Sarah's Blog

"I Promise ...."

The lovely news of this week is that my littlest girlie is now a fully fledged Brownie :) We went to the Guide Hall last night and watched her take her Promise - it was very sweet! Here she is, looking like she's going "oooo!" but in fact is saying her promise.

 

As soon as April came home from Brownies, Rosie had to be dropped off at the same hall to do Guides (Monday evenings are a bit packed round here!). She came home saying they had started doing some project about homeless people - not sure exactly what yet, sure we'll find out in due course! She was also very pleased because they got given new neckers ... she likes it and I can see why, the turquoise/purple colours are lovely :) Forgot to get a piccy of her actually wearing her uniform so here is her cupboard door wearing it instead!

 

Back to April! She, like most little kids, likes to get into small hidey-places - here is her latest place - under the dining table reading!

shhhh!

 

"hello!"

 

This morning I made bread. We all LOVE homemade bread in this house and I get moaned at for not doing it enough so today I did. Nom, nom, nom.

 

FINALLY (and this is VERY exciting), after all the hoo-haa deciding whether to put my curriculum here or on Currclick or on Lulu, I've decided .... to give it it's own website!! Yep, Montessori Themes has been born and I'm very proud of my babba! I won't bother to describe it here - just go have a look, it's lovely! :)

Montessori Themes

A little work, a little play, a little rest ... and it's all good

Hello lovely people!

First off, eagle-eyed readers may have spotted the Twitter "follow" button in my sidebar - I started a Twitter account mostly for work stuff because it's easier to update new products there. I can also put any other education related stuff I think is fun too :) I DO occasionally put non-education silliness on there as well. Anyway, if you wanna follow then follow .....

So, work. It's going good! I made the big decision to move my purchase products from this website to Currclick. Currclick is HUGE and I can reach a far bigger potential customer base there than I can through my website. The free stuff (English and Maths) continues to reside here. So what's in the shop? At the moment I've got my first theme book (April/May) and my first set of Montessori Basics - this is a little something I put together for those who want the materials but not the theme element. They will come in sets for 3-6 year olds and 6-9+ year olds - for example Botany Set 1 (in the shop now!) is for 3-6 year olds. Botany Set 2 will be for the other age group. I'm currently working on Zoology Set 1 and hope to have it in the shop in a couple of days.

I seem to have settled into a nice little routine at the moment. Get up early, do some yoga, have breakfast with the kids, work for an hour or so on the shop/products, do some stuff with the kids, lunch, do some housework, play about, answer emails and so on ..... It seems to work well, it's a good routine :)

What else has been going on?

Well, the other day, we took delivery of a new bed/shelf combo for Rosie ... that had to be assembled. Tim went out in the morning and I was left clearing out all her old stuff and dismantling things. Errk! What a horrible spidery nightmare! Anyway, whilst doing this, we happened upon an old bubble wand under her bed so, feeling rather tired of the work, we went outside to play in the sunshine ... spot the bubble :)

I also made little lemon cakes. Basically just regular cupcakes with lemon juice and zest added to the mixture. They are then decorated with icing made with lemon juice and bits of zest on the top. Rather hastily thrown together but quite yummy :)

Finally, yesterday afternoon, I had a check up with Mr Tiernan the surgeon who got rid of my facial mole a couple of months back. He seemed very happy with the way it had healed up (not NEARLY so happy as me - I can't tell you how pleased I am with my face now!) Unless the thing grows back (small possibility) I don't have to see him again. I'm very glad I had it done, he did a FAB job and I can heartily recommend him if you need anything like that done. I saw him at Newhall Hospital in Salisbury - it is private but, honestly well worth the money if you really feel bad about something like I had.

That's about it for now :)

Sunny Sunday

Yesterday the weather was so lovely! Tim took Rosie for her horse riding (and took April along with him just for a drive!) which gave me a while of peace and quiet. I took a stroll round the garden with Floyd trotting along beside me (he really is so sweet sometimes!) and noticed a lot of springtime things popping up.

There were crocuses all over the lawn and leafbuds appearing on the trees and the birds were going crazy! It was so warm - especially in the direct sunshine and I sat on the bench for a bit and soaked it all in - heaven!

Later on I went with Tim to pick Rosie up and we had a bit of a walk in the forest while we waited for her. I took my camera and got a picture of her on Lizzie (the pony they pretty much always give her) - Lizzie is still wearing her winter coat, really shaggy!

