July 2021

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Friday Favorites

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  Hooray for Friday and I hope everyone finds themselves well! I am linking up today with Andrea and Erika for a look at some of this week’s favourites!! ~1~ Look at our favourite girl, she looks so small. Soon our Sushi will be turning ten and we just love her so much. I honestly think she would have to be the friendliest cat ever. She loves to have a ‘chat’ and If you say “Hi Sushi” she will always answer back with a meow. Ha! look at my work shoes, they are not the fanciest but definitely the most comfortable for running around preschool all day. Every evening around 10 pm Sushi will come over to where we are sitting on the lounge watching TV, she will hi-five Steve and stay for a nice long pat. Isn’t she clever? This has become a favourite evening tradition!  ~2~ I thought this year it would be fun to celebrate Christmas in July. Some years when I am feeling exceptionally festive, I will put up little trees in everyone’s bedroom. This year I used one of the little trees as a table decoration for our impromptu Christmas in July celebrations, I just added battery-operated fairy lights and they gave off a really nice glow. I set the table with Christmas linen and even found some old crackers that hadn’t been used. We had Christmas music playing softly in the background and feasted on a delicious roast chicken dinner with all the trimmings. Presents for everyone! Nothing expensive or fancy. I just wrapped up a couple of favourites for each family member. Sam got a big jar of Mayvers Peanut Butter and a bag of chocolates. Steve got liquorice and a car air freshener. And I got my mum a new notepad and her favourite chocolates, Ferrero Rocher. ~3~ Lockdown means everything is so quiet as hardly anyone is out and about, consequently the days just seem so long. This week, I worked three days at preschool and I found myself joining in going around and around the obstacle course with my little friends. We had three children come to preschool on the days I worked. Usually, we are run off our feet trying to keep up with all the things and there is always a constant bubble of noise and excitement until the last child goes home. Until lockdown ends the pace is most definitely going to be much slower. I’m really looking forward to the day when things are back to ‘normal’. But I will admit, not having to rush around is definitely a huge favourite. ~4~ We ventured out to the front garden and the children watered the plants. We’ve got some Bok Choi and Silverbeet growing. The children love tending to the garden and they get such a kick out of watching everything grow and once the vegetables are ready we pick them and use them in our cooking experiences. In the past, we have cooked noodles with the bok choi and added some soy and honey sauce. This is always such a hit and a great way for the children to appreciate how food grows. In addition, another big bonus is that it also tempts the fussier eaters to try vegetables they normally wouldn’t. I looked up and noticed that our wattle tree was blooming. I love this as I see it as a sign that spring is on its way. Later that day we received a delivery of some new toys for our lightbox. I love new toys as they are so shiny but not for long when busy little hands get to work building and playing. ~5~ On Tuesday evening after work, when dinner was all done and the household chores were under control, I treated myself to a nice hot cup of tea in my favourite teacup! Quite a few years ago I received this beautiful teacup and saucer as a gift from one of the preschool mums whose last child was finishing up with us. So of course, every time I use it I think of her and her lovely boys, who are now teenagers ~6~ To go with my tea, Steve and I shared an almond croissant. What an absolute treat! ~7~ Olympics, Olympics, Olympics! When we are home, we have the television on all day and night watching the Olympics! ~8~ On Thursday while I was at the local fruit shop picking up some things we needed as well as ingredients for my homemade hummus. I spotted this almond nougat at the checkout. Apparently, I must have an almond obsession. I couldn’t resist and now I understand the battle the poor little children have with all those tempting lollies and treats that are always found at the checkout. ~9~ Another favourite this week has been avocados as they have just been so incredibly cheap. I’ve added them to sandwiches and salads plus we’ve made some good old guac! ~10~ I fried up a couple of eggs and look. They randomly came out like the shape of Australia! How funny, must be because of all that Olympic spirit we’ve got going on around here!! That wraps up Friday Favourites for me this week. Thank you so much for stopping by and I truly hope you all have a great weekend.

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Hummus!

