Why we decided to homeschool: Part Four

The last part of a series which explains our reasons for decided to homeschool our younger six children.

If you read the introduction yesterday you may have picked up on the *ahem* deliberate mistake. I referred to the Friday Flashback returning next week. However, yesterday was Thursday, not Friday. Today is Friday as, well, it's a day after Thursday. This mistake has proven a number of things:

• None of you picked up on the mistake either. That means you're as scatty as I am
• If you did pick up on it you didn't mention it and decided to spare my embarrassment. How polite of you! Your parents would be so proud!
• Anyone can homeschool - you don't need to be a mega-qualified genius or even know which day of the week it is!

Anyway, let's get back to the whole reason for this post, shall we?

Why we decided to homeschool: Part Four

Though not completely happy with the idea, our original thoughts were to remove Harry, and allow Caitlin the chance to do her 11+ to see if she could get into grammar school. The plan was that if she did, all well and good for her GCSE exams, and if she didn't we'd homeschool her as well. The problem here was not only the pressure of the 11+ exams but also after. Also, we didn't want her to be limited in what she could do and learn.

Schools obviously have limited time, resources and teachers and can only focus on so many things which is fair enough. We felt a home education would offer more of an opportunity to learn about and do a wider range of things. This doesn't mean they'll be doing more hours worth of work either.

For example, if you take away the "idle time" in schools, such as assemblies, registration, breaks, waiting for pupils to settle down, going from classroom to classroom, interruptions during lessons and so on, that's an awful lot of wasted time out of an average 6 hour day.

In a home environment there are fewer distractions, fewer interruptions and therefore more time is spent actually learning and doing rather than waiting and wasting time. There is also the opportunity to follow up any individual interests that a child may have. Sometimes you'll find one question leading onto another, then another. In a school environment there isn't often the time to take out of a planned lesson to follow up these questions and see where you end up, whereas you have the flexibility to do this when you are learning at home. Unlike school, there are no limits to how far you can go and what you can do.

While researching curriculums we found a Christian based one which looked like the answers to our prayers! It had everything planned out. All the workbooks, the lessons, everything you’d need. You could pick and choose if you wanted to use other resources for certain lessons so you would only use the subjects you wanted to use if you didn't want to use all of them from here. The children would learn about positive character traits as well as maths, science, and the three r’s.

It would take them all the way up to the age of 18 and the certificate they receive at the end is accepted instead of GCSE’s for university entry at universities not only in England but also different ones around the world, which was another bonus as we are hoping to move from England one day. This was ideal for all the children, we thought, and we gave Caitlin the information and she came to decide that she too wanted to be homeschooled.

Although buying in a curriculum isn’t necessarily cheap, we keep in mind that many things can be re-used for younger children as they move up through the years, and so workbooks will be the only things needing purchasing once the extras such as reading books or various equipment have already been bought. And despite being very skint, or so we thought, we somehow have the money to get whatever curriculum we need. God surely provides!

The children are doing so very well. Both are working far further ahead than they would be or were at school. They also have the opportunity to do things such as sewing, crafts, woodwork, cooking and even learning about running a household. They are learning life skills as well as academic skills. They are best friends with eachother, rather than picking on eachother because that’s what someone did to them at school so they’ll do it at home to the next one in the pecking order.

I’m enjoying our time together. Life is so precious and so is time. I like being their mother, their guide and their teacher. We can instill the values we want them to have without them having to experience the peer pressure at such young ages (as one girl told Cait while handing her a party invitation to her tenth birthday, “Do you have a sparkly top? If you don’t have a sparkly top you can’t come.”). And no teacher in the world knows our children like we know our children. No-one in the world has their interests at heart like we do. Nobody is ever going to love them like we do. And like I tell them, no friend is going to love you as much or truly as your family loves you. Why shouldn’t good relationships between their siblings be encouraged over relationships with friends?

Many people are happy with schools and that’s fantastic. A lot of people don’t know about homeschooling, or simply don’t want to do it, and that’s fine too. It’s an individual choice for each family to make.

I’m not saying it’s the right decision for everyone but it’s the right decision for us and the best move we’ve made.

It works for us well. We love it.

