More days going to social gathering, Victorians, Forest School, etc.

Days went to:

a lot of work for me, which is, overall, most welcome, as things have been tight. I don't know how long it will last but it is wonderful to have plenty of work after it being a bit of a tightrope walk lately. So it's been hard having several days when it felt like that was all I did, plus an all-nighter, but I was glad of it.

clearing Freya's room with her, getting some of her older toys and books out, mainly in preparation for the day that went to her social gathering - she had invited 7 girls to come round and play and have a 'finger buffet'. She did lovely invitations, a personalized picture of a scene with the guest's name, done in coloured pencils and scanned and e-mailed to them. So we sorted her room out quite extensively the day before, with pleasing results, a lot less mess in there now. The social do went very well I think, all the girls (4 could make it) seemed to enjoy themselves. I had a bit of time to chat with C, M and S over tea too.

Forest School - Freya still enjoying this every week

Chatterbooks - a chance for Freya to go on her scooter and to be a bit independent as mostly a long way ahead of me on the walk in.

J's birthday weekend - I only got paid on the morning of his birthday so Freya and I popped into town (scooter again) and were able to get cake ingredients and a few extra small prezzies. J had a nice relaxing weekend I think, with plenty of curry. Freya and I made chocolate cake and J's mum came on Sunday with ginger cake with lemon icing - lovely! Having had takeaway on Friday we then went to the restaurant with J's mum on Sunday, so more curry!

Yesterday went to being Victorians at Kent Life - excellent history workshops they do there. It costs £8 per child and you attend a day of workshops, plus a couple of free play sessions and a lunch break. The workshops are about 20 minutes long, which sounds short, but covers a fantastic amount of information and engages the children really well, so 20 is plenty. You go from place to place and there is a different enactor/actor in each location. For the Victorians day, there was: a blacksmith working in a forge - made an arty snail starting from a plain iron bar, talking through the process bit by bit and allowing the children to have a go at bending the bar when cold and impossible and heated and pliable; a costermonger who made all the children street sellers of milk, muffins, pies, all sorts, and talked about Victorian food; Isombard Kingdom Brunel, who told us all about why he was the best engineer in the country and got the children to guess the width of some rail tracks; a man who told us about all the jobs that children did and got them scrubbing the floor and pretending to have lost limbs in mill accidents!; a schoolmaster, who was incredibly sarcastic and strict (M said 'he was very bossy!') and told us all about schools, including calling Freya up as a left-handed child to (not really) be whacked on the hand to make her right-handed - she took that very well with a bit of a giggle; and a scullery maid who got them cleaning rags with her washboards and passed her irons around for us to feel. All accompanied by lots of great props/artefacts to look at and touch, and lots of information, chances to ask questions, etc. The actors/enactors there are excellent, well experienced and able to deal with things flexibly while staying in character and not forgetting what they're doing. We also had the chance to look round the farmhouse with Victorian fittings.

And today has gone to: an hour selling cakes and pastries in the High Street, with several other families, for Children in Need - not sure yet how much we raised but it looked good in the money box; another hour at drama - though I didn't go up and had a lovely hour to myself; and a half hour riding.

And that's where those days did go.

Busy Hectic Catch-Up

A LOT OF STUFF!

Days have gone to:

A weekend with a Forest School meeting, which didn't introduce any major changes but confirmed that our Forest School groups are moving forward as they are now, progressing over time as the children get older and learn more with their particular group. Same weekend I cleaned the oven and finally deflated our pool and cleaned it out - it's still hanging on the washing line, must get it into the shed! Quite an enjoyable job, better than doing the oven anyway. Rewarded myself for all that hard work with a very lovely bath. Also that weekend I had online book club, hadn't much enjoyed that month's book but the one for next month is a different story, not allowed to say more about what I think until book club night, but it is The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon, if anyone wants to check it out.

Monday group sessions - we are really enjoying MMs at the moment, both of us. On Halloween we did a bit of pumpkin carving and hat-making and L made delicious pumpkin soup. Another week, after MMs we met up with J and went for pizza.

A visit to mum's where I sorted out a few things that needed doing (there are more now though). Unfortunately, although the visit was OK, the next day Freya and I got sad talking about mum and how things are likely to go with her illness. The sadness stirred up other sadnesses and when Freya wailed 'It's not fair!' I could only agree and sob with her for a while. We then cancelled some plans and stayed at home for a couple of days doing cosy stuff and watching things snuggled on the sofa. We didn't go to Ponyo, showing at the local arts centre, but we watched it at home instead.

Friday drama and horse-riding sessions. Drama is continuing every other Friday morning and home-ed horse-riding is available pretty much every week on a Friday afternoon. One Friday Freya and I caught the bus after drama and had lunch in the village near the stables before walking over for her session. She has made great progress with riding, got her balance now and this week she rode without being led.She really loves riding and I think it's her favourite of all the activities we currently do, she gets so much from it.

A weekend away for me, with some imaginary friends at a holiday cottage, up near Manchester. I got a train up one Friday evening and arrived late to a lovely relaxing welcome from two friends, then the rest arrived the next day, as did a massive Ocado shop for us to have a buffet. Had a lovely time, was great to meet one friend and her partner for the first time, having known her for so long online. They are a great crowd, I always feel instantly at home, I suppose because I spend an hour or two most evenings with them! I had to leave early on the Sunday but it was all good. Meanwhile, Freya had a very good time on a sleepover at her friend's house, thanks to very kind C. So she got to see the Junior Bonfire Procession and to watch the fireworks.

