That Was The Week That Was

This week has been made up with a whole lot of nothingness and really I'm here at the end of this week wondering a) where time goes and b)if I will ever get organised about anything.

Anyway, to your right you will notice I've changed the link love list. I come across some interesting things on the internet but rarely share. Will try to change that at least once a fortnight. And I'm playing with the idea of adding more tutorials and having some giveaways. You lot are so quiet, it would be nice to see you once in a while! What types of giveaways do you like?

And apparently this is the weekend. So. I'd better plan lessons for next week and do some laundry. I am so rock n roll like that.

That Was The Week That Was

I awoke this morning to snow in my garden, and it's just dawned on me that the forsythia that usually has bloomed by the end of February here has failed to bloom a single flower. I hope we get a good summer - this time last year we were at the beach (in another unusual weather pattern).

The to-do list is as long as my arm - I have not even begun to start seeds off, but given how cold it is I don't think it really matters, and I've got some aborists I need to phone to source some woodchip, being greatly inspired by this guy. I have no idea how many square feet our allotment is - I hope I don't order enough to cover a football field...

My house is still insanely small. Thought I'd throw that in.

Boys are downstairs playing monopoly. I hate monopoly. I have bad memories of board games from childhood - it always turned sour when Dad took it a little too seriously....

Swimming lessons have halted until Autumn and midget wants to learn basketball. Eldest wants to join a karting team. I want a bank account to accommodate these dreams. And a farm. Just so you don't forget.

I'm sitting surrounded by an ironing pile that is in danger of suffocating me, work paper that needs read and dealt with, lessons that need planned photocopied, and some sewing for orders that needs to be made and sent last week. So, a very good time to have a cup of tea and do some spinning instead. Anyone care to enlighten me as to how my brain works? Yeah, me either.

That Was The Week That Was

This week has flown by fairly quickly. More than usual. Gave the boys a haircut because they looked like they were wearing furry crash helmets, which induced a fair amount of sourness on their behalf. But at least they look human now. Sort of. I mean, if you regard the Mitchell brother characters off Eastenders as vaguely human-looking.

Started a new nature studies book; nice easy level and they both enjoyed it at their own pace. Started with spiders. Eldest knows the seven parts of a spider's leg (no, he doesn't he's just informed me, just the patella, femur and tibia and the rest is a blank. Great.), whilst the midget knows the basics - leg, eye, spinneret etc. Although they both call the cephalathorax 'parasaurolophus' for some reason *shrugs*.

Bought the boys their first Lego technic thing this week. Just because. It's educational so I don't feel remotely guilty. They spent hours putting their respective things together. Midget did his with minimal help which I am very impressed with - able to follow complicated diagrams and sticking with it without a break until it was completed. Now they have two pull-back cars and have designed various ramps and things to test against each other. These bricks don't fall apart on impact, which makes me wonder why all Lego can't be like this.

I have been knitting up a storm with my new balled-up yarn (the sass did not continue into the knitting process, so I have forgiven the mardy skein). Hopefully will have something to show for it soon.

And I am ill. Again. Just a chest infection which I hope will sort itself out, but I'm feeling rather tired and run down. Now I will spend the rest of the day planning work for the boys, ferrying them to art class and maybe roasting a chicken.

Or I might just go back to bed.

That Was The Week That Was

We've been dreaming big here this week. Old dreams dusted off and some 'if onlys' and 'maybes' and 'insha'allahs' playing on my little ones' lips. Gently reminded them that dreams should never rule us so much that they eclipse all else and break us if they shatter. But still. Need to dig out the old Rudyard Kipling 'If' poem and go through that with them.

Classes were resumed this week; the weather is almost spring-like, and the midget has taken to declare he LOVES sunlight, and how it puts him in SUCH a good mood, and when exactly IS summer, please?

A thrifting adventure saw me return home with a bookcase full of books for the professor and some new games. All are currently scattered over the sitting room floor. Mapominoes already a new favourite. The rules read like a dictionary, but play is fun and educational! Dug out our old Montessori jigsaw of Europe and let them pootle with that - easy for them now.

Finally started the Latin course we should have started weeeeeeeks ago. We're only on the alphabet and they're feeling quite smug about how easy it is. I never had the opportunity to study Latin or Greek; our school just wasn't that posh, and, well, you don't Latin to sign on in our town, so I'm learning at the same time. Language has never been my bag, but grammar interests me.

Finished knitting a cowl and have nothing on the sticks! I have had a bit of woodcutting renewal this week and I'm wondering what on earth possessed me to make a woodcut on a block so big... lesson learned. Only small blocks from now on. Maybe one day this month I might even get to print with one of them... not holding my breath.

How was your week?

Reflections on That Was the Week That Was

I have kept a blog, in one form or another, for ten years now. A couple of the early ones I deleted, some others I've made private, but the public blogs can still be accessed and they date from about 2005.

Sometimes I almost feel like giving it all up, hitting delete and forgetting all about it. The reason why I don't? Well, because when I have a wander down memory lane down some of those old blogs old memories come flooding back in clear detail. Things which were once my everyday norm and are now forgotten come rushing back to meet me like a long, lost friend. They makes me smile. They give me perspective: why did I stress so much about x,y,z - hindsight is a wonderful thing, and makes me realise that this too will pass. Whatever is the issue right now, one day it will be a forgotten memory. It's true. That never-ending fight with keeping clothes on the midget? Forgotten - until I read a blog about it. Their obsession with sweeping the back garden? Ditto. The noise the eldest made none-stop til my ears bled? Completely rendered unimportant for the memory banks (thankyou YouTube for allowing embedding in blogs).

And I don't want to forget. Childhood goes so quickly and I want to have something to remember.

The other reason I keep at it? Well, you. I know it's cheesy, but I've found some amazing friends in this space that I would never have met in real life, and being very much a SAHM and a homeschooling one at that, life can get pretty lonely sometimes. Coming to this space gives me perspective and let's me add beauty to my world.

I've intentionally made this space an image-intensive blog, because that's how I like to express myself. I find visual expression much more 'me' than the written word. But sometimes making myself write something longer than a blog post can be good for the old grey cells, you know? And this might break a record for the longest introduction to a blog post about a blog post, but basically I think what I'm saying is - sometimes, for the sake of memory-making and brain-usage, I will actually write a post with no images. It goes against my grain, but I will give it a go. And I thought I could do this by including every so often (maybe every weekend, who knows) a round up of where we're at. The stuff we've done, the things we've said, the little things that drive me crazy and maybe something other than crafting.

I've tried this before. I'm not sure how long it will last. Bear with me?

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So this week. The midget has been ill. Again. He's always the first to catch anything going around. I do worry about him. Not sure if his immune system could use a boost or he should just wash his hands more...

Conversely we've missed a couple classes adding to the feeling that I never get out. Although, to be fair, this is bothering me less than it used to when they were younger.

Currently munching through half a sheep's worth of fleece on the spinning wheel. I do so love that thing, and the space it creates in my head when I sit to spin. You thought knitting was meditative - learn to spin - you'll reach black belt in zen in no time. It's like going for a walk in the forest in your head. Inhale, spin, exhaaaaaale. Ahhh. And at the end of it - yarn! Win-win.

And in between lesson planning, cleaning the never-ending detritus up from human sloth, and worrying about various non-controllable things, I'm also finding time to plan a project which makes me happy, nervous, tired, and worried in equal measure. All I have to do is be 100% perfect 100% of the time and maybe everything will be OK.