Out of Africa....

Well, the girls have been studying about South Africa this term. We came across some African brocade in the clearance section of the fabric store and brought home a metre. Now, what to do with it??? Well, I thought we might try making some placemats. I cut a panel and made a backing with a boarder to maximize the African pictures and then double stitched around the whole thing. This created a double sided mat which was perfect because then the girls could decorate one side and we could add a map and maybe we can even learn the names of all the African countries over dinner. That's the plan anyway. We brought Ruhi's partially completed placemat to school to show her teachers and then found ourselves back at the craft store purchasing what remained of the roll so that the rest of the school can make the placemats too.

So, after washing the brocade and backing material I dropped it at school this morning and will find out this afternoon if I am needed to go when I finish work tomorrow to help cut and prepare the panels for sewing.

On Thursday (the day after tomorrow, which also happens to be Sports Day at my school) the girls are having an African animal parade and I have been commissioned to create Lioness and Zebra garb for two enthusiastic marchers. With only scrappy fur off cuts and bits of felt I must somehow make lion ears, lion paws complete with sharpened claws, zebra hooves, zebra ears, zebra hair and two "dingily, dangily" tails. God help me. For I must remember never to attempt this again. Working with faux fur is both extremely hideous and frustrating. Last night I attempted to create the lion paws. My first wretched attempt wound up being recycled into an ear, my second attempt was not much better. While I wrestled embroidery cotton along a headband Bayan systematically unraveled a spool of thread, tangling it around the sewing machine, rolling it around the dining room under the table, in an out of chairs, you know wherever it would be most difficult to retrieve. A short time later I accidentally superglued my left thumb to the lioness headband while trying to re-position an ear. Meanwhile Bayan had moved on from the thread and was now methodically poking my sewing light bulb with a needle while Ruhi gently encouraged me not to have that nervous breakdown I was clearly on the verge of. Despite hours of tedious work all I have to show for my efforts are a decrepit looking lioness headband and a dining room table that looks like slaughter time on the African Savannah. Sigh. Perhaps I shall take some sedatives and try again this afternoon.

Mummy Dates

It has been ages since I have had any alone time with the girls. Sunday we managed to do two hits in one. A movie review that I was supposed to do on Thursday was bumped up due to a preview screening. Aliens in the Attic is not the type of film that I would normally encourage children to see and there was no way that I would allow either Anisa or Bayan to watch it, but Ruhi, being the very sensible and mature child that she is, could handle the content without any problem. She has been wanting to watch more PG rated films as opposed to our normal G repertoire. We have watched a few but I have been very selective about which I feel are appropriate for her to see. She is growing up and wanting see some of the things that other kids are regularly allowed to watch. She has been wonderful about understanding why she is not allowed to see certain films despite the fact that other kids who are even younger than her have watched them multiple times. I must say that I am still appalled when I walk into an M rated film (like Transformers for example) and find preschoolers in the audience. Honestly! My job as a movie reviewer has been a really great tool to help the children understand that people will continue to make all kinds of films but that not all of them are good to see and often if you look closely, even at the good ones, you will find things that are not good and many things to talk about. Ruhi has become quite adept at noticing the violence (even slapstick) and inappropriate clothing often showcased in movies. Anyway when Ruhi heard that she was going to be allowed to come to a preview of PG film with me she was so thrilled. This is only the second time (in 5 years)that I have been able to do this. We arrived at the cinemas early and she got to have her face painted with two iridescent love hearts (sorry no photos) on both cheeks. Ruhi chose where we sat and because it was a special screening we got to sit in fabulous, wide leather lazy-boy style chairs. As soon as she sat down Ruhi said Mummy these seats are great but I feel like I should wear a seat belt. We enjoyed a quiet chat and a bag of healthy chips that I smuggled into the cinema (shhhh) and had a really good time.

