Jesus following, natural living, Somerset homeschooling mum to Acey. Here is our blog to share with family and friends and anyone else who might be interested, about our home ed journey.


John 13:34 - ''A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.''

Wednesday 28 December 2011

Chrrrriiiisssstttmasss!!!




Wow! We had such a wonderful, joy-filled, family and friend orientated, crafty, delicious, santa-free, Yashua focused christmas!



I was so moneyless during the run up to christmas because of an annoying gas bill coming out (thanks, british gas)! but in a way that was such a good thing, as time was spent crocheting purses and making soaps as gifts, and also had frugal charity shop fun! 
We went to a lovely carol service in the park with my wonderful friend Christina, armed with lanterns which was really nice and festive. We had homemade mince pies and (disgusting) mulled wine which we threw away! 
We popped out to the local shops and discovered a christmas craft fayre was on, with a free magician which Acey loved!!! It was all very exciting...

We had a christmas party at home ed group which was very exciting to say the least!


We had a magical christmas eve...our friend David visited and we had some homemade swedish buns. A couple of years ago I met a russian girl who had lived in Sweden and told me how to make these delicious traditional swedish St Lucia buns. I have made them every year ever since. They are traditionally eaten on 13th, St Lucia day, but we had them on christmas eve instead! In the evening we attended a carol service in our local church, and my mum came along too. The children all lit candles and sang carols and there was a donkey but he was too shy to come in. It was really lovely. Our friend Verity filmed it, and then came back to our flat afterwards. Oh and Acey made some last minute christmas cards for his dad and his grandparents...


Christmas day started at 5:00am in our house! All presents opened before it even got light. It was so much fun...We spent the rest of the day with my mum and stepdad and Acey's dad too. It was a really lovely special day. Boxing day was spent with our friend Glenn in the morning and again, at my mum's. We watched the trauma based mind programming but oh still such a good film The wizard of oz, followed by Edward scissorhands and Acey played with his new remote controlled car in the park! 



Acey's new knight stuff!!


Wow, look at all of those cards! We are so blessed.








Wintertime





I haven't blogged for a while, so thought I would do a winter update and share some pictures! We have really been enjoying this wintertime. Usually I suffer from SAD but this year, for some reason it has been NICE this year..maybe it is because this winter hasn't been so cold, maybe it is because of the vitamin D spray we are taking (it's great stuff)! Maybe it is just because we have been sharing it with so many wonderful friends and family this year! Or maybe I just miraculously like winter now!

We have been for lots of lovely countryside walks and spent a day shopping in Minehead with our friends (was a bit daunting going out in Emeth's new car, I won't lie) ;)

Visiting the faeries in the quantocks

With friend Millie at Minehead

We did a project about Jamaica and made this poster. 


I became a fairy god mother!!! Such a blessing, he is beautiful...this obviously called for some new fairy wings and an excuse to wear glitter alot! I purchased my wings from http://www.folksy.com/shops/rainbowfairydust in Glastonbury...a pixie family who make some really lovely things!


We FINALLY have a table from our lovely friend Bryony. It is unbelievably nice not having to eat dinner on the sofa, and having somewhere to do crafts etc!!


Cardboard house made at home ed group 

Beeswax candleholders made by Acey for our wintertable!


And star bunting made with the scap bits of wax!

Winter solstice was spent with our lovely new friends Verity and Duncan! Verity prepared a lovely lovely meal and made some really nice presents for myself and Acey! We had a lovely time and are soo pleased to have new friends :) 

Sunday 13 November 2011

RAWGASBOARD! and other events of this week....

This week involved;


An early morning walk to the farm shop - we always like saying hello to the friendly chickens :)


Making some more wind gliders at home ed group...
Acey had alot of fun with these ones!


They also coloured in some origami frogs :)


We have made some little acorn cap candles. Acey enjoyed pouring the wax into them and watching it go hard. Was alot of fun!

