Category Archives: General

we were manically packing up and driving down to my parents so that dad could drive us to Heathrow the following morning. odd not to have mum there [on a hol with her sister in france] but lovely to see him and have a hug

next day off to canada!! we did make a mess, as we had packed washkit in handluggage and also medicine kit – so a number of tubes to get out and put in plastic bags and a reminded not to do that on way home!! the queue for checkin was enormous as their computer systems had gone down but now just back up, so not allowing the precheck in which we had done. the staff all v friendly and it was well organised, but a bit of a urgh start. however, all in and an easy wait for the plane, a game of ingenuity and some food bought and we were all set. on the plane it wasn’t quite set out as i had hoped, as the rows out of synch, so we were 2 and 2, so changed return seats so we were 2 and 2 behind . Air Canada is a good way to travel tho, indiv screens and plugs and ports for charging, food ok and enough room. I was with BB and i think she beat all my expectations on how much a girl can need the washrooms in 8 bours… the in flight entertainment was deemed fantastic, and rango and gnomeo and juliet were watched . SHe was v happy with fruit platter chosen for her food, and SB with oriental vegetarian we looked at the ice as we went over greenland and the northernmost bits of canada – looked beautiful, and finally bb slept for the last hour and the landing. it was rough getting in, as it was 2am our time, so girls totally pooped, and we wsere not much better… however, the passage through the airport was straightforward. and it was totally wonderfulto see aunty marylyn she drove us to pick up the motorhome and we went back to her house, stayed up as long as possible and collapsed into bed

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in the end, the last few years have been v stressful and a feeling that life was caving in, so earlier in the year we made a decision to spend the money earmarked for sensible things and go on a holiday of a lifetime to Canada, encouraged by a cousin’s marriage.

It was a fabulous decision, we had a brilliant time, with 2 weeks in an RV travelling through the rockies and a week with family. I am going to do my best to blog and catch up with everything, but will be a busy time and not sure when it will get done, and miles behind on photos!

here are some iphone ones – a bear [we saw lots of them ] and messing about in the water [lots of that ]

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We decided to take a little detour around Story of the World and bring in some English history, so decided to think about the Celts. Something that we all had some ideas for, and some good stories to read and nice books. A smaller group today as Kentwell is going on, and some of us were being re-enactors [and some had returned] The children got to have a lot of time today to play, run around and just love being with their friends. When people like to sterotype home educated children as having poor socialisation skills, all I need to do is look at a group of children that have known each other for many years, playing in greatly mixed age groups, laughing, having fun and bringing a smile to my face.

So today, my crafts were an easy one – colouring in celtic knot patterns, and a complicated one, making a replica round house. I loved the roundhouse one, and I loved the not very replica roundhouses that the childrens’ imaginations conjoured up, and the far more replica than i intended versions too… We started off with airdrying caly formed to make an incomplete circle of approx 10cm diameter, and into this put short sticks [from elder] at 1cm apart. A taller stick went into the blob of air drying clay in the middle, and these were allowed to dry. for the roof, we had a 12cm diameter cardboard that was cut along the radius and sellotaped to make a gently pitched roof. pVA was used to then stick on either straw or hay [or whatever the imagination felt appropriate] when this was dried, twine [or imagination provided alternative] was woven through the sticks to provide the basis of the wall, and for those increasing the realism, a concoction of hay, mud, rabbit droppings and pva was then smeared on – lol!!! They all looked fab [will add pics]

Michelle brought copper wire and some really fab and inventive wirework celtic knot inspired designs were made by all the children. BB was v much impressed with her ring that she made, and SB made a great pendant and also some other things. I loved all the things made and thought it was a very imaginative and thoughtful craft.

Zoe brought ingredients for oat cakes, and also making butter to go on them. I love home made butter, the oat cakes were delicious, especially with some of SB’s jam on them as well. I think all the kids made some of them. Merry had a fimo totem of a boar out of fimo. SB’s looks a bit more like a dimetrodon doing a poo, but there you go

Plan to add photos. We adults managed to do lots of chatting and catching up, having not seen each other for a while. Fab day with friends

and as for putting stuff up on flickr, i might never manage that. part of the problem is that of an eve i am currently often doing bits and pieces for work rather than blogging. AND DH doesnt blog the things he does!