While Ruhi and I were at the film Anisa and Bayan were at Grandma and Grandpa's. We did a swap over where Ruhi was then dropped off and Anisa was picked up to go to a birthday party. I got to spend the afternoon attending to only one child. Ahhh. And she got to have a great time with her friends. She also got the prize for being the best behaved girl (though I think it was a three way tie) at the party.

Mexican Cooking

It is official. I am certifiably insane. Allow me to illustrate. With the help of a student teacher I agreed to do cooking with my students. All 315 of them. Can you imagine? Well I can imagine, and I agreed to do it. That's probably the first clue that my mental state is not what it should be. Not only that, in keeping with our theme from last term I thought we would do Mexican food. Which meant that we would prepare nachos with a number of side dishes including salsa, guacamole and a Mexican bean dip. Four items in 45 minutes with eleven classes. And there's more. There are many children with severe allergies (generally at least one per class) these allergies range in severity from having a mild reaction (requiring medication or antihistamine) after eating the offending food to children who become anaphalactic (requiring an ambulance and epipen) from merely touching the food. We also have children with celiac disease and diabetes. So you can imagine the permission slips I was getting back. Some kids were fine with everything, some could not eat wheat, gluten, eggs, dairy, nuts or seeds some were allergic to tomatoes or lemon juice, artificial colors or chemical additives (there's a surprise) and some were combinations of the above. Just keeping permission slips straight was a logistical nightmare, especially because we were using dairy, for some of the dishes at least and because the corn chip packages contained warnings that they may contain traces of seeds and nuts. Sheesh!

Anyway the shopping was done, the supplies carried in and the staff room prepped for a cooking marathon that would put any Iron chef professional to shame. Non-stop from 8:30 to 3:30 (2 days in a row) we were cleaning surfaces, scouring dishes and pans, checking, double checking and triple checking permission slips, going through safety measures with the kids and getting the students to do cooking jobs like grating cheese, slicing onions, mincing garlic, juicing lemons, mashing avocados, mixing salsa, draining and mashing kidney beans, stirring frijoles, sprinkling cheese and baking nachos to name but a few of the jobs. My student teacher T. and I were the ones dishing out the food as we didn't want to risk any cross contamination with allergy riddled kids. As soon as one class was ended it was time for the next. Some classes were super fussy and would only eat the nachos with salsa and sour cream not wanting to try the guacamole or bean dip. Some classes polished everything off with students coming back for thirds. That says something. But what I am most proud of is that there were no health related incidents. (I was a bit worried about one child for a minute but he turned out to be fine.) No one got sick or had seizures from touching the corn chips. The only casualty was a child who scraped her finger on the grater (occupational hazard) and the only culinary mishap was when one group, who have notoriously poor listening skills, did not follow directions and added all the garlic to the guacamole. On the bright side each kid who tried it (and ironically many wanted to because it was so abnormally strong) could vanquish an entire vampire army in a single breath. So, I guess that's a good thing. As was the cooking, though I am in no hurry to do it again.

I Sorry

I'm hearing this a lot lately. It is often preceded by the shattering crash of plates, cups and bowls (I'm not fond of plastic - but I may need to rethink that) and often involves cereal blasting across the room, at other times it is the dripping, sloshing sound of spilled beverages cascading to the floor. Most recently it has involved the thudding splat of eggs cracking on the ground. In all the years I have been baking with the children I don't recall ever having any mishaps with eggs. This week alone we have had two.

Always immediately following the spillage, breakage or crash comes Bayan's contrite yet perky apology. "I sorry Mummy. I sorry."

Indeed. So am I.

After school recipes

The days are just flying by and I find myself racing from one thing to the next with very little time to just stop and breathe. On the one hand I feel that I thrive on lots to do and on the other I really wish that life had a pause button so that you could just catch your breath every now and again. I often feel that I hardly have any quality time with the girls as they are at school so much and by the time we get home it is a mad rush to get dinner and homework done. I would love to be doing little crafty things with them each day like we used to and am determined to get myself better organized to make it happen. It has not happened as much as I would like, but this week we did make a start.

Love heart bath fizzies.

