The Blessings of Friendship

This weekend has certainly turned out so far to be one of the most relaxed, happy, and enjoyable birthdays I think I've probably ever had.

All of it has been made possible by the friendship of many amazing people, who I am truly blessed to have as friends.

On Friday I spent the day baking, cooking and preparing for Saturday.

The marinaded/slow roast beef was joined by cola ham, and chicken roasted with lemon, thyme and rosemary.

I baked olive oil gluten free baguettes as well cheese and sesame gluten free loaves. As my brother, who is a coeliac, was coming to the birthday party I wanted everything to be gluten free.

Fortunately, as it turned out, the bread was so tasty that no one on the day noticed/complained about there not being any "normal" bread!.

In the evening, my generous hearted boys told their Dad that they were clubbing together to buy a take away for dinner.

Their Nan (who was over helping out with Jonathan) matched them pound for pound, so I was able to relax in the evening and take a break from cooking!

Saturday morning dawned with an beautiful clear blue sky and gorgeous sunshine and the day just got warmer and warmed. This meant we were able to put chairs outside and our guests were able to make the most of our sun-trap patio.

In the end we had twenty-six adults and twenty-nine children here!

Some friends brought food to contribute, and someone generously provided juice, fizzy, and wine (as well as crisps and chocolate for the kids!).

I also have to mention Max who managed to combine all the things I said were my favourite sweet things (meringue, fudge and toffee) and made the most amazing dessert that disappeared really fast!

The food all went really well actually, which was a relief. Just a few left overs - enough so I didn't feel that I'd undercatered, but not so much that I could think no one like the food! An experimental roasted vegetable and cheese tureen that I made at the last minute on Friday turned out to be one of the biggest hits.

I was too busy to take photos, but as always Henrietta did that for us all - I'll let the photos speak for themselves.










One of the nicest things about the day was the chance to catch up with people that I hadn't seen in months, or in some cases, years. The bitter-sweet part came from having Mum and my Brother there - but no Dad. He was present though in our thoughts every moment.

The celebrations continued in the evening when we went out for a meal with eight friends. My friend Stan was able to come - I've known him for 23 years! - which made a nice "seasoning" to the group who were all new friends from BCC. I really enjoyed the company and it was a lovely end to the day.

Today, my acutal birthday, the sun is still shining and I'm off now to church to give thanks from a VERY grateful heart.

Life Stages

We're really packing it into the days this week!

On Friday Samuel and Josh went to a friend's house from 11am till 8pm. Whilst they were out, we took William and Jonathan over to meet with Vicki and the boys, and we went for a walk/pond dip and general hanging out in the sunshine.

Saturday, Samuel went out for the whole day with his friend Alex, for Alex's birthday. They went to the Comedy Club for Kids in London, then for a meal, then back to Alex's until after Dr Who in the evening. By all accounts Samuel had a great day.

Sunday was church, with Roarke taking part in the second drama of a series that they are running during April. It sees him in his soldier's uniform, playing the part of "Brad", an actor... as you can imagine he is getting a lot of laughs :-)

On Monday we had a family day out with our friends and their children. We went to Greenwich to the Royal Observatory, and then had a picnic in the park - despite the somewhat artic winds blowing across the hill! We then went back to their house (to warm up!) and relax. A really really lovely day.

The rest of this week so far has been a mixture of business, charity work, family stuff, and generally rushing around.

April is of course a really bad month for me, and as always I am mentally and emotionally spending most of my time thinking about this time back in 2006. This weekend will be my 40th birthday, and that added "life stage" kind of atmosphere is, I guess, making my grief sharper this year.

We had hoped to have a party at a hall, but for various reasons this has been downgraded to having friends over on Saturday for a buffet lunch. Just as the kids always get to chose their "party food" for their parties, I've decided what we're eating on Saturday - and it is all my favourites! This means everything is either meat or cheese based (savoury) or meringue, fudge or toffee based (if sweet).

I'm hoping peope are going to be able to bring food, but I'm doing the bulk of the catering myself. I'm making it all gluten free as not only is my coeliac brother coming, but also obviously two of my boys are gluten free, and two other guests are gluten free.

It also kind of feels fitting to me, in Dad's memory :-(

At the last count I had 14 adults and 22 children coming...

I've just started the preparation. A beef joint is marinading for 24hrs now in red wine, thyme and rosemary from the garden, garlic and shallots. I'll slow cook that tomorrow, then slice it for the table. I've also made my first batch of gf dough, making some olive oil bread.

This is the view from one of my kitchen windows:
I love this photo as it manages to encapsulate most of who I am and where I'm at right now.

Two measuring scales (a necessity with all this baking), a batch of gf dough provingin the sunlight, potatoes chitting, windowsill chilli seedlings, two pot plants each a gift from friends visiting for dinner.. then looking out into the garden the left hand walled flower bed has crocosmia bulbs coming up at the back, then strawberry plants, then a few primulas at the front for colour. The black seat is off Freecycle (of course!), and the table is 8 years old and on its last legs (literally!). Behind that is my new vegetable patch with garlic, cabbages, brocolli, carrots, beetroot and leeks all in the little patch that you can see, and edged with spring bulbs inherited with this house. And of course the trampoline :-)

Telephone Lines and Ready Steady Cook

The week has seen the usual regular activities sprinkled with a few extras: church on Sunday (Roarke was serving in creche), he had drama practice on Tuesday (he had a 24hr bug thing on Monday so missed rehearsals as he went to bed at 7.30pm and slept till 9am!), on Wednesday he took Samuel and William on a home education trip to the Royal Observatory.

The boys both really enjoyed it, including the presentation and the workshop that had been organised. It is interesting to see just how different William in when he is interested in something - paying attention, Roarke said that he asked lots of questions, knew lots of answers, and generally got fully stuck in. He's also continuing his own, slow progress in recognising letters and words.

Samuel is definately well into his teen stage, including being eyed up by some school girls on the bus on the way home from the trip apparently!

Josh is pining for SAVVY as they have broken up for the Easter term. He's learnt all his lines for his part already and can often be heard practicing them.

Last Monday the local exchange had problems and we ended up losing our phone line and our internet too. I got very stressed!

So, as a result, my kitchen is sparkling, my bakeware drawers have been tidied, the top of the fridge has been cleared cleaned and sorted, and I baked. Lots.