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Our family loves hummus, I don’t think our fridge has ever had zero hummus. We eat it with everything, in wraps, as a dip with crackers or vegetables, we even have it as a condiment for lamb and beef. We simply cannot live without it. I usually buy the Aldi hummus as my boys love this one the best. But with lockdown, I have been avoiding going to the supermarket as much as possible. I’m sticking to click and collect at Woolworths as much as I can. On the way home from work I had to stop off at the local fruit shop as we were low on not only hummus but quite a few things. I’m lucky as our fruit shop sells a delicious variety of cheeses, salami, hams, sausages dips, and all sorts of yummies! I found some hummus but it wasn’t the usual brand I buy so out of curiosity I looked at the label and read the ingredients.  I was so surprised to see that it contained canola oil! Now to be fair I’m not sure what the Aldi one contains as I have never looked at the label. Anyhow as I’m sure you know, Canola Oil is not really great for your health. It is not a good source of nutrients and it also contains trans fat. I try hard to avoid canola oil and I stick to either Olive Oil or Rice Bran oil for frying. I was also a bit disappointed in myself that I had neglected to read the ingredients in the store-bought hummus. As I was standing in the fruit shop surprised at what I had found on the label, I remembered a friend of mine made her own hummus, I gave her a quick call and she said all I needed was tahini, garlic, lemon, and tinned chickpeas. Excellent! I bought all the ingredients and headed home, meanwhile, she messaged me the recipe, and here it is Ingredients~ 1 can of chickpeas 1/4 cup of lemon juice 1/4 cup of well-stirred Tahini 1 small clove of garlic 2 tablespoons of olive oil 1/2 teaspoon cumin salt to taste 3 to 4 tablespoons water Directions~ Place chickpeas, lemon juice, tahini, cumin, garlic, and olive oil in a food processor and process until smooth Add salt to taste Add water I added the chickpeas, tahini, garlic,  lemon juice, and olive oil and processed them. I didn’t add the cumin yet because I thought it might dominate. Turns out I was wrong and after I tasted it and consulted my sixteen-year-old son Sam, we both agreed it definitely needed something.  So I added  1/4 teaspoon of cumin instead of the 1/2 teaspoon the recipe said. That was just personal preference. I do use cumin in my cooking but I am a bit cautious with it as I find the smell really pungent. I also added the water gradually until I was happy with the consistency. So all up I think I added about 5 tablespoons of water. The great thing about this recipe is that you can adjust it to suit your taste! The hummus was so creamy, delicious, and unbelievably easy to make. Sam declared it PERFECT! That is a huge call as he knows his hummus well. I guess you could say he’s a hummus connoisseur. I have never used tahini before and I didn’t even know what it was. Well, it turns out tahini is just sesame seeds all ground up. The recipe says to add well-stirred tahini paste. The reason is that the oil sits on the top of the jar and this needs to be mixed through before you use it. I think from now on I will be making my own hummus, it was just that good. Plus I will be using olive oil instead of the dreaded canola oil. I know it’s so much easier to throw the packaged hummus into your supermarket trolley as I have been doing for years. But honestly, after tasting the homemade version I don’t think I can go back. It really and truly was so very easy to make. One Final Note~ I guess I just really want to emphasize that the beauty of this recipe is that you can adjust it to your taste. We are super fussy about our hummus so I didn’t just stick to the quantities of seasoning the recipe says. I tasted, added, then tasted some more until I was confident it was just right! That’s it for today. Home-made hummus and now there is no turning back!!!  

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Whats Up Wednesday!

