Highland Folk Museum etc

Apologies in advance for the huge amount of photos in this post. Most of them are from last Friday when we had a day out at the Highland Folk Museum, though there are a few other unrelated photos too. But anyway, seems I couldn't decide which to leave out, so there are 15 photos in this post!

I'll start by saying thank you for all the kind congratulations that were posted in response to my last post. And I'm pleased to say that I'm feeling remarkably better than I was early last week. In fact, I woke up last Wednesday morning and thought "Wow, I actually feel human again!" and thankfully it's still the same - I'm soooo much better. I won't say that I don't ever have times where I'm feeling a bit sick (mainly if I stay up too late at night or let myself get an empty stomach), but otherwise the awful nausea is gone and I'm back to being able to eat real foods again! For the past 7 days I've been able to eat the same dinner I cook for the rest of my family - no more Rice Krispies for dinner! :)

Abigail and Benjamin both still have their chest colds, though Abigail's doesn't seem to be affecting her very badly. But Benjamin still has a very noisy chest when he breathes and he is coughing a lot at nights (esp tonight). Just hope he gets better soon, as he has to be monitored closely since coughing seems to make him vomit easily.

Benjamin giggling late at night (if you can see his face from behind the blanket), in his cute nightime nappy (a Slinki Minki fleece pocket, stuffed with a bamboo prefold, for anyone who is interested in cloth nappies! LOL) Benjamin usually has *lots* of clothes on (since he has a bad scratching habit) but I had to change his pjs after he was sick one night, so he was having fun crawling round the bed in just his nappy!

Last Friday we spent the day in Newtonmore at the Highland Folk Museum - from about 11am till a bit after 4pm. There was a "home-ed group" going and we thought we'd go along too. It was people connected together through something called NOSHED (North of Scotland Home-Edders) who organised it - it's not a Christian group, just a general way of home educating families connecting with each other and doing educational things together. There must have been 7 other families there with children of all ages and we had a nice day. The museum is certainly well worth visiting - and free admission too - so if anyone wants to come over and see us in Scotland, you'll have to go there too! :) It was interesting to see how local people lived long ago and their ways of survival.

Abigail walking along some sort of bench - not sure what the wood was from or meant for! (Probably the big notice board nearby said, but I don't think I read it!)
Various people from the group - can't remember what this building was either! [blush]

Benjamin on a big tractor! He didn't want to get off it either.

Abigail taking a turn on the tractor.

Benjamin having a go on a real slate. Abigail saw the older children with quill pens, so she decided to dip her "slate marking instrument" in her ink well and made rather a mess!

View of the one room school - with lots of the home ed children (and some parents) sitting at the desks.

A view of part of the museum - the red/white building is the church (can't remember it's name) but I think it's only about 100 years old. It had Gaelic Psalm singing playing inside!

Some of the children all wanting to ride on the digger

Inside one of the houses, from a 1700s period settlement - sitting round the fire (it was nearly too smokey to be able to breathe properly!).

Abigail sweeping her dirt floor - with a broom made from heather.

Playing at the play park at the end of the day - Abigail played there a few times during the day, but Benjamin only got out at the end (as it was really meant for older children) but he had lots of fun in the wee house.

Abigail and Benjamin in one of the high houses together.

This is the way Benjamin makes apple pie - though it looks like he's thinking "oh no!" - he wanted to scatter the apple peelings everywhere and walk around the table! At least it's not quite so bad as having him stand in a chair in the kitchen (which means dishes and water everywhere).

Just to show that he *can* sit nicely and calmly...if he wants to! He seems to enjoy walking across the table and then sitting in his booster seat. In fact, the other day he sat here for a whole *hour*, just looking at books & magazines with Abigail - he wasn't strapped in either. I was surprised when I realised how long he'd been sitting still - but doesn't happen all the time. :)

OK, enough from me - must be a mile long of words and photos - sorry! Will try to be briefer next time. :)