Gluten free bread (Olive oil bread from the Healthy Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day
book, but I ran out of olive oil so used mainly canola oil - still smelt and tasted divine!)

Samuel helped make gluten free donuts (of which only these two and half were left by the time I got the camera!)
and of course some chocolate easter crispy cakes

I also made some great dinners, but I always forget to take photos of them!

We got a phone line and internet back after 48 hours but after not having any phone calls in two hours (unheard of) we realised there was still an issue. Sure enough, the engineer had made some wrong connections and we have someone else's phone line/number! It is actually quite upsetting as I know that not only are media calls going unanswered, but local home educators enquiries are also not getting through. Seeing as I take several a day usually, this is really concerning. BT have said that we are a priority - because of those helpline calls - but we are now a week around and apparently someone is coming out tomorrow to "the property". Why they need to come here I have no idea when it is a mistake at the exchange. I've got a horrible feeling we're going to have our phone number changed.... surely I can ask for compensation if so?

Thursday I was really busy. My mum came over to focus on Jonathan so that I could focus on our business. Where2EatinKent has now become a limited company and we've got some major projects on the go. It was good to be "working" for a change (lol) and actually the thing I was working on was very rewarding and I soon got into the swing of things and got lots of work done.

Today we had a local home educating family come over, who we've met once before some time ago. The children were William's age and younger and it was good for him to have friends around that weren't older than him for a change. The kids all had fun, and us mums had a good chat.

Josh and Samuel have gone out to get to church for 5pm to serve in setting up Baseline, ready for when it started at 6pm.

I'd been rumaging in the reduced down section at Sainsburys and had bought some garlic ciabatta and some taste the difference cannelloni. Now, I know I should have read the packet, but still I think it is badly done that the cannelloni need sauce to be able to cook them but it doesn't highlight that in anyway. So there I was, ready to put them in the oven, suddenly seeing I needed a jar of tomato sauce and a jar of cheese sauce to cook it.

It shows how far I've come as a cook I guess, and how confident I am now, that instead of throwing a wobbly, I just thought "oh well, I'll have to make some".

I sauted off two shallots, melted in an anchovy fillet, put in a glass and a half of red wine (frozen down in portions you see, from the left overs of a bottle of wine a dinner guest brought a few weeks ago), added a tin of tomatoes and "seasoned to taste". I then half blended it then left it to reduce down to thicken. Meanwhile I made a roux to make up an extra thick cheese sauce. Some fresh thyme from the garden went into the tomato sauce along with one ball of frozen chopped spinach. Once that had defrosted out into the sauce I then pour it into a dish, added the cannelloni, topped with the cheese sauce and some torn basil leaves (from the pot on the window sill) - and into the oven. Served with the ciabatta and a totally-out-of-place glass of gluten free beer, it was LOVELY!

So glad I had the confidence to make that up myself :-)

Wrapping up 2009

Christmas was amazing!

Regular readers know that for one reason or another, Roarke and I don't usually enjoy Christmas as much as we could, so it has been overwhelming for both of us to have actually had an amazing time. We have lots of family memories and treasured things to store in our hearts from this season and it has gone a long way towards wiping out the negative "ghosts" of Christmas Past for us.

We knew Christmas was going to be "lean" and had focused instead on the real Spirit of Christmas. As God promises, when you seek Him first, all the other stuff gets added on - and that is exactly what has happened.

Not only have we found real pleasure, encouragement, even excitement in serving through our church throughout December, but also in finding pleasure in family-created moments, sharing hospitality with friends, doing special things.

On top of that, the icing on the cake, was an amazing gift from another Christian family which turned out to be Guitar Hero 5! This blew us away! It has been an excellent family present with us all getting involved (well, Jonathan would if we let him near the guitar!) and just the fact of such a gift was uplifting.

As if that wasn't enough, we also got given a gift of money, for us to spend on the family for Christmas. It was a significant amount, which allowed us to buy a new television and dvd for the family - another big gift for us all to share and benefit from throughout the year. This also meant being able to pass our old freeview tv on to Josh to use (until it dies) which means his brothers can watch things with him in his room, and he also now can watch the movies, documentaries, and other things he would love to watch if only he could get at the tv (which is mainly Jonathan's domain during the day!)

Christmas Eve we called in to see family friends, and it was lovely to spend a little while with people who have been such a constant source of support and friendship to all of us during the year.

On the way back to the house we decided to surprise the boys with spending the last little bit of the money on a meal out at Frankie & Bennies. It was a perfect thing to do and we all had a brilliant time. My boys are such good company - all four of them - and I don't think we stopped laughing and talking for the whole time we were there.

Jonathan, at 2 1/2, has an incredible sense of humour and is even making up jokes and plays on words, and is constantly making us laugh.

Christmas Day we opened our gifts, then went to church for the Christmas Day service. It was exactly a year since we moved to BCC and made it our spiritual home, and it was lovely to look around the room and see so many people who we have connected with. They have welcomed us as a family, cared for Jonathan, looked out for William and Samuel and given them space to grow in a safe environment (I know some people with SEN kids are not blessed with a supportive or understanding church/congregation so I don't take this for granted at all), and have helped turned Josh into a strong young man. I have a lot to be thankful for.

After we got home the boys got to unwrap the mystery present that was the guitar hero game.

Christmas lunch went well. I was told by everyone that it was the best Christmas meal I'd ever cooked. The timing was perfect, done to the minute, even with allowing for having been out at church. I'd made dauphinoise potatoes the eveninig before so just had to cut it into portions and reheat alongside the trimmings (pigs in blankets and stuffing). The turkey was perfectly cooked, moist and tasty, which was a relief!

We finished off with Mum's legendary (gluten free) Christmas pudding.

Boxing Day was a nice quiet family day, then on Sunday after the two church services we went over to Mum for a buffet lunch with her, my brother and sister in law and kids, and my SIL's parents (over from Hungary for Christmas). The boys got presents from them which gave them some of the books and games that they'd wanted.

I got an ice cream maker, and some doughnut trays! It didn't take me long to use the trays...

I also got the Hairy Biker's Food Tour of Great Britain Cookbook and I have already used several recipes and adapted them to be gluten free!

