Buddies ~ spells

***In September 2011 6 families got together and started Buddies Home School. Each week we meet in each other's home and follow a simple rhythm: movement and music, craft/ baking, snack time, free play and story time. Each part of the session is led by a different family. We are sharing this week's session with you here...***

As we have no Buddies next week (it's half term here whoop whoop) we had our Halloween theme today.

Amanda taught us a couple of really lovely Halloween songs:

 We are pumpkins (sung to the tune of Mary has a Little Lamb)
We are pumpkins big and round, big and round,big and round,
We are pumpkins big and round, big and round,big and round,
Sitting on the ground

See our great big eyes, great big eyes,great big eyes,
See our great big eyes, great big eyes,great big eyes,
Staring right at you

See our great big happy mouth, happy mouth, happy mouth, 
See our great big happy mouth, happy mouth, happy mouth, 
Smiling right at you

Hoo & Boo (sung to the tune of the farmer's in the dell)
The owl goes Hoo
The owl goes Hoo
Hi, Ho it's halloween 
The owl goes Hoo

The ghost goes Boo,
The ghost goes Boo,
Hi, Ho, it's halloween
The ghost goes Boo,

She also added in this song, it was a lot of fun :-)

For the activity this week Zoe helped us to make tiny halloween barmbrack

 The Buddies mixed all the ingredients together

 then greased these wonderful mini loaf tins that Zoe has:

 Each tin got a good plop of cake mixture in it

 we didn't have the proper fortune telling charms so we boiled up a load of pennies, each Buddy then wrapped a clean penny in grease proof paper

 and pushed it into their little cake tin, at the same time making a wish.

 We baked these in the oven,

 while the Buddies had free play and a snack and we read this story:

I know Benny was so delighted to bring home a cake with a real wish in it...in fact it never made it home ;-)

Gratitude

This week has been a very difficult one for me.

 I have felt completely exhausted and often at sea: adrift and far from that place I call 'home'.  

I have also experienced a lot of sadness this week. During the first few days of the week I had tried to push this feeling down, to swallow it, certainly not to feel it. But on Thursday I went to a reiki healing session, a gift from a dear friend of mine, and it was the simple sentence' What do you feel, in your heart?' that allowed me to touch in and to experience (probably for the first time since I separated from Andy) the sadness that was within me. I spent the rest of the that day and Friday trying to find the time to just feel sad, to allow myself a wee cry, to do nothing, to listen to a hear the pain in my heart. By Saturday night I finally found a pocket of time, I sat quietly and tuned into my sadness, I felt it and allowed myself to cry some of it out. I wrote some poems and I drew a few pictures and I called a very close friend. 

I was sad....

and now that feeling has passed. I now feel a lightness and a clarity that I lacked all week. 

The week was also hard in other ways, I'm struggling with Rebe's behavior right now and I am getting no down time, no relaxation time, but there have been things that have supported me through the week, that made me laugh and smile and feel heard and so I am grateful....

I am grateful for my friends and family who are there for me at the end of the phone/ computer at playgroup.... Who listened to me, who heard me, who held my hand and walked with me...

I'm grateful to whoever it was who bought me these shoes:

 I had been admiring them on etsy and out of the blue they arrived addressed to Joa and oh how they make me laugh (Joa is not quite so amused though lol)

 I'm grateful for Saturday morning play:

 this is a morning birthday celebration held for one of our goldfish :-)

I'm grateful for gorgeous charity shop finds:

 I am grateful for this little girl (even when she drives me nuts!):

 I am grateful for this yoga sequence
I am grateful for this song

I am grateful for this life itself...

and now I hope that the coming week will be easier and filled with joy and laughter and a lot less stress!

weekend walk...

...and other bits a pieces...

Life here this week has been pretty up and down for me. I have had a difficult few days as have the kids. I just feel like I am too busy. I feel like I'm not getting a chance to be at home. I really want to slow down, to stop....I think I need a holiday. And I think the kids need it too.

I know that for some families it is really normal being on the road most of the day, but it's not for us and I'm finding it hard to juggle endless appointments, the never ending school runs, meetings and play dates. There seems to be no time to just be! 

