1000 Fields of Roses

Seeing Through New Eyes

The other day we went to get some cupcakes. Here is one of mine.

Turkish Delight (yum!)

We hadn’t been in a while, so we enjoyed the whole “choosing-a-favourite-flavour” dance round the table. In front of us, though, was a mum with a little pre-toddler squirming in her arms. She was trying to hold her tray while picking cupcakes as well…
Think of the scene through the eyes of a round-about-one-year-old – an entire table covered in cakes – all different colours and smells! Lots of excitement, lots of wriggling. One very hungry little bean…
We were happy to be able to help by carrying the tray for her, while seeing our treats through a new pair of eyes. 🙂

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Simple life...

on October 18, 2015 at 10:32 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: cupcakes

Perspectives

Another day, another walk…

My walk takes me through the cemetery down the road – it’s quiet and still, and a great place to concentrate on what’s true and important. You know the dark hours, when it all seems too hard? We all get them. My day today was bright and cheery – things completed and a good outlook on the next lot of assessments, sunshine and warmth on my skin, feeling better than I have in a while…
Life’s not always like that.
The cemetery keeps me seeing things in perspective. I’m going to be there (or someplace like it) one day. Sound a bit gloomy? It’s inevitable – we all get there! I believe that’s not the end for me (the most important bits of me, anyway), but at least part of me will be there. It helps me to remember what I need to focus on. It’s actually quite calming, in its way.

In other “news of the day”, we had a bit of a harvest.

The carrots were a bit weedy – planted too close together. The radishes grew well, and the spring onions were grown from the ends of store bought ones. We have quite a few of those.

Also, we’ve been getting visits from this little one…

I think it belongs to the neighbours at the back. It’s a bold little kitten, with blue eyes the colour of its collar. Likes scratches under the chin. 🙂
Just to finish – here’s one of the songs I was listening to as I walked.

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on September 28, 2015 at 6:12 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: cemetery, harvest

Studying The Day Away

First day of holidays! 🙂

This was my view for most of the day today… I have assessments to finish, so not as much time as I’d hoped to just sit and read books for fun. I had my coffee, though, while sitting in the sun, with my incense sticks smoking away, green things growing and birds singing. One of the most relaxed study days I’ve had in a while!
Biggest boy is away at camp for the weekend and Littlest Bean whiled away his first holi-day. He takes after me – he can wander about, making up stories to himself, for vast stretches of time, then spend hours reading.
It’s been lovely to rest, as well as learn…

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Simple life...

on September 19, 2015 at 7:18 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: study/rest balance

Music, Music, Music!

Took the boys to the library today for the Ethno Roadshow, a multicultural celebration of music that’s been travelling round Australia. They got to hear different styles of music, sung in different languages, by Australians from different cultural backgrounds. Fun and uplifting, and Littlest Bean may have had a bit of a dance as well… it was hard not to tap your feet! That’s him up there, settling in to listen.
I’ve said before that we have a wonderful library – these sorts of events are just another reason that I’m glad we live so near to one of the best libraries. 🙂

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on September 3, 2015 at 8:55 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: ethno roadshow, libraries rock!

The Cheesecake From Japan

There’s been a YouTube clip going round, with a recipe for “Japanese Cotton Cheesecake”. I don’t usually watch those sorts of things, but it said only three ingredients were needed (eggs, white chocolate and cream cheese). Sounded easy enough, so we made it yesterday. The boys learned how to separate eggs, and how to melt chocolate in a double boiler.

It turned out really well – not too sweet, but you can’t eat too much at a time.
That little bit up there is all that was left to photograph. I meant to snap a picture both times I had some with French Vanilla icecream (yum!), but I was too busy eating it to remember…

Here’s the clip with the recipe.

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on September 3, 2015 at 8:39 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: 3 ingredients, japanese cotton cheesecake

A Very Good Morning

We’ve been trying to connect with some homeschool groups lately, after years of not being connected. Today, that meant we went to the Autumn Fair, which was basically a buy and sell for the kids and parents – everything from second-hand toys and books to cupcakes and biscuits.
I’d seen the event listed, but didn’t really pay much attention… consequently we really only decided to go yesterday afternoon. Littlest Bean scrambled to get together some things, and ended up selling bags of Lego and old matchbox cars (he had stamps as well, but nobody bought those).

Here’s his table.

Here’s his excitement over having the chance to make some money. 🙂

In the end he made just over $30. He was very pleased…
It was a very good morning, not just because of the money. He got the chance to practise the details of buying and selling – sorting out a float, pricing for value as well as profit, interacting with customers. He also had the chance to know the thrill of putting something successful together in a small amount of time.
A good time was had by all!

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Homeschool

on August 25, 2015 at 10:20 pm Leave a Comment

Movies, Music And Bionicles

Biggest Boy has been making music videos. He hasn’t finished the one he’s working on at the moment (it’s using clips from one of his favourite anime movies) but he gave me permission to link his earlier ones here. 🙂

This is his favourite –

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on August 20, 2015 at 6:22 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: bionicles, music videos

Delicious!

Cooking day again. 🙂
Biggest Boy was inspired by Nigella Lawson to try an egg risotto. The boys had to write the recipe down while watching “Nigella Bites”, which sounds easier than it was…

Here it is – it was gorgeous!
I helped Littlest Bean to make a recipe from an old Coles free magazine called “Lemon Delicious”. It was the first time he’d tried separating an egg, and he did very well 🙂
The recipe was one of those puddings that separate as it cooks.

Perfect.

Yummy too…

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on August 19, 2015 at 10:30 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: lemon delicious, risotto

Weaving Our Lessons Together

I’ve been wanting to get the boys to do some weaving for a while. I’ve put it off, though, because I didn’t have the materials to build a “proper” loom. We had lots of cardboard around… so we built “adequate” looms. 🙂

Little Bean’s, nearly finished, with the cardboard shuttle. The loom is a strip of cardboard with slits cut at the ends to wind the warp around.

Biggest Boy’s – we needed something to push the weft closer together, but all I had was a nit comb…

Finished! 🙂
Next time we’ll allow a bit more room at the ends – it was a bit fiddly to tie the threads together. I think it worked well, though!

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on August 18, 2015 at 8:55 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: weaving

Pie, Tie-Dye And Yorkshire Pudding

It’s been a productive couple of days, with a couple of projects being finished off.
Dinner tonight was a bacon, potato, onion and cheese pie, made by the boys…

…with a try at Yorkshire pudding to follow.

It didn’t quite work out – perhaps there wasn’t enough air for it to puff up. It came out like a baked pancake, but was still nice with honey and cream. 🙂

Today, Littlest Bean finished his wooden raft.

He was very pleased (it actually floats!) His last raft was made of scrap metal, cardboard and tape. That didn’t do too well in water… He’s done a good job this time with sawing and putting all the bits of wood together.

Today we finished tie-dyeing out t-shirts, which we began yesterday. We met up with a homeschool group to learn about how to tie-dye, and this is how it went.