Precious Moments {November 12th to 18th}

What an exciting week we have had!  Last Friday we had some fabulous 1-2-1 conferences, so we were all set for this week.  A8 wondered if she might be able to start having one each week also.  I’m not sure how we will fit it in but I said I would do my best 🙂

The little ones and I finished up the day going for a walk in the woods with some homeschool friends.  It was glorious weather, great company and was a brilliant end to our week:

Saturday morning Lillie went to her 4 hour art course held at the local art university.  It was all about fashion and she was completely in her element.  They were asked to create different outfits using bones as inspiration (!):

These are the ones she made and I believe she will using paper to recreate them into actual clothes for themselves to model!  How fun is that?!

She is super excited to be going up to London next Saturday, to visit a private collect, the National Portrait Gallery as well as an exhibition of the portraits the students did in the photography studio during the first week’s lesson.  It’s an all day thing, so I’m sure she will be exhausted by the time she gets home Saturday night.

Whilst she was making art from bones, her sister and I were visiting the local coffee shop to explore some ways I can support her writing.  I truly believe she has a publishable writing voice and at the conference on the Friday we had decided together that we would throw our resources into making this a possibility.  She came home buzzing with ideas.  I had taken two A4 sheets chockablock with possible ideas, which we went through together.  I then asked which she would like to do the most and she ticked all of them!  This was over 40 ideas, so I guess she is going to be busy, busy in the future 🙂

On Saturday night I cooked a dinner for a very special friend whose birthday it was.  I said I would cook anything she wanted, but breathed a sigh of relief when she said she wanted a roast 🙂  Phew, that I can cook….had she asked for Thai I would have been stuck!

I was exhausted by the end of the night and slept flat out from the moment my head hit the pillow until nine the next morning!  Nine!!  It was glorious!

Sunday was Thomas’ open day at the local Music University.  He and Gary went together and both came home buzzing, although I think possibly Gary was buzzing more than Thomas, he had been so impressed!

As they both shared everything they had seen and heard I felt myself welling up.  Thomas had chatted to one of the main tutors of the Music Production course, and he had said that based on all he was hearing from Thomas he would accept him right away!  He’s actually two years too young and needs to get at least get a few IGCSE’s but I think this made Thomas feel seven feet tall.  Gary was very impressed because the tutor talked to and with Thomas not through Gary and he said Thomas obviously knew what he was talking about and was able to answer and converse in a very confident way.  The tutor also gave Thomas lots of tips and hints on how to make his application even more compelling, but I think Thomas left feeling so encouraged.  Both Gary and Thomas came away saying what an incredible atmosphere the college had.  I think my son has found where he wants to be in 18 months time 🙂

The girls had one of their friends round, and thoroughly enjoyed their time together:

Monday, Lillie reproduced a couple of her mixed media pieces for me to send off for a gift for someone very special in our life who is going through a tough patch at the moment:

I just need to add the writing and they are ready to send off:

Charlotte has become slightly obsessed with her writing of late and has joined a young writer’s club.  Every spare moment she is writing to be critiqued by her fellow peer writers or she is critiquing someone else’s writing.  She has lit a fire and I am watching it burn brighter each day 🙂  She has completely taken over my computer and was there from 645 this morning.  The girl just loves to write!

Thomas finished off his work, which was all table based and then enjoyed an hour or so building Legos with his little sisters:

Tuesday, Thomas was at college whilst the girls spent the morning up at the local primary school taking assembly there.  The little ones and I enjoyed the peace and slowly went through the tasks of the day.  Poor B5 is miserable at the moment on account of her fingers peeling after the rash from Hand, Foot and Mouth disease.  They are very sore and she is not a happy girlie 🙁

Lillie had her art buddy round and they created more gorgeous works of art together:

This piece was particularly appreciated by the rest of the family, with much discussion going on about how Lil could make some more and sell them for presents at Christmas.

