T-Bird Anni Rides Again

We decided to bake today, it’s not good for the waistline but I figure if we are going to eat sweet and tasty treats they may as well be home made and thus cheaper and less full of nasty things!

We started with some basic bread dough which we eventually decided to  use for pizza for tea rather than a loaf.  There is something rather satisfying about mauling (sorry, kneading!) the living daylights out of a bit of dough and Aprilia is getting pretty proficient at it too.  I did slip up slightly, I forgot that the tinned yeast needs to be put into warm water and left to froth for a bit rather than being spooned straight into the flour but, as we didn’t use it til tea time it had plenty of time to disolve in the dough

After that we made  gingerbread men based on the Hairy Baker’s Speculaas biscuits but without the candied peel.  It made a slightly over-soft dough which was a challenge to roll and cut but made fantastic little men, I’m wondering though if the BBC have done their usual and not proof read properly, I suspect it would ahve gone easier if you rubbed the butter into the flour, baking powder and spices then stirred in the sugar and brought it together with the milk rather than mixing it all together in one go.  It’s definitely one I’m going to file to do again.

Then it was on to mincemeat muffins, with thanks to Nic for pointing me to the recipe.  I used some of the Hairy Baker’s mincemeat left over from the mince pie making a couple of weeks ago (I fear I will never be satisfied with shop bought mincemeat ever again now I know how easy and how much nicer home made is)  I have to say, I’m with Nic on this, now I’ve made mincemeat muffins, I may never make pies again, the muffins are awesome, much lighter and more satisfying at the same time.   Just wondering if they count as remotely healthy with all the dried fruit…. well, okay then, healthier than chocolate muffins I suppose!

Then we had lunch

After luch we nipped into town.  Aprilia had left her coat at Emmie’s after boxing day (I do wonder slightly about a parent who lets someone else’s 7 year old child leave their house in a sleeveless teeshirt in the middle of winter…. did it not occur to her that said child may have arrived with a coat???) so first stop was Peacocks to get a new one.  She insisted on another "dead cat coat", you know, the ones with tabby fur round the hood that looks really manky after a couple of washes…. It’s big for her but hopefully that means it will last the year!  

Then it was the library.  Duke signed her up for a "reading challenge" when he took her in before Christmas but it’s a bit of an odd one as you have to read 3 books by Jacqueline Wilson (she who wrote Tracy Beaker) or rather read 2 and listen to an audio book.  The audio books for the challenge are free to borrow which is nice but obviously, therefore, somewhat thin on the ground as everyone is taking advantage of a free loan!  However, one free audio book is not nearly as nice as what I found out when I got all brave when we were booking out.  I asked if there was any discount on audio books for dyslexics.  My friend the chief librarian lept up from his desk to tell me that yes, it counts as a sight imparement and we get them free then showed the lady at the PC how to mark up our accounts as "special" (coooo, I’m special at last!) and from now on all audio books are free for either of us to borrow!!!!  I do love our library VBG

“Nothing and no one makes sure that the creative side of your existence is honoured except you…”
Jill Badonsky “The Nine Modern Muses”

What will your 365 days in 2009 create?

Once again, Handmade homeschool has prompted me to thoughtfulness.  So, what will I create in 2009? 

Less mess would be a nice thing to create, and less clutter.  Hmmm, must turn that round, I will create more space and calm in my home!

 I’d like to create a smaller yarn and fabric stash by using it all up and having some nice things to wear and use.  I’m thinking of challenging myself to make one item a month minimum (that’s not a lot really is it!) out of stashed items.  That would help with my first aim as well really!

I’d like to create more food from scratch, including home made "ready meals" in the freezer.  We spend too much on over-processed junk foods because it’s easy to pull something out of the freezer and nuke it for 10 minutes at the end of a long day but really, I have enough easy days in a week to cook up a freezer full of stuff and it would be a much better example for Aprilia too.

I’d like to create more slimline versions of me and Aprilia.  Good home cooked food will no doubt help (although Im going to have to go easy on the mincemeat muffins!  They are just too "more-ish") but we also need to fit a bit more excercise than just once a week at Kung Fu to make a real difference. 

I would dearly love to create more artwork and I think I need to settle back to that again, Aprilia was asking if we could do more "Drawing with Children" the other day, it didn’t really float my boat but I suppose it’s as good a place to start as any seeing as we own it.  There’s nothing to stop me from doing that with her then following it with a bit more Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain really.  Except I never do because I have a short little attention span…..

So, what about you?  What are you going to create in 2009?

