Making It Up

as we go along

Kentwell

(early) Saturday snippets September 23rd 2017

by Leave a Comment

{heading} for bed very soon, as Kentwell calls. Our last event of the tudor year, and it’s just me and Small attending. Which will be a little odd tbh, but also quite nice to spend a bit of time with just one child. We’ve four days, and have borrowed a caravan so at least I’m not wrestling with a tent!

{feeling} slightly overwhelmed at how suddenly life has got busy and complicated after a relatively straightforward summer. Two children doing different courses at different places, all the variety of clubs back in action, add in the usual home ed activities and trying to blog and create and run and and and… I think I may be overdoing it. Is this just how it works when you’ve four children? Very possibly.

{reading} still the Loneliest Girl in the Universe (amazon affiliate link). I picked up a review book on the kindle the other night and accidentally lost an hour or two to that, which I regretted as quite frankly, no. (I’ll be reviewing that direct on netgalley as a DNF I suspect, although I’m taking my kindle with me, just in case, this weekend.)

{wondering} what I will discover I’ve forgotten on arrival in 1600.

{thinking} I really should be in bed.

{savouring} this burst of late summer at the start of autumn.

Snapshots – an unexpected roadside find.

{Big} trying to get into the swing of A levels, not being made any easier by the fact that two of her teachers have been mainly absent this week, and then she’s ended up with a nasty head cold – I had to collect her from school today. As an aside to that, I wasn’t overly impressed that I had to ring in to confirm I’d done just that, apparently a 17 year old’s word isn’t enough? Hm.

{Small} preparing for *another* guitar gig, getting into the swing of college and with a weekend at Kentwell ahead.

{Smallest} preparing to launch her own book blog – she’s read her first review book twice, so as to be sure to give it a thorough write up!

{Tigerboy} in need of focus. Going to ponder on that this weekend.

And with that, I must be off to bed!

Summer snippets part 2 – all about Joan

by 10 Comments

This is Joan. (With thanks to Mike and Allison for the picture. )

I’ve been Joan twice this summer. It’s peculiar – in the run up to Kentwell I do a lot of faffing and panicking, then there’s the actually getting there and putting up tents and then I just am.

Life is both simpler and more complicated. There are constant logistical challenges associated with having all the things you need for during the day and then the evening in the right place at the right time when some of them can’t be dealt with at particular times (when the flag is up to show there are visitors on the manor, we stay firmly in Tudor character). And yet, because I have such a clearly defined set of belongings and things to do I’m so much clearer in my head.

I come back ready for the modern world and also utterly dissatisfied with it. I miss my transient village of friends – speaking to people who are understanding of quirks of neurology, and tolerant of what would otherwise be regarded as unusual passions. I miss particularly the evenings sitting in the sun on the front sward while children play and we chat, or analyse Tudor books, or mend linen while drinking gin from camping mugs, or sometimes all of these things at once.

I come home to a virtual world where I feel more unusual and isolated than ever.

Part of what I’m gaining from Blogtember is a reaffirmation of community. That was what blogging was about in the first instance for me – the home ed blogring was our virtual village, our way of chatting over the garden fence about the things our actual neighbours wouldn’t understand. Now that everyone’s blogging it is oddly harder to maintain those community links.

I need to realign my blogging with my aims in life, but to do that, I need to work out what those aims are. I’ve watched endless webinars trying to identify business strategies I can follow, signed up to mastermind classes, enrolled in courses.

I haven’t found any answers. I know what I can do, and I know what I can’t. I can’t, for example, sign up to a drop shipping business that would facilitate more tat being shipped around the world. It just doesn’t sit right. I can’t be a coach, that idea is utterly laughable. I can fix your website, or explain to you how to fix it yourself, but I can’t market myself effectively to strangers.

It was much easier being Joan. I miss her.

Saturday snippets 26 September 2015

by 4 Comments

{feeling} like it’s rather more than 2 steps back for every step forward at the moment. But I think a very large part of that is my own perception, and that’s something I need to work on. 

{washing} all the things. And wishing there weren’t quite so many things. So much bedding, and Tudor kit, and uniform. Have successfully washed and dried all of Big’s uniform again anyway, which feels like it’s going to get more challenging as the weather deteriorates. 

{hurting my head} trying to get to grips with GCSE maths. It’s not the maths, I’m pretty confident with that. It’s what the strategies are to get the mark you want, which wasn’t something I ever had to confront with O level. You just worked through the paper, getting as much right as you possibly could, and then you worked through it again,  checking your answers, and filling in any gaps. And your working. Always show your working.

{enjoying} the sunshine. And the moon, which has been quite spectacular this week. I’m planning on getting up to see the supermoon tomorrow night as well.

{Not enjoying} ferrying children around. Big has got another cadet weekend on this weekend, which has involved two early starts. In fact I need to go to bed, because I’m driving in the morning.

{reading} not enough.

{designing} a creative challenge. Anyone up for it?

{pondering} miscommunications following my mumsnet post. Apparently I was smug, patronising, and had baited people with the headline primarily to drive traffic to my blog to earn pennies. All I can say to all of that is that I wish it really was possible to find out everythingh about someone and their motivation in just 800 words. I had no intention of causing offence, hohum and all that.

