Category Archives: history

On the fifth day of christmas – I made toffee fudge

Today was prob always a bit of a push! We are well behind schedule – does that surprise anyone? However, the aim of the game is to have a great family Christmas, so top of my list of to dos were some yoghurt pot bells for the christmas tree, and decorating some mugs for the grandparents, and some family baking.

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BB was ecstatic about the bell making – which was good as the craft was pitched for her. Sb also enjoyed it, so they painted and glittered together, with a bit of sticking. I threaded the bells in [well, its more fun if they actually jingle!] when they had dried. Much singing of jingle bells [still usually to the bring me back theme by BB] and other Christmas carols.

SB moved on to decorating the mugs using ceramic pens in her own inimitable freestyle way. One was made up of a drawing of computer wires, one an exploding comet, the other a trajectory of a golf ball… BB carried on with the painting and sticking.

They both did some christmas sticker book before lunch, and general play – with all the noisy things BB could find [a lot!] including that ELC footpath thing. Chris went out, so we took the opportunity to wrap his present from the girls. Carefully chosen by SB, its the first pressie she has wanted to buy either of us!
After lunch we made choc/banana porridge muffins. yummy. SB and BB worked together very cooperatively [well mostly with a Christmas eye of faith!] and with a wing and a prayer were cooked and worked out. So one for them to eat, and the rest in the freezer for Christmas morning. I am making some marmalade ones for the grown ups. [mum is bringing gammon for the traditionalists!]. I quickly made the brandy butter with them too. SB doesn’t like it – good!

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SO there we were, all achieved with lots of fun by 3! So we tidied and sorted SB’s bedroom – well overdue. Now my sister and family can sleep in their quite safely. SOme general playing, but BB in particular was getting fractious as we didn’t allow her a nap today as she has been being a nightmare. So we put on another episode of the great britain series with allen titchmarsh – the ice age [SB choice] and quickly gave BB a tea. bath and she perked up, so a latish bedtime after all, and will hopefully stay asleep.

I am waiting to see what my fudge has done, but early impressions are of toffee. i don’t get fudge right ever! in fact last time i gave up [edited aside, SB down as her egyptian and world war 2 now finished, so I’ve suggeted she goes for a longer cd!] and made fudge with soft cheese, but didn’t like it – I’m more of a tablet person. this time have used this recipe for the first [and probably last] time. Anyone with any surefire recipes! [i have a jam thermometer, so know the temps]

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Chris now making soup. watched the battlestar galactica on mon – nice cliffhanger – and getting into bones as I forget the books! Must do some wrapping up, but feel can’t start anything till I ‘know the worst’ with the fudge! We have taken loads of photos btw, just haven’t yet flickred!

On the 3rd day of christmas

we went to CHEF Christmas party. SO lots of fun and making things, singing carols, [playing, eating – all in no particular order!

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Got home late and adjusted SB’s character skirt for her to twirl about in, then had roaring fire and watched some History of Britan [or whatever its called] with Alan Titchmarsh – SB really enjoyed it.

Read some of the cutaway transport book to SB, and then mostly chilled and wrapped a few presents, listened to chtismas songs etc.

On the first day of christmas

well, it is for me OK, as off until thurs after xmas! So, got home from work and huggled the girls with great relief. We got stuck straight in with reading, snuggling and playing together. Lots of drawing – BB loves her etch a sketch, the wacky wigglers are still a huge hit. SB has begun to be more imaginative herself, working out how things might join and what might not work. Both girls are rather sweet at making up imaginative stories with the christmas tree decs in the playroom. Even BB has got the hang of making them kiss and fall asleep. 2 trees may be a frip, but it seem to be money well spent. Straight into Xmas crafts and we made coconut ice. SB and BB – so the mixutres may not be exact! SB is quite able to do it herself, but we still do it together as fun. BB made a huge mess but enjoyed it!

