we checked straight into our 4 star hotel. They gave us free passes for travel by train, tram, bus or boat, which was very handy. The hotel was very nice, and the bed was absolutely massive! Much bigger than our king size.
We spent the rest of Saturday afternoon working out our way around the place and getting our bearings. We were staying in the hotel district, which also turned out to be the red light district at night. Lake Geneva was 2 blocks from the hotel, and the Old Town was just across the Lake.
We spent quite a lot of time over the 4 days around the Lake area. The weather was so sunny and warm (nothing like home!) and it was bliss just to sit by the sailing boats, watching the world go by. The Lake has a man made water jet, which Steve was fascinated by. This jet sprays the water from the lake 140m into the air, using 500 litres of water per second. On the Sunday, when the weather was at its best, and all the local rich people were out in their yachts, Steve got completely soaked by walking on the little pier right up and past the jet, in the hopes of a good photo opportunity. I filmed him getting a good soaking on the camcorder and the kids had a good laugh watching it when we got home.
Most of the shops were closed by the time we made it into the old town on Saturday, so we sat in a cute little street café and had ice cream sundaes, whilst watching the tourists and local Genevan’s going about their business. The Old Town is similar in some ways to the old town of Brussels, and in some ways to the old town of Prague. The architecture was awesome, and every little building, whether a grand cathedral, or a block of apartments, were built beautifully with such intricate detailing. Steve must have come home with hundreds of photos of various buildings. Sometimes we could see the locals wondering what on earth we were taking a photo of some old building for!
We found a trendy little place to eat on Saturday evening. It had 4 restaurants but one big seating area. Steve had a Chinese dish, which he even managed to eat with chopsticks, and I had sushi, which was yummy.
Sunday was very quiet in Geneva, the tourist season being over. In the morning we took a little tourist train for an hour and a half tour of various big important buildings. We saw all sorts of places such as the International Red Cross Headquarters. But the best part of this was when the bus took us up to the top of Cologny. Cologny is the Beverly Hills of Geneva. The houses here are owned by the rich and famous, and they all have spectacular views over the lake. At the top of Cologny the bus stopped to let us out for a look at the panoramic view of Geneva and its lake. It was breathtaking. The lake, with the city around it, and the mountains behind. A nice American lady took our photo for us.
Later that afternoon we found St Pierre’s Cathedral in the Old Town. The climb to the top gives a fabulous panoramic view of the city. So we climbed and climbed up the winding castle steps, which were not wide enough for the people coming down at the same time. Steve and I found an open doorway and ended up in the attic space of the cathedral! I’m pretty sure we weren’t supposed to be in there, but it had been left open because there was building and reconstruction work going on. It was the scariest place I’ve ever been in my life! So high up, above the cathedral, in a big old bell tower made of wooden beams and rafters, which looked as if it was going to fall apart. My legs were like jelly and I was really dizzy, so we headed back to the main stairs and found our way up to the top of the turret. Once out in the open turret I was fine (it was solid stone after all) but Steve was really dizzy there! Still, he took plenty of photos and I enjoyed just spending time looking out at the view, which was awesome.
As we came down the steps from the cathedral we could hear something which sounded like monks singing! It was beautiful and echoey. Back in the main part of the church we discovered the Sunday Choir having a practice session, so we sat and listened to them for 20 minutes. It was like a free concert! The singing was very spooky, but very beautiful.
Monday was shopping day. We had to buy presents for the kids. I had phoned Luke on Sunday and he cried and cried and cried! He begged me to come home and said he missed me. Apparently he went to his room and was inconsolable for 2 hours afterwards. But he was more upset that I couldn’t speak to him for long. On the Monday I phoned him from the hotel and talked to him for an hour and he was in good form then. I sent him a text message photo of his presents and that cheered him up. But I felt really bad on Sunday when I knew he was finding it so hard. Anyway, all the big shops were open so we found a big toyshop and bought Luke some little cars, one of those planes that sticks to the bedroom ceiling and flies around, and a little box of Swiss chocolates in the shape of toy cars. It was harder to get something for Sam and Jude, so in the end we just got them touristy t-shirts, caps and chocolates. They were happy enough. The shops in Geneva were VERY expensive, and in all honesty I couldn’t find much to buy. Which meant we didn’t bring any other souvenirs home.
We took a boat tour on Monday morning as well. It sailed around the lake for an hour and a half. The boat was very nice, very posh looking, and it was nice to sit and do nothing whilst sailing around the lake.
In the afternoon we walked around an area called The Grottes, which was behind our hotel. It’s were the ‘real’ people live. There were some very strange looking buildings round this area, and the people who live in them call themselves Smurfs. Around this area were lots of ‘Hookah Bars’. These are little cafes for smoking those big Indian pipes. They looked bizarre from the outside. We also took a stroll around our hotel area as it was full of quaint shops and cafes. Prostitution is legal in Switzerland and in between the nice restaurants and cafes were sex shops and brothels! On every street corner there were girls looking for work, and a few odd looking people that could have been girls or guys!
All in all it was a lovely break. Steve really liked Geneva, he was very taken with it. I think I preferred Prague myself, although Geneva was nice too. But as always, it was nice to get home again, and to see the kids again. I kissed little Lukey from head to toe when we got home and squeezed and squeezed him. Sam and Jude didn’t miss us as much, being that they are older, but they really enjoyed watching the short video of our trip that we made them.

