family time

With everything we are trying to do - all the new things we are taking on, it is easy to not have enough ‘family time’

That sounds far worse than it is, after all as I home educate our son, we spend lots and lots of time together.

And he is very into everything we are doing here - wanted his own bow saw so he could take part in logging (hoards the logs in his own shed too), he has his own garden, and it is our son who moves the sheep from field to field when it’s time.  He is the one nagging us to finish fencing the new part, so that we have our circular pasture system up and running; each field linked so the sheep can now be moved on, never having to return to the last pasture.

We make a point of not allowing our priorities overwhelm everything, and take time out to come and admire his work on his ‘animal hospital, or to make something together.

What does get pushed to the back a little are the family trips out.. away from home. It is so easy when you like being at home so much!, but if not careful we would not do anything else.

So we make the occasional family sortie. We are very lucky to live near some great places to walk and visit. Today we went on a short walk on the moors, and had a picnic lunch (pasties still hot from the village bakery) and a flask of hot chocolate. Really bright and sunny day, although very windy and cold too. We even saw a few flakes of snow.. but they seemed so out of place in the sunshine. The river was full and the waterfalls glorious.

Then rush back home!, to dig.. dig..dig.. and fence and sow some more seeds (perpetual spinach and woad this time). We had the afternoon at home again..which was great too. But yes, good to have some time out.