Little Green Pig writing workshops at Fabrica gallery on the Monday and Tuesday of half term. The writing workshops were themed around the current exhibition there, which featured 2 short films on the theme of 'gathering'. Freya did some excellent writing, 3 pieces. While she was in there for 4 hours each time, I was in a cafe around the corner with my laptop, getting some work done and drinking too much coffee! Very civilized though.

A Halloween Party and a Birthday Party, both held by a friend we've recently spent more time with. The Halloween Party featured each family bringing some food and a game, which worked well. The Birthday Party was at a gym and the children had an hour of free play on lots of brilliant equipment, covering every level of ability. Was proud to see Freya manage to walk along the beam, with only a little help. She also loved the trampoline with a foam pit to jump into, and the drop from the high bar into the same foam pit. It was a great idea for a party and M, who organized it, might arrange a regular meet-up there a few times a year.

A night out at White Night in Brighton

We mainly wandered and weren't very organized about finding specific things, narrowly missed queuing to sign up for the half-marathon and generally were drawn to coloured lights and video projections on buildings. Mainly an atmospheric experience for us, but were glad we'd gone. Next year I think we ought to really check out specific events and prepare better, but I don't suppose we will.

CBBC tour with, and organized by, our friends.

We did the CBBC tour a while ago, but it has changed slightly since. I thought this was possibly slightly better, not sure. We got to explore the Blue Peter set (the 'old' one, now they have moved recently). F took part in 'Gory Games' (the Horrible Histories quiz show) and did exactly the game we'd watched fairly recently, pulling the organs out of a mummy and putting them in the right canopic jars. There was also a look at a medium-sized studio, a play with green screen and weather map and 'cloak of invisibility', a bit of Weakest Link, news presentation and Dick and Dom and some time in one of the dressing rooms hearing showbiz gossip about the strange 'riders' that celebs impose e.g. having someone to carry them up and down any stairs, asking for a basket of puppies to stroke, etc.

It was a good tour, good mix of things. We got the bus back to Victoria and all in all it was a very enjoyable day.

Trick-or-Treating - a very good year, Freya visited 25 houses (all the ones with pumpkins outside in our street and next street). Lots of people were out and it was all very neighbourly and fun. We must have picked the best time I think, as it quietened very quickly about half an hour after we got in. J did a great job of carving our pumpkin, don't know where the picture is though, oops. It seemed to attract a lot of compliments from other T-or-T-ers as we passed both ways.

RI Lecture on 'The Science of Fireworks' also with same mates (in fact pretty much everything we do, we do with them!). Really enjoyable lecture with loads of demonstrations, giving good coverage of many aspects of how fireworks work, how they have developed and what has been done to solve various problems as they've developed. Along the way we saw how reactions can be speeded up (heat, confinement) and learned the different chemicals that produce the different colours (strontium for red, calcium for orange, sodium for yellow, barium for green, copper for blue, etc.). Very popular and entertaining lecture. The moment it finished I spotted M (fellow blogger) and C, which was lovely. 

Forest School for Freya and cross-trainer and bath for me.

A meet-up at Raystede Animal Sanctuary, focusing on horses, ponies and donkeys. We got there a bit late, due to my recent heavy work commitments. Had a lovely time, was good to catch up with some people I'd not seen so much lately. The children did a bit of grooming and pooh-collecting and also made treat snacks for the ponies and fed them to them. This is also going to be a regular monthly meet-up, with different animal themes, and I'm hoping we will get to it most times if not all. At the end, Freya and her friend L presented the money they'd raised with their sale in the park a few weeks ago. The Raystede people were really good and called their fundraising person over and all heard about how the girls raised the money (I was forbidden from speaking, so it was all up to the girls and they did really well). They took their addresses to send a certificate at some point. The girls chose the Equine department to receive their money.

Crazy Lewes Bonfire Night again, we met up with our friends to watch the end of a couple of smaller processions, followed by the Grand Unified Procession. We had John with us too, he'd arrived mid-afternoon. The Procession was much as ever, with the occasional novelty. An effigy/tableau of Rebekah Brooks riding Murdoch drew the most booing. I love the light from torches and pink flares filling the street as you look all the way along it. I don't much like the bangs up close.

I was not entirely in the mood for it all and did a bit of occasional moaning. But of course, later when the fireworks started I felt it was all worthwhile again. A lot of tramping around the streets trying not to get banged at before that and after, though. On the way home, chips! And astonishment at the sheer level of debris in the street.

A meal out with J's dad today at Prezzo - really delicious food and a couple of glasses of white wine. And the streets all cleared again.

Other than that, Freya has made a couple of parachutes for toys, following instructions in Usborne Pocket Scientist book. I love how able she is to do things like that now. J showed her today how to draw a larger circle without having to draw round something, using a piece of string to attach a pen or pencil to a central anchor point. She did a bit of experimenting with different toys and comparing how things fall with/without parachute, different weights and heights.

She's also been Googling for Tamagotchis, and looking at news items about giant lego men appearing on beaches, and started reading Little Women. Lots of other stuff but I left this too long and can't remember.

And that's where our hectic days have gone.

Poetry, Paradise Park, Park Sale

So as soon as I glimpsed this quieter week with whole days unbooked, it started booking itself up. But more with things that I had a bit of choice in, i.e. wander out and catch a bus at 11ish, rather than 'meet outside venue before 10 for workshop starting at 10 prompt...'