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After lunch, we did some making stained glass windows with black paper and tissue paper – glue city! i cut out a snowman shape for BB who stuck bits on it, and then demanded I did it! SB liked the snowman idea, so she did one too.

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We read the hannukah section of while the bear sleeps and then watched Disney’s Aladdin, strictly come dancing and Planet Earth ['cos I was steamless at this point!]

i fell asleep, but BB woke me up, so now I have insomnia!!

A lovely first day of the hols though.

muddling along

Well, I am anyway. Perhaps in common with a number of others on this blogring Chrsitmas has snuck up on me. I have a craft cupboard full of good intentions. We do have trees up, and SB has done lots of Xmas cards – even if not posted [first 2 handed out today though] and I am mostly done on pressies. no cooking/baking preparation. House a mess.

I have also been letting the side down with spending so much time at work. 2-3 days a week I don’t make it home in time to see SB, which makes me feel very dislocated from family life.

I have been appraised – and passed. Wait to see how job planning going for next year [AKA how many hours they think they can wrangle out of me for nothing]. I just missed being excellent enough for an excellence award – but a miss is as good as a mile [or something?], so feeling grumpy.

SO onto better things. BB is weaned, and failry happily. A couple of feeds snuck at Barbara’s but none other now for a month. Kind of sad and kind of happy, but def right! She is a total cutie, and talks beautiful toddler talk, and has wierd dancing shuffle runs and mooch walks that she does to show her mood – saying OTay as she goes off to do something. Still very edible.

SB has been reading more, and enjoying a number of books from the library – including a good transport Xray book, and ocean book and archaeoloogy book. should have done another story in while the bear sleeps tonight, but she preferred the xray transport as a bedtime story! She’s enjoyed watching robin Hood as well as various of the David Attenborough natural history DVD’s. I need to spend more time with her, as I also miss our reading and craft sessions. She had her dancing thing last before week – which I did manage to get back for [terrible temporary camera!]
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today we went to Merry’s. I am glad she lives relatively close, and we really should see each other more – maybe when I am made redundant or summat… instant disappearance of SB with the older girls. Fran tried to encourage them to put on a show, but SB and Amelie weren’t being very thespian! They then all disappeared off pretty much for the whole day. SB did look gorgeous in Fran’s skating outfit though. BB and Josie mostly played together – though BB did terrorize her a bit – she is obviously getting a nasty habit of face scratching – not often, last infact with R at Barbara’s. mostly over a Dora laptop though!

Merry and I gossiped a lot, Looked forward to Melrose and did a bit of fimo – Merry made a very beautiful statuette and I did some fiddly angels that fell apart in backing and made me stroppy! The bordeaux red in the classic range is a perfect angel colour. Merry intervention and they are now hanging on our Xmas tree! [they look rather brill actually on the tree, the white one looks best, we used superglue with no ill effects]

oh, Chris went out and did his usual timewarp thing, but did return with camera. Didn’t get the paper i asked him too though! oh we got SB’s mug back, and it looks lovely [from that painting place] and SB’s choice of colours works really well.

Anyway, thanks Merry for a lovely day. Everyone should have a fimo angel or 2 on their tree, and listening to carols is good for lifting the mood! [as well as spending the day with friends]. I am now going to watch telly and make a few angels. I am sure I have bought this colour, so will search it out!

A breather

for me anyway. I have been working hard. I have my yearly appraisal tomorrow, so have been busy finding excellence in everything I do – always a hideous prospect – and filling in huge pointless forms – even worse. I guess the forms are pointful to SOMEone to say I have been duly processed for another year. I still have about 4 hours of finishing some online learning module, and somemore form to do.

Our local hospital is still up for grabs. Due to politics, they aren’t likely to shut it, but are doing the death by a thousand cuts option – i guess oping we all leave without being paid redundancy money. Think again! I have earmarked that money.

Anyway, in case chris doesn’t blog, they went to CHEF sports and played on Monday. We have done loads more Cnristmas cards monday eve and lots of education city, read the usboune starting point science under the earth.

