Bee-ing with your family

A bee sampling a flower from the Pin-cushion Hakea in our front yard

The catch-cry of the The Early Years Learning Framework is the 3 B's, which stand for Belonging, Being and Becoming.  
click here to find out what this is 
Quite soon after adopting the EYLF at my current workplace, we starting using cute pictures of Bees when producing documents for families regarding the 3 B's, mostly because cartoon pictures of Bees look oh-so-cute :)

One of the things that has become crystal clear to me since Sophie's death is how much emotional energy I wasted everyday.  For example, getting irritated when someone pinched a parking place I'd been waiting for, or criticizing another person's driving if they forgot to indicate or made some other small error.  All that sort of stuff really-does-not-matter.  I have resolved to spend more time being in the moment and being with my family, my children in particular.  I have been being in the moment with them in things that they are interested in.  Like building a cubby house with Nicole from pruned branches today.  Or doing excavation work in the sandpit with Keith and his Tonka trucks.


I am really enjoying how I spend my time these days, and I'm confident that what I'm spending my time on are the things that really matter in life.

Crochet Hats

I started to knit with enthusiasm when I was pregnant with Nicole, thanks to encouragement from my good friend, Liz.  I've since admired crochet, and wished to try it, but always chickened out, until I borrowed a fabulous book from the local library called "Essential Crochet" by Erika Knight.  It showed step by step how to make the stitches, and had photos to boot.  It got me started.  I soon discovered how much quicker crochet seems to be than knitting.  I like small achievable projects, so I've settled on hats to try out my newly learned skill.  One puzzle that fellow crocheters will be familiar with is the fact that the English conventional names for crochet stitches are different from the American conventional names.  Thus, you'd better know in which country the pattern you are reading was published before you start, otherwise you won't know whether you're doing a double or a treble or a half treble, or a double treble....aaaarrrrggghhhh!   The English names seem more logical to me, sorry about that to anyone who likes the American names.

Bonjour!

 This is the first one I made.  It was intended for me, but young Keith commandeered it for himself.  It looks rather like a beret on him, we thought.  So he got to keep it.  Nicole immediately demanded that one be made for her.  In pink and purple please Mum.

The princess in pink hat

 Nicole's looks less like a beret because I added a flare at the base to make it more feminine, and just to try it to see how it would look.  I like it.  (Not that blokes cannot have flares on their hats).   I like them both.  I am currently working on 2 more hats for 2 friends, in a different colour to these.  I am using variegated sock wool for all of these because they make such a beautiful colour.

The flare

Juicing Part II

Throughout this carrot/apple juicing experience, I've pondered on how I could use the pulp rather than composting it.  Not that there is anything wrong with composting.  Then I had a light bulb moment - I could put the pulp into cakes or bread to increase the vegetable consumption of the smaller members of the household!  Ha!  They won't even realize they are eating vegetables.  Well, it turns out that I have underestimated my children YET AGAIN - they are way more intelligent and capable than I give them credit for.

SO, I made 1litre of apple/carrot/beetroot/celery/ginger juice, and this produced approximately 10 cups of pulp of various colours.  I added 1 cup of carrot pulp to a 350g Laucke's Crusty White loaf, and here's how it turned out - 
As you can see in the above picture, adding carrot pulp to the bread resulted in a satisfying uniform orange colour, with the occasional speck of carrot.  Kids declared it to be delicious hot, when spread with butter. Curiously, when the same bread was served up as toast the next morning, the response I got was "Is this carrot???  How DARE you put carrot in my toast!!!!!"  Fickle creatures, aren't they.  When I tried adding beetroot juice to a loaf of bread, the result was not uniform.  The outside of the bread was slightly beetroot colour, but not the inside of the bread.  Not sure what this means, but no doubt there is a simple chemical explanation.

Bread with Beetroot juice added

 Yet again, the small members of the house failed to fall for the "hide the vegetables" trick.  Darn it.   My next effort will be to integrate vegetable pulp into chocolate cake.  Stay tuned.....