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Hi All I hope you are all having a great week so far. I’m super excited to be linking up with Sheaffer and Shay for this fun ‘What’s up Wednesday’ post. So let’s kick off! What We’re Eating~ Well, what can I say? Lockdown has us eating everything! My goal is to try super hard to not get stuck into too many treats this week. Is it me or is it an excuse? I just think Winter makes me hungrier! I always try and make sure I eat lots of veggies and I serve them up with every meal for the whole family. My Simple Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry is loaded full of delicious veggies. Certainly, a huge hit when I made it last week!! Delicious homemade Focaccia has also been on repeat around here and we are loving it! Recently, I discovered this! Slow-cooked pork shoulder with BBQ sauce. This was half price at Woolworths. So delicious and easy peasy. You just pop it in the oven for about 30 minutes to heat up and that’s it! We’ve eaten it in wraps with coleslaw for lunch and for dinner we’ve had it served with baked potatoes or rice and of course, veggies. A nice easy lunch or dinner for sure. What I’m Reminiscing About~ I’ve been thinking about all the fun times before lockdown when we were able to catch up with friends for dinner! We used to get together about once a week at a friend’s house and it was usually for ‘Mexican Monday’ or a ‘Friday Feast’  She would cook up some very delicious food and it was just so good to be together. We had so many laughs on those nights. I’m really missing this. What I’m Loving~ The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games!! Yes indeed! I just love the Olympic games, so many sports I would never normally watch. I have to confess that I’m not at all a sporty person, No Sir, I am not. But I do love watching The Olympics. I’ve also been really loving this Bio-Oil I bought it originally for my sixteen-year-old son. He fell off his scooter and scraped off a massive amount of the skin on his elbow (shudder). It is supposed to be really good for scars. I started using it recently as my skin has been just so dry. Probably a combination of the cold weather and ageing (sigh) Anyway it’s been really great. My skin feels much smoother and hydrated. Really recommend it. I don’t receive an affiliate commission for this, just letting you know about a good skin product that I’m loving. What We’ve Been Up to~ Not a whole lot really. You know, Lockdown. I guess I’ve just been enjoying staying home and keeping safe. We’ve been catching up on shows and eating. Yep, lots of eating! What I’m Dreading~ Thankfully I’m not really dreading anything at the moment. Other than the State Ministers 11 am Covid updates every day. I dread hearing how bad COVID  is at the moment in Sydney. I’m still in disbelief as I never saw this coming. Don’t think any of us did! What I’m working on~ Still working on this Blog! I think I’ve been blogging for about six weeks and really enjoying the challenge. Not so much the technical side of things, but I think I’ve developed some new neural pathways as a result, so that’s most definitely a bonus! What I’m excited about~ Spring! I’m pumped for spring and I’ll keep saying this until the end of Winter ha! I like this quote, I think it’s quite true! What I’m watching~ I’ve been going down memory lane and watching ‘The Golden Girls” on Stan. I just love having something on as I’m folding laundry or cooking. This show is so funny and I just love all the characters, they are each funny in their own unique way. This show holds a special place in my heart because I used to watch it as a kid. I  was about 13 when my mum and I visited my Uncle and Aunt who were living on Long Island NY at the time. Every night after dinner we would sit down with dessert and watch an episode. They were special times. What I’m Wearing~ Other than pyjamas and work clothes on workdays, it’s usually just Sloppy Joes and leggings, I think my American friends eat Sloppy Joes but in Australia we wear them. I’m referring to long-sleeved warm fleecy tops. like this one What I’m Looking forward to next month~ To tell you the truth not a whole lot! I’ve got my first Pfizer jab scheduled for next Tuesday. And this morning, The Premier of NSW announced that we were going to be in lockdown for a further four weeks. Stephen and I will still be working as we are classed as ‘Essential Workers’  and Sam will be doing school online. If we weren’t in lockdown I would have been looking forward to seeing ‘Hamilton’ at The Sydney Lyric Theatre. We had tickets I was given as a present for Mother’s day. But sadly it got cancelled, never mind maybe we’ll get to see it later this year or the next. Well, that’s about it for this month’s What’s up Wednesday. I really hope you have a fantastic rest of the week!!    

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World Earth Day and World Ocean Day at Preschool!