One of the recipes I tried out for Mum when she came over for lunch on Tuesday, and another one for a friend for lunch yesterday!

Our church is having a "Daniel fast" (going without rich food, and basically sticking to vegetables, fruit and water) for 21 days in January so I've had to experiment with my cooking this week, and we are gradually using up food and winding down preparing ourselves both physically, mentally and spiritually for the fast that starts on 3rd January.

Fortunately it starts the day after the boys have their resheduled party and finishes the day before Samuel's birthday, so that's a blessing!

Tonight we are off to our church to share in a new year celebration. We'll share an international supper (everyone bringing a cultural dish as we have I reckon at least 20 countries represented in our congregation!), have a "BCC's Got Talent" show, a short service, then fireworks and then dancing.

We all stayed up late last night and the boys are still in bed now (sadly I didn't get the chance to lie in!) in order to be able to stay up till 1am :-)

I am so excited about 2010. Again, regular readers/friends know that I have major, major issues with New Year's Eve and even more "ghosts" that haunt me, so for me to be feeling excited is something that hasn't happened for, well, probably nearly three decades...

Focusing on CHRISTmas

It has been a busy few week and a half!

The party on Saturday went really well, and it was lovely to have a house full. The food seemed to go ok too which was a relief.

On Sunday 13th our church hosted a carol service in Orpington. Roarke got to do the reading, which he did really well. The whole evening was brilliant, and the school hall was packed. We were honoured to have some of the travellers from Orpington come over for their first taste ever of a church service. I think BCC managed to show them that not all churches fit the world's (negative - but sometimes justified) stereotype :-)

Monday I spent 3 hours with a team of media students making a documentary about the fight to save home education. Tuesday saw me at Westminster again for a Christmas "thank you" from NCVO to representatives from their members.

During the week I was baking cakes and preparing for our evening party on Saturday.

Roarke spent most of the week travelling around the borough of Bromley helping to deliver hampers for the Hope Foundation. Most of the work for the Christmas give away is done by Pastor Lydia and her assistant Judy, together with the tireless efforts of Terry & Junia. I really pray that they (and all the others who have helped) are blessed for their service. To me, that is what Christmas is all about - putting others first, serving others, putting Jesus's words into ACTION.

The snow stopped our plans for finishing off our Christmas shopping! We were worried that it would stop the home ed Christmas party on Friday that we were invited to, but fortunately it didn't. The boys had a great time - outside at the venue having a snowball fight for the best part of 2 1/2 hours!

Saturday morning I started baking and preparing at 9am, including icing my third Christmas cake of the season, and was just finished in time to get the food on the table for 7pm that evening! We had 16 people as some were not able to make it due to the treacherous conditions.

It was nice to have people around and to be able to relax with them.

My "fancy" party food on a budget looked like this:

I used Sainsbury's Basics bread, cut out circles using a mince pie/cookie cutter, dipped them in olive oil then put in patties tins and baked in the oven for 10 minutes. These made the basis for canapes of beef (brisket slow cooked for 9 hours in one mini bottle of red wine) with onion relish,
and canapes of smoked salmon (Sainsbury's basic's scraps) with sour cream, lemon zest/juice and shallot. I also used them to make canapes of mozzarella topped with finely chopped roasted red peppers. I also cut stars out of the bread and treated the same way, then topped with a sliver of brie (Sainsbury's Basics again!) and a dollop of home made cranberry sauce.

I also slow cooked some gammon in coca cola and cut into cubes. I then used cocktail sticks and put a cube of cheese, cube of gammon, then a tiny silverskin onion on top. A mad idea I had was to make individual prawn cocktails. I mixed up the filling then used it to stuff cherry tomatoes. Yes, really!

I also stuffed baby bell peppers with a mixture of feta, mint, and lemon zest/juice. The usual sausage rolls ( thank God for Sainsburys Basics range!), sausages, and bits and pieces finished the savoury food. I'd made a clementine cake, mince pies, and of course the Christmas cake (all gluten free as one of our guests was gluten free).

All in all I was quite pleased with the over all effect.

The next day we had the second BCC carol service, this time at the church in Bromley. With everyone on their "home ground" they were all a lot more relaxed and the evening was a lot of fun.

Yesterday the boys were meant to have their party. I spent the day baking, and in the afternoon we popped over to see some friends from church for a short while. Whilst we were there, the rain turned to sleet, then snow and oh boy did it snow! If you were anywhere in Bromley or south east London area you will know what I mean! The snow, about 2-3 inches, fell on top of the freezing roads and there was chaos.

We realised the conditions looked grim and left our friends to get back in time to set up for the party. About 1/2 a mile later we hit gridlock and realised we were going no where. We all frantically texted/rang everyone to try and say that the party was cancelled.

We headed back to our friends and they very kindly took us in, warmed us up, and fed us.

About 2 hours later we tried again, and this time - very slowly - we managed to get home.

The boys were of course upset to have had to cancel, though it had been quite an adventure!

We were much more fortunate than thousands across the south and south east who were stranded in cars. Many of my facebook friends had tales to tell of being stuck with kids in the car and unable to get back, or having to walk home from work etc.

Today we finished off delivering some hampers, then headed out to Bromley for our own last minute Christmas shopping. We then took William into Orpington for his. This is the first year that all the boys have bought presents for each other and it is really heart warming to see.

We then took another hamper over to a family that we knew who were in need. To be blunt, seeing the huge difference it made to them has just blown us away and has made this an AWESOME day. To be serving in a church that serves the community so well, with no strings attached, just because it is what we should be doing, is just the best thing ever. It has really made Christmas for us.

As a family we are seriously excited about 2010 and where serving through our church is going to take us.

Photos

Jonathan being very cute the other evening, as he carefully tucked his "babies" in before he went up to bed.Jonathan running away quick in the vain hope that I would not realise it was him who had been digging in the flower pots and spreading compost all over the patio...

Today's home ed lesson was building. So I made a chair out of duplo :0)

a fully working model chair, as demonstrated by Jonathan:


My garden seems to be taking after my free range autonomous children and following its own path. Or in the case of the courgettes, following the patio. The word triffid springs to mind...
The tomatoes are cropping so heavily that they are now not only tied up, tied to the neighbours fence, but also supported by three planks!
Friends who came over for dinner last weekend, being instructed in the art of kid knex by William and Jonathan. Actually in true home ed style there was a serious lesson about balance going on; at least Chris learnt something ;0)

Actors and Boxes

Sunday saw Josh off to his first music festival, as he went with some of the lot from SAVVY to GUILFEST for a cut down performance of their show. It was hard to wave him off, knowing he was going to be away from us all day. Definately growing up!

