Celebrating with Red Roses

Each day, awakening, are we asked to paint the sky blue? Need we coax the sun to rise or flowers to bloom? Need we teach birds to sing, or children to laugh, or lovers to kiss? No, though we think the world imperfect, it surrounds us each day with its perfections. We are asked only to appreciate them, and to show appreciation by living in peaceful harmony amidst them. The Creator does not ask that we create a perfect world; He asks that we celebrate it.  ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

Four roses from my four sweethearts celebrating the fact that in this imperfect world we live in,

 justice has been accorded us.  Yes, our case has been heard in our favour. Yay!  

Now we await restitution and pray it comes swiftly.  This is such a huge relief - words escape me.

We have all changed over this period of time.

Lessons have been learned.

One of the most important we want to share is this:

don't be pressured to settle for less, 

particularly when wrongs are being done,

action can be taken, 

justice can be carried out.

God holds us throughout this entire journey.

Blossoms and Birds

Break open a cherry tree and there are no flowers, but the spring breeze brings forth myriad blossoms.  ~Ikkyu Sojun

There are a number of things we are truly enjoying in our new, albeit temporary, home.

We enjoy a visit from a pair of Crimson Rosellas every afternoon.

They are enjoying foraging in the apricot tree blossoming in our back yard at the moment.

I was fortunate to be able to capture them this afternoon, 

so engrossed were they in the myriad blossoms.

They leave a carpet of blossoms under the tree, 

aided by the sulphur crested cockatoos, magpies and other friendly birds.

These delicate blossoms are full of romance.

The little dancing ladies here remind me of the dancers of a mystical Swan Lake, 

tiptoeing delicately upon a lake of snow and ice.

Then they are transformed into a most beautiful ballerina dressed delicately in a beautiful pink bodice with billowing white skirt, layering upon tassels of gold and silver.

The Apricot Blossom - 

the current delight of my heart

and joy of my days.

Sounds like my precious little girls really.

 ;)

Our First Family Snow Trip

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. ~John Ruskin

We took our first family trip to the snow on Sunday. It has been the one thing Ess wanted to do in and around Canberra and one motivator for her leaving Adelaide. It has been hard leaving the familiar places and friends we had grown to love, yet we have made some lovely new friends here in Canberra. We were fortunate to meet up with some of them at Mt Selwyn, simply by chance. All the girls had fabulous fun together.

The icy snowballs weren't quite the same as the soft bubbles in the bath our bub is used to, yet she approached them for exploration in the same manner.

And here he is:

Our very first snowman!

It was a long and lovely day, reminding me of our many beach trips and leaving me longing for another. The similarities were many - packing extra clothes, extra food, building, getting wet, fun and laughter.

So lovely to have a day out together not thinking about the fact that we are waiting for the Master of the Court to hand down his finding. Yes the case was heard a fortnight ago and he is taking his time in writing everything up properly. It's hard times!

Cooking with Division

Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. ~Chili Davis

Today we spent the whole day decorating a special birthday cake for my Generous Gentleman. We worked at it from 9am until 2.30pm when my Ess was adamant she would soon be having a rest, yet at the same time so willingly helping with packing and tidying up.

Seeing as we are exploring division in our mathematical thinking at the moment I decided that baking and decorating a cake with multiples of evenly divided lollies using an old-fashioned recipe handed down to me via Mum from my Gran would be motivating and inspirational. This was just such a fabulous decision as Ess took on the whole project with ease and I took on the role of facilitator/supervisor. I just love that role and have been longing for my family to reach the stage where I could assume that.

First task was to make icing. The recipe required Ess to measure ¼lb butter providing a fabulous mathematical thinking opportunity. Having just completed a unit on measurement whereby Ess had learnt all about grams and kilograms, there could be no better opportunity to extend that learning into incorporating the old imperial system used by her grandparents (and myself in my childhood), just after a visit from Granny. Armed with the information I provided her that one pound of butter (1lb) is equal to 16 ounces (oz) she quickly counted out her favourite pip squeak pencils to discover she needed to weigh out 4oz butter.

Then came the fun part: creaming the butter with a pound of icing sugar, and some stiffly beaten egg whites to make the icing.

Each carriage of the train required a different coloured icing to yet again Ess was required to measure and divide her icing before she coloured it. One whole bowl of icing needed to become four even bowls of icing. This she did entirely independently.

After watching her mother ice most of the carriages, with a whinge or two of frustration thrown in here and there, (I just find the placing of the icing onto the cake the most horrible part of cake decorating!) Ess quickly took over the role and finished icing a carriage by herself while I attended my baby.

Upon assembly of the cake my older pair of girls each assumed mathematical roles. Little Eee counted out the paddle pop sticks and laid them as train tracks. She also sorted the smarties into colours, while Ess counted out and multiplied and divided her sweets until she had an appropriate number per carriage. "Hmmm, one pack of mint slice biscuits divided between four carriages. Do I need to open the second pack? Will there be enough bikkies for each of us to have a bikky now?

Little Eee is randomly decorating the engine with her smarties here. :)

The jellybeans loaded up on each carriage were great to use as counters as we explored division a little further with our Singapore Maths workbooks, concretely representing the pictorial division problems contained therein. Receiving a jellybean per each correct maths problem proved great motivation as well. I was amused when Ess decided she had completed enough maths problems because she now had enough jelly beans. It just happened to be before one of the more complex division word problems...conveniently.