I liked this one a lot, and she has said it can be my Christmas present for our home made Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, Mum called Gary and I round to discuss Christmas, and offered to pay for the food for Christmas day as our Christmas present.  I was over the moon, because money is tight at the moment and I had no clue how we would pay for a Christmas turkey.  The upshot of the talk was a huge Duchy Original organic turkey, as well as organic pigs in blankets and stuffing to go with in.  Happy sigh.  Now we just have to fix our larger oven to be able to cook everything 🙂

Charlotte has been planning the Victorian Christmas she is putting on in December.  She and Lillie are in cahoots over the decorations.  I have been presented with a menu and we have been discussing what she would like to make from scratch and what she would prefer to buy.  It all sounds very yummy and I am very excited 🙂

The little ones and I had a mammoth video watching spree.  We are currently learning about deserts, focusing on the Atacama desert in Chile and the Patagonia desert in Argentina.  B5 lost interest fairly early on, but A and I were glued to the screens and learnt a heap.  I am loving the fact that A is beginning to not only ask questions but also reminds me to look it up on google if I don’t know the answer.  As she LOVES learning about the natural world, this expands her learning quite considerably.

Wednesday was a beautiful day, weather wise, and we really should have taken advantage of it.  The little ones did and played happily outside for almost the whole afternoon, making a bird house and bird nest:

I was also gifted a tiny bunch of flowers from my youngest <3

Whilst B was over at mum’s, A and I also read the rest of chapter two of Tiger: Rescue!  This is such an interesting book and A really enjoys learning more about her focus endangered animal.  We are currently discussing how to raise awareness of the Tiger’s plight and have decided to create some Tiger t-shirts.  We are going to try to incorporate her tiger poster if possible:

We have been enjoying a read aloud of Dickens’ Christmas Carol, which is beginning to get us into the Christmas spirit.  Each time I read out a line which was stolen by the Muppet’s Christmas Carol film, everyone giggles, because, being the light-weight literary genius’ we are, we know all the words to the Muppet Christmas Carol  🙂

Today Lillie focused her time on pointillism, especially the science of optical illusions used in pointillism.  She needs to finish this up by Friday, so she is free to move onto the next impressionist artist on her list.  I’ll be doing a post on Seurat and all Lil’s work shortly.

Charlotte and I sat down for a Victorian Christmas planning session and managed to figure out the order of service.  We will be taking family photos (just like the Victorians did) on arrival, followed by the feast of gammon ham and hog’s head.  After food there will be time for each child to give their presentation.  Charlotte will be going last as she has a surprise for everyone that she has been working on.  And finally there will be tea, coffee, hot chocolate and home made sweetmeats, whilst we play some Victorian parlour games.  Sounds good, no?

Thursday was Charlotte’s appointment with the orthopods at the local children’s hospital.  We were hoping they will be able to tell her what is wrong and how we can fix it 🙂  I had to laugh (my teens crack me up), Charlotte was very put out that she was going to a children’s hospital instead of an adult one, or better still ‘there should be a teen one, as well!’

She was bemoaning the fact she had not brought a book to read, and we felt we needed to point out that the hospital provided many entertaining things to do to pass the time…..there was a soft play area with a slide, a play kitchen, a wendy house, colouring in…..I mean what more could a teen want?  Needless to say she was most unimpressed and reiterated the need for a teen hospital.  Gary and I were , at this point, laughing uncontrollably.  In her state of indignation she was acting just like a toddler throwing a tantrum!  Yes, she was in the right place…..

The out-shot of the appointment was that she was a normal teenage girl, with normal teenage girl problems.  She balked at being called normal and if I’d been drinking a tea, I would have choked on it!  It was the very first time in her entire life she’d been called ‘normal’.  And she did not like it!  But basically the news was good.  The pain wasn’t an indication of damage and it shouldn’t limit her in any way, and she should grow out of it by the time she stops growing 🙂

We left the hospital with Charlotte nattering away at the two of us about teen hospitals and not being normal….We stopped off at McDonald’s with the hope that she might desist her incessant chat 😉

Well, that’s it for the Angellicscalliwags.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend full of love. laughter and the company of those you love <3

 

Linking up with Kris