But i did want to say how much i love my girls, they are great to be with and I am proud and happy to be their mummy. i do wish that i was the one at home with them [quite often!] but hey, i earn more and actually like my job so… SB is kind, thoughtful and considerate [mostly] and very loving. she is a great companion, and her thoughts and chatter lift my heart on even the most difficult days, when i am grieving for my sister, or stressed about work. i love being with her, and listening to what she has to tell me and knowing i love her ‘too infinity and beyond’. SHe is a brilliant sister for BB – who perhaps doesn’t realise this as much as she could! She likes people to be happy and is very generous. I do worry sometimes that this means she doesn’t put herself first as much as she could – it is good to be kind thoughtful and generous, but you should still be important and appreciated. a hard one to juggle! She has done loads of music prac this week, particularly recorder. we had a lovely time in the garden together today, first doing some of the gardening, and then in the paddling pool and then demonstrating to me on the trampoline. I also loved snuggling up, as always, to do the bedtime story. My big girl is growing up, and i plan to appreciate all the time that i have with her

BB is one of those girls that grabs your heart. she is an adorable mix of bright, enthusiastic, cheeky, jolly fun, and yet also unsure, averse to change, quick to anger and shout. Every morning she comes into our bed and wants a tickle and mammock and she is so demonstrative and loving. today she had prepared a carnival for us. last night she had taken our ages and drawn pics of our hair and mouth [slightly odd!] and then randomly put hearts and crosses on the back. this morning we got to see how many hearts or crosses we had. i won some fimo, and dh some toilet cleaner . then she musthave spent ages doing raffle tickets. we each had a set of 5 numbers and she had a bowl full of numbers. unfortunately not all our numbers where in there, and SB and i had 2 numbers the same. but a good idea and we really enjoyed it. i won glitter, but sb won toothpaste!! finally she put on a sock puppet show. she switched on the radio and had 2 sock puppets miming. it went on for quite a while! giggle she didn’t really help in the garden… but did have fun in the pool, on the trampoline, and climbing trees. particularly cute hearing her sing whilst strumming open violin strings sat up a tree…

And for a while now both girls have been playing together mostly beautifully, listening to laughter, giggles and silly play talk is quite a joy. and it is just a lovely gift, parenthood. i don’t think i blog that enough, possibly because it feels a bit, well personal i guess. but girls if you do read this one day, you are truly both a blessing to us

yesterday was the village carnival, which the girls have been looking forward to for a long while. we got to see a fab molly group dance, as well as watch the float procession – it seemed shorter this year? then after lucn [home grown] we wandered down to the field, the girls met village friends, and had a number of rides whilst we looked around. loads of girls say hello to SB as we walk past, but she rarely talks about girls she knows. i might just have to remind her about being always enthusiastic, so friends feel appreciated [not something i am good at doing either - friends, you are all v much appreciated ] SB did manage to give herself nasty friction injuries on helter skelter and take off the top layer of skin in 2 places. mm wondering if first aid kit for holiday big enough! anyway, a lovely day.

sb and bb have also done something for arts award this week, been shopping for holiday things and who knows wht else but we have been quite insular i think, and since this is a more difficult time for me, as well as hugely busy at work, i think that has worked well. we did ge to lovelyem and her family on weds, and sb and e always seem to get on well these days, but all 4 of them seemed to have fun together and play well – tho obv not *all* the time, as that would have been unnerving . O was gorgeous, and getting the brio out for him reminded the girls how much they loved it too

Hmm, bed time methinks was going to say the garden blog fairly up to date, and eating lots of home grown produce really good.

oh, and i bought shakespears animated tales, and both girls have been transfixed by them, watching them a number of times. well worth the money. As was the recorder scale book, as recorder scales are just weird

i am not at all sure i know how to catch up! Both girls worked really hard last week and did an excellent week of home ed, as we knew this week would be ‘lighter’ . Grandad went home as nana came out of hospital, and liana [niece] stayed with them and we all met up on the weds. Sb did some more crafting ready for the village craft fair.

