I actually managed to upload some photos only trouble is they are about a year old!! I do try, I will get my act together one of these days.

Anyway I thought it would be nice to catch up with all you gorgeous people and let you know what we have been up to of late.

Well we've been rather busy this past month. The Home School Family Workshop is running well and I have about four regular customers. These past two weeks have been a bit different with my own kids, I let them wind down the amount of work they do so they have kind of half of half term, then we are doing the same this week, hub has two days off this week and one next week. Its a bit of a strange way to take a week off but I think it's working!!

I'm looking forward to some fun family days.

I've taken time to do those ever such nice jobs (during our half,half not half term)that usually get nicely ignored,like cleaning the fridge, tidying out our learning room and boys bedroom.

We had a huge book case collaspe on us recently so that needed sorting out. I bought a much smaller but deeper one from Argos and was very pleased it fits all the books and looks so neat at 17.99 about 10 dollars I think, it's fab.

We are still hosting our little group at Church and have had Church in our house quite a few times lately we are really enjoying that. 

Our kids are doing a lot of reading at the moment so I didn't do our usual theme based stuff at all this term. We have missed that though,narrating is lovely but I think a bit less might be nice for a while.  I shall be looking for inspiration for an over all theme. Haven't a clue yet.

We have been using the Answers in Genesis site quite a bit lately, I noticed you can watch the whole Pilgrims Progress on there for free, very ancient but still good stuff, I think that might be something we will be using not a lot to go on but I'm sure God will direct me He always does.  Something we always need to do is more Maths!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm really looking forward to Bonfire night. The kids get sooooo excited about going out in the dark.

We will eat home made soup with family watch everybody elses fire works,we can do that because we are so high up and come home for hot choc.

Enjoy your week whatever you do.

Lots of love.   by the way I don't know how on earth that strange frog creature appeared on here???!!   If any of you have any ideas about how it can be removed I'll put a pic of myself there instead,maybe you'd prefer the frog?! So funny

Hello

I've been tagged and I really like being tagged!!

Sounds rather childish but then who doesn't enjoy talking about themselves!!

1 I always make my hubs breakfast and sandwiches for work when I get up with him each morning, I iron him a shirt first thing, spend time having a cuddle on the sofa watching Joyce Meyer and pray. I like to stick to that same routine every day as I feel that time of sharing is great. Also I'm a real, annoyingly breezy happy morning person, hub is not!!

2 By the time evening draws in I go into a comatozed state, I snuggle up in my pj's and have a very bubbly bath.  On occasion when entertaining in the evening I have to have a coffee about 4 or I will be snoring by 8. Thank the Lord Hub is a real night owl.

3 I love deafeningly loud music, hub is always behind though turning things down!!

4 I have been breast feeding now for well over 6 years!! (2 different children with no gap in the middle.) Does it make me slightly in sane(?!), I'll let you be the judge of that.

5 I love clothes, make up and being glam,I always wear make up even when no ones visiting. I don't mind being seen without it I just like the grown up womanly feeling of dressing up and being creative with colour. Grown up? I love to read about Esther.

6 I try to put Gods Kingdom first, but constantly battle with all those little things I see wrong with our house and want to change. I get ridiculously house proud and imagine that people think things that they don't.  I'm a work in progress as God teaches me to behave like a daughter in His house, I lve my life.

Hi

I really wanted to update, but I don't have much time.

The past week has been a good one. We have got plenty done. We had the workshop today which is working well and my kids are enjoying the extra company, they have been really patient and good at sharing me a bit.

My eldest boy was up a few times last night being sick, bless him so that puts a dampner on things a bit, hoping and praying it won't go through us all. YUCK!

Today in our learning we sketched outside in the gorgeous sun and narrated from Little House In The Big Woods, did Bible study and learned about and listened to some music by Vivaldi.  All seemed to go down well despite my fuzzy head after last nights interupted sleep.

