Only half way through week two of the summer holidays and I’m already running out of ideas for things to keep the girls busy that don’t involve me taking them places or standing up for ages.
My knee still hurts and swells if I stand for long. The 5yr old has been the most helpful. Bringing me toast and fruit in bed. Digging up the potatoes. Folding clothes, sweeping and wiping. The 9 and 11yr old just want to play on electronic devices and watch tv. I’m looking forward to being able to drive and walk !
Week 1 of schools being closed and only being allowed out of our homes for an hour a day has been a steep learning curve for all of us.
My husband and I are both still working so we’re splitting childcare and work duties. We get up and my husband sorts out breakfast for our earliest riser – baby bean while I get up and get dressed. He then goes out to our office in the garden to work while I get the big Beans up and soft breakfast.
At the beginning of the week I tried to get all the girls up dressed and fed ready to do PE with Joe Wicks but as the week went on I found that whilst they do like a bit of routine – mainly when their next meal or snack is coming – they really don’t like to do the same thing every day.
So our days have gone like this:
The big two do a bit of school work while I clear up breakfast and Little Bean watches CBeebies. Then I help them out with any questions check my work emails, messages, calls before hanging out with little one for a bitUsually until she asks for a snack.
Maybe not my best bit of presentation but super tasty, healthy, vegan and the work of mere moments!
We were in between grocery shop visits. Husband was working and I was in charge of three small people so a trip to the shop wasn’t really something I wanted to do. I did a bit of a freezer and store cupboard forage and came up with this. Turns out it worked so well that I think it will become a dish I make regularly.
Obviously I’d prefer not to have all the plastic packaging but in the current climate a freezer stash of frozen veggies is a bit of a necessity.
I used a 500g bag of frozen butternut squash chunks
And just cut open the bag and poured them into my slow cooker. Then I put in a sachet of coconut cream, half a jar of green curry paste (100g) and a cup of stock – mine was some homemade chicken stock that was frozen but some vegetable stock or a stock cube would work just as well.
Coconut cream is a handy store cupboard staple
I put the slow cooker on high, turned on the lid and left it for three hours while I tried so do a bit of home schooling 😬
After three hours I gave it a little stir and threw in three block of frozen spinach
I put the lid back on and left it for another hour by which time it was lunch time and I was ready to eat!
I pimped it up with a squirt of lime juice, a few drops of fish sauce (leave out if veggie or vegan) and then a tiny sprinkling of sugar. I know that seems odd but in the cooking lessons I went to in Thailand they put sour, salty, sweet in every dish.
It worked! Minimal effort, minimal cleaning up. Winner!
9:30am on a Sunday morning and we’ve already made 6 bird feeders!
Little one showed her big sisters how to scrape the fir cones in the fat and then roll them in the bowl of bird seed.
We learned to make them at Ian’s Forest School in Spondon and the birds in our garden seemed to absolutely love them. The girls have enjoyed looking out at the garden while they eat their breakfast, watching all the birds coming to feed.
All three girls were keen to get involved so a nice cheap activity for little ones and big ones. Thanks Ian!
Just Another Green Mother 