Glitter Christmas cards.

So we made some Christmas cards, but didn't get our act together to post them! Ok, my excuse is pregnancy brain and severe nausea.

We made star stamps out of foam , but you can push a star cookie cutter into a potato for similar effect. Dipped them in glue and stamped them then threw glitter all over the place and let them dry.

Voila - sparkly christmas cards! Easy enough for really little ones to join in.

Nature Table

On our nature table at the moment we have decided to go for a display. We have included some the that wildlife pamphlets we got at the Garden Route Game Reserve, a puzzle, a slide viewer of wildlife, and a beautiful reference book from Little Footprints. This "display" was inspired from my dear friends christmas table at Dawn in the Home

Candy canes and snowmen

We made these from Crazy Clay, which is expensive but I bought the red and white pack refill from the local Pick n Pay and we rolled them together this morning. Both the boys loved this activity and my younger went on to design some "abstract" christmas decorations too. They will be dry and ready for hanging in the morning.

Our new pool

So we didn't get our act together to get plans passed this summer for a pool, so be bought a really big porta-pool. It is fabulous and the boys swam in it this morning in the rain!

Felt Advent Calendar

Because we don't do chocolates, sweets, chemicals, colourants and all the other things that come with normal shop-bought advent calendars, I decided to make a calendar from felt that can be used again and again. I took all my felt scraps to make the pockets, glued on foam numbers I found at a sewing shop and used embroidery thread to sew around each pocket. It is delightfully colourful and each morning the boys rush through to get their card in there, which I have posted the night before. We made the cards up together and they range from; visiting a friend to a new chritmas story book, an outing, a picnic, a special game or stickers.

It has worked really well so far.

Felt Boxes at Craft group

So this was the outcome of our last craft group. These amazing little craft boxes can be used for anything. They are super easey to make. You need natural felt (it is thicker than synthetic felt) and material and embroidery thread and needle to complete this little project. For more info on making this and other material boxes with tutorials go to this link at whipup

Friendship

HAPPY THOUGHT

The world is so full

of a number of things,

I'm sure we should all

be as happy as kings.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Raw Hummus - Totally Divine!

Ok I am not in love with hummus , but THIS has changed me forever.

So this is what you need: uncoooked chickpeas (about a cup , Carotino Palm oil , garlic 2 cloves, himalayan rocksalt, cumin.

To get Carotino Palm oil click here.

1) Soak chickpeas for 24 hours (just cover with water and forget about them)

2) Rinse them off and sprout them for 1 - 2 days (this entails rinsing them off morning and night and leaving them in any glass jar) - so that they have the start of a little tail.

3) Blend with 6 Tablespoons of palm oil , garlic, 1/2 tsp cumin and rocksalt to taste.

ENJOY!!

Spring Necklaces

Ok we took some craft foam pages (I bought these from Merrypak) and I cut them into flowers.

We cut up some straws to thread inbetween.

We then used a blunt wool needle and string to sew these on.

I am inspired by Waldorf Crafts and sewing is so therapeutic for children.

Anyway they enjoyed them and it was really a quick and easy craft.

(If your children are older they can draw and cut out their own flowers)

Compost - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

So we bought this composter a while ago, it is make out of recycled plastic. We put our veggie and fruit scraps, tea bags, coffee grounds, pips and all in as well as all garden clippings and a smattering of hay to increase the "brown matter" and we wait for our beautiful compost. We bought this from Noordhoek Garden Emporium because we had to have something we could compost onto concrete. All is well and between our composter and recycling plastic, paper, cardboard, glass and tins we don't have alot left to go into our wheelie bin. Great!

Nature Prints and sewing.

Ok these are so fabulous looking and so so easy.

So you need : some cream material/ or white - any kind will do, a hammer, a piece of white paper, raffia or ribbon or string for handle and a twig.

So send the children into the garden to gather a few leaves and flowers. Then they come and place them on their square of material (mine were about 20cm square).

Lay the white paper over the top and hammer the flowers and leaves for a few minutes till you can feel they are flat.

Lift the paper and gently scrape remains off material. Viola. I stitched a line across top to make a seam and they threaded their stick through. Then I tied the handle on.

