What a horrible, wet yucky day! We managed to get all the woodland paths finished and the flower beds covered with wood chippings before being completely rained off. Steve's garden is looking really good now, just a few more jobs to do then it will hopefully be finished.

I went off to Argos this afternoon to spend some vouchers we got from surveys and things so nearly all the kids christmas shopping is now done. I know I said we weren't having any plastic or brand new toys this year but we got the vouchers for nothing really so they had to be spent! It's not easy spending argos vouchers on anything but plastic as it all seems to be but I got a huge box of Magnetix which are at least a bit educational as well!!

Got to sort out advent calenders now so they are ready for tomorrow....

Well, after putting in the plants in the dark, the next day was completely fog bound so no photos could be taken of Steve's house anyway....typical!! So spent another day gardening (in the fog) on Tuesday.

Yesterday, Dave had an appointment to get his glasses sorted and the kids were both booked in for eye tests. Eilidh did brilliantly and her eyes were perfect, Ben's were fine but they want to see him again six months as there were a couple of areas which weren't quite perfect but nothing to worry about at the moment. We then went off to the library to load up with more books, had a bit of time reading stories there and then headed for a cup of coffee in a cafe before heading home. We couldn't work because it was pouring with rain all day so spent the afternoon sorting bits in the house out and the kids watched some vidoes. We were all feeling really tired and aching.

Today, Dave went off back to Steve's to work and I had a day off! My hands are quite painful and one of my fingers keeps getting stuck!! Whenever I bend my finger it is really painful to get it straight again, probably not helped by pulling ivy and wearing wet, muddy gloves all day! So me and the kids spent some time packing up a parcel for our friends in Canada (Hi Tina!!) and making christmas cards and paper snowflakes. Lots of glitter and glue everywhere! We took some lunch up for Dave and ended up staying for the afternoon at Steve's drinking lovely coffee, chatting and watching Dave and Wendy (our little helper!) working very hard making paths through the woods. It is really looking good now and Steve has finally got his 'For Sale' sign up so hopefully he won't have to wait too long for it too be sold. I enjoyed not having to work (!) although I think I may regret laughing at Dave and Wendy when they make me do all the rubbish jobs tomorrow!!!

Dave also went back to the opticians today to get some contact lenses fitted as he is going to give them a try so we shall see how he gets on.

Another day doing gardening again. I think I will be dreaming about weeds tonight!! While we got on weeding, making paths and putting in plants, the kids were busy playing computer games, playing hide and seek, eating homemade chips, watching a film and occasionaly helping out filling wheelbarrows. Steve has the photographer coming tomorrow so we were still there in the dark putting in plants to make it look pretty! At least the weather was lovely today, crisp and sunny, perfect for gardening!

We are all tired out and aching so off to bed........

Sorry, it's been ages since I wrote anything. Our Broadband is still not sorted out, the companies involved are useless and blaming each other and then us, mentioning no names....BT and PIPEX (p.s. that was said in a very loud, angry voice!!)

Anyway, we've been busy, busy, working in Steve's garden, going swimming, art group, cookery group, science group, church, cleaning cottages, ironing(!) and generally usual things!

This afternoon we went to a coffee and chat time with out local LETs group (Local Exchange Trading Scheme). This is a group where you can offer and get services with a local currency instead of money. Have a look at http://www.letslinkuk.net/ and it explains it better, apparantly there are groups all over the uk so it sounds quite good. We have put our names down to join our local group so we shall let you know how it goes. In the local area we have people offering anything from accomodation to building to hair dressing and dog sitting so we can't wait to get involved!
Whilst we were there the kids got busy with a bit of arty crafty stuff, Eilidh got her face painted whilst Ben ate cake, then Eilidh decided to have her hand painted then her other hand (she's a real glutton with some things) and Dave experienced an Alexander Technique mini/taster session to help sort his back problems out ( a full course would cost £200 - ouch - but worth it if it sorts him out).

Kids are fine, Eilidh is getting to the stage of actually sitting reasonably still in church and joing in more with all the groups we go to. Ben, however is waking up a five most mornings, not going back to sleep, being shattered all day and got into a bad habit of not listening and being horrible all day!! He seems to constantly have tummy aches at the moment and we need to get back onto a more fruit and veg diet which he seems to cope with better than the rubbish (for us anyway!) we have been eating lately. Because we have both been working a lot more and been really tired at the end of each day, the more convenient food has crept back in which is not good. Still, Steve is getting his house put on the market this week so his garden work will ease off a bit now as most of it is done. We also have a friend helping out so the pressure is not so much on me. We shall see....

