More Making And Some Baking

Last night Duncan had to go to the local shop for a few bits and bobs (namely coffee which is something he doesn't like to run out of). When he left I reminded him to get some washing up liquid, for dishes, because we were nearly out. For some strange reason, he came home with a bag of granulated sugar (even though I have 2 bags of organic golden sugar in the cupboard), and no washing up liquid.

Since I am trying to make as many things as possible right now and cut out on chemical use, I was inspired this morning to look for a home made alternative to shop bought liquid. THIS was the recipe I found, and it honestly could not be simpler. It basically makes liquid soap which can be used for all manner of things as well as dishes (I can see home made shampoo on the horizon).

 

• some empty jars/bottles (enough for about 2 litres of soap)


• 1 bar of soap, finely grated


• 1 tablespoon of glycerin


• 1.5 litres of water

 

• put all the ingredients into a pot and melt over a low heat

 

• once it has melted allow to cool to at least room temp (it goes strangely solid-ish)

 

• blend the mix bit by bit, the volume increases once blended so do not fill the blender to the top

 

• decant into jars or bottles (you will need a funnel for bottles)

 

I washed up the lunch dishes with some and it seems perfectly fine. Time will tell no doubt.

We decided it was unfair to spend another morning in the kitchen without anything edible to show for it, so while the soap was melting in the pot we made a yogurt cake.

 

 

Of course it had to be decorated to toddler specification.

 

orange icing, pink glitter and silver balls

 

And talking of glitter, we started our crafting for Valentines Day today too.

 

 

yes we needed a red skull crayon

 

 

And once again my whole house is covered in glitter, I wonder how much glitter mothers ingest in a lifetime.

Valerie

xxx

Monday Again - 52 Week Challenge - wk 5

Oscar and I started the day with a little craft work at the dining table. It felt like a good idea to just jump into it rather than procrastinate.

Today, I showed Oscar one of my most favorite things 'The Laminator' (said in the voice like the TV show The Gladiators lol). Duncan thinks its cute how much joy I get from laminating things (I am sure its in a slightly patronising way though). Anyway, we did some tissue paper and laminated stain glass window art.

 

 

 

 

We felt it was important to have some spiders on our windows, as you can see.

 

After that was done I finished off the Elemental Elves, who have been sitting on the dining table all weekend (waiting for hats and cloaks).

 

 

 

Each one was delivered into Oscar's waiting hand and I only just managed to get the photo's before they were scooped up again.

 

Since Oscar was suitably occupied with them (and snack and juice provided), I decided to get on with something I have been really keen to try.

Every year at this time I feel the effects of the central heating, biting winds and too much rich food (and drink, Baileys Irish Cream, yum) over Christmas. For 5 years in a row my skin has been dreadful in February and March, and even Duncan has noticed his skin breaking down a bit this year. When I saw THIS recipe for home made moisturiser I really wanted to try it, so I shopped on Ebay for Wax and Coconut Oil. You can get all of the ingredients and instructions on BOHO MAMA'S page, but here are my photo instructions.

 

1oz of Beeswax

 

2 clean glass jars

 

50g Organic Coconut Oil

 

Finely grate the Beeswax

 

Put the Coconut Oil in a cup and fill up with Organic Virgin Olive Oil

 

Pour the oil mix into the Beeswax and heat with the double boiler method

 

Make one cup of Organic Chamomile Tea

 

Put the tea (not the bag), into the blender and slowly add the melted Wax and Oil until it emulsifies

 

I seriously underestimated how much it would make so I had to grab another jar from the recycling.

 

It feels and looks gorgeous, it is hard to believe it isn't edible

 

I will try and remember to report back in about a month how effective it has been.

 

And finally - 52 Week Challenge - Wk 5 - Recipe Books

Full details on week 5 can be found HERE on the challenge website.

My recipe books received a huge cull when we moved back to the city in August so this was not too difficult for me. I don't have any loose recipes because I started a 'Mummies Favorite Recipe' notebook last year. If I find anything online I want to make I simply copy it into my notebook (instead of having loads of print-outs stuck inside other recipe books.

I moved the basket of books from the kitchen to a shelf in the dining room (which connects to the kitchen anyway).

 

I had about double this amount last year

 

And I chose 3 books to live on the shelf in the kitchen

 

The Tassajara Bread Book, which Duncan uses to make the bread

The Wholefood Cookbook, which I use for loads of things,

And my Recipe Notebook.

 

And that was that. This coming weeks challenge is

Week #6 Organized Home Challenge Trash And Home Recycling Center

I think I may be asking Duncan to lend a hand with that one. Check back next week for an update.