From his reports, it sounds as if he had a good time and judging by the facebook photos, the group had a good turn out for their piece.

Roarke was working all day so I spent the day running everyone around. He'd dropped Josh off first thing in Wallington to collec the minibus, then I drove him to work, and took us all off to church. Back home, then in the afternoon I drove Samuel over to Crusaders. Back home, then out again an hour and a half later to collect Roarke from work, then Samuel from Crusaders. Back home, then out again almost immediately to go and collect Josh from Wallington!

So far this week, Roarke has also been for an audition for a tv advert, oh and he was on TV Tuesday evening! The BBC 2 "Freefall" programme was on. Roarke was one of the background stockbrokers in the office, and when the main characters walk through, you can see Roarke at his desk just by the entrance to the office where the main characters worked. Sadly, his back was to camera all the time, but what a classic back Can't complain when you get paid just for having your back to camera in a few shots!

Today Roarke is at HESFES, doing some filming for EO. It was meant to be me going and I would have loved to have met up with lots of people I know who are there, but I couldn't really have another day away from the kids.

British Gas have finally given up on our boiler, after coming out to the house between 1 and 3 times a week every week since we moved in, and we are now awaiting a new boiler. In the interim we have intermittent hot water still. On top of that my landline has gone kaput today and I have no idea why. The line is working and the phone rings but it won't connect. I am assuming the rechargable batteries in the handset have given up recharging. It will have to wait until Roarke is home and I can get out to the shops.

Jonathan is into boxes at the moment, emptying everything out so that he can get in:
It would be ok other than the fact that he can get in but rarely get out because of his plaster cast!

Last night I went out with a friend for a meal which was truly lovely. To just go out as two female friends, no kids, no husbands, just two friends taking a few hours out. For both of us that was a very rare occurance and all the more precious for it.

Monday we are due to have the fourth annual south east home educators beach day but the weather is looking dodgy. I can't decide whether or not to go ahead, and whether or not to buy an outdoor cover for his cast so that Jonathan can safely go on the sand. If we don't go its a lot of money for nothing...

Houses and Friends

Well the big news for us is that we have seen a house, found a house, that we love (this is a picture of the garden) and that would be perfect for us. It definately FEELS like it is meant to be, so now we're just trusting in God to handle the paperwork for us... we need the Dr to write the letter saying that our two kids on the autistic spectrum should not share a room (which pushes us into the 4 bed bracket) and for the Council to agree to fund the house even though it is 1.8 miles outside the Borough.

The house could have been designed for us, it so specifically meets every need, and almost every desire, that we had for accomodation for us.

Its been hard to think/see beyond that actually, though I'm sure other stuff has been going on!

Our morning service at BCC on Sunday was awesome, and I came out of church buzzing - which is surely how church is MEANT to be!

William got hurt last night, they were playing and he fell back on the corner of one of their large plastic play/storage boxes. You wouldn't think that could do so much damage, but he ended up with a huge long gash on his back, nearly 4 inches long, which seemed to bleed a lot. Needless to say, he didn't seem hardly bothered at all - made more fuss of the pain/irritation of the micropore on his skin than the pain of the gash!

Today was a lovely lovely day. Some special friends who, though dearly loved, we only get to meet up with on average once every 18 months, came over today.

We met up via the internet when Serene and I were both pregnant with our third son, who both turned out to be called William! A firm friendship between families ensued.

I had fun yesterday baking and preparing (which is, you know, kind of MY THING and actually something I love doing) and today put on a good sized spread for us all - a kind of semi Mediterranean lunch.

With seven boys between us, amazingly the afternoon passed relatively quietly with all the boys playing nicely together. Serene and Richard's kids remain some of the nicest kids I've ever met and it is lovely to see these young lads growing up when I've known them for 7 years now.

As if the day couldn't be better, there was just enough leftovers to mean I didn't have to worry about cooking dinner!

One extreme to another

I'm not sure where the past week has gone, but it seems to have flown by.

The low-light was definately the visit by Graham Badman to our home ed group. I found it quite disheartening to see him in that environment seemingly missing the WHOLE POINT of it all. When we've had reporters come there to meet with us, they have all been impressed by the kids, by the parents, by the whole atmosphere. Now I'm not saying he didn't think those things - he did say that the kids were "doing you proud" when I dragged him away from talking to the teens - but on the whole I just didn't feel the same "wow" reaction that we usually get.

Because our kids ARE amazing. They are so confident, so relaxed. He said he thought that a similar bunch of schooled kids would be reacting the same to him - I disagree. Totally. I said they would be talking to him because they were being made not, not because they'd want to, and again he disagreed.

*shrug* Sorry. I just don't think he really SAW.

Anyway, enough of that. To balance that a fabulous day was had today. Someone suggested a trip to Danson Park for a picnic as the weather was so good. We had at least 10 families there (I think I counted them all) with at least 18 kids between us ranging in age from 21 months to 14 years. We had quite a few in the 12+ bracket and it was so very very good to see all those teens getting on, playing, letting their hair down, roller blading/skating, running around and generally hanging.

Sorry Mr Badman but THAT isn't so usually these days, amongst a bunch of teenagers. Especially to be comfortably mixed male and female.

The adults all had a good natter, put the world to rights (especially Mr Badman et al!), caught up, and generally hung out too.

The weather was ideal. All in all a very good day to be out and about and revelling in the freedom of self expression and freedom from constraints that home education brings.

I've taken lots of calls this week about home ed. At least 4 new families taking their kids out. I've also had a few tough cases which I've been involved in.

We got the car fixed in time to take Josh to SAVVY on Thursday which was a huge blessing. Its good to be back on the road again ;0) It also meant we could get to Fun Drum on Tuesday with the home ed group. One of the teens in the group is a fabulous artist, and was there with her younger brother. Whilst she sat around she was tracing out some great designs and kindly did one for me. I love colouring in! That's another good thing about HE - it allows me to be a kid again! No one thought I was mad to be sitting there colouring in, as an adult.

