Is what we’ve got going on here just now 🙂 and very nice they are too!
This morning we watched some of the coverage of Remembrance Day on tv with Davies and chatted about the wars and various references to them he had already got. We talked about evacuation a bit, he knew more about it than he realised when we mentioned Peter Pan 2 and Bedknobs and Broomsticks, also my Granny was evacuated to Cornwall in WW2 so we chatted about that (he wanted to know why the Germans didn’t try and blow up the Eden Project when I was explaining about how London was the target and so children from London had to leave to safer places.) My Dad and his family also left London to return to Wales during the war so we talked about that. I read a book to him I’d got out of the library earlier this week (Virginia Mayo – Remembering, The Story of a Soldier) , poppies and why we wear them, what our lives might have been like if people hadn’t fought and died in the war for our country and our freedom and what it means to us to be British – language, currency, monarchy etc. All very low level and totally non-political and of course backed up by the huge crowds of people gathering on TV in London. I then pointed out a few famous people in the crowds (Blair, Thatcher, The Queen!) and the because there was something on with Prince Charles talking about the war we talked about who he is and how he will be king one day and who will be king after he dies. Scarlett got interested in this point but I realised quickly it was only references to princes which had captured her and when she was assured that yes, she is still a princess she went back to playing again ;-).
Davies then managed to observe the silence with us aside from a brief whisper about how he’d know when it had finished, having been told that Big Ben’s striking the hour and a cannon would mark the beginning of it! Ady is a real war buff, really interested in the planes particularly and has a fair few books and dvds around the topic which is is itching to share with Davies – don’t think it will be happening just yet but it was a gentle introduction to it all and obviously a mark of respect to those who died too.
They’ve played with the aquadraw mat for a while and I dug out some stencils which I don’t think we’ve really used before so they played with them too. I challenged Davies to draw a house just using a stencil of shapes and he did that really well (OK it’s just squares and triangles and a circle for the sun but it got him thinking about shapes around us!) and now they are playing a game with the box of animals and dinosaurs and a spiderman toy (which appears to be Spiderman, managed by Davies single handedly saving the world by fighting off a variety of creatures powered by Tarly!) and I’m blogging and watching Will Young in concert on TV!
It’s really cold outside today, it finally feels like winter is here and that gives me a festive glow really. I”m not doing the List Formerly Known As Muddlepuddle Christmas card exchange this year, partially because I’m no mail and partially because we just don’t know enough of the people onlist anymore to mean anything to the children when we get cards from them but I would like to exchange cards with everyone who reads this so if you could email me your address then we can put you on ‘our’ list 🙂
That’s not a bad idea – I said yes to June for that, but thinking about it, I have most people that we know’s addresses anyway so probably ought to duck out of the official exchange – it doesn’t mean much to the kids otherwise either to send or to receive cards. Ah well, I’ve done it now.
Sounds like a lovely day – I’ve been terrible here and not mentioned the war (in true Basil Fawlty style) and it’s completely passed us by, but hey, there’s always next year.
well, us
Us too.
But, the thing about the list is, it is kind of nice to keep up traditions so that lots of new people join. After all, hopefully people will come to camps and stuff from there.
i know June said how sad she was that so few of us give the list the benefit of our experience these days 😉
um, herself included there though!
Well, she does still post quite a lot. So does Alison. I’m going to make more of an effort too, now i feel less inhibited.
I’m not planning on doing the list christmas thing this year and will be just sending cards to people we know. So we’ll be on your list 😉 Will e-mail you my address as I assume you don’t have it?
There ended up being just over 40 people on the MP list last year I think – just had a quick count, and around 23 of them were peope I’d met (or me!), and then half again of the rest were MP regulars, and the last 10 were pretty obccure – e.g. Marie Byfield has put her name on the card list every year we’ve done it (3 years?) and has posted precisely once as far as I can tell! (Yes, I looked last year 😉 ) So Nic, add me to your list, and make sure you send me a copy of it too!
Tbh if June really said that – and I don’t know how much she meant it judging by your winky! – I think that’s a load of bollocks really. I reckon new people mainly want to hear from other newish people, people who are in their position. I’ve posted far too many times in the last year/two/three and had it ignored (perhaps not ignored, but not felt like I’ve been any use/encouragement) to care much more really. Sorry about that – total disillusionment all round atm really. Probably won’t go back on mail on MP till after Christmas as I’m going to be really busy for the next few weeks.