This is our new waldorf mermaid which was originally bought for Acey's christmas stocking, but we couldn't resist playing with her now. Acey has named her Ruby...(From Esterella's felted friends on facebook - she makes some LOVELY things)



Chopping the aubergine for a pasta dish that Acey made himself...



And a delicious feast was had on Friday with our friend David....not just ANY feast...but a RAWgasboard (like a smorgasboard but only containing raw food). Dave and I used to be a big fan of 'smorgasboards' back in the day. Once we got so smorgasboarded that we stuffed some cheese, kale and crystalised ginger up each of our noses, and felt that we might die. After a rawgasboard, although we were full we generally felt quite well, and not inclined to do anyting so drastic!! We feasted on raw chocolate balls which tasted like halva, carrots, peppers, raw tabouli (recipe from chrissy at liveliferaw.co.uk) sea spaghetti and raw pesto, happy pate, chia and goji crackers, and some (ok not raw) carob chocolate...
and of course sauerkraut!!!


Nettle's chia and goji crackers


I was quite impressed with how these turned out, so thought I would share the recipe. These are a nice treat for when you want a comforting sweet treat in wintertime;

Soak roughly one cup of chia in two cups of water for about 8 hours, along with a handful of goji berries. We also added some flax. When the water has all been soaked up, add two tablespoons of local raw honey or raw agave. Add a sprinkling of cinnamon or mixed spice, mix with clean hands, spread the mixture out onto a dehydrator sheet  and dehydrate for around 12 hours. Delicious! I love the smell of spices in the kitchen around this time of year. They would be lovely with raisins in them too I should imagine or some cacao.

More amazing raw-ness was had on Saturday as I met a couple of other raw foodists in Taunton - I know - in Taunton! We had some smoothies from the amazing superjuice van in town and it was wonderful to meet some lovely like minded peoples :)

Acey had lots of fun playing with his friend Nancy on Friday evening, and with his friend Vincent Bailey in the park today too! It has been a busy week, and now poor Acey has a cold so I think the next few days are going to be taking it easy.
xxx

Sunday 6 November 2011

November!

November is not my favourite word...neither is December, January or February either to be honest. Not a fan of the colder months...but here they are and so we will celebrate them in all of their horrible coldness!

At home ed group on Tuesday the children made some paper wind gliders which were alot of fun, although as the weather was so nice, they were itching to get outside and play. Acey had lots of fun climbing the Oak tree with his friend;


On Thursday evening we went along to our local church who were having their 'Thursday fun club' and a firework display. There were ALOT of children playing with a big parachute when we got there, which Acey did not want to participate in and spent the whole time watching with his hands over his ears. When it all quietened down a bit he started to relax a bit more and the children all lined up for hot dogs or (in Acey's case) popcorn! The firework display was nice, Acey's ears were covered yet again for the duration of the spectacle, (he does this when there are loud noises) but he had a big smile on his face and especially enjoyed the catherine wheel :) It was another lovely little event for children..





This week has also involved;


Night-time yoga by pumpkinlight (very fuzzy yoga pics)


Acey making his own porridge and hot chocolate

And over the weekend he stayed at his nanna's, and she took him swimming! He came back telling me all about how he had lots of fun jumping in the water. I spent the day in Charmouth with my  best friend David on Saturday...What can I say about that? Well, I never thought I would spend the day in Charmouth with David again, but we did and we discussed the possibility of a whale being washed ashore and trapping us there by landing on our arms like the man in 127 hours. and it was nice and quite magic.



Oh, the sea!
xx

Monday 31 October 2011

Chutneys, pumpkins and halloween...

So we've had a rather good week :) Last week my mum was off work. Acey and I love it when his nanna is off work, as Acey enjoys spending time with her, and for me it is like I get to spend lots of lovely time with my best friend. On Thursday we all went to the farmer's market to get some delicious ingredients for our apple chutney, and then we had lots of fun (and did ALOT of chopping) making it!

