Wearing It

Winter Wardrobe Wednesday

Cardy: House of G
Knit for Tattoos T-shirt: Natalie Dee
Yoga Pants: Bamboo Body (bought yonks ago at Organic Baby in Petone)
Manky Slippers complete with toe air-holes: Egmont Tanneries
Accessories: Mister Six
Blurry Photo: Hubby not wearing his glasses

We're reading one of our favourite books - the illustrations of Seasons give me the warm fuzzies.

Learning It

Pirates learn French.

Pirate Cowgirls learn maths. Relaxed on the couch. Cuz you can do that at home.

Boys learn fine motor skills. Good for the handwriting.

I was able to flick through Rip the Page while visiting a Soul Sister in Auckland recently, after seeing it around the home-learning blogosphere. Looks worth a crack for ALL of us to try some creative writing this year. It's good for the Mum to keep Learning It too!

Winter Sun, Part Two

We're getting a few glimpses of Winter Sun this week...

Roasting our coffee beans

Transplanted rhubarb waiting to put feet in the soil

Sneaky sneaky opening the packet of Pebbles (shock, horror - yes, food colouring)

Sewing in the ends on a brainless knitting project - a new dishcloth

Library book basket - full of books on Shakespeare and Van Gogh this term

Our lounge carpet - zany

A teeny peek of my brand new nephew sunbathing

Bread Matters

I'm not huge on posting food pics here because I'm not that good a photographer or food stylist. However, lately I've been making the BEST bread that I feel like boasting about. I got Bread Matters on Sandra's recommendation and apart from being an enjoyable, revelationary and revolutionary read it's opened new doors in my bread making. I cranked up a rye flour sourdough starter and use that with our home-ground wheat flour and usually some soaked grains to make a tasty, filling, long-lasting Vogels-like loaf. I do feel revolutionary making bread using no commercial yeast, just the wild beasties I've cultivated in my kitchen;-)

Nothing better than topping it with M(nearly)10's homemade grapefruit marmalade!

I use a fancy schmancy French loaf tin. It's double walled which helps give a nice evenly cooked, lovely crusted loaf. The finish is polished for non-stick-ness rather than the gross teflon non-stick stuff that eventually chips off into your food to poison you;-) I need to get a couple more so I can cook a weeks worth of bread on one day. One major benefit of the bread is its long-lastingness.

I love how our children's literature reflects stuff in our family life - as it should. The Giant Jam Sandwich baker doesn't add any strange preservatives to his huge loaf.

The only filler the In the Night Kitchen dudes try to add is Mickey;-)

A Bit'O'Christmas

Today, we constructed! I opted out of making my own houses this year and bought them. I don't think the kids will remember that Mum couldn't be blowed baking this year. I don't think they noticed my blood pressure rising as nose-pickers touched lolly bowls and white icing went all over our (rental!) carpet;-) I hope they'll just retain this activity as a sweet family Christmas memory.




We love our Christmas books. I buy a new one (oops - five this year) every year. What are some of your favourites?

Current W.I.Ps

I'm sure I've confessed here before my slight weakness for knitting books;-) One of my latest acquisitions is the new Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside The Lines. As well as being pee your pants funny there are stunning patterns in there that are now clogging my project whiteboard.

I quickly whipped up the Leafy Reticule in some hemp from my stash. I already had the thrifted wooden handles put away for a sewing project but they were there and the right size. I've started a Monteagle Bag in some olive green hemp too.

Just look at that gorgeous Jane Austen Dress! I am definitely making one of those with a matching shrug for my two-year old niece's Christmas pressie. I'm sure at least one of my young ladies will end up with one too.

My February Lady Sweater is trudging along - at snail's pace since this new book has come along to distract me.

Pioneer Styles

I know that the pile of food looks really, um, unpleasant but it tasted GREAT! We went all Ingalls Family for dinner tonight and made REAL baked beans! I did the haricot beans first in the slow cooker yesterday then realised this morning I needn't have. I chucked in the required onion, "salt pork" (Harrington's Free Range bacon pieces) and some blackstrap molasses.

