Rachel's Ramblings: August 2016

It looks like this year will be the most neglected my blog has ever been since I started it! :-P Not sure I've ever ended up with so few post by half-way through the year. I mean, I'm certain it's never been so blank! And I have no promises of making it better, but will try a brief update and catch-up of at least some photos, etc. I might split it across more than one post - but here's a start at least! :-)

So, in May we spent two lovely weeks down in Yorkshire on holiday. It now seems a very long time ago (I guess it was quite a while ago! lol). We had a fantastic house to stay in (with a book theme too - Storybook Cottage). The children loved it there, and animals to enjoy outside on the farm - very peaceful. And we got to spend quite a bit of time with our friends the Mohons, which was really nice - always the highlight of our holidays down there! :-)

After getting back from our holiday it was all go getting things organised in Edderton at the holiday house. There's always plenty of gardening to do after the winter, so that kept us busy for a while. And then it's been booked solid since the middle of June - with a run right through until middle of September! Though we did just get 2 weeks cancelled at the last minute when the people weren't able to get away to come up - but I was rather glad of a wee break in the middle of a very busy summer! ;-)

It's been a rather chilly, cloudy, damp, and lack of sunshine summer up here - again! :-/ I have to admit, when you grow up in Texas, you are rather in need of a bit of brightness! Not that I expected Scotland to be sunny, but after a long dark winter, you always look forward to summer being a *bit* better! ;-) And then when summer is so dark and cold, it's a bit of a disappointment. The first several years I lived over here, it was quite warm and nice in the summers - not bad at all. But this must be the 3rd summer in a row where you might only get ONE proper day that's decently warm (and by warm I mean just being around 21c - which isn't even quite 70F!). Anyway, we got one day like that - one day only this summer. Oh well! Guess that's life, right?! :-)

We've been enjoying a break from homeschooling over the summer - though it's gone by too fast. Can't believe we're already back to lessons in just over a week!! But it's good to get back to normal routine and all. I think I've got everything organised (as in, a few new books bought, etc) and we're ready to go!

Oh, last month I got my results back from my Open University course - good marks for my final essay and I passed the course. So that was nice and means I've officially finished the first year of a BSc Psychology degree! :-) Just 2 more to go! NOT that I have any plans to finish it in that time - IF I manage to do it, it will be at a much slower pace! I hope to be studying "The Science of the Mind: Investigating Mental Health" this autumn/winter - it's only a 30 credit course, but I've been told by those who have taken it, that it's easily as tough as a 60 credit one. But hopefully less essays to write, since the course starts the same month as baby #7 is due! :-) But the topic sounds fascinating and I can't wait to start it!

I'm just coming up to 28 weeks in this pregnancy - still can't believe how fast it's gone by. But certainly each one seems to pass by faster than the previous one. (I still remember how slowly my first one seemed to go by! LOL) So, due in only about 12 weeks! Yikes! At least when it's your 7th baby, you've already got everything you need - so quite easy to be organised! ;-)

So, time for some photos from our holiday. Certainly not all of them - I took too many.