 

Today, by contrast, was a bit gloomy weather-wise but we still had a nice sort of day :) I got up and did something I haven't done for AGES which was make bread - bread rolls to be specific:

 

After lunch we went up the local shops and to the library - we haven't been to the library since before Christmas! Then home so that Tim could start his Monday evening run backwards and forwards to the local Guide hall - April has Brownies first and then, half an hour after she finishes, Rosie has Guides!

Some lemony things

We had pancakes ... yum yum .... we also had FAR too many lemons as the shop didn't sell unwaxed ones individually, so we brought a bagful.

Today, we still had the spare lemons left - I made lemon cake for tea which took care of most of them:

 

... but what to do with the last one? Hmmm...... aaah! lunch! Tim was at work and when Tim's at work I experiment in the kitchen. Don't ask me why this is, perhaps I'm terrified of making myself look an idiot if it goes wrong. Anyway, after a little rummaging in the cupboards and unearthing not only the lemon, but also some (ok, slightly wilted) coriander and garlic and after flicking through some cookbooks, I did my own version of a Nigel Slater recipe. It. Was. Heaven.

Pasta (any type, I used spaghetti) cooked in the usual way. In a serving bowl chuck some roughly chopped coriander, a squeeze of lemon juice and some lemon zest and drizzle over some olive oil. Mix up. Get some fresh white breadcrumbs, VERY gently fry them up in a pan with some garlic and olive oil until golden brown. Drain pasta, put in serving bowl, mix the whole lot together and sprinkle on crunchy bread/garlic mixture to finish.

Perfect light lunch :)

 

Now, work .... April's work. Before you ask, YES Rosie does do work it's just very difficult to get any pictures! Her maths is entirely computer based. she's been reviewing grammar (with Simply Grammar) but that's entirely oral and her creative writing is on her computer in her room and we're not allowed to see it until it's finished. She IS working on a physics lapbook but it's MAMMOTH and taking ages but I will post pics when it's done. She (and April for that matter) have been doing a history timeline based on Kings & Things (A Light Hearted Romp Through British History) by H E Marshall. I read aloud to them, they make the timeline. Simples. Thing is, I want them to complete more of it before I post pictures.

So, April's stuff:

Learning the countries of the UK

Making a timeline of her life so far (to see how much she's changed)

Multiplying by 10 (easy, as Tim would say, "bung a nought on!")

Constructive triangles

practicing cursive writing (oh, the concentration!)

practicing tables with the multiplication bead board

Finally, I shall leave you with this picture .... I did this for Tim this evening 'coz it's not just us ladies that like candlelit baths :) Romantic eh? :)

Cheerio! :)

Gettin' loved up and stuff

You might have noticed it was Valentines day recently and super it was too :) Some people don't celebrate it because they are, apparently, so fab to each other the rest of the year they feel they don't have to. Well, frankly, we are the most lovey family I know (lol!) but that doesn't stop us being EVEN MORE SO on Valentines day :) Anyway, the kids would never forgive me if I allowed this day (or any other seasonal event) to go past without recognising it.

So, Rosie made a postbox before the 14th and put it in the hall and we all made little cards for each other and put them in. Tim, who knows I love Hello Kitty, brought me a little Hello Kitty coaster to put my cup on and put it in with my card which was very sweet :) I cut the kids sandwiches into hearts at lunchtime and served them up strawberries with vanilla sugar for afters. Then, of course, Tim and I had a rather lovely (and loving!!) candlelit dinner, complete with bubbly, after getting the kids into bed.

All very gorgeous :)

Other than that, it's all been pretty quiet and nice and peaceful round here (which is how I like it!) Much homeschooling going on - April continuing to thrive on Montessori (just ordered a complete set of coloured beads for all the activities that we'll need them for!) and the New Child Montessori curriculum guides are continuing to serve us well - actually, that's an understatement - we LOVE them! Rosie is on a mixture of Montessori, GCSE maths and "real life" learning - very Montessori Erdkinder if I'm honest. She still adores her horse riding (despite taking a bit of a tumble recently!) She's been riding Lizzie an ex-point to point horse who is VERY speedy - she constantly wants to be at the front of the group but Rosie handles her very well :) Both girls are continuing to love Guides and April's doing very well now she's moved up to Brownies.

So that's about that - don't forget those who are interested, Winterwatch (one off special) is on Wednesday 22nd!

Photo heavy!

Helloooo!

I thought I'd be reappear before everyone thought I'd gone for good!

