se7en

Last week I posted a quick meal,  Se7en Kebab’s – Supper on the Fly…, and I thought I would post another one of our super quick meals this week… Now I really mean super quick and super easy. This is a great end of the month meal and great for when a play date stays a bit long and you want to say – stay for supper!!! It is that easy!!!  Also it has beans and beans are great for low G.I. meals. We went out for dinner at friends a couple of weeks ago and they served this and I could have danced for joy as my kids quaffed this down. We have been eating it ever since!!! This is what you are aiming for:

Let’s Meet The Players:

• Some fresh baby spinach leaves.
• One packet of pasta with small noodles
• 1 can of canalloni beans
• 1 box of crushed tomatoes or you may be lucky to have a jar of fresh tomato ketchup in the fridge.
• A block of really hard parmisan.
• Some crushed garlic.

Let’s Play The Game:

Step 1: Prepare your spinach. Wash the leaves… we often have a couple of visitors when the spinach comes from the garden. Fold the leaves in half and remove the stems. Tear the leaves up slightly and the spinach is ready.

Step 2: Pop the garlic in the pan in a lug of olive oil to gently brown, add your tomato sauce, heat it up, and let it simmer away.

Step 3: Drain your beans and add them to your simmering tomato sauce.

Step 4: Grate your parmesan – and don’t be shy!!! I had an Italian lecturer once, she was actually a cookbook editor (how cool is that!!!), and she always “Don’t be stingy with those best ingredients, life is too short!” She was all about lashings of olive oil and mountains of parmesan!!!

Step 5: Cook your pasta according to directions. Start with salty boiling salty water – and according to my lecturer: “If the water isn’t salty then the pasta, she will taste like nothing!”

Step 6: Now this recipe is all about plating up… So let’s do it:

A small pile of spinach on the plate

Hot pasta on top – it wilts the spinach

Tomato and beans on top of that

Finally parmesan and salt and pepper

That’s it!!!

Step 7: If you don’t want to use a box or can of tomatoes then this is how we make ours:

• Fill a roasting pan with tomatoes – all shapes and sizes, chopped or not… add lashings of olive oil, garlic and sometimes our basil bush is co-operative!!!



• Roast the tomatoes in the oven until they start to go golden brown and the smell is so delicious you could die!!! take them out and let them cool.



• Pop them in the liquidizer fro a quick whizz…



• Jar it and you are done. I try and keep a jar of this in the fridge all the time – it is great for pizza toppings, spaghetti and meatballs, and with cannelloni beans of course!!!

And the Se7en + 1th Thing: Someone is going to ask if one packet of pasta and a can of beans and a box of tomato will feed all ten of us… yup … here’s the evidence (the shortest person still eats off my plate)…

With leftovers…

If we have guests then I get my resident chef to make a flat bread… and more guests I add a salad… and so on!!!

That’s really it!!! Have a fun day!!!

Earlier this week Jamie at Simple Homeschool asked the question: How do You Talk to Others About Homeschooling? And I have to say that after eight years of it I don’t feel as compelled to justify why or how we homeschool as I once did. We just homeschool and the proof is in the pudding, so to speak. For all the times that we don’t do everything perfectly. We still manage to have grown a couple of avid readers with a broad general knowledge and a couple of kids that are following their passions. They don’t know everything (luckily!!!) and they are not the best ever scholars, and I am far from the perfect teacher… but we get by and we are all getting educated in the traditional sense and learning so much more than that, in the untraditional sense!!!

I started to comment on her post and realized it was getting a little long for a comment!!! I thought I would respond to Jamie’s question with a post. Since on a typical outing we do get asked: “So where do ALL your kids go to school?” And I will respond: “We homeschool.” And the conversation continues with any one of the following responses:

1. I could never do that: I always want to say “sure you can” but inevitably I say you probably could if you felt called to do it. I know I couldn’t dream of any other way of schooling for us but lets face it if you have the organizational skills to get your kids to school in the morning with all their forms signed and their lunches packed, if you can get your head around multiple extra-murals for your kids, if you can read bed-time stories and enjoy doing stuff with your kids then you most likely can homeschool. If you really wanted to!!! Not everyone wants to – and that’s okay, even I have days when the thought of it is less than appealing!!!



2. Do they learn anything? This is an interesting question… No one ever quizzes a regular school kid to see if they are learning anything and yet they feel a need to quiz homeschool kids!!! We get this all the time: My kids are asked some obscure question and must come up with the date, the name, the location!!! Seriously, my kids are learning, I know because I am learning and since we are learning together and read aloud and talk about what we are learning we must all be learning!!! I wonder if I asked a couple of kindergarden kids we know about the water-cycle or photosynthesis – what exactly would they come up with!!! Not that it matters really, it isn’t a competition!!!



