Where do I start?

Hello all! We are now going into our third week of homeschool! I can't believe how time has just flown by. This last week we studied the history of writing and wrote our names in clay using Cuneiform. This is what Caitlyn's name looks like:

I have not been able to post for some time as my hubby had to "redo" my computer as I could not upload any pics or post comments etc. Then we have also had 2 tragedies that we were going through. The first tragedy was the cat next door somehow got one of our baby guinea pigs (Vanilla). My neighbor was so distraught, she bought us a huge bouquet of flowers to tell us how sorry she is.

The second tragedy is that the 2 boy guinea pigs had not been getting on very well since Sasha has come out of the "maternity ward". We started seeing tufts of hair lying around the garden and then three nights ago I was woken by terrible squealing. The next morning Toffee was lying whimpering. I took him inside and after inspection saw he had wounds on his neck. I doctored his wounds but the rest of the day he was having fits and whimpering. It was emotionally destroying to see him like that (I am still trying to recover). Well, that night he took a turn for the worse and did not make it to the morning. So now we just have 3 guinea pigs.

Goodbye, Vanilla, goodbye Toffee, we know your lives were good in the time you were with us. You sure did enrich our lives.

In the Summertime

What a weekend!

We planned with friends of ours to go to a Carols by Candlelight, with the Welsh Male Choir, at our local botanical gardens. It promised to be a wonderful day with only 20% chance of rain. We got all our picnic goodies (spare ribs, sausages, salad and for pudding - chocolate fudge with pistachios and Christmas mince pies) and found our perfect spot. Once we had settled, a few clouds started gathering and a light breeze started blowing. Thankfully we were sitting under a large thorn tree as the first of the rain drops started to fall, the optimist in me said "it will be over in a few minutes" - my famous last words. The sky opened up and down came the rain and then came the hail - we wrapped our children in picnic blankets, but we all looked like drowned rats. The whole event was cancelled and the children did so much want to see father Christmas. All was not lost as we were still able to hand in clothes and toys that the children do not use anymore for orphanages in the area.

Our friends went home and put on dry clothes and brought their picnic things to us and we all still had a good time. We put on Christmas carols and our girls put on a show of dancing for us. It didn't turn out too bad after all!

This morning I took these pictures of the garden, not a cloud in sight - but this is a good thing as I need to get my washing dry.

Can you spot Toffee in the picture (bottom left corner)?

I couldn't resist taking a pic of a "guinea pig window" in one of their tunnels!

Freedom at last

It has nearly been 3 months since our baby guinea pigs were born. Toffee (black and white) and Pepsi (black and brown) have become very tame in the last 2 weeks and have almost tripled in size.

They have been driving me crazy with their wheeting, wheeting, begging to get out of their house and on to the sweet grass. We have been cautious to let them out on their own as we live in a neighborhood with many cats.

Sasha, our oldest guinea pig, has been visiting them a few times a day and even spent the other night with them in their house. They all seem to get on very well together. Sasha seems to know that they are still babies and they seem to treat her like their mother as the first time they had contact with her, they were looking for milk.

So finally, we have let them run free. They are exploring all Sasha's tunnels and hiding places she has in the garden. It is wonderful to see how excited they are about life, running around and eating all the grass they want.

My neighbor said to me the other day "every home needs children and animals" - how true. I cannot count how many times I laugh or smile each and everyday because of these blessings that I have in my home.