Friday - Freya had her 2nd riding session - it was great, she really loves it. So far she is being led, but she is doing various exercises for balance, holding arm out to side, etc. 

Saturday - Freya went to a poetry workshop, with her friend L. They both ended up by writing very touching poems about each other - really showed how they know each other, accept and appreciate the differences between them.

Enjoyed Strictly in the evening and then a relaxing Sunday as far as I can remember.

Monday was MMs again. Missed Eira. 

J and N spotted us at the bus stop and gave us a lift in as they were trying it out, think they enjoyed it. Scones were made and smelt delicious!

Got the bus with M, J and M, which was good.

Tuesday Freya and I went off to Paradise Park, after a quick detour to the Lego shop in Brighton where Freya enjoyed the 'make your own mini-figures' stand very much. An annoying woman commented unnecessarily to us 'oh you don't see so many girls in here!'

Paradise Park was great - we took the 12A bus which goes along the coast road, we saw the new Brighton Wheel, being tested and had a lovely top deck view of the sea most of the way. At Paradise Park we did almost everything there - looked at the dinosaurs, fossils, stones, all the displays, went round all the models outside, played Crazy Golf, pretty much the lot. We had a lovely afternoon, haven't had enough day trips like that lately, just the two of us, but it's hard to ringfence time for them at the moment, so much going on!

Anyway it was lovely.

Wednesday Freya had Forest School and then went back to L's for the afternoon to play there, with M visiting too. She had a lovely time. I had hoped for things like cross trainer time, bath, read or watch film, but alas had a very difficult job, Russian and tricky, so ended up delivering late and working all day, which made me feel shite. As soon as I'd finished at 6 I medicated myself with ginger wine, which did help!

Thursday Freya and I went into Lewes to get a few bits of shopping - ended up buying her some wellies and some clothes including warm hat, gloves, socks. We bumped into A and B for a giggly chat in WHSmiths, then spent an hour at Costa, before a bit more shopping and then home. At home we did some baking and making for Friday's big sale event (see Friday).

Friday I walked Freya up to drama, then walked back alone, had about 30 mins at home, then walked up alone and back down with Freya and L. Oh they had a great drama session, they did a few bits for S and I to see and they were great, working so well together, clearly having a ball. They had lines to remember and a bit of improvization, running their scene at normal speed, then slow motion, then fast. Several different scenes and they all did really well (there are 3 of them in a small private fortnightly group, it's working so well).

Back at ours, Freya, L and I did various further preparation for their planned sale in the park. They were taking cakes and Halloween decorations to sell just by the playground, with half the money to go to the local animal sanctuary, and had done lots of planning via e-mail and in person. L brought Rocky Road cakes, gingerbread and shortbread. Freya and I had already made chocolate brownies and then I made a sort of chocolate chip cookie crumble item that wasn't meant to be how it was but tasted delicious! Plus we all worked together on some Halloween decorations - Freya's design of pumpkin or bat, scanned and printed on card by me, then L doing a lot of threading and both doing some cutting out. We also took 4 litres of bubble mix and the giant bubble wand to offer people 3 goes for 10p.

I carried a folding table and a stool over, Freya and L carried everything else and set up near the gate to the playground in a spot that they'd cannily selected to catch a good wave of incoming potential trade.

When it was all set up - L had done some great signs - we had a customer straightaway so Freya got on with the selling on her own while L and I went to the shop to get a few bits of food for them if they got hungry, and for their tea later, plus some tape to stick the signs to the table properly.

When we got back, Freya had done some more trade and was standing holding the sign up. People were so positive and friendly all afternoon. The items were all on sale for 5p or 10p so very much in pocket-money range. Lots of adults congratulated the girls on what they were doing and some people told us to keep the change. It was all very lovely in fact. I didn't need to do anything, I took a few of the sales but the girls were pretty good at keeping it all ticking along. 

It took nearly two hours for us to run out of all our stock, including the bubble mix! It was such a lovely sunny Friday and so many people were stopping between school and home for an hour in the park.

The girls had done a great job and taken over £10 (might not sound a lot but that's over a 100 sales), so are giving £5 to Raystede animal sanctuary, splitting the rest between them and L's younger siblings. They were actually not overly focused on the money but definitely thrilled that it went so well.

Very proud of them, they worked hard (once again worked to their strengths and complemented each other's skills) and had fun and it was a bit of a golden autumn afternoon that I think we'll all remember for a long time.

Musical Squares and Romans

We've had a run of being busy over the last few weeks, with trips and groups and visits going on. All good things, can't think of any that have been a waste of time, but am glad to now be reaching calmer waters where not every day is booked up for a while. 

Monday was MMs. Really missed Eira, especially on the bus afterwards as it was the no.2 and went past her stop. K brought in the last batch of salt dough that Eira made, which she had cooked for 9 hours to make it hard, in star and circle shapes with holes for threading. The children all decorated them with paint and glitter and threaded them for decorations to remember Eira by.

Tuesday was London, we caught the early train with C and co. and went to 'Musical Squares' at the RI, which was all about sound. The tone of it was decidedly 'old school' in that the guy used slightly inappropriate cartoons and references now and then, which annoyed me rather. Best bit was the wave machine with red LEDs on, which made me want to make one.

Then we had a bit of picnicky lunch in Green Park, before heading to the Natural History Museum, which we all enjoyed a lot. A happy train trip home too, so a very successful day all round.