Sorry, no blogs this week, our telephone and broadband connection have been down and still not right so just a short and sweet note to say we will resume normal service soon!!!

The trip yesterday was brilliant although I think we have only just thawed out, it was FREEZING!! The car behaved itself perfectly on the journey and it feels like absolute luxury after the cars we have had recently!!

We met up with a few other families and had a look around the Bird of Prey centre (www.discoverit.co.uk/falconry/) first, they have owls, eagles, vultures, kites, and loads of other birds as well as a couple of deer, wallabies , red squirrels and a kookaburra (who 'laughs' like a monkey!) Then they let the kids hold some of the smaller owls and have a chance to stroke them and then went onto the flying demonstrations. The man in charge was really good, he showed us a couple of the big owls (almost as big as Ben!), a red kite and a black kite, and a vulture. The kids who wanted a go got a chance at having the birds fly to them and he had some of the birds flying right over our heads, some so close you could feel the wings! One of the owls he flew low right over our heads and I was trying to get a photo of it in flight and just as I clicked the button his wing hit me!! Never did get a decent picture!

Eilidh loved it, she had a go with all the birds, even the big black vulture and wasn't the slightest bit scared. Ben didn't want to hold any of them but loved the red kite called Scarlet as it would catch food in mid air. We got loads of pictures but can't put them all on here. It was a brilliant day even if we were all frozen solid by the end and well worth the drive.

Will put pictures on tomorrow as it seems to be playing up at the moment!!!

Just a quick blog whiel I am waiting for Dave to get back from washing the car.Today we are off to the Bird of Prey centre up in Kielder, Northumberland. It's a bit of a drive but we are meeting up with some other Home Ed families and being given a presentation and some of the older ones may even get to help fly some of the birds. One of our friends works up there with his son so we are getting special treatment for the day!! Our new car is up and runnng so hopefully it will be absolutely fine on the journey.

Yesterday was a quiet day, church in the morning then home and pottering about. Ben watched his Phonics videos... again and Eilidh did some reading. We decided that we would try and find out what her 'reading age 'is as she seems to just whizz through any book she picks up. There is a special test called a Burt test (or something) which calculates what age her reading level is. Well.... She came out at 10.11 years!!! (Not quite sure how they calculate the .11 but still!) What a superstar!!

Yesterday was back to gardening as the weather was lovely again. Taking down more trees, Joel has dubbed us the tree murderers!

Today I went with the kids to do one of our cottages while Dave took our 'new' car down for an MOT. We have had this car sat outside our house for about six months, it belonged to a friend from church who had nowhere to put it and no money to fix it. In the end he decided we could have it as he is now getting married and getting a truck instead! So we got a free car (Renault Laguna) which didn't need too much doing to it...hurrah! Well, it passed after a few technicalities so it will soon be sorted out for the road and I will be mobile again. Thanks Rob!!

Ben decided he wanted to see his Phonics videos again so they both sat and watched them again this afternoon. Ben is very proud of the fact that he can 'read' some words now so I shall have to find some easy books for him to try soon.

The weather today has been horrible, very rainy and windy so no gardening. Eilidh and Ben were busy playing in Eilidh's room for ages this morning so we left them to it until they were hungry! They eventually appeared for some hot porridge and we sat and watched some of the schools programmes on the telly. Ben was very interested in one learning about how concrete was made and tested, probably had something to do with the fact they were making railway sleepers! They also watched an English programme which was a little too old for them, in fact I didn't even understand half of it ...suffixes, short vowels and goodness knows what else??

After lunch they decided to go upstairs and listen to a Winnie The Pooh story tape while I managed to get some washing and vacuuming done (yes, it does happen occasionally!) Then they came down to watch some 'Jolly Phonics' videos we have just been given off Freecycle. These are designed to teach children to learn to read and are what Eilidh had used at school in Reception class. Ben has been showing much more interest in learning his letters and numbers just recently so we shall try this way and see what happens. He was engrossed in the videos and nobody was allowed to make a sound while he watched!! Eilidh began to remember some of the bits from school and was helping Ben learn the actions that they have for each letter sound. Quite an educational day even though most of it was in front of the telly!

While Ben was busy watching, Eilidh helped me to start making some Christmas cards. We are trying to have a low key, environmentally friendly Christmas this year (so be warned everybody!)

We had a really good time yesterday swimming up at Penrith then on to the Home Ed get together there. Both Ben and Eilidh are getting more confident in the water, Eilidh was even putting her whole face in and blowing bubbles.

