Happy New Year!

As 2012 comes to an end I'm excited for 2013. It's looking to be a good year and looking back over 2012 I'm happy to say it's been a good year for us. Both boys are doing well and surprise us every day with how they come along.

New year wouldn't be complete without some resolutions. Here are mine.

I want to be more organised. When I told my friend this she laughed and said I was already organised. I am to a degree but I want to be really organised. I'm going to try to meal plan a month in advance and see how that works for me. I'm also going to batch cook twice a month to carry over some meals.

I'm going to organise more activities for the boys. I find some days are just spent trying to keep them occupied when all it would take are a few things up my sleeve and it'd be much easier when boredom sets in.

I'm going to make sure I take time to do my crafty projects that I want to do. This is going to be really important for me this year. I have a lot of fabric and yarn and intend to make use of it all this year. I really want to improve my sewing machine skills too.

My last and most important resolution is to just enjoy my family. I need to learn bit more patience, accept that it doesn't matter if the floors don't get cleaned until later and just have fun and laugh with them.

I'm looking forward to 2013 and hope it's a great year for you all too.

Lisa x

Merry Christmas!

Well what can I say, I love Christmas. I've loved it more since meeting Kenny and now having our children but it's always been my favourite time of year. I'm not sure why, maybe it's the lights or the cosiness, maybe the comfort food or maybe just everything in excess! This December I had the best intentions in the world. I was going to be Super Mum, crafting and baking to our hearts content, hand making presents and all my cards. Has that happened? Has it heck! We have however been very busy doing fun things, a couple of trips to Drusillas being at the top of the list. Drusillas is an amazing zoo thats about 30 minutes from our house and it's the boys favourite place to go. I brought an annual membership a couple of months ago and have already got my moneys worth so definitely a good investment. Here are a few pictures from our month.

Nathan the Dare devil on a huge slide!

Ethan looking gorgeous and relaxed

Daddy and Nathan looking for shells

We are now plagued with coughs and colds and I'm trying to feed them lots of food to help beat it before christmas. The only problem I'm having is their appetites are greatly reduced at the moment!

I truly wish you all a very Merry Christmas however you are celebrating and here's to a wonderful 2013!

Cheers!

Learning to read.....

It never fails to amaze me just how absorbent children really are. I mentioned in a previous post that Nathan is really interested in language and I wanted to jump on it, which I have. I recently posted on a Home Ed forum for some advice on fun reading programmes to try him with and the one that came up trumps was Reading Eggs, somebody kindly gave me a code for a months free trial and I set it all up last night.

Well what can I say! It's pretty impressive not just in the interactive sense but also with how it captured Nathans attention. He's going through a tired spell at the moment and I'm going to cut out and daytime nap as he's just waking up too early for his little body. However, given that he is tired, he's just sat and done 15 minutes of it and managed to learn how to navigate my touch pad on my lap top as well as do the activities. What I also like about the program is that I can also buy accompanying books that will be good at reinforcing what he will learn. I know it's early days but I really think he'll enjoy it and if he doesn't well we can try something else.

I've also been told about some of the Leap Frog learn to read items and I'm going to invest in a couple of those too after all Christmas is coming up!

I've started to go to a couple of Home Ed groups which has been good although I think we won't need them too much at the moment as we're so busy with other things, but I do think they will definitely have their place and it's good to know they are there and that the support is so good!

If any of you have any other tips on teaching little ones to read in a fun way I'd be grateful to hear from you, in the meantime I'm going to plan lots of christmas crafts :-)

My Mum.

Two and a half weeks ago my mum visited our house. She needed to talk to me. Knowing that she was having some marital issues I assumed it was to sound off about those. No. She had found a lump in her right breast and it had been confirmed by her doctor that morning that it was indeed there. I felt myself getting slightly emotional but also tried to play it down and tell her that it would all be fine.

I've spoken about my mum on here before, in fact if you look at past posts you'll see pictures of her and in quite a few of the days out we have been on and the holiday we went on this year, she was with us. I'm close to my mum, our children adore her, Kenny gets on brilliantly with her and she does so much for us.

Even though I knew deep down that it was more than likely to be nothing to worry about, the fact that two other members of our family have had breast cancer played on my mind a alot. I'm sure it did hers too but whenever we have spoken about it she has remained upbeat. I on the other hand was terrified.

