Blog Update

{As I ramble on about some blog musings, enjoy the photographs I took of the little robin having a bath in our pond yesterday. He is just so adorable!}

Around January each year, I do a bit of blog housekeeping. I usually think about the direction my blog has come from, is it still travelling along the same path etc, and then I consider some techy stuff.

So, on the techy side, there is a change. If you follow my blog or have me bookmarked and you wish to continue to visit me here, please can you make sure that your bookmarked URL reads www.underanenglishsky.blogspot.co.uk

I am leaving the {dot}{com} address behind. My reasons are simple, this blog is a very personal one. I write about what matters to me, about family, faith, homeschooling (which is now reaching its end), and about my love for nature and life in Britain. I write occasionally about my gardening exploits and often about seasonal and liturgical observances. They are all simple musings about an ordinary life, a diary of sorts. 

Last year I considered getting a bit more serious about blogging, but to be honest, I'm not one to write in order to gain more followers or to make an income off my blog. I write for the joy, it is personal, and I enjoy the interaction I have with you. I don't want to be writing things that give the answers to all of life's challenges, you know the type of posts, "10 ways to..." or "How I..."

So I'm keeping it simple and true to where this little blog started. I will continue to write about the things that matter to me; family life, home-keeping, faith, lovely creative interests, endeavours and just observing a life simply lived and small things appreciated. 

On where this blog is heading... well I don't really know. This year our homeschool journey comes to an end and if I'm honest I'm at a loss of what to do next. For 14 years I've raised and educated my darling ones. Now what? That's something to be figured out so I know that there will be no more homeschooling posts after July and I suppose as I figure out my way in a new season so my blog will reflect that. 

In the meantime, thank you to all who continue to visit and take time to read this blog, thank you to all who leave comments - I really love reading them and try to respond to each one.

underanenglishsky.com will cease to bring you here on 13 February so remember to update your bookmarked URL's to https://underanenglishsky.blogspot.co.uk 

If you have subscribed via Bloglovin or here on my blog you don't need to do a thing, you will continue to receive posts from this blog

Blessings to you all...

To Blog or Not to Blog...

I know that blogging seems to be waning in popularity these days. Instagram is taking over in popularity as it is quick to post a picture and caption where ever you are. Many bloggers that I used to follow have now stopped updating their blogs and are active on IG. 

I can totally understand the reasoning behind that. After all, writing a post takes a lot of time and effort. You will have noticed that my own blog posts have been less prolific than in previous years, although I do attribute that to things other than being pressed for time. But I have a few thoughts on blogging and it was brought on by the following.

This afternoon I was updating all my pins on Pinterest. I noticed that most of the URL's were all wrong which meant that no one would be able to find my blog. While I was there I decided to do a little housekeeping with my board that holds all of our nature studies that we have done over the years. This turned out to be a bit more labour-intensive than I had originally thought because I ended up having to go and pin everything straight from my blog in order to ensure that if one of the pins was clicked on, the reader would go straight to that specific post.

In doing all this, I began to realise something...I am blessed to have a treasure trove of recorded memories. As I was going through all the posts of our nature studies I realised what a wonderful education my children have had and how blessed all of us are for the times and things we have done and experienced together. As I scrolled through the posts vivid memories came flooding back. I remember little things that happened in those days. I remember joys, how I felt, what our walk was like, conversations we had. These posts, every one of them (nature-related or not) are memory markers, like pins in a map.

I remember for example, that the day we did our Sumac study, that the girls were not very interested and I ended up getting a little irritated at their attitudes 😏, yip! We certainly had 'those' days.

I have been blogging for 11 years, sadly I managed to lose the first 4 years of my posts when I changed my blog when we moved from SA to England. I hit 'delete' without realising that it was irretrievable. But on this blog, I have recorded many MANY happy things in our family, our homeschool, my thoughts, things that I would never have remembered if I had not blogged about them.