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Earlier in Term two of preschool, we looked at World Earth Day and World Ocean Day. So I thought it would be fun to show you a few of the creative classroom setups we had going. Fun Playdough Activity~ First, up for our playdough table, our lovely classroom teacher provided two playdough colours instead of the usual one. We had blue and green dough, this inspired the children to copy the little world globe that was also part of the setup. If you look closely you can see how they are using the green playdough to add pieces of green land to their blue playdough. Watching the children use their own initiative and imaginations without being prompted was such a huge bonus. Aren’t they smart little friends using the dough to make their own world globes! We supplied some Earth coloured stones too for the kids to press into the dough and make patterns. There were some lovely different shades of blues and greens as well as natural stones. Classroom setups just look so visually pleasing when you use things like baskets and wooden trays for the tools and materials. Looks so much nicer than plastic trays, don’t you agree? I printed some sky images and laminated them to be used as placemats. The children really enjoyed this activity and my colleague and I were really pleased with how well the children played. Sensory and Sorting Activity~ We usually have a sensory table for the children every week with either rice or shaving cream. For Earth Day my colleague had the brilliant idea of adding little bits of pretend rubbish into the rice tubs. The children then had to sort the ‘rubbish’ into two mini bins. One was a recycling bin and the other a rubbish bin. This was not only a great sensory activity, but it was also a fantastic sorting activity too. And to top it off it gave the children a chance to really think about what household waste should actually be recycled and not just put into the general rubbish bin! How good was that? World Ocean Day~ For world Ocean Day we set up a cool book display complete with plastic sea animals and magnifying glasses. It was great to see the children browsing through the books and talking about all the different sea creatures. There are a couple of cute but very active little kids in our class. I just love them and it was so great to see them looking at all the pages of the books quite engrossed in what they were discovering. They revisited these books over and over too. Another part of the book display was this ‘Ocean’ display. Again I went through our preschool cupboards trying to find interesting things to use and came up with this. We recently bought a few of these round mirrors and they have really come in so handy. We use them for heaps of different displays and craft activities. I scrunched some cellophane and arranged it around the tray and mirror to represent the ocean, added more stones, and of course small sea creatures! Even though it was a big rush to get it all set up, I was happy with the end result. We are always short of one thing at preschool and that is time! Craft Table~ Finally, for our craft table, we added some images representing the environment. The children cut these out and used them for their collages adding other materials available to them too. I hope you enjoyed a little peek into our classroom for Earth Day and World Ocean Day. I think it’s great to cover topics such as these. It’s so important that our next generation know how amazing our planet is. And it is vital that they not only appreciate our planet but that they also grow up being active participants in protecting and looking after our world so it is a happier and healthier place to live!    

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Hello Monday

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Hi Everybody! Thank you so much for joining me for this week’s hello Monday where I will be linking up with My Glittery Heart, The Other Side of The Road, and The Sirois Family for a fun post. Friday Night~ This weekend was all about the Tokyo 2020 Olympic games! We kicked off Friday night with the Opening ceremony and stayed up late to watch it. We cheered on Australia as they made their entrance and we also cheered for Peru! My family originates from Peru but they migrated to Australia when I was a baby. We also cheered for the Netherlands where my husband’s family comes from. And we cheered on team USA as we have so many loved ones living in different parts of America! It was a fun night!! Saturday~ I did some chores around the house. I was trying to change the sheets on my sons’ bed but our lovely cat was not keen to move from her snuggly warm spot. We love our cat (Sushi) so much. You can read about how we got her here. Always so much laundry!! They’re not kidding when they say wash, dry, fold, repeat! Later on, I raced out to pick up some groceries. A friend of mine made me these cute masks last year and I have been super thankful for them. Up until recently, we were pretty much COVID-free in Sydney so I had not needed to wear a mask when I left the house. Unfortunately not anymore.  Boy have they come in handy plus they look pretty too. I finished off the day off with a nice cup of Twinings Earl Grey tea. It was delicious. I love the bergamot fragrance it gives off when it’s all steamy and warm. Sunday~ Once again we were glued to the television watching Skateboarding, Weightlifting, Waterpolo, and Swimming! The Australian Ladies’ team took out the gold medal in the 4×100 metres freestyle relay and smashed the previous world record!!! Go the Aussies!!! Sunday night we had a delicious salad to go with the roast lamb I made. I just love adding Fetta cheese to salads (and almost everything else too!) Sunday evening we ended staying up super late as we knew we didn’t have to be at work on Monday. We watched the Olympic highlights of some of the events we had missed during the day. Isn’t Simone Biles amazing?  My goodness, those powerful high tumbles she does!! Truly an incredible athlete. Ha! my sixteen-year-old son asked me if I had ever done gymnastics. I had to admit to him that my greatest achievement was doing a forward roll!! And that wraps up another low-key but fun weekend. I hope that wherever you are, you are keeping safe and well. Wishing you all an amazing week!  

