Summer is on the way

I have been a busy Mum recently with getting things ready and educating the children,

 I started re-fashioning as a hobby, I am remaking my wardrobe into some wearable clothing for summertime esp as it looks like we are off to Greece ( I think a Greek Island ) for a week in August.

I so far have transformed some of one of my old Sarong's into a top and will be making a nice skirt from the remaining part. I have ripped some triangular pockets out of a top that i could not see the point of in the first place as the moment you put anything in the pocket the top always pulled down to that side since its a jersey knit fabric. I need to take in the sides to that top more I think still as its a touch loose. 

I have plans for my other Sarong to become a nice summer skirt but still unsure of the style I want since the print is rather geometric in shape. and my wrap around skirt is going to benefit from the addition of a zipper and being closed at the least though part of me wants to mix it with some white cotton and make a nice top out of it and headband.
I also have plans for a few of M's old t-shirts hoping I can make a colour block dress out of a couple of the ones that have lost their shape in the wash so he doesn't wear them anymore anyway.

I want a big huge pile of throw cushions but that will take some money to buy fabric which I don't currently have at my disposal. I am hoping I can start to make something to sell that would raise a bit of cash but undecided quite as to what it should be. Possibly personalised Christmas stockings though I need to get one made for each of our family first though we will all get Knitted ones once I finish M's one.

I have finally put into reality my dream of playing bass guitar and I am learning slowly between all my other current hobbies and the never ending household jobs list that comes with being a mother to 4 crazy little boys who are now ALL mobile ( making nothing in my home safe anymore ) I really enjoy music and have started putting my pen back to the old paper and jotting down lyrics as inspiration takes me.

We ( the boys and myself ) are having an absolute blast as home-educators the freedom to learn about what takes their imagination each day is great. The basics of reading and math are coming along nicely and from looking at the primary science curriculum the other day then I think we about have that covered with some lovely ideas from Pintrest.com to help with the practical sides of it. 

One goal is to get more outdoors focused learning in during the warmer months of the year it seems a waste to not take advantage of God's wonderful creation to learn the nature based sciences during the good weather. I don't see the need for a " summer holiday " time as such as learning at this age is something that happens each and every day regardless of pen being put to paper or not. I hope my children develop a love and a passion for gaining knowledge not just learning facts.

Little CJ our youngest boy is now 7 1/2 months old and crawling rather well, chasing on the heels of his older brothers for sure and AJ the next oldest from him is doing well also though still fairly wordless ( not that he doesn't know them he just chooses not to implement that knowledge in daily life ) we get surprises from him when he chooses to express himself verbally but he is a polite child and uses sign language for please, thankyou, sorry, and will demonstrate his need/want for something by fetching an associated item, ie.. if he wants a drink he will get his cup and point to the sink and sign please. If he wants food he will do the same but with a plate and the cupboard or fridge depending on what food he desires. I'm choosing to work with him on his verbal English skills saying both the phonectic sounds of the Alphabet as well as the names of the letters and sounding out words and repeating words with him. He is making his own progress in his own sweet time and some days its a complete pleasure if the elder ones are occupied and quiet ( not that it happens often ) that I dont have a noisy 2 1/2 yr old chatting away in my ear. instead as he is right now he chooses to read to himself sat next to me under my arm. EJ is flying along with his English and Math skils, we often get him telling us that " I can't do this , I need help" but often all the help needed is to sit with him and reassure him that he does indeed posses the skill and knowledge for the task at hand. considering he's supposed to be in his Nursery year then he is flying ahead of where he should be. NJ is doing great with his reading and math also. though often it takes a bit more work to keep him focused to task he does enjoy the practical maths we do alot more than any bookwork. 

A HUGE change is looming in our future which could dramatically alter the "norm" for our household but I can't say what just yet... you will have to wait for the next installment

Hangi postponed! and Baby past due!

Sorry I didnt get back here earlier to update on this but the Hangi was postponed due to alot of people going to be away, we still had a BBQ over the Bank Holiday weekend though and lots of friends around.

Other news is that im officially more than 40 wks pregnant again!, Estimated Due date was yesterday but it came and went with no signs of baby so still very much pregnant.

Oh and EJ has started nursery and we have started schooling NJ again and AJ is finally figuring out how to say Mumma and Dadda

Preparing for the Summer of Hangi !

Do you know what this is?