Happy Birthday my dear beloved!

Oh the joys of home education.

We are able to spend our whole day delighting in how much you mean to us, by creating something special for you, and still have such a meaningful day of education.

Lots of thought was also put into planning and preparation of cakes for upcoming birthdays as well. ;)

For Eleanor Violet

Look at us, said the violets blooming at her feet, all last winter we slept in the seeming death but at the right time God awakened us, and here we are to comfort you. ~Edward Payson Rod

On the day we expected my new niece to be born a couple of seemingly insignificant things happened.

Until I knew the name of my precious new niece I did not make any connection with the fact that:

~ for the first time I noticed this lone violet blooming out my new back door, in a wintry dirt patch surrounded by mysterious bulb shoots, waiting to welcome Spring.

~ for the first time my little Eee picked me a bunch of the violet shade of pansies and violas blooming in our front yard.

They must have been for you,

our precious, dear, Eleanor Violet.

Happy Birthday Eleanor Violet

26 July 2011

With love,

All of us

xoxoxoxoxo

Little Pear, Chocolate and Brioche Cakes

It is, in my view, the duty of an apple to be crisp and crunchable, but a pear should have such a texture as leads to silent consumption. ~Edward Bunyard

Googling the ingredients you have in the cupboard can provide you with some wonderful new possibilities I have discovered lately. Do you do that ever? Just google your available ingredients. The other day I knew I wanted to make some soup with some cauliflower and spinach. Not able to find the recipe I thought I owned in my recipe book, and thinking that it had become lost in our move, I decide to simply google those ingredients. I found this lovely nutritious soup which I proceeded to make and enjoy with my husband during this week. It didn't go down so well with my girls (except my baby), but then soup rarely does.

These little cakes however have gone down very well. Although poor little Ess has been unwell this week and found them a bit too rich for her delicate tummy :( Yet again I googled an ingredient - stale brioche. I thought it should be able to make some sort of sweet custardy type dessert like bread and butter pudding. Not that I am a fan of that in any way - but my husband loves it and so, it would seem, does little Eee.

Ess was very enthusiastic to make the little cakes, feeling a little better and always keen to bake something sweet. Thus I declare these a great project to do with children: very easy to prepare and needing very little supervision.

Simply slice the brioche.

Slice the pears - ensuring you leave the stem on and being mindful of the shape you'd like to use as you stack your cakes, vertically.

Slice the dark chocolate.

Prepare one yourself by stacking ingredients in the little pans.

Leave the room and allow your little one free rein in arranging these ingredients.

Upon your return you'll need to mix the custard mixture (the entire recipe can be found here).

Add some to each little cake, allow time to soak in, then bake.

My life is rather busy with my three little cherubs so I was delighted to be able to present these for dessert. Usually I would have just baked or poached the pears but with Ess keen to help, it allowed me time to feed and change my baby, and Ess the opportunity to be creative in the kitchen independently. A skill which I highly value and nurture at every opportunity.

Home Education in Canberra

We have had our challenges in Canberra since moving here in January but one thing has not presented us with any difficulty - our home education. In fact we've had some lovely experiences due to our connections with some lovely networks of home educating families. We have become members of both HENCAST (Home Education Network of Canberra and the Southern Tablelands) and CHEC (Christian Home Education Canberra). I am so thrilled with our choice to home educate which is continually reinforced by numerous experiences - socially, educationally, statistically.

This week we had our home visit from the Non Govt Education Department here in the ACT which followed the provisional registration I gained upon our arrival in this state. All went really well and it should result in two full years of registration which is wonderful. I was really encouraged to hear comments about how the report I wrote was very comprehensive, with much attention paid to detail and all criteria addressed thoroughly. I was also delighted to see the joy in Ess' persona as she shared the work she has completed over the last six months.

I was very pleasantly surprised to hear about what the Government is looking for in these visits. They are not hunting for families who have a relaxed, natural and flexible approach to learning. They are more concerned about families who are very pedantic and perhaps lean towards controlling their children, always telling them what to do, not allowing free play and thus not developing and instilling a sense of independence in their learning. This was definitely a breath of fresh air for me as it was totally opposite to what I, and many others I believe, expect of the Government. Somehow we expect to be told we are not doing enough work. This was certainly contrary to my experience. I heard the comment "you have been doing a lot!".

This year, due to our circumstances, my approach to learning has been very natural. In the suitcases we flew over here with, we had our Singapore Maths books to work through. Yet all other components of learning simply came from the groups we were involved with, literature borrowed from the library and excursions we participated in. I simply didn't pack workbooks and teacher's guides etc. when we anticipated moving straight into a new home. And of course we didn't have internet access so all learning resources and inspirational ideas I gain from blog reading etc. didn't happen.

I am very much looking forward to being more settled, to snuggling up and reading literature relating to our Five in a Row studies, to having paints out for the children to enjoy, to being able to enjoy watching related YouTube videos, to being able to research new places with Google Maps etc. etc.

In the meantime Canberra has welcomed us with excursions, activities, parks and playgrounds, friendships and bright sunny days albeit very cool, very very cool.

I'll be able to share some things more specifically with you nowadays.