I haven't forgotten

I keep meaning to post and then get distracted by the lovely weather and by the time I get back I am exhausted. Lots of busy days here...last forest school at Blean on Wednesday, It is an all day one for the last six weeks or so and Munch has thoroughly enjoyed it. Adults are not supposed to stay so we went shopping in Canterbury and had lunch in the gorgeous whole food cafe which I discovered in my uni days.

Lots of playing has been involved this week. Mostly in the sand pit and paddling pool.....which explains why my carpet is full of sand along with almost everything we touch in the house :-(

Needless to say the housework has taken a bit of a back seat.....it gets once a day even if it doesn't look like ....otherwise I am constantly tidying up a little bit all the time and getting frustrated when the children make more mess.

Slowly having a clear out and trying to have a sort through as we seem to have accumulated a lot of stuff which we are trying to do without....less clutter should equal less mess right????? well maybe we will just have to see.
To this end we did a bootfair last sunday...although my mum bought Munch almost as mush as we sold which did not please the ginger ninja much.

Things have been getting us down a bit recently so the ginger ninja has decided our priority at the moment is for us to get our own car...which will be a diesel so hopefully a bit more fuel economic then mums big petrol car which we borrow at the moment and hopefully a bit bigger so that we can get all of our camping gear in it. Hopefully this will give us more freedom to disappear as often as we like and visit some of our lovely home ed friends who have offered us places to stay.

Lots of free play and reading has added to our week. lots of park play dates and even a jubilee party yesterday which Munch really enjoyed.

The trouble is I either forget to take photos or can't work out how to upload them from instagram ...the ginger ninja usually helps with the technical side of things and he isn't up yet. Too much happens for me to remember it all if I leave it too long between blogs, so probably not the most exciting read......gosh I almost forgot....shopping in CAMDEN baby.....went as a last minute thing with my friend for her birthday....lush...have not been for 11 years and forgot how much I love it. Could have spent a fortune but restrained myself....quite proud of my restraint actually....must be  a sign of maturity lol

Our week in pictures

lots of crafting and messy play this week. Faith is always drawn to the piano at either of the hall meets we go to and whilst looking for a restaurant we had been recommended we found this lovely park...lots of fun activities and a slide etc hidden behind the plane wreckage amongst the trees, definitely planning a return trip soon.

Lots of pictures from a family day on Saturday. Of course the first thing we did was light a fire before starting work trimming hedges etc at my grandparents.

 not quite sure why I have a picture of feet??????

my girls were totally in love with Nipper my uncles Jack Russell and took him for little walks and cuddles all day.

After we popped along to the sweeps festival at Rochester on Monday we met up with my Dad and his brother and walked around Leybourne lakes. Grace was fascinated to find a dummy tree and wondered why they were there. I explained that it was probably parents/ children leaving them for the dummy fairy once they decided they were too grown up to have them anymore.

Also this weekend Munch learnt to finger knit and now cannot go anywhere without a small ball of wool, as testified by her trying to eat breakfast in weatherspoons whilst finger knitting.

Throughout the weekend Tinkerbell was her usual sparkly, stubborn self. At the home ed meet on Tuesday she got straight into painting as you can see by her lovely white top. This was swiftly followed by plastering wotsits all around her face before finally falling asleep in the car on the way to drop Munch at her friends for a sleep over ready for forest school.

All in all a good weekend...met a few nice people, been keeping on top of housework (mostly) strip washed the nappies in the hope that they stop leaking before I get really upset as they are fairly new and cost a small fortune....had some preloved which worked amazingly well so went out and bought 9 more but we are having several issues with leakage so hope they will be ok...really cant afford any more. And also on the look out for a wrap maybe...my friend is going to lend us one next week after we return the lovely ssc buckle carrier she lent us to see which we prefer. I am not quite ready to let go of my baby yet and despite being incredibly broody I just want my little Tinkerbell to be little for a while longer yet......

Woah Noah

well, I thought I would change the background to match this lovely spring weather NOT. Actually to be fair I don't mind too much....we have had a couple of good days in between which we have made the most of. Things have been fairly busy here 2 birthdays in a week to orchestrate and lots of visiting relatives have not left much time for blogging. I have been adding finishing touches to my portfolio which needs to be handed in. Once that has gone it frees up another day and is one less thing to worry about.

 So apart from sign on a Tuesday night, work on Thursday and twilight shift on Friday  I have more time at home so hopefully can get started on the mass de-clutter that we so desperately need. Oh for the days when it would take 10 minutes to tidy the whole house and not much longer to rearrange a whole room..... On a serious note though we do have too many books ( I know, I know but they literally just sit there in our tiny house collecting dust and we need the room ) I have converted to the dark side with my lovely kindle and it takes up so little space. I love books, the smell and the comfort of sitting beside the fire curled up in an arm chair but unfortunately 1200 books in something which takes up the space of one book is definitely a winner at the moment :-(

I am trying to get a little more organised in our home, so that we do not keep wasting money for the most part, having cupboards/ freezer full of food but still eating out or getting take away due to lack of forward planning (ie defrosting something) is not healthy for our non-existent bank account.

