Seven Days

Joining Jacqui aka "The Barefoot Crofter" with a review of the last seven days.  Because even when you think nothing special is happening, if you look closely enough you find it! 

After last week was very much an out of the house kind of week, this week has been more home based.  Monday whilst getting very cold walking back from the shops I stopped to put Sophie's gloves on her for the umpteenth time, and happened to stop outside a friend of my Mum's house.  She saw us and invited us in to warm up.  Sophie got to play with her grandson, and we had a lovely impromptu chat.  This happened again on Tuesday, calling in to a friend, just to check her daughter was ok, after seeing her daughter very distressed earlier, and another cup of coffee and a lovely chat.  It really made my week.

Other lovliness that has been happening...

...finishing off the bag for the three little pigs

...catching Sophie making shadow puppets whilst eating her lunch... 

 ...having the time (and ingredients) to be able to make Sophie's demand for chocolate cake a reality...

 ...whilst I was at Guild, Sophie had popcorn, I do hope she shared it!

 A big package of woolly goodness (if a little dirty) arriving in the post, with the promise of endless amounts of dyeing and spinning.  Thank you Dawn!

 And more little knitted animals, this time the Billy Goats Gruff. Awaiting the arrival of the troll, and a bag, so that they too can make their way to their new home.

Looking forward to the week ahead, which I think will  be a good mix of home and out and about. But I guess we will just have to wait and see what it brings.

Seven Days

 Well, it started with a "bang" quite literally!  We have a horrible feeling this will be the end of this 20 year old Mazda MkI.

 Ethan was in a school play, where he was a redundant teacher (a modern day slant on the Christmas Carol, and perhaps a tad topical!)

 We did some baking.

 Had a mini celebration of Bodhi Day.

 Made decorations with our first attempt at drying orange slices.

 More pictures of the Guild meeting.

And this last picture isn't from this week, but links to Gimli's very brief adventure in a tumble drier!  Thank goodness Sophie had seen him climb in there, she really did save his life.

Joining in with Jacqui at the Barefoot Crofter, for a glimpse at our seven days.  Which, if I am honest, have been a bit too eventful for my liking this week!

Seven Days

Joining in with Jacqui's lovely idea about looking at the extraordinary ordinary from the last seven days.

Beginning to use up the apples from the allotment (thyme and apple jelly, and apple chutney)

 Helping make some banana and chocolate chip muffins (well, what else do you do with those really mushy bananas?

 Making playdough.

 The boys discovering toys that have been sat on the shelf for far too long.

 Home improvements restarting

 The best picture (how I wish for a fantastic zoom lens!) of the thing that makes me smile every morning.  I hear the parakeet every morning, and it graced us with its presence in the garden the other morning.

 New looks for the younger boys.

Thank you Jacqui for making me look at our week with fresh eyes.

Adventures in sourdough

Back in June we got given Herman. If you have never heard of Herman,let me explain.  Herman is a sourdough friendship cake, which you have to nurture over the course of a week and a half.  He is fuelled by sugar, flour and milk, along with yeast that he has picked up on his travels.  At the end of the process you have a cake to bake, and starters to pass on to friends. 

 We have loved having Herman with us, but it is time for him to move on now, as there really is only so much cake you can eat, and my waistline is slowly expanding!!  I wish I could have passed him on to many of my friends online, but it would be a very messy parcel that arrived in the post, as he does not like to be confined!!  However, our Herman has travelled to Wales,and down to London, and has quiite a few off-spring in  our local area too!

One of his off-spring then underwent a spectacular transformation in the capable hands of our friend Paul, and has returned to us as a starter for Sourdough bread. Sourdough bread is something I have wanted to try to make for a long time. So I made my first loaf last night.

I think the verdict is out on it at the moment.  A lovely tasty bread, but makes very heavy sandwiches.  Would be great for rolls for soup, or as a dipping bread, but we tend not to use that kind of bread very much.  It is a shame, as I really hoped we would enjoy sourdough bread more.  Although, I was wondering how I was going to fit in all the little things you have to to it over the course of 24 hours to get your loaf!  I have been spoilt with my bread maker I think!

Thank you Herman for letting us join you on your adventures.

A rainbow in the making

Here's a few things that we've been up to over the last few days, which struck me as rather colourful! My first attempt at green juice, cavolo nero, alfalfa sprouts and orange juice, rather lovely I thought, although Sophie took one sip, pulled a disgusted face, and told me to go away! Some gorgeous yellow wool arrived in the post from Gill. All carded and ready to go!

