2013 - the year that was!

I'm rather a little late writing my summary of last year (although I'm sure if you look back at the blog you will notice a similar trend in previous years!)  2013 was a very busy year for us.  I knew it would be but I didn't expect it to be quite as bad as it was.  I feel like I never had a moment free!  It has been an amazing year though.  We have had some unexpected surprises along the way that have us excited about the future. 

Jacob started Class 1 this year.  He started at a different campus this year and we were all a little worried about how he'd settle in.  But it's all happened so smoothly.  He has the most amazing teacher.  She is gentle, kind and compassionate.  She understands the kids she teaches so well and knows exactly what they need.  She has made the transition to the new campus so easy for Jacob.  We feel truly blessed that she will be Jacob's teacher for the next 5 years.  When you see Jacob alongside his peers these days you would never guess that he has Autism.  He made some incredible changes in 2013 (again, largely due to his teacher).  You may see a boy who is a bit reluctant to join in new activities or who doesn't always join in on group games in the playground but really that is not so different from some other kids.  He has his special friends in his class and is happy to play with them.  We still get the meltdowns at home but I think that's just the way things go with Jacob.  Hopefully, as he gets older we will be able to teach him appropriate ways to deal with these. 

Esme had her last year of Kinder this year.  For the first time in 4 years we will not have a child at Kinder in 2014 which feels a little strange!  She has loved Kinder this year.  She is the real little social butterfly.  She loves to play with all the other kids at Kinder and has made some beautiful friends, all of whom will continue on to school with her next year which is great!  She loves to play with all the boys too, getting involved in all their rough and tumble games and getting as dirty as possible.  She's very much looking forward to going to school. 

Gideon has grown and changed so much in the past year.  He is a real little boy now.  He loves to chase after the two big kids and terrorise them (he's getting his own back now for the many times they annoyed him!)  I've enjoyed having some one on one time with him this year when Esme has been at Kinder and Jacob has been at school.  He seems to be growing up far more quickly than the other two did which makes me a little sad.

I continued working one day a week in 2013 and have enjoyed my little bit of time away from the kids.  I will continue working one day a week next year as well, with a class that is mostly the same (which is a good thing as I've really enjoyed teaching the class I currently have). One day or work a week is perfect for me at the moment and I have no intention of increasing my hours anytime soon.  I am no longer the group leader of my local ABA group.  It's given me a bit of extra time and space and I have been able to manage going back on helpline once a month.  I enjoyed completing some craft projects although did not have as much time as I would have liked to this year (perhaps in 2014?!)

The most exciting thing that happened in 2013 was to do with Chris' chocolate business - FunKey Chocolates.   He started off the year making chocolates on a small scale - mainly for family and friends.  We thought it would all be too hard to get our kitchen approved by the Council to use for chocolate production.  He looked into hiring out commercial kitchens but that proved too expensive and too hard to do.  Towards the end of the year though we decided to just get someone out and see what we would need to do to our kitchen to get it up to 'standards'.  Imagine our surprise when the health inspector told us that our kitchen had passed and that Chris was able to trade!  He has since done two markets (one our school market day and one a big market in Upwey) and done quite well.  Easter this year looks like it's going to be a busy time in our household.  While it's been a lot of hard work especially given that Chris still has a full-time job and is making chocolates in the evenings/weekends, I'm glad that he has found something he loves to do.  We're both very excited about the future of the business. 

Happy New Year!  I hope that 2014 brings everyone great happiness!  

The new cubby!

Well, here it is!  The new cubby house is finally up.  The kids are loving their new space.  Yesterday they were dressed and out the door to play it in well before 8am!  The cubby house was a Christmas present from Santa (actually a second hand cubby house we bought on ebay).  We cleaned it and stained it (still a work in progress) and it has come up great.  There's still a few things we want to do on the inside but the kids are enjoying playing in it in the meantime.  I got a little wooden oven and sink to go in there as well (also from ebay) which the kids love.  Now to figure out what I can take out of the house and store in the cubby instead!! 

Holes dug and posts go in (not an easy job to dig holes here!)

The floor goes on. 

Eating lunch in their new cubby house!

One of the best Christmas presents yet I think! A huge thank you to our family who helped us put it up!

Homemade Washing Powder

We've been making our own washing powder for well over a year now (and it's probably been about that long since I've been meaning to blog about it too!)  Anyway, I am finally getting around to posting the recipe.  It works really well.  Sometimes I find that the soap in it doesn't dissolve entirely but that is because we generally wash in cold water.   The original recipe calls for borax but I prefer to use bicarb. All our family has very sensitive skin usually due to the extra 'perfumes' and added nasties in commercial washing powders so this homemade powder works really well for us.

Homemade Washing Powder

Ingredients
2 cups grated Velvet soap (2 bars)
1 cup lectric soda
1/2 cup bicarb

Method
Grate soap finely in Thermomix (about 30 seconds on speed 8).  Add in lectric soda and bicarb and buzz in Thermomix until evenly combined.  Use one scoop per load (I use a scoop that is roughly 25gms) 

One batch of washing powder lasts me a month.  I do at least one load of washing a day.  At roughly $3 per batch it works out as a much cheaper option than most commercial washing powders! 