Hopefully also I will have time, once we have less clutter to 'strew' some ideas for Munch to try and fire her interests a little more. She is not really one to ask questions as such about things an if she does and I try to encourage her to look things up she checks the dreaded wikipedia or something and goes with the first thing she sees. However, I have lots of lovely things pinned and lapbooks planned so hopefully we can build on these ideas and feel like we are actually learning. I know we try to be autonomous but I feel that school did not teach her the skills she needs....she seems to have little imagination left when it comes to things she wants to do so we just need to gently nudge her I think so that she knows she can make choices and follow her own mind. Wait hang...isn't that a bit contradictory? still, I know what I meant...she just needs to be shown the way as I think she is still a bit blinkered by the years of school training her to be a sheep.

A busy week

Despite the soggy weather we have managed a few good days out and about. A lovely day exploring a local park we have not been to before.

 The ginger ninja and girls looking for sticks...you always need a walking stick when walking in the woods. Also on the look out for suitable sticks to be used as arrows for the bows made at Forest School last week.

 A lovely wooden sculpture we came across in a clearing. Beautiful carvings of local plant life.

 These tractor tracks, sorry giant snake tracks were discovered by Munch and became part of an elaborate story. Totally out of the blue and really lovely to see her using her imagination as she has seemed reluctant in the past.

St Georges day Tinkerbells birthday celebrations at The English Festival @Riverside Park. Lots of fun had by all, except when the 'bad chichen bite'....after we repeatedly asked Tink to not put her fingers in the cages of the petting zoo animals she continued to do so until one of the Bantam hens pecked her finger. Then she didn't want to look at any animals at all. I am always in 2 minds with petting zoo type things. On the one hand I wonder how the animals feel about it, being poked and prodded and the general noise etc but on the other as we currently do not have any animals, although we would love a small holding it is a rare opportunity for the girls to get up close and interact with animals.

 Owls and other birds of prey resting before their arial display.

 Daddy and Tinks enjoying the manmade 'seaside'.

 The ginger ninja was in his element in the medieval England area.

Lots of resting in between days out as CJ has to pace himself and often comes home to have a nap after a short visit, still it definitely progress and much better than before.

We came downstairs this morning to find that the elves had been busy and left a small gift for Tinks birthday...to go with her new balance bike from nanny and money from family towards a sandpit. I think for a first attempt the little people are quite cute .....

Time to get ready for a day with our fabulous Faversham friends...as soon as I get motivated enough to move from the sofa.

Explosions galore

Yesterday we popped over to a hall meet in Rochester. It is a fairly new meet but seems to be going well. Grace got fully involved meeting new people and playing with some old friends. I think the best part was building volcanoes with plastic bottles and play dough which were then filled with baking powder and vinegar with a few drops of food colouring.

Cue giggles and excited squeals as the chemical reaction produced 'lava' and lots of foam. Of course we were so busy doing it that we forgot to take pictures

There was then time for free play  (dodging the showers outside) before the cola and mentos experiment. I had only ever seen this on youtube and had asked CJ to try it with the girls before but had never quite got round to it somehow. It was hilarious to watch the children's faces filled with anticipation and amazement. Mind you I think Tinkerbell was just as fascinated...or maybe she just thought she could eat the mints.

Today I am on a course after the Easter break...Learning support which only has a couple of weeks left so I spent most of the break trying to catch up on my portfolio. Now I have to concentrate on the dreaded maths section and then onto making/adapting a learning resource. If I can finally decide which one to do. CJ and the Tinkerbell are visiting family today...Tinks loves her cousin Yiyey (her pronunciation of Lily) and Grace is with friends at Forest school...in the rain...and mud so is probably having a whale of a time.

woo hoo...remembered my camera

On Friday we took advantage of a brief break in the clouds and used our annual  tickets for Kent Life. We really should use it more often, although usually when we go it is raining so full waterproofs and wellies are usually in order. We were lucky though and the sun came out. Cj had the most fun looking for the hidden pigs on the treasure trail. Next time we shall investigate the mini beast hunt and they also do a treasure trail.  

We had a lovely day and Tinkerbell  was mesmerised by the animals, especially the week old lambs. 

Strange to think that my grandparents may have lived in one of these hop huts. What you see is what you get, that is all there was, with the children sleeping under the bed.

I can remember hop training with all the family when just a little younger than munch. I seem to remember they were unkind to the hands, a mild astringent possibly like a stinging nettle?

CJ and Tinkerbell making friends with the goats. Definitely would like some in the future. 

Is that a push-me-pull-you?

Adorable piglets enjoying the sunshine.

A fascinating working forge. Unfortunately the farrier was not there today. Can't complain as he does give his time voluntarily when he is not working at his own forge. It is fascinating to watch though.

Adorable Bantam and Quail chicks recently hatched and kept safe in the lambing shed at pets corner.

Saturday was spent exploring the new and improved pathways and vistas at Mote Park with my brother and his 2 little cherubs (sporting the fetching spots and stripes ensembles)

One of the contributory streams which they are in the process of cleaning up (I took the picture from an angle that didn't show all the rubbish, traffic cones etc that were hiding in it)

All in all a lovely few days, although CJ struggled so a couple of days resting at home are now on the cards. In case you were wondering we hadn't forgotten Munch. She was enjoying herself at gym and the cinema with friends and having a generally lovely time.