Easy - peasy Sushi

Rebekah loves getting into the kitchen with me and cooking. And to get out of a rut that I've been in with our meals around here I decided to get out some of my kids cookbooks and make atleast one new meal every couple of weeks with her - good on the job training don't you think?

So, we made Sushi today. Now in years gone by when I had a lot more time I used to get out my recipe books and cook new things frequently. Back then I had a great recipe for Sushi which was much more involved, so when I saw this simple recipe I had to try it. And guess what - it tasted pretty good - as per my two home grown food critics!

Here's some pictures I took earlier today (we had it for lunch) :




































We saved some for Ron and his comment was "oh this looks just like the Sushi you get in the shops" :) I'm not sure what he expected my Sushi to look like or what that says about me as a cook!!! I know I'm not a master chef but c'mon I can cook cook a little (just teasing honey) (he does read my blog but never comments!).

So, the basic recipe is to cook some sushi rice, add some japanese/ sushi vinegar to it, place it onto your sea weed sheets with whatever filling you desire, roll them up and cut it to whatever length you desire. (All of these are available at the local supermarket these days). Ours was cucumber with avocado and tuna with avocado, yum!

Something tells me we'll be making this for a long time around here because not only was it healthy and yummy but it was also very easy and as I always tell my friends - in the kitchen I am "Queen of Easy"!

Bon appetit!

Fun Play Date with my daughter

It was back to school for us this week and Rebekah was given the day off today as she had worked so well all week and finished everything she needed to do. I instituted this 'natural' reward (of having Fridays off) late last year to encourage her to keep focussed during the week and it has been working!

It still being school holidays, the local shopping centres (malls) have lots of fun activities going on to lure all the mums out of their homes to go spend some money there (tongue in cheek) but also providing some much needed activities for the parents to keep their kids occupied!

One of them at ours was a wildlife show with a touch table to boot.
I had contacted some of my mum-friends with young kids and two of them were supposed to join us but cancelled at the last minute due to unforeseen circumstances. Rebekah was understandably very disappointed.

Yesterday (not having fore knowledge of what would happen today) I was talking to her about her friends (as she has a million best friends she said) and I said to her that if I were 6 years old I would love her to be my BFF (Best Friend Forever - something I've only just learned!) I truly meant what I said! Anyway today, reminded of what we talked about yesterday, I told her that we could have a 'fun play date' by ourselves instead! I must admit this idea was semi-inspired by my friend Jo who homeschools three boys and goes out for dates with them individually.

So, we headed off to the shops where she played in the play area with me cheering on from the sidelines, I wasn't about to climb up the poles:)





















Before this we visited the wildlife show where she got to observe many creatures including pythons, various types of lizards, goannas, turtles, tree frogs and even a baby crocodile.






























































Rebekah was very tentative at first about touching the bearded dragon but she gradually overcame this and was then showing off for me to take pictures touching it!








































Rebekah was not game enough (as I was I might add) to hold or even touch the python! eeek! I dislike any type of snake! I just cannot bring myself to touch them!























Sushi for lunch and a visit to K Mart to get some stuff and then a cuppa and a cinnamon donut(yes that's one of my weaknesses) but Rebekah was willing too!





















All in all we had a real fun play date at the shops with some nature study thrown in:)


We are going to watch the second half hour of "Horton hears a who" tonight for movie night and then it will be off to bed for Miss R. Enjoy your weekend!

Praying for Queensland

I was going to do a Happy New Year post and fill you in on our holidays but I must pause my plans to tell you all that I felt I needed to do this....

I have never personally been in a flood of any type but I have been so moved by the horrendous flooding in Queensland and have begun praying earnestly for the people affected by it.
I hear there are many people missing including young families, quite a few dead and countless people have lost their homes.
I only have two blog-gy friends Ganeida and Amanda (who is on a break from blogging) who live up in Queensland and I am not sure if they live in the flood affected area but I just wanted you and any other Queenslanders that read this to know that as a family we are praying for you all.
Our prayer team in our church is praying for you all as well.

We prayed after dinner tonight as a family and when Ron and I finished praying I felt that Rebekah also wanted to pray so I asked her if she did, to which she simply said "God I pray that the people in the floods in Queensland are all okay", simple but to the point, Amen Rebekah!

We love you guys up in Queensland and even though I cannot imagine what you must be going through I just wanted you to know we are thinking of and praying for you.....

p.s. edited on 12/01/2011 to add Jo to my list of friends who live in Qld, sorry Jo, how could I forget such a lovely bloggy friend! I forgot you lived up there when I did this post yesterday!

A Wonderful Life

Three more sleeps to Christmas, yay!

I was watching the old black and white classic movie "It's a Wonderful Life" on Saturday night with Ron. If ever there was an encouraging movie this would have to be IT don't you think?

I don't want to spoil it for you if you haven't seen it. It's a little on the corny side but it was just what the doctor ordered for me last weekend! I highly recommend you watch it if you haven't already and you'll see why I love it so much.