I do love the fact that home ed parents are non-judgemental, just like the kids.

On Sunday the cooker broke in the middle of Mum trying to roast her dinner, and just before I put my chicken in, so we've had a week of stove-top meals. I've made no-bake cookies, baked a cake in the breadmaker, and generally dusted off some recipes. I can recommend Sainsburys Pork and Mustard Stew from their Meals for a Fiver range - it was very tasty! Also we've done home made meatballs simmered in tomato sauce (Jamie Oliver - but in the stock pot rather than the oven!), home made falafels in sweet and sour sauce, and of course pasta.

I'm looking forward to my roast chicken though, eventually, once we get the new cooker on Friday!

On Friday Roarke and I are also off to the Council to see about rehousing us...

Sunday Roarke and I got told off in M&S by a complete stranger, and told to "behave, children!" as we were larking around by the wine... seems no one on my Facebook page was surprised by that announcement!

Jonathan is such a delight to be around. He is so into his imaginary play, with any little figures he can find. He feeds them, puts them to bed (and takes them to bed in the afternoon!), puts them in and out of toy cars. Such fun. His thing of taking up to bed whatever he is playing with at the time has led to some strange bed fellows this week, including a piece of wooden train track, cars, lego people, and he even tried to take his sit on train upstairs!

His vocabularly is huge, with him repeating most words now after he is told them, and I have lost count of the range. He's adding at least 5 a day it seems.

Unfortunately though he is very colicky again and I don't know why. I've had two horrendous nights in a row out of him, with him waking every 30-40 minutes screaming. Tired is an understatement.

Well, its been a lovely if long and tiring day, and it is nice that the boys are still outside playing in the failing light.

Roll on the summer.

Festive and Family Fun

One of the highlights of the week has had to be our home ed Christmas party!

The venue was the rugby club, that one of our members has links with and where we meet fortnightly. Debs and helpers had decorated the hall, and set out drinks and nibbles. Everyone brought their own "party" food.

The entertainment was brilliantly provided by Keri, one of our mums, who is a children's entertainer. She was amazing, and got lots of the kids - and even some of the parents - involved in dancing, games, and general fun.

Photos will follow once I can get them off my mobile phone ;0)

The other highlight was going to see Jack & The Beanstalk at Greenwich Theatre, courtesy of a lovely friend and business partner of Roarke's.

It was the first panto that the boys had been to and they loved it. Jonathan was brilliant - he was totally enthralled by the singing and dancing, and joined in dancing in the aisles (literally!). He clapped after everything, and by the end of it was even going "boooo" when the baddie was on stage! Considering it meant keeping (relatively) still and (relatively) quiet for two hours I think he did really well.

Poor old Joshua and Roarke both looked longingly at the stage and I could tell that they were wishing they were on the stage rather than watching it!

We'd been out (Roarke and I) for breakfast whilst getting a top secret super surprise Christmas present, and we'd taken the boys out for lunch, then we had the panto and to round it off I did gf pizza for the boys, and cakes, for dinner. Over the past few weeks I've been picking up any chinese type thing that I could see in the reduced-to-clear section of the supermarket, which meant that Roarke and I could therefore round off a lovely day with an array of yummy snacky bits without feeling massively guilty that we'd spent lots of money!

Today Jonathan and I stayed home whilst the others went to church, and had a nice play. We've realised now that if he sleeps in the afternoon he doesn't go to bed until about 10, so now we encourage him to sleep late morning. To that end, I took him out in the pram and went down to the high street to get a few more Christmas bits, and so he got the chance to sleep for 50 minutes.

The exciting news is.... Jonathan has his first audition! Tuesday morning I need to take him up town for an audition - he of course is totally obliviously to it all and I am really stressing and nervous!

PC is banished for Christmas!

This will sound like another busy post but actually there is a lot of ground to cover!

We have enjoyed some lovely social activities over the week or so. We've been to visit home educating families at their homes and made new friends, we've had friends over here to dinner and got closer, and been to friends to celebrate a birthday.

Joshua had his last few rehearsals and Saturday evening saw the performance by the SAVVY Youth Theatre of The Golden Door. The play tells of two tribes in a dark underworld, the Jagged Ones and the Pus Balls, who are shown the door to a better world of light by a mysterious stranger. It was fabulous, and I was very VERY proud of Josh. I thoroughly enjoyed the play.

Samuel was wowed by his first experience of theatre and it was interesting to see how, as an Aspie, this three dimensional story telling really gripped him. Even William was - quite literally - on the edge of his seat and "got" much of the story even though the words were beyond him (a good job as there was a LOT of, er, adult content!). Samuel now thinks he would like to see more shows.

As Roarke was so gripped as a youngster by his first experience of theatre, it will be interesting to see if this leads anywhere for Samuel - who was also browsing the notice about the drama group for 7-13 year olds....

I hope to have some pictures up soon from the show, and of Josh collecting his award for "best smile" from the theatre group!

This weekend was meant to see the start of our Christmas preparations. As detailed here before, we try to make all of December special for the family both for the sake of the members of the family with Aspergers who find one day too much stress/excitement, and for Roarke and I who both have negative memories from childhood Christmases.

We did get *some* stuff done. I've at least bought the cards, we got some new lights, decided on how we wanted to decorate the front room, and I practiced making gluten free mince pies. However, in typical Ann & Roarke style, just 2 hours before our lunch guests today, we decided that the only place we could put the tree was where the computer desk was - and then further that the whole room would then need changing around.

So the pc is now in our bedroom again - and I am without my constant internet connection (help!!!! I can't cope!!!!) - and the entire front room has been rearranged. Actually it looks pretty good! Much more like a living space and less like an office or dining room.

The first Christmas lights are up in the window. We ran out of energy to do anymore today! Our guests arrived just as we'd finished hoovering, and dinner was 25 minutes late ( to my annoyance). By the time they went we were too worn out to do anything other than straighten our bedroom so that we and Jonathan can at least go to bed tonight without sleeping on boxes or Christmas decorations!