Last night was fun, as usual my little girl and I went off to the little dance group we go to and my shy little sweetheart actually joined in all by herself without being my shadow as I'd always have to join in and feel a bit silly!!  I didn't realise just how self consious I was, but thats another story.  I was so happy for her, it moved me to tears. I knew she had it in her. She's going to grow in to a fantastic dancer.

In our learning we are all liking what we are doing I think, eldests moved on to reading  a book about the spirital emphsis on the lyrics by U2, written by an Irish minister -very good.  It has really captured his attention as an ardent fan.  Hub has a wonderful surprise for him as he's managed to get tickets to see Delirious on their last tour, that should inspire his guitar playing.

Middle guy has started reading and will do some narration on a book about Winston Churchill and little girl and I are getting into Little House In The Big Woods, she did some lovely painting on that yesterday.  Have fun this week.xxxx

Hello!

We had a nice weekend all in all.  On Saturday the carpet didn't come up quite so easily as we thought, the heavy furniture on top of it didn't help, but we managed it! I think there are two boards that need to be replaced.

I had a child free trip to town for a coffee and went out in the evening for a meal with Hub!!  Sounds like I live the life of Ryely, I don't!

In the morning it was off to church really early. The worship was fantastic, lead by Godfrey Burtall. He'd actually done a whole weekends confrence and I felt daft for missing it?!

Ken Gott was excellent and what he said really touched my heart, there were lots of hugs and tears.

After we all went inc inlaws for lunch at a nice cafe, we had to rush though because my eldest had lost his screw from his glasses and needed to get to specsavers.

On Monday we did loads of reading, narration and Maths and finished Charles Dickens The Life of Our Lord. We went out early in the morning for a walk and noticed how much more Autumny it's getting.

Tomorrow is the start of our workshop so that should be good.  I've got lots of Autumnal activities, including Robert Schuman's Autumn music programme over on classics for kids.

My little girl joined the boys at music zone for the first time tonoght, hub stayed with her as she is sooooo shy, he said the boys were really good and joined in well so thats nice to hear. They were playing drums called cajongs sounds like fun!!  Lydi seemed to be more interested in playing blink murder.

Have a great few days.

 I am amazed at how quickly this week has gone, but I do enjoy Fridays.

We have had lots to do this week and I set myself goals to catch up on certain grey areas in my house keeping, those places and little jobs I wasen't getting around to.

It only meant scheduling about half an hour daily. I was really surprised at how well it worked, it seemed like not much when I did a bit each day.

Note to self-this works maybe work like that every other week!

Tommorow I'll do the usual everywhere tidy/hoover.

Sorry to go on about house work!! We did do other things!

To update our HomeSchool Family Workshop plans, we have decided to start next week!!!

Andrew won't be joining us to start with (teacher hubby and partner!) They still need to work that through with him at work.

All it will be to start is really just an extention of our homeschool.

I have one other lady working with me who is a primary teacher, plus parents.

We seek to provide support, resources and coffee!! At a very reasonable cost I might add!

The kids are really happy at the moment they have done a lot of socialising this week, too much I'd say, probably why we have run out of days for our usual learning activities.

However we did get to use our Minimus Latin book, that book is fantastic, I'd reccomend it, useful site too, popular with Homeschoolers.

One week can be so different to the next, I'm sure we will catch up next week.

Looking forward to the weekend, on Saturday we are pulling up the lounge carpet and going to stain the floor boards,lets hope most of them are still there!!

On Sunday we are going to a joint Church of the nations meeting at the Kings, Tavistock to listen to Lois and Kenn Gott, which I'm really excited about, hoping to take my Mum.

Have a great weekend.

Hope you are all doing well?

Another Wednesday here began with me sneaking off for a quick bath, much needed hair wash with the idea of time to soak and let my special conditioner do its work!  No such luck, he met me on the stairs demanding porridge. Humph!!

Never mind, I did have a quick bath an we still managed to start at 9.30 am.  The Charles Dickens- The Life of Our Lord has some very unusual art work in it.  We used one of these pieces for narration and I think they thought about it sensitively, making some good observations.