Merry Christmas!

So...Christmas did not end up quite as we had expected this year!  I ended up with a tummy bug on Christmas Eve so spent the next day at home by myself while Chris took the kids out.  I was even too sick to watch the kids open their presents which I was really sad about.  Luckily no one else got it and we were able to celebrate a belated Christmas the next day.

We started some new Christmas traditions this year which meant a really lovely lead up to Christmas.  It started with our Advent stick on the first day of December.  Every night just before bedtime we would take it in turns to open one of the papers, light our candles and read a story from 'The light in the lantern'.  

On Christmas Eve, we went outside to sprinkle our reindeer food on the driveway (packets of oats with some glitter mixed in) and we put some food out for Santa under the Christmas tree - he got some chocolates and milk this year.  The kids loved running around to sprinkle the reindeer food. 

The kids were so excited to wake up on Christmas morning and find that Santa had left presents for them under the tree.  Jacob was so excited to have his own set of vintage Thomas the Tank Engine books!  Esme and Gideon were just excited about everything. 

The most exciting thing of all was that Santa brought them a cubby.  He left it on the driveway in pieces so when they went out to check if their reindeer food had been eaten they discovered it.  They were literally screaming in excitement.  In the lead up to Christmas Jacob had been talking about wanting Santa to bring a cubby with a red slide (we hadn't said anything to the kids about what they might be getting for Christmas).  Funnily enough, that's exactly what he brought ;)  Stay tuned for more photos of the cubby house being put up! 

Christmas Advent Stick

Recently I attended a Christmas workshop at my childrens' school to learn how to make an Advent stick.  An Advent stick is basically an Advent calendar but instead of pockets, items are wrapped in tissue paper and tied to a stick.  All the items are either objects from nature or things that have been handmade (no chocolates in sight on this calendar!) Each week of Advent corresponds to a different world, as per Steiner traditions.  Week 1 is the mineral world.  Week 2 is the plant world.  Week 3 is the animal world.  Week 4 is the human world.  I had such a lovely couple of evenings crafting with some beautiful women and enjoyed putting lots of love into all the handmade things for the kids. It was a little harder than I expected to tie all the items onto the stick but with the help of my (ever-suffering) husband we were able to do it. Here's some photos of what was on our Advent Stick.

Day 1: Beeswax candle in  holder and verse about the first week of Advent

Day 2: Shells

Day 3: Chalk

Day 4: Painted stones

Day 5:Beaded Christmas ornament

Day 6: Bath crystals

Day 7: Glass stones

Day 8: Beeswax candle in  holder and verse about the second week of Advent

Day 9: Gumnut Christmas Ornament

Day 10 : Seeds

Day 11: Handstitched Holly decoration

Day 12: Dried Rose petals

Day 13: Felted acorn gnome

Day 14: Bulbs

Day 15: Beeswax candle in  holder and verse about the third week of Advent

Day 16: Finger knitted snail

Day 17: Feather

Day 18: Origami Crane

Day 19: Sea shell turtle

Day 20: Coral

Day 21: Hand stitched dove

Day 22: Beeswax candle in holder and verse about fourth week of Advent

Day 23:Silk Angel

Day 24: A verse I wrote for the kids

The kids had a lovely time taking it in turns to open each parcel.  I'm looking forward to creating another one for them next year! 

Handmade Christmas Ornament for 2013

I have resolved to start a new tradition of making a new Christmas Ornament each year for our tree.  I love the idea of making something special each year and hope that in years to come I will be able to look back and see all these special things I made. 

This year's ornament is a peace dove made from this pattern.  It looks relatively simple but a lot of time and love went in to making it!  I'm planning on making some more to gift in different colours. 

Strawberry Santas (the dairy-free version!)

Dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free, sugar-free

I've seen photos of these strawberry Santas going around a lot lately.  They look  really great.  The only problem is that the ones I've seen are made with whipped cream and Jacob can't have dairy.  So we came up with our own solution - cashew nut cream!  I've posted my recipe for cashew nut cream before.  It makes a great filling for strawberry Santas.  You will need to add slightly less coconut milk to this recipe though to make these.  The cashew nut cream needs to be a pipe-able consistency otherwise they will just collapse.

Ingredients
20 strawberries
2 quantities cashew nut cream (with slightly less coconut milk) 
a handful of black chia seeds

Method
Slice off the leafy end of the strawberry so the strawberries sit flat.
Then slice off the tip to make a hat. 
Put your cashew nut cream into a piping bag and pipe swirls on the top of the strawberry base. Replace hat.
Add a dollop of cashew nut cream to the top of the hat and down the Santa's front. 
Add two chia seeds to each Santa for eyes (we actually used flaxseeds as we didn't have black chia seeds!)

Enjoy!