I left the EO list years ago, and UK-Home Ed sometimes after, as I just couldn’t stick the repetitive nature any longer. Have stuck it out with MP for far far longer, mainly due to the friends I have made there. But in the last couple of years those friendships have taken on a life of their own and are thriving quite happily outside the world of MP 🙂
The list is still busy, still growing rapidly and regularly, and traditions like the card list will continue from strength to strength I’m sure, with or without a handful of old hands.
And your Sunday sounds very lovely and very Sunday Nic 🙂
We did the 2 minutes’ silence on Friday, and I found it as moving as ever.
Well I’d like to send you lot cards, it wouldn’t be Christmas without sending them to you guys *sob* So please either Nic send me a copy of your list or everyone send me your addresses, I don’t want to have to find last years list just to glitter bomb you all 😉
(Hoping this doesn’t appear twice, the internet broke the first time *sigh* )
We did the 2 minutes on Friday at Shinies as we had a Victory Thanks ‘street’ party. The partyt was fab and I will blog at some point. I of course cried and cried as I do every year.
Yep, sounds very Sundayish 🙂
we still have yout last year card btw
also emotional re remembrance
i try and post ti mp, but there are 2 [only 2!!] posters that just seem to nark me, and puts me off
Well, I signed up for the ‘MP as was’ xmas card list Elinor enjoyed making/sending and recieving cards last year and didn’t at the time know anyone, and she still liked getting the postacards and again didn’t know alot of the people. so, while she still likes it we’re doing it.
Re the list, hmm, I think that the blog has had an impact on posting. I alos think that even wehn being helpful to others, people post to a list mostly for their own reasons, one of those being a sense of findign the list useful, a sense of community etc. and one of the reasons we post is to engender that sense of community. Once we move on a bit from needing that support, well we probabbly cut down the posting. I think this is natural, and people shouldn’t feel that they ‘should’ be posting, life is too short. We joined MP 2 and a bit yeasr ago, and I’m sure we posted a lot more say last year. but things change, this year we’ve been on the camps, blogbumping etc. and the ‘real life ‘ aspect of things now has a place in all this.
But new people who were in simalr situatiosn will join the list, and ISTM that the real value of the list for people is probably in those first few years as people find their feet.
PS, still sesm slighty odd that after all these years of crossing paths with Nic and Alison in various virtual places I’ve met both of them this year via MP 🙂
Just been a Google Grouping on u.p.p, this made me smile Nic:
‘i saw that fairy dress and i think it’s the only time so far i have had small pangs about not having a girl to dress up! ‘
I have never stayed on any list for more than about a year I don’t think so MP did well to keep me so long! 😉
Mainly because they are just so cyclic with the same *new* questions getting asked again and again, and although I understand why it is boring to get the same topics constantly being rehashed in your inbox and the same people giving the same answers. Infact I was talking to someone only recently saying that someone with time on their hands should go through the archives and create an FAQ of posts with all the decent answers that people have given so you can search that instead of asking the question again – which showed me how jaded I was feeling about the whole list thing really and convinced me to give it a break.
Right, will compile a list of my blog readers names and addresses (if you send them to me) and then circulate it to everyone on it. So emails to nic@goddardstuff.co.uk with your name and address please 🙂
yes, I thought that on Halloween weekend when you and Alison were both staying here and that you had been ‘names’ to me for years and now you were in my house! 😉
That is one of many quotes from me in my early UKpp days which would probably make me cringe and everyone else laugh lots I suspect. Alison still reminds me of my ‘routines’ regularly!
No, I don’t, *you* bring it up more than I do! Probably plenty of cringy stuff from me too, or more likely on misc.kids.breastfeeding which was my first post-kids hangout.
I think Alison summarised my “why I don’t post” bit very well, so won’t re-hash it 🙂 Nic, me too, *obviously* for your list. 🙂
actually I reckon I’ve changed so much people would never realise ‘Nic’ was me back then anyway! Infact from now on I shall deny it and ask people if they *really* thought *I* used to worry about bedtime routines, swearing infront of children, violence and thought for one moment I’d send my kids to school or create a school at home environment!
Joyce, *obviously* 🙂
Ahem – you were just worrying about swearing in front of children in your Michael Buble post above! (Made me slightly uneasy ab out whether I’d ever sworn in front of your two … 😉 )
well I imagine so, given the usual conversations infront of our children 😉 I do try not to swear infront of ours but tbh my language tends to change depending on who I’m with and how much they swear. The swearing last night was more name calling (ie wanker) which was raising a huge laugh from the audience and I thought would so attractive coming from a 9 year olds girl in response to be told to do her homework!. Can’t imagine Davies wanting to swear really (he’d find it so uncouth!) but I’m surprised Tarly doesn’t already! 🙂
oh, and me for your list too please 😉
Me for the list too. I’ve sent email.