Its been around three weeks since i last posted but to be honest it feels like about three months.
I'm struggling to get enough sleep, actually i ll rephrase that I'm NOT getting enough sleep. I v not had a decent nights sleep in ten months now and its starting to show. I'm so tired! Hence the lack of blog posts.

I usually blog in the evening but Eva just hasn't been very settled even for short periods. She is still very happy and chilled but just doesn't seem to need to sleep!

I'm also struggling with Jasmine too. Shes almost twelve not and her attitude is becoming so hard going. I don't mind that she wants to wallow in her own sorrow, and be melancholy but the fact that she wants to bring the whole household down with her is becoming way to hard to handle. It seems she is only happy when picking on  or putting the little ones down. Don't get me wrong she isn't a total monster she has her moments  and will often help out with her baby sister but then in the next breath she will be shouting and screaming at me telling me to " look after your own kid!" I hate to see her behave like this, i see it as a reflection of myself , my behaviour, my response to her needs...i don't know .Its so hard to get my head around why she acts how she does. When i discuss it with people the main response i get is..."shes nearly a teenager what do you expect!" I don't know what i expected but to god i hope that it gets no worse.

 Today's one of those days when i feel like just giving up  and wanting it to be bedtime already. But then i look at all we have achieved and the big smiles on the faces of the youngest ones and truly start to realise that life is good. (Some times i just need to step out of the situation and remind myself of that) In fact life is pretty amazing really, i just wish i could get Jasmine to see the beauty of the simple things and make her happy too!

Today started off full of good intention. We headed off out for a early morning walk, we got home and had circle time ( a story besides a candle and then some skipping rhymes with Summer and Charlie), wrote out a poem for handwriting practise and then carried out an experiment on taste.

It was all good besides the persistent snipes and jibes from Jasmine, but enough said on that subject.

we have eaten lunch and the youngest have watched a film now we and were going to carry out some rain activities this afternoon ....and yes...you guessed it....because of these plans its now stoped raining!

I'm not going to complain, i think we will see some rain again before the days over no doubt!


Yesterday we celebrated my mums birthday . Jasmine baked her a cake , not without a tantrum or two but the end result was a gorgeous looking and tasting devils food cake!

 Gypsie and Charlie collected a small bouquet from the garden for nanny   We spent all day surrounded by family and it was lovely.

What else have the little ones been up to . Its probably easier just to show you than to write too much . And my tired brain cant keep track of what we did and when to be honest!

so..............

  Charlie baked some sun bread.

 
On Dharma day we read about the Buddhist religion and spent time painting together.

  Gypsie made a bird in a cage.

  We have been on rainy nature walks.

And the Children have discovered and photographed lots of creepy crawlies.

 
They have built shelters on the trampoline , enabling them to continue there games in the rain!

  They have made me perfume.

  We have raised 10 butterflies and released them. This year we were lucky enough to actually watch three of them emerge from their cocoons .And saddened to see how mother nature cant ensure every Caterpillar will turn in to a perfectly formed butterfly!

 
They have been obsessed with water bombs!

 And hosted bake sells to save and buy new barbies.Gypsie and summer made everything and the price sheet with no input from me at all. They are very independent.

We have attempted to make a sundial although unfortunately we have not seen a whole day of sunlight!

 We have also watched tiny frogs hop around the pond, proof that not all the frogspawn was eaten by the goldfish.

For our block work over the past week or so we have been looking at time.

We made note of simple facts.

We made these season wheels.

 Read a poem and have been illustrating each short verse .

We also made clocks too.

And read from time themed books. We noted how much change takes place in the human body with the girls illustrating how they looked through the past years.

There has been loads going on.

And I'm busy preparing "work" for net year too. After a discussion with Jasmine she has told me that she likes the rhythm of our days and she likes to be set structured work for the day. I was working on my own curriculum but have ended up buying curriculum from  http://waldorfessentials.com/shop/

I'm now currently cheesed off as iv noticed there's now a sale on! drat ! drat and double drat!!!

The curriculum does look amazing and I'm looking forward to starting on it after the summer break!

thanks for reading my ramblings.

blessings

xxx