Its raining, it's pouring......

........and my children are sulking. Cabin fever abounds.

Rich woke at 5.45am this morning and decided to very quietly get on with things. The quiet, however, didn't quite happen, as he tripped on a cat on the landing and hit the deck with a crash, thus rousing every sleeping soul in the place. Ho Hum. Some of us managed to get some more sleep after breakfast though.......

I haven't actually acheived much yet today......been out to feed and chat to my chickens, also soggy and fed up, bless them. They don't like the wet. Done the breakfast dishes, put some bread dough on to rise and carried on with some more knitted geese. They are becoming increasingly frustrating as I haven't yet managed to finish one that's quite right. Can't work out what I'm doing wrong.....maybe this one will be better.

What does the rest of the day bring? I don't know really. Got to put some bread and a fruit cake in the oven, pop out and cut some more sweet peas to keep them in flower, and finish a doll thats been sitting around hair and faceless for over a week. Children are lounging, cat-like, in a variety of slightly abstract locations and all are reading. From subtle peering at their books, Iris has 'The Subtle Knife', Joe is in the middle of 'The Haunting of Azailabel Cray', Bobby has an usborne 'How Castles Were Built' and Jaya is grinning her way through the pictures in 'Hairy McClary and Zachary Quack' - also one of my favourites! They'll be busy for hours if they've got books, so I may, just may, be able to get on.

Rich is out in the workshop making some candlesticks ready for the christmas (am I allowed to say that word yet?!) craft markets. They're formed out out of one long, thin piece of metal, snaking into spiral shapes around a taper candle. His drawings are gorgeous, and I'm yet to see the finshed objects, but I know they'll be beautiful.

Anyway, had best get on now. Dough will have risen so I'd best heat the oven and then maybe find time for a cup of tea!

Well, hasn't it been a while?!

Heavens, it's been a long time since I posted, hasn't it? I knew I'd left it for a bit, but I'd lost track of just how long it's been. Well, we're back again now I suppose, so thats something!

It's been a frenetic 8 months or so. We've been here, there and everywhere and have been dealing with a family emergency, which happily has ended more or less ok, but not without a bucket-load of stress and travel to and from France that, in retrospect, could have been avoided. Also, at the tender age of 16, my eldest daughter left home to go to college. Alright, it's not that dramatic......she's 24 miles away, in Hereford, and living with a landlady in a student house, who keeps an eagle eye on her. But it's a big deal to her, as she's got her own little bedsit, she's studying for an ND in Fine Art at a big art college, and she's very very independent!!

However, in January, something very odd happened. My four and a half year old son ASKED (!!) to start school in a nearby village. Very odd.....this has never happened to me before! Rich and I talked it over, and decided that if it was what he really wanted, then to give it a try. So in January he enrolled in reception at a local state primary. Rich has been amazing throughout, as I have been deadset against the whole thing, but nonetheless, he convinced me to let Bobby give it a proper try, and not to pull him out 3 days in on the first day that wasn't great. So I've given it 6 months, which I think is a fair try. It's a funny thing, but my sweet, creative, loving little boy is entirely unrecognisable. His gentle nature and manners have entirely vanished, and, get this, he has FORGOTTON HOW TO PLAY unless he is 'told how to'. He is 'bored' for the first time, and his general attitude and demeanor is appalling. He has no attention span at all, and has learnt to solve problems by screaming and hitting (particularly his little sister, but thats been going on for a while and she's just as bad.......ah, bickering!!). Anyway, two weeks before the summer term finished, we had a horrible fluey, tummy bug, so I had Bobby at home. Dealing with this 'new' child isn't easy, but things started to very slightly, but still noticably, improve. So, my mind is made up, and Rich and I concur. We will be de-registering him on the first day of the autumn term, and now at least I am confident in my instincts again. I have often, when debating (defending?!) the merits of home education been hit with 'how do you know that the state school system is awful when you've never tried it?'. Well, now I have. And I do. So there. I'm sure it works just fine for a lot of people, just not for my family. And I've got so much work to do now to undo the damage thats been done. So autumn is going to be intense, I think. But it's the kind of work that life's all about.

I hope so much that everyone out there is well, and enjoying what you can of the often rainy summer. I'm hoping not to leave it so long before posting again this time!!

Love and blessings to you all, Rosa