Precious Moments

A great productive week this week. The sunshine makes such a huge difference to all our energy levels and general enthusiasm.

Over the weekend, the girls had their Edwardian Era presentation, which I will be posting about later:

It was their first presentation, and both were a little bit nervous. But they did a great job!

Lillie had sent off for some ear piercing equipment (she is trained to pierce ears) and immediately pierced her littlest sister’s ears:

This week was week two of our World War One studies and we were all looking forward to it. The girls started each day, as usual, with Bible time. They use these books:

For read aloud, we began the next book in the Edwardian mystery series we have been enjoying, as well as a chapter from Peter Pan and Lord of the Nutcracker Men. This was followed by workbooks, which the girls hadn’t done for the past two weeks:

For Ab’s interest led learning she made some Ration Scones for our poetry tea party:

Abs also made some truly delicious chocolate cookies, with a warm melted chocolate inside:

And Ads’ birthday cake, which she paid for and made him as a birthday present. She wasn’t over the moon with how it looked but we all thought it was fab and it tasted so good!

I have been spring cleaning the kitchen since Friday night, and today I washed the curtains. I asked Becca to iron them before rehanging them again:

I hand made these curtains 22 years ago for mine and Gary’s first home together. I still get as much pleasure from them now as I did all those years ago.

Becca also began unpicking an old pair of pyjama bottoms of Abigail’s. Once she has unpicked them all, we will use the individual pieces to create our own slightly larger trouser pattern to make Abigail a pair of soldier’s trousers:

Meanwhile, as I was also defrosting the freezer, I popped all the frozen fruit into a pan with some sugar and began boiling it. I never measure anything when I make jam – not the fruit, the sugar or the temperature – but somehow it usually manages to turn out well enough:

I made three jars!

At lunchtime I take one of the children to the shops, after which we take some lunch to the park and sit in the car together eating it and chatting. This is a great way for me to spend time each day one-to-one with each child. After we’ve eaten, we go for a walk around the park before returning back home ❤️

This week, Charlotte had an assessment appointment with a Cognitive Behavioural Therapist. This was set up by the Rheumatologist to help Charlotte learn to control her pain without the use of medicines, which don’t really work for her. It was such a great appointment! The therapist specialises in chronic illness and long term pain management. Charlotte, for the first time really (apart from our excellent rheumatologist) felt like she was completely understood. She didn’t need to explain anything, the questions the therapist asked were pertinent and showed an obvious understanding of chronic pain and exhaustion and the effects it has on a young adult. The therapist agreed with the psychiatrist, that Charlotte has no signs of any mental health problems, and has recommended that she has a series of Guided Self-Help Therapy sessions to help her control/manage the pain. Finally, she is getting help!

Once the girls finish the lunchtime chores, we generally focus on our unit studies. We are hoping to finish off Zoology I as well as continuing with our World War One studies. Abigail read out loud our Apologia Zoology I text book, learning about insects. I had bought an excavation kit for the girls to dig out three insects. Great fun!

The girls were learning all about the anatomy of an insect. There was quite a lot to read, and I thought it might be useful to give them an activity whilst I read it out to them. So I went with PlayDough!

Lastly, they completed the note-pages in their book. We have a couple of activities still to do.
Last Friday I had planned on doing a War Poetry Tea Party, but we completely ran out of time and energy. So, instead we did it this week. I tried to make it as special and relaxed as possible. I want to do something similar every couple of weeks. We used the Ration Scones Abigail had baked, and the jam I had thrown together. I made Abs a chocolate milkshake whilst Becca and I had tea. I will be writing a post about it next week, but here are a few photos:

One thing I had hoped to finish last week was our paper mache map, but on account of the paper mache taking forever to dry. But this week we managed to get it painted and ready for battle next week!

At four we try to gather together and go for a walk. We needed to pop to our village doctor’s surgery to pick up a prescription for Charlotte. The pond is on the way, and guess what we saw? Not just the usual Mallard ducks or Moor hens, but a beautiful couple of Canada Geese and…a pair of Egyptian Geese!! They were so beautiful! And I think this is the first time the pond has homed Egyptian Geese:

And these are specially for my lovely friend Donna…

Wednesday was Ads’ 18th birthday, so of course we tried to make it as special as possible for him. We will be hosting a joint 18th birthday party for the twins and Ads when lock down has completely lifted. Anyway, he asked for waffles, bacon, fresh fruit and maple syrup for lunch, and salmon en croute and an ice cream sundae bar. Here are some photos from his day:

We went with a Union Jack theme as Ads is so proudly British, and sang Rule Britannia instead of Happy Birthday…although we did sing happy birthday afterwards!

Lillie gave him an oil painting she did of London, which he loved!

Charlotte had been having seizures all night (whilst asleep- poor Lillie stays awake so she doesn’t throw herself out of bed) and by Thursday she was exhausted. Her little sister made her a bed on the sofa, whilst her other younger sister made her a hot water bottle:

Once school was over, they both sat with Charlotte, had an ice cream sundae and watched the rest of the Hobbit from the night before:

A really, really lovely week!