Frogs and Toothpaste

We downsized our fish tank last week, well should I say we were forced to because we are doing work in our house. I needed the large tank out of the dining room so I bought a little 24 inch tank and set it up in the kitchen. Kind of liking the 24 inch tank we decided not to set the large tank back up again.

With the old tank we made a little frog pond in the garden, got a pond plant and some chemicals to make the water good. We did brick steps up to the top and down in the tank too - a haven for frogs (I hope). We do need frogspawn now, but that will be another venture no doubt, the pet shop said they do some but I am sure I can borrow some for educational purposes.

The frog haven led on to a whole discussion about pond life, and I dug out all the pond life keys we had got when we visited the Balloo Wetlands last year. That resulted in an impromptu visit to the wetlands again. It was very cold, and sadly vandals had burned down the bird hide, but it is still a nice place to visit. We had a look around and studied the water for a little while but due to the cold a couple hours found us home again. The children spent the rest of the afternoon looking at amphibians and pond life in their books.

Anyway - here's the photos!

Seb and Sol warming up after we got back. It was only when I downloaded my camera I noticed what the children had laid out on the arm of the chair. Have a look - cars and a tube of toothpaste for some reason.

Science, Shopping, Fish, Changes

It's been a while, the last couple of months I have been so bad at updating my blog. You would think I had hibernated for the winter or something. I have plenty of questions and messages to reply to as well, so I guess I had better get busy.

The week was a busy one, we hadn't intended it to be that way but that's how it ended it up. Mag is studying hard for his first GCSE exam in three weeks time so we thought that we would stay at home... well best laid plans and all that.

Sol left playgroup this week, it was time for her to move on. She had been asking do 'school' every day when the other children were doing their learning, we decided not to hold her back. Getting to playgroup was starting to get to be a bit of an ordeal so it was for the best all round. I am really happy to have Sol home every day now, I always missed her when she was gone. Though I have to admit I felt a bit teary about having to say goodbye to the mums I had got to know the last couple of years.

Wednesday found us out grocery shopping and getting supplies in for our trip on Thursday.

Thursday we went to W5, the science museum in Belfast, to meet some home educated friends. It was a long day, we arrived at the museum for doors open at 10 o'clock and we didn't leave till 5pm.

Friday we found ourselves in St George's Market in Belfast, then lunch, then more shopping. This time not shopping for food but for fish, we got a fighter fish and a sucky bottom cleaner fish for our tank as well as a pond plant for the little frog pond we are making.

I am not going to say much more now, but try make a point of updating more often now I have broken the silence.

Here's the photos from our museum trip ...

Seb flying a plane!


All the children loved the boat simulator.

My little girl.

They have a pretend supermarket at the museum, all of the little kids love to role play.

My 13year old man!

Playing is very 'tiring'.

Okay seatbelts on, lets go.

Passing The Time

I am sitting here passing the time whilst I am waiting for yahoo messenger to install. Yes passing the time, on my nice new laptop which I absolutely love already. There is nothing else on it except the antivirus program which I put on before I even looked at it.

Anyway I guess what I should be saying is that I have no damn excuse anymore, none, so I better start blogging again.

Speak or should I say write to you all soon!

Mars Bar Cakes

I made these the other day with Seb and Sol, they haven't eaten them yet though, the cakes went straight in the freezer for another day.

Recipe
6 Mars bars
6 ounces margarine (or butter)
2 tablespoons of golden syrup
6 cups of rice krispies
10 ounces of chocolate to melt and pour over krispie mix.
Gently melt all the mars bars, syrup, and margarine in a heavy pan. Once melted pour on the rice krispies and mix. Press the krispie mix into a baking tin. I used a couple foil throw away dishes (not the small size but the next one up).

Simply melt the chocolate and pour over the top. Leave to set (if you can resist) and enjoy!

Cranberry Sauce Recipe

With Christmas looming I have done most of the preparations, including making some proper cranberry sauce. Keeping up with traditions I am going to share some of my recipes as the month goes by. We wont eat Christmas dinner on the day itself but will enjoy it on boxing day.

I cant really take the credit for this recipe as it is actually one Nigella Lawson shared in her Christmas book and also in her Christmas show which seems to be on every year without fail.

Recipe

340g fresh cranberries

200g caster sugar

45ml of proper cherry brandy (this is the best bit LOL)

75ml of water

Method

Put all of the above ingredients in your favourite pan and give them a good stir.

Heat the pan over a medium heat for about ten minutes, when the berries are popping then they are done. Stir the mix now and again to make sure they all pop and none get stuck to the bottom. Give the berries another good stir and leave to cool. That's about all there is too it - so easy, quick, and why would you bother ever eating supermarket cranberry sauce ever again?

I transferred all my sauce into tubs (I made double) and put them in the freezer. Take the sauce out to defrost at room temperature the day before you need to use it. When its defrosted give it a good hard stir to mix all the berries in and then just eat!

Getting ready

Well it’s the 4th of December! Don’t roll your eyes thinking I am stating the obvious will you!

I haven’t updated my blog site for so long people are beginning to think I have fallen off the face of the Earth. So here I am with a summery update for everyone, especially those who asked.

Anyway, there was a series of mini catastrophes happening such as the car breaking down while I was travelling at speed (we were ok), and the roof leaking in, and the car breaking down again, and needing repairs done at our other house and, and, and …oh there is a list.

My eldest child has been working incredibly hard lately, he has finished all his GCSE maths work and is finally ready to do his exam. That exam itself pretty much organised though forms still have to go in but the school who have accepted him are dealing with that. Mag’s first GCSE paper is in February so he has two months to revise and get everything up to scratch, if you take away time at Christmas it really isn’t that long. We have started the practise papers with him, he got an A this week, it was a low A but its still and A and shows that there is room for improvement. He is confident that come February he will be getting an A*, and of course I am really proud of him. The following academic year he will do his sciences exams and contemplate doing the advanced maths exam but we will see how it’s all going in a couple of months as there is no real rush for all this. Anyone who knows Mag will understand why he is doing these exams, he is a bright boy who has always excelled at everything he has done.

I am trying to get organised for Christmas (who isn’t?), and I am going to officially give myself a week off from cooking apart from the main event. We don’t have Christmas dinner on Christmas day usually, it’s just too much as I like to spend time with the kids and not slave over the proverbial hot stove. So I have spent several days cooking, baking, freezing, then cooking some more, vacuum sealing and freezing some more. I now have two weeks worth of prepared food in the freezers, everything from sausage rolls ready to go in the oven to lasagna that just needs finishing off and I am not going to let anyone near it till Christmas week. It feels good, and I have to say I do feel slightly smug about that fact too. Then I decided to get all of the presents done, which they are almost. The cards have yet to be written; I have written a few envelopes and will slip the cards in later. Now back to that week off ……… if only the laundry fairy could come in and do that for me then I would be all sorted.

The Children Made Irish Soda Bread

For all my American friends out there who asked about Irish Soda Bread, we finall got round to making some.

Irish Soda Bread

1lb 2oz of Soda Bread Flour
1 teaspoon of salt
12 floz of buttermilk

Mix the ingredients together in a bowl, when sufficiently mixed turn out onto a floured surface.
knead and work the dough into a circle shape and cut into quarters. This mix is enough to make a huge 'circle' and this will give you 4 generous quarters of soda bread. I made double the quantity and the soda bread lasted the kids a couple of days as a snack.

Cook on a hot heavy based pan or griddle with a little bit of butter.

Serve hot with butter and jam.