Blimey Feb already?

January has been a month of different degrees of busyiness.
There has been a lot of Home Ed group organising, so much so I really need to start delegating because it's impacting into time with Rye.  There's been lovely group meetings, seeing friends, a wonderfully successful theatre trip, and unsuccessful attempt to do my tax return, and then a great deal of enjoying home.

 Lots of play with the farm animals the mat that came with.

 Beautiful photos my photographer friend of Buss-Burns Photography did of Rye.  Aren't they fab. 

Phew, looking at the myriad catalogue is hard work!

Note to self; do not send a 5yr old upstairs on their own to wash hands.... I stipulated he was not to touch the walls with his paint covered hands....so instead I have hand prints going up the stairs on the carpet.  **bands head**
I picked up a pack of large paint/ink pads from Bake Ross and they are great, Rye and mindie had a marvellous time making hand and finger prints.  I intend to cut out some potato stamps for the kids to play with too.

 I've moved the chalk board back into the lounge, I had cleared space for it in the hall way, but it just wasn't getting used - well apart from as a coat hanger.  So now it's getting much more use again.  It's a little unclear, but on the paper Rye has drawn a dinosaur.  Very excited as he normally draws people, spiders, or buses/cars. 

Ahhh, another purchase from Bake Roos, this time Giotto Decor Pens  I really like these, they will work on most surfaces, stone, wood, glass etc  Probably more suited to older children though, as one does need to wait until the first colour is dry before using a new colour.  I got a little carried away having play:

 Toothy fish, an eye, flower and a spotted stone lol.

 And when we were't playing with new art and craft supplies, Rye has been building and designing.

And I could not resist a deal.  This is the Philips new Avance juicer, a juicer that claims to extract 10% more juice than the previous Philips model and take less than a minute to wash up.  Currently it's £200 +  the Jason Vale website has it on special offer for £149 including JV's new Funky Fresh Juice book - and incidently, the juicer comes with his Turbo Charge your Life in 14 days book, too.  £50 quid knocked off, plus the books and free next day delivery - well I couldn't resist.  And wow.

We approve!  And actually it is a doodle to wash up too.  I reckon it does only really take a minute, maybe 2 and it's so much easier than the one my friend lent me; and even that wasn't that hard to wash up.  It is also a darn sight quieter than my previous juicer and not as big, mainly because the pulp container is under the sieve rather than to the side.  And the juice it made was sublime.  Rye's face is covered in apple, carrot and beetroot juice.  And after that we had apple, pear, red and orange bell pepper, courgette, cucumber and carrot.  Mmm yummy.

As for Jason's new book, I like it, there's lots of juice/smooth recipes not just of his own making but from people who follow his principles etc.  There's even a section on which juices to have for various aliments, from regulating insulin, to lowering blood pressure.

I could wax lyrical about juicing for ages, I shan't, except to say, seriously, get juicing, it's a fantastically easy way to eat healthy, incorporate more raw foods into your diet and a supremely easy way to loose weight and feel great!

 And naturally the box from the juicer became a great play aid; it was a boat, a house and eventually it became a slide, and Rye didn't even seem to mind the obvious design flaw and bum bumping on floor issue. 

 Inbetween there's been a little crochet, not a great deal; this is a bath scrubby.

And the snail for Rye, I need to make the "foot" and antennae and then it's finished.
I have also started a lovely lacy scarf/mini shawl as the item to add to my gift box; obviously not finished it, so I may try to do another this month, we'll see.

January is tax month and my accounts were in a shocking state; add in I decided to stream line the process by using spreadsheets that link into each other so that I get a running total, rather than having to write out the info half a dozen times onto the various accounting sheets HMRC wants.  Disaster struck when the ID's and passwords I'd written down would not let me access the self assessment tool.  Sigh.  Seems there is a 3rd ID and Password, of which I have absolutely no idea, so I'm waiting for the tax man to send it to me so I can complete the self assessment.  Hopefully, because of the circumstances I should be able to get away with not paying any penalities.

I have a new child starting with me in a few weeks.  The little boy, I mind, is moving with his parents in a week or so.  Iniitially, I had decided not to take any more children on as I felt I needed to spend more time with Rye.  However, this new child is Mon-Wed when I already have the little girl I mind, and it means I get to keep the back end of the week mostly free for Rye and myself.   A much better work/homelife balance.

What else..ooh yes, Peter Pan on Ice.  Oooh it was fabulous!  I did a fair bit of, "wow!"-ing as the skaters, flew through the air, spun from ropes, hula hooped rings of fire, juggled fire, did somersaults off trampolines onto ICE and the most amazing lifts and jumps.  Best of all Rye enjoyed it too, it was perhaps slightly too long for him, a couple of hours, but for the most part he was encaptured by the skating.  I was so chuffed and proud, he wasn't fazed by the very loud music, the loud pyrotechnics, the darkness between sets or the crowd...and it was packed.  He's even asked when we can go and see something again.  So I think I'm going to be brave and try the cinema next.