I'm snatching a moment to do my emails (and blog!) before going back down to make tea (I'm still full from the lasagne and chocolate fudge pudding that we had at 2pm! - yes home made lasagne the first one since I went dairy free! It was scrummy even if I say so myself. A "secret family recipe")

Firework Party

The good news is that Jonathan is almost recovered. Turned out he'd got a secondary infection from his cold and had ear infections and a chest infection :0(

He's now on the mend. I can tell that because all I can hear from my Mum's living room is "Jonathan, NO!" and I've had to put the dining room chairs back on the table to stop him climbing on it.

At the moment, I have high hopes for improved sleep. He always sleeps longer in bed with me than in his cot bed. No surprise really. Having had colic from birth and sleeping in my arms for the first 7 or so months of his life, that is what he associates with comfort. So I finally got around to buying him a pillow, and got down one of our spare single duvets. A nice Bob the Builder duvet set made it all cheeful for him. The moment he saw the pillow he grabbed it, laid down and said "ahhhh"!!

Last night was the first night with it, and he slept 2 hrs, 1 1/2 hrs, 2 1/2, 3 hrs, then 2 hrs - the best sleep he's had for many many months. He looked very cute and snuggly in it!

Joshua is working hard on his auditions - five hours of rehearsals this week. He's been offered a place on the team next term which he is very pleased about. I managed to find my way over to Sutton to take him to his Thursday rehearsal which I was relieved about. I took Jonathan to get him out the house and so as not to leave him with Mum again and he enjoyed the ride over. He didn't enjoy the 55 minutes journey back in traffic though and screamed most of the way. I had him in the front with me to try and cheer him up, and had his window down between rain showers - so everytime the car stopped in traffic all heads were turning to see where the horrendous screaming was coming from! I tried to look like a calm caring mum...

Friday was a big day. During the day there was the regular hall gathering in Hayes, then in the evening we hosted here a fireworks party for our home ed group.

In the end we had 63 adults and children present! Each family gave £2 towards fireworks and thanks to some donations, and the buy one get one free offers on everywhere, we had £120 of fireworks to let off.

Everyone chipped in to bring some food, and I provided jacket potatoes and chilli. Along with a choice of beans or cheese, and some extra crudites/dips, bread and soup, it seemed a good enough spread for everyone. A cup of cocoa after the fireworks finished the evening off.

I really enjoyed it - even though I only saw 4 fireworks as Jonathan was NOT impressed with his house being taken over...

Lots of people helped on the night, and Jane worked hard in the kitchen washing up (we had plastic plates, cups and cutlery to keep the washing down), and Henrietta's children were fabulous helpers in getting the floor cleaned up after the food.

I enjoyed X Factor yesterday (saddo that I am) and I thought for once that the public got it right (in other words they agreed with me, lol). I really like Daniel and hope he does well. I want Rachel to win though!

Today we had a lunch guest which was pleasant, and now Roarke has gone off to stay overight in Portsmouth for some work there tomorrow. Just thinking if I deserve a treat... the Co-op is calling...

another week

Oops! Another week gone...

Last week I attended a meeting with DCSF, on behalf of Education Otherwise. It was an exhausting meeting - and all the preparation to it - but worth it.

On a personal note, it meant a whole 5 hours away from Jonathan; longest I've left him previously was 2 hours. Roarke had him all day and he was very good for his Dad, which was a relief. It felt very odd being "me" instead of being mum, or wife, etc. Wierd, but good.

William got going on his "year 1" level maths on Education City, and just whizzed through it all without any hassle. Maths is definately his "thing". Samuel is up to multiplying fractions, LCDs and the such like on the maths upgrade.

Joshua has his photo shoot on Thursday this week. We are all going as they want a couple of family shots, in case they have work offered for a whole family. Samuel and William would love to do the modelling but Samuel knows he couldn't cope (and we know William is too unstable to be in such a commitment) so the family opportunity might mean they at least get a chance to do something.

On Monday 8th September BBC London are doing a feature on home education on their evening news show (6.30 show). They are filming our HE group on that day, and this week two teens - including Josh - are getting the chance to do a video diary. Great stuff for the kids, and Josh is really chuffed as he's always wanted to do something like this. He wants to video the kids going to school over the road so we had a chat - not just about privacy laws (!) but also about not making comments that could be taken as negative against school kids. After all, its not their fault they are in school!

We have had some nice trips out, like the one this week to Shorne Park with two other HE families. All of us with at least one aspie kid, it was so good because not only do all our kids seem to really gell, but so do the three mums!

Roarke has got a part in a proper feature film, that he auditioned for a few weeks ago. Not sure how big the part is, but its a speaking role, as a prosecutor in a court case, and the case is a major part of the film... its a deferred payment one, so he gets paid if it is successful. Don't knock it - Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was a deferred payment film!

Jonathan now has 12 teeth, can climb the bookcase, push chairs around the front room to climb on to reach all the stuff put out of his reach, has broken my mobile phone (a mixture of eating it and dropping it), waves at the tv if anyone says goodbye or hello, and now walks around to kiss everyone in turn when you tell him its time for bed!

Too Busy to Blog

Been too busy to blog over the past week, but here is a catchup post!

On Monday we went to High Elms with our HE group. Sheila came up from the Medway, which was brilliant, as it gave her another chance to meet with more of the group from up here. Tracey and the kids came up too - which pleased William and him and Jamie have a "tool box" obession in common!

We had a few rain showers, so we put the picnic blankets under the tree and sat under there till each shower passed - very British.

A lovely family came over to meet us, with their 3 month old baby, to discuss home education. We had a really really good chat, and they were great company.

Roarke was in Ely all day on EO finance group/trustee stuff. His foot had been a lot easier..

Tuesday was exciting. We took Jonathan and Joshua up to a London modelling agency for their test/audition shoot. It was fun, and Jonathan was suitably cute and precocious, running riot around the office and studio melting hearts! Josh was complimented on his attitude and confidnece, which was brill. When we said it was down to HE the photographer said some of their models could do with "some home education" in that case!

Unfortunately Roarke's gout flared back up, big time, and he's on 4 lots of medication to try and bring it back down again.

There's been some good learning going on during the week, both on their fixed stuff (maths upgrade, Education City, and the like) and also on extra stuff.

Samuel has been having huge problems with his behaviour (as I think I've mentioned) recently. But in discussion with some parents on the HESP list (my lifeline!) we are testing out the theory that it might be down to switching to full fat milk, instead of semi - as it is noted both for leaky gut and the autism/gfcf diet point of view it is "worse" to have full fat. As his behaviour changed matched exactly to the day (after) we changed the milk, we have switched back and we'll see.

