2012/2013

I know I've been silent for over a year.

Not sure where to start. Let's say that from the moment I stopped blogging, life became very challenging, in many ways. My blog is not the right place to tell the whole story, so you'll just have to believe me when I say that it's been the toughest year of my life, so far.

In case you hadn't heard it yet........we are going to make a fresh start by moving back to England in 3 weeks! That was not the plan when we moved back to Holland this time last year, but sometimes things change unexpectedly.

In August, the boys went to school for the first time in their lives. Boaz and Levi adjusted very quickly. Adam had more problems getting used to the system, to the different way of working and learning. But now, after more than 8 months, we can honestly say that all three of them, but especially Adam and Boaz, have grown tremendously. We are still happy with our choice to homeschool them for years, but we also think that this year was the right year to send them to school.

Because Adam was struggling in the first months of being in school, one of the benefits of moving back to England seemed the opportunity to homeschool him again. The moment I started doubting whether that would be a good idea and started checking the possibilities of other ways of homeschooling/flexi schooling etc him, Adam told us that he'd rather go to school. We were astonished. But there is no better country to try it than the UK. 

As the English don't do 'repeating a class', the boys will all go to the year with kids their age. That means that Boaz will start year 4 (group 5 in Holland) in June, start year 5 in September and will only be in primary school for another two years. Levi will hopefully start year 2 (group 3) in September. They don't have a place for him this school year, but with Boaz in school, he'll be ok. I'll probably homeschool Levi for 2 months ;-) and in September he'll start. Adam will go to the first year of secondary school (year 7) in June and move up to year 8 in September.

Quite some adjustments! But they have (all three) shown us that they are capable of adapting and we are confident that they will be fine (but please don't mention the word 'uniform' to me. Mentally, I'm not ready for that yet!).

When we moved in 2009, we were very lucky to find this house. I still call it our 'castle'. Just last week, we heard that it will be up for rent again from August this year onwards. We had at that point (last week), already signed a contract for another house. Which is fine. We loved loved loved that house. But with almost no neighbours I didn't really feel safe when Job wasn't there during the night.

This house was south of Exeter (where Job works). A 20/25 minutes drive. Our new house will be east of Exeter, a 12 minutes drive. It's not a castle ;-), but it still looks like a very nice house (haven't been there myself yet) and it has looooads of neighbours! It's a really nice compromise between Job's and my wishes.

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Open view from the back of the house. There is a church at the end of the lane behind the house, that's also where the swimming pool is. The area is quite flat, so the boys can use their bikes in the street. There is a karate club in the village, so Adam can continue doing that. We've also found a place nearby where he can continue snorkeling (and under water hockey). So it looks all good.

I'm not nervous about the move itself. It's not a lot of work either, as we don't have to pack our stuff ourselves. But knowing that we're going to leave now that we finally feel settled, leaving the school that the boys enjoy going to, and last but not least, leaving my friend who only lives 8 doors away, is going to be tough. I remember that from 2009. And I guess it won't be any different this time.

But as we feel this is the right thing to do at this point, I'm trusting we'll all be fine.

Testing 1 2 3

*clears throat*

March 2012

March has been an interesting month. Job finally started (officially) his job in Germany. That means that he has been away during the week quite a lot. 

At the same time we had to think of a day that we wanted to move. And book the company that will do that. And get rid of all the things we wont' be able to bring back. Like the slide, the swings, the chickens, the tortoise, the trampoline, the fish, ..... *sigh*

Luckily, we have found good homes for all these items/animals. 

It is weird to see the garden empty, to decide what you're going to keep and what's going to the tip.

Going through all of our stuff, I realised that this might be the best time to sort out all of my correspondence.

I've got boxes filled with letters that I've always kept. Mostly letters from when I was about 7 until I was around 23 (and married) and most people started emailing. 

I love going through all of them (and reading them) but I'm also trying to (at least) throw away half of them. The downside was, that while reading these letters, I was, in my head, going back to these times when the letters were written (especially the years in high school, living in France, Poland and Ireland in my gap year). 

Very emotional years.

Dealing with moving back to Holland at the same was very confusing. It was like living in several different countries in several different time frames.

While I can still enjoy living here, going to Dartmoor (our favourite place), seeing our friends, I really want to move back NOW. So, with my head & heart still partly here and partly already in Holland + going through a lot of emotions from years back, I felt confused. It was also kinda revealing. I love my life now.

