New Pets

The girls have been wanting guinea pigs for a long time, imagine their surprise when their brother comes back from uni with 2 guinea pigs that needed a new home. Meet Rolo and Biscuit, who are enjoying lots of attention and settling in well. The rest of the month has been spent in the garden growing veg, repurposing old duvet cases and cooking lots.

L has started sewing and making a very neat job of it too.

So I have been busy repurposing some an old duvet cover, used the pattern section to make some new hankies and then the plain white part to make some produce bags.

Making homemade cordial and then using the left over orange and lemon peel to infuse some vinegar for cleaning with.

Ginger Cordial

200g root ginger, peeled and broken into large pieces

1 lemon grated rind and juice

600g caster sugar

1.5 litres of water

15g citric acid

Add all the ingredients to a pan, dissolve the sugar on a low heat for 3 to 4 minutes.

Then bring to the boil and simmer for 40 minutes.

Remove from the heat, when cool, strain through a cloth.

Bottle and store in the fridge, I have also frozen some too for later use.

Orange Cordial

3 oranges, juice and zest

500g sugar

600ml water

15 citric acid

Place water, sugar and orange peel in a pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat and add the juice.

Leave to cool, strain and bottle, keep in the fridge.

This seems to be Max's favourite place to hang out and watch the world go by, he rarely leaves the garden, sometimes he sits on the fence but most of the time he likes to watch the world go by. safely from his own garden.

Sorting out left over fabric I made one of L's dolls a dress, I will put it by for her birthday next month.

A good friend of mine came back from holiday with some lovely fabric as a gift for me, made L's favourite dress, the geranium by Made by Rae, must admit it was one of my favourites too.

First harvest from our garden veg patch, hopefully lots more to come throughout the summer.

L and I went on a bug hunts and found not only ladybirds, but ladybirds in the pupae and larvae stage too. 

Snow Again!

We had snow and then more snow!! Was not expecting it to snow again, even though the weather forecast said it would, I mean how many times do you see snow predicted and it never appears! So Tuesday we decided even though it was freezing to head to the park for our normal get together, especially as we had a couple of new families joining us. About 10 minutes after we arrived it snowed, as in heavily snowed, what a great way for everyone to get to know each other while playing in the snow, happy days. We came home and warmed up,  then L decided it was time for round 2 of playing in the garden, lots of ice to explore, she loved the way the sun made it sparkly.

The rabbits actually ventured into the garden this time and didn't seem to be too bothered with it, compared to their last time of 3 hops out and then back hiding in their cage.

L had decided to take her toy dog to the park, he got rather wet and muddy in the snow, so she asked if we could wash him like a real puppy when we got home, luckily puppy looks like new now she's been washed. sigh of relieve from me as its one of L's favourites.

It snowed more, which meant very happy excited children, I have never been so glad that my husband had holiday left over from last year and had booked the end of this week of, especially as he was supposed to be on call. I know it means one of his colleagues had to do it but they all live a lot nearer work than we do, so less chance of getting stranded. Anyway we headed of to the park and woods, to make snow angels and make snowballs. The snow wasn't the right type to make snowmen with but according to L it was heavenly.

Blackbird braving the cold to find the food we had scattered for the birds. We have been looking at the different flight patterns of birds and how they turn, hoover etc.

I had brought some flowers to start our spring display, didn't get much further, will leave it for next week when we have more spring like weather, hopefully.

Hyacinths are looking and smelling great.

L is enjoying the map work to go with our project on Egypt, I had printed out and laminated these ancient Egyptian mythology card to use as I read the ancient myths to her, she loves that sort of thing. The website also has landmarks, Greek and Roman gods too, so think I will be printing out those too. We've been watching various you tube films about the Nile and the tours around the landmarks of Egypt, must admit I was surprised at how much she was interested in the different sites, the size and variation of the monuments and statues.

I have finished her jumper just in time for the cold weather, she loves it and would if been allowed worn it too bed!

The owl is still a work in progress and have L has chosen Rosebuds for her other jumper, we have chosen a lovely pale blue in a cotton mix, have cast on but that is about it. Have found out that 4 people I know and can knit for are all expecting baby girls this year, oh there are way too many cute baby patterns out there but if you have a favourite please do share your pattern with me :) So at the moment working on using up some of my stash and knitting some little Tegan hats, ok they aren't going to make a huge dent in my stash but fun to make. In the meantime I bought M some Disney books, the story of how the evil character ended up that way, she enjoyed the Fairest Of All and asked for more, luckily they are all on offer in the local supermarket at the moment. I've just started to read Fairest of All and can see why she enjoyed it, its an interesting,enjoyable read, that ties in with the Disney film Snow White. Have also picked up tales with twist, what if Sleeping Beauty didn't wake up when the Prince kissed her. Joining Frontier Dreams

January, A Rather Long Post!