So, it’s Boxing day, we need to be at Duke’s mum’s for lunchtime and….. Duke decided to go to the Game sale and try to get a  Wii Fit, would anyone be surprised if I said he failed?  I’d really really love one but really can’t justify £100 for a toy!  I’d settle for the dance mat thing really, that looks equally fun but without the horror of it telling you your weight and BMI!  Anyway, he came home with  Wii Music and a "pistol" instead so I can now shoot’em up in style….. sigh, that boy knows how to make me happy….. shoulda been born in the Southern States!

Lunch with his mum was pleasant, I cordially ignored the comments about only children and did I know how she had "happened" (one day I’ll say "no, absolutely no idea, would you like to tell me….") and got a really good cook book of Duke’s bro.  Then it was off to Duke’s niece.  Once they brought out the "Cranium" box it was fairly easy to talk Duke into heading home, leaving Aprilia to sleep over with Emmie, well, stay over, I’m not sure how much actual sleeping happened 

 She got home yesterday just in time for a quick lunch then off with Duke to the local panto.  She could have done without going really as she was that funny greyish colour that usually means she needs to be in bed!  She said it was quite good but "it was loud at the beginning, and in the middle and at the end"  She asked to go to bed at 5:30  so I hussled her upstairs with a hottie, some cocoa and some calpol for the headache.  I didn’t hear a peep out of her til 9am this morning!!!!  She looks so much better today

Today she has a friend from kung fu over to play (shall we call her Tigress, as in Kung Fu Panda then?).  I spent most of yesterday sprucing up the house so she wouldn’t run straight back out screaming.  Typically I only really needed to do downstairs as they have been playing with the Wii since she arrived.  But it really did need doing and I realy do need to learn to not leave it to get this bad in future (any bets on taht happening???)   Aprilia demonstrated her ability at perching on the sitting ball whilst playing so Tigress had to have a go, she decided it’s not as easy as Aprilia makes it look!  I think it’s down to practice, I can remember covering the living room floor with cushions whilst Aprilia played on it not all that long ago!

Anyway,  I’ve decided that Wii Music is very Montessori, one of the things is listening to pitch and ordering the notes etc so I shall be adding that into the list of things we class as "school"!

Okay, so yesterday I sounded like a spoilt child, I’m really sorry.  In my (feeble) defence, I was tired and had spent the whole day playing referee between Duke and Aprilia who are very skilled at winding each other up at the moment.  I’m not sure when the relationship between that pair slipped but Oh Boy it’s slipped!  Duke used to read bedtime stories to Aprilia whilst I had some down time.  It gave them time together and she did enjoy it as he would read the dread Rainbow Magic books to her which she still loves and which I still loath reading!  If I’m going to make the effort to read to her I want it to be something I enjoy for goodness sake!!!  I’m not sure why he stopped reading to her at bedtime but I think I may have to re-instigate this in the new year.  I suspect part of it is that I’ve got lazy during the day, not doing "school" with her so needing to read "daytime stories" to her at bedtime.  This also has to change as by 7:30 I’m getting too tired to be patient with a tired girl trying to delay bedtime with "Mummy, we didn’t do any puzzles today, can I do them now" and then melting down at things she’s perfectly capable of doing.

In fact, there has to be change in general over the next 12 months.  I’m not naive enough to think I can sweep into the new year with a whole new routine but I do need to gradually introduce better habits and start to get a better grip on life.  I can’t expect Aprilia to keep her side of the bargain when I’m not keeping mine, I can’t expect her to make an effort with her room when there’s junk on my floor, nor can I expect her to suddenly stop what she’s doing because I’ve finished aimlessly browsing the web and am ready to do school if I’m not willing to stop what I’m doing to do something for her.  I have to stop behaving like an only child before she turns into the stereotypical only child.

This morning she wobbled because I’d asked her to pack an overnight bag as she is sleeping over at Emmie’s tonight.  She knew what she needed to end up with (a bag full of stuff she would need) but had no idea how to get from where she was to where she needed to be.  It brought home to me that really she does struggle without careful direction and simplified instructions, broken down into little chunks.  I know it’s a typically Dyxie trait (we see The Big Picture not the Detail!) but that doesn’t help her really does it?  So we need to introduce "Practical Life Activities" into the day so that instructions like "pack a bag" or "put your clothes away" stop being daunting, unmanagable tasks and start to be the title of a mental list of actions (does that make sense?)  I also think taht PLAs such as changing batteries in toys, pouring activities (she’s still really shakey on this, hand eye co-ordination is still a challenge) and so on would probably help her a lot.  It would also fill our day up a lot, leaving her with less "slumped infront of the TV time" which tends to be her defaut if not given direction.  Of course, that also leaves me with less "gazing at the PC time" but I suspect that that would be a good thing really!

So, in a spirit of accountability, and starting once Duke is back at work so we have some sort of routine back again….