Apparently "Puritan housewives mixed beans with a bit of molasses, salt pork, and onion and sent them off in large pots to the local bakery to cook all Saturday. The beans would provide a hot Saturday supper and cold meals for a work-free Sabbath." So, the pioneers had slow-cookers too;-)

After recently reading Journey Cake, Ho! by Ruth Sawyer we're trying the Johnny-Cake recipe from our cookbook - "a crusty slab of cooked cornmeal that was mostly a vehicle for syrup or gravy".

Pluttification Tables

Astrid Lindgren gets our home-learning mindset;-)

"But don't you realise that you have to go to school?" said the policeman.

"Why do I have to go to school?"

"To learn things, of course."

"What sort of things?" asked Pippi.

"All kinds of things," said the officer. "Lots of useful things, like the multiplication tables, for instance."

"I've been fine for nine years without any pluttification tables," said Pippi. "And I'm sure I can manage in the future, too."

"Yes, but think how sad it will be for you to be so ignorant. What about when you grow up and someone happens to ask you what the capital of Portugal is and you can't answer?"

"Of course I can answer," said Pippi. "I'll just answer like this: if you're so desperately anxious to know what the capital of Portugal is, then by all means write a letter to Portugal and ask them!"

"But don't you think you'd feel silly that you couldn't answer the question yourself?"

"That's possible. Occasionally I might lie awake at night and wonder over and over: what on earth is the capital of Portugal? But you can't expect that things will always be fun, " said Pippi, as she went into a handstand and stayed there for a moment. "Besides, I've been to Lisbon with my pappa, " she went on as she stood upside down, because that didn't stop her from talking.

We are thoroughly enjoying this beautiful edition of Pippi Longstocking, gorgeously illustrated by Lauren Child.

Thank God for the Sallies

Book haul from the Salvation Army Second Hand Store this morning.

Worzel Gummidge

Embarassingly, I never even realised that Worzel Gummidge was a book! What a reflection on my 1970s/1980s TV-focused childhood.

I spotted the book as I was racing out of the library one day recently. My eyes popped out but I didn't have time to grab it. This week, Jane over at Yarn Storm posted a pic so I took that as a sign that M8 needed to read the book. So she did. In two days. And loved it.

Books

Reading is my great love! I keep wanting to talk to you about books but never get around to it but a couple of posts have prompted me this week.

First, Sarah Bean WOWED me with her post about the true power of self-education in Malawi. As a home-learning family also interested in development (and also having been to Malawi!) this really tickled our fancy. What an encouragement for us all to grasp our own education in our hands.

As always, my kindred spirit Rach, stimulates the brain cells from Off Her Bookshelf. How wonderful it was to meet someone struggling their way through Don Quixote too (waves at Karen as well).

Here's a wee tour of our bookshelves...

This one in the lounge is not big enough but holds my favourites. Do you check out people's bookshelves when you visit their home? I shamelessly do!

The kid's shelf in the dining room.

My recipe books crammed under my computer desk.

This basket usually holds our current reads from the library but this is the kid's Christmas book haul!

The children's selection from Wellington Library this morning. The book love can't be contained by our local library so I forked out some precious homeschool allowance to join the Wellington Library. Their Nostalgia section has proven a goldmine for M8's reading.

My Wellington Library choices.

The shelf in A2's bedroom.

M8's current read.

My craft books under my sewing table.

My bedside table.

My bedside floor.

My current "Bible" on top of my computer desk.

Before I come across as a high-brow literary snob I also have a bad glossy magazine habit which I've been unable to break.

My dream house will one day have huge in-built shelves all over the place but in the meantime we make do with what we have and ensure we utilise our libraries to their full potential.

Exchange Rate

I'm not big on economics but apparently the currently high NZ dollar is bad for our economy. I still remember working for an international aid agency and the great excitement when the NZ dollar crept up, knowing we could buy more US dollars for work overseas.

Now, Amazon.com and the NZ dollar are my friends. I bought books. Only two books...but oh my...they're so nice!

First See and Sew arrived. Daughters and I poured over this with delight. It has a real Milly Molly Mandy sensibility which appeals to us.

Look at her. She even looks like Eldest with dear departed Cat.

A winter making sock dolls. I think so.

Today, The Crafter's Companion hit my letterbox. I want to be a Crafter, badly, desperately, with a feeling that makes my tummy tight. This book is half inspirational but half crippling. I mean, look at that Craft Room. She has a Craft Room. A Room of Her Own. Sigh...

Ah well, onwards into a Winter of Craft accompanied by my books.