So I guess this is a little 'ponderous' post on the value of keeping this blog. I'm so very glad that I have recorded snippets of our lives here so that I can go back and be reminded. Last year my computer died a horrible death and all my photographs from 2015 and 2016 went with it (yes I know, I'm supposed to back them all up etc, but I didn't). I cannot get all those photographs back but I do have my blog where a good many of them were uploaded in posts and now exist on my google drive - and Flickr of course, I won't ever give that up.

We think that we will hold a moment in our minds forever, we hope to hold it forever, but life is busy and memories and moments get tucked away in the filing system of our minds, sometimes never to be retrieved. If you have ever considered keeping a blog, I want to encourage you to do so - even if it's just for you and kept on a private setting, because it really has turned out to be a blessing for me and I'm sure, in the future, you might find the same blessing of pouring over moments in your life that you had tucked away in the recesses of your mind.

Blessings and hugs to you all this lovely Saturday...

Sometimes...

...change is not always the best thing. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for change, I love new experiences, I have loved the varied and exciting places we have lived and travelled to as a result of my husband's job. I have embraced each house move, approached each new country or city we have lived in wholeheartedly. I am forever grateful that we were obedient to God's call on our lives to homeschool our daughters - that I would start all over again in a heartbeat. But sometimes, just sometimes the change that we embrace or choose turns out not to be the best thing for us.

We've all done it, made a decision that we regret and wish we could undo. It's in those situations that we can crumble and live in defeat or you can take control and change your situation. I'm a bit headstrong and simply refuse to live in defeat - I am totally a believer in that if you are not happy with something - then change it! 

Change to rectify some of our bigger 'boo-boo's' can take time to play out, so I believe that while you wait for your situation to change or improve, you need to find contentment where you are as you work towards your end goal. However, some things are easier to tackle and this is what I am doing right now.

In February I took the decision to move my blog's home to Wordpress. It's a decision I regret. I know that some people love Wordpress and swear by it - but me...no, it's not for me. I don't like the plugins, I don't like how it's set up, I just don't feel 'at home' there. I'm sure you must have noticed that my posts have been infrequent, that's partly due to the fact that I just don't like it. For all of the 'cons' that professional bloggers spurt out when the compare Wordpress to Blogger - well I just don't care, I like blogger and I'm not a professional blogger anyway, I'm just an ordinary girl saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus. I love my husband, my children, our homeschooling and keeping my home, so I think this little spot will do me nicely for a long while yet.

So, before I go on with this post I want to say three things, first is that I really appreciate all my readers - love you guys. I know you are here because in some way we connect and we are kindred spirits.

Second, if this change has annoyed you enough to unsubscribe, I totally understand. I'm sorry for any inconvenience or annoyance I have caused. I do hope that you will stay with me though because I will miss you if you go.

Thirdly, I'm going to be tweaking the look of my blog because I'm just like Mrs Tittlemouse, I do love keeping my 'home' spic and span.

Okay, moving on... This weekend we went to Reading to see my grandparents who have just moved to the UK from South Africa. It was the most wonderful, blessed weekend! We haven't seen each other since 2010 and we are very close. I feel so SO blessed to have them living nearby enough that we can visit fairly often. In fact, we have already planned that they will come and spend Christmas with us, we are all so excited!

Driving back home to Devon on Sunday we decided to ditch the motorway and take the more scenic 'A' roads. This way you really get to see the countryside and a more leisurely pace. Well...as we were tootling along what should suddenly loom up to our right but Stonehenge! Oh my! The excitement in our car...

Now, this ancient wonder is not set far back from the road, no...it's RIGHT-THERE. It just astounds me that such history and heritage is just casually along the wayside - that's life in England for you!

Anyhoo, we simply had to break our journey and go visit this site. A further bonus is that entrance was entirely free because we are National Trust members - YAY!

There is something about this place, being in the same place where others have been, lived and worked over thousands of years...it's quite something. 