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Friday Favourites

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Hi, All and happy Friday to you! Thanks so much for joining me to have a look at some fun things for today’s  Friday Favourites.  As usual, I am linking up with Andrea and Erika. Wishing you all the Happiest of Fridays and a most wonderful weekend!! 1 Seeing my fun work colleague and friend was my favourite part of the week! She is the sweetest, kindest person and I just love her sunny smile! I had really missed her as I hadn’t seen her since the last term of preschool. We have to wear masks at work now but trust me underneath those masks there were some super big smiles! 2 See this little nook here? When we had our new kitchen built, we added this cute breakfast nook for one! Our kitchen is small and that little space would have been way too awkward for more cupboards.  I am just so happy with how it turned out. All this week I have been using it to do some work. Definitely a favourite spot in the house. 3 Mmmmmm What can I say? Who doesn’t love a little cheese, crackers, and salami? We enjoyed some nibbles on Wednesday afternoon. So good! One of the fun things about being at home is yummy moments like these. 4 I have just been loving the beautiful sunshine and bright blue sky! I sat out on the verandah during the week and enjoyed a hot drink while I soaked up the sun. It’s been so cold but around about mid-morning on a clear, nice day it can get super sunny. I have to admit that at the beginning of the week I did try and sit out there but only lasted a little while as it was so windy. I felt like I was going to get blown away. But sunny days like this were all the go later in the week. 5 Toilet paper with a seal! (my husband thinks I’m crazy) but it just makes me so happy. A while ago I watched a cleaning and organization video from a YouTube channel called ‘Til Vacuum Do Us Part’ and it showed how to seal your toilet paper so it looks pretty sitting there in your bathroom. Well now that I have so much time because of lockdown, I have been sealing my toilet paper and I’m just loving it ha! Well, that wraps up this weeks Friday Favourites, Thanks for following along! I hope you all stay safe and well!!      

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Things I am Catching Up On During Lockdown!