Thurs i think was a bit busy, with sports and gym, fri they did baking ready for village show, and saturday was all entirely devoted to getting the things done, including some absolutely fab decorated cakes. we thought both girls had worked really hard on their submissions and were pretty proud of them.

sunday was actually going to the village fair and dropping them off and playing in the park. the girls did well, SB got a first with her toffee apple, second with her circus diorama and third with her 5 decorated cakes. BB came second with her circus poster and her toffee apple, and third with her craft. they both played with village friends – always nice – for a bit after, and we packed up and drove to leicester.

whilst i was doing an immense course, the girls and dh shopped and museumed in leicester and thought it a fab city. we had a lvely meal at a keralan restaurant one night, and a world all you can eat another. we were clearly divided by which place we thought best, with adults going for the first, and girls the second

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we did alot today together. partly to make up for me being way off for the rest of the week! Started with SB telling me it was time to get up and make jam as i had said first thing!! it wasn’t even 9am! so i rebelled and got up with the bells went for the church service. One of the things i love about living here is the church bells. practie thursday, service sunday and wedding s if lucky on a saturday. the girls were still breakfasting and so i went out and watered greenhouse and picked some more french and broad beans.

[flickr id="5824236925" thumbnail="thumbnail" overlay="true" size="small" group="" align="left"] I did then start the jam making with SB [recorded in its own blogpost ] and we had the plums simmering for a bit. SInce we were in the kitchen with the simmering, ithought we should make the most of stereotypes, so got the work books out SB did galore park english junior 2, BB read me 3c story, did a couple of pages of a maths workbook and i read to her about caves

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having got the plums all squishy, they were still too hot to take the stones out, so we did some more home ed whilst waiting. Well, Sb did some music theory, but BB was ds-ing. DH had found her rumblepack,so she was playing pokemon. SB then also did some piano prac as we were going to have lunch shortly

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cheesy beans on toast eaten, and SB and grandad did the straining and destoning of the jam whilst I read story of the world 3 about china having a third of the worlds population at the time, and then the jam was put on to boil. obviously, there were some moments to use so SB did some recorder practice. SHe is sounding really nice currently

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SB then popped the jam into jars, having supervised the setting point bit [it seems the just under is prob just right after all that!] and was v happy with the result. Grandad begged to hear the clarinet, so she practiced the high notes. there is a definite improvement.

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we looked at her ticksheet for the week, which was looking pretty sparse [no music prac at all until today - eek!] and decided to do story of the world. however BB wanted to finish a level on her pokemon, so SB read to me in french.

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we did look at story of the world altogether – the punic wars etc and then went out to catch the rabbits. it was a torrential downpour and we all got entirely soaked. SB and i changed clothes even… BB agreed to do a short recorder practice, sb then helped her with a bit in pokemon whilst shelling our broad beans, and we then all played a board game – 10 days in europe,which SB won.

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And that is how you child led educate one and autonomously educate the other. or is that playing to yours/their strengths and taking account of differences? dunno, but we had a lovely day altogether, encouraging, snuggling, peering over shoulders and just being a family.

dunno a lot of what has happened this week. been a bit otherwise focussed. Otherwise focussed always has a detrimental effect on the family. DH gets grumpier and shouty, BB gets massively shoutier plus waily, SB gets tearful and martyred, and I feel a failure. SO through this stress, I have tried to play it low key! i have loved them, read to them and played with them. However, I have had some v v late working days as well.

What has happened this week then? the usual groups, a sprinkling of home ed, lots of playing – the girls are having an adorable cooperative time currently, and this does make me really happy. Seeing BB and SB sitting with arms entwined [much better than the times when I have to remind them to use their loving voices to each other...] Since we have done a lot of gardening, the girls have spent a lot of time outside. they have made a den area by a climbing tree, helped me with some of the veg bed stuff – mainly I suspect so they can hoover up all the ripe strawberries, raspberries, mangetout and peas!

they had multisport, and then played with the deepedners before gym i think. it all went pearshaped on friday though, the day that DH realised he had lost both sets of carkeys, and possibly they are in the boot of the mondeo . all weekend he has looked for these keys, and the house has been turned inside out to try and find them all the girls also then missed the arts award class whcih they had been really looking forward to since it was mosaic

however, the other thing in progress is SB working on things for the village fete. she is hoping to enter hundreds of things it seems. on weds and sat she was hard at work on her entry for ‘circus in a shoebox’ . i will pop in a pic of the clowns. Unfortunately i failed to realise that fimo goes floppy again on rebaking, so her ladder has taken a few goes, and the person will have to be glued on, as too heavy when it is all wobbly. I think it is such a fab idea she has had . And also today with the jam. when she wants to, that girl can be very focussed

We have also had some surprise visitors. My parents on friday, and staying over to sat. they came for dh to fix dad’s computer, and played with the girls, and lots of card games, chatting, and just feeling loved. Then on sat, M-i-l was rushed into hospital with suspected temporal arteritis. awaiting biopsy as an inpatient, and actually feeling ok. we , therefore, have f-i-l staying with us, as wouldn’t want him to be at home on own. I hope you haven’t forgotten the keys saga, cos we have just one car… Anyway, sat a mixture of fimo with SB, gardening and playing with both, DH rushing around in my car and entertaining my f-i-l. I am going to give today a separate post.