Seed Milk (aka iced coffee)

This is so delicious and tastes alot like Iced Coffee

In a blender we mix

1) 1 cup of sunflower seeds (can be done with Almonds or Cashews too)

2) 1 cup of pitted dates

3) 1 Tablespoon of vanilla powder/ extract or seeds of one vanilla pod

4) 5 cups of filtered or spring water

5) Blend

6) Pour into nut milk bag available from http://www.superfoods.co.za/ for R60

7) Strain and drink on crushed ice or when it is cold (here you can see our chef "milking" the nut bag)

SO SO DELICIOUS!

Raw Meusli

Ok this is a real winner. We make a raw cereal that is gluten, sugar and dairy free and PACKED with nutrition.

Here's how:

1) Get buckwheat groats ( I buy all my nuts, seeds, dates, raisins etc from Yellow Submarine in Ottery - it's half the price)

2) Sprout 4 Cups of this by soaking for 12 hours in water (rinse off and clean water every 3 hours, it goes gooey)

3) Leave the sprouts overnight to grow

4) Next morning mix these in a big bowl with 2 handfulls of raisins, 2 handfulls of any seeds, 2 handfulls of chopped dates, 2 handfulls of nuts, 1 handfull of coconut and a cup of agave nectar or honey, a tablespoon of cinnamon and for a chocolate version we add half a cup of raw cacao powder)

5) Mix with hands and then put in dehydrator for 12 hours

6) OR if you don't have a dehydrator spread out onto 2 baking trays and put oven on 70 degrees with the door 2mm open - for 10 hours

7) Store in fridge for 1 month

8) Serve with rice milk (available at health stores)

YUMMMMMM!

Mrs Meyers

Well hello! We are back and ..... kind of into the swing of normal life again.

We had a wonderful holiday, but more about that later.

For those who know Jewels from http://eyesofwonder.typepad.com/my_weblog/ you will know how she raves about Mrs Meyers aromatherapeutic cleaning products. Well finally they have landed in South Africa at Wellness Warehouse ( I found mine at the Cavendish branch) They were suprisingly reasonable. Here I have the Countertop Spray, Dishwashing soap and Handwash. They are truly heavenly and so worth the money. Other locally made products in the Natural Range are more expensive so I was pleasantly surprised.

Please support Wellness Warehouse they bring in many products from overseas that we could not get through any other shops here , like the Seventh Generation dishwasher powder.

Enjoy

We're all going on a spring holiday...

Ok we are off to camp and waterski and braai, and fly kites, and skurf and play boule and drink wine watching the sun go down.... we will be back in a couple of weeks.

Perfecto Pasta!

Ok this is so easy , it is scary! And takes 20 minutes. While your water is boiling....

Chop a few big tomatoes (like about 6-7) or just dump a big punnet of baby tomatoes into the wok or fry pan

with 3-4 teaspoons of crushed garlic

(in this one) I chopped up some baby marrows - one punnet (he he.. you don't see them - kids don't know dem in there!)

1 teaspoon of Himalayan rock salt (from health shop - it has every trace mineral your body needs)

1 teaspoon of italian herbs (oregano, basil, majoram) - any combination

cook up till tomatoes skins peel back a little , doesnt matter if under cooked.

blend this concoction and serve over wheat free pasta, in this pic I am using Orgran Animal pasta - kids love the animal shapes and we have spaghetti (buckwheat or rice) -by the way buckwheat is gluten free and has a silly name, but is no relative to wheat!

ENJOY

A little birdie...

Well we found this little birdie quite stiff on our trampoline this morning. I think he either died of old age, cold or fright as Pablo our cat came around the corner. Anyway we think from our bird book he is a European Starling. What beautiful green feathers. This is truly the best type of nature study right in our own garden and hands-on!

Dairy-Free Pineapple Yoghurt

This is so so delicious.

1. Peel, core and chop your pineapple

2. A big handful of cashew nuts ( I buy mine from Yellow Submarine in Ottery - wholesale)

3. A dollop of organic honey or Agave Nectar

4. Optional - a handful of pitted dated (either fresh or soaked)

5. Blend till smooth

6. Enjoy this exquisite yoghurt!

Dairy-Free Hot Chocolate

Well, this is so easy and so delicious.
1/2 a teaspoon of organic cocoa powder
2 teaspoons rice milk powder
1 Table spoon of honey
Half full cup of boiling filtered water
Half full cup of cold filtered (or mountain spring) water
Mix together and enjoy!

Ben's Artwork

Well...this is one of the recent proud artworks of our Benjamin at 6 years of age. Inspired by a living book in our Little Footprints curriculum. I love it so and wish I could make it into wrapping paper - I just love the colours.