3. When are you going to stop? I am not sure about this one… stop what exactly? Schooling, learning, or having kids!!! I will assume they are asking about schooling and I can honestly say it has never occurred to me that I would send my kids to school!!! I don’t have any teenagers just yet, but I have a feeling that as they get older, kids need your more, not less… and hopefully by the time my kids reach senior school they will be able to be pretty self-sufficient in their schooling. To be honest regular school, which is a total drag for most “on the brink of leaving school” kids, will be more of a drag for my semi-independent learners.



4. Will they be able to go to college? Well, wherever my kids intend to study after school they will have to have to get the appropriate school leavers certificate and we will write the relevant exams when we get there. Not next week, mind you, we have about six years to prepare for this still!!! Also I don’t know about overseas, but certainly in South Africa, you have to write entrance exams for every tertiary education spot… and my kids will write what they need to when they need to. If they decide to study overseas then we will have to look at the entrance requirements for overseas… really it is only something you can address when you get there… even if you are preparing bit by bit along the way.



5. My kids really need friends. This is true – my children need friends too, some of them need friends just to breathe!!! That’s another great reason to home school… We certainly don’t school in isolation and they have so many opportunities to meet a wide variety of folk that pass through our lives daily that they would never encounter in a class room with forty-same-aged kids. I love my kids friends all sorts of folks in different ages and stages, from different cultures and walks of life – it really helps to live in the Rainbow Nation.



6. So your children will finish school really young, like fifteen? When I hear this I wonder of my kids have a special sign that says “super brilliant” in a banner above their heads that only I can’t see!!! Really they are regular kids, brilliant to me of course, doing their school and doing their time. And for the odd lights of brilliance that shine through and I do have one or two brilliant spotlights… they don’t shine in every area by any means!!! I am a firm believer in spreading brighter kids knowledge wider rather than higher… I certainly don’t want to be sending my fifteen or sixteen year old off to varsity!!!



7. What about sport, my kids really need exercise? Let’s be honest all kids need exercise, and limited screen time can only help. My kids get plenty of exercise and while none of them have shown any Olympic potential yet, it could happen!!! If and when it does we will approach the relevant local club and sign the relevant kid up for its potential passion, just as I would if my kid was in school. Meantime we will continue to spend lots of time outdoors and get our exercise wherever we can… riding bikes, going on hikes, running on the beach, going to gym… I think we have the exercise thing pretty much covered!!!



And the Se7en + 1th Thing:

8. Are you qualified? This one really gives me an internal chuckle!!! So while I am qualified I don’t really see why I have to launch into my educational experience with a total stranger. Just to prove that I am qualified to Homeschool. How qualified do you have to be to love learning and to want to spend time teaching and learning alongside your kids. Will a school leavers certificate do, a tertiary diploma, and degree, a post-graduate degree? A doctorate? Just what is the magical qualification necessary to be the “Homeschool Parent of the Year Award” ? I just don’t know!!!

You will meet people that question your decision to homeschool and you will meet people who support your decision. I think the point is that it is your decision!!! I guess like all parenting decisions that we feel very strongly about, home birth or hospital birth, nursing or not, vaccination or not… homeschooling or not… there is a time in our lives when we feel really strongly about advocating our decision and there is a time when we just accept that that is what we do and soldier on!!!

This Post is part of The Thirty Minute Mom’s Challenge at Steady Mom.

I know Sunday has passed… but I had a weekend off and I am catching up with my week!!! Here is this weeks fabulous GiveAway and it’s another great book brought to you by:

This is such a great series and this book doesn’t fail: Romans, Gladiators and Games: The Roman World of the First Christians (Footsteps of the Past)

Another great Day One book that has a look at all things roman in the British Museum. We just love the British Museum and all that it has to offer even when you aren’t in the country!!! Their website is packed with resources you can do a couple of online tours and have a look at specific objects online and they have a brilliant spot for young explorers. Back to the book it is full of great projects and crafts and factoids and links to the museum site. Pages on gladiators, citizenship and treasures like coins and statues….

In honor of this GiveAway I challenged my kids to an afternoon of Ancient Rome. This is what they came up with:



1. Cheering Chariot Races: The Romans were famous for their races… we had more of the same!!!



2. Roman Road Salad: The romans made fabulous roads all the way across their Empire. Their roads were made of layers of gravel and rocks and soil and clay… A layered salad with anything you have lying about… layer it about in a glass bowl and there is your Roman road for lunch. We had lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, mushrooms, tomato and spring onions, noodles, boiled eggs, bacon bits and noodles. Layer them up and plonk a layer of mayonaisse on the top. Yum!!!







