Making and Baking

It's been a pretty dull week for the last week of the holidays.  I would be prepared to put money on the fact that the sun will be splitting the heavens on Monday morning.

We were lucky to have a nice day for our jaunt to Sydney on Sunday, although we were indoors most of the time so it wouldn't really have mattered!  We went to see the Harry Potter Exhibition at The Powerhouse Museum as part of everybody's Christmas presents.  I have never heard Jonathan say "COOOOOL!" quite so often.  It was pretty impressive but, according to John, not as interactive as the ('obviously far superior' - in his words) Star Wars Exhibition that they visited there 3 years ago.  Unfortunately the gift shop was ridiculously over-priced so Mean Mummy said "no" to souvenirs.  I was pretty disappointed that there was nothing in the pocket money range.  Before lunch we also popped into The Wiggles Exhibition (who wouldn't after all the scandal last week?!) downstairs which suited Robert perfectly.

On the train, wearing my 'Wendy' necklace

Walking through some Chinese New Year celebrations in Belmore Park

Quick muck about in fountains at Darling Harbour

So far this week we have been mostly indoors reading lots  (favourites have been Hugo Cabret, The Famous Five, Gangsta Granny, various comics, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The BFG) playing Robert's favourite Marvel memory game (he wipes the floor with the rest of us), playing with Lego, having friends for sleep-overs, watching Harry Potter (again) (and again), bickering, scrapping, tidying, although there has been some football, scooting, ripstiking and dog-walking thrown in for good measure.  I have even done some Making and Baking.

I've been working on another Isar scarf.  So simple but so suited to these lovely colour-change yarns.  I worked on this while chatting to Smallest and being swooped around by Miss Meg practising her RipStik moves.

Too fast!

Then I've been after more inspiration for the sewing machine.  I'm desperate to learn to sew properly before I mess up some very important project so I'm doing lots of mending (I do live with a lot of boys) and finding more things to do with all the scraps I have floating around.   I fancied trying an apron, although I never wear one.  Instead I just wander around with tea-towels slung casually over my shoulder.  I figured they should be fairly easy, no zips or buttons required, and did some googling.  I didn't find anything that appealed but did find an annoying tea-towel that never properly dries anything which got me thinking.  A quick trip to Spotlight,  $2 and 15 mins later and I had an apron that I actually like and have worn!

The next thing was inspired by tutorials found on Pinterest  (more specifically here and here).  I had a couple of zips hanging around and wanted to see how to attach them and came up with this.  I'm ridiculously pleased with it although it's not quite perfect.

 Then to the baking, there really hasn't been much of it these holidays so we decided to rectify that this morning.  Joseph wanted to help bake some bread, we mixed up some Granola and then baked some of Nigella's Flourless Chocolate Brownies.  I have just finished one with my cuppa and to call them divine would be an understatement.  Must resist the ones left on the plate...

We're off to read some Burns poetry for Burns Night, although sadly no haggis (must try and make one myself sometime), then tomorrow we'll be bbq-ing some snags for Australia Day.  Weather looking like it will be rubbish so not sure what Aussies do when they can't get to the beach?

Whatever you're celebrating I hope it's a good one!

First week of holidays

I had originally intended to post this at the weekend, begining "We have survived the first week of the holidays without incident!"  Clearly I was wishing an incident upon us as Dog disappeared while we were all in the garden and doing jobs.  He had found a hole in the side gate and had taken himself for a walk.  Husband and No3 Boy went in hot pursuit, only for Dog to think this was a great game, and go heading into bush land.  We spent 8 hours looking for him, gave up the opportunity for dinner out with friends, rang the RSPCA numerous times, all in driving, torrential rain.  It rained all night as hard as I've heard it in the 2 years we've been here.  Children were sobbing and I was torn between feeling sorry for him and being furious!  Thankfully we had a phone call at 8.30am on Sunday to say that he was safe and sound and at the RSPCA, having been there since probably about an hour after he left!!  He was very glad to see us, but I doubt very much if he has learnt his lesson.  We, incidentally, learnt that he is actually a year older than we had thought, and is a Red Setter/Golden Retriever Cross, not Labrador as we had assumed. 

ANYWAY!!  Back to my original post...  Other than Dog, we had survived the first week of the holidays without incident, and now nearly all of the second week!  This is not always the case and the first week is often when all the bickering and nonsense goes on until everyone has agreed on their position in the heap.   We've not done much but the weather has been great so we've got out and walked the Dog, we've baked,

still loving the freshly baked bread and rolls

 played at the beach,

done some den building,

a fair amount of Hama/Perler beads,

seen some friends, played some football, been to tennis camp and still had music lessons.  The rain at the weekend was torrential so the DS's were out and there was begging for screens. 

Am I the only Screen Nazi out there?  I can't stand the way children (or men for that matter) behave when screens are on, so during the week they are banned, except for the occasional bribe for the Big 2.  No DS's, no TV, no Wii from Monday until Friday afternoon.  Computers are allowed only for homework purposes.  During the holidays there has been a screen ban until 5pm.  When I was their age I would go out and play on my bike or read, imaginative play.  No 2 Boy and his Best Friend in Scotland were always the best at this.  When they played together you could easily forget they were there as they just got on and built stuff together.  As they got older they would head off on their bikes or play in the woods next to N's house.  Even now, he is the one who has the best fun with his friends and can spend hours creating things. 

And now we are back round at the weekend again.  Husband has voluntarily said he will take some time off, so I'm looking forward to a long weekend of family time (no football or tennis matches), maybe a bit of exploring and spending time with friends. 

I'll leave you with a pic of my latest Crochet-ing.  These scarves are fabulously easy and proving very popular. 

I hope you all have a very peaceful and Blessed Easter weekend.

Baking

I baked bread, from scratch, for the first time today! 

I know, I'm nearly 40 and it's actually disgraceful but I have done it!  And I'll do it again.  I've been cutting back on the rubbish we have in the house slowly but surely.  We no longer have cereal bars/shop bought lunch snacks, I've been trying to bake my own muffins, flapjacks or failing that pikelets (Scotch Pancakes).  I've always made our main meals from scratch but hadn't really thought about breakfast and lunches.  The kids have been having eggs for breakfast occasionally, and sometimes smoothies.  They know I'm 'mean' as they aren't allowed all the sugary breakfast cereals and tend to stick with Weetbix, but when I saw Sue's recipe for her Granola I had to give it a try.  I did last night and it got the thumbs up from my people this morning - result! 

Bread here is super expensive and with growing boys in the house they can eat their way through a loaf when they get home from school.   Sue posted yesterday about how easy baking your own bread is, how much cheaper and how much healthier than all the extra ingredients added to our supermarket loaves.  I had nothing better planned today and thought it was an experiment worth trying.

I followed Sue's recipe - 4 ingredients, bit of kneading, done!  While it was proving I got some other jobs done and managed another Pear and Raspberry loaf.  I seem to have pretty large pans and while Sue get's 4 loaves, I could probably have done 2 large ones, one white and one wholemeal. 

The kids could smell the bread as they came home and, as predicted, ate their way though most of the first loaf!  Thankfully there is enough left over for sandwiches tomorrow, with a piece of (nut-free this time - oops!) Pear and Raspberry Loaf for recess, and some fruit.

Now all we need are some chickens in the garden for eggs and a cow for milk!