Last night I had some special girl friends come over for a craft evening.

Well we felted and embroidered and sewed and cut and stuffed and spooned and this is what we ended up with .... an assortment of the cutest christmas trees ever. I love the one with the cross, to remember Jesus - the reason for the season.... and yes we do know it is not Christmas yet, but we are getting ready and crafting away. My personal aim is to make my own christmas gifts for family members this christmas. It is a big time commitment, but it is worth it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SPECIAL K !
20 Years Old....

We love you and are proud of your achievements

and the man you are becoming.

We enjoyed a fish braai to celebrate with the

Mnende family, and a good time was had by all.

Thank you for the fresh yellow tail Masi, we loved it!

Shell Boxes - Crafts.

Well , as you know we LOVE Little Footprints. Just love, love, love it! Anyway 2 weeks ago one of the crafts for the week was to make a shell box , inspired by the beautiful story about a box. Anyway we collected and hunted the coastlines and this is what we made. I bought the boxes at the local craft shop and I am so proud of my boys. They created these by themselves.

Quick lunch

Ok so this is also really simple we bake a normal or sweet potato for each of us ( I buy the organic ones from Woolies). I bake them on 180 for 1 hour. If they are organic I dont even wash them. Then I cut them up , dribble some olive oil on with Himalayan rock salt, chop up some avo, baby tomotoes or cucumber and here we added some organic dry Wors. Now this sausage is pure organic beef (I sometimes get Kudu) with NO cereals or preservatives! Amazing to find we order from alicia in Somerset West each month and courier it to us (infact I get a 2 or 3 month supply to save on bringing it here) I also have shared lifts with friends to collect. You can get the meat prices emailed to you from www.gonatural.co.za I have been ordering organic meat from them for 4 years and trust them implicitly. We also use the mince and boerewors (all totally gluten free and organic!)

Simple Cereal

Ok sometimes when I run out of time I buy these organic cornflakes.

Just incase you don't know in South Africa corn is genetically modified. There are studies that show due to the nature of the corn there are genetically modified substances which stay in the gut and release substances into the gut. PLEASE dont buy any corn products unless they are organic or non -GMO (genetically modified). For more info you can google this. In South Africa it is a real problem as maize is a big industry.

Anyway I buy this cereal from www.ethical.org.za You can find it as some health shops too. We serve it with rice milk or chocolate rice milk (where I put a teaspoon of organic cocoa powder in with a teaspoon of honey. Quick, easy and a treat for the boys.

Salmon Rice Cakes.

For lunch on the weekend with the whole family one of our favourites is

Rice Cakes or Corn Thins with some Woolies organic mayonnaise spread ontop with smoked salmon trout and slivers of avo and a slice of cucumber or tomato. We top this with a pinch of himalayan rock salt (a pink'ish salt that has every trace element that the body needs) you can get this from any health shop. Enjoy......

Chicken Tacos - GFCF

Well as you all know (well you do if you are on this Gluten Free, Dairy free, preservative free, sugar free, chemical free diet) finding new things to eat with children with special needs and special diets can be challenging on a good day. Luckily I love the challenge, so I will be sharing with you over time some of our "goodie" recipes that the kids love .... hopefully they can inspire and help you.

Step 1 :

Cut up a packet of Free range chicken breasts

Stir fry with one grated onion and a packet of chopped mushrooms

When cooked add a tin of organic tinned tomatoes (I use Woolies again)

Step 2:

Take a box of Orley Whip or Instant Whip Non dairy cream

Step 3:

I have willing workers for beating the cream

Step 4:

Put your tacos (woolies ones aswell) into the oven at 18o for 4 minutes

Step 5:

Serve Chicken into warm tacos with chopped lettuce, sliced avo, and top with whipped cream.

Voila! This is a fabulous meal that we all enjoy.

Necklaces and ragdolls

Ok so when we made these ragdolls for the one story in Little Footprints, I had no idea how much work it would be for me. Luckily we planned to make them at Granmas house who is an expert seamstress. Nonetheless, the boys love them and remember the story with them as they play.

You will also see the necklaces they made for their next story from paperclips. We also made paper chains, they so love showing off their handiwork to their proud dad on his arrival home.

Ostrich lapbook

We have just finished the story Fly Eagle Fly by Ken Brown, as we work through the Little Footprints Curriculum. Here is some photos of our ostrich lapbook