I never take the things my mum does for us for granted. She looks after the boys two mornings a week so that I can go to the gym and do some work, she pops over for coffee if Kenny's away and she knows I want some company and she brings me flowers because she knows I love them. She makes me laugh, she makes me feel special, she makes me feel loved. On the other side she can also frustrate the hell out of me and drive me nuts but hey it wouldn't be a normal relationship if we didn't have those moments!

What I do take for granted is her being here. Being at the end of the phone if I have forgotten something (happens alot), being a text away if I just want to check in with her and living only a few miles away so that I can see her a few times a week.

My mum's appointment was this morning at 9:40. She told me she'd only let me know at the end of the process. At 10:15 my phone went. It was mum saying that she was fine. It was hormonal imbalances causing lumps and bumps and she needed no follow on appointment. I was immediately filled with a sense of relief, gratitude and happiness. The feelings I felt afterward made me realise just how worried I had been.

I won't take my mum being here for granted anymore. I won't take anybody being here for granted anymore.

I love my mum xxxx

New friends....

Here we are again, so much time has passed. What can I say, we've been busy! I'm never sure really where the time is going. I find it terrifying sometimes. It's hard to believe that the boys are only 3 and 1.

Nathan is just amazing us with his insatiable appetite for words and language. He now knows all his phonetic alphabet sounds and every day I'm asked what letters words begin with. I'm making the final touches to a moveable alphabet and will show pictures soon. In the meantime I'm going to start going over some sight words with him to see where he is. Although I've read this should wait until they're 5 I think he's in such a great place with language that I don't want him to get bored. Got to keep him active, clever thing :-)

Ethan has started to walk finally but there is no stopping him now, it's as if he decided to wait until he could do it well. His language is also coming along. He repeats most words after you and his pronunciation isn't too bad. We're starting to learn colours which is going well so far.

We've met some amazing new friends who are also home schooling. Their little girl Jess is 2.5 years and her and Nathan have the sweetest friendship blossoming. It's wonderful as Lisa-her mum has so many of the same educational thoughts as me that being in their company is just so easy. She is probably the calmest person I know and I always feel so much more relaxed when I've seen her.

I'll leave you with a few images of what we've been up to.

Checking out the Penguins

A favourite day out. Drusillas Zoo

Dot dot fun

After bath cuddles

Space sensory tub

Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings and as ever take care.

Lisa xx

What a haul!

Wow! What can I say. We've had an amazing weekend. It started yesterday when we made a Scarecrow. Nathan had been asking most of the week so yesterday with the sun shining we made Sam the Scarecrow!

What do you think? We were bowled over with our first attempt and although I thought he'd terrify the boys they seem to love him-phew!

I've recently met another mum who has a 2.5 year old little girl called Jessica. They are also going to homeschool and it's been really nice meeting up with her. Jess and Nathan have forged a beautiful friendship, they walk along hand in hand and insist on kisses goodbye, it's so cute. I'm lucky in that Lisa is so easy to get on with it's a pleasure spending time with her. Anyway she has some amazing toys and educational activities in her house and when I questioned where she had managed to find them she told me at our local car boot sale. Rachael (my Twitter friend) is also always posting the bargains she's picked up from boot sales and she always manages to find bits I've brought brand new!

I decided to give it a go so this morning I was up and out by 7am. Was it worth the early wake up call? It certainly was! Here's most of my haul, there are a couple of other books and animals but they're been hijacked already!

These bookswere brand new, still in cellophane and were £3. I'd been looking at buying them off of Amazon anyway so couldn't believe it when I stumbled across these!

I've also been looking at increasing the bricks we have as we don't have many. I got these and another bag for £2!

Picture isn't great but these are solid wood and lovely. Ethan will love them although as he's asleep Nathan has claimed them at the moment! 50p I think!

We have some of these books already and both boys love them. They're like brand new so they are going to be one of Ethans Christmas stocking presents! £1 I think!

Two of these puzzles are still wrapped and will also be a Christmas pressie but the number one is already being used! £1.

 A selections of books. These were just pence. The Christmas carol one is brand new and has a CD with it. I can't wait to bring this out in December!

This is a Thomas track that was £1 and suprisingly has all the parts. It also came with the original train and Nathan loves it. I only mentioned to Kenny last week I wanted to buy a new track for him! So glad I waited.

