hockey and hallowe'en, music and musicals

Last weekend was full of hockey for JK- regular training at Beeston followed by an U13 mini tournament, Sutton Sing U14s away v. Northern Stars, and another round of County field hockey trials!

He is also working on some new songs, and I am delighted to have discovered www.musicroom.com ! From Gang Show he has chosen Take That’s ‘Greatest Day’, ‘This is the Moment’ from the musical Sweeney Todd, and from the exam board syllabus ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ and ‘Cockles and Mussels’, all of which I was able to order and pay for online and immediately download and print out. There is even the facility to hear them played (admittedly in a rather tinky-tonky musak kind of way) following the cursor through the sheet music (is it still called that if is on a screen?!) presumably helping you learn to read music in the same way the Disney Readalong Books and CDs help smalls learn to read.

Tuesday we spent the day with the Newman’s , the younger girls decorating cakes with a Halloween theme to follow a meal of hot dog with beans, mushy peas and corn on the cob, all prepared by the two eldest boys- no mean feat when you consider they were catering for nine of us with no input from the grown-ups unless asked for!

Wednesday we carried on cooking, joining the Chesterfield group pressing apples and making an absolutely delicious pumpkin soup. I’ve always thought I didn’t like pumpkin, but this is one I’d definitely try again. With grateful thanks to Suzy, here is the recipe...

Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients
1 large onion chopped
1/2 medium pumpkin chopped into cubes (quite small as they cook faster)
1 tsp curry powder
2 vegetable stock cubes
1 tin chopped tomatoes
oil for frying

Method
1. Fry onion until soft.
2. Add curry powder to onions and cook for 2 minutes.
3. Add pumpkin cubes and coat in the onion mixture for a couple of minutes.
4. Add stock cubes which are dissolved in a pint and a half of water.
5. Add tin of chopped tomatoes.
6. Cook until pumpkin is soft then blend.

Add more water if it is too thick and maybe a swirl of cream if you are feeling very naughty!

Thursday evening Madi and friends went to see her favourite musical of the moment ‘Annie’ at the Acorn Theatre at Worksop, our discovery from this summer when she attended Theatre Week there.

Reviewing the Situation

In spite of a possible return to school for JK, we’ve quickly got back in to the swing of things. All the regular activities are underway again, and both are enjoying their chosen subjects to study.

Madi has joined a twice monthly Spanish group lesson, and is preparing for her Grade 1 Ballet and Theatre Craft exams at the weekend.

JK has been working a little more independently from his IGCSE Biology course (written by Sam Martell, HE mum), and has made a start on learning Java Script, initially using a book from the library, but with more success now with the free online tutorials by w3schools.com. These are unfortunately rather cluttered with advertising, but this doesn't seem to bother him, and he is now far more motivated than previously.

Madi enjoyed a trip to the Theatre Royal to see ‘Joseph and the Amazing Technicolored Dreamcoat’ with tickets she received as a birthday present, and JK joined a ‘Page to Stage’ workshop and performance of ‘Twelfth Night’ at the Playhouse with a group of local HE teens. There have also been extra rehearsals for North Nottinghamshire Gang Show with just a few more left before performance week.

back to 'school'!

If schooled children are anything like mine, they'll have really missed their evening activities over the school-imposed summer holiday.
For me, I've just lost track of all the driving around and forgotten how difficult it is to actually have a proper meal in between my taxiing!

Wicked!

Girlguiding and Scouting

Feeling not so happy tonight.

Yesterday, Madi went to her first ever Brownie Pack meeting. She has been looking forward to that day pretty much almost since she became a Rainbow! But although she turned 7 in July, nobody told us where to take her, and even after turning up to Rainbows last night where they were very quick to tell us she should now be at Brownies and would contact them "again" to make sure they expected us, 'Little Owl' was obviously clueless. In spite of that, she really enjoyed herself, and is looking forward to making her promise.

We also found out that one of her friends has joined Rainbows (completely different group) on the strength of her recommendation. That won't really mean anything to her at the moment, but I think she should be very proud.

And then tonight she has decided not to carry on with Beavers. She finds them immature and disrespectful. And yes, this is HER opinion- JK asked her too! I took her over to explain to the leaders and they commented on how many of that evening's quiz questions (about home safety and emergency aid) she had been able to answer and then grinned and said 'bye'. Madi had been unsure about Beavers for a while, and sadly I'd let my own positive feelings about Scouting influence her to give it another go.