You can read the rest of the series of posts here:

Why we decided to homeschool: Part One

Why we decided to homeschool: Part Two

Why we decided to homeschool: Part Three

Why we decided to homeschool: Part Three

Here is the third part of our four part series on how and why we decided to homeschool our children. In case you haven't done so already and you'd like to start from the beginning, you can read Part One here and Part Two here.

Friday Flashbacks will hopefully be back next week, if my memory returns. I'm finding it hard to remember where I left my cup of coffee some days, let alone what happened thirty odd years ago!

Why we decided to homeschool: Part Three

Over Christmas Mike and I started talking more and more about homeschooling. I was a little nervous about it. After all, I was expecting our eighth child and well, would we be able to do it with so many children? What about GCSE’s and exams? Where would I have the time to research and prepare for so many, knowing how long it took when there was only Stephanie alone being homeschooled.

But then, we had set a lot of the groundwork when we were first thinking of taking Stephanie out of school. We already knew about homeschooling rights in the UK, about various organisations for support and information, and I even knew that as the main educator I personally preferred to have some kind of routine as opposed to going with the flow of autonomous education.

It seemed that removing Stephanie from the system had been the rehearsal for something bigger in the future, except we didn't know it at the time.

Socialisation wasn’t an issue even though it’s one of, if not the first question people tend to ask. Real life socialisation is about mixing with different people of different ages in different environments. How many of us only mix with people the same age as us? It’s not about being stuck in a room six hours a day with thirty other people the same age as you in an environment where you aren’t supposed to chit-chat and play in anyway.

Even playtimes have gone all PC and Health and Safety mad. You can’t play British Bulldog or Tag any more. Even chasing and running games are out. What else are the children expected to do in a school for 4-11 year olds? Where is the socialisation there? Yet this is where a lot of concern lies for many!

Socialisation is about helping out with the church at the summer fete, it’s about learning dressmaking with a kind neighbour, it’s about another kind neighbour providing the opportunity to ride horses, or joining a sports club. Caitlin joined up with the Brownies and began Irish Dancing, and Harry joined up with the Beavers.

Those provide more socialisation than a classroom, and it's real life socialisation at that.



You can read the rest of the series of posts here:

Why we decided to homeschool: Part One

Why we decided to homeschool: Part Two

Why we decided to homeschool: Part Four

Tense times

Today Ben gets his exam results.

If they're good enough he gets a place at the college he desperately wants a place at (linked to his old school).

If they're not he has a week to sort out an alternative.

He's nervous.

We're nervous.

Your thoughts and prayers would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you.

Why we decided to homeschool: Part Two

If you haven't done so already you can read the first part on our homeschooling decision here. It was originally a three parter, but I felt that each post was too long so have edited it into four parts.

Part three of this series will be posted tomorrow.

Why we decided to homeschool: Part Two

During Caitlin and Harry's parents evening our daughter was told that yes, she was ahead in her maths. All her work was correct, her working out was shown and done correctly but it wasn’t the way they wanted it done.

The schools wanted some kind of drawing shown instead of calculation. (Is that what accountants do then, drawings?!). She was also told that she had to hold herself back because she was moving ahead too quickly and that wasn’t what they were meant to be doing. Harry was apparently two years ahead of himself according to his teacher and so was left to "get on with it" but instead of being supported and encouraged. Meanwhile extra teaching assistants were brought in to focus on the more disruptive children or the ones not yet up to speed. There were no resources to support the children who were able and willing to work.

Our son Harry was in year one. From his time in reception his level of reading was higher than the books they were sending him home with. I repeatedly had to write in his reading record that the books were too easy. Again, and again and again. He was eventually moved up seven reading levels at once, several months and one school year after I'd originally made my first comment in his reading record. It turned out that nobody had listened to him read at all since he began year one in September right up to the day we took them out of school in February, five months later. That's a long time.

Harry was getting bored and would come home shouting or just being quite horrid to his siblings. He was indifferent to us and we weren’t impressed with the attitudes both Caitlin and Harry would display. School holidays were lovely as they’d settle down quickly and be their "normal" selves. Not always perfect but not displaying the behaviour and attitude they’d bring back from school.