Ok, quicky update on the website. I have added another craft to the crafts page and I've got several recipes that I'm in the process of writing up to add to the food page. There WAS another page that I was umming and aaahing about doing but I've decided to put that on hold for the time being. This is largely because I don't ever seem to have the time to sit down and do it! It's one of those projects that I'm hoping to work on over the next couple of months or so.

So what else? Here come the pictures!

There has been .....

Work on projects - this is something April did for her animals in winter project. She made a folded book ....

 

 

 

 

Ploughing through GCSE maths (with the help of the very splended CGP video lessons)

Baking of glittery cupcakes (yum yum) by my good self

Crocheting of dusters (again, by me)

I also made April a fun bunch of stuff about alliteration :)

The first crocus of (early!) spring ... more please!

... and, finally, April doing some really funny daddy-related things. Firstly, paper dolly daddy! Can't say I entirely like the thought of him wearing an orange and green stripey skirt but hey-ho *laughs*

.. and this is really funny - daddy at work!! Stick man daddy shown doing various things (that actually did happen!)

Top left: Daddy driving the van (although it looks, for all the world, like he's crashing into a tree!)

Top right: Daddy twisting his ankle jumping clumsily out of van (and that facial expression is probably fairly accurate...)

Bottom right: Daddy in the New Forest being greeted by a 3 legged cat giving him a dead mole. Yes, that really did happen!

Bottom left: Daddy delivering stuff to a VERY grumpy, nit-picking chef. Mentioning no names obviously. Readers of this blog probably wouldn't know who it was anyway but the mushrooms being delivered by stick daddy are significant ..... *laughs out loud*

Love the way she always gives Tim incredibly curly long hair! His hair isn't this long OR this curly - he looks like Charles II!!

That's all folks!

Cake heaven

Unashamedly "housewifey" post today - all food and craft!

I've dug out my Christmas cake stand (what with it being soooo close to Christmas day!) and have been making yummy teatime treats to go on it. Here are some recent choccy chip muffins - very gorgeous - I PROMISE I am going to get my recipe page up in the new year and start adding these things!

 

The other thing I did a couple of days ago is marzipan my Christmas cake - heavens! It smelt boozy when I unwrapped it! We'll be getting squiffy on it *laughs*.

I always have this "issue" when it comes to marzipan-ing and icing my cake because I get really irritated with trying to get the bottom nice and even. Before, I've always tried to cut the bottom while the cake is flat on the worktop and it's never worked very well and I've ended up doing a patching job with bits of marzipan/icing and got cross.

This year I had a lightbulb moment (quite why I never thought of it before, I don't know). I looked at the cake and looked at a dinner plate ... hmmm ... the central, slightly dipped part of the plate was SLIGHTLY larger than the circumference of my cake. Hmmm. Aha! Put the cake on the plate, cover with rolled out marzipan (clearly - not going to just stick a slab of marzipan on top!), grab sharp knife and cut round the bottom level with the edge of the dipped bit of plate. On removing the spare marzipan, smooth down the bottom and it's PERFECT! No patching!

Sometimes I surprise myself ....

Mmmm! SMELL the alcohol!

 

 

Bingo!

 

Away from food, I've been crocheting (generally only when the heating has been on because otherwise my hands are too frozen!) I'm waiting for same yarn to arrive in the post (absolutely GORGEOUS deep plum colour) so that I can start a nice warm shrug to go with my dresses but in the meantime I'm doing squares. I decided, on impulse, to use up all of my scrappy bits of pastel coloured yarn and make granny squares. Eventually, I'll piece them altogether and make a throw or something - given the colours, it will be nice for the spring .... so I've got a project to keep me busy over the winter :)

That's about it for today folks! :)

Winter ..... hibernation?

Winter's here. Arrived (rather suddenly I have to say) this morning. Woke up .... FREEZING ... wanted to go back to bed but was hungry so didn't.

I've updated the bloggy - nice eh?

You know, this year, probably more than any other I can think of in recent years, I've got the "hibernation" bug full-on. Now, by hibernation I don't mean literally sleeping until spring (although i sometimes think that would be a useful thing to be able to do!), I mean just cutting back a bit and spending this lovely time of the year doing pottering at home (crafts, cooking, wrapping gifts ..) and spend less time on the computer.

Thing is, we've had a couple of quite difficult years one way or another - illness, website issues and other various bits of stress that have just made living the sort of life we like to lead, quite hard. Ok, it hasn't been TERRIBLE but it has been .... tiring. None of us has spent as much time doing the stuff we like was we would have wanted and, I think, we're coming to the end of this year DETERMINED to change that next year.