These are so fun and they are really simple to make. I got the recipe off the Internet and have made a few adjustments. I love the fact that they fizz really well and are made up almost entirely of things that you could eat.

1 cup of baking soda

1/2 cup of citric acid

1/2 cup of corn starch

1/4 cup Epsom slats

1-1 1/2 T. apricot kernel oil

1 T. water

1/2 - 1 t. lavender essence (or other fragrance of choice.)

The original recipe included borax and a colorant (which I have never added) and also a fair bit of almond oil which I found gave the bath tub an oil slick. The changes I have made seem to work really well for now. All you do is put the dry ingredients into a bowl, get an electric mixer ready, mix your wet ingredients in a separate bowl and add them to your dry ingredients while mixing. The mixture will not look wet, but will feel slightly damp to the touch and will pack into molds very easily. We use silicone ice cube trays from IKEA, but larger molds work too.

And then, of course, there was the baking of chocolate chip cookies. Naturally.

Mom, you asked ages ago for some gluten free recipes you could pass on to a friend. There is no excuse for my tardiness, so I won't even try. Instead here is an old standby.

Gluten Free Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar (I normally use one cup of organic sugar and skip the half cup)

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

2 cups gluten free flour (find the one that you like best and use that)

1 heaping tsp. gluten free baking powder

1 pinch salt

1 cup chocolate chip cookies (I skimp and probably only use 1/2 - 3/4 cup).

Mix butter and sugar together with an electric mixer, when well combined add egg and vanilla and mix again. Add dry ingredients and mix together, then stir in chocolate chips and place by heaping teaspoons on a baking tray. Place in a preheated oven (160 C) for approximately 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Like most gluten free products they do tend to be crumbly, so keep those napkins handy.

Yesterday

Yesterday Anisa turned six. The loveliest, silliest six that I know. In following with the trend of this year (being that I have not been adequately prepared for parties) we celebrated with a family dinner at the restaurant of Anisa's choice, a cake, a couple of little presents and for a service project went with something simple and small that may yet yield wonderful results. Oxfam Australia helps impoverished communities in developing countries by building things like bridges and wells for water, they train communities in health and nutrition and how to raise domesticated animals to provide income and to supplement diets. Anisa carefully browsed their site and decided that she really wanted to purchase two items. In the end she decided on a chicken (which will go to someone in the Solomon Islands) and a goat for a family in Africa. The chicken is good, but I really like the idea of the goat as it can provide milk and manure, eat scraps, be sold to help pay for school fees and the first born female is given to another family so that the process can begin all over again so other families benefit too. I guess it is sort of similar with the chicken. Oh well-it's all good.

Should the children ever question why we didn't have a party every year I thought I would jot down my movements yesterday so as to provide a detailed reminder of what most days are currently like.

Allow me to set the stage. The previous evening saw me and the children making a triple batch of chocolate cupcakes (gluten free) so that Anisa could bring them to school and share them with all the kids (who loved them, by the way). In between preparing dinner, eating dinner, doing homework and cleaning up we managed to create and cook the muffins. I opted to do the icing and sprinkles myself after the kids were in bed as there was much debate about who got to do what job and weather or not it was fair that one person got to add a whole cup of flour while someone else had to add a whole cup of water. Apparently flour is more special. I don't know. Anyway by the time they were all tucked into bed, had said their prayers and I had read them a couple of chapters from the Little House Series, it was after nine o'clock. By the time that I had cleaned the kitchen from dinner, whipped up the frosting and spread it and the sprinkles across 40 odd muffins and had packed them up for the trip to school tomorrow it was close to ten. I still had to pack their lunches and make sure that I signed diaries and notes to say nothing about my own preparations for classes the next day. I did eventually get to bed, I shan't disclose the exact time, but that doesn't really matter because look at how I wrapped the sandwiches (I used the corn tortilla mountain wraps filled with shaved ham). Aren't they cute? They're made with paper flower cut outs, tucked between two pieces of waxed lunch paper and then ironed together. I added a ribbon and a little note with matching flower motifs and voila! fancy lunch wrap perfect for a birthday or special occasion.

