To bed perchance to sleep

Although I would describe ourselves as an autonomous family, especially where the children's learning is concerned, one area where I'm unashamedly NOT autonomous is sleep, or rather bedtimes. This is because, if the kids were allowed to let their bodies tell them when to go to bed, we'd have 3 different bedtimes and 3 different waking times which would effectively mean that I'd be on call most of the evening and starting the day pretty early due to their differing body clocks.I definitely need some 'me' time. I suppose to be strictly accurate I need some 'no kids' time in order to wind down properly and recharge my own batteries.  However we have been really struggling with how to get them to go to sleep at night. The usual bedtime for the older two, aged 9 and 6, is 8.30 with lights out at 9. This doesn't mean that they go to sleep easily. We've tried to make their environment conducive to sleep by making sure they eat well and exercise during the day, disallowing screen time an hour before bedtime, having a gradual wind down period, reading stories (most nights), not having tv or computers in their rooms and generally making sure that their bedrooms are comfortable places to sleep. They are allowed to have music or a story cd while they are in bed, which gets switched off at lights out time, and they each have a night light to offset any anxiety issues. Even with all this they take an AGE to go to sleep, some nights I even go to bed before they're asleep. I've been trying to get them up earlier in the morning but I'm so bleary eyed myself that I find it hard to drag myself out of my nice warm bed.

 Today was slightly different though. The two older ones got themselves up at stupid o'clock, I believe it was about 6am, an hour which I had heard of, but never quite believed existed. They played together pretty well in that we didn't hear them until nearly 8am and the day progressed well enough. At about 9.30am my 9 yr old called me to say that his little sister was asleep on the settee. This I had to see. Sure enough there she was propped up and asleep. Time for a sneaky photo I thought. She woke about half an hour later and we all went out for a picnic and a visit to a park with friends. On the way home Big Brother fell asleep in the car for a few minutes (hope that doesn't bode ill for his bedtime tonight) but the girls stayed awake, until we got home. Then I realised that Big sister aged 6 was again asleep on the settee at about 7pm. This hasn't happened for so long I couldn't believe my eyes. I managed to carry her to bed and sincerely hope she sleeps through and doesn't get a second wind later this evening.

 I think I need to go and get out my copy of 'The No Cry Sleep Solution' (the one for older children) by Elizabeth Pantley and see if I can update our bedtime/sleep arrangements. That's one of the hardest things about bringing up children: you need to constantly reassess what you're doing as the children get older. Everything is fluid, nothing stays the same for long. At least I have some good help in the books that I have found useful in the past. As well as giving some good advice, none of it judgmental, the authors have helped me to hone my thinking skills and arrive at our own imperfect solutions.  All I need is to feel awake enough to actually think clearly.

To blog or not to blog

As promised, well hinted at, in my first post, here's my attempt to explain to myself what I'm doing or trying to do by writing this new blog of mine. I have had an awareness since I started this blog that time is kind of stacking up against me in a 'gotta post, gotta post!' kind of way. My first attempt at blogging  here :http://lizngary.blogspot.com/ (hmm, there's my first snag, I don't know how to put a link in there) was good enough as a first attempt and I'm quite happy with the posts in terms of tone and message, but I just couldn't seem to keep it up. Maybe I wasn't sufficiently motivated, but I think it just probably wasn't the right time for me to be blogging. Is there ever a right time, I wonder? With a little help from my friends I had a bit more success being part of a collective blog here: http://loozingit.blogspot.com/ . I had a clear reason and aim in mind, ie formulating a healthy eating plan, and that helped me to keep on track, both with blogging and healthy eating.

So I've been trying to work out exactly why I feel like blogging now, when so many others are reaching the decision to stop blogging, whether temporarily or permanently. I guess that blogs, like email group members, will tend to come and go and I should base my decision to blog on my own feelings and motivation. I've also had more of a chance to have a look around at the blogging world and read various different kinds of blogs written by people in differing communities, so I've had a chance to think about the look and feel of this blog (and I have big plans, hindered only by a lack of familiarity with the software which is making the process frustratingly slow and painstaking).  I do have my 3 fairy blogmothers (thanks you lot) to help me overcome any glitches, as I have learnt that good support is essential in any undertaking.

I have been examining what I want and what I don't want from blogging and from this blog in particular. I think I'm clearer about what I don't want. I've been dismayed in the past by bloggers who seem to think that they are only writing for a select few, perhaps a group of friends. Now this is absolutely fine, as most of us probably envisage a small readership and expect comments only from people we 'know' quite well either in the real world or in cyberspace. What I didn't think was fine was that they seemed to forget that, unless you password your blog, it is open to anyone who wants to read it. As such I believe one has a responsibility to be respectful, especially if you are blogging about real people in real time. I've also felt very humbled looking at not only other peoples' blogs but also their lives. They all seem to have so much going on in their days that it made my head spin and I felt inadequte by comparison. Now I know that comparisons are odious but I just don't feel up to presenting our life that way. So what do I want from this blog? Well recently I have had experiences which I could have taken to an email group or discussed with friends, but it either didn't feel appropriate or it wasn't possible and I felt the need to examine my thoughts and feelings soon after the event. I think that's what I'm hoping to do, strew a few thoughts and ideas on this table I've created and push them around a bit till they resemble something.

Well, as I have hungry kids pressing me to cook, I'll end with just a brief explanation of the title of this blog. Most obviously I chose this title, or rather my dh Gary suggested it, because we live in a wooden house in the far north of england. We love our 'shed', it is a fascinating place to live and I'm proud and passionate about living here. However I do feel the need to get away and roam on a  regular basis. It doesn't have to be far, it can be a walk in the wonderful countryside near us, or a drive to visit other home edders. The view of 'our' valley as we come over the hill on our way home is a great reward for taking ourselves away for a while. And it gives me new perspective every time I see it. If ever I get wobbly about having moved our family 300 miles from our old home I only have to sweep along down 'Mile Bank' and I feel like a queen surveying her realm.