Category Archives: Cooking

Early to blog!

Am making frog-in-the-bog for tea with home grown veg on the side – that is the life! would have own eggs, but perhaps not yet!

BB is being dreadful again at going to bed, and is then so tired that she falls asleep like the dead in the day. So today we haven’t let her fall asleep – she’s been dunked in a freezing cold paddling pool in the afternoon to make sure! Whether she makes it to the tea I’m not sure, but they’re having a bath upstairs at the moment.

However, she IS being gorgeous about playing animals. Mostly lions and monkeys, which we have played a lot today. She also demanded ‘diolin’ practice – duly done for 10 seconds! Painting - 2 minutes, reading a book – hours! We have played shops and also with bricks, and a ‘find the’ game with the letter cube thing that Jax gave us – rather a hit!

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SB woke early and plugged herself in front of the TV. When I got up – at 9.30 – so not as late as I would have liked! We read stories together of brer rabbit. I suggested we did the next bit of first language lessons – the aesop fable narration, and she already new the story so happily summarised it. When I said that I could write down her summary or she could, we then spent the next hour happily writing it down, whilst doing other things – see below! [BB and I were being rather distracting though I guess, with falling down towers!]. I was very proud of her, and she was impressed too. Though she is keen to improve her handwriting, I don’t think she’s bothered by spelling as long as she can read it back.

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She then spent ages getting dressed as a princess and cleaning her teeth, and BB did lots of poisson rouge – getting rather good at mouse control, but easily frustrated when she right clicks by mistake. I have stuck a hand sticker on the left click, which usually reminds her.

SB did some brick building with BB for a bit, and then we sat together as she read me various bits from the DK picturepedia on birds. We have also been watching the life of birds in the evening, so she remembered some of that to add in, as well as the other bird books we have read. Wanting to do some flying experiments, we went to the kitchen to make different shapes, but ended up doing mostly a craft session on birds with feathers! She is disappointed they don’t fly well, so we might to the experiments tomorrow.

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All out into the garden to make the most of the sunshine, having pasta for lunch outside [v late!] and the then SB did some sudoko, BB tried to catch the fish in the pond, and then they both spent ages splashing about in the paddling pool or helping me pick broad beans and pod them for tea.

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They’ve argued over helping me make batter for the frog-in-the-bog, so lets hope it still rises! Chris doesn’t appear to have drowned them yet, so I shall quickly flickr. oh, and no chris, I won’t be doing different colours!!

edited to add photos and say, frog in bog a success, BB fell asleep the instant she had finished chewing the last mouthful. SB went on to custard and banana. We are about to play a game. We played Amazon arithmetic and happy families.

OK, so kessie weather worsening

aargh, but I will still have great fun, SB and BB won’t notice. the pool is good!

SO into work this morning, reasonably smoothly, but 1.5 hours longer there than planned. Met up with chris and the girls in town, and he had picked up my new glasses. I put them on and SB immediately laughed, told me I looked silly. Apparently they are too noticeable and go perrr-chinggg at you. sigh. that was good for the ego. Have been wearing them all day to get use to them. After lunch in town we left chris shopping and came home.

We did violin practice.SB has cold feet over playing the violin at kessie, and it is prob too wet anyway! so she will prob make up a dance. we did lots of playing outside and made up an adventure course – great fun for both. in breaks, I read some more SoTW – augustus caesar, and also some of our emperor book. SB read me a life cycle of rabbits book. She also did some maths and reading whatever took her fancy.

I did some weeding, planted spare beans in the gaps. the girls helped me with watering – always good for a laugh!!Actually SB very responsible at it, BB watered weeds, SB’s feet etc etc! I think we may have glutted ourselves on strawberries! and also bought cherries today.

Chris was sorting out camping stuff – yes we will bring poles! and girls aslo helped him and pottered about in the hayloft. what else? oh yes, BB and Imade some nice sausage rolls. I think that is it.

difficult day anticipated at work tomorrow. will def have wine at kessie!!

weather

under the shade of a ‘cooliar’ tree

which is one of the many phrases from songs that BB likes to string together. At the moment she likes to tag different songs together. [in fact she is doing that at the mo - 22:43!]