In the middle though our shopping arrived, a bit of a distraction. I'd ordered Oreos,never tasted on these shores!!  They are new to us Britts, well I've never seen them!  So they quite literally scoffed a few before being dragged back to work!

Later we popped over to the  green areas across the road to have a nature ramble. Using the Woodland Trusts Autumn Watch spotters sheets, we identified many species of bird and plant.

I diden't realise how many different types of tree we had so near by.

We had a lovely afternoon yesterday walking through huge grounds of parkland and lots of playing at the playgrounds and avoiding the fountains! All within walking distance.

Thank you Lord for the great weather.

I got up this morning thinking that my day was pretty much set out for me and already planned, I do like that.  Anyway after a phone call just after 7.30am  everything changed.

 It threw me a bit as I do like to know what I'm doing and I enjoy routine. Not that we do the same things all the time on certain days or anything like that , I just like to have my little plan at the beginning of the week and go with that.  The children do have certain things on certain days though Drama, Dance, Music and our social group etc.

So in some ways it seemed a bit strange and didn't flow as easily as other days, then again what two days are  alike in this bizzare business we are in!!

The children are swimming with hubby at the moment.  I have had a nice little bit of time to myself tinkering around on here and watching the Seven Hundred Club with a nice cup of coffee. There was a brill story about Timothy Kay,homeschooled film maker,worth checking out CBN site.

Anyway back to our day. We started with some prayer for friends and family who need it at the moment,ie my mother who is stuck in Rhodes-Greece becase the company they flew with has ceased to to exsist,fantastic eh?!

Then we wrote  acrostic poetry using the word parable inspired by reading the life of our Lord. Then on to Maths, Reubens using a revise wise book by the bbc, he used the on line stuff as well ,it's really easy to use I'd reccomend it.

Lydia and I did some word building and reading.  Then we had a music lesson about Bach,was fun.  Then they went off to a quiet spot individually to read their novels!!  It was sooo quiet for a short while!

Lydia and I read some more of the Secret Garden and she drew a cool pic of what she thought it might look like.

All in all a good day, despite the shaky start.  Now it's time to eat pizza and do bedtime.

Here is a post all about our day!

I knew I had a visitor in the afternoon so decided before hand to finish our learning activities at lunch time.

We started at around 9.30 with some prayer, Lord pleeeeeeeeze help us! They were in that kind of mood and I'd had to be peace maker already by that time.

The boys read the same healing story from two different gospels which they narrated in written words. Little girl and I read a similar story in her story bible which she also narrated spelling out the words together as she went, she did really well,not getting cross at all.  Levi had boo.The boys moved on to Maths,then we had a quick break after that  Benjamin went off to read a couple of chapters of Farmer Boy,  Levi played and had boo. Reuben watched a history programme about the second world war and then went on to read Homer while eating lunch. Lydia and I went upstairs to read The Secret Garden, such beautiful story. Levi had boo.

After a whizz round with the hoover, mop and polish a lovely new friend came round for coffee which was very nice to have some grown up company. The kids played and ate cake,while we chatted,a real sanity saver!  The conversation was really encouraging, nice to know we are not that mad for doing something because God says so and that we are not the only ones! 

 Did I say that the kids were grumpy? (me too) we worked through it though and I'm proud of them.

I'm off to eat my dinner now I'm starving!

 Hello

I really have neglected my duties here!

Life has passed me by at an alarming rate, if I'm truthful I just didn't feel inspired to blog.

We have been through some trials, but then  haven't we all?  But you have to take the rough with the smooth,life has a tendancy not to consistantly be a bed of roses

This is a new start on my blog.  I really adore Autumn and September is often a significant month for me. I see it as a new beginning something fresh.

Our learning began last week together, after the long Summer hols which despite really bad weather were quite nice really.