Photo's of us in Geneva

We had a wonderful time! I will write a post all about it later on. Got lots of washing and housework to catch up on first. Here are the photos of us, in Geneva, Switzerland. There are a lot more photos of sites, mountains, the lake etc that Steve took. I will post them another day when he has decided which ones he's keeping and which he's deleting, and what not. But just for now, these are the photos that actually have either me, Steve or both of us in them.

Lake Geneva is famous for its huge water jet. In my next post I'll tell you all about that. He is one of the first pics I took of Steve, with the water jetting out of his head! (There was something on the lens of the camera, which appears on Steve's nose in this photo).

Lake Geneva, with the old town and mountains behind it, and the bridge. Geneva is surrounded by mountains, including the Alps.

It is possible to walk across the bridge to get to the Old Town, but it's much more fun to take the little boat taxi's across. And it was free for us to travel, because our hotel gave us free passes for boat, tram, bus and train!

Here we are in one of the Old Town streets. I was taking a photo of Steve here when a nice man came and asked if we'd like him to take the picture of both of us.

We spent a lot of time in cafes or restaurants. That's what Geneva is all about. Sitting in a cafe and watching the scenery.

Here are two photos of us taken at the top of Cologny, by a nice American lady. Cologny is the Beverly Hills of Geneva, where the other half live. The houses here were mansions, and they had this gorgeous breath taking view of lake Geneva and the mountains beyond. This was taken on the Sunday when all the locals where out relaxing in their yachts.

We found a square filled with these flower mountains, which I thought looked rather odd!












I think the highlight of the trip, for me, was climbing to the top of the Cathedral and taking in the panoramic view of Geneva. It was awesome up here, although we both felt a little dizzy. In this first photo you can see me in a turret with the huge jet spray in the distance.







Here is some of the view from the tower. The jet spray on Lake Geneva, and lots of little white yachts out sailing.

The mountain views were breath taking. In the distance you can see part of The Alps.

This is me, again, from the tower.

That's is for the moment, but as I said, I will be coming back when I have more time to write about all that we did. So that both myself and Steve can go back to read it in years to come. Until then, it's time for some seriously work.

The torture of pulsatile tinnutis, and neurofibromatosis.

I was just having a lie down in bed, but the pulsing in my ears is unbearable and I can't stand to be in a quiet place. It is driving me insane. Although I've been referred to a specialist (months ago) I have no sign of an appointment yet. It seems I could be waiting indefinitely. It's really starting to get to me.
And it's getting worse. It started months ago. A faint pulsing sound in my right ear, which would come and go and which I could only hear at night when it was very quiet. I used to almost have to 'listen out for it'. Gradually over the year it's got worse, louder, and into both ears. Last week it had got to the stage where it is a loud gushing heart sound, which I can hear during the day. I can even hear it with the sound of the TV and kids in the room. It is my heart beat, there's no doubt about that. I can hear it get faster when I'm stressed. But the sound is in my ear drum, not my heart, and it's clearly audible, not imagined. The doctor said it was unusual for someone so young to suffer from it, and so she referred me to the specialist. It is different to normal tinnitus, which can happen for no reason. Pulsatile tinnitus is usually caused by an underlying medical condition, and can be caused my small benign tumors in the arteries in the neck. I now have the sound in both ears, although worse in my right. But this week I am also hearing new noises. Electrical noises. They can last for anything between 5 and 30 seconds, these new noises, but they always stop, and once again I am left with the pulsing. It's almost as if my brain is an electrical circuit that is sparking and malfunctioning, in an audible way. My fear is that the electrical noises will become permanent too, and then I shall go mad, for certain.
When this first started I could get to sleep and then the noises would fade and I would have peace. Now I can't get any silence at night. I can't get into a position where the noise in my ears subsides, and to make it worse, the noises have started to wake me up! This is driving me crazy. I feel like I'm going deaf. I can't hear what people are saying on the phone, above the sound of my gushing heart beat. I miss lines in films because my ears decide to play a little electrical tune for a few moments. I can only describe it as torture, and if it gets any louder or becomes a noise other than my heartbeat I shall certainly be committed to an insane asylum.

