What we ate last week...

Breakfast:

Scrambled Eggs with feta, semi-dried tomatoes, baby spinach and toast.



Sausage, parmesan bruschetta, brushed with garlic butter and a poached egg.

Oatmeal with cut up bananas and maple syrup.
Oatmeal with caramel apples.



French Toast.

Granola Parfait with berries and yoghurt.

Lunch:

Waldorf Summer Chicken Salad.


Apple Tuna Sandwich
Guacamole with veggie Sticks and corn chips. Rice Paper rolls.



Mushroom and blue cheese quiche with salad

Dinner:

Sausage and maple glazed pumpkin risotto

Grilled Lamb Chops, mashed potato and vegetables.

Spaghetti Bolognese Bake.

Tuna Mornay Bake and salad

Creamy Fish Pie and Veggies.

For more menu ideas head to the Organizing Junkie!!

Liebster Award

Well this is very exciting!!! Being nominated for an award!! 

Yesterday, I noticed a comment on my latest post and it was from Shannon from These Are The Days!! She informed me that she had nominated me for this award. It was so exciting! Thankyou so much Shannon!!

The Liebster Blog Award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less that 200 followers .

The Rules:
1 ~ List 11 facts about yourself.2 ~ Answer the 11 questions given to you.3 ~ Create 11 new questions for the bloggers you nominate for the award.4 ~ Choose 11 bloggers with 200 or less followers to nominate.5 ~ Go to each bloggers page and let them know about the award.6 ~ Thank the person who nominated you and link back to their blog.

11 Facts about myself:

1. My heart is for my family to learn to keep their eyes on Jesus, seek Him every day, build their foundations on Him and have a passion in their heart for Him that never dies.

 2. My favourite movie of all time is Anne of Green Gables (in fact my first best friend was chosen because she reminded me of Diana!!).

3. I have had 4 caesareans producing four beautiful children.

4. I love to have days where I don't get dressed and just potter around all day in my jammies!

5. I prefer to be on an adventure than be stuck at home doing housework! (hence why I get so messy!)

6. I spent 10 years living in the UK and was so broken hearted after leaving there, that it took me a very long 10 years to settle in here in Australia.

6. I love to sing, I love to make up silly songs, even though everyone around me may need to duck for cover :)

7.  I am a Big Kid at heart!!

8. I wear my heart on my sleeve...

9. I love trying new recipes and homeschool activities all of the time!! Always excited about the next adventure. 

10. I am not quite 5 foot ( but nearly!)

11. I would love to travel the world, immersing myself in different cultures, activities, taste sensations and adventures.

Now that is 11 facts about me....next are answers to the 11 questions from Shannon....

1. How long have you been married?

We married in 2002 in a traditional church wedding at my regular church. So that makes it 10 years...nearly 11 years!

2. Where did you meet your husband?

I don't really want to admit this...but it was on the dance floor at our local pub.

3. If you could take a dream vacation anywhere, where would you go?

I think that my answer to this has to be Tasmania. It looks so beautiful down there, just breathtaking. I would love to explore all I could about that beautiful land.

4.If you could choose between being near the mountains or the ocean, which would you choose?

Definitely the mountains! Big, beautiful mountains to explore and gaze at. 

5. What is your favourite holiday?

My favourite holiday was walking in the Welsh Snowdonian mountains. My Mum took us there on a walking holiday and it was breathtaking and beautiful.

6. What is your favourite kind of music?

I love most kinds of music without having any favourites. I just love music. I love music that honours and praises God. I love music that is inspiring and relaxing. I love music that I can dance too. I love music that is fun.

7. What is your favourite movie?

Whoops! Doubled up! Anne of Green Gables. I just thought Anne was wonderful and wanted to be just like her. She really felt life and took it all in. She wore her heart on her sleeve!

8. What colour is your living room?

Our living room is painted beige.

9. Do you have any pets?

Not at the moment.

10. Do you put coloured lights or white lights on your christmas tree?

I definitely prefer coloured lights. I love everything about Christmas!

11. Why did you start your blog?

I am shocking at keeping written records for homeschooling, so this is my record of our adventures as we learn. Also I started it for overseas and distant friends to be able to see what we get up to.

Now I am going to nominate 11 inspiring bloggers that deserve such an award:

1. Grace and Fur

2. Blue Skies Green Days

3. Doves Rest

4. Broom and Crown

5. Vintage Rose

6. Life In the West

7. Gentle Revolution Homeschooling

8. Growing Up Our Style

9. Schooling A Monkey
10. The Happy Homeschool Mom
11. Reaping A Harvest

11 Questions for those I have nominated for this award...

1) What is your favourite thing to do with your family?

2) What age did you get married?

3) If you could paint your car any colour, what colour would it be?

4) If you had the choice between climbing a really tall tree to gaze out over God's creation, or lie on a rug underneath the tree and gaze at things more closely around you, which would it be?

5) What was your favourite thing about school?

6) What is your favourite season and why?

7) Do you live near mountains, ocean, fields, desert, rainforest or somewhere else?

8) If you had the choice between city and country, where would you live? Why?

9) Do you like everything tidy or are you a clutter bug?

10) What do you do that others see as quirky? (But of course very normal to you, lol)

11) What is your favourite dessert and chocolate bar? (if you don't do dessert, then what is your favourite food?)

Thanks again Shannon for this wonderful surprise. Please hop over and check out these other great blogs. 

Little House In The Big Woods Chapter 2.

Here is what we plan to do...

1. Horse and sled...

Adele will have the task of designing, selecting materials and creating a horse and sled as was used in Little House In the Big Woods.