We are launching a business called The Homeschool family Workshop as a couple,which when it gets off the ground has a lot of promise for fruitfulness,we hope! That kept us busy over the holidays with planning and meetings. People found it hard to believe that Hub and I really were having a business meeting when his folks had the kids for a day!

Anyway I'm enjoying the journey and life seems to be very productive at the moment,one of the things I know I'm going through is I'm growing up!  I guess we all have to do it some time.

There is a spiritual maturity that looks very different from what we see in the world- the looking like you have it all together type of grown upness!  It's certainly more than skin deep. I know a lot of you dear and wonderful home schoolers will be very deep as you think out of the box,who home schools just for the fun of it?

So how about some news. My little angel darling daughter celebrated her 6th birthday yesterday. My how those years have flown by.

We went to her dance group,first one after the Summer and they all sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY!  A few of the girls came back for marshmallow and cream hot chocs and cake.

We had some gorgeous time with our little daughter at the weekend while the boys went to Grandmas house. Just a trip to town to choose a present which she chose,  a rag doll as big as her almost, named by her Sara Polly..

We are still loving our church and building some strong relationships with the great people there.

Got to go and phone one of them actually. You can all pray for her she is actually being stopped from home schooling because of a lot of opposition with in her family,won't go in to details.

Must try to catch up with some of you,will stop by soon.xxxxxxxxxxxx

I have been going through something wonderful,an amazing time of emotional healing. There has been such a beautiful out pouring of liquid love from my heavenly Father.  I realise that my pms problem was there and I will have to manage that,but my greatest need was for a touch from God!!

It has really been just an undoing of negative and harmful thinking since I was a little girl.  The un wravelling of it all began nearly 15 years ago!! Thank the Lord that He's so tender I'd have been crying for years.

But this is all very deep stuff,I just wanted to share my joy at what the Lord is doing. Maybe I'll blog more at a later stage.

I'd encourage you all to watch what is happening at the Florida revival right now. Go on Freshfire ministries web site if you haven't heard,our pastor and UK directer of God tv went and came back saying it was very authentic,please take off your religious hats and jump on board!! Hope thats not too pushy,I'm passionate for the presence of God. Which I'm sure you are all experiencing in your homes as I type!!

Breakthroughs are coming guys,I pray you all get one this week .

HERES TO REVIVAL!!!!!

Check out Todd Bently,heading up whats happening in Florida,the dead raised,blind see,people freed from hepatitus etc................

Google his name,I dare you. It really is heaven on earth.

I hope this is not too personal,but as I would chat about this to a friend and of course I consider you all my friends I know you won't mind  bit!

I was just wondering if anyone has any advice on getting through those few days leading up to that glorious time of he month. I've been breastfeeding for nearly six years,my daughter then little son,I'm sure this has something to do with it. But I believe that is all really natural and I know some people feed longer. I need to find out if there is anything I  could include in my diet or anything that you have found that helps you.

You may have read a good book on this subject,or could offer some encouragement.

I know I can get through this by Gods grace and stay sane

Thank you wise ladies!!

Even though the schools go back next week we are going to be going to stay at a very lovely country park in Hampshire. I'm so glad!!! Sounds too posh for us really,it has a spa and offers various beauty treatments that I'm sure we won't have time for.

The caravan has 3 bedrooms which is great as we have always managed to sqeeze into 2 before so just one to sleep in with us,bliss!

I have planned our shop to arrive the night before we go with a few goodies for the week.

I can't wait to swim and enjoy the pretty woodland walks and local beach,  I'm starting to get quite excitedcould you tell?!

This week has also been a holiday week for us. I have really enjoyed being able to keep up with the housework and washing in the mornings and pootling around. I'm easily kept happy!! Yesterday afternoon we went to the Hoe which has a gorgeous brand new park by the sea and stopped for coffee and icecream. The day before my Mum treated the boys to some new trainers,very nice. Myself and littlies stayed home for painting and then a much needed bath.This afternoon we had a trip in to town and I found some bargains including clothes,towels,shoes and a wonderful swimsuit with a seahorse on it,alas little girls not mine!