Still, I should be grateful. There are far worse things that one could suffer from.

Which brings me to Steve. He went to the doctors today and had a gallon of blood taken for testing, poor guy. The doc thinks he may be suffering from an over active thyroid condition, which may or may not be caused by his neurofibromatosis, if a tumour is growing near the thyroid. He will get his tests back next week. She has also tested for a heap of other things. Steve was told that if an NF lump grew in an organ he would be ill. He has been ill, for many weeks. So far his lumps have all been in less serious places, mostly in his arm, in which he has undergone many operations. Maybe this is nothing to do with NF at all, but it's always a worry that a lump may be growing somewhere that could make him ill (his liver was mentioned by the dr). I guess we will know more next week when the results come back. He really needs a few weeks off work, to rest and recuperate. He has paid someone to run his shop this week so that he can have some rest, but we can't afford it, and he will not be able to do that again. I have offered to run the shop for him so that he can be at home, but then he will have to take care of the kids, which may well turn out to be a harder job than running a business! Oh we both need a good MOT and some new parts fitted.

I guess that's enough of a whinge for now. I generally cope well with stress, but worrying about Steve has taken it's toll on me and this afternoon I felt really quite unwell and upset. I just turned to jelly and had to lie down, only to be reminded of that hideous noise from which I can't escape. Writing things down like this is really quite therapeutic, and makes me feel an awful lot better.

Who is that masked man?

Hello, hello, it seems I have so much to say since my last post, which wasn't that long ago. But I've only got 30 minutes to write this, then I have to go and pick Sam up from his guitar lesson, and Jude has already reserved the computer for the afternoon.

I'm just going to load on some photo's from our week. This one is a classic. This was taken on Sunday, when I pampered Steve for the day. Whilst he was on the trampoline with Luke, we snuck out with a clay mud mask and gave his skin a bit of a (long overdue) deep clean. Luke was a bit horrified. Sam wanted some too, but I only had enough to do his nose and chin. The next morning Sam woke up with a big spot on his nose! He was not happy and is sworn off of mud masks for the rest of his life.

Luke has had one of those weeks where he wants a constant companion. In between his helping me with the chores, Sam and Jude have been great at entertaining him. Here are Luke and Jude in Jude's room. They got all the carpet and furniture from Jude's dolls house and made a little play scene on the bedroom floor.

Here is a photo, taken today, of Jude doing her math work in the kitchen.

Yesterday was a glorious day, as is today, so I took the opportunity to work in the garden. It needed a lot of attention, and still does to some extent. I needed to do a lot of weeding and tidying up. The sunflowers were all dead (but one) so I cut them down and pulled out the old climbing sweet pea flowers. This has allowed more sunlight into the courgette and pumpkin patch, so hopefully they will grow faster now. I

harvested one marrow, a few courgettes, our first red cabbage, some french beans and some peas, along with the sunflowers (and a few small onions). We will eat some of the courgettes tonight for dinner, and I'll dry out those last few sunflower heads in the airing cupboard, with the ones that are already there.

In an attempt to further enhance our health I purchased a juicer. A good juicer, that actually works and juices whole fruits, not like the daft one we had before, which was so much hassle that we never used it. Today I went out at the crack of dawn to buy a ton of fruit. Jude and I made our first juice at lunch time.... carrots, apples, pears, grapes and ginger. It was really nice. We took some down for Steve to drink at work. I'm hoping it will be a big hit with the kids, although predictably Luke didn't like the healthy juice and opted for squash instead.

That's about all I've got time for at the moment, although I haven't had a chance to tell you about belly dancing, or that Steve is off work next week, but I have to go and pick Sam up.

Visiting Laura

Here are two photo's from our weekend. The first is little Luke looking adoringly at his big cousin J. The second is my sister Jenny (on right) with our cousin Laura, who I haven't seen since she was about 12 !

Yesterday Jude went to work at the Coleraine CD fair with her Dad. I took Sam to stage school and then Luke and I went round to Jenny's to see Laura, who was staying for the weekend. She has just moved over here to study at University. It was good to see her after such a long time, and she told all of the news of our other cousins (her brothers). I haven't seen them since they were little boys and I couldn't believe that they are now grown men. Even though I've grown up and had kids. It's funny how we forget that everyone else grows up too.