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Hi all Just thought I’d stop by and share a few things I’ve been up to for the last four weeks, since the beginning of lockdown. I am currently only going in to work about two or three times a week instead of the usual full-time. This means I have so much more time.  It is just so surprising to me how much I have been cramming into my everyday! Up until now, that is. Enjoying a couple of Books- I have this beautiful Chanel book sitting on my coffee table and I have only just started reading it. It not only has beautiful photographs and drawings, but it also delves into the history of Chanel’s creations and iconic style. I have also been spending time sitting in the sun reading ‘Finding Freedom’ Harry and Meghan’s biography. Very interesting! Especially since I watched that interview. Shows I have Been Watching- I have a list of shows I have been wanting to watch. I thought I would have to wait until I was in the nursing home before I would ever get to see any of them. The Office- Now this is one funny show. I had not seen a single episode until recently but now I have started. I can NOT stop! Mother and Son- This is a very old Australian show and it is hilarious and a bit sad at the same time. I like to watch this one with my own mum. She thinks it’s funny too! It’s about a son looking after his ageing and forgetful mother. 9-1-1 Lone Star- I’ve only just started watching this and it stars Rob Lowe, my eighties crush. Hasn’t he aged well? Anyway, back to the show. Yes, it is full of drama and has me gripped. Virgin River- I started this a couple of times and could not get into it. To be fair, I kept falling asleep. Not from boredom, only from exhaustion. I have restarted and now I’m understanding why everyone loves it. Seinfeld- Ok, so this is my all-time favourite show ever!! But I have never watched all of the episodes. So I am now! I just love all the characters so much. On a side note, I am waiting for the Seinfeld Lego set to arrive in Australia. I can not wait!! Cooking- I am enjoying cooking without rushing to get dinner on the table! Usually, I come home from work and it’s a mad dash to get dinner ready. This I am not good at. I am always determined to cook from scratch, but the downside is that it takes so long and dinner is usually late. Sorry family. I have been leisurely cooking AND making dessert. We probably won’t fit into our clothes once lockdown ends. But dessert in winter is soooo good! Cleaning and Organising- I love a clean and tidy home. I have this routine where I do a bit every day so I can keep on top of everything. It works very well too. But now with all this extra time, I am not rushing to get it all done. Plus I have been able to re-organize things like my linen cupboard and wardrobe. Chatting to Friends and Family- As everyone is mostly home, I find we have been reaching out more. Normally days would go by and I wouldn’t chat with any of my friends and family. But now with lockdown, I find that we are all checking in with each other more often. It certainly doesn’t mean that this is in any way ideal as there is nothing better than getting together. But it is nice that we are trying hard to connect. The Hard Part of Being in Lockdown- Lockdown is hard friends. Maybe not so much for me as I am definitely more of an introvert. But it is sad to watch the news and see the stress and isolation it is causing so many, not to mention the financial hardship that many are facing. My younger son like so many other young people is missing his friends and going to the gym. I guess up until now we had not truly felt the hard impact of COVID for such an extended period of time. This Delta strain has hit us hard and we are facing many more weeks of lockdown. Something I think none of us living in Sydney thought we would see. I guess we are all trying to make the best of it and doing everything we can to stay safe. Take care everyone.

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My Simple Chicken and Vegetable Stir Fry

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Hi Friends! I thought today I would share my Simple Chicken Stir Fry recipe with you. I just love eating this chicken stir fry as it is full of delicious vegetables! It’s also a great way to use up vegetables that we have in our fridge that might otherwise go uneaten as they don’t last as long as others. Hello, mushrooms! Whenever I’ve run out of fresh vegetables, I have also used frozen vegetables. I like to keep a bag of mixed stir fry vegetables in the freezer just in case. You could substitute the chicken with beef, pork, or tofu too. And of course, you could just have vegetables only. My family loves this dinner and it is constantly on repeat in our home. A while ago, and I don’t know where, I read that if you marinate your chicken breast in garlic, soy sauce, and cornflour. It will make the chicken nice and tender. So that is exactly what I do, and yes ma’am we get juicy tender chicken. Soooo good! Another benefit of using the cornflour is that it thickens the sauce up too. Win-win!     Ingredients 750 grams chicken breast Rice Bran Oil or Olive Oil 1 or 2 cloves of garlic 2 stalks of celery sliced 1 medium onion sliced 3 cups of Fresh or Frozen vegetables (we like mushrooms, zucchini, capsicum, carrot, broccoli, beans) 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder 1/4 cup soy sauce 1 1/2 or 2 cups of chicken stock (we like a saucy stir fry so I use 2 cups) 2 tablespoons cornflour Instructions Slice chicken breast and marinate it in garlic, soy sauce, cornflour, and ginger for about 30 minutes. Drizzle pan with oil and stir fry the onion and celery for about 1 minute then add the rest of your preferred vegetables. Saute for about 5 minutes until cooked but not overcooked. They’re nicer with a bit of crunch. Set aside Brown chicken then add the rest of the marinade and chicken stock. Bring to boil then turn down the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Combine the chicken with the vegetables and serve over rice or noodles. We add cashew over the top of our stir fry. My family is obsessed with cashews. You could also garnish with lots of yummy chopped coriander. I didn’t have any the day I made it, but if your family likes coriander like mine does then go ahead and add it. It gives it that extra zing. Another thing I would like to say is that I will season as I go along and if I think it needs more soy sauce I’ll add some more. Same with salt and pepper or any other seasoning. If I think it needs it, then in it goes. I hope you try this recipe, it really is easy to make and full of delicious goodness!