Well, BB woke up v early, so we had a singing session whilst chris tried to stay asleep. eventually chris admitted to being awake, so BB made him get up, and I finished an Iain Banks book [inversions] until SB rousted me out.

Today was an outside day. Amazingly it didn’t rain. [how english of me!!] So we got out pool, our new camping table – obviously you can’t home-ed without a table! And our gazebo – perfect. SO we hama-ed. I’ve done another sort of dreamtime hama – when I put it on flickr, you can guess the story if you’re feeling bored. Also the girls splashed and raced about. SB also kept confetti-ing me with grass seeds, so I have itched all day.

SB did some maths – she insists on doing it all in her head rather than writing it out. fair enough. i just ask her to write it in columns if she gets it wrong – which she did once. though she did take 15 mins to do the first addition [looking at birds, BB, my hama design, discussing how biro's work - you get the picture!] She says she prefers subtraction. BB did some kids k’nex and fell asleep at lunchtime.

We did some SOTW – julius caesar attacking britain, falling for cleopatra and getting murdered. SB enjoyed this, and we looked at other books around things – celts, cleopatra etc. BB woke up, so more playing and then planted out the rest of our cucurbits – squash, pumpkins and courgettes. they are desperate and very late. the girls helped – bb putting the rooster in the hole, and SB the plant. i had to dig all the holes mind you! We picked a bowl of strawbs in the morning, and a huge bowl in the afternoon – far to many to eat raw! bit of garden maintenance whilst the girls did the picking.

Discussed all sorts of trivia – she has a good memory for things when she fancies it. Just a nice family day – and how i have needed it. SB is so loving and caring. even when she is being teethgrindingly flighty she is so precious to me. The girls had a wild bath and SB soaped BB’s hair – cue major wails. Much fussing to get BB to consent to me washing it out!

We made strawberry tart and strawberry milkshake for pud – yummy!! SB went to bed and read me stories – I have to say WOW for her reading now. she often forgets to read out loud, and the pages flip over quickly.

BB has now gone to bed – way later!! I have read her stories, she has watched baby einstein neptune – she likes the fish and she has bossed me around – a lot!! She is just so gorgeous, and such a strong will!!

rice pudding and strawberries.

Apart from madly thinking about various deadlines at work, I have had a gresat time.

SB is getting there with frere jaques – half speed though! hmmm for kessie! Hope Joe will be forgiving.

Girls did lots of playing – shops, families etc. also lots of playing with the book people boxes. In fact the boxes were prob the most looked at bit of the book people order! SB did get stuck straight into the poetry collection – she has athing for poetry at the moment. She is planning to recite a poem at Kessingland. its true that some of the books are more ‘future books’ – some diana wynne jones for me [rofl! i loved her charmed life as a girl] and the roman mysteries collection. But the DK animals collection really lovely, and the where on earth – so we had a look at those.

We also looked at SOTW again – its been ages, but Julius caesar – SB quite good on this from the horrible histories CD! Also continued with primary maths [i do think i prefer it to MPaH]
The strawberries in the title, well, we have LOADS ripe now, so our little birds were out picking them! At least i did get 4 this time. And I made rice puding with BB – yummy!

BB did lots of colouring and magic painting – which she is becoming very careful about. SB did colouring and made this sun catcher from beadmerrily. well i thought it was beadmerrily but I can’t find it!! Shame, because its lovely, and SB really enjoyed it!

forgot to say that we gave SB her DS today, she has been saving up beautifully and will now put that money towards a trampoline! Thankyou very much to Claire for her generosity. We have nintendogged until i went crazy!!!

splashing in the sun

i filled our 2 holey pools and lots of splashing in the sun ensued. we played games – including BB’s fav game of the moment, hisss.

First harvest of peas from the garden – well, 2 pods! and the first strawbs reddening.

SB had a sulk that she couldn’t buy some toffee, so we made some – more crispy toffee than sticky, but yummy.