Wednesday Freya went to Forest School in the morning, then her friend L came back with her for the afternoon. They were both a bit restless and roaming now and then - I've got a bad cold and was keen to encourage them to be settled and non-requiring! They made me 2 versions of a cup of tea and a snack, one more on the Masterchef side and the other tending more towards I'm a Celebrity (though not involving anything crawly, maybe a particularly rough episode of Come Dine With Me would be more like it).

Yesterday we went to a Romans day, which was excellent. I did just about manage to make a peplos style Roman dress for Freya, which she wore with good grace all morning and removed at lunchtime, so that was pretty successful by my standards. The day was organized so well - 6 different aspects of Roman life were presented by actors in full costume with plenty of props, for 20 minutes each session, with plenty of opportunities for audience participation and questions and chat. The timetable sensibly included two 20-minute play breaks as well as lunch. The 20 minutes for each session looked short to me on the schedule we were given but when we were there, they used the time so well, and it was 20 minutes of complete engagement as opposed to the sort of session you sometimes get that is 45 minutes but a lot of it is faffing or waiting or losing focus. 

Very very good! The aspects covered were: music, military, food, bathing, clothing, medicine. The actors and actresses were in character all day and all did a great job I thought. Freya seemed to enjoy it a lot and joined in quite a few of the participatory bits. She did a bit of marching around a testudo, helped her friend as an assistant slave, removing the emperor's shoes and backing away from him, led her slaves around in a rich person's tunic and did a bit of massage as the Frictores.

In the play breaks the children enjoyed the indoor and outdoor play equipment and I enjoyed a hot drink and some nattering time with several local home-ed people I don't see that often, as well as C, who I have spent half the week with but we still seem to find plenty to chat about! 

 

London and busy times

I have left it far too long. Feel free to tut.

So...

Thursday 15th Sept was a day at home, can't remember much except F and me both having big bowls of fruit for breakfast, and getting some housework done, wonder what else we did.

Friday 16th Sept went all wrong, we went over to Brighton instead of original plan to go to Bentley Woodfair, which we probably should have stuck with. Ended up spending too much time in Brighton shopping centre and things being quite tricky and not fun by the end, though there were some nicer bits of course.

Weekend 17th/18th we went to Michelham Priory Medieval Fair, with J's dad, where we arrived to find a Jester making giant bubbles (lovely if not authentic!), I bought a small wooden bowl and some garlic (!), and J and F had another go at archery, plus we watched an enjoyable and entertaining display of skill at arms, with much banter in the drizzle

When we left the Fair we went to look at the Mill there, watched a short film about how the water wheel works and other mechanisms. Good day out.

Monday 19th Sept was the day of Eira's funeral, attended by almost all the local home-ed community. Terribly sad, moving, beautiful, painful. Wonderful that we had so many children there with us. Still can't quite believe she is gone. Not blogging it though.

Tuesday 20th Sept some friends visited (S and daughter M), which was lovely.

Wednesday 21st Sept Forest School and I stayed after with F at cafe with S, M, K, L, L and children, which was lovely in warm, bright sunshine.

Thursday 22nd Sept Livewires in Uckfield, on the theme of Light - I took various prisms, torches, lenses and a praxinoscope, the last of which I happily gave to little A to take home because he just fell in love with it right in front of me and spent half an hour investigating it with complete blissful concentration. There were lots of activities made available to the children, a periscope, another praxinoscope, sun-sensitive paper, etc.

Weekend 23rd to 26th Sept - weekend away in London. Got off to a rubbish start with a tunnel collapsing on the rail line we were meant to go on, so replacement buses for part of the journey, which meant we just weren't going to get to the RI in time for Surprising Science, sadly. Instead we made a less rushed journey across to Olympia 2 for the Doctor Who Experience, as organized by super M, who organizes some great trips for local home-educators. I hadn't realized how much of a participatory Experience it would be, which F was initially nervous of, as she worries she will do the wrong thing (which meant I got to be in charge of Mechanics on the Tardis!), but she didn't panic and settled into it well. It was fab, really loved it. Daleks, 3D, fantastic sets, really excellent!

After the Experience, there was a lot of exhibition stuff, which we wandered through very happily.

.

And then a cafe and shop, we bought a kit to make a Tardis and hung out with A and son B for a while, then we all headed back off on the tube. Said goodbye to the other home-ed people and J, F and I caught the DLR to Greenwich and booked into the Novotel there.

We went out to eat a bit later, went to Pizza Express and had a really good meal. Was so busy there, J and I found the whole city-busy-people-noise thing quite hard going by the end of the weekend.

Back in our room we all watched Outnumbered and Would I lie to you and shortly after were all in bed and it wasn't long before we were asleep.

Next day, Saturday, we didn't have to get up and out early. I had a bath and we headed out to a cafe for breakfast. Our original plans for the weekend had all rather gone awry due to me being a rather flawed planner! So we made new ones over breakfast, with a bit of Googling :)

After breakfast we went on a trip up the river on a nice slow boat, really enjoyed that, all the bridges and sights from the river. We then went on the Eye, having bought a combined ticket for Eye and Aquarium.

Grrrr blog ate most of the rest last night, so this may now have a bit of a CBA tone to it, sorry!

Really liked the Aquarium apart from the poor penguins having a really rubbish room, awful. Mostly very good though, we all enjoyed it.

We had some Japanese food between Eye and Aquarium too, though I was in one of my less successful chopstick-using modes. Food was delicious though.