You see, I was in much need of some encouragement. The last couple of weeks have been a little tough, just sorting out some issues of the soul:)
Leading up to Saturday I had been talking with a friend who was going through similar things and it helped me realise I was not alone. In fact, are we ever alone? NEVER but it seems like it when we're going through something!

Anyway I had recently connected up with an old friend on Fakebook, oh sorry I meant Facebook ( I have a love-hate relationship with that thing!) :)
I had met this girl some 18 years ago in very different circumstances to what she is today. God used me quite a bit in her life to encourage her and stand with her through some difficult circumstances. And today she is happily married with a child and her husband is in a very prominent position in the city they live in. I was so blessed to find this out. To think that I had some part to play in her journey was so encouraging. I was thinking of all of this last Saturday and then it turned out this movie I mentioned was on TV that night. It's one of our favourites so we just HAD to watch it.

It's amazing how perspective can change everything in life. That to me was what I got out of the movie last Saturday. Once George Bailey's perspective changed it didn't matter what he had to face, it changed everything for him.
I was in much need of some "perspective adjustment" and I got it last weekend through this movie.

My life is SO blessed. Sure I've had my ups and downs like everyone else and things are not always the way I would like them to be or wanted them to be at this stage of my life but when seen with the right perspective I wouldn't trade my life for anyone else's EVER! I have a very blessed life indeed! It's a wonderful life that I have!
With that note, I want to wish you my dear friends who read my blog (and have been a great blessing to me) a very blessed Christmas and I pray that God will encourage you and bless you very much in 2011!
And leave you with a recent picture of my two greatest blessings with me:

Christmas Wreath, Independent play and Patience

What's with the 'patience' you wonder?

First, I've got to tell you that Rebekah has not been doing much school (well not the book work-ish type of school) as she's been a bit under the weather with a bad cold, cough etc; she is on the mend now though and we MAY open up some books tomorrow and finish off school for 2010 this week, yay!

In the meantime, she's been reading poetry, listening to Christmas carols, doing some craft, listening to her story cd's I burnt from librivox, playing with our guinea pigs, watching ants, blackbirds, our palm trees flower and we even made this wreath inspired by Rebecca (not my Rebekah):)




















Rebekah's didn't quite turn out as pretty as Rebecca's but still, it was pretty good for our first attempt I thought!


Homeschooling an only child has it's challenges though I still take my hat off to homeschooling mums of many kids, I just don't know how you do it, honestly!

One of the biggest challenges for me has been Rebekah not playing independently much and me having to teach her. Yes, I said "teaching" because it had to be taught!
Rebekah was glued to me for the first three or so years of her life and around the age of 4 she very slowly started to play by herself. It was a very very slow process! I started by finding something for her to play with, putting the kitchen timer on for five minutes and telling her to go play by herself. Sounds cruel but I had to. I knew I had to teach her to play independently (with the security of having me around) or it wasn't going to happen.
I'd heard and read about all theories relating to why she wasn't, including too much tv (no didn't do that one) or that she needed to go to pre-school as it would help (no I didn't think that was the best option) etc.
I gradually increased the time with the kitchen timer to probably about 15 minutes. I believe this definitely helped (a bit).

Then somehow just this year, after she turned six, something changed in her and she has become so much more better at independent play. She will now spend two or so hours at a stretch just playing and keeping herself entertained.
I think learning to read may have contributed or may be it was just that at the time that reading clicked in her mind she might have reached some developmental stage where independent play also clicked in her brain and became easier as well. I am no expert but my feeling is that it was partly a developmental thing, partly that she had no other siblings, partly her just needing the security of her mum and partly her personality - she is not a very strong willed or independent child, quite the opposite in fact.

Now that you've read this far so patiently and indulged me by reading more stories about me and my daughter, here's the part about "patience":) I taught Rebekah how to play Solitaire yesterday and she is SO excited!
Being an only child, she has to play either with me or her imaginary friends. Yesterday while playing "go fish" with her imaginary friend she said it was so easy to cheat if she wanted to but she wasn't going to:)
After secretly smiling at her comment I remembered the card game Solitaire that I used to play when I was young except we called it "Patience". Did you ever play that under the same name or did you call it Solitaire?
I was amazed that something so simple as this card game could bring so much joy to my little one. Her face was beaming, her eyes lit up and she said she just LOVED it (once she got the hang of it!). I think the prospect of being able to play a game designed to be played alone is what excites her. I'm sure she must tire of putting on many hats and taking her imaginary friends turns when she plays her games with them.
So, here's to more independent play for my daughter.
Are there any other games you can suggest for an only child involving cards?

Most productive day???

I'd heard some years ago that a study on working people concluded that Tuesdays and Wednesdays were the most productive days in a week.
It makes sense - Mondays we are just getting into the working week and by Tuesday we've settled in, so Tuesdays and Wednesdays brings out the most productivity from us. By Thursday we're a bit more tired and then Friday everyone's too relaxed looking forward to the weekend so not as much work gets done:)
What do you all think?

Anyway, yesterday being Tuesday and me having such a productive day and feeling so satisfied and proud of ourselves, I thought I'll tell you all about it, but hesitated because some of you are already on holidays and probably don't want to hear about it!