Anyway, March is over. April is here and April will mainly be spent in the UK. And we will enjoy it! Because it's beautiful here in April. We sort of debated whether we should stay until June, because May is (I think) the most beautiful month here. But we decided to move as soon as we could.

So, what did we do in March?

I had two Mom's Night Out's. I'm hoping that there will be a lot of MNO's in Holland too!

We had quite a few friends coming over on different days.

We went to the cinema with friends to watch The Muppet Show. I wasn't the biggest fan of the muppets when I was a kid, but this film is really good. The boys loved it!

We went to beautiful Kingswear for a long walk.

Kingswear Harbour

Beautiful houses and gardens

After that, we watched Tintin. I bought the 'old' collection for the boys. I have really good memories on watching that when I was a kid. Luckily, the boys love it as much (or more) as I did. Job also bought the new Tintin, a few weeks later, which he and the boys really enjoyed as well.

We went to Haytor and Hound Tor with the Christian HomeEd Group. The weather was really really good. Unfortunately, you don't really notice how hot the sun is, on the Tors. I felt really guilty that all of us, except Boaz, got really sun burnt. But the day itself was really nice. We even discovered places we hadn't been to before, while being on the Tors, like the medieval village at Hound Tor and the Quarry at Haytor.

Haytor. Johsie and Levi were 'playing' Minecraft :)

On our way to the Quarry

The medieval Village near Hound Tor

Levi and Kirsty counting till 30 (hide & seek)

We also went for a walk in Haldon Forest with this group.

And there was a Home Meet. Most children enjoyed playing outside and chasing chickens...

...while my oldest two had other plans and played Minecraft

 We have really enjoyed being in our garden this month. The thing we'll miss most, will be the trampoline. The downside of moving back to a house three times smaller and a garden.....20 (?) times smaller.

Playing games with Boaz and Levi.

Boaz loves inventing new games 

Can you see on his face that he makes up new rules, as we play? 

 It's not only card games he invents, here we're playing some sort of Lego game that involves one mini figure each, a rock formation each and several sets of armor in the middle that you have to buy.

While sitting there, I realized how I will miss the space. I love the lay-out of this house.

In a way, I'm looking forward to having more people around us, but at the same time I will miss the privacy.

But you know what? It will be fine, because it will be (a) HOME again.

P.S.: I don't like saying goodbyes. I'd rather just leave.

February 2012

February:

Bowling with the Christian Home Ed group. This was the first time I didn't join in and all three boys played. I actually could sit back and watch, as Levi and Boaz had a team of other boys helping out!

Visiting friends that we have tried to plan to visit for two years ;). We see each other quite regularly, but have never been to their house as a family. We're missing quite some people in this picture, I must admit ;).

We went to the Rainbow Fun House several times, we didn't go swimming :(, only Boaz did (swimming lessons), there was a Home Meet here, a Mum's Night Out (or In for me), I hurt my back, whilst pushing the kids on a weird swing thing. That was almost 4 weeks ago and I can still feel it and we had friends coming over.

Playing Minecraft

Job and I visited Bath, Job's wish. Beautiful town. Beautiful Roman baths.

And then my mum came for a visit.

 

Obviously, my weeks of Wordfeud training didn't help me. My mum beat me twice! ;)

We went to Haytor and Hound Tor (this time, it was quite cold)

He really has a problem with heights when he's not in control, but when he is on Dartmoor, you wouldn't notice.

You see, we went to a party. And the boys had a chance to climb, but Boaz was afraid (go back to the previous picture please ;)) and Adam (as you can see) wasn't really sure about it either, although he had told me before that he would really like to try it. He tried it, but didn't get very far. I'm happy that he tried!

Church

Bradley's party. The boys really enjoyed most parts of Emazdad's show, but didn't join in the group games or the dancing ;). Maybe they need a dancing sister ;)

And then Job's sister & family came for a visit

Hount Tor again, but not that cold.

Adam loved playing with his nephew

And Levi and Big Niece liked to chill together.

We have been really busy with family visiting, going out and being ill, but there was of course time to do some art

My new discovery: use plasticine, in stead of play dough.

And the boys have been drawing A LOT! These are some of Adam's and Boaz' pictures together. I don't think you can see it here, but especially Adam's pictures are very detailed. And I guess you can see a theme going on there ;)

We visited RAMM in Exeter. Which looks a bit like Naturalis in Leiden (Holland), but is much smaller. Nice museum though.

Boaz lost almost all his upper front teeth, which looks funny

And we are mentally preparing for our move back to Holland. Levi looks ready.

He has spent most of his life in the UK now, which is a strange thought.