In between that I have got stuck into some research for our project on China. God has really helped me with that in making it flow as I don't have stacks of time to do that sort of thing.

I'm not keeping up with this but I'm sure when we are back to our regular routine I'll start to blog more often,it is such a great way to record life.

I have so much going on in my life at the moment.I just don't have time to share now but I will soon,on my in-laws pc,got to go.

It is quite some time ago that I was last here. l don't really know why it just happened like that. Life has been complicated in the last few months and we have struggled if I'm honest.  Finances are a challenge and with one thing and another it has been more of a sqeeze recently.

We are really learning to grow up and live by faith,I know God loves us sooo much and too much to settle for just a bit of us,He wants it all!

God is really working a beautiful work in Hub and I believe he is getting to know who he is in Christ. It is tough when you really decide to go for God,you have to give up your life to find it. But God is wonderfully and amazingly faithful and I love our adventure with Him!!

We have not lacked in anything,sure I can think of things I want for the future but we are not there yet and I know God will be there when we need Him.  Some friends of ours gave us a weeks holiday in Hampshire as a gift,we don't deserve that but we are His children.

Kiddoes are doing well,we are using Spring as a blanket theme at the moment to keep us going through the Easter and holiday time.

Once we are back from our hols I'm looking forward to getting our teeth stuck into a brand new project on China. I think it could be one of the best,there is so much gorgeous history and art to look into.

We have such full and abundant life at the moment,abundancy in challenges too!! Getting to know people from church is good I don't think I could live without their support now. I wanted real life and that is what we have!!

Another great thing is that my middle guy has always wanted,well in the last year to be truthfulfor us to have a piano in the house,well we were given one and we adore it. It is so beautiful and old its great.

Better go and get dressed,I won't tell you what time it is!!  The older ones are at the study centre so I have a bit of extra time.

Bless you all.

This is way over due. I really don't seem to be keeping up these days.

My life is pretty full and I just run out of time.

I do love to blog though and it makes a really nice record,its so nice when others read and take interest enough to comment ,I really like that.

So actually after saying all that I don't have ooddles of news!!

We have had a weeks break here everyone else is having half term so why not! No routine for just one week is not easy.I think you get used to it over a longer period like the summer.

We had a few nice days though and the weather has been fantastic. We enjoyed going to the park everyday amongst other things. We had a fun day spent with friends making allsorts of craft stuff,lunch and another trip to the park. That was really the best day,I always have great conversation with that particular friend. Shes one of those people I connect with very easily,she seems to understand where I'm coming from without too much detail,and vice versa,apart from which she is just a lovely person!

Had a very quiet day today and didnt even get dressed properly until lunch time.I had a pottering in my pjs morning. It was extremely nice to be able to have tea in bed with Hub and a chat and a cuddle (kids in and out......alas!).

I looked at our Mathematics and where we are at with it and have come up with new strategies. Nothing new just a bit more tweaking with the timetable and some ideas for new online resources.

Maths is something I need to keep up with!! We are a very creative family and sometimes I have to work harder to get  maths into the flow.

Tonight we were invited to our new neighbours house warming party,we just poped in with a bottle of wine to say hello and it was great. I can't remember ever having even a conversation with many other people we've lived next door to  so I'm glad this is going to be different.

Well I'm tired and in need of sleep now,hope to return with something more enthralling!!

Bye!!

Everyone here,I think, has had a virus over the last couple of weeks.

Thankfully taking it in turns and not all at once. The kind of thing that drains you and leaves a sniff and a cough.  In my littlest ones it started with a bit of a temperature,then much sleeping. They were also quite weepy.

I was the first to catch the stupid thing,un be known to me,I wondered why I felt so awful!! As Mums I think we tend to ignore these things until others start manifesting the same symptoms and then we realise we were actually ill.

Apart from that we have been keeping things ticking over and enjoying whatever comes next!!