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Australian Animal Small World Play!

6 Comments / Insights Into Early Childhood Education

Earlier in the last Term of Preschool, we were looking at native Australian animals. My clever colleague thought it would be fun to make an Australian animal small world for the children to play with. Putting together the small world- I set to work and started by looking around the preschool for materials to create this super cute small world. It’s amazing what you can find in a preschool, you open up cupboards and there is always a world of creative possibilities! I found some great Australian outback scenery which I printed and then pasted around a big box. Next, I scattered some small rocks and added the plastic animals. We had kangaroos, Bilbies, Koalas and platypus.  Finally, I collected some native Australian plants we have growing in the front garden of our preschool and placed these around the box. They not only looked fantastic but they also gave off a nice fresh scent. That was it! a small world ready for the children to enjoy. The Great thing about Small World Play- Small world play has many benefits for children’s development. It gives them a perfect opportunity to enjoy imaginative play, it supports their language development and builds their confidence and self-esteem. I just love hearing the little conversations and creative ideas the children have while playing together. Another positive thing about small world play is that it is nice and contained and the children can revisit it again and again. I just love putting together small worlds for the children. A while ago I made a Dinosaur world and you can read about that here. It’s so fun to see the children playing and enjoying the preschool activities. Definitely one of the highlights of being an early childhood educator!

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Hello Monday

1 Comment / Hello Monday

Hi everyone, I’m excited to be linking up with My Glittery Heart, The Sirios Family, and The Other Side Of The Road for Hello Monday! We have had a super low-key weekend. Not much we can do as Lockdown restrictions are just getting tighter here in Sydney. Every time I turn on the 11 am updates on television with our State Premier, sadly it’s just more and more bad news. My husband and I are still going to work but with reduced hours and apart from that we are just staying home and staying safe. Still, I know this isn’t forever and things could be much worse so I’m counting my blessings and enjoying time with my family. I am missing my oldest son and his lovely fiancee. They live about thirty minutes away and we haven’t been able to see them for weeks. Friday Night- Friday my husband got home late from work but we stayed up to watch FBI. It is a great show, and although we are watching it completely out of order it’s still easy to follow, as each episode has a stand-alone plot. We got stuck into some yummy snacks and enjoyed a couple of episodes. Saturday- We got up super late on Saturday and had a delicious brunch of bacon, eggs, mushrooms, and toast. So good! I love the luxury of getting up late but the downside is you lose half of your day. It’s not something I do regularly but the lockdown has us all over the place as far as routines go. Saturday night I cooked a delicious lasagna! I just love carbs!!! For dessert, I found a packet mix of chocolate pudding from Aldi I had bought a while ago. It was really good and we enjoyed it with ice cream. It was so cold and windy on both Friday and Saturday, comfort food was very much a necessity!! In the evening we settled down to watch ‘Run’ on Netflix Hmmmm….. I’m trying to think of what to say without spoilers. Ok, so I enjoyed the whole movie right up until the ending. The entire movie is full of thrilling moments when you catch your breath and cross your fingers for the lead character. And then it finished with, what I thought was a disappointing ending. It wasn’t awful it was just a twist I didn’t expect. I would actually like to hear more opinions on the ending, if you’ve watched it, what did you think? Sunday- On Sunday afternoon I raced to the shops to pick up an online grocery order, as I was unpacking I realized they had made a mistake and instead of the frozen vegetables I ordered, I was given a box of frozen party pies! Ha, my son was so, pleased. We finished the weekend off with leftovers from Saturday night, A glass of wine, and another episode of FBI. It was a nice and cozy weekend. Much to be thankful for! Hope you all had a great weekend too!

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