Staying at home

Staying at home is nothing new for us.  In fact our current circumstances feel a bit like a usual weekend so we're dealing with it all fairly well here.

For the record, we're not in lockdown right now but there are a lot of restrictions in place.  In Australia, we have the advantage of seeing what's happened in the rest of the world and can get a head start on self-isolating and putting into place many of the practices other countries have been using.

I'm also trying to get as many walks in with Patch as I can, while I can.  Where we go is quite isolated (and very overgrown right now) so we've been happily enjoying our walks when we get the chance to have them.  Not only has it been wonderful walking in the fresh air for an hour but it's giving us a bit of a break from a constantly full and relatively small house.  I've been loving how many butterflies and dragonflies have been flying about when we walk.  There's so many of them and just a small thing like that can lift the spirits.

Today is also the first day of the school holidays but the kids have been off school for the last week and a half.  They made the school's here in Queensland student free for the last week of Term 1 for all except Health workers and others who need the support of the school's right now.  Hubby and I made the decision to take our kids out earlier as it didn't make sense to us when the government kept saying to social distance, only be in small groups etc and then said it's still safe to send all our kids to school.

Six months ago I would have freaked out at the thought of having the kids home and home schooling for a time.  After doing just that with Master M for most of the school year so far, I knew I could cope with it.  That's not to say I'm a great home schooling Mum.  In fact I'm completely crap at it as I learned very early on with Master M that I'm no teacher.

We just do the few tasks the kids have been set by their teacher and puddle along with other things.  If they're still home in Term 2 then things will have to change and I'll have to get with the program a bit more but the one thing I won't be doing is putting pressure on myself or the kids.

We have been baking.  They both love to help out with that and really enjoy it when they do cooking at school so we're trying to schedule that into our weeks as that's something I can handle.  We've made muffins and cakes but the main thing that Miss R wants to make and help with are dog biscuits for Patch.

They're really easy to make and since we don't have a dog bone biscuit cutter, he gets a tub full of hearts and stars.  It's a little embarrassing how excited he gets and how much drool lands on the floor when he knows he's getting one of these treats (or two depending on who is sneaking them to him).

They also freeze well so we keep enough out for 3 or 4 days worth and pop the rest in the freezer.  They go really mouldy quickly in our humidity so it's best to get out just a few at a time.

This is the recipe we use.

Dog Biscuits (Cookies)

2 cups Self Raising Flour (or 2 cups Plain/All purpose flour and 2 teaspoons baking powder)

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 eggs

Mix together with enough water to form a dough.  You'll need about 1/4 cup of water which I add about half first then about a tablespoon at a time until I get a dough consistency.  Roll out until the dough is about 1cm thick then cut out with whatever shapes you have and place on a baking tray.

Bake in a 180 C (375F) oven for 20 minutes.  Once cool watch them be devoured!

We have also been doing jigsaws.  For some reason we usually only ever seem to do jigsaws at Christmas time but I was de-cluttering the games cupboard the other day and found a few I had forgotten we had.

I always do my jigsaws on artists canvas which you can get from craft stores or many of the bargain stores around the place.  They're light and non-slip so the pieces don't slide off.

Most of the day the jigsaw sits on the dining table because you have to walk past it to get to anywhere in our house really.  So we just put in a piece or two as we're walking past then at meal times it's easy to pick up the canvas and move it to a coffee table or sit it on a bed without worrying about pieces falling off.

We're up to our third puzzle now and have a bit of a pile to get through so we'll happily chug along getting them done one piece at a time.

I've been doing plenty of crochet too but have just realised I have no photos of any of it.  I'll have to fix that over the next few days and give you a bit of a crafty update.

Until then my friends, stay safe and find some little bit of peace in your day if you can.  Patch and I are enjoying quiet moments outside after dinner.  The evenings have been beautiful and I'll head out there with a cup of tea (or wine if it's been that kind of day) and we just watch the amazingly clear night skies of late.  It's been a tonic.

xx Susan