( Image from http://www.genuinemaoricuisine.com/Folders/Hangi.html )

It is a Hangi ! A Traditional Maori way of cooking food.

I as a Kiwi Expat in the UK am planning with the help of a Scots friend ( who spent some time in Aoteroa ) to " Put down a Hangi " August Bank Holiday weekend (most likely or the wkd after) of this year 2013 which is the 8th year of life in the UK. I plan to document this event for educational purposes for my children and my readers here. And I am planning to introduce a little bit of Maori culture to the life of my family, so if I use words in upcoming blog posts that you don't understand then I will try to remember to put their English counterparts in a section of the bottom of the post.

In the meanwhile I have to get my Whānau { family } fed and start gathering my Hangi Supplies ready for August.

Well its official baby number four on the way!

I can tell you all now that baby 4 is expected to join our family around September 10th 2013. We are very happy and feel very blessed to be given another child, we had our first scan and all is well they moved my due date forward a bit but i don't mind but i will be pushing to wait for induction till 2wks from my original date as i just have big babies anyway so expect my baby to measure ahead anyway. I get consultant care again thus time due to NJ's abohdn and EJ's size at birth but that just means a gtt test and maybe an extra scan.

Indoor Playtime

This last month I have been struggling with my health and that has resulted in the Little ones picking up several bugs themselves so we have had to be creative about keeping occupied to keep the tv veiwing levels down.

A Favorite game for my boys is building a hut/fort using the sofa cushions and blankets and duvets, they absolutely Love to just curl up inside a hut and have Mummy reading them stories. I cant say I blame them its  very fun and I used to spend many many hours in huts and forts created by myself and my sisters using a variety of Blankets /sheets and our Bunk beds ( I  think the bunks started to beat out the table and chairs for supporting walls when we got too big to all fit comfortably under the dining table with room for special toys or friends )

Another winner for the last month or more has been a big packing box we had laying around from the move up here in Novemeber. That box was a bus/ship/plane and all manner of other vehicles after they had tipped all the toys out of it, it got pushed and pulled soo much it eventually gave way in the corners and ripped beyond repair. Now I might have to unpack some more things for them to get another box lol.

As I hinted at earlier then my boys love having books and stories read to them and we have worked our way through a large portion of our book collection some of the favorites being read a few times of course in the last few weeks, I have a Long Long list of  my favorite childhood books saved on Amazon to buy for the boys in years to come, the stories I remember my Dad sitting and  reading to me on the beanbag in the corner of the living room with us all trying to pile in his lap.

We have been trying to study Space as well as do Handwriting, Phonics and Math with Nate and EJ has been watching along joining in with things, We are planned to be building space rockets tomorrow out of spare cardboard I have been putting aside for a few weeks from stuff that has come into the house in boxed up form.

Of course the Trainset has been well used in the last few weeks by all the boys even little AJ whos not so little anymore has been making himself heard in picking out his favourite train and pieces and annoying his brothers plenty with swiping sections of much needed track to wonder off with.
I thought with 200+ pieces of track and trains and trees that we had enough not to cause fights between the boys but I was obviously wrong and we seem to need more somehow. I do need a new storage solution for the trainset it overtook and eventually broke my large lidded bucket and currently is being stored in a Banana Box in the corner of the living room but all the other toys are getting piled there too so I need a better containment device for it.
Suggestions anyone...?

Winter has arrived

Winter has arrived properly in the UK we have had snow at last he attached picture is looking out my upstairs window on Monday morning between snow showers. All on the trees and roofs is now gone but there is a fair bit left on the ground the temp peaked at half a degree today its quite cold so the sunshine didn't have much impact on the snow. Lots happening meaning I've not been out much recently as AJ was ill last week with a nasty virus then i drove MIL to the airport on Friday and took C to the church social at Costa on Saturday but not been out since other than to play in the snow with the boys

new year new resolutions

2013 is here, Ive started a new diet/lifestyle called Primal which is cool its a challenge but its working so far for me and im getting on with it ok for the past 10 days. lots happening so i'll blog properly tomorrow when Mike isnt waiting for me upstairs

Lipstick and Sawdust (reblog)

Stumbled upon this fantastic blog on Pintrest going to take some time when the kiddos arent around to have a look see but looks great already from what ive seen

Lipstick and Sawdust

Frosty no snowman

Well its frosty cold winter but still no sign of snow not a single flake :-( and this does not make me happy the temperature was -1 all day yesterday but no snow and we aren't even predicted to get any in the next front that comes through oh well winter will arrive someday with snow

Christmas is coming

Christmas is coming soon its nearly here the lights and decorations are going up all around me.