Beetroot Juice and Home-made Laundry Liquid

I tried a new addition to the juicer this week - beetroot.  I stuck with the 60/40 carrot/apple with a hint of ginger and celery, and added one whole beetroot.  Sure makes a pretty colour!  It tastes great, too.  It's a winner in my book.  The only advice I would give is to NOT consume it while wearing a white Tshirt.  Which brings me to my next discovery - Homemade Laundry Liquid.  I first read about this in the Women's Weekly (Monthly) which my Nanan treats me to each month.  The article was by Rhonda Hetzel, and the recipe for the liquid, as well as a wealth of other money-saving hints for the home can be found here: http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com.au/
I first tried making the powder without taking it to the next step of heating and liquifying it, but that didn't work as well, as some of the soap flakes would not dissolve in the washing machine and so I ended up with soap flakes in the filter.  The lesson from this is "Don't be lazy, Kate!

3L bottle formerly holding milk

10L container

If you follow the recipe on Rhonda's site, you will find that the percentages I have stated on the bottle in the picture are approximations.  It was simply easier than writing 1.25% twice.  Hmmm I detect the "Lazy Chip being employed again.  The cost of making this laundry liquid is way cheaper than buying detergent.  And it works.  I wash in hot or warm water now instead of cold, but I'm OK with that, as warm/hot water is the best for removing oil-based stains, and the cost savings of making the liquid far outweigh the cost of heating the water.

Upcycling Pillowcases

As a fundraising stall for the school's fair this year, a group of enterprising parents has proposed an Upcycled Clothing Stall.  This entails taking a piece of clothing or manchester that is no longer used in its present form, and modifying it to make it wearable again, or cutting it up and making something else entirely.  A good friend of mine has dabbled in making children's clothes from pillowcases (thanks for the inspiration, Lib) and I decided to have a go and make a prototype for the clothing stall.  I based my dress on the tutorial found on this blog:

 http://vintagesheets.blogspot.com.au/2010/06/smocked-pillowcase-dress-tutorial.html

I started with a vintage pillowcase that doesn't match any other sheets in the house, and never gets used.  Miraculously, 2 rolls of thread in my collection matched the fabric - how often does that happen?!?


 

Vintage pillowcase

Vintage sewing machine

2 spools of matching thread!  I chose green.

I proceeded to follow the instructions on the above blog.  Since my model for the dress is a tall 7yo, I only cut the minimum of 2.5inches from the sealed end.  It makes me think that a cutting board and rotary would be OH SO NICE instead of the old fashioned method I used.  But then the old fashioned method goes rather nicely with the old fashioned sewing machine, does it not?!?

The first cut

A short household survey on the topic of shirred dresses revealed that they MUST NOT be itchy.  The itchyness arises from the shirring elastic being next to the skin.  SO I did 2 bands of 5 rows of shirring at what will be the top of the dress, with a 2cm gap in between the bands.  I then folded the top band over to the inside to make a facing.  So the shirring elastic is now hidden in its own little bit of facing.  Problem solvered, as the add says.
I quickly realized that my next problem was that a single pillowcase does not make a long enough dress for a tall 7yo.  Oops.  Should have measured that at the start!  So I grabbed a plain pink pillowcase from my Upcycling Box, and to my delight, it was slightly wider than the patterned one.  Why is this so exciting, you might ask?  Because it meant I could gather it and have a little ruffle going on at the join.

Dress extension

I joined it on, and then, just to be a smartypants, I made the shoulder straps from the pink as well, thus making it seem like a 2-toned dress was the plan all along.  Tada!

My beautiful model

What I have learnt from this project is to (1) always measure first!!!!
(2) Pillowcases would make a suitable length dress for a 3-5yo, or a top (with shirring at the waist also to bring it in a bit) for an older girl.
(3) Upcycling is fun and very satisfying.