There were a couple of other bits I haven't taken pictures of. I really can't wait to go to another one but I'd take lots more bags with me!

I'll leave you with a picture of my youngest who was trying on the Pirate hat that I brought the other day.

Have a great week and thanks for reading.

Lisa x

How Travel Changes...

When I was 18 I used to have an hours train journey into work and back. I used to relish this quiet time. A time to catch up on some reading or to just reflect on the day ahead or even to relax after the day has passed.

This morning I'm travelling up to London on the 07:03 train. It was hard to decide what to bring with me to occupy my time on the journey. I chose crochet and a magazine. My husband chose his iPad on which he's now watching a film.

As I look around me on this train and listen to the constant dings, rings and jingles that signify a new email, text or phone call I wonder when things changed. I also spot more than half the people around me with some form of media tablet. There's a woman diagonal to me who has 3 phones. 3. Do I have an iPad? I certainly do. But I also relish leaving the technology behind to have some peace and reflection.

I'm sitting here as I enjoy having some time to myself and wonder how the little things are being missed. How technology is now so important that a peaceful train journey is now a busy bustling journey and I haven't seen a single person with a good old fashioned book or a magazine.

I wonder how it will be in a couple of years time?

Ironically I picked up my phone to blog about it. I'm now putting my phone down to get back on with my crochet whilst everyone around me gets stressed and angry at the small delay we've encountered.

For me it's the simple things.

A Great day out....

I'm not sure if I've mentioned in previous posts (probably) but Nathan, our eldest is absolutely besotted with animals. Any animals, he's not fussy he loves them all. In fact his first words were animal sounds! We have a local zoo to us called Drusillas and we've been several times, the excitement Nathan has over this place is infectious. Anyway I decided this week that not only would I take the boys there I'd also take them to Middle Farm which is on the way.

Cue Tuesday morning. When the boys woke up I told them what our plans for the day were. I should of waited. Every ten seconds Nathan thought it was time to go! Luckily we were leaving at 09:30 so we didn't have too long to wait. My sister also came along for the ride. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

A bit blurry but I love this picture :-)

A selection of the animals. There really are so many different monkeys there. All of us were most impressed though to see the new baby flamingo that had been born at the end of July. I really love this picture.

It was a hectic and tiring day but I still got a smile from our little baby :-)

What a great way to end this post!

Have a great day and thanks for reading.

Lisa x

What a difference a day makes....

Well after my most depressing post of last week I thought I'd better write an update. I feel sooooooo much better it's crazy. It's as though just writing down and accepting how I was feeling lifted the weight from my shoulders. It really did make a difference. This week I've been back in the gym and feel like me again.

I've had a busy week with the boys so far and will post some pictures over the weekend. I just thought I'd let you know the fog has cleared!

Thanks for all of you who sent me kind messages :-)

Lisa xxx

Struggling.....

It seems that when I left the hospital last week, I also left my patience behind. I'm going through one of 'those' phases where everything seems harder, it's made worse by the fact that Nathan has a chest infection so he's waking up at 5:30 with his cough. He's extremely overtired and ratty, couple that with me being short tempered and impatient and it doesn't make for a happy mix. Throw in a grumpy teething baby every couple of days and it just gets better lol.

I know this will pass as quick as it came but I'm just so annoyed with it all. I've lost my cooking mojo as well, everything seems such an effort but I have such good fun intentions. Kenny even asked if my mum was over today, I think he was thinking it would give me a break but that's not what I want either. I want to be with my children and if anything I'm about to cut back the time our family have with our children as I resent that I have to plan our days around who is seeing them on that particular day.

My lower wisdom tooth hole is infected and is hurting a lot and I'm still having to sleep sitting up which I'm sure is attributing to my constant foul mood. I just need to pull myself out of it.

What a grumpy old post. Thanks for reading though and any tips other than giving myself a kick up the backside will be greatly received!

Lisa x

My boys....

Well the last couple of months have seen hectic times. We've had a new room added to our house, celebrated Ethan's first birthday and Nathan's third. If you follow me on Twitter you will also know that I have had three wisdom teeth taken out-Ouch.

There have been many stresses along the way but I thought I'd share a few pictures of the great times we've had recently. This is a rare picture with me in!