Add to today Beth's experience of Scouting (a long story and not going to be blogged) and I'm a tad embarrassed to have been such a promoter.

Growing and Baking

Anybody that knows me will know that my fingers are definitely not green! I've struggled as best I can with the various plants that I've been given, and tried even harder when my offspring have come back from Beavers or Rainbows with something they've planted. That said, both children's runner beans and blotting paper just turned mouldy in their plastic cups (and on both attempts!).

I am in complete admiration of those that do manage to feed themselves with their own crops, and even more so of those that have managed to reach the point where they can bottle or preserve and sell their produce.

We are unlikely ever to reach that point!


This year though, Madi's sunflower plant has flowered. Ok, it's not very big but we have a flower on the third year of trying!

Even more exciting, the seeds planted as part of the Victorian kitchen session we attended have produced courgettes! (A huge thank you to Katya and Hannah- I would never have believed this possible!)

Unfortunately none of us actually like courgettes, but most fortuitously there was a recipe in this week's First News for courgette cupcakes! I admit they don't exactly sound delicious, but Madi loves baking, and JK might not realise they have a vegetable in them if we put enough icing on!

Ingredients
1-2 courgettes (250g), grated
handful of sultanas
juice of one orange
2tbsp honey
3 eggs
sunflower oil (175ml)
brown sugar (200g)
self-raising flour (225g)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
handful of flaked almonds, toasted and chopped
2 limes, zested

Method
1. Pre-heat oven to 180oC and line a 12-hole muffin tin with muffin cases.
2. Grate the courgettes and squeeze out as much juice as possible. Pat dry with kitchen paper.
3. Stick the sultanas in a pan with the orange juice and honey. Bring to a boil and simmer for a couple of minutes until the raisins are plump and the liquid is mostly absorbed.
4. Crack the eggs in a bowl with the sunflower oil and sugar and whisk until creamy.
5. Sift over flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda.
6. Fold in with the almonds, the grated courgettes, the sultanas and the grated zest of two limes.
7. Dollop into the muffin cases and bake them for 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when stuck in the middle.
8. Leave the muffins to cool a bit in the tin, then transfer to a wire rack.
9. Beat the cream cheese with icing sugar and the juice of two limes until smooth and creamy.
10. Spread the icing over the cooled muffins and decorate with whatever takes your fancy.

Starship Discovery

This week Madi has been attending a Holiday Club at the Methodist Church, aiming to provide 'a fun, informative and action packed bible based programme of events'.

I was not brought up with any religion myself, and as parents we were agreed that we would not enforce our own (differing) beliefs on our children, but allow them to explore faith and spirituality and reach their own decisions.

Before we moved house, JK was a chorister at our local Church, and attended a maintained Church of England school. He therefore has experience of many Christian customs and practices, what to expect to see and do in a Church, and some knowledge of the Bible. It has occurred to me recently that although we have made visits to learn more about Buddhism, Islam and Judaism over the past year, and followed these up with reading, talking and more, it has not really occurred to me to look at Christianity with Madi.

The Starship Discovery Holiday Club seemed to provide an ideal opportunity for this. Through singing and dancing, puppetry, stories and crafts, Madi has learnt a number Bible stories over the week, including memorising several verses, and particularly more about what it means to be a Christian. Each day she has come home with a worksheet with puzzles, games and colouring and has sat herself down (I wanted to say 'religiously' here!) every afternoon to enthusiastically complete what she describes as her 'homework'.

On Friday, after we had dropped off her friend, she was quiet, so I asked her if anything was wrong. She explained that they had been asked if they wanted to be Christians, and that she was worried they would think she was ungrateful or a bad person because she hadn't said yes. She went on that she had really enjoyed the week, but that she didn't know enough about it yet, or about 'all the other religions' to make a decision! A very proud parent moment for me!

We talked about what she had said, and agreed that she would make a proper 'Thank You' card for them to make sure the leaders knew that she really appreciated them giving up their time and that she had enjoyed herself very much and had learnt a lot and would like to learn more. We also agreed that she didn't have to make this decision yet, or ever, if she didn't want to.