The Genial Hearth
I’ve just put the kettle on, join me for a cuppa and a chat.
Archive for Family
December 27, 2008 at 3:45 pm · Filed under Blogging, Cygnet, Paddington
Christmas and Boxing Day are done!
Now we’re just surrounded by more stuff—people have been very good to us (Cygnet could pretty much be a one-baby advertisement for Lamaze toys!)
Lots of posts to catch up on, and decisions and plans to make for the coming year. I’m hoping to fill in the missing Advent posts over the next week (it was a choice of doing stuff, or blogging stuff… so I chose the doing:-) ) But otherwise, I wouldn’t expect to hear much from me until we’re going to start back at ’school’ in the middle of January. We’ll be busy catching up with folks, going away for a few days, and enjoying Paddington’s company while he’s on leave.
Hope you all had a good Christmas, that your New Year celebrations are enjoyable, and that 2009 holds many good things for you!
December 22, 2008 at 11:34 am · Filed under Advent, Baking, Blogging, Domestic Life, Food, Puggle, Season
Three dozen Fruit Mince Tarts made:-)
I haven’t actually made them in years, so this is a nice change:-)
I didn’t make my own Fruit Mince this year (maybe next year, I reckon Puggle may well be able to do it himself by then), but I still had home-made Fruit Mince, thanks to Lizzy_bbb. I did fail to check I had enough Shortcrust pastry (I had already decided to just use ready-rolled sheets, to simplify matters), so we did the rest with Puff pastry… They’re not as good (they don’t look right:-( ), but they’ll taste fine:-)
No recipe this year, basically circles of shortcrust pastry, place them in a tin, add a teaspoon of fruit mince and top with a cross or some other decoration out of the leftover shortcrust. Bake for about 15-20 minutes in a moderate/hot oven.
December 21, 2008 at 11:43 pm · Filed under Cygnet, Family, Progress, Puggle
My baby’s growing up… He’s not a newborn anymore.
Cygnet has reached the stage of being insufficiently immobile to leave on the bed. We discovered that he’d pivoted 180˚ about his head—which given I’d put him near the centre of the bed, put him disturbingly close to the edge.
So this evening, Puggle helped me put the cot back together.
December 15, 2008 at 10:08 pm · Filed under Advent, Bilby, Blogging, Books, Christmas, Family, For Children, Picture Books, Season
Read Is That You, Father Christmas?
. Bilby became very excited when she recognised the Christmas tree in the book as being like the Christmas tree in the corner of the room:-)
December 14, 2008 at 10:51 pm · Filed under Advent, Christmas, Domestic Life, Family, Season
Decorate the Christmas tree.
Have a picnic underneath.
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas:-)
December 14, 2008 at 8:19 pm · Filed under Home Education, Plans, Puggle, This Week
Our plans for
Week 4, Christmas Block/Term
Adestes Fideles
Annum Faustum! (Happy New Year!)
Vive le Vent (Jingle Bells)
Bonne Année (Happy New Year!))
Memorisation: How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Folksong: Eriskay Love Lilt
Carol: It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught (or here) (who knew Inigo Montoya could sing!) and Honey Bun from South Pacific by Rodgers and Hammerstein
Our picturebook artist for this block is Julie Vivas, and we’re looking at The Nativity
Activity: Christmas Decorations
December 13, 2008 at 9:09 pm · Filed under Advent, Bilby, Domestic Life, Family, Food, Paddington, Puggle, Season
Bring Dada sweet rolls in bed.
Yesterday when Puggle was making his own freshly squeezed orange juice, he was talking about making juice for Dada for breakfast. Last night I set out everything needed for breakfast.
This morning, Paddington was woken with freshly squeezed orange juice and fruit toast. Puggle carried it all in, but Bilby helped clear it away (she’s pretty good at carrying laden plates, but not completely reliable yet:-) )
December 13, 2008 at 12:35 am · Filed under Bilby, Family, Language, Progress
I haven’t kept a list this week… there have just been too many new words. She’s regularly using two word sentences, and occasionally three. She combines words and signs for new meanings (shaking her head while saying a word to indicate the opposite, using ‘where’ in sign while naming what she has lost).