You see we started off with play at the park for an hour or so (before the heat set in). (We've been doing that for the last couple of weeks, because have I mentioned before I almost live in a desert? yes it's HOT in summer and COLD in winter!) I can't believe I'm still living in Sydney. We moved to this suburb just over two years ago. It is SO different to the other suburbs I've lived in! Anyway back to what I was saying...

We then did all our school work (well Rebekah did and I taught and supervised), we did domestic chores - all the EXCITING vacuuming, cleaning, tending to our guinea pigs, washing etc.

We then had lunch and some more reading and singing. Yes, singing! Rebekah is just now learning the Christmas Carols, so we sat on the couch together and read from a book on Christmas and sang some of the carols together. It was such a precious time together! I will remember it for a long time as we've not done anything like this before!

Rebekah had her mandatory (!) two hours rest time while I did some reading, praying, emailing, working (my paid work that I do at home) etc. (while she only came out of her room a couple of times)!

Rebekah and I then had afternoon tea together - yes we've been getting into it here. Charlotte Mason had some wise words to say about having "tea time" with our kids!
And thanks Amy for that teacup from Ava's birthday last year, you'll be pleased to know Rebekah is putting it to full use!
I've been enjoying these afternoon teas together, lovely time to chat etc.


















p.s. that tea in her cup is "rooibos" tea, lest you think I'm a terrible mum and give her caffeine at such a young age:) Mind you I DID drink real tea at her age but then again I grew up in a different country and different culture:)

Then we played a game of cards together (yes I'm her sole play mate so I have to do these things daily):) I'm not complaining, just saying...:) Then came bath time for Rebekah. After this I started preparing dinner while she watched her rationed 30 minutes of TV.

Then off to pick up Ron from the station, dinner, bed time for Rebekah around 7 and Ron rushed off to meet one of the guys he's mentoring from our church, while I did some home school admin work.
Ron got back a bit after 8 pm and we had a conference call via skype with our pastor and some of our church leaders (which we do regularly).

Cup of tea and chat with Ron and bed time!

You see, that's why I was feeling so satisfied. Our days don't always flow so smoothly and I don't always 'feel' like we've had a productive day (though they may be productive in different ways but I don't always 'feel' like it). Take today for example: you see, sometime overnight, Rebekah's sneezing from yesterday became much more than that and she (and I because of her waking me up) had a dreadful night's sleep:(

So, today we cancelled school, much to Rebekah's delight (she is not well) and I have been listening to the "Sound of Music" in the background which she's watching, while I catch up on some more home schooling administrative work and (tell you about it of course)! The 30 minute twice a day rule of TV goes out the window when she's sick!

All this record keeping of what she does for school takes up quite a bit of time and I'd been postponing it for some time, so I had to catch up!
Productive day today? Maybe? Actually YES, if you consider being a stay at home, home schooling mum's life productive, which I do!

Getting ready for Christmas

Like some of you ,we've been busy this past week getting into the Christmas season and it's been a very exciting time for us.
You see, we only celebrate Christmas once every two years in Sydney as we spend the alternate Christmas with Ron's family who live in Victoria.
And even when we are home for Christmas we miss out on the whole build up to Christmas because we've often been visiting Ron's family / been on holidays and get back just a few days before Christmas. Our Christmas tree only comes out of storage once every two years:(

It's been different this year as we took a much shorter break to visit them as I mentioned in my last post and we are postponing our annual holiday till early next year. The last Christmas we had in Sydney Rebekah was 4 and 1/2 and a couple of years makes a big difference when you are a child doesn't it? That explains our great excitement here!

We started off early last week, collecting some pine cones and painting them in Christmas colours (don't ask me where I got this idea from:)) I must have read it somewhere because it popped into my head when we were out on a nature walk early last week!
They are pretty small pine cones but it was fun painting them with Rebekah. (sorry this picture is not great quality)






















Then we got out our box of Christmas decorations as Rebekah was eager to look at them. She couldn't wait till the weekend (when Ron promised he would set up the tree with her).














































I've even been thinking of baking some shortbread for Christmas, never done this before, so I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope they turn out ok and edible!
In India, the traditional Christmas baking was called "kul kuls"















and "rose cookies",
















both of them involving flour, sugar, eggs and lots of oil for deep frying!

I have a lot of fond memories of cooking them each Christmas with my mum.
So, you see we did have some family traditions that I'd forgotten about when I did my post on family traditions some time ago. Sorry about that!
In fact after I did that post I remembered that we did have a couple of family traditions (besides the afore mentioned one) which I will need to tell you about another time as it's a digression! I just had to get this off my chest as it had been bothering me since then, lol.

Anyway, I may even make a few rose cookies besides shortbread. I've got to nurture and cultivate Rebekah's Indian heritage (wink) :)
So, here's our Chritmas tree, unfortunately they set it up on Saturday night while I was out so I couldn't take pictures of them setting it up.





















It's a small one as we live in a small place and it's not real either! But we like it!

Rebekah has been loving seeing the Christmas tree light up every night and I've even been turning it on in the mornings as it's such a novelty at the moment:)