Done

Ok...so I did it. I filled in the online school application.

Doesn't mean I have to send her though.

Otherwise, things are going well here. After almost a year (bloody hell..HOW did that happen) we like Yorkshire.

Not sure about family life though, been pretty stressy. Not sure what the answer is, probably to suck it and see for now.

Being Moderate

I'm beginning to feel very moderate. My kids are partially vaccinated. We've been in school and are now out but still have one in preschool three mornings. I've had two babies at home and two in hossie. It's like I rebel a bit but don't go the whole hog! Well, the hospital births were transferred homebirths so maybe that doesn't count. One was for a breech though, and I know some people would have stayed at home (and he did just pop out then hospital was awful so maybe that would have been a good plan, except that he came so fast then didn't breathe and midwives often take their time getting to you so that would have been a bit scary).

Or maybe I just carve out an individual path that's uniquely right for us.

This was brought on by an American telling me that vaccinations were singlehandedly responsible for women no longer having a life expectancy of only 50, and lots of children dying before they're five. She made it sound like unvaccinated people are walking hotbeds of germs, dangerous to be around. It occured to me that in her eye's I'm a dangerous extremist! But I know of places where I could say 'my kids have had some vaccinations' and be shouted down as a terrible parent for letting them have them.

I would like my decisions to be respected, and if other people choose a different path, I'll respect that too. Most of my really good friends totally get that.

Email to Social Worker

Dear Mr Maxwell

I trust you received my telephone message informing you that Wednesday 3rd March is inconvenient for you to visit us at home. Your proposed time clashes with our new monthly home educator's art group, and as we have just moved into the area it is important for us to make links with other people.

Marilyn Islip from Kirklees Council's Primary Pupil Refer Service has arranged to visit us on Monday 22nd March. She will list us as educating our children.

If you have any further concerns I refer you to her, or to Elaine Matterson or Joan Cotcher, the attendance enforcement officers we dealt with in Sunderland LEA, both of whom have seen my chidren, Joan actually within our home, and who we had a very good relationship with. They can be contacted on 0191 5535633.

Yours,

Hazel B

Elective Home Educator of M (11) I (9) and F (7)

(Address)
(phone)

Month later

We've been here a month. It's hard to believe.

We had a shocking week last week. Well, fortnight really. We visited our friends in Half Term and I discovered I've developed night blindness. I discovered this whilst having a panic attack on the A1 trying to get home in the middle of nowhere with all the kids in the car. Hum. Need a new plan for most of life especially in the winter if I can't drive in the dark :-(

A brief respite followed, I went up to Sunderland on the train by myself for a long planned 'girls' weekend'. But when I got back I couldn't shake a huge black cloud. It took til yesterday to realise that I just missed everybody. I finally feel a little better today, facing things helps.

In the middle of all that a social worker rang having heard that my children were 'missing in education' because we've been passed on to the wrong department on our new LA, Kirklees. Just a misunderstanding. Scary though. It's still not resolved, I haven't been able to get hold of him.

Finding our feet

We're trying to find some sort of equilibrium. We've started work again, though not quite in as, errrrm, high a gear? as before. Still, it's a start.

The highlight of our week is usually the couple of trips to buy fruit and veg from the local greengrocers. It's a little bit more expensive than from a supermarket, and a lot more expensive than from the market back in Sunderland. But we're not in Sunderland anymore, and I'd rather pay a little bit more and have stuff in less packaging, some of which has been grown locally, and put my money in the pocket of a village family rather than Tesco or Morrisons. Plus from a purely selfish point of view, like I said above, it's become the focus of our time here! The guy talks to us!

I can't believe how friendly people here are. I'm having to practice smiling and replying when I'm out and about and people make conversation, instead of assuming they'll keep their eyes down and themselves to themselves. The drivers even all stop at the zebra crossing instead of us generally ahvign to wait for about three cars to go past like we did back home.

I miss my friends a lot. But I like it here, I really do.

Arriving

Hum. How to start a new blog? no idea. We've been here over two weeks and our feet haven't quite touched the ground. It's very very nice here, if a little lonely right now - a problem we're working on! The people here are lovely, the village very friendly and in the towns they smile and chat, we just need some slightly more local friends which will take some time.

The house is gorgeous. We're mostly unpacked now, and I'm engaging in a passionate love affair with it. Never thought I'd live in something so gorgeous. the problem is keeping it that way, flylady, I need you ;-)