wow it’s really been one month

Well I intended to spend less time on the blog but I think a month between posts might be a new record. It’s been a busy time and also a really sad time.

We had a really lovely 6th birthday party for my littlest miss with all of her classmates and then the next day we learnt that a family at our school had died tragically. It was such a shock and sad time as the mother was one of the loveliest school mums I knew who always had time for everyone. The funeral was beautiful but just so sad. It was a hard few weeks to enjoy things when you felt so sad and confused but time (and being surrounded by lots of little people) does help you move forward and try to make peace with everything. They’ll always stay in my thoughts and prayers as well as their families and close friends.  And the school community has been so wonderful and the beautiful things that have been done by our surrounding schools and other schools is just so beautiful. We’ve had a little holy bracelet made by children at one school and another little card and dove from another school.

We’ve been very busy with homeschooling and I can’t believe we’ll be finishing up the year in a month’s time. It’s not without its challenges as I have 2 very different personalities to teach but they are becoming more independent and we’ve all settled into our routine. I still think people assume you need to be standing in front of them all day long teaching them but they have a list of work they need to get through each day and we do a few things together and the rest is independent work. I’m also now used to cashiers or people asking if they are home sick or don’t have school today and you have to give a mini talk on homeschooling. But it’s definitely made life at home 100 times more peaceful and relaxed. I’ve also relaxed (a little) and accepted that there are days that never go to plan.

Craftwise I’ve been knitting a kina in a 5 ply which is taking me forever, I still haven’t cast off the sleeves (I’ll stick to 8 ply next time). And I’ve been doing some paper piecing of hexagons for some little Christmas projects. I even picked up some diamonds and am paper piecing stars which I’m hoping will turn out. I took my girls to the shop to buy the paper pieces, I was so sure we’d emerge with just the paper pieces but there we were at the checkout with palace pets and tsum tsum fabric for the girls.

I’ve discovered Outlander (on the recommendation of my readers) and I am totally hooked but I do have to confess it is not as civilised as Lark Rise and I don’t do blood and guts or the sex scenes because I just don’t watch tv or that many movies (that aren’t kids movies). So I’ve had to fast forward a few times or look away but then I’m so hooked by the story and finding out what happens. And I’ve decided just to skip the last episode of series 1 entirely to avoid it all after reading a review of it and a warning from 2 readers (thank you!). I’ve also ordered the book so hopefully that will arrive soon and I’ll get stuck into that.

And that’s about that. The beautiful flowers in these photos have been sent to my by the lovely Carli from Urban Flower. They do the most amazing arrangements, as you can see. I’ve had a different grandma here each time they have arrived and they have both oohhed and ahhed over them. I catch myself walking past the dining table and stopping to do a double take.

Well that’s my little update. I hope to be back with a few Christmas food and craft ideas and not wait a month between posts! I hope you’ve been well and don’t get too caught up in the end of year craziness that seems to start in november and last until Christmas.