Loosening the Apron Strings

My little girl is growing up.  She turned 13 in October, started menstruating regularly in December, got a mobile phone for Christmas, and got her first job as a friend's regular babysitter in January.

And today she started high school.

She went off with her father on the bus this morning, so he could make sure she got on the right train and then the right school bus.  But once she was on that school bus - she was on her own.  Tomorrow she does it from start to finish all by herself.

She was nervous and Mum was terrified (and trying not to show it!!), but oh so proud.  Haven't quite cut the apron strings, but they are definitely looser!

Filling the Freezer

My kids don't like sandwiches.  They will have them occasionally for school lunches if I have nothing else but would prefer that that I have something else!!  They go back to school next week so I decided that since I go back at the same time, and time becomes very short, to try and stock my freezer to get over the first couple of weeks.

So far we have a batch of pineapple muffins, a 1-1-1-1 coconut loaf, sliced and bagged, and then this little beauty...

GINGERBREAD

50 grams butter, softened
1/2 cup brown or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup golden syrup or treacle
2 eggs
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp each ground ginger and ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp black pepper
150 grams sour cream

Cream the butter and sugar, add the golden syrup or treacle and continue beating.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Sift the dry ingredients together and add alternately with the sour cream, beating until smooth.  Pour into a well greased 23 cm ring tin or loaf tin.  Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes if using a ring tin, allow an extra five to ten minutes if using a loaf tin.

I use the dark brown sugar and the treacle and it is rich in flavour, spicy and moist.

Together with a tub of vegetables, some slices of cheese and crackers, a yoghurt (or some other source of protein such as a cold sausage, a mini quiche, or a hard-boiled egg), and a piece of fruit, this makes their ideal lunch.

They also take a tub of cut up fruit/vegetables for snacking in the classroom.  This  is for a Western Australia wide, school programme called "Crunch and Sip".   I think New South Wales and South Australia also run it. Check it out at Crunch and Sip.  It encourages the kids to bring cut up fruit and vegetables (brain food) and a bottle of water to snack on during the morning.  It had doubled my children's intake of fruit and veg, and they love it.

What do your kids like for lunch?

Look what I found...

...amongst my old photos.  I investigated the contents of an anonymous brown envelope, and found some photos that I had developed and printed myself, way back when I was a member of the high school photography club.

These were taken in 1987, at a Christian Holiday Camp that the family attended for a couple of years.  Don't look at the quality of the prints - it's horrible!!

All my darling siblings in front of the first of several Toyota Hiace vans that my parents had for carting us six around.  This one saw lots of family holidays up and down NZ's North Island.

My second youngest sibling, Martin, having some fun with a camping stool!

And a worn-out Miss Lottie in a very messy tent - sorry Lottie couldn't help myself!

I also found the negatives and I've found somewhere that will print the photos for me, so that I can get proper copies and see how bad my printing techniques were.  Do you know how hard it is to find somewhere close that will print photos from negatives?  I think I'll have to go back through my other negatives, before the technology disappears forever!!

Bread

This week I have been continuing my children's on-again, off-again, bread making education.  This is my bread making bible...

My mother had a copy that she used for all her speciality breads, and I bought a copy as soon as I left home.    Recently I had my mother-in-law staying with us, and she was so impressed she wanted a copy of her own.  It is currently out of print, but I managed to find someone who was selling a brand new second-hand copy on Fishpond.  And it got to us before she went home to New Zealand.

This is the Challah bread from the book - made by Miss 13.  It is a Jewish egg bread and was very, very yummy.

And this is the Quick Wholemeal bread - made by Blondie.  And it was quick.  With our Perth heat it was made from go to whoa in an hour and a half.  And also very, very yummy.

FJ will be next - I wonder how his will go?

Guess who...?

One is Miss Lottie, one is my Blondie...!

I always thought they were very alike - not just in looks either.  My Blondie is very much like her gorgeous Aunt in temperament too.

More Photos

I am about half way through scanning in my grandmother's album now.  I made the tough decision that the album itself was going to have to go.  It's not an acid-free album, and the pages were either super sticky or had lost their stickiness altogether and the photos were falling out.

So all the photos have been removed and temporarily stored in a spare slip pocket album until I decide what to do with them.

In the meantime...

I found this newspaper clipping at the front of the album.  This must have been about 1981, just after we came back from a holiday visiting our grandparents in Warburton, showing off our newest sibling, the first boy after four girls!!

This gorgeous girl is Becca, the third in the family, at about 8 weeks old.

And a wee bit older.

And the beautiful Miss Lottie, The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady, the fourth of four sisters!

Mum and kids (minus Miss Lottie?) with our first baby brother Martin.  Check out the matching bowl cuts!

Ahh - the memories.  I am really enjoying this process, working out when the photos were taken, looking at the backgrounds and clothes.  So are my kids - they are beginning to see where they come from.

A new project for 2012

 Hello all!  A wee bit late, but Happy New Year to everyone.

Having been watching a few TV broadcasts on various disasters around our fair country twelve months ago, it prompted me into thinking we need an essentials box.  You know - insurance and bank documents, passports and the like.  And photos...

Well, seeing as we have lots of actual photos, a lot of which don't have negatives, we have decided to scan them all and save them in various places so we have some rescue options if ever necessary.

I started today with an album of photos that my folks sent my grandmother over the years, which was then passed on to me when she died.

I though I'd show you a couple just for memories sake!!

This grinning girl was me when I was only ten months old.

My first time as a big sister.

A very curious Cat, oh she of Just This Side of Chaos fame.

And Cat just a wee bit growed up.  I still remember that cuddly rug!

More to come...