The more we saw the less we liked. We felt the education system deteriorated throughout the last ten years that Ben and Stephanie had gone through it. Spelling, punctuation, grammar… it’s not done much if at all any more. And now there’s talk of lowering the compulsory school age. Soon they’ll be taking registration for new pupils in the labour wards. And don't even get me started on them wanting to bring in compulsory sex education for five year olds.

We didn’t like that our children were becoming more distant from us. We didn’t like the fact that we were teaching them and encouraging them to learn and they were doing more at home. We didn’t like having a different problem to deal with every single day.

We resented being asked for money for something or other every single week without fail, yet never received a reply when we wrote letters about our concerns and how our children were being affected. I received three letters requesting payment for school meals for Harry, even though he had never had a school meal in his life. Despite four letters back to the school I never received either apology nor explanation although the requests for money eventually stopped.

I was dreading sending another child into the system the following September and remember hoping that Eddie wouldn't like it so then I would have my reason to stop sending him.




You can read the rest of the series of posts here:

Why we decided to homeschool: Part One

Why we decided to homeschool: Part Three

Why we decided to homeschool: Part Four

Why we decided to homeschool: Part One

I've been asked about why we decided to remove our children from the education system in favour of homeschooling them. My emailed reply became rather long-winded and as I'd been intending to blog about our decision I've tweaked it and decided to post it here. However, it's long and so in an effort to keep you from wanting to stick forks in your eyes through boredom I'll be breaking it down. And yes, before you say it, I am opinionated!

Why we decided to homeschool: Part One

A few years ago our second daughter Stephanie ended up being homeschooled at the age of 11. This was after a mixture of bullying and not getting any of her choice of secondary school. We firstly found out that she had been given a place at a school with an absolutely awful reputation and Ofsted report, and our appeal failed. We weren’t prepared to let her go there and so began looking into homeschooling with a view to starting in September that year. Then within the following weeks, some bullying had got increasingly worse at the junior school she was still attending.

One day she was crying because she had once again told a teacher about the problems she was having with some particular girls and the teacher sent Stephanie to summon the girls in for a telling off. Of course she was worried about the repercussions and so we made the decision that she wouldn’t be going back. We homeschooled her for two years. The first was autonomous. We didn’t follow any particular curriculum or anything. She chose topics to learn about and then worked on them.

The second year was more structured, which I much preferred. Having a brother a year older than herself, I bought the text books he had been using the year before and she followed pretty much the curriculum he had done. A lot of my time though, was spent researching, planning and arranging lessons for her. By the time she was due to start GCSE’s we had moved and she went back to a different school, and despite being deeply unhappy at the thought of returning she settled in well and is enjoying it. She was worried that she wouldn’t be at the same level or standard as her new peers but she needn’t have worried as she far exceeded them, and then some, which made her very happy. She now has a year left and is expected to achieve high grades in her exams next year.

Anyway, Caitlin was happy in school, and so was Harry when he started. However, my husband Michael and I were unhappy with a number of things. Firstly, there are some very good teachers out there. I don’t think I’ve come across many, if any, that aren’t good. But they aren’t being allowed to teach any more! Unfortunately, the government seems so set on creating little robots, with test after test, and a one size fits all education. You cannot teach millions of children the same thing, the same way, at the same time. You cannot hammer them into the shape you want them to be. But the government thinks it can.

My husband and I were no longer happy handing over the care of our children to teachers who had the pressure only of meeting targets, as it’s no longer about teaching children. I don’t blame the teachers. They have an extremely difficult job to do with seemingly little support. I do feel strongly that the government is to blame for the education system crumbling. I feel it’s more about pushing their future voters through the production line from an early age as possible, be it nursery or lowering compulsory school age or pushing daycare centres and schemes to enable parents to work or to have a break even. It’s good if that’s your choice but I don’t see any support to encourage or strengthen the family unit, or to help parents actually be parents to their children.

I feel the school day is far too long for poor little four and five year olds. My children were so tired when they finally got home. They’d be miserable, and it didn’t seem there was any quality time with the family any more. They didn’t want to talk about what they did once the novelty of the first week or two wore off. Conversation now consisted of single word replies, or even just zoning out because they were so tired.