I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited,

I'm always excited when it comes to Christmas, for a number of reasons and this Christmas will be special because though not AJ's first Christmas then it will be the first one he will be opening his own gifts as he was only a few weeks old last year, and this year hes walking/climbing etc... and that makes it special as our whole family can share in the gift giving and receiving traditions.

And my second reason for being extra excited this year is because I have a new house to decorate and for a change we dont have enough decorations for it.

I have been inspired for my fireplace mantle by the photo below

This is the fireplace of a friend and she shared her decoration with me and I gotta say I LOVE IT !!!

and going to have to share my Inspiration with Mike because he gets the Christmas bug as as bad if not worse that I do and normally takes the lead in decorating.

We wont be decorating yet though as much as my fingers are itching to get started because Mike and I promised each other that we would celebrate AJ's first birthday before decorating the house so it doesnt confuse the older boys and also so its special for AJ and we can decorate for his birthday and make it special for him.

New chapter

Its like a new chapter in my life right now. We each are settling in to our new house and routine starts in earnest this week with Mike fully back to work and me at home with alkaline the boys. I'll be shifting my main family blog to a different place and using this one more for me and life topics. The reason behind this is that we feel God is leading us towards home-education and I want a blog where i can post about that separate from my Topics here. I will get the link for that sorted soon

New house new phone

Well we have moved house now and I've gotten a new phone too so i finally upgraded to a proper smart phone allowing me to update on the move

Carlys Voice

The link above is a blog that I follow, I got the update today and felt that I needed to reblog her post to help spread Autism awareness and the story of Carly and her life with Autism,

Please read and spare a thought for all those who's lives are touched by Autism and help spread awareness so that we can understand more how to help and stop prejudice

Life on the school run

My baby has started school !! : ( 

So sad that he's grown up so quickly

Here in the UK our children start school in Reception the September following their 4th birthday which for NJ was this year, We can keep them off till the following year and start them in Year 1 but 99% of children who aren't home-educated head off to school at 4yrs+ some who have just had their birthday in the final days of the August that year. Nathaniel was well ready for school and down to space and other things we decided home-education wasn't a great fit for us at the moment.

Typically in English weather the first day of school was a raincoat day we got wet on the way to school and on the way home, My second son EJ has started Nursery at NJ's old nursery for 2 days a week which we are paying for ( ouch ) and 2 other mornings a week we are @ the local Children's centre which is next door to the Nursery and still on school grounds for a Stay and Play group for both EJ and AJ and toddler cooking lessons for EJ which he loved the first week , So that leaves me with only one day where I can drop off NJ and not be either hanging around the school or back for a lunchtime pickup of EJ but instead get to stay home till I have to go get NJ at 3.05 which leaves little time for housework.

We thankfully got some more decent weather after the first week of school and the first week of full time school ( first week was half days ) then we managed without getting wet on the school run. AJ has decided he hates the pushchair now though which isn't great news since he has to spend about 100 min in it a day with the school run trips, Im also walking 10-12 miles a week doing the school run which is good caus its boosted my activity levels and with AJ's distaste for the puschair and EJ's little legs getting sore Ive been carrying AJ in the wrap for the afternoon trips which gives me a bit more of a workout.

We got some good family time last weekend not the one we have just had but the previous one, we took the boys to Chessington World of Adventures using our free residents passes and had a good day out with the boys.

Paralympics buzz

I didn't thing the Paralympics would be the massive hit that it has been I've been surprised at the media and social reaction in this country. the Athletics have been branded as " Superhumans " and with the incredible things that they have done in the last week then I cant say that the label doesnt fit caus it most certainly does.

Ive purposely put the Games on TV for the boys to see that there are people out there that are different that still do awesome things and they have been really enjoying it and shouting just as loud for the paralympians as the olympians a month ago.
I want them to grow up seeing the variety and differences in life without prejudice and accept people for who they are regardless of how many limbs they have or what their limbs look like.

The NZ Para team have an incredible haul of 13 medals so far 4 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze with more medal  hopes to come. I think we need to get the swimmers in the pool with the able swimmers to give them some tips because most of our medals have come from the pool.

Thats all for now we are preparing this morning for Nathaniels school teacher for the year to visit in preparation for his start on Monday