Usual Monday today, we spent this morning doing bits and pieces around the house, Dave worked on my car as it was playing up yesterday and the kids played with their bricks and read some books. This afternoon we packed up a picnic and went of to our local Home Ed group which meets each week. The weather was ok, really hot when the sun came out and cold when it went behind a cloud! I still managed to get sunburnt again!!

Had some good chats with people at the group and the kids enjoyed themselves building bird houses from twigs !? and playing. We have a few more people interested in our camp later this month so it looks like it could be fun. Some of the older kids came and asked to play rounders today so Dave got roped into bowl for them, but the game seem to be a bit more relaxed this week with no drama!

Just got home in time to rescue my washing from the line before it rained. We seem to have an endless supply of laundry as the holiday cottages are all booked up this time of year. Unfortunately it all has to be ironed as well and ironing fitted sheets is a PAIN!!!!

There was another church picnic planned today at Brockhole, however we seem to be the only ones that turned up!! As we couldn't find anyone else the kids got togged up in their wet suits and we sat on a little beach by the lake for the whole afternoon....bliss! The kids and Dave went splashing about in the water, playing Swallows and Amazons and jumping waves whenever a boat went past. They thoroughly enjoyed themselves while I lazed about and read a book. It was a gorgeous day today, really warm and sunny, so absolutely perfect! Stopped for an ice-cream on the way home although it was already tea-time.

After getting our holiday cottages spick and span we decided to go for a drive to have a look at a campsite at Sedbergh. We are planning another few days there with our Home Ed group in a few weeks. Unfortunately the weather has been awful, we ended up taking my poor little car through puddles galore, some more like rivers!! Still it kept running, just about! As we were out that way we decided to have a drive on to a little village called Dent, which is a really pretty village with small cobbled street in the middle of nowhere. We got there a bit late and didn't even manage to get an ice-cream so headed home.

Found out last night that foot and mouth has reared it's ugly head again. At the moment it's just in Surrey and I really hope it does'nt spread any further. We are surrounded by farms and fields full of cattle and sheep, even some in the field behind our garden (very close to the house). I think we both feel really upset as we remember watching the fires burn from last time and have a few friends who are farmers around here. We just have to pray it does'nt spread this time and feel for those farmers who may lose everything they work so hard for. We'll just have to watch and see.................

Not much happened today, the kids had Phoebe around to play this afternoon and she nearly ended up falling fast asleep on my lap watching Jungle Book!! Seeing as we haven't got much to report I thought we could put a few photos of around our house and views from our windows. (We do have a caravan for anyone who would like to visit!! )

Today Dave took charge of the kids, they all went off this morning to pick up some logs from some lovely friends of ours in Grange-Over-Sands. After loading up the pick-up, playing and yacking they appeared back for lunch. As soon as lunch was finished they went back out for another load. Dave loaded up then took them for a walk along the prom at Grange and then onto the Ice-Cream Farm. The farm makes gorgeous fresh ice-cream from their own cows and have a small playground with ride-on tractors and animals to look at so the kids love it (and Dave!) They came back home happy and covered in ice-cream (well Ben was anyway!)

I spent the day cleaning, washing, ironing and other really exciting things that had to be done but it was a good day, the sun was shining and I actually managed to get a lot of washing dry.

As the weather was a bit grey and gloomy we decided a trip to the library was due. Dave was picking up more breeze blocks to do retaining walls with so me and the kids loaded up books and of we went.

On the way we popped into a small garden centre to try and get some caterpillar killer, they are happily munching my veggies at the moment so they are destined to die!! Apparantly soapy water works according to the guy there so that a nice cheap option to try first!!

Spent a an hour or so choosing books and reading a few then home for lunch. Was meant to be tidying the house this afternoon but decided to make carrot cookies instead! As soon as I got them out of the oven I got a phone call from a friend and left the kids happily licking out bowls and spoons, only to come back and find them merrily munching their way through the cookies as well!!!
They didn't even pretend to look guilty just kept munching!!!! Still I managed to save most of them for Dave to try when he got home. Yummy!

Another lovely sunny day. Well, I have now lost one stone!!!! HURRAY!! Just need to lose lots more but one step at a time.

Took the kids to Brockhole, usually one of our favourite places, however today it was packed! There were people everywhere, how dare they be there!!! We ended up at the playground as usual but I think Ben was a bit bewildered, (he's like me, not so good with huge crowds of people!) and even Eilidh didn't kick up a fuss when we had to leave. Still, we had a nice picnic down by the lake with Eilidh splashing about in the water but not quite a fun as it normally is ....roll on September!!


We got back home to find the electricity off and had to get fish and chips in for tea (that's our excuse anyway!)