It seems all about the rankings now. It’s all about the schools getting money. As long as a child gets the right grade it’s ok. It doesn’t matter whether the child understands what they are learning as next week they have to cover “x” subject anyway, but for THIS week they have to learn “y”.

There isn’t any ground work done and there isn’t any consistency either. There seems to be a different way of doing the same thing each new school year.

Discipline in schools is close to non existent. We were fed up with children being rewarded for sitting still during registration when our children, the ones that were learning and putting their effort into actual work, were overlooked. Harry had several problems with one boy in particular. In reception his ear was cut with a pair of scissors. Harry had been repeatedly pushed, hit, shoved, spat on and was shouted at in his face at close range. He had his work destroyed and when he told the teacher the child in question was not spoken to, but Harry was told to redo his work.

It’s not the teachers fault in most of the cases. There just isn’t a clear line any more for some kids on what’s acceptable and what isn’t. Teachers have no authority, or power to discipline children any more. The children have the upper hand. And if they have little respect when they are young it is unlikely to increase as they get older, and so the problems continue and only get worse once they reach senior school age. While the majority of children do want to learn, it only takes one or two to disrupt a whole class. And the child's view is, “What are you gonna do about it?”.




You can read the rest of the series of posts here:

Why we decided to homeschool: Part Two

Why we decided to homeschool: Part Three

Why we decided to homeschool: Part Four

Monday Weigh-In: Week 11

Nothing changes. Everything stays the same. Or at least the scales do.

I can't believe it! I have stayed within Points this week. I have drunk water. Lots of water. And I've been exercising!

And for my efforts I get to stay the same!

What is going on?!

I really thought I'd get somewhere with the increased physical activity at least.

I'm talking about the Wii Sports Active here. What did you think I was referring to?

I've done two workouts a day, every day bar one. High intensity workouts too, I might add.

The tough stuff.

I find it very motivating to be honest. It is only my first week of a Barack Obama lookalike of a personal trainer putting me through my thirty day challenge.

My motivation may well change.

I might find it even more motivating if the Wii version of my jiggled realistically as I do. Or in the words of Steph, "Oh mum, put a sports bra on!".

Some support underwear might be seems to be called for too.

And upper arm supports.

And support stockings.

I've even got my very own personal trainer who sits behind me shouting out "You're fat, mum! You're fat!" repeatedly. Notice how he stresses the word "FAT!"

Thanks, Sid. But at least I don't put toilet water over my head.

Stayed the same.

Pah!

Friday Flashbacks - I don't mean to be rude but...

"Shaddup You Face!"

It made me laugh when I was a small child and it still makes me laugh now.

And it also reminds me of every song my dad tries to sing with his Greek accent.

It's even funnier to hear his Greek accent try and mimic Joe Dolce's Italian one on this song.

Fun memory!

Dressing for summer

Sid has got the co-ordination of summer outfits down to a tee.

This is the style of 2009, in case you didn't know.

First we have shorts...

... the the t-shirt...



... and finally...



Yes. It's the winter hat.

Got that?

Shorts...



Shirt...



Winter hat...

One morning last week I was busy in the kitchen finishing off preparing the evening's meal.

I heard Sid go into the downstairs shower room and then the toilet flushed.

Rushing to finish off the meal in order to get started on lunch for everyone I answered Sid with an "Oh dear!" when he told me his hat had fallen.

Turning around with a tray of macaroni cheese I was faced with Sid standing in the middle of the kitchen, wooly hat on his head and water dripping down his face.

"Sid, did you mean that your hat fell into the toilet?!"

"Uh-huh!" he nodded with a grin, with water trickling down his face in tiny streams.

"Oh no! You've got germs all over your head now! We have to stick you in the shower!" I exclaimed, while I hurried off to gather a bathtowel and change of clothes for him.

With water still running down over his face and soaking his shirt he replied, "But it's clean water in the toilet!"

12 weeks

13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

13 weeks pregnant

14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.

31 weeks pregnant

15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

1 hour old

16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.

12 weeks old

Psalm 139:13-16

What a miracle!

Monday Weigh-In: Week 10

It's a good job I didn't add the additional 5lb loss last week due to illness, as the scales give me a 3lb gain on that figure and I wouldn't have been happy. As it stands I went for the original 2lb loss I knew I had thanks to serial weighing and so this week I have lost another 2lb, so happiness ensues!

