Weekend

 Jungle Clearing.

 Harvesting.

 Mid afternoon well deserved snack.

 Playing shop.

 The stamp game.

 Paper plane experiments, a straw tube plane versus...

 ... a sleek pencil point dart version.

 The tube plane did admirably but it was not a match for the traditional old fashioned and time honoured technology ;-)

 "Let's have a race!"

Birthday Mice for Our Lady :: Cave Man Art

My friend Eva has a tradition in her family whereby either sweet or savoury mice are incorporated in the birthday celebrations, so we decided to take a leaf out of her book and make some for Our Lady:

 Benedict's Mice.

 Pip's Mice.

We also managed to attend mass this morning, so in addition to celebrating Our Lady's special day we also remembered our daughter Sr Emma Maria on the profession of her final vows three years ago:

 Lighting candles and quietly...

... saying a prayer.

Once home from mass we had our morning tea gathered around the table and then it was time to crack on with the day's schedule of lessons:

Pip ~ English, Maths and Social Science.

Benedict ~ English, Maths, Social Science and Life Sciences.

It was interesting teaching both of them at the same time!  Normally Dave is around to help out but he was indisposed and so I was flitting between the two.  They both worked really hard but it was tricky when Benedict needed to read aloud since he is an auditory processor and Pip is very visual like me and needed quiet!!  I had to keep reminding him to whisper :-)  I tell ya, I was glad of a half hour total silence after lunch.  Dave had both kids outside and since the sun was actually shining, they worked on the first part of their art challenge of a cave style drawing:

 Brush, brush, brush.

 Sharing the workload.

 Having fun.

  Sand on the top and then leave it to dry.

Both kids have settled and I am enjoying some much needed quiet knitting time. 

 

Not Again!

The temperature today has been 23C and Barton Grange once again are working on their Christmas display and the shop floor is littered with Christmas paraphernalia!  I had a chat with one of the contractors working on the electrics for the display and he commented that he felt depressed about coming into work today.  Totally mad, they it did it last year and it really does take the joy out of visiting the place.  Barton Grange is one of the very few places that has something for everyone in addition to being disability friendly.

 They managed to redeem themselves slightly by offering some rather lovely Christian cards for sale. However we tend to support Traidcraft or Aid To The Church In Need for all our Christmas cards.

Today was a tricky home school day with Pip and I still quite unwell.  Still we plodded through and made a good attempt at the tasks on our list.  Benedict took some of his work with him when he stayed with Shein, after which he attended his first ever kick boxing session at the gym.  He came home really pleased with his efforts and is looking forward to his next session on Wednesday.  Not only will the kick boxing improve his confidence, give him a new skill and potentially provide a means of defending himself should the need ever arise, it will also help with his learning needs since the cross body movements reinforce neuro pathways in the brain.  Definitely a win-win situation :-)

On a different note I think Dave and I are suffering from the Post Walsingham Blues, if you check out the Youth 2000 face-ache page it is in fact a recognised condition!!  Mind you our symptoms are more related to the fact that Walsingham is a place where disability and sickness does not stand out and so for a brief period we almost felt "normal."  Suffice to say it has been very hard returning home to isolating suburbia :-(  

My initial word for the year was "trust" but in fact the word that keeps appearing is "acceptance."  Easy to say but incredibly hard to do.  When I find myself struggling with the ongoing worries and concerns for those in my immediate family, I often here myself saying, "it is as it is."  There is some small comfort in these words because if I am unable to change my circumstances then it is useless fretting over the what ifs, or might haves.  Like the manna in the desert I have grace for the moment :-)

Lord, grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot change,

The courage to change the things I can

And the wisdom to know the difference.

Amen x  

First Day :: Sick Day

If my mum was here with us she would be saying, "Well, I'm not surprised!"  Take one lone driver, a whole heap of packing and sorting, one crazy full on week and a long term health problem and you have an interesting combination :-)  Since arriving back my health has taken a dip and I'm currently dealing with an age old problem of fever, swollen glands and a painful throat.  High doses of vitamin C, garlic and echinacea are helping to keep things manageable, so we did actually manage to complete our studies today.

Pip worked on adding "ing" to verbs and the rules surrounding this concept, such as a word ending in e as in bake, the e is dropped to make baking.  A short vowel sound followed by a consonant changes from hop to hopping.  She also undertook the challenge of correcting the misspelt words in addition to writing sentences of her own. 

 In maths she was working with subtraction of numbers in their hundreds which also required borrowing.  I had to learn a new way of doing things since they don't teach maths in the same way when I was a kid!  Now I really do sound old :-)  She did really well and was able to crack the word code at the end of the page.  

She too was under the weather with sneezing, a runny nose and complaining of a headache on and off throughout the day.  At one point she lay down for a short mid afternoon nap.

Benedict worked incredibly hard.  We have chosen an Oak Meadow curriculum for him this year and so he had four subjects to tackle, english, maths, ancient civilisations and life sciences.  The lessons are displayed in an easy to read and use format with a mixture of desk and practical activities.  One of his assignments was to make a map of Africa, Asia and Europe with all the water bodies named in between and a compass rose on the bottom right hand side.  We have a wall map in the hallway and so we blu tacked tracing paper to the image and he set to, drawing around the outline:

 It is getting increasingly harder to take snap shots of him, so it is a case of grab them while we can!