I had planned to write a post at the beginning of the month wishing everyone a happy new year but time already seems to be rushing away! I'm sure I keep hoping, planning for a slower quieter life but life doesn't always go the way you hope does it! Anyway very belated happy new year to everyone.

We've had a very busy start to the year, with various appointments, routine dental appointments, L was booked in to see an OT and she has confirmed my suspicions that L also has sensory processing issues, we had reached the stage of wanting a  confirmation rather than us assuming. I also asked her to check out the way L walked, she is flat footed and has for want of a better description, very wobbly ankles, she was checked at her 2 year old check etc but HV wasn't concerned but it has concerned me, especially looking at the way the shoes wear. So yes the OT feels we need to see the GP for a hospital refer, would someone mind telling the universe that I really don't do hospitals, we seem to of spent enough time in them last year, let alone more appointments. Also our local hospital is an absolute nightmare to park in, when they closed one of our hospitals and merged it into this one, they wanted an extra 2 floors in the car park,this was vetoed my the local council, saying it was out of keeping with the area and it was on a bus route! There isn't even enough disabled parking most of the time for those that need it and I have a feeling the local residence would much of preferred more parking how ever it looked,knowing what the queues are like etc,just my little moan! Car is also due its MOT on Monday, I have a wonderful neighbour who happily will service my car and do a pre MOT check but my car is now 16 years old, so fingers are crossed.

Now I have been desperately trying to simplify my life though life seems to keep throwing up complications! We, well mainly me decided to menu plan for the month and do lots of bulk cooking, as this would reduce the daily time in the kitchen plus, time shopping, prepping food etc which would allow me more time to work with M. So nearly everyone has been involved in the food prep and cooking. O hasn't but between college 4 days a week, working 16 hours a week at M&S and what ever hours he picks up at the gym, he's not getting a lot of spare time, or what little he has is on his coursework and some socialising.  His UCAS application has been put in and he is very keen on doing a degree in biological sciences. So our menu for January is this, see below, it is not set in stone so some variation may occur, obviously there is always a vegetarian option but as most of the time that's just me, I have a variety of choice from meals I made in the freezer.

 So food sorted, I decided to sort out out my childminding paper work, minded documentation needs to be kept for 21 years and 3 months and tax stuff also needs to be kept for 5 years, so I have been religiously storing both. Which sounds great till I realised I had 20 years plus of accounts, so I spent a weekend sorting and refiling everything, way too much shredded paper at the end of it but now have all the child record forms etc filed in 2 boxes, tax in another, then various other legal bits in another, sometimes it would be lovely to have an office to store it all in but at the moment, my office storage is in the loft! Now just remind me when I put next years tax stuff away, I can get rid if an earlier set at the same time....

So lots going on now, compared to Christmas which was a lovely peaceful time, hubby had a few days of and wasn't on call out, so we could all relax. Christmas Eve we had a lovely walk after our evening meal to see all the Christmas lights, which was loved by all. Chritmas day was very wet, so we didn't get a walk but L had a couple of lego sets and thoroughly enjoyed building them all and Santa gave her the first book in the Magic Tree House series. This is the first chapter book we have read her and it has gone down well, I've since introduced her to the secret seven and today read a whole secret seven book to her today, she loves them, some of the time was spent sat cuddled up on the sofa reading them, other times she was sat colouring in and drawing but has regularly asked for more stories. We are also enjoying Woodland Tales by Enid Blyton beautifully illustrated with lots of animal facts woven into a simple story, perfect for my nature loving 5 year old.

 M the last couple of weeks has been up around 6 am weekdays to get on with her work, trying to get it all finished by lunch time,which she seems to be doing. We started this year using Corbett Maths 5 a day revision, which is a brilliant website with revision sheets and answers to worksheets, each day you have 5 mixed questions  to practise and revise. Answers are online and normally show the working out if you are stuck, along with a comprehensive range of videos on different topics to help and explain if you get stuck. The only think is I am not ready at 7am mentally to help her with quadratic equations, oops!