BB counted to 26! [a couple of errors] she was counting her jumps on the trampoline.

SB wants to join the local trampoline club. a sat so not ideal, but she has really loved the half term trampolining course she was on, so i guess so.

BB still addicted to the usborne farm books, and also the little music book.

Lots of reading going on – at present titanic lost and found, what makes you ill and magic tree house ninjas, as well as whatever she just happens to pick up. we are going to have to start censoring the material left around!

Also some zoombini’s and webland today. violin and maths chugging along too.
oops i made a book people order.

Question – if we were to save and splash out on a trampoline for sb at home, or keep our eyes out on ebay, any good makes or suggestions out there?

Amelie’s Approved dairy and nut free treats

double choc chip cookies – I usually double this recipe though
2 tbsp cocoa powder [roughly!], 3/4 cup flour [see the waitrose american measurements link], 1/2 cup brown sugar [light], 50g pure dairy free margarine, 2 tbsp soya milk or alternative, 1/2 packet plain choc chips.

mix dry ingredients, rub in marg, add milk to make a dough. grab approx 6 lumps and wodge onto non-stick tray. sprinkle with chips

gas mark 3 for 15-ish mins. they should still be quite squidgy, as they get more rigid when cool down.

choc raisin brownies [as at hunstanton] a ‘double’ mixture as eaten so quickly!
3 eggs, 185g pure dairy free margarine, 400g sugar, 75g self raising flour, 40g plain flour, 3 tbsp cocoa powder, 150g raisins.

whizz marg and sugar with electric beater or in food processor, add eggs and whizz, add flour and whizz, pop in raisins. tip into pre-lined and greased oblong tin [lining essential!!]

approx 45 mins at gasmark 4. V difficult to time so get right consistency as crust forms early. you still want middle to be quite sludgy when you stop cooking – but obviously not runny!

chocolate and raisin cake

175g plain flour [1 1/2 cups] 3 tbsp cocoa powder, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp bicarb of soda, 150g caster sugar [2/3 cup] 1 tbsp black treacle/molasses/golden syrup, 2 eggs, 150 ml veg oil, 150ml soya milk or alternative. add raisins and quick whizz.
mix dry ingredients in food processor, add liquids and whizz. pour into lined tin [8"] bake for 45-60 mins [nearer 60] skewer should come out dry when cake done.

A typical home ed day? Photomeme thingummy

Actually, in many respects it was. We forgot about it to start with [fairly typical!] BB woke up way to early [fairly typical] Chris eventually went down with her leaving me to have a lie in [fairly typical for the weekend!] An brought me breakfast in bed of croissants – not at all typical! Bored now with saying the typical bits!

Errr, its amazing how much you can forget. Have got flickr uploading wildly. Honestly Chris P, I put up too many photos even for me, but its much quicker than sorting them out! One day I will, I promise!!!!

playing who's who

Anyway, at sometime after 11 we started taking photos, and not at all sure what went on before that, as that was with Chris whilst I was reading the paper! But when I was surfaced enough to remember we were taking photos and also to interact, we played who’s who. BB insists on playing, so not exactly to the rules, but enjoyed! BB and I then spent some time hammering baby toys and playing with the rainbow blocks to make lots of noise, and then constructing brio and making the trains chug around [always a baby train and a mummy train with BB!]. We also did a bit of looking after and watering the plants in the conservatory.

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I had suggested to SB that she might do some education city as we have paid for it and she hasn’t done any for ages and ages. SHe fancied webland, so whilst chris got the next edition downloaded, I read a story from the barefoot book of mothers and daughters - the persephone and demeter story which SB knows well, having had a mad love affair with greek myths and legends. SB then spent HOURS on webland! Not very interesting to photo! We had also missed april’s edition, so she did all of May followed by all of April. BB also did some poisson rouge. In a moment of pure inspiration I have put a hand sticker on the left click of all our mice! She now knows which bit to click – hooray! Also getting more controlled with the mouse movt. Does have her mother’s patience though. wiggling it wildly when it didn’t go where she wanted.

