Hearth & Health
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Treehouse Masterpiece
Last week the children announced that their treehouse masterpiece was ready for viewing and they wanted me to come down to the bush to see their progress. For several days the children had been heading into the bush with ‘seconds’ of the decking timber, to refurbish the old treehouse, so I wasn’t too sure what to expect. Certainly not this beauty! Masterpiece built by Michelangelo (13) and Princess (11)!! Many, many happy hours are spent playing down at the treehouse. Creating childhood memories. Enjoying life in the bush. Well done Michelangelo and Princess, a masterpiece indeed!!
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Learning Room Needing a Revamp
We are very excited to finally have a learning room once again, after 6 years of makeshift quarters. All three of our learning areas flow off each other, the first door on the right takes you into the study, and the second door into the library. I’m contemplating pulling down walls and opening up the library and learning room to one another, though that plan has pros and cons. Actually the back wall (with the display shelves) will be coming down and opening up to the room beyond. Whilst it is true that a dedicated learning area isn’t necessary to home educate we have found over the years that we…
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Plating Up
In our early years as a family, many an afternoon I would ring my husband at 4.30pm at work and ask him, “What will we have for tea!?” Not planning properly and frozen in decision making, we consequently bought pizza on far too many nights! I came to realise that the key to success for us in our cooking juggle was organisation. On the days that I thought about tea immediately after breakfast and removed meat from the freezer accordingly, were the days all went well (at least in the meal arena;) It became apparent that I functioned far better with a plan, I was not good at making…
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A Pool For Christmas
This Christmas we rather ambitiously decided to buy a pool, due to budget constraints it was decided that a 2nd hand above ground find from ebay would be the more prudent option. After laying out and marking for size, we hired a dingo digger to take off the topsoil, however a malfunction with the digger decided us on the course of digging it all by hand! What back breaking hard labour and whilst all had a turn of helping, the majority of the work was undertaken by Einstein, you’re awesome son!! With Carpenter coming in as second backstop! After the soil was removed it was time to add, spread and…
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Book Close Up – Aussie Bookcase
Interestingly, whenever I share pictures of our library here on my blog the comments roll in thick and fast, therefore I have to assume that the majority of you aren’t thinking, “Oh no, not another book post” as one reader informed me, “I flick through your book posts, I’m not interested.” Recently Jeanne begged and begged for close up pictures of my bookshelves, so dedicating this post to Jeanne, my friend I assumed it was Australian books you wished to see. The following post is picture heavy so you just may want to click away if all things books send you to sleep. Beginning on the bottom shelf of our…
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Organisational Bliss
Every family needs a shipping container, truly it is an organisational dream. Originally, as we spent three years squishing a large family into 77 square metres the shipping container was a necessity. Now it plays a different but integral role. As we had a massive cull and re-organisation of the shed and container recently, I thought I’d take you on a tour, perhaps I shall convince you that you too, need one of these;) *In Australia most homes do not have attics or basements, flooding and white ants are deterants. On the immediate front left we have baby furniture and tall sports equipment, golf clubs, cricket bats, tennis rachets etc Continuing along we come to…
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A Bibliophile Declares, Perfect:)
Recently I realised that our library pics are outdated and blurry. Thought I’d treat you to a tour of one of the most popular rooms in our house. From the door looking in, it’s rare to find the room empty. The first three bookcases running along the left are; Australian, Childen’s Faith and History. The three shelves above are; Australian and Adult Faith books. Walking immediately forward and standing in the far left corner, I manage to not overexpose this shot. The bookcases on the left of this corner are series; girls, boys, mysteries, literature sets, favourite authors, early readers, nature and science and school texts. Along the top is…
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Grain Free Raspberry Muffins
Elana’s Blueberry Muffins*, were simply scrumptious, alas however we ran out of blueberries, thus we tweaked a little and made Raspberry Muffins. They were voted a close second to the blueberry. Ingredients: 1 cup coconut flour 1/2 tsp baking soda 6 eggs 1/2 cup honey 1 cup extra light olive oil or coconut oil 2 tbsp vanilla extract 2 cups frozen raspberries. Method: 1. Combine flour and baking soda 2. Add eggs, honey, oil and vanilla 3. Gently fold in raspberries 4. Add to muffin papers 5. Bake at 160 (C) for 20 min Makes about 20 muffins *We tweaked the blueberry muffins as usual and substituted honey for agave nectar, and olive/coconut oil for grapeseed.
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Grain Free Spring Menu
With Spring around the corner we’ve re-written our menu. When planning I had to take into account a new factor, Carpenter and Einstein are now training at athlete levels; swim squad, weight fitness and karate all contribute to high amounts of fuel being expended which means higher intakes of protein is needed. The boys were obsessing thinking about food constantly, the new menu has made them happy athletes. Breakfasts: First Breakfast – The boys fry up potato or bacon and eggs prior to swim squad or weight lifting. (all at 5am!) Second Breakfast (first and only for the rest of us) Yoghurt and Fruit Almond & Walnut Crumble/or Porridge x 2 (we’re mostly…