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My elder girl made jam today, with negligible help from me, just some health and safety supervision . We have one of those purple leaved wild cherryplums in the garden [and numerous little ones appear that we have to chase after, as wild and widespread as the elders] . They are nearly nearly ripe – a bit sharpish. However, the village craft fair is soon, and she wanted to enter the jam section with the jam we made last year with these plums plus whatever [and it really was as laid back as that!] .

This year we more or less followed a recipe from this book, which I have had for many years and love

She sterilised jars and equipment, picked as many of the plums we could reach [and i sawed a few small branches off that stopped DD1 climbing up to reach a few more] – 1.3kg .

She put these into our heavy pan and covered with 750mls water and simmered until they were all mushy. DD1 and grandad [staying here as an emergency visit as nana has been admitted over the weekend to hospital - frantic is the name remember!] mushed through a colander and took out all the stones. DD1 wanted some bits in the jam, so then added some of the smushed stuff too.

She measured and had 1.2l of pulp and water. So she added 1400g of sugar [eek!] and also as much grated ginger as we could [about 40g] from the dried knobbly bit lurking by the cooker [ :blush: ] .

Then put on a good rolling boil until we reached jam temp on my sugar thermometer. Since this is the first time she has made jam, I had her trying the different ways of testing done-ness.

At her first call I thought we were prob slightly under, so filled 2 jars [I have a jam funnel, so much easier for her], and then she boiled some more, tested again and was much more convinced. She has a nice jar each of under and over [possibly!] and will try some of each from the not so pretty jars to decide which one to enter.

I am getting way behind with blogging. the world has been far too busy and stressful, and I have been concentrating entirely on work out of those moments when directly interacting with the girls. This completely workcentric period is hopefully coming to an end, but it is clear that in this economic climate, i just can’t afford not to be a type A person at work,  and that this will eat horribly into my home time.

we did have a really fabulous historyetc nearly a fortnight ago, which I promised to blog! It was a full house, with all the families there. there were also some additions. My niece and nephew, G’s nephew and B with daughter R who came with Michelle, and will hopefully come fairly regularly.

My parents tooke the opportunity to visit friends and play golf – I suggested that might be a more relaxing day

At this distance it is harder to remember all the ins and outs of a day, unfortunately, which is why i should have blogged at the time. I thought M and E did really well. They are both schooled, they both want a fair bit of my attention when I am around [understandable] and they are not so used to mixed ages and some freedom in choosing what to do. E settled with me and making the herbal remedies, as did M. However, E was grad persuaded to do more things without me so close, tho always nipping, admiring, hugging etc before moving on. M decided that he was a bit uncomfortable doing more crafts, initially grumping that he had to do schoolwork in half term! and mostly played with G’s nephew. He did say he had a great time tho.

SO, I started with the elderflower herbal remedy and pretty much everyone made this, and at the end of the day, with the 2 R’s I made the rosepetal distilled water

a) elderflower water

The Romans, as Pliny records, made use of it in medicine and in Italy in the medicine of the School of Salernum. Elder still keeps its place in the British Pharmacopoeia, the cooling effects of Elder flowers being well known.

How to make!

Fill a large jar with Elder blossoms, pressing them down, the stalks of course having been removed previously. Pour on them boiling water to half way up the jar, stand the jar in a warm place for some hours. Then allow it to get quite cold and strain through muslin. Put into bottles and cork securely.

Uses

washing to whiten and soften the skin
drink as a tea to help with chest complaints
soak linen and place agains boils and afflictions of the skin
soak linen and place against temples for migraine.

b) rose water

the Romans found it prudent to continually spray the audience with rose water, simultaneously making its members smell better and protecting them from errant germs with the rose’s antibacterial properties.

How to make!