A pile of fabric I picked up from freecycle, from a wonderful woman who did lots of patchwork, and had a wonderful homemade home. Inspiration indeed.

Orange and mango lollies!

And chocolate peppermint slices!

Cooking up a storm

Lots of willing helpers in the kitchen at the moment, from food preparation... ...to whole meals being cooked.

Luke made the Saturday evening meal again. We had mini toad-in-the-hole, and the left over batter made the rather impressive yorkshire puddings above. He has been using this Sam Stern book for recipes and inspiration, it seems a good middle ground between the cook books aimed at pre-schoolers and the fancy cook books of some well-known chefs. Just right to wet his appetite in cooking. And to top it off he is making Leek and potato soup at school tomorrow.

Sophie has been getting in on the act too. I was a bit late doing lunch the other day, so she decided to do lunch for us. Bananas anyone?

And continuing with the cleaning and decluttering. Before...

...and after!

Still a box to go through, but a vast improvement!

Just how weekends should be

Saturday was such a relaxing day, but productive all at the same time. The boys even commented on what a nice day it was, people getting on with things they wanted to do, no arguing, lovely! So what did we do? Teddy bears picnic in the kitchen... ...followed by the wooden farm, reading books, playing games, paper craft (otherwise known as Luke making more paper guns!), playing outside, homemade tomato soup (thumbs up from everyone!), watching the Baggies game (Stuart), and a quick shopping trip for late Christmas presents. To top it off, Luke made tea (I could seriously get used to that, I was able to do a few lines of knitting whilst tea was being made!) He made the most delicious cornish pasties, making his own pastry too.

Sunday was meeting up with Stuart's brother and his family at a lovely restaurant near Warwick. Food was amazing, children were well behaved, and everyone felt they had had a lovely get together with lovely people.

We all feel rejuvinated for the week ahead, blimey, we even got homework done before Sunday evening! This really is how weekends should be. :)

Turning the day around

After spending the night tossing and turning over some silly comments I came across on Facebook, and after some wonderful advice from online friends, I managed to escape the doom and gloom (made worse by such a gloomy day weather wise). We had a trip to the farm shop, whic means we now have a choice of meals. Even though the last few days meals of wracking my brains as to what to make have resulted in some wonderfully tasty meals ( although I will never understand how one meal that is woolfed down by everyone, but had lots of leftovers, when rehashed is then picked over, despite being the exact same food that they ate the day before!)

Anyway, after the farm shop, Sophie and I were watching Peppa Pig, and they had one of those cup and wire telephones. I got thinking, and decided to make one for the boys. Luke and Ethan had never done it before, Alec had, but it didnt work. Well, they were amazed. Played with it for a good half hour, took it to neighbours to show it off! Sophie added "interference" to the line, which was interesting!

Then, after making sure homework was done for school tomorrow, Luke set about making some coconut ice slice, as a treat for lunch boxes tomorrow. I even managed to squeeze in some cello practice!

Other things we have been up to are spring cleaning! This year WILL be the year we get straight. So we now have shelves in the utility, with space for all my preserves too, as well as clear work surfaces (honestly, this space was an utter tip before the weekend!)

And I cleaned the fridge today, it is gleaming, I could get quite used to this cleaning lark, it is an honour to open the fridge now!

And to top it all off, our new vac arrived this evening. Our previous one died a death the other day after 1o years of faithful service. We now have an all singing, all dancing Dyson "ball". For someone who is always willing to find an excuse not to do housework, I have been strangely suprised with these last few days, and how great it has been making me feel. We are a long way off straight, but I reckon a week on each room, that should keep me going for a few months, and hopefully it will be easier to keep on top of it all then.

Snowed-in craftiness

Well, we are in effect snowed in. Places are walkable to, as long as I don't take Sophie with us, which is not very feasible. So we have been enjoying being at home, and getting on with the gingerbread house. Sophie helped roll it. The boys decorated it (Sophie just ate as many sweets as she could lay her hands on!)

They all enjoyed this, but now the pressure is on to eat it! I think tradition is that you leave it til after Christmas, as the house is somewhere for the gnomes to live during the festive period.

Hopefully, they will be very happy there.

Remember Ethan started showing an interest in knitting? Well the other day he picked it up again, remembered how to do the knit stitch, even noticed that when I was doing a purl stitch that it wasn't the same as what he knew. I was impressed. Just look at the concentration on his face!

And then Alec wanted a turn, so Ethan acted as mentor and oversaw what he was doing. (Don't know why Alec had his hat on, really it is not THAT cold inside!)

Wishing you all peaceful solstice.

xx