As long as I can see her, I can have a lengthy conversation about surprisingly involved things:-)
Of course, there are still some sounds that elude her, which means there are still a number of words which sound almost identical:-) And for new words, it can be hard to pick what they are (dwanny, for example… I worked it out eventually, but it took longer than I would have liked…)
December 12, 2008 at 10:22 pm · Filed under Advent, Blogging, Domestic Life, Organisation, Puggle, Season
Make Blueberry and Cardomom Bread.
When doing the shopping, I wasn’t able to find dried blueberries (I think I usually find them at Woolies… I was at IGA). Instead I got dried cherries—what the recipe actually called for!
Sadly though, I napped with the children (three nights of Bilby waking in the middle of the night… teeth??), so I failed to put the wheat on to soak in time. None of this bread today:-( (We will make it though, possibly Monday… I’d like to see what it’s like with the cherries:-) ) I’ve cooked some fruit loaf instead, and Puggle was telling me today how he is going to squeeze orange juice for Dada in the morning:-) (I don’t think Paddington reads here every day, so it should be safe to say that:-) )
December 12, 2008 at 1:37 pm · Filed under Bilby, Domestic Life, Family, Puggle
I love watching the kids play:-)
Today, they were outside, and Puggle decided to draw a couple of chalk circles (about side plate size) in the patio. He started jumping on them, and Bilby copied him. So then, he decided that they were frogs, jumping from one lily pad to the next… so now, the patio has a whole line of orange chalk circles:-)
December 11, 2008 at 11:26 am · Filed under Advent, Bilby, Blogging, Christmas, Craft, Domestic Life, Family, Puggle, Season
Make presents.
The day ended up being far busier than I had anticipated, so although the activity was ready to begin, Puggle and Bilby only really started on it today. Puggle is being highly industrious and productive though:-) He seems really quite excited by them (can’t give you too much detail though, I’m pretty sure some of the recipients are reading:-) )
December 9, 2008 at 8:55 pm · Filed under Bilby, Cygnet, Family, Puggle
I was nursing Cygnet in the lounge room, when Bilby came in and asked where Puggle was (his name, with a head tilt and her hands out to ask ‘where’). I repeated back to her “Where’s Puggle?”, and she responded with “Me… find!” and ran off to find him. Moments later she reappeared to tell me he was outside near the gate.
She took a breath, and repeated the whole thing:-)
I do love to see her ‘running’… you can tell it’s a run because her arms work so hard (in two planes:-) )
December 9, 2008 at 8:15 pm · Filed under Bilby, Family, Puggle
Puggle was snuggling after Quiet Time (he’d slept, so he was quite snuggly… this often means he’s a bit out of sorts for a little while). Bilby (who’d woken earlier) decided she was ready to read. She picked out How Do Dinosaurs Eat Their Food?
, and sat on the little couch to read it. Puggle decided he didn’t really want her to, so he hopped up to take it from her.
For once, I actually got in quickly enough to suggest that he could read it to her! She wriggle over, and asked him to—and he obliged. (I think it’s been a while since he has heard it… he was definitely using some of his decoding skills to read it, it wasn’t completely memorised… interesting to listen to:-) )
Since then, Bilby has picked up the same book, gone to the couch and requested that Puggle reads it to her several more times:-)
December 9, 2008 at 8:06 pm · Filed under Advent, Bilby, Books, Christmas, Family, For Children, Picture Books, Puggle, Season
Read Is It Christmas?
.
This is a book we got from the library last year, and it was so sweet that it was a family Christmas present on Christmas Day:-)
This year Puggle is still enjoying it, and Bilby is starting to point out features of it… she’s especially keen on the baby bear hanging from the Christmas tree:-)
December 7, 2008 at 9:30 pm · Filed under Advent, Baking, Bilby, Books, Domestic Life, Family, Food, For Children, Picture Books, Puggle, Season
Today we read Room for a Little One
. We enjoyed it last year, and we’re enjoying it again this year… it’s so peaceful:-)
Puggle and Bilby also made the rest of the gingerbread up… I’ve really enjoyed Bilby requesting that we ‘woll, woll!’
Next entries »
by A. A. Milne
by Andrew Lang
