I'm not tired, I'm just checking my eyelids for leaks...

Ok, behind on my posting again. Just a quickie to say that I haven't disappeared (honest). May is the month of birthdays and I've been having a bit of a frenzy this week trying to organise ds2's birthday party (today). All went well and now feel shattered. Will post photos when I get a chance. Just one more birthday to go- dh's birthday at the weekend - and I can start trying to pay off my overdraft lol!

Another reason for my lack of posting effort is that I've been focusing on keeping up with my writing class. I have lots of ideas, but as always it's taking me a long time to get any of them into the required format; the more I work on them the less appealing they become and the further away from my initial enthusiasm I trail. I feel like I should put a 'lol' in here, but if there was an abbreviation for wry smile {ws} ?that would suit better.

The tutor is looking for 'sparkling prose' in our work, a term which has completely frozen my brain into petrified squid intestines. If she keeps mentioning sparkling prose I'm not going to be able to write a darned thing! Personally, in between keeping the house from meltdown, home educating and going out to work, I think she should just be grateful I appear in class with 2 shoes the same colour. Sparkling Prose!!! What does this woman want - Blood??!!

I don't have writers block. I just can't stay awake long enough to finish a ....

Ok, having to do a very quick update again...whatever happened to my regular blogging habit??

So...we've been having a bit of a creative time...

..Painting
(so much nicer for mummies when it's warm enough to do it outside and the rain can clear it all up afterwards!):

Making chairs out of newspapers:



and yes, you could sit on it, just. Thought it best if I didn't try, that extra slice of fruit cake might just have done for it...

Making bionicle lego things:

Making pancakes (in pyjamas):

And cakes (when dressed):

Sowing seeds at the allotment.

Does that count as creative? We'll certainly have to be creative trying to find the carrots in amongst the weeds in a few months time.

And making a gazebo/pagoda/wooden thingy in response to my pathetic attempt to hitch up an old duvet cover over the garden table:

And now for the non-creative stuff:

Sword-fighting (should I categorise that under 'drama' or 'historical re-enactment'?)

Watching the professionals do it:

And saying hello to the nice man in charge of the horses:

The Rebel Forces are at work - and they're sat at the table!

Ok, ok, so it's been a while since I've posted.
And we've done loads of stuff (honest!).

So let's start with today..

ds1 started writing a letter to his penfriend this morning (it usually takes about a month of hard slog before he completes a page), ds2 did a few pages of his Miquon maths (all easy stuff at the moment) and dd decided she wanted to join in. So I had to rummage around and see if I could find something for her to do too. I'd thrown away most of the preschool educational stuff as I thought it was a bit pointless. And then I had a girl and realised that some under 6s can sit down for longer than 30 seconds without destroying everything in the immediate viccinity. Funny that...

And there we were, all sat at the table - yes, sat - SAT! - SITTING DOWN! - AT THE TABLE - doing worky - WORK! - sort of stuff. I wish I'd taken a photo, cos it's such a rare event in our house. But then one click of the camera would have spoiled it all wouldn't it?

Oh horrors! Am I really celebrating that my kids are doing what they're told to do? Am I really singing hooray because they are writing and doing workbooks? Hmm...my autonomous education body is turning in it's autonomous education grave. I guess balance will be restored to the universe in due course ('Help me Obi Wan Knobe, you're my only hope'). Watch this space.

And then around 9.30am a friend's kids came round and everyone plugged themselves into various electronic devices: computer, Wii, etc. But, hey, my children haven't come off the set of 'The Railway Children', so what else could I expect? As I said, balance will be restored to the universe, and in this case it only took about an hour (and the wrinkly guy with the pointy ears and a fondness for lightsabers didn't have to turn up after all)

In the afternoon ds1 went off to a friend's house, and later to an ongoing workshop thingy where he learns behind-the-scenes stage/theatre stuff [don't ask me what, cos I only get monosyllable replies when I ask him - it's his age, you know]. And the remainder of the circus troupe helped me put up beanpoles at the allotment. The beanpoles look very rustic (sorry no photo yet) as they are real willow poles from real willow trees that I chopped down (no, I didn't chop the tree down, just the poles you understand). I'm just hoping they don't start growing - willow has a reputation for this - as I don't think the allotment committee will appreciate 3 willow teepees growing on my plot! (They don't like children, so they certainly wont like willow sculptures. Sometimes you just know these sorts of things.)

And what other stuff have we been up to? Well lots. But until I load up the photos I wont remember it all.

So...be patient. I just need to upload some photos and then I'll tell you all about it.

Ok?

Are you sure?

Good.

May the force be with you.