Here are a few taken down the beach last week. You wouldn't believe it but about five minutes after these were taken a sea mist came in so thick and fast that you couldn't see a foot in front of you!

Now for one of our baby snuggling to his first chosen teddy (rather than the ones that are delivered at birth!)

It's a caterpillar and ironically Nathan also chose this back when he was one. To this day it's still carried around the house and is looking a bit worn round the edges. It's very loved though and they now have one each.

I hope you're enjoyed seeing a few shots into our world. Next week sees some major reorganising as we have furniture being delivered to go into the new office which will free up space elsewhere. I'm very excited by this!

Have a great week and thanks for stopping by.

Lisa x

Foodie Penpal....

I heard about Foodie Penpals through Twitter and decided I'd really love to have a go at it. You can read more about how it goes on here and here but basically you give and receive foodie packages. I was partnered with the lovely Caitlin and here is the package that she sent!

It was so beautifully packaged I couldn't wait to tuck into it! Here are the delightful gifts that were inside.

Caitlin had recently been to Italy so I had so bits from there including tiny pasta, a chilli purree, chocolate, minestrone mix and sesame bars. I'm really excited about making some of these soups and luckily with the weather we've had it's still soup weather! There were also a few local delicacies from where she lives in Cornwall. These were Shortbread biscuits, Curry crackers and a cornish pasty recipe postcard. She also included some teas from her travels and some delicious home made Ginger cookies. I'm not a fan of ginger so was dubious about trying them but they are delicious! I've eaten nearly all of them! There were also a couple of recipes that I'll blog about as soon as I have tried them! I can't thank Caitlin enough and can't wait to join in again next month!

If you've never tried this please go over and sign up, it's great fun!

Sensory Tub Number 1 and a muffin....

One of the things I've been really excited to start introducing with Nathan are Sensory Tubs. There are some amazing ones out there and I decided that the first one I wanted to start him with was one with an Ocean theme. Last week I headed to Ikea to buy some bits and pieces for our homeschool environment and this included lots of containers a perfect size for this sort of activity. Here is our first one!

I used water beads as the base, these feel absolutely gorgeous-to me that is. Nathan has declared them sticky and yuck! I have also added a few of his sea toys, a little scoop to pour and an egg cup to pour into. Here he is having a look at it.

This lasted all of 5 seconds before he told me he didn't like it and wanted me to put it away! I felt very disappointed with his reaction as I had hoped he'd just divc straight in. Not fair really, considering he's never really played with textures or had any organised type of play before. I'm going to persevere and keep it in his sight so that he might develop an interest. If he doesn't then I'll try a new theme until I find something that strikes a cord with him. It could be that he doesn't like the wet of the water beads, or it could of just been the wrong time to introduce it!

In other news the loft conversion is completed today and I will be taking some pictures later. As a thank you to our builders I made White Chocolate and Raspberry Muffins this morning. Here they are!

They really are rather yummy! Anyway, what's your news? Any delicious bakes to share? Any experiences of sensory tub rejection?!

Thanks for reading and watch out for a post coming up about my foodie penpal swap!

Lisa x

Starting slowly.

In a bid to start to add a bit of "learning with purpose" I've been looking at ways that I can start to introduce a few things. This that will excite Nathan into the world around us in a geographical sense. Just to make him aware that there are indeed other countries. I've been struggling with this as it's really not my strong point. Cue Culture Swaps. I've actually signed up to two. One here at Chasing Cheerios and the other here at The Worldwide Culture Swap. I'm very excited about these although I am feeling the pressure as some that I have seen are amazing!

I've also been looking at this fantastic website which has some great resources in it for toddlers up to older children. I've been losing a lot of time reading and printing from this and future posts will follow as I start to introduce the lapbooks and preschool packs!

Here are a couple of pictures of me introducing a sensory idea to Nathan whilst we were away. I was limited by what we had to hand but he was occupied with this for several large chunks of time.

These are a small take on the sensory bins, but like I say it was just making the best of what I had to hand. A "proper" one will be made next week. I'm thinking Ocean theme as Nathan is so into this at the moment.

I also made the decision to not go ahead with the distance learning course. I had a long chat with Kenny and at the moment it will put too much pressure on me. I'm so excited at the moment about or coming weeks and can't wait to share how we get on. I'll also be posting pictures of the finished loft conversion soon as it's in it's last week now!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lisa x

Our Haven Holiday.