The Juice Fountain

Grandad's Apple Tree

Carrots to last a month at least

                                                                       I have borrowed a juice fountain from some good friends of mine (thanks H&G!).  The name Juice Fountain generated an image in my mind of putting fruit and vegetables in the top and seeing a lovely arc of juice flowing from the spout into my waiting glass.  BUT NO.  This juicer is not for wimps.  This juicer kicks serious butt.  This juicer is a monster.......devouring whole carrots and apples in a few spins of its ferocious spinning blade.

The monster.......

50/50 Carrot and Apple juice

      The resulting juice is delicious.  I never knew carrots could taste so good!  And I am amazed at how sweet pure apple juice is - almost sickeningly so.
My favourite mix so far is 60/40 carrot/apple, with a 2cm cubed piece of ginger and one stick of celery.  I also like orange juice (although I learned the hard way that putting the whole orange in produces a bitter juice, although it's very impressive watching the juicer demolish the oranges).
My initial motives for juicing were to (1) get more vegetable nutrients into the stomachs of the smaller members of the house, (2) increase my energy levels.  Partial success on the first front - Keith likes anything with apple in it, but Nicole hates the lot so far.  Great success on the second front - for the first time in a while, I don't feel the need to have a rest after lunchtime every day.

Carrot pulp in the chicken's feed bowl

The chickens were offered the leftover pulp generated by the juicing process but they declined to eat it.  Oh well.  That's the price we pay for living in a democracy - you can't please everybody all of the time ;)
 

The Photo on the Rock

On the rock at Mt Barker Summit.   The birdies and teddies that Kate is carrying are to represent Sophie.

Grass Trees

 ANZAC Day has different meanings to different people.

On ANZAC Day, Australians and New Zealanders think about the fact that many people have gone to war to preserve the freedom that we now enjoy in our countries.  In particular, we may think about family members who fought and possibly died, not only in WWI, but in any armed conflict since that time.  I think about both my Grandfathers, who fought in WWII and survived into their 80's.

ANZAC Day is also a day that Ben and I met.  On ANZAC day in 2000, I hosted a BBQ at home, and a couple I knew asked if their friend Ben could attend.  Sure, I thought, why not.  Ben arrived at the front door, spluttering about our mutual friends running late.  I found out later that he'd waited out in the car for some time, cursing their name for not arriving to accompany him into the house. A little over 2 months later, we started dating.  On ANZAC Day the following year, we became engaged.  Every ANZAC Day since then, we climb Mt Barker Summit and pose on the same rock for a photograph to mark the passage of another year.
As we look back over the years, we marvel at the sprawl of the Mt Barker township, which can be seen in the background behind us.  The amount of rainfall over the summer preceding each photo can be seen by the state of the flora on the mountain.  This year we had good rain.  Lots of flowers.  I can also report that the millipede population is still very healthy on the mountain (beats me why they want to live somewhere so cold).
This year was also a sad year for the photo on the rock.  If Sophie had lived, this would have been her first year in the picture (technically she was in last year's photo, but quite small in my tummy).  In the photo she is represented by the birdies (which have become a symbol for her life) and the teddies we were given at her birth.  I have also recently started redistributing all the baby paraphernalia that we were given for Sophie, and while this is also tinged with sadness, it is also liberating in a way, allowing me(us) to move on to the next phase of our lives, with our other wonderful children being more independent and able to enjoy camping, cycling, and various other activities with us.

2011

2011.  Unusually warm, as you can see by our clothes.

2010

2010.  The Ned Kelly look is in this year.  The beard started at Easter time 2 months earlier out of laziness, and I liked it so much I asked Ben to keep the beard.  So he did.  What a great guy I married :)

2009

2009 was so rainy and windy that we had to huddle behind the monument and hope we didn't get blown over.  We didn't dare leave the camera alone to take a photo on the timer.

2008

I say, look at that clean-shaven face.  He hasn't aged at all since last year, has he?!?

2007

Ah yes, I remember that phase.  2 kids in nappies.  Yeeha.







And that's as far back as our electronic photo records go.  I'll have to dig deeper to find the previous years.  Stay tuned!