Day 81 - Power off....bit isolated.

Friday 22^nd March

 

 

There are days when the challenges of island living confront you head on.  Today has been one of those days.  We are being completely battered by icy winds that I understand have deposited large amounts of snow every where except our village! I am quite convinced that one day I will wake up and the entire island will be covered in snow with the exception of our little smallholding.  The universe does obviously not want me to sledge this year and who I am to question the universe.  

We have had no power since about 7am and I believe that is also the case for the whole island.  We are fine.  We have an open fire, extra clothes, lots of blankets and a gas camping stove.  I do worry about people who are not fine though.  It is so very cold at the moment and this is not a good time to lose power.  I suspect the ferry is tied up sheltering from the worst of it and all in all it is a little bit of a bleak picture.  Except I don’t really do bleak.  This day has coincided with me being a bit poorly so my options are easily understood.  Get by the fire, stay there and wrap yourself up in a blanket.  I have achieved that well today. 

This option was greatly enhanced by the post that managed to get through this morning.  Two books arrived but only one was expected.  I was expecting the book written by Tania Sullivan from Larger Family Life as I had ordered it a few days ago.  But the second book was a truly wonderful surprise.  A very old friend from back in my school days, Lisa, had sent me a book to teach me how to crochet.  I had put a HELP message onto Facebook recently as I really need to learn and fast.  Lisa put a note on it saying she saw the book and thought of me.  How incredibly kind and I was so touched.  I know she reads this blog so here is my chance to say ‘thank you so much Lisa’.  I will enjoy tackling a new craft and then having the opportunity to put it to good use.  The projects in the book look fun as well. 

 So in front of the fire I began to look at Tania’s book thinking I would have a quick look now and it would become my bedtime reading for the next week or so.  This plan didn’t really come together because I simply could not put the book down.  I had to force myself to make a cup of tea and grab my two dunking biscuits before picking up the book again to continue to the end.  I have spoken about Tania and her wonderful family on previous posts as we were introduced to them all on a channel 4 series called ‘16 and Counting.’  This programme was dedicated to larger families and Tania’s family was featured.  I contacted Tania after the programme via her website Larger Family Life and we have been chatting ever since.  It would be appear that we have a great deal in common especially as we both home school.  I have written a guest blog for her site and wanted to read her book to find some answers to some questions I had. 

The book ‘Larger Family Life’ would not just appeal to people with or wanting large families.  I believe the book would be of interest to anyone who is disillusioned with mainstream living in western countries.  For those of you looking for alternatives this is the book for you.  What I think works about this book is you can take from it what you want.  You can adopt some of the ideas and make small changes or you can take the whole thing as a sort of blueprint for stepping out of mainstream society.  For me it is about learning new ways of approaching issues that arise in everyday life.  Tania now has 12 children and we only have 4 but I don’t think that is relevant. 

There are a couple of real points of synergy between Tania and I as parents.  We both believe that family life is about making wonderful memories.  It is a phrase I use all the time and Tania includes the same sentiment in her book.  We also both believe that families are small communities and, as such, need to find ways of living that are supportive, thoughtful and loving.  Tania breaks this down in her book through two ways.  She talks about the practical things she does in order to encourage these sorts of values and she also talks about her religious faith.  I am not a Christian but I did enjoy the chapter where Tania quotes from the Bible and then tells us her interpretations of these teachings.  It provided me with moments of reflection and that can only ever be a good thing.  I am a Buddhist and there are a lot of parallels to be drawn with these teachings and I think that what is important here is that we both have a strong faith.  We both turn to that faith to help guide us through our parenting roles in life but I think even if you are not religious you will take something from the references to values.   

Tania tackles the issue of home schooling well and gives lots of good advice.  Her reasons for home schooling are very similar to mine but we go about the task slightly differently.  Tania and her husband, Mike, chose to follow a Christian curriculum which is structured around workbooks.  This work is usually finished by lunchtime leaving the children plenty of time to engage in other activities of their own choosing.  We chose not to follow a curriculum although we do keep our eye on the National Curriculum in England and Wales just as a guide.  Our approach to home school is more organic but that is in tune with living on a smallholding.  We use the smallholding as a resource for our learning.  We are also very project focused and integrate different subjects within one project.  Our Spring journal work is a classic example of a project that involves almost every subject on the school curriculum.  Beyond that we are very responsive to what is going on in the world at the time.  If we pick up something interesting on the news we may pursue that for a while.  One of my personal ambitions for my children is that emerge into adulthood in tune with the world in which they live and more able to make a real and worthy contribution.  Responding to contemporary issues is thus a very strong thread through our home school ethos. 

Where Tania and I agree, without reservation, is our joint ambition that the children should love learning and if we manage that with our 16 children between us we will both be thrilled.  We are planning to bring the two families together later in the year as we have invited the Sullivans to Arran.  It will be a fascinating time for both families and I am sure we will learn a great deal from each other.   

It is important to say that Tania and Mike have not had it easy as they have lost many babies along the way and that makes for difficult reading.  But, in true Tania style, she makes sense of these tragic experiences and moves forward.  The book is bursting with positivity and you can’t help but break out into a smile at regular intervals.  For all parents it is a useful book to refer to over and over again.  It has been a bit of a week for books this week and perhaps the return of winter has created the perfect excuse to read in front of a warm fire.  I have enjoyed my day despite feeling a bit poorly and that is entirely down to Tania and Lisa.  Thank you my lovely girls. 

The boys are all in their rooms under blankets reading and no doubt waiting for the power to return.  I want to end by asking a tiny favour.  I know a boy called Joshua who is only very young.  He is currently very poorly and I think a little afraid.  If you could all just whisper ‘Get well soon Joshua’ I am quite sure he will hear you.  Thank you so much.  Off to learn how to crochet….

 

Until tomorrow. xx