The Genial Hearth
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Archive for Puggle
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 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 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!’
December 7, 2008 at 8:30 pm · Filed under Home Education, Plans, Puggle, This Week
Our plans for
Week 3, 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
Some Enchanted Evening and There is Nothing Like a Dame from South Pacific by Rodgers and Hammerstein
Our picturebook artist for this block is Julie Vivas, and we’re looking at The Very Best of Friends
Activity: Christmas Decorations
December 6, 2008 at 10:00 pm · Filed under Advent, Baking, Bilby, Blogging, Books, Cygnet, Domestic Life, Family, Food, For Children, Paddington, Picture Books, Puggle, Season
Today the task was to read The Secret of Saint Nicholas
. This was one of the books we had from the library last year, and Puggle recognised it when we got it out again:-)
This gave us a chance to catch up on our cooking:-) So while I put Bilby down for her nap, the boys baked:-)
December 5, 2008 at 11:00 pm · Filed under Advent, Bilby, Blogging, Domestic Life, Family, Food, Puggle, Season
So they shaped the gingerbread (well some of it, and there’s still more to do).
Today’s tasks were making Speculatius (which we’ll end up doing tomorrow morning) and putting out their shoes for Saint Nicholas.
December 1, 2008 at 8:00 pm · Filed under Advent, Bilby, Craft, Domestic Life, Family, Puggle, Season
First task off the bat was to make Advent Chains. This one is Bilby’s—she had some help… Puggle’s is still being constructed. You’ll see the coloured rings, they are particular days where we might do something a bit extra special. I just cut strips of paper, but because I forgot to make Christmas Eve and Christmas Day a different colour, I’ve now made a document with strips to cut out. If you choose to print it, the first page should be your ’special’ colour, and the other two your ‘ordinary’ colour.
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by A. A. Milne
by Andrew Lang
