1. Lots of new skills learned today. Splitting logs, fire laying and tarpaulin erecting with ropes (and knots!)
2. A brave snail climbs the window. I wants to call him sluggy but we point out he (or she) is not a slug!
3. I come home to find Mat has made a roast, complete with crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside roast potatoes. Very welcome on a drizzly day.
1. A forest school course near Faversham means a long drive there and back but that means an hour’s uninterrupted radio listening – bliss.
2. I am loving the practical elements so far – foraging for wood for my Kelly kettle and lighting cotton wool with my fire striker.
3. A long drive home calls for a Crunchie and a can of Coke Zero (I need to sugar to keep awake…)
1. A teenager down the road has made us a new peg bag in return for a charity donation. I pimp it up with some iron on badges.
2. A late afternoon walk takes in the tin church at Golden Green, swallows feeding just feet away and the Rapunzel-like tower at Hadlow.
3. Mat’s proof copies of his new series of Time Travel Puzzles have arrived. They look great and I am very proud of him (and of me too as I did proofread all 26 of them!) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Time-Travel-Puzzles/e/B08BF1V5Y6/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1
1. Two of the girls draw rainbows for their care home pen pal pictures. Given the wind and rain outside, it feels like it needs to be a rainbow kind of day.
2. There’s a cherry cake recipe in today’s Guardian and we have all the ingredients so I get to it. The result is delicious and, amazingly, actually looks like it does in the magazine!
3. Champagne and chocolate dipped strawberries for a friend’s lockdown 40th.
1. The first crop of home blueberries.
2. A lovely river swim. The water feels so soft and we are nose to nose with dragonflies and fish are nibbling at our toes.
3. A small birthday bbq for a friend in their garden. Feels so good to be out.
1. When you wake up in the morning and your hair looks like this, you know it’s going to be a crazy hair day…
2. So many butterflies in the meadow on the walk to and from forest school today – they are loving the sunshine.
3. D is cooking for enrichment week. Raspberry muffins, I think someone likes the mixture in particular!
1. I finally get a swim on the hottest day of the year…in the sea at Eastbourne. It’s bracing but heavenly. The sky is the bluest of blues. Homeschool classroom moves to the beach.
2. Move over Hogwarts, we now have a ‘deciding hat.’ Ask it a question and it will give you the answer you need!
3. Thanks to Uncle J and Aunty A, I’s IKEA bunked pocket has arrived. (IKEA don’t deliver that particular item here so I have to get it shipped West and they forwarded it on!) I is delighted as she finally has a place to store all her bedside stuff.
1. Out of the corner of my eye I spot the swing moving in the out of bounds area beyond the red and white tape at forest school. Expecting to a child who has gone beyond the boundary, instead there is a squirrel merrily swinging away, nibbling a nut!
2. What seemed impossible just a couple of weeks ago is now a reality. After a few goes without pedals, Mat has put them back on and K is now cycling on her own. Amazing.
3. A small gathering of six school mum friends in their allotment for a couple of drinks in the late evening sun. It’s idyllic, although I am very envious of their organised and weed-free veg patch…
1. It’s enrichment week for D. I can’t resist a go on the drums she’s made out of glasses and balloons for her music session. I’m not a natural drummer sadly…
2. The garden needs a weed and a sort out. The Waugh family sunflower competition begins as our pots are planted out. But who will win? In photo order – D, I, K, Mat and me. And finally a last-ditch effort to rid the money plant of its ants nest. I take it down to the roots, blast off the ants and the eggs and repot it. Please please please let it survive. It was Mum’s from years ago so here’s hoping…
3. D is invited to a year 7 prize giving Zoom call. She’s only gone and won the attainment award for not one, not two but three subjects – history, drama and food tech. Out of 240 kids that’s no mean feat. We are beyond proud, especially given how tough she found school just a few years ago.
1. It’s a craft fest of home made monster books, home printed tshirts, paintings and cards. I love and am exhausted by the creativity in equal measure.
2. A mid afternoon walk near Marsh Green, through wheat fields, oat fields, barley fields and pea fields. It’s a corker.
3. A burger from St John’s yard = no prep and no washing up = winner
Three Happy Thoughts 