2. Making a Bed

In Chapter 2 it was the girls job to make the beds. I thought that this would be a great opportunity to teach my girls how to make a bed properly. So I found this song to teach them! It is from Songs For Teaching.

Making the Bed
I get up out-’a my bed then I turn around it is said
And I smooth the bottom sheet
So no wrinkles worry me, I make it smooth as it can be
‘Cause it’s a treat.

I pull up the top sheet too, make it wrinkle free
So you and I can see
That the blanket comes up next
The spread and pillow that are left don’t worry me.

When I step back and survey I think now I can decorate it and say
That my toys and pillows showed today
I chose the higher road, my bed is made!

3. Making Butter:

Here are some links:

Cook UK - shake a jar method.

JumpStart - use a marble.

Over the Hill and on a roll - How To Make Butter In Under 5 Minutes!

Homemade Butter ~ In the Blender!

A song:

Make a Bit of Butter*From Mary Lee and Nancy’s concert “Songs and Tales of the Trails”

Chorus: 

Make a bit of butter for our biscuits, Betty
Make a bit of butter and we’ll have it tonight
Make a bit of butter for out biscuits, Betty
Make a bit of butter and we’ll have it tonight

Milk the cows in the morning, Betty (pretend to milk a cow)
Milk ‘em in the morning for butter tonight
Milk the cows in the morning, Betty
Milk ‘em in the morning for butter tonight
(chorus)

Bumpin’ up and down making butter in the wagon, (Move up and down as if bumping)
Bumpin’ up and down a little butter tonight
Bumpin’ up and down making butter in the wagon,
Bumpin’ up and down a little butter tonight

4. Make pie and cookies

In Chapter two the girls help their mum cook, so we will plan to cook some pie and cookies this week.

5. Paper Dolls.

Links:

Vintage dolls from Sugar Sticks.

tpetit from Mystery Paper Doll.

Families Online magazine.

Tommy and Anika.

Betsy mcCall

Or better yet have fun making your own designs.

6. Research what lighting would have been used in The Little House era.

If you have anymore activity ideas please add a comment.

Homeschool this week...horses, potatoes, lolly wagons and corn husk dolls!!

This week has been very busy!! But we still made time to get some activities done :)

Adele has continued with her art journal, except that I think I should have let it go this week as due to tiredness, it was quite a half effort :) Oh well there is always next week!

Adele continued her research into Wisconsin... for her Little House In The Big Woods Project.

Avril decided to make her creation 'Fruit Smash'. She chooses her favourite fruits and smashes them together in a bowl!

Then they spent ages creating pictures with matchsticks.

This are Josef's cars..

The building continued with candy land creations!!

I was really impressed with Avril when she presented me with her creation this week...it is a horse!! The leaf is the tail.

Avril continued with her reading and writing practice. She likes to underline all the letters she writes, so Daddy will know which is my example and which are hers :)

She is doing so well!!

Here  is some of her maths from MEP ..

And Adele making out she is not playing with her Paddle Pop people whilst doing math!!

They have been building cubby houses..big and small!!

This week one of our outings was to the local art gallery where Avril has begun Art workshops whilst Adele is doing Italian.

Josef thought it was fun to check out the art sculpture!! And below is one of the collages Avril created!

This week the girls also returned to horse riding!! And we are loving it so much! We have smaller classes this term and the girls are learning so much :)


Teaching the girls how to walk safely around a horse when grooming...

Grooming the horse...

Mounting the horse...

Adjusting the stirrups...

Sitting straight...

Holding our reins...

Building confidence...

Controlling the horse...

Learning balance and confidence..

Then it was the big girls turn..

Lined up for exercises...

Around the World we go!!

On your marks...

And we have a winner!!!

Off we go...

Balancing and confidence building...

Are we trotting, no stirrups and no reins!!

Grooming down...

The other kids weren't left out, they played on the rocks, in the toy car, but their favourite bit was the water pond!!!

It was a hot day...but a great day also!!


After riding we headed to a local historical court house... here is Josef holding a book mark with a part of a picture to seek!! And he seeked it with no trouble!! I was impressed!

The kids got to put a parent on trial. As well as get locked in the old jail cell!! They had a lot of fun.

Josef loves his Big brother so much. I love seeing them interact like this...

Snuggling and resting!!

After a busy week we were left with Saturday to do some Little House activities...

Wagon making...

I asked Josef to go and get me some farm animals. he returned with Pokemon, dinosaurs and a Kookaburra to pull our wagons!!! :)

But as you can see the girls snuck off and brought back a horse and a donkey..

Guess whose? Josef had to have lots of marshmallows, biscuits and lollies!! I think it was after he heard me say we could eat them after!! lol

Avril and Adele decided that making S'mores out of them would be yummy!!

The girls ate their s'mores and then decided Pita Pizzas would be nice for lunch, so as I had left it too late to make quiche, we made pizzas.

After lunch the girls followed online instructions to create corn husk dolls. They were so excited about this project!

The finished project..

It was too hot to keep creating, so the kids ran outside under the sprinkler...

But as it cooled down and Derek started the BBQ, we thought it was the perfect time to start our potato planting..

I didn't have a bucket but I did have an old sink, so we propped this up on bricks.

The kids gathered stones to use in the sink to help the water escape but not clog up.

Daddy came over to help as he is the gardener in our family!! :) Thanks derek!

Then it was time for potting mix...

Then we gathered our sprouting potatoes..

The kids then made little signs to show whose potato garden it is :)

Another very busy but productive week!!