Today is Sunday and we are doing nothing really. Next week we will be going to Dublin for the Sunday meeting but this week Steve wasn't up to it. He worked a full week in the shop. Then yesterday morning he woke at 6am, loaded a van full of records and CD's (they weigh a ton) into the van, drove to pick up another dealer (cd dealer, not drug dealer!) and helped him load his stuff into the van. Then he drove a good few hours to Coleraine, unloaded the van, lugged everything into the fair, worked all day at the fair (made hardly any money) and then did the same thing, but in reverse, on the way home. He is absolutely shattered, and has gone back to bed for the day.

News schools and new colleges

Steve left this morning at the crack of dawn to catch his bus to college. It is his first day on the 3 year HND Photography course. Right up until Sunday he wasn't sure if he was even going to do the course. Yesterday he made up his mind to give it a try. I hope it goes well for him. I really hope he enjoys it, and that it's a source of pleasure, rather than stress. I'm hoping that he really enjoys that time away from work and home every week, with something to concentrate on, other than making money and running errands.

Sam has left for school. He seems to be enjoying it so far. Now that all the 11plus passers have been taken off to the grammar school, Sam seems to be top of the class! Which he is really enjoying! His favourite subject is English (never was before - but it's amazing what difference a nice teacher can make to a subject) and from what he tells me, his English teacher uses his work all the time for examples to other kids. He decided yesterday to write an extra essay about literary genres to "impress the teacher". Well, blow me down! Sam? Taking on extra work? They must have drugged him or something.

This week the after school clubs start. Sam has signed up for drama (no surprises there!), choir, and cooking. In his first Home Economics lesson he impressed the teacher, all the kids, and himself, by being the only one who could cook. The fact that he could single handedly make a spaghetti bolognaise rocketed his popularity with the other kids and the teacher (at least that's the way he makes it sound). Thanks to his Dad, Sam is regarded as something of 'the cool kid'. This is a new experience to him. His Dad owns the coolest shop in the town - the CD shop - the coolest, hippest place for teenagers to hang out after school. From the day he started, teenage girls kept saying "oh there's the kid who's Dad owns the CD shop". This makes him automatically cool. Two teenage girls chose him as their 'pet year 8' for the year and they look out for him all the time. Yesterday at lunch time Sam was surrounded by a crowd of teenage girls, all wanting to talk to him and asking him about the shop. His class mates all watched in envy at his popularity with the girls! (Honestly, this is what he is telling me... ) In between lessons, travelling from class to class, Sam says that along the corridors big kids keep saying "hello Sam", "hi Sam", "how are you Sam?" and the kids from his class think he must be really cool because of it. So, so far he is enjoying it. Sam's never been one to shun a bit of attention from anyone!

OK, Luke's begging me for breakfast, so I better go and feed the poor little mite.

A silly carrot, I mean nut, and ramblings...

Well, I'm feeling the need to blog, but I'm not sure what about yet, so I'll just see what ramblings come to me. I'm loading some digital photos onto the computer, so they will remind me of all that's been happening over the last few days. It's 8pm on Sunday evening, Luke is asleep, Sam is taking a shower ready for school in the morning, and Jude is getting ready for bed. Steve is tidying the garden or something, I'm not sure. He never sits down.

Tomorrow is the start of Sam's first proper week of school. Friday was more of an induction day, but this week he will really get to see what high school is all about. He didn't seem overly enthusiastic about the place when he came home on Friday. The most exciting thing that happened was that the till in the cafeteria wasn't working so they all got a free lunch! I'm remembering today what it was like in the days when both Sam and Jude went to school. That Sunday evening check list of 'are the uniforms clean and ironed?', 'is the homework all done?', 'are there forms to be filled in?', 'do the kids need a shower or bath?' Sunday evenings in the home educating family are usually pretty laid back. Tomorrow Jude starts some more formal work. I haven't asked her to do anything over the summer holidays. She hasn't even practiced the piano. She is starting on some new books this year, and continuing with some old ones too. The new books are Madam How and Lady Why, It couldn't just happen: fascinating facts about Gods world and Kon Tiki, Across the Pacific by Raft. I have no idea yet if these new books are any good, but we'll soon find out. They were, of course, recommended on the Ambleside Online Curriculum, so I didn't just pluck them out of thin air!

