Working hard in Spotty Slippers...

I liked this picture. Not sure why. I think it was the coming together of two worlds, our "school" world doing the work, and our "home" world where the children can work in comfort. Made me smile anyway *shrug*.

We have started looking at the Continents, and Africa in particular. The kids have found it interesting to compare our lives to some of those living in Africa, and it has led to some thought-provoking discussions. Lots more to cover for the project and I'll try and get some pictures up when I can.

Goodness, hasn't the weather been atrocious? I thought we had it bad on Saturday, when the whole of the lounge and bedroom windowsills were covered in bowls and buckets catching leaking rainwater. In the end dh and I caused great amusement to passers-by, by cleaning out our guttering in torrential rain. You couldn't see our drive, it was replaced by a river. The road was flooded too, and everytime a car went passed a wave came over the wall and thus over me (standing at the bottom of the ladder). Lots of beeping horns and laughter *rolls eyes* We did end up laughing about it though. My wellies had puddles of water in them, my waterproof coat didn't remain waterproof, and we were enjoying (ahem) it so much we did our elderly neighbours guttering too.

Still, looking at recent news reports, it seems we got off very lightly. Thoughts and prayers are with all affected by the awful weather.

Yesterday we had a lovely day. Starting of with the children doing numeracy and handwriting practice, and then heading out to pick up new waterproofs for the children and new wellies for me. We came home and took Kira for a lovely long walk in the woods. It was raining, but spirits weren't dampened. We found and identified various insects and birds, and looked at things with "new eyes" in the rain. It was a thoroughly enjoyable and interesting couple of hours, which we followed up by researching our "finds" on the internet and in books on our return. It was lovely watching the older children helping the younger ones to climb up and down the tricky pathways, I felt a real sense of a united family, their bond is so strong.

Chelsea helped me cook dinner, and we settled down for our usual family reading time. We read a couple of Mrs Pepperpot stories (still a great favourite with the children, no matter how many times they hear them), and a chapter of The Rats of Nimh. Chelsea read a chapter from Little Women, and Joseph read from his Horrid Henry library book. Tiegan read the Sly Fox and Red Hen Ladybird book.

Once the children were in bed, I set about the usual card making and order packing. I finished off two cards:

Sunday and Monday....

Sunday we finally got around to going to church. Having failed miserably to get there last week due to the weather, I was determined not to be deterred this week. I'm glad we went and tried it. Completely new to us, in that it is a very much more traditional sort of service, in a rather more traditional church, but it was nice enough and I felt at ease there. We will certainly try it a few more times to see how things go.

The rest of Sunday was just spent pottering around the house. I did a bit of personal bible study which was lovely, whilst the children were *ahem* helping dh in the garden.

Today has been a nice enough sort of a day. We went to Trago Mills this morning for general bits and pieces, then popped in to give a birthday gift to one of Emma's boys. We didn't stay for long as they were expecting visitors, but the brief chat we did have was lovely and made me even more determined to arrange another visit soon.

We returned home and Chelsea and Joseph played out on their bikes, whilst Tiegan and I played "hairdressers". She so loves having one-to-one attention, and delighted in us taking it in turns doing each others hair and make-up.

I have finally managed to sort out the Scouts for Joseph, so he is starting there tomorrow night. I am so happy that it is just around the corner from where we live so no night driving necessary. The dear lad is so desperately excited, I just hope it lives up to his expectations.

I had a phone call from my brother to say that work on the flooring should commence on Wednesday, so fingers crossed it does this time. I'm not looking forward to the awkwardness of having it fitted, but it will be worth it. Photos will then be taken and shown off *grin*.

Well, the children all seem to be settled in bed now, so I'm off to the craft room to complete a couple of card orders I have so I can post them off in the morning :-)