Not entirely sure what they did on Tues as I got home at nearly 11.

SO today I had a lie in. When I got up, SB was helping Chris with the washing, and BB and I did painting – she is very keen on painting. I will pop here before I forget that one of her newer tunes is the Hallelujah chorus from the Messiah. very funny. She loves painting and her talking is getting more and more obvious – except when she has a strop. SHe has rather enjoyed the whole idea of advent calendars – she has a chocolate one and a sticker one. She’s not so keen on the waiting for it idea though.

SB also joined us painting, then we did an usbourne puzzle book – school before she moved onto general playing and building things with BB. BB and I read all the red nose readers as she is very fond of them. Ahe has obviously remembered her birthday as sang the first line of happy birthday fairly interminably when she saw the birthday cake.
SB did some more education city – definitely something that she is much more keen on this year, whilst BB and I looked at pictures and messed around. Some lunch was had, and I was rung 3 times by work – sigh.

After lunch we did one of those science test-tubes you can uy in tescos. we did the gravity one which was fun. SB had a good memory for gravity and its effects, and we talked about defying gravity and ways to do it. thrust/lift/ energy etc. the popper was fun, though BB lost it. Our staircase was perfect for throwing the parachutist down the gap and seeing it work. Also good for the experiment was seeing what might happen if BB packed your parachute. The extra boingy ball kept all 4 of us amused. A quick revision of the key ideas and how flight worked and then we went to the next activity prepared fby chris

Which was mincemeat making. Lots of raisins scattered across the kitchen. BB mostly played games scooping the nutmeg around in a bowl. Smelled gorgeous. has to settle overnight [a delia recipe] and then jarred ready for when we make mince pies.

A calm down reading roman gods in story of the world leading into a discussion of the planets again, and ranking them to likely gravity. The a day late we started the barefoot books while the bear sleeps. Chris also picked up something called christmas soup for the soul, with a small story for each day of advent, and we started to catch up.

The girls had a wild bath with the jacuzzi bit on and then have done a dancing show, eaten curry for tea [tea was running late] and now BB has done some more sticking Xmas cards. SB is still eating – she is very slow at eating! Bed any second now. Am contemplating reading The Hobbit as a bedtime story now she has finished Charlie and the chocolate factory. [BB shrieking that she 'Hadding a bath' - as in she has already had it] . yep bedtime. just finished in time!

raterh cutely BB has been singing a Josie song – as in for josie i think! SB said we were supposed to be sharing pomegranates, so that is what all 3 of us are doing before bed. really juicy pomegranate too

reduced to tears

by BB. A lot of the day she has cried as if we were torturing her. completely incoherent with rage that we aren’t getting it right. she has just cried herself into oblivion on the sofa.

SO with that as the background, we have survived remarkably well. We didn’t get to the CHEF meeting today – which was a real shame as sounded really fab as in the archaeology museum, and I had been looking forward to it.

So, we made a start on th XMas cards. actually, we first did painting – which was the first word of BB’s we understood. so having allowed paint to go everwhere in the name of peace we moved onto xmas cards, and SB was very understanding of the concpt of BB got exactly what we could understand her to want. They made 20 between them. oh enjoy muddlepuddlers! Not too much in the way of glitter, but definately a 2 and 6 year olds take on how to stick/print as much as poss on a card. Of course more mess everwhere, but 60 mins screech free, so worth it!

BB then screeched continuously and went of for a walk in the buggy. SB read me a book and then did education city. Actually, she did loads, cos even though BB came back asleep, she soon woke up. So I went off into the garden and carried her around all the plants. Deciding the neighbours may call SS if she screeched any more outside [though a lower volume than indoors] we came back in. Eventually she settled with bucking bronco and then SB’s leappad [which she really loves, and Merry has given us a first leappad she can get for Xmas] SB made up a complex game about greek gods, including various of the legends – she was heard to peck livers out etc.