So, if I had at least one resolution, it would be to spend less time on the computer and more time getting back into my crafting, cooking and other hobbies. I want to learn an instrument, expand my crochet skills, get back into my wildlife photography and other things like that. The computer is my mental drain - it actually TIRES me and makes me feel weak. It has to be cut back.

So, for now, I'm getting ready for Christmas big time :) Done lots more shopping now and coming on fabulously (just got to get the stuff wrapped now!) I've virtually brought out Myriad and Nicnacnoo and Amazon has never had it so good from us *laughs*. I've "fed" my Christmas cake (ooo! yuuum!) and repacked it ready for marzipan-ing in a week. We've got booze (bubbly, Baileys etc) and crackers and cards and chocolate. We are doing well!

April's birthday is tomorrow! She will be 7 (oh where is my baby going!) - so, I've got birthday cake to make and pressies to wrap. Tim's birthday is next Friday (he'll be 39 - 40 cometh bwa-ha-ha!) and then we're going on the Santa Train (can you tell I'm nearly as excited as the kids with this one?!)

It's cold, frost, glittery and the excitement of the season is upon us .... we're happy :)

*stops to catch breath*

.... and so, I finished my Christmas cake that I started on Guy Fawkes night. Got up the next day, made it, baked it for many hours (oooo! the smell!) and, taa-daaa!, here it is (it's not actually this blurry ....)

 

Things have been rather manic. I'm trying desperately to get all our house re-organisation finished before the beginning of December because things then go into Birthday/Christmas overdrive. Both April and Tim have birthdays at the beginning of December, then we have the Santa train trip in Swanage, then the Christmas decs go up then ... the big day :) Inbetween all this I have to shop and wrap and cook.

So, I'm trying to get the house done by the end of November and I think I'm pushing it. It has, thus far, involved moving furniture around the dining/living room, moving furniture out of those rooms into other rooms and moving furniture out those rooms into the furniture graveyard (a.k.a the garage). It has also involved the purchase of a couple of new items - I am, for example, RIDICULOUSLY pleased with a new homeschool cupboard I got which LOCKS! It means I can put all the dangerous chemistry stuff away from little (April) hands.

Tim is VERY happy because he now has his digital piano and very lovely it is too. It's a Yamaha Arius and does sound beautiful (although I'm no expert!) - he's been practicing every day since he got it and digging out all his old (for that read, ANCIENT and falling apart) sheet music and music books. I have been serenaded with Beethoven and Chopin one minute and entertained with ....er ... The Entertainer the next. Here is a little tiny clip of Tim playing the other day - 3 things ... firstly, the sound is awful, I don't know what it is with my camera but it makes a rumbling sound when it records video which tends to drown out everything else. Secondly, I don't know what the piece is - will edit this when I find out from Tim! Finally, he said I should have waited until he had practiced more - there are a couple of little slip ups in this but he is a little rusty not having had a piano of his own at home for all these years.

Anyway, hope you enjoy :)

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

Guy Fawkes and Christmas Cake

Yesterday evening we had our Guy Fawkes celebration - lots of fun :) This year we decided not to do a bonfire as we had in previous years because in previous years it always rained and the bonfire was too damp to light. This year (naturally) it didn't rain .... of course *rolls eyes*. However, even without the bonfire it was really enjoyable :)

We'd brought a variety of fireworks but deliberately selected ones with low noise factor (although a couple were rather borderline I thought) because there is a lot of wildlife round here and many pets (didn't want to scare the poor kitties and doggies!)

I made up a big pot of mulled wine (oooo! it was heavenly!) and we had hotdogs (made with "real" sausages as hotdog sausages are yukky), jacket potatoes with loads of butter and baked beans. Who'd have thought that all that would go with mulled wine but it does!

We did have one rather alarming moment when one of the rockets malfunctioned and went off sideways rather than straight up! It flew into nearby shrubbery and THEN exploded and we were waiting anxiously for a few seconds thinking the whole lot was going to go up in flames. Luckily because there had been rain a couple of days prior to last night, it was pretty damp and a visit from the fire brigade was not needed!

After we'd finished and got the kids off to bed I made a start on my Christmas cake! I just LOVE this particular once-yearly bake - just the SMELL of it makes me all festive :) I got the fruit into the brandy to soak last night and, this morning, actually made up the cake and got it in the oven and that's where it is now. The smell in this house and beyond yummy :)

Oh, and I booked tickets so we can take the kids to the Swanage Santa Train in December - even my big girl can't resist this little bit of festive-fun - and, to be honest, neither can her mummy! ;)

Wash out

We were planning on going into Christchurch this afternoon and feeding the ducks and having a walk but, sadly, the weather had other ideas. It really has been horribly windy and rainy .... oh well, another time.

