My Favourite Teenager

Ainsley had headache for the past couple of days and said she couldn't go to school. Here she is after watching some YouTube videos about curling your hair with your straightening tongs after which she felt well enough to have a go on her own hair. I saw the photos as I uploaded mine:)

Later on she went with the Young Women at church (said she was feeling better then)and made these cookie in a jar Christmas gifts. She said she was still having headache when she got home and probably wouldn't be going to school the next day. The next day she felt the inspiration to open the jar and make the cookies. (instead of gifting it to someone for Christmas) She did mention that desire to me when she brought it home but I suggested we at least enjoy it as a festive decoration for a few weeks before using it. She phoned me on my mobile to inform me of her baking "but don't worry I took a picture of it" she reassured me. She loves cookies and I think all the time on her hands the past few days left her in want of a challenging activity. The cookies turned out beautifully but she thought they all belonged to her. We did manage to each get two after dinner, they were YuM-E . She was thoughtful in making some tiny cookies that went to Charlotte and Saxon, served on Charlotte's tea set. Her headache seemed to be only a moment away whenever I mentioned it over those two days but she managed to enjoy her time at home. That evening I said to my husband, that we need to reiterate our family rule that if you are not hacking up your lungs or feverish, you can sit through your lessons at school.



Here is Ainsley bowing her new instrument; a 1/2 size cello. She has been enthusiastic to say the least and I am a happy mum about that. I think it was pure inspiration on both her and my parts to have her study the cello instead of the violin.

Sixteen Years is a Small Section of Eternity.

Simon and I went on a dinner date to celebrate meeting each other sixteen years ago tonight. We enjoyed a meal at a local pub/restaurant( Fox and PheasantCarvery) that uses traditionally farmed free range animals and veg. The ambiance was perfect, the only other people were a family of four adults on the other side of the room. We could actually hear the soft music and didn't have to speak loudly to listen to each other. We laughed about what we had learned about each other over the years that we had no idea about when we first met. We enjoyed each other's company for the nearly two hours we were there. I was so full I brought half my dessert of double chocolate fudge cake(hot fudge sauce!) with vanilla ice cream home for the kids to eat. They didn't mind at all. You can tell I need to get out more, because I needed fashion advice and hair help from my girls. Here's what we ended up with:

Happenings of Monday

Today was a fun day. I took Charlotte to the playgroup at the church in the village. It is a place where mums socialise whilst the babies and toddlers have a little play with lots of toys, puzzles etc and we gather to do a nursery rhyme/singing time thang. Charlotte liked to ride a plastic tricycle today and burst into tears when another child hot rodded away with it while she was sat down eating her buiscuit. She seemed very tired and dramatic which I want to attribute to either her stage of development or her lingering cold and not to my new late night blog reading habit that prohibits me devoting my attentions to her all evening. She has different things she prefers at each of the two play groups we go to: to the one at the village church she likes the toys you can ride the most right now and getting to eat cookies after the singing. For the other one we go to in the hall at FC (another village 2miles away) she goes for the play dough every time and again the passing tin of buiscuits after singing time. Sometimes I come home from taking the younger two children to school and get busy with "stuff" and try and talk up a tv show to her instead of taking her to playgroup. Am I a bad mother...well today I felt like an ideal mum because I came home and did what I wanted to do....getting the laundry rotated and writing letters to the school about absences during our GREAT ILLNESS and I was also able to take her to play for an hour and touch base with a couple of friends at the playgroup. It was win win, but many times I tell myself " she just wants cookies and just make her some play dough already so you don't have to feel obligated!". If I am honest though I need to get out of my house and talk to other women...it always lifts my spirits and I don't regret spending the time once I get out my door.

I volunteer in B's Y3 class on Monday afternoons and usually just listen to individual students reading their new books for a few pages. It is so cute I wish I could film them for you. I love the accents and they vary greatly even here in one school class. B is always beaming because I am present and that is why I do it mainly, because I have the time right now to do so. I also started to do random days in S's Y1 class and will be helping tomorrow afternoon to finish up their Christmas play attire. Don't know what it is yet but know the sewing has been done, so I think gluing fabric or something. It should be fun:)

After school we all meet up at the homestead and I was too tired to protest the tv being on so watched an actual game show that has math and word construction so let's say it was edutainment and then reminded eldest daughter that today was her first cello lesson~hurray!