But next week should be more normal again, I don't have lots of extra appointments (boo hiss to having to go to the dentist!) and I am just going to say no to any extra invites to coffee or such.

(TV is over rated...my kids prefer the oven. We have a new oven with a glass door and they like sitting there warming their feet watching bread or cakes baking...well who wouldn't!)

 So, I haven't been in the blogging zone, have had nothing much to report or write about,

 spending my energies on mothering as best I can. Trying to hear what my cross little girl is saying (and yesterday I heard her, truly heard her...she's saying: mummy I WANT YOU!) So I am re-juggling my me time, to give her the time she also needs.

 I am glad I heard her, perhaps now she can stop shouting!

 I am really ready to reconnect with her, a time when I know she needs to feel our connection, and there is nothing else that will do but my undivided attention. Time without the boys, or chores or knitting or dolls. Time just being with her. We're planning Tuesday evenings and Friday afternoons and I am looking forward to it and I know she is too.
Wow, I didn't realise how much I needed to say that, it just came out...

but talking of quality time we had all of Saturday to ourselves, not swapping between Andy's house and here, no school, no shopping... so we took ourselves off for a gorgeous walk along the beach...

 Oh oh oh, I got something so lovely yesterday in the post I just have to share:

 Look at this delicious parcel all for me :-)

 plant dyed pure wool yarn. Not sure what I am going to knit yet, but I am inclined towards a vest for myself.

Also these gorgeous organic cotton knit fabrics in just my colours, I am thinking wide legged yoga pants and perhaps a skirt or dress (oh thank you thank you Anna!)

Gosh, it seems like this is a pretty moan-y post, but rest assured that I am doing all I can to keep grounded. I am eating well, sleeping well and trying to meditate every day. This mindfulness body-scan is so lovely and I love the guy who is doing it and I am finding it is making a real difference to my whole being.
hugs x

Buddies ~ autumn

***In September 2011 6 families got together and started Buddies Home School. Each week we meet in each other's home and follow a simple rhythm: movement and music, craft/ baking, snack time, free play and story time. Each part of the session is led by a different family. We are sharing this week's session with you here...***

This week at Buddies we celebrated autumn some more. Last year, one of the first crafts we did together at Buddies was making autumn crowns. This was such a success we decided to ask Amanda to do it again with us:

 First we folded a length of newspaper,

then fitted it around our heads, cutting off any excess:

 Then we mixed some pva glue with some green paint

 which we painted onto our newspaper crowns:

 Next we stuck on beautiful leaves that Amanda had gathered for us:

 we also stuck on some cut out paper leaves, conkers and well anything that didn't move!

 For a bit of bling we squeezed on some glitter glue:

They turned out so beautifully and each so individual and we found that they really seemed to represent each of the Buddies wee personalities.

Amanda, the queen of autumn!

While we were crafting the Buddette's were busy playing on the rug together reading stories and becoming friends. It's so special to see the next generation of Buddies emerging and starting to move towards a safe and gentle independence (there was not a sling in sight in this session!)

 During play time and snack time the Buddies split into groups, the Buddettes staying in the kitchen and playing quietly, the boys went off outside and the girls got out paper and crayons and quietly drew.

 Next they all merged in the kitchen before heading off again, this time the girls to get dressed up and the boys to find a gun and play a more boisterous game (or should that be boy-sterous!) that ended up with the boys chasing the girls around the house.

 It is so fascinating how different the energy in the group is when there is more of an equal boy-girl balance...makes me really realize how important a balance of sexes is in life in general.

When the game got too rowdy we cleaned up and settled down for a story.

 Roisin told us a really wonderful story about a little green leaf who grew on a tree.

 Over the summer the wind tried to blow him off his branch but he clung on tightly.

 When autumn came he saw that all of the other leaves had changed their clothes into beautiful autumn colours so we closed our eyes and when we opened them again we found that our little leaf had changed too!

 Then the wind came again and blew and blew and this time the little leaf let go and danced all the way to the ground where he joined his brothers and sisters. He got covered with lots of other leaves and snuggled up tight over winter to the roots of the tree...

 and as if by magic...

he turned into earth and from him new life could grow :-)

It was a wonderful story and the kids were completely spell bound!