Went back to the hotel on the DLR, after not enjoying the walk across Westminster Bridge on the wrong side, where all the 3-cup tricks and such were going on.

Watched Doctor Who in our room and went out later for a GBK, very nice.

Next day was Sunday, J had to get up earlyish to go off to Eurogamer over at Earl's Court. Freya and I had a more leisurely start, with her having a bath with 2 bath bombs and me pottering.

When we did get going we sat by the river and had Danish pastries and fruit for breakfast, then got on the boat again to go upriver. Got off at the Tower and then we found an open-top bus tour to do. We really enjoyed it, especially as we decided to have a rule that we should boo discreetly whenever we saw the rival open-top bus tour company's buses, of which there were many! And we added our own bits to the commentary too. Good views from top deck - ship in a bottle in Trafalgar Square, Queen's tennis courts from Buckingham Palace Road. And Freya was pleased to go over some of the bridges that the boat had taken us under.

I once again got teary at the memorial statue to animals at war, in fact I got teary both times even though the 2nd time we passed it the wrong way so saw the free-at-last post-war/heaven animals before the weary pack-animals.

We thoroughly enjoyed the bus ride anyway and got our money's worth, which was considerable. We got off just in time to catch the last boat back to Greenwich.

We had a bit of sustenance in a cafe and debated options, J confirmed by text that he wouldn't be back till quite a bit later, so we decided to go to the cinema. This involved me having to work out buses, which I managed after several dodgy starts!

We saw Jurassic Park, Freya was OK with it though it's not really her kind of film. I loved it and thought it mostly held up very well for date.

Headed home via a cafe to have chips as it was 9ish when we came out. Felt very night-time Londony.

Back at the hotel we found a footsore J, who had done much queuing and walking. We all watched an episode of Voyager or two that J had brought on USB stick, watched on Netbook.

And that was most of our London weekend, which I think did us the world of good, though I was glad of a not-having-to-do-anything Saturday this weekend as it was all a bit active!

Monday 26th on way home, Freya and I went to MMs (well not really on way but before going home) and that was good.

Tuesday 27th Freya and I were travelling again, went to spend a few hours at mum's, was lovely to arrive and find her out in her back garden sitting reading her paper with a cuppa. Determined that she should be able to do that for as long as possible. She and Freya shared cake and giggles.

Wednesday 28th Freya went to Forest School, friend's house and Chatterbooks, so I had a day to myself, but not sure what I achieve if anything, beyond a long bath and some cross trainer time.

Thursday 29th we went up to London for a lecture at the RI: 'A Beginner's Guide to the Universe' - lots of lovely pics of nebulae, galaxies, clips of Northern Lights. Freya was coming down with a cold though and although she coped well with heat, London, travel, lecture, she exploded somewhat just after our return to Lewes. Hard going for me as I was knackered by then.

Friday 30th drama restarted, Freya seemed very happily to settle back in, despite her cold, then her friend came round to play for a couple of hours - very funny, they decided to go in the pool, as the weather has been so warm and sunny here, but the pool itself was colder than ever, so they then decided to put on as many layers of clothing as possible and went in with 4 or 5 tops and leggings on each! All of which then came out wet and many towels had to be deployed. Was highly entertaining though.

Weekend of 1st/2nd October - Saturday was a quiet relaxed day, much needed. Sunday we went for a walk in Friston Forest and a stroll around Alfriston with J's mum, plus a lovely pub lunch. More sunshine and blue sky, lovely, think it's finishing soon.

So finally caught up! Today MMs again and rest of week looks busy too, but I can see some free days somewhere ahead I think.

Tuesday

Bad news came. Though expected, still horribly sad. F and I looked after each other a bit and mainly watched films and snuggled up.

Wednesday

L came and played and some mischief was made by the two together.

Thursday

F and I walked into town and spent an hour or two in a cafe

Friday

J wasn't well and didn't go to work. Can't remember much else.

Weekend

Park plus nice bath, Doctor Who and lots of relaxation. Very harmonious and restorative family weekend. Freya did some Education City, think it was science, with J.

Monday

MMs again, Freya seemed to enjoy herself, though she was upset about some things on the way back and we had a difficult journey. As a group, we were feeling rather bruised but close. Was lovely that K came.

Tuesday

Day at home, J was off work still unwell, Freya went out on her scooter at some point and later did some Education City with me, maths - fractions, percentages and rounding numbers up and down.

Today

Forest School started up again. Beautiful day for it, big blue skies. They did a good long walk, a leaf identification game and picked plums (damsons?) from a tree near the fire circle. Good stuff. Meanwhile I came home and almost immediately went out again and had a drink in a cafe nearby. After the session ended Freya was upset about something and we had a difficult 20 minutes or so, but eased ourselves out of it and went to the cafe for a drink and a snack. The walk from the fire circle to the bus stop is knackering! We were glad to get home. 

While I unpacked a food shop delivery and did some washing up, Freya was preparing a lovely 'treasure chest' thing for me. It was like a Lucky Dip. She had hidden some nice things in a box of packaging polystyrene shapes. The nice things were: a DVD chosen to watch; some paper to write a diary on (we talked about it and I don't really feel like keeping a diary at the moment so might instead use a notepad to keep with me and write bits that come to me for my current writing projects) and several little notes that said things like: 'Don't forget to relax properly in the evening, why not try a bubble bath with a book?' and 'Always remember don't be hard on yourself' and 'Always remember I love U'. It was lovely, I do love things like that very much and felt all pampered and speshulled up by the time I'd finished rummaging in my box of mystery items.