A couple of people have also admitted to being serial weighers. Why do we do it? I know I'm not going to miraculously lose three stones overnight so why?

Personally, if I step on the scales one morning and find myself slightly below what I weighed the previous day, at a lower weight than I'd ever reached before (except on my way up!), then it makes me happy that I'm going in the right direction.

I'm aware that if I weigh myself in the evenings or after eating I'm going to weigh more. I'm aware that the scales fluctuate. And for this reason I only take notice on my official Monday morning weigh-ins. I don't get upset over any fluctuations during the rest of the time but if I see a new, lower weight, it motivates me!

I need to lose another 2lbs in order to make a total loss of 2 stones so far. That's this weeks aim. My next short term goal is to lose another stone by the end of September, approximately six weeks away.

Can I do it?

And just to step it up a gear I've set myself up with the Wii Sports Active 30 day personal challenge. More on that during the week, hopefully. If the first few days of squats, lunges and general body aching exercises don't kill me or make my typing fingers fall off though I could always type with my nose, I suppose.

Friday Flashback... P..P..P...Pacers!

I don't have a stutter actually. I just couldn't think of a witty (or even a non-witty title) for this post and I didn't want to simply write "Pacers" because it looked too short.

I asked Michael for his memories from his childhood.

He wasn't very useful.

He did remember Pacers though.

I loved Pacers. So did he. Do you think that's an indication that we were made for eachother? Because we both loved the striped white and green chewy sweets?

I don't remember when they stopped being made.

I miss them.

In fact, most of my memories are of food.

Foods that are no longer with us.

Or re-named.

Snickers should have stayed as Marathon.

And why change Opal Fruits?

Why?!

I digress.

Many of you probably don't remember them. Many more of you probably didn't even know of their existence. I'm sure lots of you remember foods long forgotten. Please share, and help me get over my grief.

As I can't really talk further about Pacers without going into a deep, painful level of mourning I'll leave you with this ode.

Ode to Pacers

Pacers, Pacers, how I miss you
Pacers, Pacers, I long to kiss you
Actually I don't
I'd rather just chew you til your stripes all merge and you are in my tummy
Pacers, Pacers, you are were (*sob*) yummy.

The End.

All together now...

... "CHEEEEEEEEEEESE"



Add mum, dad and Ben's girlfriend to the picture and you realise you'll have to use the panoramic setting on the camera next time!

Large Family Questions

A few months ago I asked your opinion on the number of children which would turn an average sized family into a large one.

As I explained in the post, we don't actually feel as if we have a large family. It simply doesn't feel all that big to us. How many children do I think makes a large family? I don't really know. When you have four children, it doesn't make much of a difference going to five. Then from five to six. And so on. At least that's how it's felt to us.

We weren't suddenly thrown into a situation where we woke one morning and had eight children to look after. They came into our lives gradually, one by one, and little by little our lives changed. We went through, and are still learning through trial and error. We listen to others that have been there, done that and get ideas that most of the time are so simple yet we haven't thought of. We adapted. Our lives grew richer around our increasing family but that's not to say that many things on the journey didn't change because they did.

Organisation helps. Laundry, yes, there's always some of that. And I'm still waiting for the second machine. Patience is a virtue... one I wish I had. Which is funny as it's assumed I have truckloads of the stuff in order to have a houseful.

I don't.

I know we're often asked the same questions but at the moment I can't think of them! What do people at checkouts ask? For the most part I think they're just curious, I'm sure. I don't think we've often had genuinely rude comments or reactions.

So what would you ask? And if you have, or grew up in a larger than average family (or are treated as though you do even though you may feel that you don't), what are you asked and what are your answers, if any? You can comment here, or you can send an email to family@largerfamilylife.com

And before you ask it, here's the answer to the main question...

Yes, we do know what causes it.