2-3 quarts fresh roses or rose petals
Water
Ice cubes or crushed ice
1. In the center of a large pot (the speckled blue canning pots are ideal) with an inverted lid (a rounded lid), place a fireplace brick. On top of the brick place the bowl. Put the roses in the pot; add enough flowers to reach the top of the brick. Pour in just enough water to cover the roses. The water should be just above the top of the brick.
2. Place the lid upside down on the pot. Turn on the stove and bring the water to a rolling boil, then lower heat to a slow steady simmer. As soon as the water begins to boil, toss two or three trays of ice cubes (or a bag of ice) on top of the lid.
3. You’ve now created a home still! As the water boils the steam rises, hits the top of the cold lid, and condenses. As it condenses it flows to the center of the lid and drops into the bowl. Every 20 minutes, quickly lift the lid and take out a tablespoon or two of the rose water. It’s time to stop when you have between a pint and a quart of water that smells and tastes strongly like roses.

Uses

Antibacterial for skin infections
tea for digestive disorders or nervous tension
to flavour foods or as a perfume.

Other activities ongoing were making roman pestles and mortars for grinding fruit with clay, making a bulla, making roman coins and some roman maths, dressing peg dolls in a toga, making mosaics – several varieties – sticky felt squares; fimo; happy maize pictures. There were also some really delicious roman foods cooked up.

a) globuli

Globuli Curd cheese, 500 g or about 1lb, A cup of semolina, honey, olive oil.
Press curd cheese through sieve or let it hang in cheese cloth until it’s drained well. Mix with the semolina into a loose dough. Let it sit for a few hours. (Have a sip of the vino Caroenum while you wait). With wet hands form the mixture into dumplings. Quickly fry them in olive oil for a few minutes. Drain and roll in honey.
http://www.squidoo.com/ancient-food-rome#module11989737

b)Libum (sweet cheesecake)

Libum was a sacrificial cake sometimes offered to household spirits during Rome’s early history. The recipe below comes from the Roman consul Cato’s agricultural writings, which included simple recipes for farmers. Libum, sometimes served hot, is a cheesecake he included.

Ancient Roman Libum Recipe
Libum to be made as follows: 2 pounds cheese well crushed in a mortar; when it is well crushed, add in 1 pound bread-wheat flour or, if you want it to be lighter, just 1/2 a pound, to be mixed with the cheese. Add one egg and mix all together well. Make a loaf of this, with the leaves under it, and cook slowly in a hot fire under a brick.

Modern Roman Libum Recipe (serves 4)
1 cup plain, all purpose flour
8 ounces ricotta cheese
1 egg, beaten
bay leaves
1/2 cup clear honey

Sift the flour into a bowl. Beat the cheese until it’s soft and stir it into the flour along with the egg. Form a soft dough and divide into 4. Mold each one into a bun and place them on a greased baking tray with a fresh bay leaf underneath. Heat the oven to 425° F. Cover the cakes with your brick^* and bake for 35-40 minutes until golden-brown. Warm the honey and place the warm cakes in it so that they absorb it. Allow to stand 30 minutes before serving.

^*The Romans often covered their food while it was cooking with a domed earthenware cover called a testo. You can use an overturned, shallow clay pot, a metal bowl, or casserole dish as a brick.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/roman-recipes.html

Also sweet and salty dates – for which I can’t find the recipes. They were absolutely all delicious. I think more enjoyed by adults rather than the children. However, I am really enjoying the addition of some of the food of the time as well

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which would be no bad thing, but a lot of that is work. and a lot of that is highly stressful. so blogging both not a high priority and also not much time! so it is going to be v short.

lovely week this week for the kids and family with my mum and dad bringing E and M to stay for half term. went to a lovely party which they all enjoyed v much, and the younger girls did lots of crafts. they all had fun racing about in the afternoon and playing together.

weds was historyetc, which i hope to blog too! e and m had a few shaky moments but on the whole did well, and said they really enjoyed it. e was lots of the time with me, and m found he had a lot in common with another boy, and they did some rampaging around.

lovely evening chatting with parents

thursday th kids mostly played and my parents did some diy. unfortunately mum mistook a finger for a branch so as i got home, she was in a and e. still a lovely time playing with nephew and niece, and then lovely eve with parents again.

now at the weekend. wish i just didn’t have that pit-of-stomach feeling about work issues.