It simply turned out to be the best weekend ever - and it was my birthday so BONUS! 

Anyhoo lovelies, I'm going to love and leave you for today. I hope that you will come back and visit with me here very soon.

Hugs to you all...

Thank You!

Wow! Thank you to every one who participated in my blog survey! I am so SO grateful to have received your feedback. It was really interesting to read, and it made me really happy to see that most of you are happy with the current content of my blog.

I was really thrilled to see what you want to see more of and it gives me a much better idea on what to share. Interestingly three topics were the most popular, Travel and Days Out & Organization posts scored tops followed very closely by more homeschooling posts.

Anglophiles unite!! In the comments section quite a few of you mentioned that you wanted to know more about living in England and seeing more of our countryside etc (Travel and Days out category). I TOTALLY relate to this. You see I'm as big an Anglophile as you seem to be LOL. As many of you know I am South African. My whole life was spent with a yearning and longing in my heart for England. It has been a country that has always captured my imagination and my heart.  When we finally moved here 5 years ago I felt like I had finally come 'home'.

I'm STILL wildly, madly and deeply in love with this land. Everything about it makes me happy. When we drive around visiting new sights, the countryside continues to totally capture my attention and my heart. The beauty is so astounding that it can bring tears to my eyes - honestly! I know it probably sounds lame but I have never felt so strongly about a country as I do about this one. There is NOWHERE I would rather be than in Britain.

So you can expect to see more of our country-side, villages, seasons and cities.

Manage Your Time and Home:: Under An English Sky

Organization took top place alongside Anglophile posts! I think I must take for granted how it is to have a well-established routine in place, or even to be able to put systems in place that aid in running a home, family and homeschool with ease. Truthfully this is one of my strengths, it is something I love doing. But I know that for many this is not the case and therefore tips and practical 'how-to's' are always helpful.

I was so happy that 'homeschooling' featured right up there too. As you know I started this blog to document our homeschooling days. With my blog being as old as it is, I often wondered if my readers were still homeschooling mums - I know it's not exclusively homeschooling mums but I was wondering how many were still interested. And it turns out quite a few of you want more practical homeschool related content. 

So once again - THANK YOU for your input. It has been invigorating for me as this blog's author to really get your insights and opinions. I should have done this years ago! LOL. Tomorrow I will kick off with a new series of posts called Crock-pot Chronicles.

Starts Tomorrow!

 Once a week, for the next 6 weeks, I will share one of our families favourite crock-pot recipes. A few of you have asked for me to share some of my crock-pot favorites over the past 6 months or so, and I keep forgetting. So with this little series of posts coming up it will help me to be more intentional about sharing :)

Wishing you all a wonderful Tuesday and I look forward to meeting with you all tomorrow again :)

Blog Improvements and Your Valuable Feedback

Have you noticed a difference yet to my blog? I'm trying to make it more appealing and less cluttered. I've been blogging for quite a few years now and I'm pretty sure that there are things that I could do better. I suspect that it will mean digging deeper into the scary world of technology and educating myself on things that other bloggers more than likely have a pretty good grip on already. 

These thoughts have been milling about in my mind for some time now, and I have asked the question as to why it matters and if doing things differently (better) would be of any benefit. The answer is that it matters because I value my readers, I love to write, and if you can do things better then why wouldn't you do so? 

I have complied a survey (gosh I hope it works!) where I have asked two questions and given various answers that just need clicking on. You can pick more than one answer. There is a third question where you can type in other comments. This can be other suggestions on what you want to see or not see, tell me how you like the new look, is there anything you don't like about it? What about the photography? Are the pictures too big/just right etc...

As I said, I really to value my readers so would love to hear from you, so would you mind helping me out but leaving your opinions? Below you will find the survey, I have also left a link to the survey on my Facebook Page if you would prefer.

Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know what you want, don't want or want to see.