Our church group met here on Sunday and we had lemon and rasin pancakes (mostly) and coffee for breakie.

I ended up spilling my guts on loads of battles we are facing at this time. I think it was good to get it off my chest but I did talk far toooooooooooooo much!!

People were fantastic and actually the way we do church really makes room for reality,so it was ok.

I know we are being trained and tested at the mo,sometimes I want to get off though!! Lifes trials have an excellent way of shaping you don't they!

I do love my life even with its challenges,it will make me grow up!!

Some breakthroughs have happened in our learning. Thanks to me sobbing one morning to Hub in dread over what lay ahead.

A few suggestions from Hub and different ways of doing things as well as our new merit/de merit system have really paid off. The boys are far less attitudy (is that a word,I don't think) and less lazy.

They have,in a nut shell just been getting on with it instead of fighting me tooth and nail. Very good news.

They did some interesting pieces of work today,including multiplication practice (good old fashioned times tables) square roots,poetry on Moses as part of our Bible hero theme,listened to letters and Diary extracts from Arctic explorers and wrote a reply to a real letter found blowing in the Arctic wind.

We have recently found another park. It has no play stuff just games painted on the floor. It is a brilliant look out though as it is high up. It is an interesting place and good for bikes,kidoes love it! We had fun there this afternoon after which I lay down, really tired,not getting much sleep at night wth porley bubba.

Have fun.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I don't know how so much time has flown by?!

My last post was last year.  I really like the New year,time for change and hope. I think going in to a new year is exciting,although January can seem a bit bleak after all the lovely Christmas celebrations,I'm looking forward to the next Christmas

The weather is much improved today,makes a change from the gungy grey stuff we've had such a lot of. It almost seems Spring like. You can almost hear the change,birds get noisier!!

I can't wait to go out with the children to play when the sun comes out,feels gorgeous to have the sun shining on us again. Autumn and Spring are so nice I think I like it when things start to change again.

We are doing a project on the Polar regions which has been good so far. Lots of interesting animals to learn about and fascinating geography.

We are all on a learning curve and Hub and I have talked and prayed lots to come up with the right way and Gods strategies for learning and discipline in the home. Things shift as the children grow and I have to grow with them or it won't work. God is so good to us and has always been the instruction and inspiration for our home. It is very exciting to be changing and walking closer to Him. The church we go to is constantly challenging us to come up higher which is great but hard too it is very close knit so nowhere to hide. I wouldn't change it though.

I am really looking forward to taking my little daughter to a dance class on Tuesday,I'm hoping she will love it. She spends most of her life singing and dancing,like one long musical! My friend teaches it,theres a gentle intro to Ballet but mostly the focus is on Worship.

Although relaxed it does produce dancers I know of at least two who are training professionally now.

Have a rewarding week.

Take care.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

We had a wonderful Christmas not a perfect one but a really lovely one all the same. I really liked what Santa said on The Santa Claus 3 something like "You don't have to be a perfect family to be a good one you just have to be together".I love that! So we enjoyed a happy time together packing and emptying stockings and putting in the wrong things for each child oooppps Santa did it again!?

One huge thing I was hit with this Christmas is how brilliant God is and what an amazing Christmas present His son is. I really worshipped this year and felt overwhemingly grateful as I realised all over again what Christmas is all about. So I have no problem with generous giving,abundant food and over the top sharing,I love Christmas!!I celebrate the day that the King of Kings was born in a little stable and gave hope to all the hurting people in a very broken world.

A beautiful thing for the children was visiting my Gran,leaving behind sweets and toys and being with my Gran who needed to feel loved on Christmas day.

Believe me with all the business of the day and knowing Hubs parents would be arriving after dinner I really would have tried to get out of going to the Nursing home,it is not my favourite place,but we all love Gran.

Dinner was delicious but Christmas dinner always is.

Later we opened more pressies,with inlaws,very nice they are sooo generous.