Instead, Tim to Marks and Spencer for lemon cake (I ADORE their lemon cake) - he came back with 2 bags of shopping (!) - and I settled down with my knitting loom and made this for April:

Snakey! Here he is half finished

 

... and done :)

 

I haven't done any loom knitting for AGES so it was nice :) Now I'm using up all my wool oddments to make a crazy coloured shawl. I'll probably end up giving it to the kids to play dress up with but I'm learning new techniques so it's worth doing.

Got to go now ... in the middle of making pear and apple crumble (to have with Greek yoghurt) for pudding :)

The cabbage story and other things

Here is a pic of some of Rosie's birthday presents from us (including a terrifyingly expensive, difficult to get hold of, Gamecube game which she has since played to death) .... amongst these you will notice a cabbage (a Savoy Cabbage to be precise) which she insisted on having in the photo.

Why a cabbage? Well, I'm guessing this isn't going to be THAT funny to anyone but us (although it is QUITE funny), but here it is. Rosie gave us a list weeks ago of some of the things she might want for her birthday and we could choose items from it to get her. From that point on she pestered us daily (no! hourly!) with the same question ... "what have I got for my birthday?" In the end we started replying "a cabbage" so Tim, being Tim, decided it would be hilarious to actually get her a cabbage. So we did, and wrapped it up, cleverly disguised to it didn't look like a cabbage. The little joke went down rather well and she was most amused :)

Oh, and here is her finished birthday cake which, at her request, had a Smash Bros. Brawl theme to it (Wii game in case you're interested!) It tasted utterly divine but you can see I will NEVER win prizes for my decoration skills!

So, on to the other things. A little homeschool snippet here - April has been doing work on weather and covered cloud types and the water cycle (amongst various other things). I did love this snap of her concentrating on doing her water cycle picture (with watercolour pencils) - she worked very hard :)

.... and here's the finished work - with labels:

Talking of weather, we've been basking in the most amazing (and totally unseasonal!) warmth here! It's been a little unbelievable to be honest and you'd be forgiven for thinking it was still the middle of summer not early autumn. However, these are a dead give away :)

The other give away? Waking up to chilly, breath-condensating mist ... I took these at around 8.00 this morning when the sun was trying to force it's way through the early morning mist - absolutely gorgeous :)

A bit of this and that

Hello! :)

I have nothing in particular to blog about - this is just a mish-mash of stuff.

Firstly, my poor husband! He is currently on holiday but on his last day at work he had a bit of a mishap. He jumped out the cab of his lorry, landed awkwardly and sprained (badly) his ankle. Unfortunately, this was first thing in the morning so he ended up doing the rest of his shift on his bad foot and was really limping by the time he finished. He eventually got home and took his sock off and his foot was black and blue and VERY swollen - ouch! :( He spent quite a lot of the next couple of days with his foot in a bucket of iced water (grimacing). It's going down now and almost back to normal but he's still walking very gingerly as I think he's terrified of injuring it again!

Next ... Floyd! I got a couple of pics of my beautiful boy when he was having a kip in among my dead tomatoes (he's either there or on top the wheelie bin!)

 

he's trying to out-stare me in this next one!

 

Then we have Rosie-made colouring pages! She drew some pictures for April of Smash Brothers characters (a Nintendo game in case you don't know). I do love that she does these things for her little sis :) Here's April colouring one of them:

 

Next - muffins - blueberry mini muffins to be precise. I made these for tea the other day (shall start recipe page soon and put them on there):

 

Finally, 2 pieces of random "stuff and nonsense".

Firstly, this morning - Floyd was sat on the wheelie bin when he noticed a pigeon on the lawn. He went into "stalk" mode (you know that silly thing cats do where they crouch down low and wobble their bum) He suddenly leapt down and frightened the pigeon who flew off STRAIGHT into April's bedroom window glass. She was in there playing at the time and got one helluva shock when it smacked into the glass! Anyway, the pigeon, although stunned for a second, seemed ok and flew off up into a tree.

Secondly (and I must apologise for this - it's just my silly sense of humour - it tickled me), I did some washing up, filled the sink and went off to do something else for a bit. When I came back some of the bubbles had popped and gone down revealing this:

... it's a dinosaur egg-cup! This sort of completely random silliness makes me laugh sometimes :)