As some of you guys might be aware we have recently had a loft conversion begin on our house. I made the decision that for the first two weeks I would take our boys away so that the mess and noise didn't disrupt them too much. Plus we hadn't had a holiday as a family yet! It was difficult to decide where to go, everything was looking so expensive. The cheaper option was to go to our apartment in Spain but once you looked at a hire car and their passports it balanced out to the same as here and I've always said I don't want to fly whilst the boys are still so young. Haven Holidays was recommended to me by a good friend so I started to look into that. My husband was going to be away for 9 days of it and then join us for the last part so my mum came along. Here are a few snaps.

The day we left this is how it looked.

Nathan enjoying the amazing adventure playground.

Our trip to a farm had us surrounded by these little fellas.

My mum showing Nathan a roly poly.

And then showing him how to do it!

Ethan loving the swings.

I have to say that I cannot praise the Combe Haven Park enough. Everywhere was clean, the staff were helpful and the food we had was great. The way the boys came on in the two weeks was astounding. Nathan had new found confidence and became an adventurer. Normally he would only go on swings which has been hard in the past if they are already taken but here he was climbing great big ladders and going down big slides like this covered one without a second thought. His language has developed at an alarming rate too. He's always had a good vocabulary but he's now putting together long sentences in the right context! Ethan, well he grew a new tooth and started to stand and walk around the furniture. He was also so excited at the new experiences.

It was hard spending 9 days solid with my mum but for no other reason than we were with each other all day everyday and sometimes it felt a bit confined. On the other hand though it was nice to spend so much time with her. She truly amazes me as well. I don't think I have ever known anyone to be so selfless and have such an endless supply of energy. I'm truly grateful to her for coming on this holiday with us. When Kenny came to stay, he came late at night so was there for when the boys woke up. The look of realisation on their faces was one I will always carry with me. I just wish I'd had the camera to hand to capture it. I'll leave you now with a couple of shots of what happens after 2 weeks running around, swimming and climbing. Oh and in case you're wondering, we've booked to go back in April :-)

Have a wonderful day and thanks for popping by!

Lisa x

Help!

I can't believe it's been so long since I last blogged! We've been so busy this last month and have just returned from two weeks away at a Haven holiday park. We had a wonderful time and I saw both our boys unfold and develop at a remarkable rate. It was as though the change of scenery really did them some good! I'll blog about that tomorrow when I have some pictures to hand.

I've also been busy going backwards and forwards with an important decision. I recently enrolled on a distance learning Montessori course. This was for no other reason than I think it will help me teach our boys with this method and also help me gain confidence in presenting new things to them. Having received the course materials, I'm now wondering if this is just too heavy a course for me. I love my crafting and also enjoy the usual, catching up with blogs and Twitter etc and I wonder if I take this on will I lose this time?

If any of you lovely people reading this have studied this course could you please let me know if you think it would be worthwhile or if I could get by just fine with a few books and blogs?! I need to make the decision in the next couple of days so any help would be greatly received......

Thanks in advance!

Lisa x

Observation.

I've been noticing recently that Nathan needs a lot more stimulation than to just play with toys now. I'm not talking mathematical equations, he just needs more. I know people say that kids are like sponges but it truly amazes me just how he picks things up.

A week ago I started to do some basic number recognition with him. He has a book called Billy The Bear which is one of his favourites at the moment. It has magnetic animals and also the numbers 1-10 to put on each page. All I started to do was show him the numbers and tell him what they were. I'd then ask him for the number and he'd pass it to me to be placed on the page. There were a few he wasn't sure of and I didn't push him with them at all but when my bargain Lacing Numbers turned up (that I got on eBay for £3) I thought I'd give him a go with them and he knew all but number 9. The only reason he struggled with that is because it's exactly the same as the number 6. I couldn't believe how well he'd done after just 3 days. He was also away lacing the tiny fiddly holes after a couple of attempts! I've since spoken to  his Montessori Pre-school Directress and she had a look at what he's been learning there and they haven't even started on numbers yet so everything he's learnt is from me!