{drawing} not enough. I need to remember that time flicking around twitter doesn’t make me feel achievement at the end of the day, while as little as 10 minutes drawing does.

52memories

  

This is a dragon riding a green balance bike, the Y Velotion, sent for review. It’s a very happy dragon 🙂 The bike arrives in pieces in a box, and after a slight hiccup with me struggling with one of the bolts (I really have very weak hands!) it went together very easily, and feels extremely sturdy. 

I love balance bikes. I love how quickly and easily a child climbs aboard and is run/riding about the place. Tigerboy is 3 (“and a half!”) and he’s the perfect stage for this. Give him a little while and I won’t be able to keep up wth him, and half the battle of bike riding is won.

Definitely a win as far as he is concerned. 

Snapshots.

Big has done her first mock exams, and the results she’s got so far say she’s pretty well positioned for her GCSEs. More results to come this week. She’s spending the weekend on yet another cadet activity, and is well on the way to her next star level too. Small had a great weekend at Kentwell last week. On Tuesday he was the only page, and at age 12, met and greeted every school party as they reached the great house. Genuinely impressive. Smallest has cracked coins this week – I found a tin of loose change in the garage and told her she could have every pound she counted out. She’s up to £5 so far. Tigerboy, as detailed above, is learning to ride a balance bike. 

De stuffocation and a digital detox.

by 4 Comments

It’s Kentwell time.

I’m not ready. I’m never ready. I trudge through my days frittering time away and then suddenly panic that the deadline is upon me.

I don’t know why I do that. I think I’m getting worse at it, or maybe it’s just that there are more of us to get ready. (Where *is* that bag of children’s nether hose? )

I keep hearing about stuffocation, which describes my life admirably, I’m drowning in things. A week in a tent is quite appealing. I will have to make do and mend, probably quite literally. It will be relaxing.

I also keep hearing about digital detoxes. I have little choice in that. This phone lasts around 10 hours in use. I’ll have an external battery pack but only one. So that’s maybe an hour a day to check essential emails, wave a twitter, post a pic to instagram. (Don’t suppose anyone out there would take me a daily #4oclockphoto of the sky would they? )

It will all be good for me. And for the children, who will unfurl in a simpler and at the same time more complicated world. (There is little more complicated than spending a day being two people. The one you are, and a tudor overlay. )

So, there are no scheduled posts as I’d planned. While there may be quick picture posts, there are none of the giveaways I’d intended to arrange to keep the traffic ticking over. My klout and rankings will plummet, and do you know what? That’s OK too.

Catch you on the flipside.

image

(I was up with the sun this morning, and I’m writing this in the garden listening to birdsong. It’s a good way to start the day. )

Ps there may still be posts if I get off twitter and write a couple just now! )

Looking back and forward to Kentwell Hall.

by 5 Comments

Sunset over Kentwell Hall

Challenged to find a picture of my favourite holiday destination for this Al Fresco Holidays blog competition, I couldn’t resist the chance to wax lyrical about Kentwell Hall and reenactment once again.

It’s an odd choice of holiday. It’s hard work for one, but I suppose it’s the change is as good as a rest philosophy. I’m certainly not all over social media – no wifi, no electricity! means very little in the way of blogging or tweeting. And the clothes – you aren’t getting a tan when you’re tudoring 😉

But the community. Everyone working together – if the dairy and bakhouse aren’t working there’s no bread and butter. Sotlers at various stations around the manor cook the midday meal – pottage mainly, with bread and perhaps a side dish of something involving beans. (Breakfast and dinner are included too, though they’re more modern. And I rarely make it to breakfast, it’s a long walk from the campsite with two small children at that time in the morning.)

My part over the last couple of years has been in the barnschool, somewhat of a busman’s holiday for a home educator, finding yourself in a classroom of sorts with a range of other people’s children. But barnschool is a good place for a woman with small children at her apron strings – a blanket on the straw provides a place to nap, the barnsward is out front with places to play and explore within sight, and a long piece of linen means I can carry a tired Tigerboy when his little legs have had enough of walking.

People ask how you manage feeding and sleeping through the day – a wrap is a lifesaver. Tudor clothes are actually well set up for breastfeeding (unsurprising when you consider the alternatives available at that point. No plastic bottles for starters!) so as long as you’re happy feeding wherever you are, feeding on demand is straightforward. I have found that the demand increases while I’m there, I suppose it’s a reaction to the different environment and probably the higher levels of activity too.

We sleep in a tent while we’re re-enacting. I love camping anyway – I love waking up and crawling out of the tent into the day. It’s easier to be outside when there’s no walls between you and it. I’m not fond of rain but a good pair of wellies helps – rain during the day has to be waited out.

It’s a different pace of life when you’re living in the past. No clocks chasing you around, tasks are just as essential (like arranging food, drink and changing small children!) but the timetable is more forgiving, as are the people around you. And everyone mucks in to lend a hand – toddlers are watched by all adults, bigger children tend smaller ones, women work together to mind each other’s children and get everything done between them. It’s a necessity – there’s no other way to get through the day, but it’s also a pleasure. I’ve found connections in these visits to the past that I would never have expected before I started.

So, when I think of my perfect holiday? It’s at Kentwell, wandering through the past, being someone else. The ultimate break.