Valerie

xxx

 

Having Babies

I was 17 years old when I married my (1st), husband. I knew right away that I wanted children, even though my husband told me after we were married he was not all that interested in a family. Despite his feelings, we became pregnant around the time of our first wedding anniversary, and I was ecstatic. I already had a secret stash of parenting books by the time I had my pregnancy confirmed by my GP, which was also the day of my 19th birthday. My pregnancy was text book and I delivered a beautiful baby boy (5 days past my due date), perfect in every way. Skipping to six weeks down the road, things were not quite so rosy. My little boy was displaying classic colic symptoms and cried non stop between 4pm and 9pm every day. To add to the situation I had developed Post Natal Depression and no one, including myself, had recognised it. Things came to a head one day, and despite my GP coming to see me at home (in answer to my desperate pleas), no treatment was offered. It seemed that in 'their' opinion, since I had answered truthfully that I was not harbouring any intent to harm myself or my baby, then no further inquiry was required (this was in 1989). Inevitably I began to feel better over time, and my baby grew out of his crying episodes (in all honesty it took until he was about 6 months old).
When my son was 13 months old I became pregnant for a second time. I hoped and hoped that this second baby would cry less and I would escape the dreaded Post Natal Depression (PND). I had half my wish come true, because my little daughter was much less of a fussy baby when she was born. Unfortunately I did not escape PND and if I thought it was bad the first time, then nothing could have prepared me for the 2nd time. Again though, no one seemed to really pick up on it, and my daughter was about a year old when I was finally offered medication (Prozac). I took the Prozac as directed for about 1 year, and I will never be really sure if it actually helped me. My depression ended when I started a little drawing class 2 afternoons a week (away from the children). During the year I was on the medication I had a pregnancy 'scare'. I was in such a blind panic at the thought of another pregnancy (PND all over again), and I told this to my GP at my twice monthly visit. My GP reccommend that he refer me for tubal ligation (female sterilization), as a means of ensuring no unwanted pregnancies would occur. Given my state of mind at the time, its hardly surprising that when the pregnancy scare turned out to be a false alarm, I agreed to sterilization. I was sterilized on 14th December 1993, 2 weeks after my 24th birthday.
Sadly my 1st marriage ended after 10 years together and I was alone with my children for a few years. Eventually though I met a lovely man, and after living together for a few years, we were married on my 36th birthday. I had always been straight with my husband that there would be no babies for us, and he accepted this as a fate a compli. After we were married though, I had that unmistakeable longing for a baby which cant be ignored (mother nature at work?). We went to my GP (not the same GP as before), and after a few chats she referred us to the assisted conception unit at our local hospital. It took just under a year to go through the process with them (a scan to look at my tubes, and 2 sets of fertility tests for my husband and 2 consultations), and then a letter came to say I was on a long waiting list and not to be overly optimistic. Then out of the blue a few months later another letter came saying I had been reviewed and it was felt that I should never have had sterilization in the first place (I was so young, I had PND at the time and no counselling was offered), so because of this, I was to come to hospital in 3 weeks time to have the reversal.
On 15th January 2008 I went to hospital and had the reversal done. My chances of conception afterwards were still fairly low because they could only reverse one fallopian tube (the other was blocked), and also, I was 38 by then. The reversal was extremely painful and it took me a full month before I could start trying to conceive. We were only on our 3rd month of trying when we had a positive pregnancy test. We could hardly believe our luck, and despite being exhausted (being pregnant at 38 isn't the same as being pregnant at 19 or 21), the pregnancy went well.
Our baby was due on the 26th of January so by the time we got to Christmas we were all set for the most exciting times ahead. What no one could have forseen was that just a couple of days into the New Year my Dad would become ill and be taken to hospital. After 4 days, we knew my Dad's situation was serious, but we still anticipated his recovery. What we did not anticipate was that he would die suddenly from a hopital acquired infection 2 weeks before my due date.
When my baby was still inside me at 1 week past my due date, it was decided that I would be induced for my sake, and for the sake of the baby. I felt my grief was behind a wall at that point and I was aware of holding it back. In my jumbled mind I could just manage to pin down the thought that I must protect my baby from the pain I was keeping at arms length.
On the 14th February (St Valentines Day), I went back to the hospital where my Dad had just died and endured the most difficult of labours. My planned low tech birth went out of the window and I was drugged with morphine to get me through it. Incidentally, during my daughters birth 18 years earlier I had no pain relief and no interventions. I wondered if it was as bad from the outside as it was from the inside and I got my answer a few weeks later. On our first trip out with our beautiful and perfect baby son, my Midwife happened to see us in the street. The midwife stopped her car and came running to us, asking how we were. I told her we were ok, and she said she couldn't stop thinking about us and the birth had been horrendous and she was seriously worried how she was going to get me through it (as it turned out I went from 6cm dilated to delivery in 45 minutes so she did not have to 'get me through it' for as long as she had anticipated).
When my son was 3 weeks old, the crying started, and I could not make it stop, and this time it was me and not my baby. Things were different for me though and I had the most amazing Health Visitor. She whisked me off to my GP and I was prescribed Anti-Depressants. She also spoke to me, and listened to me and this time, despite being diagnosed with anxiety, PND and berevement trauma I can honestly say that I was feeling much better by the time my son was 4 months old (I must have been because we even managed a house move at this time). 
My son will be 3 years old in 2 weeks time and although I miss my Dad every day and still have a cry about it from time to time, I can honestly say that my post birth recovery was handled much better this time by all concerned. The main differences I can identify are, my willingness to say the words 'I need help', my Health Visitor being on hand to listen and advise and my GP treating me with medication very early on.
We are trying for another baby right now, but since I am 42 there is only a very slim chance of conception. The thought of coping with PND again is a bit scary, but I know I would ask for help right away again and not hang back scared of looking like a failure. I know first hand that no matter how bad things are, asking for help is always the right thing to do. I have 3 amazing children (now aged 22, 20 and 2), and despite the road being rocky at times I would not change it for the world.