Samuel and I had a discussion about the gfcf diet as he was upset to think he might have to give up cheese. But I've told him I'd let it be his decision and we'd just continue what we've always done which is just limiting the dairy he has.

On Saturday Joshua heard that he'd been accepted to the agency - he was soooo chuffed and I'm very proud of him. Now we have to think about whether or not to take up - they are a sole agency, and they are one that has an annual fee so, although they are one of the top ones (I've been checking them all out) its still a tough decision.

Yesterday we went to Tracey's (Josh stayed home) and the boys had a brilliant time.

Improving

Feeling a bit calmer now, thanks to some wonderful friends on and off line.

Highlights from the past few days?

William asking about the meaning of a whole bunch of words: physics, conscience, and dishonour being just three of them! When I asked about this eclectic bunch of words, he said that anytime he hears a word on TV he doesn't know, he remembers it so he can ask what it means.

Cool!

Also a highlight was the phone call for William from his new friend, the 88 year old lady, inviting him over for a drink this morning.

He's into fixing things at the moment, carrying around a shoe box with "William's Tool Box" written on it, filed with odds and ends. This started after findng a lot of nuts and bolts buried at the edges of Cobtree Manor Park, which we went to on Monday with our HE group.

It was a lovely afternoon. Seven families and sixteen children, between the ages of 14 months and 14! Really, really nice time.

Samuel went shopping with my Mum and my Brother today to a big Sainsburys, and he looked after his cousin (2) whilst he went round with him. Joshua meantime went with Roarke to get his hair cut, prior to his test photo shoot next week with the agency.

Roarke has an audition tomorrow (didn't get the part for the tv series one off), and this one is actually for a small part in a real film. With real sponsors and a real "name" in it. Hope the audition goes well for him. This is his first big audition.

Has it been a full moon recently? Samuel and William's behaviour has been awful, really manic, full of meltdowns, very emotional.

Mind you, I've not been much better ;0)

Hot and Humid

I've had a migraine headache for two days, and today I'm feeling very groggy as it finally clears up.

It's not helped my mood! All in all its been a very tough week.

Roarke is still in a lot of pain, with his whole foot swollen now. It seems as if the swelling of the toe through the gout has somehow contributed to his muscles going out again, from the metatarsel injury that he had before. He definately won't be doing the Triathlon on Saturday, which is a huge disappointment.

On a more positive note, he may have more filming! A part in a tv series - just a one off extra part - but still... I'll let you know if he gets it!

I've been working hard on a lot of EO stuff this week, not easy with a migraine, and the weather hasn't helped because I really don't like it when it is humid. The storm last night was a relief in many ways.

Monday afternoon, as I mentioned in my post that day, we went to the park, meeting three other HE families from our group at Shorne Country Park. I really enjoyed it, finding the three women who were there very easy to talk to and get on with, and the intermitent light showers seemed to add to the fun; having no coats with us (shame on me!) we kept huddling under the plastic backed picnic rug every time it rained! The boys thought it was great fun.

On Tuesday I had a frantic baking session - breads rolls, double chocolate brownies, fairy cakes, and a fruit cake! Why? Well, in the morning Joshua and Samuel went to the cinema for the birthday of a lad in our group. Whilst they were out, William had round his new friend - an 88 year old lady that he befriended at a church barbeque recently! Bless him!

She was so delighted to have an invite out, only getting out three times a week (all church activities) and she is totally smitten with him. He just loves people, and someone willing to sit and listen to every word he says, and pay him 100% attention, is his idea of a perfect friend.

We sat in Mum's living room, which gave her a chance too of some adult company.

After we took the lady home, we collected the others from the cinema and all went back to the house for a small birthday party. In the rain. In a gazebo! Again, the boys seemed to find this added to the experience! Poor Roarke was very unwell, with the tablets making him so drowsy that, because he had to drive (we took both cars to help out with running kids back to the party from the cinema) he couldn't take them. This left him in a lot of pain poor thing and by the time we left he had really had enough.

Yesterday we had Grace and the boys over for a while in the afternoon. It was good to catch up with them. Both babies slept through the time they were here, and the older five had a chance to play outside therefore (banned from the house in case they woke the babies!).

Today was a quiet day. The boys have played well mainly upstairs, I've been doing my EO stuff, Roarke has been resting up and getting on with stuff on his laptop, and Jonathan has pottered around being cute.

Roarke has been working on a website to use for his acting stuff, somewhere to direct agencies too. What do you think of this?!

A Social Whirl...

Roarke enjoyed the filming - though playing a Russian mob bodyguard in a leather jacket, in last week's excessive heat, apparently wasn't as much fun as it could have been ;0)

He's been forced to have a Facebook account - I think all the "luvvies" have one - so we've been spending some more time than usual on that. If you are on Facebook, look me up! I need more friends!

On Wednesday I had the health visitor over. Poor woman has been trying to get hold of me for ages to do Jonathan's one year check, but I'm always out when she rings. In the afternoon the boys and I went to meet Henrietta and some of the kids, so that the boys could play football. William played beautifully with one of her lads, digging up "ancient" treasure - pottery and "puzzles" from under one of the trees.

Thursday on we had Mhairi and the girls over which was lovely, and Liz (a friend from church) and her daughter Grace. All those girls! I didn't know what to do! William was in his element with so many friends of HIS to play with for once, bless him.

In the afternoon, I had twenty minutes between them leaving and another family visiting to get Jonathan up for an afternoon nap. All in all a busy day! No danger of my lads having "socialisation" issues...

Samuel and William have a new bed, to replace the bunk beds we got recently from Freecycle that creak constantly and keep everyone awake. The bottom bunk is a double, and turns to a futon during the day, so they are very pleased with that.

Yesterday Samuel had a friend over from church, and the four boys together turned the bunks into a galleon, using the bits from their Superfort set. I have to say it looked amazing!

Joshua has signed up for more acting agencies - basically any that Roarke is on that take kids too. I think the two of them are getting just a teeny weeny bit competetive (can't think where Josh gets that from...)

Its all good though, as they are working together on stuff like audition parts, with Roarke helping Joshua learn all about voice projection, confident speaking, and the basics of how to act. Good to see them with something they can share, at this important life stage for Joshua.