Boxing day was spent with more family and another special dinner and yet more presents!!

Today and actually most days of late I've been down sizing our belongings,stuff is stressy and we can do without it.Every shelf and book case and some cupboards have been ran sacked keeping only what we need and it feels fantastic!!

I still need to help the kiddoes find suitable homes for their Christmas additions though.

My eldest has so much lego it scares me!!

I think we will look at long term goals and think about what we will be for God when we grow up for 2008 and that will be our focus for devotions and Bible. I'd like to study the lives of Deborah,David,Daniel,Joseph,Ruth and Esther and look at how they were prepared and trained for the amazing things they did.

The older two will continue to go to the study centre but I'm changing the day so they can do creative writing and then I can take little girl to a dance class,which I'm excited about

Also for 2008 to kick off with our studies we are going to have the Poles as a theme,North and South,magnetic and geographic!

Church tomorrow,be good to catch up I have a tendancy to hide away in the holidays and get too use to it, not always good, be helpful to break the cycle.

Have fun,thinking of you all.xxxxxxx

  The big day is fast approaching and everyone is very excited here.

We are now officially on our Christmas hols,hip hip hoooray.

All us Sprys here really adore this time of year.

This morning my middle one and in the end baby one joined me on a very early run/walk. It is nice to get out before anyone else is even up and blow the cobwebs away, getting a bit of a workout doesn't hurt either.

So that gave us a good start.After having a cup of tea with Hub and breakfast the day had really started.

I then did the usual stuff like washing and tidying,breakfast dishes etc......

I managed to sort out my on line Christmas food shop,coming Saturday.I've had it booked a while but have kept changing the list!! Glad it is all on the way now and I won't tweak it anymore,I realised I didn't have Turkey on the list which would have been a disaster.Iwas relieved I'd looked at it again.

A bit later on in the morning a parcel arrived from my very generous sister a lovely gift card for M&S and present for under the tree for the little ones. That is always a lovely surprise when that happens.

It has been a beautiful clear and crispy day here,we ventured out again, into the cold, this time to the park for a quick play,too cold to hang about!! Thankful for a hearty lunch to keep out the chills.

When we got back the windows and door guy came and fitted us two new windows,this was excellent as I wasn't sure it could be done before Christmas. It gives me a lot of peace of mind to know the house is more secure.The two windows were broken when we moved in!! Strange how they weren't before or somehow we didn't notice?!ummm. Next on our bringing the house into order list is sorting out a bit of damp we have coming through upstairs. We do love this house but I really need patience,I want everything sorted out yesterday

This evening we are visiting my Gran who is staying in a nursing home,originally we had thought it was only for respite but she has got much,much worse. It is really sad as she has lived with my Mum and Step Dad for years and they are heart broken. They have said my Mum can have Chrismas dinner there with my Gran but it is really not were either of them want to be.It is very difficult.I am looking forward to seeing her tonight though. My Gran has been one of the most loving and caring, generous people in my life and has really cared for me over the years. I love her so much,coming to terms with the fact that this could be her last Christmas is hard.

The children will miss my Gran so much too,her imput into their lives has been extremely special.They will have wonderful memories of Gran.

My prayer for you all is that will enjoy your families and that you will be touched with the love of God's son this week and the next.

Have fun.

I'm in yet another melancholy mood. Life is ticking along fine. Kids are fine ,Hubbs fine. I need a holiday!!

This morning I got up really early and watched the God Channel prayer thingie. It was live from Israel with the most beautiful worship and I mulled over some stuff I think God wanted to address in me to do with insecurity.

It's funny really at the weekend I met a girl I used to go to school with (I was a bit mean to her actually.) and it brought back lots of memories. I don't know whats going on with me lately,drama queen!!

Anyway it is the season to be jolly after all.We are still hard at it with Christmas work sheets about traditions and symbolsm and the like. To be perfectly honest getting much work out of any of us at the moment is like getting blood out of  a stone,roll on the Christmas parties is what I say I think we need to party!!