                                                            Nanna's kitchen


On Saturday we got invited to a pumpkin party at the Living Light church. I brought my mum along as I am not a fan of going to events where there will be alot of people who I don't know on my own. We were all a bit shy at first, but everyone was so friendly, and Acey soon got into making foam pumpkins and decorating them with beady eyes and glitter paint :) There was facepainting and orange hairspraying too, and also some games, which Acey didn't want to participate in (I was quite thankful that he didn't want his hair sprayed orange I'll admit)... but he did have enormous fun decorating little cupcakes with orange icing and faces made out of sweeties. After the consumption of such an amount of sugar, he was not so shy anymore, and was zooming around telling everyone about his speed battery (one of the many reasons why I don't encourage sweetie eating...more on that in a minute..). Overall it was a really nice little event for the children, and they all had a little tea afterwards.

Yesterday we ended up going for a wonderful countryside walk with our friends Chrissy and Nancy and their two dogs, and our friend David came along too. There is nothing more wonderful than seeing Acey running around free in nature, it is outdoors where he feels most confident and himself. He did get very carried away sploshing in the puddles though, and so was a bit of a sorry state with wellies filled with water and wet trousers on the way back!! We did a slight spot of whortleberry foraging too (they were delicious)!


                                           One little fairy and one little pixie playing by the tree
The beautiful Somerset countryside where little ones can run wild and free with the sheep :)

When we got home from our walk we made some lovely warm pumpkin soup to eat with our friend David. And yes I do say 'eat' soup instead of 'drink' as we came to the conclusion that people who say that they 'drink' soup are the type of people who only drink those silly cuppa soups instead of the actual real wholesome stuff! ;)

And today it is Samhain, or 'halloween'.. I must admit that I am not a big fan of the occassion. As a child I never went 'trick or treating' and I don't really get it. It is times like this I sometimes do wonder why I have to question everything and why can't I just let my little one go out and enjoy the night, armed with an empty bag ready to fill with sweeties from strangers. Well, for one thing I really cannot stand the array of costumes and sticky facepaints and other gimmicky rubbish that lines the shelves in the stores. It is a waste of money! And WHY would I want to send my little one to eat all of those sweeties?!! Maybe I would feel differently if people instead handed out apples, or roasted chestnuts or something a bit seasonal and homely. Why does it have to involve all of the sugar and E-numbers? A sugar rush followed by a terrible slump (as I learnt on Saturday) are no treat for any of us! Are the children getting tricked into what is a 'treat?'

Mean mummy or Mindful mummy? You decide...


Our loveheart pumpkin <3

Time for Acey's bedtime massage by pumpkinlight now I think...
Love and Samhain blessings to all xx

Wednesday 26 October 2011

A mid week blog - soup with Nanna, a spooky birthday party and foraging with Annabelle

I was hoping to start writing this blog on more of a weekly basis, but this week we have quite a few photos to share, and I fear that I would have not the room on an end of week blog! So far this week...

Monday was spent with my mum. We made some delicious butternut squash soup and then made some little christmas decorations - some little felt things to hang on the tree. Acey had fun drawing,cutting out and sticking the loveheart shapes for his and then sticking lovely pretty red beads on them and glitter glue. They look very pretty;

                                           He also made a halloween bat too!

My little star creation (my sewing skills are minimal)

Yesterday we randomly got invited to Noah's birthday party, so did not go to home ed grop.. It was halloween themed dress up and it was quite sweet - there were exactly; two little pirates (Acey and Noah), two little witches and two little skeletons. Lots of fun was had...

                                                    blowing out FOUR candles on the cake :)

Today we went for a lovely walk in Broomfield woods with our dear friend Annabelle who is due to give birth soon. She wanted to take a walk to try to 'speed things up'... this is one of my favourite places...



Such a beautiful view of the sea (kilve I think?) and the quantocks

                                  
And armed with our Richard Mabey's food for free book we did a spot of foraging too. Here our some delicious beech nuts we gathered. It was a lovely walk with Annabelle and Sam the bump!

Now it's time to snuggle up with our redbush citrus tea and toffee apple before we prepare dinner.
Autumn sparkkles xx