Over the weekend we had a visit from Lynda H, who I had to do some work with, and it was just so nice to be face to face with someone I email so often. We were very profesisonal, and managed to get lots done, and Lynda took the chaos of the family in her stride for which I was grateful!

Poor Roarke has a massive gout flare up, and is in agony. So I'm trying to play nurse too at the moment. If I can get him in and out of the doctors quick enough today, we are then due at a park this afternoon with others from the group.

Catching Up

Long time no write!

Things have been good, if busy.

William likes the revised Education City site, and it means it is easier for him to work through the sections alone, seeing what he hasn't finished yet, and he has now finished the whole science section.

Samuel has been blogging again, and also continuing with Maths Upgrade. He has also started work on his bullying website and is busy reading my HTML book - this is particularly significant as he hardly ever choses to read anything. Especially "learning"!

Joshua reads a section a day of his Geography syllabus, and we also have the GCSE science coursebook in the toilet (don't laugh!) where we all have got into the habit of reading a page each, er, time...

Jonathan is wonderful, of course. He and Joshua have a test photo shoot for a modelling agency coming up next month, which should be fun!

Roarke has also got some acting work (he was an actor many moons ago, stage actor, and has only recently had the chance to get back into it again) with two days of filming for a European film next week.

This week we had our last indoor play session in Chatham before the summer holidays, and it was good to meet up with a number of new families as well as the old faces (no offence Sheila!).

This morning we met up with Henrietta's older kids at the park near them, which was really good, and this afternoon we met a brand new home educator up at the park by us.

I also made my first pavlova bases today, for someone's wedding at church that I am part of the catering team for. The first one cracked, so we had meringue for pudding tonight ;0)

I'm just about to take the other two out of the oven... I'm too scared to look!

Happy 1st Birthday - Twice!

On Friday my little baby was ONE! Can you believe it? It doesn't seem a year...

In the morning Roarke took Joshua kayaking, whilst I dashed around baking.

I picked first Liz and the kids, then Sheila & Callum, up from the station. They had both come early to help, and Sheila kindly brought some cakes too.

They were needed!

My "open house" invitation led to no less than 38 home ed kids and adults turning up!

The sports equipment from Sainsburys & Tescos got well used, as did the bouncy castle donated by a fellow home educator (thanks Dawn!) and our new trampoline.

The weather held - it started to rain at 3pm just as the kids at the school over the road were about to come out!

The birthday boy wandered around the garden with Nanny, taking in all in his stride!

In the evening, Joshua then set off on an adventure. The Independent on Sunday had called asking me to find a 12 year old HE kid to go that day to be interviewed for a feature on growing up in the UK, to be published this Sunday! Roarke took him off therefore to the offices of the Independent. They got there at 6, and didn't leave till 8.45!

The item was published today - in the paper version Joshua's picture is on the bottom of the front page of the newspaper, together with him being in the group photo in the inside feature on pages 8/9. The online version is here.

As we were tired out, Mum treated us to a chinese so that neither of us had to cook.

Saturday I got up ready for the second first birthday party (!). My brother and sister in law were coming over in the afternoon with their son. As my brother is a coeliac that meant cooking and baking everything gluten free.

As usual I over catered - forgetting that Roarke wasn't there because he was in Bristol chairing the EO Council Meeting!

We had a green salad, baked courgette risotto, ham cooked in coca cola, a plate of salami and smoked sausage, Tesco's gluten free sausages, the inevitable cheese and pineapple, fresh baked finger rolls, chicken pieces marinated in lemon, fresh thyme and rosemary from the garden, garlic and olive oil, plus various dips and crudites. For the sweet stuff, as well as a fruit salad, we had chocolate fairy cakes, vienesse chocolate biscuits, and for Jonathan and I to eat (dairy, wheat, egg and soya free) we had newborn biscuits, and birthday cake!

We had been due to go away for three days to Sheffield but our car is in serious need of some work and to risk that drive would have been foolish. So inside we decided to "holiday at home".

This morning therefore, we went to church first, as they had a guest speaker, for the kids. After that the boys predictably chose McDonalds for a rare treat of a meal there. I took a pot of the left over cola ham, and Jonathan and I ate that and shared some chips!

In the afternoon we spent the money we'd saved on diesel on wooden laminate floor for the front room (we share the house with mum and have one of the "reception" rooms as dining room, lounge, office and classroom all in one!) and some paint for the wall.

We had a lovely family dinner; we put the extension into the table (Ikea, courtesy of Freecycle), and had what Samuel calls a feast - all the left overs spread out on the table so we could help ourselves.

Jonathan enjoyed helping himself to pineapple, carrot sticks, cucumber, pepper slices, and more ham. Oh and humous of course!

Roarke's now gone off to the hospital to visit a friend. Poor guy is a carpenter and was working on repairing a roof when he fell 40 ft onto a concrete floor - with only a wall to break his fall. God really stepped in there, because he should really be dead. Actually he has a broken pelvis, lower spine and arm, but although they say he may never play football, or maybe be able to run again, he is otherwise fine, Do remember my friend in your prayers if you can, as he is missing his family especially his four week old first baby daughter :0(

The boys are being dipped - I mean bathed - as I speak!

Friends and Al Fresco

This morning we all went to church, then came back and the boys had some gf pizza for lunch.

My brother popped over, and his wife had kindly found 400+ balls (at a boot fair) to put in the bouncy castle.

Continuing the theme of recycling/second hand toys, we then went off to collect (thanks to Freecycle) a Little Tykes coupe car, and a toddler see saw. Its brilliant to have all this stuff for Jonathan especially as we gave all our stuff on after William so its nice to feel that what goes around comes around.

Whilst we were out, Roarke and I popped into Lidl (an old favourite shopping haunt before we were gluten free) and stocked up on some tasty treats. Back home via Tescos for a few more, then we came home and packed up a picnic dinner.

As a surprise we then whisked the boys off to High Elms for a early evening, continental style dinner al fresco. What made it extra nice was that there were two HE families there, with their friends and families, celebrating one of the daughter's 10th birthday. That meant the boys were able to hook up a little with some of their friends whilst we were there.

Feeling mellow (if worn out!) we then all came back home for much needed baths!