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Had lunch and SB returned to do some more webland. I was bored with this, and checked the mail – hooray her new sports sunglasses arrived. [should stay on as she twizzles about on swings and cycles]. The low start of ebay price was completely overmade up by postage – 6 times the cost!!! i did factor that in though.

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BB desperate to do some painting, and SB wanted to make a princess hat, so combined the 2 activities. At least half our paints were put into pots though – gradually getting SB to take responsibility for setting out and tidying away crafts. hmm She did sort of set out, I totally tidied! Anyway, she and BB painted the hats, and then carried on with further painting. SB did a particularly beautifully coloured handprint. Eventually they declared themselves painted out, and a quick hose down and they went outside to play.

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SB and BB scootered/triked about for a bit, but SB hurt her poorly knee, so I re-dressed it, and she read a book about food through the ages with intermittent waily patches. I made them some popcorn to eat. BB played Bob the Builder, moving dirt around the garden, and generally enjoyed rampaging about, playing hide and seek etc.

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IMG_5887 quiet moment

SB got fed up reading the book, and wanted to make the egyptian breads we have made in the past from the 120 history projects book. it was sold to BB as a snail cake – the word cake enticing her in from the garden to join in! SO we added mess onto mess in the kitchen, and all enjoyed making the egyptian sweet bread. BB and SB enjoyed competitive flour and butter rubbing, so there was a fair bit of loss!!

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Daddy had been to the shops btw as we were all out of food. He returned as the egyptian breads were put in the oven, and didn’t blanch too much at the appearance of the kitchen. BB being up for over 12 hours was swept off to a bath, and SB has been outside again while I have done this and put flickrs onto the uploader. We do plant to perhaps sellotape the hats up before bed, and SB has promised a violin practice of frere jaques – she will moan when she has to do it after tea, but it has been the only non-negotiable thing to do today! SO since we have done all the autonomy, its time to do the violin! I will obviously be adding photos after the girls gone to bed!

follow up! Well, I had set that up, but chris rebooted ‘puter without checking whether I was doing anything! SB did the violin with enthusiasm – and very pleased that a nearly recognisable tune coming! read britannia, and she read a young usborne readers book [and is in fact still reading it]. Joining up the hats will need to wait till tomorrow, as will eating the egyptian breads!

Links to the last 2 photomemes in the sidebar, and this one will join it now the photo’s are added. Look forward to seeing others’ photo days.

A New Ancient Egyptian sweet bread!

An out and about day

We got up and went to Merry’s house – amazingly within the timeframe I had given her! Girls all ran away to pay. I met fiver the rabbit [of course he knew i was coming with his prescience] and admire the work on the garden. Also dumped/ generously gave some spare toms and peppers and onion sets.

The stock cupboard STILL didn’t have landlocked in it, nor did it have the egyptian thing Michelle brought back from her visit – honestly!! but both are apparently on the way.

While we were there, BB counted to 10!!!! first time she has done that – usually we have 1,2,3,4,6 err 6,6,6. The older girls had a convoluted imaginative thing going. we adults packed boxes and did a minor stock tidy and lots of tea.

We all went to the mudpud group in the afternoon. Its been v quiet for the last year with the loss of Merry and Tammy, and also as there was an insurance problem. SB was really excited to go and loved it. A gardening theme. Some poor misguided organiser left me in charge of the baking – i obviously don’t flickr photos of the chaos afterwards of flour everywhere! Luckilly SB and Merry’s girls were willing helpers in the tidy up.

When we got home, SB did some violin practice – still starting on A. We all made spanish omelette together for tea – yummy. Sb was going to do some maths, but talked me into letting her have some computer time for the new webland – but I notice she is cbeebing. When I’ve finished blogging, I’ll suggest to her we play a game or 2, and perhaps read a story from the barefoot book of mothers and daughters i bought from ebay.

