Happy New Year

Given that I've temporarily disabled my Facebook account, to have a bit of time out, I thought I'd better let you all know I'm still alive and keep you up to date with some of the happenings of our life.
I am delighted to be in a new year. December was a non-starter in the Jo's Boys household as we had three bouts of chicken pox one after the other, interspersed with some horrible flu like virus, and a bad case of being thoroughly snowed in. The consequence of this was that I and the children went slightly stir crazy. We also did lots of crafting and baking, the latter having serious effects on my hips. Christmas itself was quiet but lovely. My militarily planned meal a la Sarah Raven came off beautifully (although I was rather stressed on Christmas eve) and we enjoyed spending time together as a family.
My new years resolutions are many. I NEED to be more positive, to soak my life in the promises of scripture and to stand on them regardless. I also NEED to lose weight. I have decided that in terms of HE we are going back to basics, and will be focussing on the three Rs regardless of what else we achieve. This has so far met with some reluctance from the small people but they are being persuaded by the witholding of certain technological items if work isn't completed. DS1 didn't complete his written work today until after lunch, but he did perservere in the end, and perseverence is a great character trait to learn, I believe. I know that on this point we will be criticised by many HE friends who advocate self directed learning. I understand where you are coming from but, for the moment, this is the path we have chosen. The boys still get plenty of self directed time - far more than if they were at school, and I am happy with the fact that their literacy and numeracy skills are developing.
We hope that the Wii I purchased with my Christmas and birthday money will be delivered this week, and that it will provide further incentive to my reluctant writers. As if by providence, a church family we know has upgraded their widescreen tv to a digital and given it to us. So we'll actually be able to see what we are doing on the Wii. Lol.
Anyway, enough for now. Hopefully I will find my camera soon and produce some piccies.
Happy new year everyone.
Jo x