Story Time and Gardening

We enjoyed a busy bank holiday weekend, celebrating my husbands 50th, his hope of people forgetting his age didn't happen as every card had 50 on it! He had a bottle of scotch whiskey from work, labelled with his name then aged 50 years and his work colleagues names on it, which was a lovely gift.  We have also spent some time up the allotment, rather windy but not raining, planted out some broccoli and brussel sprout plants and sowed more peas. L has been busy planting up my pots, we had a trip to the garden centre and I let her choose which ones to get, then she spent time deciding which plants to plant where and where to plant them, very pleased with the result. Hopefully we will have a lovely colourful display throughout the spring and summer.

Our story this week from A Year Full of Stories, is from India and called The Cracked Pot, a lovely story about a man who collects water, one pot is perfect and the other leaks, the pot asks why does he still use him if he is broken and leaks. The man replies that he has planted flowers all along the path on the broken pots side and as he walks the pot waters the flowers so the man has a lovely walk. So though the pot couldn't do his original job for him perfectly he did another one brilliantly. We spent some time looking at Maps book on India and they were fascinated with the painted elephants, I found some outlines to colour in and then watched some clips on you tube,  this one on painting the elephants and then a couple of the festival in Jaipur. M and I read through this page with lots of interesting facts behind the festival and Hinduism. I found this bit about why Hindu's worship elephants very interesting "When Hindus worship the elephant, they symbolically worship these admirable qualities of the animal. Obedience, ability to not repeat past mistakes and respect and care towards peers. The elephant represents qualities of a good disciple in the Hindu culture. The big ears of an elephant are symbolic of how one should listen more than speak. When he needs to accomplish a certain task, physical pain, tiredness, hunger and thirst are no obstacles and elephants do not fear anything or anybody, and yet, they are extremely docile beings."

I thought I would get some clay out to make some pots with, the plan was for the little ones to make thumb pots and the older ones coil pots but they all decided to make thumb pots.

I then gave them some clay to make what ever they wanted, so we have a vulture, L and I were reading about them the other day and a man walking on tight rope.

Followed by having lots of fun in the garden with the bubble machine.

On a home education front, we have been discussing with M her options for GCSEs, we have decided to enrol her on a correspondence course for her GCSE maths and English. We had been trailing a pre IGCSE English course which she is really enjoying and I had already hoped that she would use the same tutor for IGCSE level as I was finding the whole idea of doing the studying English at exam level all a bit to subjective.  L has found some of our first phonic readers and she has been trying to read one or two a day, she likes trying to read but does say the books are rather silly, which yes they are if you are used to listening to The Wind in the Willows, to then read, the cat sat, Mat sat etc is rather basic!

On a crafting front, joining Kat a day late for Unraveled Wednesday I finally got round to cutting out fabric for L's winter coat, I am getting ahead of myself but also making the most of the last steroid injection I had in my hip as this time it has worked and really made the difference in pain level. I have been trying to ignore the arthritis in my right hip but reached a stage where it wasn't letting me ignore it any longer!! Anyway back to L's coat, I am making design D but without the tail bit and lining it as well, which isn't in the pattern, so making 2 coats one from fleece for the lining and one from some lovely purple fabric. She is very happy that I have found the same fabric that I made the first version in. So darts sewn, and bodice put together, next stage pockets and sewing the skirt together.

Finished knitting her cardi, this was wool from my stash, don't think I have ever cut it so fine with the amount of left over wool, literally just enough to sew up with! I did decide that as we were in town I would pop into the fabric shop as they have a huge array of buttons and fell in love with the butterfly ones, also came out with 2 lots of dress fabric I have knitted a few more rows of Granny's favourite and a little bit of cross stitch. I have finished reading Smoke and Mirrors and enjoyed it, the series doesn't yet have the atmosphere that the Ruth books have but if I forget about this serious then the Stephens and Mephisto is a good read. Now reading My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult, a controversial subject of a family desperate to save their daughter Kate from cancer, decide to have another child Anna through IVF treatment so the child is a perfect genetic match. Then Anna at the age of 13, having had enough of the operations and feeling like her whole live is based on saving her sister and not having her voice heard. Hires a lawyer so she can get medical emancipation. The chapters vary with who is telling the story sometimes Anna, her parents. lawyer, older brother etc, which makes for interesting but sometimes confusing reading as they also jump in time!

On a housekeeping front, realised I had lost my rhythm for cleaning, tidying yes but proper cleaning no. This is partly down to change of work hours, then change of working days, coming on top of the time that O was in hospital etc. Now realised that I needed to actually sit down and write out a schedule, I know it sounds either very boring or very organised but I find if I Clean a room a day we stay on top of the housework. O sorts his own room out, the girls do theirs with some help and we all do bits of the lounge and the kitchen. This way the children learn what needs to be done now and ideas on how to maintain house as an adult, plus I am not inundated with everyone's bedding as they have decided to all strip their beds on the same day., yes they each have day for stripping their beds. We have never had a tumble dryer so drying washing and organising the washing does take some thought but we have managed and that includes the use of washable nappies when my own children were younger.

Also linking up with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On