I Am A Co-Sleeper And I Love It

 

I have been taking a look at some of my parenting books to write a post about the ones I liked best. I can say without a doubt that I lean towards Continuum/Attachment parenting. Its not without its difficulties though, see above ;)

Valerie

xxx

Little Makes

Some days a little bit of cooking or a little bit of crafting is all it takes to lift the mood.

I have had tomato ketchup on my shopping board all week and still forgot to buy some with the grocery shop, so today I decided to try and make some. It would be much cheaper to buy it I might add, but then I would miss out on the pleasure of cooking, the satisfaction of making instead of buying and the peace of mind that I know exactly what the ingredients are.

Good old JAMIE came to the rescue, but as per usual I didn't have all of the ingredients to hand, so here is Jamie's list and with my substitutes in brackets.

ingredients

• 1 large red onion, peeled and roughly chopped (1 brown onion)
• ½ a bulb of fennel, trimmed and roughly chopped (no sub, no fennel)
• 1 stick of celery, trimmed and roughly chopped
• olive oil
• a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped (1 tsp ground ginger powder)
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
• ½ a fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped (1/2 tsp chilli flakes & 1 tsp mild chilli powder)
• a bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks chopped (2 tsp dried basil)
• 1 tablespoon coriander seeds (1 tsp coriander powder)
• 2 cloves
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• sea salt (low salt)
• 500g amazing cherry or plum tomatoes, halved plus 500g tinned plum tomatoes, chopped (450g tin organic chopped tomatoes & 500g carton of passata)
or
• 1kg yellow, orange or green tomatoes, chopped
• 200ml red wine vinegar (200ml fruity white wine- leftovers from a couple of weeks ago)
• 70g soft brown sugar (2 tbs organic golden sugar)

 

 

And now you know why I don't post recipes all that often, because this is quite a habit of mine.

The ketchup turned out lovely anyway and his majesty (my ketchup loving 2 year old), gave it his seal of approval. Full instructions on Jamie's Page

 

 

Later, after dinner I managed a tiny bit of painting too.

 

 

The letters are made from wood and are to be used in Oscar's birthday ring (I will share more about that nearer the time). The 4 little peg people are going to be elemental elves (white - air, blue - water, red - fire, green - earth). The little mushrooms are for the nature table (they are tiny little door handles), and the coloured fellow in the right corner is Oscar's painted guy. All good fun.

Oh yes and since it was Candlemass, Oscar had his supper by candlelight. The candles we made the other day.

 

 

He told me 6 times he liked the candles, so sweet.

 

Valerie

xxx

Candlemass (Imbolc) 2012

Alexander Carmichael wrote: 

Bride with her white wand is said to breathe life into the mouth of the dead Winter and to bring him to open his eyes to the tears and the smiles, the sighs and the laughter of Spring. The venom of the cold is said to tremble for its safety on Bride’s Day.

 

 

 

 

 

And how do you stop your child from running away with the nature table? Well............

This is his most favorite Witch finger puppet

 

 

And this is her new Mama made Peggy Witch companion

 

 

The season of festivities has ended.
The final yuletide greenery has died.
The land seems dull and drab and dreary.
It’s time to celebrate the feast of Bride.

 

Though the approaching spring is still a whisper
at Candlemas we celebrate her youth.
Pure white candles burning to remind us
to leave behind the past and seek for truth.

source

 

Valerie

xxx

Goodbye January / Hello February

I have felt a little bit quiet lately. I seem to be hiding under the surface like the spring bulbs. I can only hope to burst through at some point and bloom marvelously. Who knows, it may happen.

We have had some stresses to deal with, and some still come. Nothing huge, just the usual things that all families cope with, family fall-outs, poor health, winter malaise, financial constraints, work pressure and non work pressure (because I don't call being a Mama 'work' but it can be a pressurised occupation).

Anyway, here are a little set of January pictures, to prove it isnt all bad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Valerie

xxx