Anyway – we do lots of conversational ed, which rarely if ever gets blogged. But I will blog this one, as SB is concerned about money, charity and people who don’t have enough. My mother sponsors a child through some charity [well i think it is a village thing rather than an individual] and she got a letter when we were there. SB is very keen that we do something too, so will take recommendations if there are any.

pottering, potting and pottying.

Well, couldn’t really think of a title!

Started the day with Chris taking BB for her 2 year check [fine] and then toddler gym at the leisure centre. She loves it! SB did her 2A maths in the conservatory whilst I potted up the final cucurbits, aubergines and peppers.. She was doing hundreds, tens and units. Raced through it until she got to the bit where she had to write them out longhand. SB then helped pot up some final toms to take to people.

BB returned and also sowed some seeds – calendula and sunflowers.We had tea and home made cookies snack. We went on to violin practice afterwards – starting frere jaques on A. Unfortunately, having moved to new size violin, SB has lost totally a sensible bow hold, and the violin is slipping to the front. I am torn between making a big deal about it and putting her off completely, or letting her slip into bad habits to put her off later! Trying to steer middle road!

Unfortunately, BB wanted to ‘do dielin’ at the same time, and because I was tuning SB’s violin at the time rather than paying her attention, she decided to repeated whack SB with her bow. Sigh. SO violin removed from wailing BB, and she was marched to library with Chris to pick up some reserved books. one of these books was about Victorian houses and their maintenance. I was rather gutted to find that the paper in the halls under the dado – now drawn on and torn in one significant place by BB – is prob original. It survives 150 years until BB! The damp from the arch window threatens it as well. We must sort that out this year. aarrgh.

Anyway, SB read some more magic tree house, and I am about to take delivery of some more books. they are really good – recommendation here! they have a 6-8 year old type of story, flexible lexicon and reading difficulty spot on for her.

Lots of playing outside as well – colder today, but both girls twiddling around on their bikes. found chris had put bricks holding environmesh directly on top of my florence fennel, and I have no more seeds. humph!

SB designed a craft activity for BB – she was really excited about it. They put glue lines on card and then glittered them. As you can imagine, glitter EVERYWHERE! But they both enjoyed doing it, and SB was very proud to be showing BB what to do, and enjoying doing it together – a proud mummy moment for me too. This is the great advantage of home ed.

More outside playing and then SB had her ballet lesson. BB and I played snap [sort of!] and read a few books, then took over the curry chris had been making. On SB’s return, we did another science experiment – this time making something appear to roll uphill, as well as a discussion on gravity and what might be really happening. When I got these books from the book people, I didn’t like them, but actually, we are quite liking the forces one. the experiments are simplistic and short and easily done.

After tea, SB played with the leappad whilst i flickred. britannia and bed.

Catch up time again!

We had a lovely day at Legoland on Monday. The drive down was longer than expected and v tedious. Only livened up by passing and being passed by the merrymobile – and the texting! Oncw we got there, the fay was scorching. SB pleased to see various friends. We’d not been before, so gently meandered about. We didn’t manage to stay with people much as busy evening out the excitement between SB and BB, but good start with Em and her girls. SB most enjoyed the water ride that went round in circles and you got drenched by people pressing buttons to release jets of water [I think it was 64] and the dragon and dragon’s apprentice rides. She loved them all though TBH. BB liked the ferris wheel and carousel best. I think SB driving in the slow boat concerned her – especially as they nearly rode over a honking goose. We missed out great swathes of things, so may make a second trip one day – but never at full price! thanks to Nic for organising.
From there we went to Mum and Dads for a chill out time. lovely day in the garden the next day and the girls ambled to the swings whilst Mum and I had retail therapy – of the what would I do with my house in the future kind. Lots of drawing, colouring as well. Realised that SB needs some hand eye co-ordination practice – badminton/swingball or anything!
Back today – very easy drive! Cat had been stuck in lounge – and pooed – and various plants wilty – so resuscitation all round, made some cookies with the girls, they played in the garden and I planted peas. B***** pigeons have eaten off tops of half the previous peas, so environmeshed until we get some chicken wire put up to protect.

Oh, we are well behind with flickr – aargh