I hereby state the intent to instigate the first good habit in January which will be to  get "school" done in the morning, right after breakfast and aim to do something practical in the afternoon.

having been woken at 5am and not getting back to sleep, it’s been a long day.  I took her downstairs for pressies at 7am, Duke deigned to surface at 8:30 once the **** turkey was in the oven and pancakes were on the table.  We are NOT having a large beast for Christmas ever again.  If one is bought I will give it away and be damned with the waste of over £30, it demanded my attention through most of the morning and I’m now left with a beast that needs me to slice up and freeze then find ways of using for the next however long - we barely dented it at lunchtime.

Aprilia got a good haul of goodies including  electronics and  Chemistry kits from mum and dad, Disney Princess reading books from an anonymous donor ( we seemed to have a ridiculous number of unlabeled gifts this year) a fab WII game of my favourite paramedic (who has taken rather a shine to Aprilia) and a Glo-E bear from me so she is a happy bunny.  I got some money off mum and dad which has been spent on a new vacuum cleaner as our old one is knackered (gee, I know how to live but actually, at least now I can get the job done in a reasonable time without sense of humour failure!) and various random items off Duke including a data stick which I can add to the 2 other data sticks that I already don’t use……

Thre were some good bits, but I can’t remember them just now due to the fact that my body thinks I’ve been awake plenty long enough already and is trying to go to sleep with our without my permission!

Tomorrow we have "round 2" when we go to Duke’s family.  Duke finally managed to pick up the phone and arrange for Aprilia to sleep over so she is all excited, I’m wondering if we can get away with going in 2 cars so I can leave as soon as is polite without having to drag Duke away from his family.  Why couldn’t I have caught that cold a few weeks later?

In between all the random blogging there has been some life and even some learning going on!  She watched Jolly Phonics Video 1 in the morning and wall to wall Magic Schoolbus in the afternoon.  She also found time to do some tidying up in her room under gentle instruction from me (cos if you ask her to tidy her room she ends up in floods of tears wailing that she doesn’t know how) and play a few PC games.  Meanwhile I tried to find the living room floor with limited success and pondered the next few months learning.  I’ve decided to try to romp through the Core 1 language arts acompanied by random read alouds from ones that have been popular over the past year plus whatever else comes to hand then start Core 2 and LA 2 at the same time so I’m not trying to juggle too much.  I think we need a break from the tour of World History anyway and we have plenty of other "culture" (history and geography) materials we can dip into to keep the routine of a story book, a fact book and some puzzles each day.  I also need to pull myself back up by the bootstraps and start doing the practical science again as we did precious little of that this time round to my shame and Aprilia’s disapointment.  I’m also thinking of doing a weekly structured cookery session with her.  I’m dithering between buying Nora’s Dinners which we borrowed from the library a while ago and enjoyed but wasn’t particularly challenging or digging out our copy of The River Cottage Family Cookbook which is more weighty in size and content but may be just a little too challenging for her or really going for it and getting the Hairy Bikers Cookbook to go with the DVDs we alreay have or going for the fast and loose aproach and just downloading random recipes off the net!  I’d like something that is vaguely instructional so she gets to learn more than just how to produce food but then I think that maybe nearly 8 is a bit young for full on food technology.  I dunno, so many decisions, so little ability to make them!

is anyone after Base 10 blocks (blue plastic ones, not the lovely Golden Bead version you know and love Jax but okay for showing place values etc) or pattern blocks (the triangle, hexagon, trapizium and paralelogram shaped tiles - not the full tub shown in the link, just 100 pieces which is probably more than enough really) or centimetre (1gram) cubes?  I’m after the geared clock from SonLight but it only comes as part of a big batch of manipulatives and consumables some of which I already have.  I’ll hunt for one in the UK if I can’t find takers for the spares taht I don’t need but if anyone is fancying the bits I don’t need it probably works out a fraction cheaper this way!

despite treating the cat, using the VAx more than it’s ever been used in years (and emptying it straight away so nothing could escape again) and putting out candle traps pretty much every night, we are still being bitten although not nearly as often as we were.  I’ve just ordered "foggers" to fumigate the whole house…..

will be placing an order around the 20th of January (maybe a bit sooner if we are organised)  As we are a bit short on ready cash, I’ll need money up front (I can give you my paypal addy) and will absolutely insist that you either visit me or invite me over to deliver the goods when they arrive cos I’m never going to get organised enough to post them on to you now am I

Kirsty, I’m doing A210, Approaching Literature next as I fancied a change from historical stuff (seeing as I’m not doing a history degree, there’s a required course I don’t fancy!) and it gives me more options for Level 3 if I do a bit of literature now.

As for SonLight order, yes, definitely let me know if you want anything as I will be doing an order in a month or so - am just deciding what else I actually may need whilst I’m at it!