L and I have been reading the first couple of chapters of Story of the World the ancients, we love the ancient book, as it travels round the world covering lots of different ancient cultures, I add in lots of extra books, craft, activities, plus add in more British history. I've used it with both O and M as our basis for ancient history, now in theory the book is part of a history curriculum that is supposed to take one year, we take a lot longer, as we go of tangent and deeper in the periods of history that interest each child. For me the book is a starting point, with the history of the world laid out in order but its there for inspiration not put us under pressure. It helps us as it gives us a guide but at the same time we can wonder away from the book when needed My favourite saying is curriculum is there to help you, guide you, reduce your stress by reducing the work load as some of the hard work is done for you already,  not make you a slave to it and increase your stress as you panic to try and stay on target, OK GCSEs are a different subject all together but up until 14 the pressure is of, honest. Anyway, L has shown interest in cave paintings and has painted some of her own, lots of interesting talk about why they had to hunt animals, I don't think she has made the link yet with where the meat on her plate comes from.If it wasn't for her multiple allergies, I would carry her discussions further but at the moment they won't allow her to have a healthy vegetarian diet, so I feel we can only really skirt round the issue of the food chain, hunting for animals etc and hope she grows out of her allergies before the link is made, as she gets rather upset over it all. We've looked at and watched some short pieces on Skara Brae, lots of cave paintings and videos and books and the different tools they would use.

Then we had the clay out and I showed her how to make a coiled pot with the clay, lots of fun had rolling out the long snakes of clay and then trying to coil it round into a pot shape. Now just waiting for it to dry enough to paint.

M loves to put lunch together for herself and L loves it if she makes hers  too, picture below of one of her creations, you can tell why L loves it when M makes her lunch can't you.

I have finally finished the middle panel of the blanket I have been working on, it is way too much cabling for me and my wrists are rebelling big time, so it has taken forever to do, now working on the last panel, which is knitting up a lot quicker, cable only on every 12th row, so on the 10th repeat already, only another 20 to go!!

We've had lots of wet and frosty walks, the photos are from one of our dryer walks, as you know they love to explore the stream, this time they discovered how they could change to flow of the water with sticks and depending on how they placed the stick in the water, the pattern of the surface water changed, which they were very interested in.

Spotted one long tailed tit feeding on some fat balls that someone had hung up.

Autumn Days and Diwali

We've had some damp cold days here and some glorious sunny days, so have been making the most of them and enjoying walks in various woods. On Monday we went to visit friends and took her dogs out for a walk, the girls loved this especially as they were allowed to hold the leads themselves, an adult had hold of L's leads as well but she is so happy she actually got to walk a dog, bless her. Tuesday home ed meet up at a local park, loving the autumn colours and at one point the wind blowing the leaves across the grass made them look like they are all dancing.

The girls choose to do some colouring while I read and talked about Diwali, they love these mindfulness colouring pages on Twinkl

 Wednesday we spent with more friends exploring the local stream, followed by a walk in the woods and a play in the park, home to some Halloween colouring.

A rather shaky photo of a robin, he kept popping down near us, like he wanted to see what the children were up to but not long enough to get that perfect photo, I do love robins.

I have watched Chris Packham - Aspergers and Me, very interesting, at times sad and others amazing, for those that can access it on bbc iplayer it is well worth a watch, he wrote this as a follow up to the program. Having worked with and having my own child on the autistic spectrum, a program like this is a really good thing in raising awareness.

On a crafting front have finished another Christmas present and started on 2 more both self patterning wool, one a very simple dress and the other a nice easy repeat pattern. Needing something simple at the moment as the cold I have been fighting of seems to be winning, might be more due now sorted out where M is going to sit her exams and so relaxed, not always a good thing. We had been looking at access arrangements as if she had been in school this would of been sorted out for her, trying to do it as a private candidate isn't so easy, we found two centres that will accept a private candidate with access arrangements but look at least a 90 minute drive. We had planned to go and look at one centre but the closer we got to the date the more stressed M got about it, she is real worrier when it comes to  leaving times and getting to places, we have it every week for drama etc even though she knows we are never late, she always wants to leave even earlier just in case. Anyway we spent a lot of time talking and have decided that it might be more beneficial for her to use a centre on our doorstep even if she doesn't have concessions of extra time etc as any concessions would of been wiped out with the stress of a long journey. actually the final choice was Ms and the the look on her face when she said local, was one of relief,  so fingers are crossed, it goes ago! The exams officer at the local centre so far has been very helpful and in theory we will register with them in December ready for June exams, oh my that seems so soon! M has recovered from her bad cold which is good news.

Loving these yarns, they are so soft to work with and rather pretty too.

Hedgehog and pumpkin completed, did try to add some shaping to the pumpkin but ended up looking rather bizarre, as in that odd the children found it rather amusing to say the least, so we went back to perfect round shaped one and they are happy with it.