Maze, Swim, Mum, Shelf, Group

Ah September. Beautiful plumage.

Thursday

Freya and I went to Drusillas (local zoo/play park) for the day. Most of which was lovely, especially the maze that they have there, which was the original inspiration for and now the conclusion of our Earth, Air, Fire, Water themed days. 

We love the maze, it has a ton of imagination and interactivity to it, including some very gorgeous chimes, a face-making mirror, water surprises and much else. Drusillas was packed though and eventually that rather took its toll on both of us, along with fairly fierce heat. 

Friday

We attended a great Not Back To School Swim/Picnic at Pells Pool. Was lovely to have a swim, sit in the sunshine, chat with people I haven't seen all summer and excitingly (well OK scarily at first) watch my daughter embrace the challenge of swimming out of her depth, helped by her lovely friend.

Saturday

I got up early and went to visit my mum - a really good visit. As I walked up from the bus stop I bumped into her heading home from the shops with her trolley, so I was able to pull it up the hill for her. Was good to see that she is still managing that. Then I took her to a big garden centre that she used to like to go to. She absolutely loved it and bought a few little plants. We had lunch in the cafe and enjoyed strolling around. 

While I was doing that, Freya and J were going into town and buying a shelf and fixings and pink paint!

Was lovely to get home to them, walking back from the station accompanied by reflections of a beautiful sunset in the very typical Lewes brickwork.

Sunday

A very relaxed day for me. We all watched Doctor Who so that I could catch up.

Freya and J painted the shelf, 2 coats of primer and first coat of pink. J and I finally ripped up our hall carpet, which we've wanted to do for ages. There isn't anything especially nice underneath but we just much prefer it to the carpet! Should be more practical too.

Monday

MMs, our home-ed Monday group started up again, was good to bump into Allie Greenhouse between buses on the way and to see everyone who was there, less good to feel absences for sad reasons. Freya had a good time and I had some lovely chats with people and a good cup of tea and a healthy lunch, which I enthused about annoyingly to the general company. 

Freya made a small group of us on the bus back play swapping characters. I was her, she was me, L had to be Freya's friend L, and so on. Had some good laughs with it.

She and I popped to the Lego shop as she is collecting the mini figures intermittently. She got some good ones.

Back home J (with assistance from Freya and me) put up the shelf next to Freya's bed. It's fab, she is really thrilled with it. Now she can have her digital photo frame and her music player to hand easily, plus some books on there too. He also put up a socket stick for plugs for those things and her DSi charger. He worked so hard, with his joints hurting quite a bit and making it generally more difficult in an awkward space. When it was finished, J came down to find Freya had drawn up a menu of a '3-course meal' for him to have and she would wait on him! She then brought in course 1 of some nuts and Japanese rice crackers, plus cucumber and tomatoes, course 2 of mushroom pate and beetroot sandwich and course 3 of plain chocolate!

10 days have gone to:

a visit from one of my very best imaginary friends - we met up at the farm park with her family for a lovely afternoon, we all went on the go-karts, which was fun, especially through the muddy puddles, the children all went on the zip wire and jumping pillow too and we ate some lovely food and had some chatting time

Freya's activity day at Raystede with her friend L, horses and ponies themed, they made special 'ice-cream cones' of equine snacks and fed them to the ponies and did other such activities and she came back very happy from it

a scriptwriting workshop that wasn't really up Freya's street, but at least she gave it a go

a day at Herstmonceux Medieval Festival, where Freya had a go at archery and plate-spinning, watched some dancing, drumming with giants, a bit of Spamalot, a talk on how the bow was mightier than all the various wooden-handled pointy metal weapons, some battling in armour and all sorts. A great day to just soak up the atmosphere and everywhere you looked there were interesting things. Really enjoyed it. J's mum was with us and we met up with C and co. too.

a rather rubbish Saturday appointment at the bank where we were misled to believe we could move to a different mortgage and be a bit better off each month, then it all went 'computer says no' suddenly, so we had to console ourselves with unaffordable lunch at Terre a Terre

Freya's friend L over for a play and they finally managed to go in the pool together for 20 mins, weather has not been good

Freya playing at L's yesterday afternoon

not sure what else, Freya has been watching a lot of Dreamworks films last week and this week, also both versions of The Parent Trap. I do love Monsters Vs Aliens and Megamind too. 

Oh Doctor Who! Loved that episode very much! J and I have been watching Torchwood and quite enjoying it, though I know a lot of people have not liked it at all. And we started watching Xena but it felt a bit samey very quickly, so we're backtracking and watching Voyager! (I know!) It's not sooo bad, I mean it is Star Trek after all, and also when it's not in direct comparison with Deep Space Nine it's OK. A bit bland perhaps.

Things are all about to go term-timey wimey here, we will be back at Magical Mondays, Forest School, drama, Livewires and Chatterbooks before we know it.

Birthday and Beans

10 days worth of catchuppery, here we go...

I came down with a cold/cough thing just before my birthday weekend, thought it would be a quickly gone thing but it lingered on and turned out to be slower as Freya has only just got it over a week later and J is just showing some signs too. Was quite a draining thing where you can't do much, plus I got eczema on my eyelids and other annoying places, so not at my best generally and a bit grumpy.