More utter screeching later, and we managed to develop some peace watching the makings of walking with beasts not for as long as we would like, so some desperate offerings of books/activities etc, and a book became suitable. BB did some colouring. Chris is cannabalising an old computer to try and set it up for BB, who otherwise tries to perch on SB’s lap and ‘do the puter’. Fine when SB is welcoming… this also distracted BB from screeching for a short while, so I hid.

cowardice finished with, and I returned to help make pizza, and then we all watched? robin hood together while eating it – a short break though for me to take BB up to a bath whcih she was desperate for, sat in for 3 secs and came out.

She has then screeched so much, and nothing has been satisfactory, which was the reducing to tears bit, as we have had not a great deal of sleep. It really is the torturing wail business. It IS a shame she finally gave in on the sofa though rather than in bed, as we will have to move her…

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Counting Blessings

I have had a lovely phone call with nanny, and she is cheerier, the physio was pleased with her yesterday, and my mum is going tomorrow to stay for a week, my aunt went last night, so fingers crossed really.

I met with the chief exec of where I work yesterday and managed to say fairly calmly whatwas making me unhappy. obviously she didn’t promise to help, but acknowledged it was a difficult time, and seemed very capable and direct. [I didn't expect help btw, and so am very pleased that I feel that have at least been able to voice some of my concerns]

Had a lovely home-ed day today with SB, and BB is still very gorgeous to be with [except after 9pm, when I'd prefer her to be in bed]

I have only fed BB once in last 3 days! We are substituting with ‘tuddles’ and ‘daireelee’ . I am ready to wean, and for her it is a turf marking rather than anything else. I want to demonstrate how we can easily bond with cuddles. And SB seems to be more put out by feeding now, as BB often chooses a time when SB has more attention.

So, to today, had a very lovely long phone call with a friend I hadn;t heard from in ages. Cmae downstairs to play with SB and BB, we started off with each of them doing ‘magic painting’ and then I facepainted SB [angelina ballerina as a flower fairy!] and they painted a hand of mine each. SB had a go at scoobies, and BB did some more painting.
We then did some romping around general play, and they both fancied eggs, so had first lunch of boiled egg and toast. SB then did some singapore 1B maths which is all about getting comfortable with grouping things in preparation to divide and multiply. However, later on in the day, she demonstrated counting to 40 in 5′s [perfectly] 80 in 10′s [again perfectly] and 20 in 2′s – she chose to do it and the end point. I asked how far she thought she could get in 3′s, and she said 18! [and she did]. So I think she might be quite comfortable with the idea. She also said she was getting older now, as she was halfway to 10. BB used the haricot bean counters to create mayhem and destruction with her little pots! She will be an ace seed sower come the Spring.
Second lunch of a sausage sarnie for each of the girls, and the BB had a nap. SB read an ORT book to me – very well, though obviously not perfectly. She is quite confident about it, and when I offered to read the next page if she was getting tired [usually something she jumps at] – she declined.

I offered to pay a game, but she wanted me to read degas and the little dancer about his statue of Marie. She thought it sad Marie didn’t get to be a ballet dancer, but was very keen on the book, and discussing Degas pictures and then trying out basic conversation in french. [ ooh, edited to add the other odd tangent we went down was what maries life might have been – marriage children, perhaps 8. SB thought? 20 was too many, and that she would give some away. We discussed how that wasn’t done very much, and she wanted to know how the birth mothers chose the new parents, so we had an odd and long conversation about adopting and fostering.i guess in the future I have thought we might foster, so… then we discussed Little nanny being in a family of 8. SB doesn’t want to be in a family of 8, she thinks 4 is enough [rofl at who she might be getting ideas from]

Still wanting to be read to, i did the Alexander the great bit from story of the world - i like Alexander the great story, and so did SB. She eventually coloured in the bucephalus head once Chris could print it out [shout at printer] and did the paraphrasing/narrative activities well.