Monday Weigh-In: Week 9

I doubled last weeks loss with a 2lbs loss this week. Actually, the scales are showing a 7lb loss today, but that is more than likely due to the vomiting and diar... diarro... diaharr... the runs I've had during the last couple of days. And that is also the reason why I'm updating my Monday Weigh-In post on a Tuesday. I'm therefore entering the last weight I weighed in at before the bug hit. (Yes, I'm a serial weigher. So?!). Having the bug kind of makes the saying "Be careful what you wish for" ring true after last weeks complaints about the weight not coming off fast enough, doesn't it?

Anyway, I'm still feeling pretty unwell, so I'm signing off for now.

Fabulous dahlink!

I'm going up in the world! Yesterday The Redhead Riter gave me my first ever blog award. That only took two years! Am I really that awful? And in case you are wondering, she knows that writer has a "W" at the beginning. She's a rebel. What can I say?

Anyway, back to me.

Here is my award.

Isn't it shiny?! Thank you Red Head Riter!

As with these things (or so I gather) there are THE RULES.

THE RULES are as follow:

1. List five current obsessions
2. Pass the award onto five other blogs.

So for your information my five current obsessions are:

• My husband
• My children
• My weight loss journey
• Baking (kind of cancels the last one out, don't you think?
• Bullet Points (I like them. So what if you think it's not a proper obsession)

(has this convinced you yet?)

• (how about now?)

And I'm passing this award to...

1. Rita at Fighting Off Frumpy. Have you ever been embarrassed by your children? Read this!

2. Sarah at Ordinary Days. She's going to feed me with food from her garden. I like food. I just have to cross the Atlantic first. And she's funny.

3. Just Jingle on popularity. This is so hilarious. Do you see the irony in my giving her an award for it?

4. A thoughtful post on honesty by Mesina at her blog "And then there was me". I like to think. Sometimes.

5. And finally, JanMary because she makes lovely things in her Etsy store and I really, really love the Atlantic Blue Charm Bracelet (Mike, I'm hinting. Thought I'd point that out in case you're reading this and missed it). And she's nice too.

How come you're still here reading my drivel? Go and visit them!

Aha! Ahem.

I'm a bit late at finding out about these literal video versions of songs. It wasn't until I came across a blog post with "Birdhouse in Your Soul" by They Might Be Giants and found myself laughing stupidly at my computer screen that I finally caught on.

Am I always the last person to know about anything?

Anyway, just for your entertainment, here is the literal version of Aha's "Take On Me".



Hahahahahahaha! "Magic Fraaaaaammmme!" How funny!

Ahhhhh. Whatever did we used to do without YouTube anyway?

Friday Flashbacks* (*insert timetravel type sound here) - Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3...

When I was young we had three television channels here in the UK. They were BBC1, BBC2 and ITV.

There was no breakfast television, no kids programmes early in the morning. In fact, there was nothing on until about 11am. Or something like that. My memory is a little bit sketchy.

Anyway, when programmes weren't being broadcast various screen images would be shown instead. These were known as "Test Cards", which would be on the screen for hours on end accompanied by some background music.

So if you were a child growing up in the 70's and switched on the TV to tune in to an episode of Bagpuss or Mr Benn you'd have been faced with this:



Yes.

Smirking Girl and Short Legged Freaky Clown playing Noughts and Crosses on the blackboard.

Isn't that clown hideous?

The BBC thought it would be fun to scare little kids of the seventies with that thing.

Look at his manic face! "I'm watching youuuuuuu, Smirking Girl!"

And his hair!

What's up with his hair! All four strands of it!

Smirking Girl seems to have the right idea though. At first glance it seems she's holding some chalk in order to take her next move. Short Legged Freaky Clown doesn't realise she's about to grab him around the neck and rip his psychotic little head off.

Look at her face. Those eyes tell all. "You think I won't do it? I'll do it OK. I'll rip your little psychotic head off, dol-leeee! Right - after - the count of - three..."

Yes, that's a memory for me.

Can you tell I don't like clowns?

The tale of the Mother of the Year and the Teenage Daughter

"May I have some of this Hot Chocolate, please?" asks Stephanie, pointing to the luxury Hot Chocolate (bought only because it was on a really good special offer).

"No." Mother of the Year (that's me) says. "That's for special occasions." (Yes, special occasions. Like when you younger people have gone to bed and I can have a cup of luxury hot chocolate in peace).