However, I had a nice birthday weekend despite doing lots of not going to places - not going to the cinema, not going to the Lewes raft race, not going to Undercurrent Weekend in Shoreham. Had nice food, lots of baths, tried to sleep but coughed too much.

My birthday prezzies and lovely birthday surprises from J and Freya were just lovely. On the actual day I was prohibited from going downstairs for a while and a smell of chocolate cake baking drifted up. Freya brought me a cup of tea in bed and a bowl of strawberries, pineapple and banana. Yum!

When I did go down, apparently a very norty pirate had hidden all my prezzies around the room but left a treasure map for me to find them, so I did that and discovered some lovely Sanctuary bath and body items, some nice notebooks, a solar/USB charger for my phone, and the King's Speech on DVD. I also had Marks and Spencer vouchers and Amazon Kindle vouchers too - I don't use a Kindle but use the app on my phone a lot now. Looking forward to choosing some books now my eye eczema has gone. Fab prezzies! And cake! J and Freya had made a vegan chocolate cake, complete with 2 layers, sprinkles and sparklers. Very tasty it was too!

We also went in the pool, all 3 of us (me hoping cold and chlorine would work magic on cold/cough germs rather than finishing me off), as it was sunny for a bit. Still freezing in the pool but eventually you sort of get used to it. Freya goes in most days and swims and floats a lot.

Later we had a takeaway and watched Life of Brian, having watched Holy Grail a couple of days before.

Other days have gone to:

Freya playing up at L's on Wednesday and me going up and having a cup of tea when time to pick her up, nice to hang out and chat.

Another activity day at the Mohair Centre - a horse and pony session, so Freya had 3 rides on Cracker the pony there.

Freya's friend L staying over for a sleepover - they desperately wanted to go in the pool but the sleepover didn't include any afternoon time and it is really too cold morning and evening, which was a shame, hoping L can visit again soon one afternoon. They stayed up waaaayyyyyy too late! After J and I had gone to sleep by several hours.

Trip to my mum's to take her to the dentist for an extraction, all went OK thank goodness. Mum doesn't reliably recognize me now, but seems to have decided I'm a nice lady and can be let in with a smile, so thank goodness for that at least. She usually does get the hang of who I am at some point but with slight shifts or embellishments.She mostly calls Freya by my name, except when Freya does something particularly Freyaish I think. She's still in good spirits and I'm still dithering about how long she will be OK to stay in her home, etc.

A visit to the Petits Haricots, which was really lovely. Have never managed to get to theirs before and hope now that I've done it once I'll manage more often! Had a smooth journey, arrived just as HH was free from work so she gave us a lift to theirs, where we were made very welcome, introduced to rabbits and vegetables (nicer garden attributes than ours - cats and corpses) and enjoyed a very relaxing time. The evening was one of takeaway, wine and chat, wished I hadn't been so tired due to not sleeping well with cold and cough, but managed to stay up nearly to midnight anyway. Freya was mostly playing DS with SB I think. 

In the morning, we were all preparing for their party, my contributions were couscous-of-course and paddling pool inflation and cleaning duties. Freya did decorating of small cakes with PLENTY of glitter. People started arriving from middayish I think and it was lovely to see lots of people I hadn't seen since Christmas camp and to have a proper chat with Em, which NEVER happens, among other things. Kirsty kindly gave us a lift to the station. Freya developed my cold/cough rapidly and is now very sniffly and snuffly, poor thing, with a temperature last night. Really hope we've not given it to everyone at the party :(

When we got home we watched Mars Needs Moms, which wasn't as bad as we were expecting!

We were supposed to be going out with J's dad today but actually collectively we're all below par and suffering various including lack of sleep so we've cancelled, which means I'll be able to have another long bath with my Sanctuary stuff in a bit :)

This coming week we have friends visiting Tuesday I think, hoping Freya's friend L will be able to come for a play/pool visit on Monday afternoon. Thursday Freya has an activity day at animal sanctuary. Wed and Fri are free so might do some geocaching or something, depending on how Freya is.

This morning Freya made a sort of sculpture and poem/reflection piece that go together, about me and her and our relationship. The sculpture is 2 mini Lego figures, close together, with some similarities between them and some differences. The poem says: 

even if we are very much different in background 

together we can do better 

finding we are stronger 

and more very much the same

I like that!

Proms in the Paddock, Sylvanian hedgehog

Saturday

Had a lie-in, lovely. Also at some point had a long bath. Also lovely.

In the evening I made some puff pastry tomato and basil things and packed them in my bag with lots of fruit and 2 flasks of hot chocolate and Freya and I headed off to Proms in the Paddock.

We've been to this event every year for the last 3 years, not sure I've blogged it in much detail before. This year Freya and her friend spent a lot of the evening off on their own or with friend's younger sister M. They went over to the 'fairground' - a few attractions including a big inflatable slide and some swingboats. Then they went off just wandering and tree-climbing and exploring - it's a great event for them to be able to enjoy some independence like that. They were very keen for it to get properly dark. I had taken a tub of glowsticks and they were soon all making complicated creations with them as the sky changed colour. They went off again after a while and we saw Freya and friend silhouetted down by the band tent watching together.

They came back in time for the fireworks, which were better than ever this year, a brilliant show!

Freya had been looking forward to the whole evening for weeks and I think it really lived up to her expectations. I remember when we first went, the girls were all tired out before the fireworks and didn't want to wander far. Now they love to go off together for most of the night!