Today was back at Steve's to attack the garden again. Dave got the part for his chainsaw this morning so we could get on with taking down the rest of the trees to let some more light through. It all went really well, no damage done with falling trees and no casualties until Dave slipped on some stone steps and bashed his back! He's a bit bruised and sore but hopefully will be alright for tomorrow. Here are some pictures of some of Steve's garden, he also had loads of woodland as well, great for building dens!

Eilidh and Ben played Snakes and Ladders with Joel (Ben won) and then they found some Thomas the Tank Engine bits on YouTube. Both of them helped pulling branches out for us and then decided to play Robin Hood in the woods. Steve supplied us all with chips and biscuits and kept me going with coffee again, bless him!! It was a good day, we got loads done today and feel shattered again tonight. Although I feel a bit guilty not doing much with the kids, they love going to Steve's to see the boys and it won't be for too long and as we are both working on the garden, we are both getting paid!! Hurrah!!

Yesterday we went off on one of our Home Ed monthly strolls. This was up near Thirlemere which is actually a man-made reservoir up near Keswick. It was made way back in the 1890's to supply Manchester with lots of water in order to maintain the growth of the Industrial Revolution but is so natural and beautiful now you would just presume it was another natural lake if you didn't know any better. One really amazing fact about the project is that the water travels about 84 miles to Manchester without the need for any pumps, by building the aqueduct with a fall of around 20 inches to the mile it takes the water just over a day to reach the treatment works. We had a lovely walk up through some woods onto the top of Raven Crag, stopped for lunch and then back down again a different way. A few families came with the obligatory dogs and it was great fun as usual. Eilidh just got on and went on talking to everyone else along the way with not one grumble or moan! Fantastic!!!

This morning we spent reading books and Eilidh read some to us as well. Her reading is amazing, it's come on so much since last year when we were fighting her to read a simple book. I kept going to help her with words I didn't think she would know but she just rattled her way through them. I guess it makes me feel a bit more confident that Home Schooling is the right way for us!!

This afternnon we were back working over at Steve's this afternoon, desperatly trying to get his garden finished so that he can put his house on the market. Jason decided to give us a hand today and helped Dave with shoveling gravel for the paths. I was doing my usual very exciting job of.........yes, weeding (again!) Steve keeps me going by supplying me with 'proper' coffee every so often! The kids were helping Joel make a bow and arrow , climbing trees and running around the garden. Hopefully Dave will get his chain-saw sorted this week so we can get on and chop some more straggly trees down and also get the woodland walks done.

Tonight of course it was bonfire night. As Ben isn't very keen on loud fireworks Dave surprised us all with a garden firework display and a lovely bonfire. The kids enjoyed it and even Ben coped with a few small bangs and whizzes. We also had sparklers and toasted marshmallows after the display so it was really great. It's so nice having the space and being able to have a bonfire without disturbing the neighbours as it's tucked away around the side of the house. So they have both had a late night again but went to bed happy. Of course, I made the mistake of reading their bedtime story in our room, so Ben is now fast asleep in our bed. He will have to get kicked out later but he looked so peaceful I just left him there!!

Sorry, (correction) pictures!

Just discovered Dave took some pictures on Thursday when he took the kids for a walk down to Cumbria Wildlife Trust which is just down the road from us, they love to look around the wildlife pond & see if there is any conservation work going on then to look around the gardens which are very beautifully planted with mature trees & shrub gardens, as well as flower beds with loads of info plaques.

1.Eilidh & Ben looking for life in the pond 2.Eilidh & Ben find a water snail on a leaf. 3.Ben suggests there is something very big in the woods, Eilidh says there is a lovely water snail on a big water lily leaf in the middle of the pond, can daddy get it for her - daddy says "No" - surprised?

They then went on over to Plumbgarths Farm Shop for some eggs & anything from the reduced range (they are a bit pricey otherwise) & came back with a nice cake & some yummy biscuits which the kids love but almost break their teeth (Ben took 2 days to eat one!!!).

The last two days have been quite uninteresting, stayed at home as Dave's shoulder is still not right. The truck needs some work doing to it as it needs to get through the MOT so Dave has been trying to do this (one handed!) Eilidh and Ben have been busy doing some more of their lanterns, playing, putting on dancing shows (best not to ask!) and playing on the computer. Eilidh also helped Dave measure up some outside lights today and then willingly did some sums to add all the measurements up. I got back from doing a cottage clean and she was very proud of herself!!

They were also busy yesterday making a tin can telephone and then spent an hour decorating them. Small things.........