We went and I sat in the kitchen as advised by the teacher as she said they had been out all day and hadn't heated the other rooms of the house. Her husband came home from an art class into the kitchen and we had a lovely chat about art, living in Germany, and music teachers. He showed me his charcoal sketch pad with very naked ladies posing and instead of laughing and showing how immodest I thought they looked I instead acted very non shocked and like I see someone's drawings of naked people every day. I did have to remark that the models must feel very confident to stand around without any clothes on whilst people stared at them for an hour. I think he said it was a challenging job or something. I then said "Yes you would need to have a lot on your mind " (as the naked person doing nothing but holding your body in a position for an hour, your naked body). Does that make any sense at all? After that we looked around and he said all of the art in the kitchen was his work, a lot of watercolours, then he invited me to go upstairs and showed me his studio with some of his present projects of acrylic paintings. Lovely big house, a bit uncomfortable but I am trying to trust people and to remember most people are good. The doorbell rang and the lesson was over as the next one had arrived. Good timing to end my upstairs tour. I collected Ainsley, her teacher seemed very enthusiastic saying she was able to read the music well today already. She plucked several songs then bowed them and I could hear her playing with her teacher when I was talking in the kitchen. Ainsley and I were buzzing with excitement at the fabulous opportunity it is for her to play cello. She said it feels very natural and she can picture herself playing it. I said "wonderful as you will be playing it for many years" hopefully!

We then came home and she got the cello into the living room and showed everyone her new instrument, she didn't ask if they were interested but they seemed keen once she unveiled it from the case. The next hour was noisy while I made bean salad salsa and quesadillas for dinner. I could hear Ainsley madly bowing every string over and over again, and Sage had got her violin out and after playing a few notes together decided her violin was slightly out of tune so she spent the next 55 minutes of the hour pounding or singing the same note on the piano while she tried to tune her violin. She kept calling me to go help her. It was a good time to say no thank you I am making dinner. Then S and B started with their recent habit of I'm going to hurt you if you compete with me and so you get the picture of me trying to prepare dinner amongst this...one must be patient if one's children will feel free to discover their talents...I did fairly well until Charlotte started saying her "I want my chocolate" mantra and pointing up to her advent calendar as she has been doing for small parts of each day since December 1st. That is the point I asked where DAD was. HA HA. Of course he was upstairs snoozing with a book and I chuckled to myself as the sounds would surely wake him soon and he would come and at least be the ref for B and S. He did show up once I said dinner was pretty much ready and we all sat and ate a fairly healthy meal. Funny what woke him was a child shaking his arm saying his food was ready, not the family noise downstairs. Talk about inequality! My ears are definitely not equal to my husbands.

S had the lesson for FHE which Ainsley asked him to improve upon by having a treasure hunt just as he was gathering everyone to start. Being the open to suggestion parent he is, he made one while I found a cream cheese brownie recipe online and prepared it. Once it was in the oven I stayed in the kitchen enjoying the very quietness of it just being me licking the spoon not realizing FHE was nearly over. I went in at just the right time to play Joy to the World on the piano. Great timing. I can't remember missing FHEever but I could hear them reading scriptures interspersed with my daydreaming and contributed by playing the song and saying family prayer. I'm happy with that. We enjoyed eating the brownies with ice cold milk and that was the gist of my day.

Upon my return, Sweet Charlotte was sorting and stacking her wooden blocks. The older girls were very impressed because she simply did it whilst they watched a movie. She is two and full of life. She speaks very cleary and has been talking a lot about "adagascar" because the older kids went to see the part 2 on Friday night and brought back some fun stickers for her.
This is where we turn again and head toward our home. The last leg of the walk.
This is a church we came upon at the end of one of the paths. Simon thought it to be Norman because of the style. We met the Reverend coming up the path as we were taking photos and Saxon was climbing on gravestones (he is a six year old boy). He was very friendly and invited us to Christingle service on Sunday at 4 o'clock. Here is what I found out about this particular church:

CHURCH

The church of ST. MARY consists of a chancel, nave, south porch, and western tower. It is built of rubble in the styles of the 13th and 14th centuries.

