‘Home’ Education

Yesterday was the first day this week that we hadn’t been out and about doing something rather than being at home.

On Monday we were at our indoor/outdoor get together meeting new home edders and hanging out with old friends. Then Miss Amoo went home with a friend leaving Miss Froo and I to do a bit of urgent food shopping before going to her drama thing called Dreamweavers.

On Tuesday the morning was quiet-ish then it was time for music lessons and art class in the afternoon.

On Wednesday we had a mad morning clearing out our living room in search of the digibox remote control which we didn’t find despite pulling out the sofa, computer desk thing, chair and sewing machine cabinet. We did however put a lot of paper in the green box an I parted with nearly a whole bin bag of fabric scraps and stuff that we just can’t reuse in a timely fashion or reuse at all.

3.50 arrived sooner than I expected and it wasn’t dark but it was was really, really cold when Miss Froo and I walked to Rainbows – yes, she’s finally got a place at Rainbows and she was beyond exited about it. Fortunately they start at 4.15 and finish at 5.15 then Miss Amoo doesn’t go to Brownies til 6.00 so it’s all sort of ok but we need to make sure to put something in the slow cooker for dinner!

On Thursday we went ice skating in the morning then to a friend’s for lunch where the girls staged an ice sculpture exhibition in the garden. Ice had formed in so many pots and buckets and garden toys that they had an amazing collection of different smooth and patterned ice shapes with pebbles and leaves trapped inside.

Thursday was also Mr G’s birthday so we had one of his favourite dinners and a tasty coffee and walnut cake.

My Mum gave me a huge pile of Good Housekeeping magazines last week so we’ve been perusing the recipes for some new inspiration. The sesame sausages looked good so we had those to assuage our hunger whilst waiting for the dinner to cook. Here’s the recipe I added a little bit of honey too and they were very yummy.

So, Friday came and the world was white so the girls were out in the garden and up and down the road several times with drying and warming bits inbetween. Then a quick pop out to a friend’s for a cup tea and more playing in the snow after school had finished for the day and the week was at an end.

We’ve been so cold this week that we’ve drunk lots of atole to warm up and if you fancy a hot chocolate with a bit more substance to it, try this:

Atole de Chocolate

Click to hear how to say it! (A-toh-leh   deh   choh-koh-lah-teh)

For every cup of atole required, put one very heaped teaspoon of cornflour to the saucepan and cream with a little milk til smooth.

Add however many cups of milk to the cornflour mixture and stir very well. Bring to a boil gently, stirring all the time. You can add a cinnamon stick at this point if you like, or some vanilla essence.

Once the milk feels nice and thick like a white sauce,  take it off the heat.

Put a teaspoon of cocoa or drinking chocolate into each cup, with brown sugar if desired, and pour the milk into each cup slowly, stirring all the time.

Now sit on the sofa with a blanket or two and drink it slowly!

No Sewing

There has been no sewing since 18th February when I put the machine under her lid to make one more usable surface available in the living room in readiness for The Party.

Said surface has since been covered with more things than it is easy to find new homes for quickly so the machine remains hidden and my sewing dreams are becoming more vivid.

 

I read this today in some research about sports shoes vs barefoot (a link from a link from facebook…) and I wondered how many other things this might apply to?

(There is) a tendency in humans to be less cautious when using new devices of unknown benefit because of overly positive attitudes associated with new technology and novel devices.

http://bjsportmed.com/content/31/4/299.abstract

This is pretty isn’t it? No new devices here! Art from twigs, thread and toilet roll tubes.

Miss Froo and I had a busy day on Thursday fixing odd jobs around the house and garden that needed hammers and cable clips and curtain hooks and garden shears. Then we made those toilet roll flowers and tried to make a purse from a juice carton which was rather less successful than we had hoped. If we manage to make one that actually works, I’ll let you know.

I have done a crazy thing

Many will say that this is not unusual but it counts as one of the more crazy in my own mind…. I’ve bought a caravan!

From thinking about it on Friday night to buying it today and having it delivered tomorrow this is also one of the fastest decisions ever made in this house bar the sewing of emergency party bags or winter ponchos.