Since then we've started playing a game with his big alphabet puzzle where I say the phonetic sound and he passes me the piece of the puzzle. He really enjoys this and it's a great way for him to learn the sounds rather than the letter. Any learning that we're doing I'm trying to find ways to make fun as he seems to lap it up a lot easier-plus he's not even 3 yet!

Ethan bless him is teething heavily at the moment and is extremely grumpy, he's teething for longer before cutting the tooth as well so this week on recommendation I introduced the teething granules and I also brought a baltic amber necklace which arrived yesterday. Hopefully these things help as it's hard to see my normally happy baby so sad. Watch this space.

Generally we've had a great week. Today sees the scaffolding go up for the start of our extension which will start on the 25th so this coming week I'll be deciding what I need to take and then pack for my 2 weeks at the Haven park in Hastings!

How's your week been so far? What fun tips do you have to stimulate your little ones and keep them interested?

Until next time.

Lisa x

Lesson learnt....

Since making the decision to home school the boys I've been looking at our local "home ed" groups to see what activities there are and what local meet ups etc are available. Although I won't go over the top trying to incorporate "social time" into our day, trips out with other children and families will be fun for everyone.

I was invited along to one on the 1st June. It was just a meet up at a park local to me. I decided to take Nathan along and leave Ethan at home so off we went. I was full of apprehension and excitement at meeting people that were already well in the thrust of home schooling their children and Nathan, well he was really excited to be going to the park! We went to the main park first and it was heaving! There were tonnes of families there, all different age groups and I was completely at a loss as to who were just at the park or who was there for the meet up. I decided to have a walk round as there were also some horses, a paddling pool and a soft play area to explore. Nathan is besotted with animals and spent an awful long time just talking to them.

We then got close to the paddling pool where somebody had forgotten to close the gate to it. Nathan did no more than turn to look at me and make a dash to the water. Yep he went in full clothed, shoes and all! I hadn't taken a change of clothes as I knew I wouldn't be staying that long and it wasn't a sunny day so I didn't think the paddling pool would be involved in our trip! I decided it was best to just let him play in there as otherwise it was a trip back home and he was having so much fun I didn't want to spoil it.

I then found out the people I was due to meet were in the soft play section. Ooops. After about half an hour Nathan was getting cold so I had to entice him back to the car where luckily I had a spare pair of pants and then I had to get a very sad little boy back home to warm up.

I didn't get to meet the people I was supposed to meet but I did learn a valuable lesson that I should of remembered when I was a cub scout (yes really I was!) Always be prepared!

What a lovely morning. I'm sitting here at this crazy early hour (05:30) not because my children have woken me but because the birds have decided to sing. I'm not complaining, I love that the weather has finally turned. The boys are loving being in the garden endlessly playing and having fun. It makes me wonder what we did in the winter months.

As you can imagine I've been reading, and reading and reading some more. I'm finding out so much information and there are so many amazing websites around. If you're stuck for things to do with your little ones I found this website on Tuesday and you select your childs age and they list activities accordingly, there are hundreds of things there to do and the bonus is that it's free. It really does make it easier to be able to select the age too.

I've tried Treasure Baskets with Ethan this week. I'm not sure I've introduced them at the right point of the day as there always seems to be something going on to distract him so he doesn't get the proper time. I'm going to schedule this a bit better, maybe I'll read to Nathan whilst he's rifling through. I'm also going to add more things to it so there's plenty of texture, size and weight for him to explore.

Our eldest Nathan actually goes to a Montessori Pre School, he has done since October when we took him to show him around and he was completely taken with the environment.  I'll keep him there for a few sessions a week and will also be incorporating the Montessori method in and around our home as I just love how it is completely open to the child. This was the reason that we signed Nathan up, it's just amazing to see how it works. There are some phenomenal Montessori blogs out there and so many that I have yet found the time to read but my favourites so far are Counting Coconuts, Chasing Cheerios and My Montessori Moments. I'm still struggling with what can be introduced at this age but I'm getting there.

I'll leave you with some pictures of our recent trip to the duck pond. Nathan loves going and Ethan looked happier than the last time we went!

The perk of going so early!

A gorgeous sight.

Our gorgeous baby who grows before my eyes!

My highlight. The baby Signets.

Nathan chatting to the ducks

 I hope you have enjoyed my latest ramblings and thank you in advance for reading. All comments are gratefully received :-)

Have a great day.

Lisa x