Pumpkin carving time of the year again.

Last year's Pumpkins.

We have a tradition every year the we carve a pumpkin and leave it on the dining room table over the Halloween period.The one's above were done by Malcolm and the kids last year (these two are a bit creepy for my liking),  I haven't had chance to upload the photo  the one the kids and I did this year just has eyes and a nose and a huge smile.

Does anyone actually make anything with the scooped out pumpkin? I tried pumpkin pie years ago and I really didn't like it so we place the scooped out pumpkin in the bin. Just seems a shame to waste it.

Coming back to my faith.

As a child I spent a fair slice of my life in Church, my Mum made sure I went to Sunday school at the local Methodist church and I sometimes went with my Grandad- who I call Buppy ( the story goes that when I first started talking I called him this and my Gran and Parents decided it was too cute to correct) to the local Church of England.  The primary school I attended although not a faith school had lots of activities in the Church but by the time I was a teenager I drifted away from God and the Church, I guess I felt it didn't fit in with my teenage life, my Mum for a short time got involved with the Jehovah Witnesses who were all lovely but I didn't get the whole blood thing and most if not all my friends were atheists. In all honesty in my teens I was just interested in boys and partying.

However, I started reading the Bible again when the eldest 2 kids were 6 and 1 ( I was 24). I was reading my Son some Bible stories from a book that he was given as a present at his Baptism when he was a baby and that evening I started googling about God, Jesus and the Bible and it whetted my appetite to what to know more. I ordered books from an online store and read them within a matter of a few days and then went back online and ordered more and really from that time God has become important in my life again.

The storm.

On Sunday when Malcolm was going to the gym I sent him out with a shopping list of essentials, bread, milk,eggs ( and pumpkins for carving ) in anticipation for the 'worse storm in 26 years' . I have  to admit I was a little  worried about what was going to happen, the kids were on the other hand  hoping for a storm of epic proportion ( think Noah's Ark!).  And when  Marie woke me up yesterday morning (sitting bolt upright at 3 am demanding shucks (socks) whilst waving her feet under my nose, which got the me dosing in out of sleepiness just to rub her feet, she went  in for her checkmate move demanding bot bot (milk) ) and we went downstairs, it was really blustery and I thought ' OK, here goes' but by the time 7 am arrived it was blue skies and just a heap load of leaves in our yard to clean up. Apparently, some boats in the town had got loose from their moorings and the seafront was covered in seaweed on the walkway. So, really the storm didn't affect us at all.

Why we homeschool, the back story.

Louise's catapult she made during a science lesson.

 I've been homeschooling Louise for what seems like forever but it's actually been just over a year. When I met Malcolm he told me that he had been home schooled, I was Impressed his Mum had done a fantastic job with teaching him and he really academically wise was just as smart or smarter than the average guy that went through the school system. My only other experience I had of knowing someone who was home schooled, was a friend that I had when I was 9 whose mum took her out of school to home school her, I  didn't have the greatest time at school and remember asking my Mum the same evening I found out she was being home schooled if I could stay at home and be home schooled as well. She told me something along the lines that she wasn't clever enough to teach me. So,off I went back to school the next day and my friend came back to the school 6 weeks later telling us all that her Mum didn't have the time to teach her ?!

I received a letter from the  local council  for Adam in the Easter before his 4th  birthday asking me to fill out a form telling them which school I wanted him to attend in the coming September, so I filled it out with the preferred school and sent it back ( we actually moved between the Easter and that September and he ended up going to a different school).

Home economics - Making flapjacks.

Within a few weeks of him starting school we had comments from his teacher in the playground at lunchtime when I picked him up.

Why wasn't he ( a boy who just turned 4 that July) interested in writing his name ( in a book over and over again for 10 minutes or more every day), he should be?  Why is he just wanting to play and not sit down and do his worksheets?

After about 6 weeks we were called in for a parent's consultation with the head and his year teacher and found out that they had ( behind our backs) done an IQ test  and according to them the score he got meant that he would struggle ever to do anything. I burst into tears, Malcolm more level headed just sat there quietly angry at the picture they were painting of a boy who had these fantastic ideas and who was able to grab a variety of different concepts. We promptly after that moved him to a better school, which we for the majority of the part was happy with but it still took him til about 7 or 8 years old to really be ready for learning in lessons.

Who's who!

Hi, Welcome to 1 Quirky Mama.

Here's a Who's who of me and my family.


The Quirky Mama,

Me



Christian Blogger,
& Mum of three.

Someone who tries to just blend in with the rest of society but somehow comes up with these crazy ideas like homeschooling the kids and giving birth  at home.

The Daddy Bear

Mal - The city guy forced by his parents and now me to live among country bumpkins. Complete fitness fanatic that is able to polish off 4,000 calories a day and still look amazing.


The Boy

 Adam, 11 - die-hard Tottenham Hotspurs fan. He also plays for a local football side and L-O-V-E-S his Xbox.

The Princess
Louise, 6,the twirling ballerina of the household who likes to keep busy.


The Whirlwind:
Marie, 1 who gives her brother and sister a run for their money.