I enjoyed it more than I was expecting to, as I had half expected rain and it turned out to be a perfect clear night. And I got to chat with C, which we don't often do these days, except by e-mail. And I like outdoor night events and the atmosphere was good. And I love Jerusalem and enjoyed some of the songs from shows that they played but not the other patriotic ones and the flag-waving. And I got to eat quite a lot of fruit while Freya was off roaming.

Sunday - can't remember much, think we watched some Little House on the Prairie. J had to work. Freya went in the pool I think, despite it being a bit chilly.

Monday I met up with a friend from writers' retreat for lunch and we had a lovely time chatting and eating lovely salady food. Encouraged her to buy a gorgeous vintage dress, which she did, then met J and Freya. Freya and I stayed in Costa while J went to doctor as he has had terrible shoulder pain for a couple of weeks. Then we went to Pizza Express, which I'm counting as the beginning of my birthday as it just felt a bit birthdayish!

Tuesday I had to work all day and delivered a job late :( and Freya went to an activity day at the Mohair Centre, themed on small animals. She enjoyed it though she came back with a big hole in her green tie-dye leggings, bit of a shame.

Today Freya went to an art workshop in town so I walked her in and walked out, then walked in and walked her out. Spent my time at home on a bit of writing as well as pottering, so quite a nice day. She had done loads in the 2 sessions so we brought home her drawings, self-portraits, painting, collage and clay tiles. A very welcome little gift had come from J's mum - a Sylvanian hedgehog baby! Very good timing as Freya had been talking about them just the last few days.

Tomorrow is a home day, might go in the pool with Freya if there's enough sunshine.

Tuesday Freya went in the pool three times I think. I went in once. It is lovely! Freya can just about swim in it and can float on her back. I can nearly swim in it. It's bloody cold when you first get in but lovely once you warm up on a sunny enough day.

Not sure what else we did, think we watched Madagascar.

Wednesday we walked into Lewes for Freya to go to an art workshop for 4 hours. She quite enjoyed it and there were people she had met before there, which was a plus. She drew a plan of a picture of quintessentially British things (I think!) and then painted the picture and also did a self-portrait.

I walked back home and walked back in to pick her up and back out again! On quite a hot day too - we did pop into Costa for an ice drink. 

Freya is going again next week and the same woman also runs a term-time after-school session so maybe she will join those if she wants to too.

Thursday It rained all day and I had a massively tricky Russian document to translate, which took up almost all of my day and evening. Freya went off early with C and L to a small animals activity day at the local animal sanctuary, then to sleepover at L's, so I've not seen her since then but she will be back in a couple of hours or so.

Today I had no deadlines so have used my time for a mixture of things from my to-do list (hoovering, phone call, online shop, paying bill) and me-time things (writing, cross-trainer, online scrabble, i-Player).

Mostly Pavilion Gardens Monday

Saturday Freya's friend came over to play in the afternoon and we put the new pool up - it's one of those deep Intex ones, so not exactly a paddling pool but not quite a swimming pool either - I had originally got a 10 ft one but the space available is 9 ft, so now we have an 8 ft one. I can almost swim in it, a couple of tiny strokes, and Freya can do about 4 strokes before reaching the side. So the girls spent a lot of time in that as it was filling and some time on the trampoline with Sylvanians.

Sunday - can't remember much, I went in the pool with Freya, and she went in 3 times I think.

Monday - up early to catch a bus over to Brighton for the 2nd half of Freya's writing workshop. Freya was really good with all the getting ready stuff so we were out in good time and caught a bus straightaway. This gave us time for a 20-minute cafe stop in Brighton, which was lovely. At that time (9:15 ish), Brighton is only just waking up and lots of shops are being opened, deliveries going in, various preparations for the day, love the feel of that time. We played a spotting things game.

When it got to 9:45 we strolled round to Fabrica and waited to pick up Freya's friend, who was being dropped off. They turned up on time and I took the girls straight into the gallery, where they were the first there, so Freya could show her friend round a bit and she could get her bearings as she hadn't been the week before.

Having settled them in, I waited for Allie Greenhouse to turn up and we went over to the Pavilion Gardens Cafe for a civilized cuppa and a chat about everything and especially about writing. Was lovely to catch up with her, as I used to see her at MMs a long time ago but we aren't much in the same places these days.

After she'd left I went for a stroll to stretch my legs, then returned to the Cafe to meet my mate Nigel for another good chat about everything and got very excited about some news he had :)

Having had a good 3 hours of social life I returned to Fabrica where C and D and other parents were already gathered and we watched the children present their writing. I thought they all did really well and was mainly just impressed that every child felt able to present something. Was proud of Freya as she had the starting line in the group bit and said it nice and clearly facing the audience.

We stayed for a while and then headed back to Pavilion Gardens (me, Freya, Freya's friend and her mummy C) to sprawl on the grass and for Freya and her friend to do a bit of running about and have an ice lolly and/or drink etc. J arrived after a while, having had a rather unpleasant encounter on the bus on the way.

Eventually we split up again and J, Freya and I went to a cafe and had some drinks and food before going to see Harry Potter 7.2. I quite enjoyed it but wasn't hugely into it, have got a bit bored of them tbh. And the projector wasn't right, so a bit blurry/wobbly too! Still I do like a trip to the cinema, even when it's not perfect, just the bigness of it.

Today we're at home, so will probably go in the pool later for a while, need to get a bit of work done first. Freya is making a house for her Sylvanians very industriously with cardboard and paper and tape at the moment.