I've just loaded on the photos and they have jogged my memory a bit about our weekend.Today Steve and Luke dug up the first carrot from our veggie plot. They aren't really ready to be harvested yet, as they have a bit more growing to do. But once Steve discovered that there were actually carrots growing under those 3ft tall green grassy carrot tops, he could not resist to pick one. Then he insisted, like a child, to have his photo taken with it, for the blog, as if he was the one who actually planted it, watered it, fed it, weeded it and cared for it. So here is his special photo of our first carrot.

And here is a cute photo of one of our glorious sunflowers, in bloom.

Steve took this photo of Sam, Jude and Luke on Friday morning, before Sam left for school. Doesn't he look smart in his uniform? Luke was so excited about it. He asked me "can i go to school too?" I explained that he couldn't, so he asked "why? Are they shooting there?" What a strange question, I thought. Then I realised he must have been thinking about archery, where he can't go because they shoot arrows. Then he told me that they read lots of books at school. He must have decided that from the amount of reading both kids did as part of their home education, when they would tell Luke "shhh, I'm doing my school work".

Sam took it upon himself on Saturday morning to draw a picture of our house. I thought he looked so studious and artistic sitting in a chair on the lawn, with his paper, pens and an umbrella to shield his artwork from the drizzle, that I had to take a photo. It was a very good picture and if I find it I will scan it to put on the blog tomorrow.

Oh yes, last night we were invited to Mum's friends house for a lovely dinner of curry and rice. They are the family who own the dog Diamond, that we cared for. The food was lovely, and Mum cooked a scrumptious apple and blackberry crumble for pudding. Oh boy. The kids were well behaved, and even Luke managed to be good natured and charming until almost 10pm when he decided he needed to go to bed.

I found a blogring devoted to International Adoption, and read some blogs that really pulled on my heart strings. Oh I better not start blogging about that now or I'll be here all night.

Well, I'm off to bed myself now. It is 10.15 pm, despite me starting this blog at 8pm. Blogger wouldn't upload my photos and I got cheesed off and left it. Then I came upstairs to do some yoga (that's another story for another time) and got lured into the computer room (the way Steve does when he goes past a Chinese restaurant) and low and behold, blogger was working again. So here I am. And now I've gone.

Steve made me a compilation tape

Just like in the old days, when we were madly in love! Steve used to make me compilation tapes back then. Well, I must be doing something right because he just made me another one, and it's a cracker. Here is the track listing...

Keane - Is it any wonder
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Dani California
Sigur Ros - Hoppipok
Scissors sisters - Laura + Take Your Mama
Johnny cash - Heart of Gold, Devils Right Hand, Pocahontas, Redemtion Son, and As Long As The Grass
Radiohead - No Surprises
Damien Rice - The Blowers Daughter
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Up Around The Bend
Harry Nelson - Coconut
Black Eyed Peas - Where Is The Love?
Gorizzas - Dare
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Teenager In Love
Kiser Chiefs - I Predict A Riot
Muse - Plug In Baby
Led Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven

Who's a clever boy then?

Steve is! Steve is!

Oh yes he is!

Steve got an A in his GCSE photography!

Well done my darling! I'm proud of you, but I knew you'd get an A.

Uniforms and Caterpillars

Yesterday it stopped raining. Today it is pouring from the heaven's again. Steve was off work so I decided it would be a good day to go out and buy Sam's uniform - without having to take all 3 kids. So that's what we did. One blazer, 2 shirts, 1 tie, 1 pair of shorts, 1 sports top and 1 pair of hockey socks, came to £95. Plus one pair of shoes at £39. That's without the coat, trousers, 2 school bagslunchch bag, and all the art, english, maths and writing equipment that I have to purchase, as well the 'voluntary' school fees. My friend said it cost her almost £400 by the time she bought everything. Phew! He does look very smart in his new uniform, but Sam will be posting about that on his own blog, so I won't put the photo on here.

I spent the rest of the day out in the garden, while it was relatively dry. Steve mowed the lawns, whilst I annihilated the caterpillar community which had moved into the vegetable patch. Rather than use pesticides I hand picked all the tiny just hatched caterpillars, and all the unhatched eggs out from all the cabbage and broccoli plants. It took 2 hours. Fun fun fun. I planted out some more baby lettuces which we had grown from seed. Luke helped with that. He loves planting.

As usual blogger isn't letting me load on any photos so I'll have to put them on later.

Friday was spent at Jenny's house. Seven children and three adults made for a fun packed day. The kids were good enough in the end, after a short period of upsets. We all played karioke with them, and then the kids had a disco in the living room. Jenny's house is looking fabulous now that she's spent so much time and effort on doing it up. It's looking very homely indeed.