In 1767 the church was found to be in need of repair and a rate was levied for its restoration. (fn. 78) This church, however, was pulled down in 1852 and the present one built to the north of it on the east side of the village, some fittings from the former church being preserved. In the chancel, on the south side, is a brass with figures of Robert Fulmer, 1498, and Joan his wife, and of two sons and two daughters. The inscription, however, does not fit the indent and the woman's dress may be of a slightly earlier date. On the north side, there is a brass with figures of Margaret wife of Edward Bulstrode, 1540, and of her ten sons and three daughters; the inscription is a palimpsest and has on the reverse an inscription to Thomas Totyngton, Abbot of Bury St. Edmunds, 1312. Above the figures is the indent of a shield, two pieces of which, also palimpsest, are now in the rectory. The obverse shows a quartered shield of Bulstrode impaling a bend with three cinqfoils thereon; on the reverse is part of a representation of the Resurrection.

The font has a 12th-century circular bowl with a 15th-century stem and base. Upon the bowl have been carved, probably in the 15th century, eight small designs, including shields, heads (one of a bishop) and roses. There is a 17th-century cover of wood.

There is a 17th-century painting on canvas of the Ten Commandments, with illustrations and biblical explanations, in the vestry, given to the church at the end of the 18th century. In a frame on the south wall of the chancel there is a piece of red velvet, said to be part of a cloak given by Charles I for an altar frontal.

There is a ring of four bells: the treble and second dated 1908 by Mears & Stainbank; the third by T. Mears, 1808; the tenor recast in 1908 from a bell dated 1681. The old treble by Bryan Eldridge, 1640, inscribed 'Gloria Deo in Excelsis,' is still preserved.

The plate includes a small paten of 1634 and a cup of 1700.

The registers begin in 1539.

Saxon likes to pose...he does have the influence of many young ladies who also like to pose so forgive him. He likes to find a stick to carry whenever we walk anywhere..including every day on the way to school, and every day on the way back from school. Usually he waves it about and uses it as an extension of his arm to keep Bronwyn or anyone from passing him. When we get to our car he hides them nearby because I won't allow them in the car. Today he said "This will be my walking stick forever." Daddy reminded him he will grow taller and soon it would be too small. I am enjoying him exactly this tall and a small part of me wishes he would stay this way forever. When we started the walk we asked him some general questions to see if there was anything he had on his mind to talk to us about...he jumped ahead of me and said "And no, I'm not getting married!" He is so fun, he thinks he wants to still live with us when he is a grown man. He is always telling me he wants to just stay with me after his mission. We'll use that to embarass him one day when he brings a date home.
This is a trail marker and me learning to use a fancy shmancy camera. I'm enjoying it!
This is a mole hill. So next time you are making something big out of something that should be small, this is how small it should be and you are making it into a mountain instead. Saxon ran around poking them with his walking stick hoping to see a mole or perhaps kill one.
This is a house just where the trail turns and goes south. It is a lovely tranquil place round here.

Some other things we saw on our walk: The Holly and the....this is a female holly bush.

This is some Ivy growing wild on a tree. In AZ I only saw ivy painted in kitchens.

(Saxon's) Mummy Daddy Time

This afternoon I decided I wanted to go for the circular walk behind where we live. It is over two miles long and goes through woodland past some fields with horses and sheep and to a nearby village called Hedgerly then back around again to where we live. I haven't walked it much recently since the weather has been colder and aslo I have been parking further from the village school so that the children and I have to walk about half a mile to the school so I have felt like I was walking enough. A good walk clears the mind. Unless of course you are listening to your ipod, which I have never done because I like to hear what is going on around me, and I would be afraid of someone sneaking up to get me and not being aware of it if I was rocking out in my own world.

The other children were chillaxin and the littlest one was asleep. Saxon was the only one gung ho besides Simon and I so we set off as a group of three.

It is a sunny lovely day in England and I decided yesterday that blogging would make me a more happy person. I was able to read blogs from friends and neighbours in AZ recently and felt connected to my life there again and amazingly more whole, so I figure having my own blog would be a fantastic way to connect with my friends and family all over the world. It is one way of journaling and also a way to express creativity. I know I am a busy lady but I can type fast and think I'll be able to figure out how to post photos etc. Time will tell.