A much needed chicken soup was served for lunch, jewish penicillin for sure.  I also made chicken curry with rice for tea followed by apple and blackberry crumble.  Apples from our garden and blackberries foraged by a friend on her prayer walk by the canal path.  Tradition states that the berries have to be picked by St Michaelmas otherwise the devil spits on them!  My friend shared a lovely story of her eldest daughter aged two who loved being out in the fresh air, the little one remembered a blackberry picking trip a few days previous and on a seemingly miserable day, tottered up to her mum and said, " Go a cunky side and pick a byer!!"  Translated as, " Go to the countryside and pick blackberries!!"  That youngster is now a young woman who works as a ranger for the national parks :-)

My last job for the day was to meet with another guider for the purposes of an online application for DBS clearance, which means I will be checked to ensure I have no dodgy past that would affect my working with children.  Needless to say it is all a formality but once the checks have been completed, I will then begin my Leader in Training course for Pip's Brownie troop.  Upon arriving home I spent a good half hour trying to ascertain the burning smell that was emanating from the front room!  Benedict and Dave joined in the search but to no avail and the smoke alarm has remained quiet, so here's hoping all is well :-) 

A Letter To Pope Francis

Pip found this lovely book at the back of church and it prompted her to write her very own letter to The Holy Father!  I wonder if she will get a personal reply or just a signed card?  Watch this space :-)

 Kids ask the greatest questions!

 

Walsingham Round Up

We arrived home on Friday morning at 2:30am!  That drive that is only meant to take four and a half hours never seems to work for me :-)  We set off at 7:30pm expecting to arrive home around midnight and would you believe it there was a traffic jam followed by a fire on A1 so we were re-routed in order to join the main motorway intersection further along and this added an hour and a half to our journey.  The last leg of the journey was pretty tortuous and Dave kept chatting to me in order to keep me awake.  Once home I collapsed into bed totally exhausted.  Thankfully we all slept in so I was able to catch up on much needed sleep :-)

The last few days have been a mixture of catching up with laundry, food shopping and entertaining the grown kids for an unexpected but lovely visit from them all.  I finally got around to mowing the lawns this afternoon, the grass was past my ankles!  I am really hoping that this time next year grass mowing will be a thing of the past.  We have a landscaper coming on Friday to offer advice on making the garden easier to maintain since I am no longer able to keep on top of things.

We start our first official "home school day" tomorrow but will be keeping things light until we have found a workable groove.  I seem to have another week of various appointments and commitments and they sure do eat into the homeschool day.  We are away again for the last week in September and so I am hoping that by the beginning of October I will have sussed out a reasonable and workable routine for us all.

So before the Autumn season is well and truly upon us, I will leave you with a snap shot of summer from a very special place:

Anglican Shrine Cafe on the last day.  It was a mother and son treat that I promised Benedict as he had been so helpful with the little ones and uncomplaining about the sudden daily attendance at mass :-)

 

 Gluten free lemon cake and coffee for me

 Latte and ...

 ... porridge with Norfolk honey for Benedict.

 His response!

The Slipper Chapel, so called because pilgrims historically would divest themselves of their shoes and walk the last part of their pilgrimage, the Holy Mile, barefoot into Walsingham and to the now ruined remains of the priory.  Pilgrims still continue that form of penance.  Our friends including Dave and Pip walked this route but not barefoot!

 The farm shop quite literally across the road supplied us with plenty of local fruit and vegetables, gluten free snacks and treats aswell as staples of milk, cheese and preserves all sourced within the area:

 One basket of goodness and ...

 ... one delicious lunch.

I even managed to snatch some time on my own and enjoyed a ten minute saunter down the high street:

The last mass on the Monday was a mere handful of folk in the hundreds as opposed to the day before of 1800 when these pictures were taken.  That was the day the shrine cafe shut up shop early as it quite literally ran out of food!!  Pip and her friends attended a "children's church" workshop before the mass and enjoyed decorating some crowns as a visual reminder of the "crown of eternal life."

 

 Benedict and his "shadow" underneath the image of Don Bosco.

 

Fr Simeon :: Sheringham

The littlest member of the tribe aged two really does think he is a priest and becomes quite disconcerted when he is unable to be on the altar with the other priests!  Without further ado meet Fr Simeon:

 Once he had delivered his early morning blessing he returned next door for breakfast with his mama!

After mass in the village we drove to Sheringham which is a forty minute journey from the cottage.  Our first stop was the bucket and spade shop!

 

 Walking down the main road leading to the beach:

 Access ramp leading down to the beach:

We realised pretty quickly that the beach was not going to be accessible for Dave and coupled with no shade, definitely not MS friendly, so the Mums and Kids decamped and the Dads spent a happy time sightseeing and eating crab sandwiches and chips!  Fear not we swapped part way through and Kara and I had a quiet time perusing the shops and enjoying a mid afternoon cake and tea :-)

A Dad camera walk:

 

 Pip was definitely the resident water baby!  Once she had been given the green light after lunch there was no stopping her and she remained in the water until the tide began to creep up the beach.

 Two crazy dudes!!  Benedict for some wierd reason suddenly has curly hair just like when he was a baby :-)

 Someone's hard earned effort about to be washed away by the sea.

Another steam train visit, sadly they were too late to catch this last train, maybe next time.

A diesel for now...

And finally the steam train!

 Another decorative wall on a walk to the sands:

A changing sky just before a fish and chip supper:

 

 Kara loves the arcade games so we stopped in one on our way back to the car.  I surprised Benedict by offering to play a "shoot-em-up" game based on The Terminator!

 Fr Simeon was not so saintly by the end of the day, he had fished in his mum's trouser pocket and promptly desposited some money in one of the grab a toy arcade games!!  Totally hilarious :-)

 Two happy girls with their matching green bling necklaces won on the 2p machines, strategy and perseverance was the name of the game!

 A gluten free ice cream treat on the way home.

 Saying goodbye to Sheringham.

A totally fun filled and happy day.  We were out at the sea side for over seven hours and a great time was had by all.