Anisa's birthday began, for me, at six am. I got showered and changed for work. Organised breakfast and sourced clean uniforms. The kids were up at 6:45 to get dressed, eat breakfast, fix their hair and pack their bags. While they did shoes I loaded the car and we were on our way by 7:30. I dropped the kids and cupcakes at school just after 8:00 and arrived at my school just after 8:30. I had enough time to visit the restroom and make photocopies before racing to my classroom and going at full tilt until 3:00, um 3:10, which meant that I didn't get back to the girls until 3:40. We got back to pick up Bayan by 4:15 and had a little over an hour in which to get back home, do homework and get changed before leaving to meet Mehran at the restaurant at 6:00.

The kids had a great time, ate all their favourite foods and especially enjoyed some extra dessert. We were so full that we decided to keep Anisa's cake for tomorrow night, well- most of us did, Bayan had other plans. Luckily it was nothing that a little extra frosting can't fix.After dinner we came home and I got the children into their pyjamas and ready for bed. We said prayers and read stories and I dashed out the door to make the end of Feast. I had promised the Education Committee that I would make the announcements about the drastic changes we are making to our children's classes. They told me to be prepared for ferocious opposition as there are those who are not going to be happy with our decisions and are not going to want to hear what I have to say. I repeated the Tablet of Ahmad as I raced down the highway trying to mentally prepare myself for the approaching apocalypse. I noted, as I walked in the door that there we no other committee members present that evening. Humph. Not a good sign. I guess that someone heard my prayers or that the community was ready for the change because instead of opposition I had people volunteering to help. Thank you God! And Happy Birthday Anisa! We love you sweetie.

Is this normal?

So, do you go to clean under your daughter's bed and find the empty cake container that you put in the recycling box a week ago, tufts of sweet grass from school, toilet paper rolls, band-aid wrappers and an empty box of chocolate coated nut bars? Do you? Really?

She is not quite six. She is very creative and inventive and views the world in her own unique way. So I am not very worried. There is just that one tiny little voice whispering in the back of my head. It is saying: "Watch out. This is how it begins." One day it is cake containers and toilet paper rolls, the next she is on the 6'o'clock news, having grown into that detestable neighbour that cannot throw anything out and hoards everything from newspapers to gum wrappers, whose rubbish overflows throughout the yard and whose trash collecting habits are actually visible from space. Now I know the chances of that really happening are extremely remote. But honestly the things I have to throw out.

And then there is Bayan who currently adores stashing things behind the recliner and on the bookcase near the exercise equipment. This morning alone I retrieved two eggs, (fresh eggs I hasten to add) a container of chocolate chips, two cans of tuna fish, the baby thermometer, the remote control and a voluptuous stack of homemade waffles. I ask you again...Is this normal?

Bee ware!

Beware of swing sets positioned close to rosemary bushes. Beware of lethargic bees who are confused by the warm and cold weather we are having. Beware where you place your hands on said swing sets, there may be bees about. Anisa learned this the hard way. She was carried inside - stinger protruding out of her hand. She was not a happy camper. It took ages, lots of attention, cuddles and cold compresses before she felt any better. Luckily she had friends here to help her get over the misfortune of being stung, Ruhi even drew her a picture with captions about what she should say to the bee. Not one to be outdone, Anisa drew a picture of a bee on her palm to remind herself to tell Baba all about what happened.

Therapy...

...the crafting kind. After a thoroughly wretched week at work, wretched I tell you, a play date at a friends house involving lunch and sewing was just the thing to lift me out of my funk. Thanks to Martha's generosity and excellent fabric stash I found myself with the start of three versatile, child-size, aprons. Only one was completed, but the others were started and planned and there was a wonderful sense of accomplishment in that simple act of creating something small which will be put to no end of good use. To say nothing of the delicious food and encouraging conversation. Thanks guys. It was exactly what I needed.