The thing that promoted such madness was the forlon deep voice of El Famosisimo on Friday night telling us that he misses us and wishes that he could live with us all again. He moved out a couple of months ago to share a flat with some friends but it isn’t working out for him. He really only moved because the offer of a bedroom to himself was too tantalising to refuse and the folks he was to share with work nights whilst he works days. It might have worked all but for the fact that my boy is a very loving and sociable chap who has yet to yearn quite enough for peace and solitude.

We miss him, the girls miss him, his brother misses him. This is all normal but it is a bit more painful because Mr G and I feel that we are terrible parents for not being able to give him his own space. We know that we have given him a lot of other things but this we have failed on quite spectacularly.

When he first decided to go I was hopeful that he would be happy but seeing that he isn’t prompted some mad brain storming that led to the caravan search. We have a driveway at the back of our house which can hold such a vehicle as an extra living room. As the idea permeated my every moment I began thinking that I could move my whole fabric stash out of the house into it; I could keep the overlocker in it instead of under the kitchen table; I could sew in it and of course EF could use it as his living room with his tv and record player and books and stuff. What a perfect solution!

So after measuring the driveway in the dark last night (available space 19ft x 10ft) today I went to have a look at this retro 1980s beauty.

She is all old fashioned and cool all at once in a way that makes me want to bring her home so that no-one else has her and gets rid of the cushion covers and the flowery wallpaper in the toilet. At only 12ft long and just under 7ft wide she will fit on the driveway just nicely and we should still be able to get in and out of the garden and to the shed! Mr G had a fleeting concern about what the neighbours will think but frankly I don’t give a damn. Collectively they have hemmed us in with conservatories and extensions, my sunsets will never be the same again and many of the plants I have nurtured can no longer withstand car wheels driving over them on a daily basis so I’m not fussed about their opinions at all.

There is ton of space under the seats, a wardrobe, a toilet room that we probably wont use so could have shelves in it, eye level cupboards and a sink, a grill, hob, oven, fridge, heaters… I peeked in one of the cupboards and found a set of melamine cups and saucers so goodness knows what else there will be to find once we go mad in it tomorrow.

So I am going outside now to clear all the bikes and scooters off the drive to make way for our new room to arrive tomorrow.

(unrelated picture of the week)
Look what they did to my eggs!

In other news, Miss Amoo has read a previously untried recipe, weighed out all the ingredients and baked her own biscuits – twice. Every now and again she does something like this that makes me wonder at how she has learned so much all by herself without me needing to make her do homework or fight to get her to school. She even allowed Miss Froo to assist her with the more menial baking tasks such as getting the ingredients off the shelves and getting the baking trays ready without it ending up as a shouting fest.

So many possibilities! I’m not going to be pushing the girls into any competitive baking or buying a towbar just yet though!

Doing

Yesterday the girls made a new invention.

They wanted to watch tv but our tv has some odd feature that locks the screen every time you switch it on. Unless you can find the grey tv remote and press the unlock key you can’t make the digibox control make the tv work. This is complicated and very annoying because we are a pretty untidy family and the two remote controls are never in the same place you put them down last time.

Another problem is that the tv is so old that the bit that holds the batteries in its remote control has long since disappeared and the batteries are held in with several layers of duct tape which don’t hold the batteries in properly against the terminals unless you press them inwards as you are trying to press the now unlabelled buttons on the front. Every now and then, the rechargeable batteries held in place by the tape give up and have to be changed which is a right palaver. Yesterday the girls removed all the tape but then couldn’t find new batteries that worked so they found a new use for the peeled-off tape instead.

Two canes held together with some duct tape with the old duct tape on the end enables the user to pick up stuff off the floor and put it away without picking it up themselves (sort of). And I didn’t close the door on the sewing machine cabinet or clear the floor to take blog photos so….

Behold:

Works better with a biro

Why did they do this? Why did they persist in changing bits about their tool until it worked better? Why did they keep making mess so as to keep picking up different things? What did they learn?

I can’t see inside their heads and see what is going on in there. I don’t know what connections they have made between what they have done today and with anything else or if they will ever do this again or not. I have no idea about any of this but I don’t need to know because it is their learning, not mine.

Then they put on the hats they got from Auntie Maureen last Christmas that they found in the drawer and decided to make some peanut butter cookies with J doing the weighing for them.

All good.