I'm hoping for a very festive week next week full of frivolity!! No maybe thats not quite right.

We have a couple of parties planned to go to and a trip to a farm that puts on an interactive Nativity,plus a visit from Santa and delicious traditional treats. It is very atmostpheric and really helps get the focus on the main thing,which is JESUS people!!

Most of the folks we buy for at Christmas are now catered for and I've strict plans on the other stuff to get. We had some fab photo's done in a studio by a talented photographer that didn't break the bank. They looked like dear little cherubs and make easy non fuss pressies for a few peeps in our family,easy peasy!

In fact I stand back in amazement when I think of what we have done with our money this year. God has certainly been faithful to provide. We have been paying our mortgage for over 6 months now I'm so happy with that God is really looking after us..

I can't wait for tomorrow. Big guys are going to the study centre while littlies and myself are going Christmas craft and stocking filler shopping (on the quiet!). I'm sure I'll have time to stop for at least one Gingerbread Latte. I'm looking forward to doing something relaxing.I get my hair done next week looking forward to the pampering.

Think God has been showing me lately that I need comfort. There is nothing wrong with being comforted,just when you look for it in all the wrong places.It is so easy to feel rejected if your Mum or Dad  or friend says all the wrong things and their words are not quite what you were hoping to hear when you are looking for that bit of comfort.

A friend of mine remimded me that when we are needing that bit of comfort theres nothing wrong with saying to our Heavenly Daddy "comfort me,comfort me now!!"

It has to be better than stressing somebody else out and expecting them to meet all our needs.

What do you think?

I guess the Holidays can be really overwhelming for the best of us,maybe we are all in need of that little bit of comfort and not the southern kind!!

God Bless you all. Thanks for reading and please comment,good to know what you think.

It has been a little bit longer than I would usually leave it between posting. Life here is very busy and very full. Some trying stuff but good.

A lovely time has been spent by all over the last few days with birthday and anniversary celebrations,as well as all the Festive prep.

My eldest baby is now 11!!

I can't believe it was all that time ago. He was a gorgeous baby,very tiny 6lb12oz but very round and cute. I can remember the year he was born it was sooo cold he had to wear hats and mittens to bed. Funny we never did get our landlord to put a heating system into that place!!? It was a nice house though. You could see your breath upstairs it was so cold! Reuben was such good company though. It is a beuatiful time when they are so small,cuddling, feeding and taking them for little walks in the pram. I think there is something special about the first baby,it is all so new and amazing! I had a pretty easy time of it with him he was a really placid baby and slept lots,unlike my others.

We also got to celebrate our wedding anniversary of 14 years with a tasty Thai take away. I have hardly had to cook at all this week with eating at Mum in laws and take aways and also going to delicious Bella Italia for a family party for Reubs,great!

In our educating bit of life we have been following informal plans concerning the whole Christmas topic.We have been looking at Micah in the Bible who prophesied the birth of Jesus about 600 years before. I came a bit un stuck with that though,talk about being blinded with science!! At church my kids weren't sure about who Zachariah was or his son,whoops we should have fast forwarded about 600 years. So back to basics. Now we are reading through Matthew. I gave each one of them the chance to tell their version of Jesus birth so far. Interesting actually to see which bits stuck. My eldest was worried that Joseph thought Mary had gone off to have a baby with someone else.Gabriel sorted that one out though.

Little girl remembered that it was Joseph who knew the babies name and other details.

My middle son said that Jesus was born in a flat! That would have been luxury compared to the truth.

We designed our pop art style christmas cards this afternoon and looked again at the classics for kids for an easy on line music lesson.

Then I needed sugar,felt awful and I know it is not healthy. I am very hormonally challenged at this time and get so tired.I'm still feeding such a lot it makes me feel weird at times.I do have loads of energy as well at times,strange

Time to go, think I might have a bath before the tea time rush.

Take care of your good selves.xxxxxxxxxxxxx