"OhhhhOohhhOhh!" says Stephanie, in whiney voice. (How would you write that to indicate a whiney voice anyhow?).

Mother of the Year almost feels bad.

Almost.

But not quite. (Have you gathered that I have given myself the MOTY title with my tongue firmly in my cheek?).

"You can have the cheap hot chocolate." I offer graciously. (Ah, now you get it!)

"The cheap one?!" Stephanie is horrified at the thought of cheap hot chocolate. (The hot chocolate which is fine for consumption on any other given day yet is suddenly akin to drinking bleach when there's a luxury version in front of her).

Stephanie continues making her cheap hot chocolate. Then with a narrowing of her eyes and a pout she walks past me and mutters...

"And YOU get the cheap nursing home!".

Apple Cinnamon Cake - Yummmmm!

I've been messing about in the kitchen experimenting with some recipes. Our chickens have been poorly, and all but one has stopped laying eggs. Being unwilling to buy eggs I decided upon an eggless sponge.

This one began as a cupcake recipe, during which time I opened the cupboards pondering what I could use as flavouring.

I love cinnamon, and so the natural progression to partner it with was... prunes.

Not really.

Today I wanted to try the recipe again, but I wanted to see how it went as a single, large cake.

It went well.

So here is the recipe:

Eggless Apple Cinnamon Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

Cake:
400g Self Raising Flour
150g Sugar
250g Butter - softened
4 tsp Baking Powder
600ml Water
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
4 tsp Cinnamon Powder
3 Apples, peeled, chopped and diced

Frosting:
175g Cream Cheese
600g Icing Sugar

Method:

Preheat oven to 190ºC/375ºF/Gas Mark 5.

1. Beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.

2. Slowly sift in flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Stir together well.

3. Add water and stir thoroughly until all ingredients are combined.

4. Stir chopped and diced apples into the mixture.

5. Pour into a lined and greased 8 inch round springform cake tin.

6. Bake for 45 mins. If you find the top is over-browning before it's fully baked cover the top with tin foil. This will stop it getting burnt before it's fully baked.

7. Once baked remove from oven and place tin on a wire rack to cool. Once cooled remove from tin and make frosting.

8. Whisk together the cream cheese and icing sugar until the mixture is thick and gloopy, but still pourable.

9. Pour onto cooled cake. Watch as it runs over the edge of the cake into rivers of deliciousness. Try not to drool over it. That's not hygienic.

10. Let it sit for at least an hour before serving. This is a good test of willpower.

11. Eat and enjoy!

Click here for the no fuss, printable recipe.

Something freaky is going on

We stagger the younger children's bedtimes. Paddy, being the second youngest after the baby, goes to bed at 6.45pm. Sid follows at 7pm, then Eddie and Harry go off at 7.30pm.

One evening last week, just after taking Harry and Eddie up, Mike came downstairs.

"Have you seen Sid?" he asked me, and beckoned me to go upstairs.

I peeked into his room and saw Sid fast asleep in his bed.

And this...



It seems he had a productive time hanging stuffed toys from the above his bunk bed. Now, the monkey looks quite cool but...



Look at the rag doll!

Look at her!!

Please don't try and tell me that she's enjoying that. Doesn't it look like toy torture? Kind of reminds me of...



...Sid from Toy Story.

Must be the name!

Monday Weigh-In: Week 8

I lost a pound.

One single solitary pound.

I'm disappointed to be completely honest. It just doesn't seem that much at all.

1 lb.

I know I'd have been completely, earth shatteringly devastated if I'd put that pound on.

Well, perhaps not that bad.

Disappointed, maybe.

Extremely disappointed.

But I guess I was hoping for a bigger loss this week, given that last week I stayed the same.

That and the fact that my goal seems so far away today.

And that I look in the mirror and still look and feel fat.

I know that baking is a love of mine and this week has resulted in creating a couple of new recipes. I POINTED them, tracked them and ate them and my they were gorgeous.

And if I win this competition that Jan Mary is running I'll be doing a lot more baking. Which is a test of my willpower. Or lack of. Yeah, I can just blame Jan Mary then for any weight gain.

*Sigh*

Anyone got a magic wand?

Words of encouragement?

Or a kick in the ...