Update

I can't believe how quickly time has passed since my last post!

Home Education

We've been so busy.  Particularly with home education stuff.

L is doing 2 GCSEs this year (General Certificate of Secondary Education) these are usually taken in Year 11 when children are 15/16, but home educators often spread them out over a few years because of the high costs and the intensive work required.  L has already done a Law GCSE and a Biology GCSE at 13 and this year she will do Maths and English Language GCSEs.  Next year we  are hoping to do at least three and have already started work on Chemistry, Psychology and Sociology.

In the UK you need Maths and English to access most higher education and jobs so these are important exams.

The maths course is huge.  It's normally done in school over 3 years, but we're doing it in 8 months.  Hence the busyness.  I feel slightly nervous for her, but I am just praying that God helps us!

She just took a past paper and did very well on it, but she still has some topics to master.

The English course isn't quite as daunting as she is very good already, just needs to polish some skills

Bible Study

I really feel this year that I need to get back into Bible study,  it's hard to find the time but so worth it.  I'm doing an NT Wright course which I am struggling a bit with as it seems to go around in circles back to the same point all the time.  But I have got a lot out of it.

I'm also doing a Bible reading plan, but want to do some self-study.


Well, I'd love to say more but I need to get off the laptop as it's late here.

Hopefully I'll post some family photos soon.

:) xx

A Searching Heart - Janette Oke - Book Review

4 stars
I enjoyed this book, but it took me a bit to get into it.

It's a simple, wholesome story and I really enjoyed it. One could say that the references to faith were too simplistic, but this isn't a theological tome it's simply an enjoyable (and encouraging) story. Even though the pace is slow it kept me engaged.

It has some sweet romance and some heartbreak.

I liked the characters and I'll have to read the next in the series to find out what happened to Jenny!

SNOW! So excited

I get inordinately excited about snow.

So, as soon as the snow began to fall, the girls and I decided to go for a walk.

Here is our photo 'safari':

Good morning!

Boots has had a busy morning!

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed,

Because His compassions fail not.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23

Wonder - RJ Palacio - Book Review

4 stars

I didn't enjoy this book at first. I didn't like the style of writing. I found the characters annoying and somehow distant. I actually felt the deepest character was Via. I realise it *ought* to be Auggie, but it was Via that touched my heart the most, for some reason.

However, by about halfway in, I was totally invested in the story.

The final few chapters and the ending are very moving, but maybe a little rushed, in the sense that everything was pretty much nicely tied up in a lovely neat bow, all the issues 'resolved', and then it ended.

I sound a bit negative, but I think that is because my husband and daughter had raved about how it was the best book they'd ever read that maybe I expected too much and so I am basically wondering why I didn't find it quite as wonderful.

It is a good story and very heart warming, and I am glad it had a happy ending; and I'm glad I read it.

It was a happy Tuesday

Yesterday one of my best friends from childhood was over visiting.  She moved to New Zealand quite a few years ago and it was just lovely to catch up with her.

She's staying at her mum's which is over in the next village, and it's quite a pleasant walk from our house.  Because it was such a lovely morning we decided to walk over and meet her half-way.

It was such a beautiful, crisp day.

Happy Homemaker Monday [7th January 2019]

Visit more HHM posts at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom

The Weather:

It is so mild at the moment - it's 8°C.  It was  very foggy this morning, now it's just soggy. Drizzle, drizzle and more drizzle.

Right now I am:

Watching football (soccer) with Hubs - Wolves vs Liverpool (Liverpool is Hubs' team)

Thinking:

About some jobs I need to do before I make tea (evening meal), about some homeschool stuff I need to sort out for the girls.

On my reading pile:

I've just finished Tom Wright's 'Simply Good News', my next two books will be Wonder by RJ Palacio and A Searching Heart by Janette Oke.

On my tv:

We've just finished Salvation on Netflix, which finished on a bit of a cliffhanger and they haven't picked up Season 3 - so I may never find out!!  The girls and I have just started watching Desperate Housewives from the beginning - they loved it!

Favourite Blog post this week:

I've been blogging for some time, from around 2005, and had a blog before this one.  So it's been fun revisiting old blogs.  Quite a few of my favourite haunts have stopped blogging now, but two of my faves have carried on.

Sandra - who runs this Happy Homemaker Monday link-up. I loved her recent post: Makes Me Feel Like I'm in Idaho (because her posts are always so beautiful and uplifting and because I have snow envy - I so want it to snow!!)

and Rebecca over at Emerube - her posts are always so much fun - WI Bucket List #39

On the menu for this week:

Monday - Mackerel, chips (fries) and mixed vegetables (trying to eat more oily fish due to low vitamin D)
Tuesday - Tuna and salami pasta
Wednesday - Southern fried chicken
Thursday - Shopping day - not planned next week's yet (my meal plans run Thurs to Wedss)

On my to do list:

Laundry -  reds wash next, I've washed all my blankets today
Homeschooling - planning work for the girls
Cleaning - bedroom, hall, stairs, bathroom and kitchen floors

Looking around the house:

Living room looks so bare since the Christmas decorations came down.  But it is clean.  I bottomed it yesterday.  Rest of the house needs some TLC.

From the camera:

Mmmm, bread!

On my prayer list:

For my hubby's hand, arm and shoulder - he has pain and numbness in his hand and has a hospital appointment this week for it.
My mum's migraines.
For my girls - various things.

Devotional:

"With God...the first and most important point was not to understand him but to trust him. The idea that you might begin by looking this God up and down, giving him a cool appraisal, and then, if you understood him and approved of him, you might respond to him, is to deny that he is God at all. If he is God, our primary role is not to analyse him but to worship him; it is not for *us* to figure *him* out but to let *him* figure *us* out. Yes, I know: this sounds like a leap into the unknown. But the alternative is a sure route to idolatry, making a god in our own image." - Tom Wright, Simply Good News.

Prayer Starter:

Father, help me to honour your name, to love you and to love people.  Protect me and my family and bless our home. Amen.