Finally she decided to play battleships, and we were doing well when BB walked through the door having got herself up. BB and battleships are presently not compatible… SO I played with BB with threading bobbins, and SB coloured in some pictures. Both girls did a bit of hama beading – SB nearly finished the giraffe now, and amazingly in normal colours rather than pink! I played some piano to them, BB joined in [always interesting!] and that persuaded SB to join in and then do some piano practice.

We did a lot of general play and me singing to the girls dancing type thing, and then teatime, bathtime and bed. I am running out of ideas for maggie and the ferocious beast stories, and Robin Hood ones – aargh!
I have ordered various craft bits for xmas card making from yellow moon and a few books from the book people schools catalogue, as I have an early inheritance from a great Aunt. its 500, and apart from todays ordering! I am trying to decide whether to be sensible and use it towards insulating the loft [which we need to do] or a huge frip on something like a big trampoline for SB, or a selfish having my laptop fixed for me? [or boring, and towards the credit card debt] We are still in definite frugal mode, but this is unexpected extra bonus money as it were. decisions decisions? Talking about inheritance, Aunty Peggy had always said she was leaving something to ‘you girls’ [ie little Nanny's grandchildren] when it came to it, we didn’t get anything, and I was not bothered. I had not expected it, her death was sudden and unwanted, and well, its her money. However, she left it to cousin anne who predeceased her instead, and it ended going all to cousin anne’s beneficiary, my second cousin who I don’t think met Aunty Peggy? Didn’t visit, wasn’t at funeral etc [though his parents were]. I can’t imagine that was where she thought it would be going. Must make sure I do a good watertight will!!! Hmm, that sounds like I am bothered, so maybe I am a bit.

Anyway, our youngest is still awake, and Chris is trying to bore her with telly. Oh, and SB says the hair wirler is the only thing she really wants for Xmas, and I can choose the rest. SO hair twirler it is! otherwise, we have Xmas and birthday pretty much sorted thanks to ebay.

oh, and need to get more face paints – particularly white!

weekend home-ed

we’ve had a good weekend here, with lots of home ed activity – maths, reading, piano, story of the world, hama and fimo.

SB made a particularly good fimo baby and fimo teddy holding their arms out to each other. If I had a camera…

the new webland and BBC Jam both got quite a good runaround. we must move up to the 5-7, and consider subscribing to education city now.

BB had her first haircut – I trimmed her fringe, and it looks much better now she can see again.

Both girls had great fun running madly between the different windows to try and get the best view of everybodies fireworks. the rich houses the otherside of the church put on a particularly good display last night.

BB was taught how to say open sesame, and has ejoyed that. Her language is lovely at the moment. I do love this age.

We had a very long philosophical discussion starting from the ‘lord of the dance’ hymn. She still thinks its a settee though. Actually it carried on from earlier discussions about greek gods from story of the world. Her religion still appears to be fairies. I don’t think she has quite got the concept, particularly as she coudn’t understand why the Christian God doesn’t have a name. [? Dwayne?] as the greek ones did. Pointing out there was lots of them, so they needed their own didn’t cut the mustard.

BB and SB have played beautifully together most of the weekend without too much fuss.

umm, there were a few things I wanted to blog, and have lost them. Maybe when I remember?

Inuit resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit

http://www.heritage.nf.ca/aboriginal/inuit.html

modern throat singing

cool throat singing clips audio

loads of throat singing!

video of throat singing

http://www.civilization.ca/educat/oracle/modules/dmorrison/page01_e.html

http://www.avataq.qc.ca/home_en.cfm

http://www.nativevillage.org/Libraries/Music%20and%20Dance_library.htm

http://www.beloit.edu/~museum/logan/catalog/namerica/arctic/alaska/index.htm

http://www.polarnet.ca/~netsilik/sandra/CTS/My_Site/Local_artifacts.html

long utube video shaman life [keeps crashing though!]