3. Bulla Face Paints: Roman children all wore lucky charms about their necks, called a bulla. They used face paints to make their own bulla.
4. Mouse Brain Toothpaste: The Romans used to clean their teeth with crushed mouse brains, we used sherbet… Of course we didn’t have sherbit, but a bit of Eno’s mixed with icing sugar and you are done.



5. See You Later Gladiator: A whole lot of gladiator training happened…



6. Magnificent Mini Mosaics: Some mosaic tiles glued onto a piece of hardboard… this person has been dying for an excuse to do this – forever!!!



7. Roman Coins and a Treasure Hunt: They made Roman coins and hid them for a treasure hunt, finders keepers!!!

And the Se7en + 1th Thing:

8. Well Paper Dolls or a Lego Aqueduct…: The paper dolls were from here. If you are looking for Roman coloring then you can’t beat this site. And some people just had to construct a villa and an aqueduct…

   

If you would like to win this fabulous book then go ahead and enter our GiveAway. The GiveAway works in the usual way, comment before the end of this coming Saturday, 21 August 2010, and we will draw and publish the winner next week on Monday! – I won’t respond to your comments as I do on our other posts because I don’t want to be included in our own giveaway.

Our GiveAway Books are open to everyone: If you have won a GiveAway before never fear – enter away. If you live on the far side of the world – enter away. Postage takes forever from here but eventually it should get to you!

Good luck and get commenting!!!

P.S. I have updated our “Visit to Egypt” post from last week… with an interview…pop over and take a look.

Stop the world I am so getting off – how can our little guy be eleven months already!!!

Here are Seven things about little hood # se7en + 1:

1. Biggest word: Hellllooooo, in a typical quiet – echoing across the valley voice that all my children seem to have inherited, from where?



2. Favorite food: bananananananas… breakfast, lunch and supper.



3. Favorite toy: Well in the last month he has taken a fancy to these pandas… he just loves them and will sprint anywhere for them.



4. Favorite I can’t wait till I am older item: He so has his eye on his brothers pirate boat – he loves all things pirate – how weird is that!!!



5. Favorite person in the whole wide world: His Dad, of course… they are both very good at chilling!!!



6. He totally hates: A daytime nap, and very rarely succumbs, I guess he doesn’t want to miss out on any action and there sure is a lot of that around here!!!



7. He totally loves standing: And spends his life looking over his shoulder in case he misses something behind him.

And the Se7en + 1th thing:

8. In a Nutshell: He is the most glorious happy creature, with a brilliant laugh and a turn of speed… we love him to bits!!!

And just on the side: I keep saying to mom’s to be that it goes so fast and they look at me like I am some sort of dinosaur… they nod politley in fact and move on as fast as they can… But here me out – I have said it before and I will say it again: You blink and they are twelve… blink again. I so know that I am on borrowed time and if I blink again half my kids will be out in the world… Daunting thought!!!

Your Sunday Snippet and a GiveAway is coming… just busy schooling right now!!!

Once a year we feel a need to make a pilgrimage up the West Coast from Cape Town, to see the wild flowers. It is a Spring thing… every spring the whole world of the West Coast errupts into the most glorious floral display that is so magical that you cannot actually believe it to be true.

Every where you look, everywhere you turn there are flowers, great patches of orange and yellow and purple…

As far as the eye can see…

Unfortunately it was raining so hard on Saturday that those glorious flowers were not at their best – believe it or not!!! But they don’t open when it rains – they need sunshine to open up… The advantage was that hardly anyone else ventured out to see the flowers and we had what felt like the entire West Coast National Park to ourselves. First stop was the information center…

A tiny little stretch of the legs… and a very quick explore:

Have a careful look at that wader… this little person noticed the bird in boots!!!

And then because it was raining so very hard we decided to stop at the restaurant there and see if we could wait the rain out!!! What can I say some waits are worth the wait and some waiting is worth well lingering over!!! We will start with the outside…

A house we could fit into and still have space to share!!! Lovely!!!

And welcome to Geelbek Restaurant, this is Cape Cuisine at its yummy best, and reasonable prices compared to most Cape Town restaurants. The service was fabulous… you know how I love  restaurant that treats my children like people and is happy from them to drink their water out of wine glasses. And crisp white linen… I could rapture on… but I will just show you what we ate and then you can make your own decisions.

Traditional Chicken Pie:

Cape Malay Chicken Curry:

Hake and Chips:

Catch of the Day, Angelfish:

An Open Sandwich, packed with everything:

Kids Chicken and Chips:

Kids Fish and Chips:

We ate food that looked this good… no, we devoured it!!! Loved it !!! And while one of us chilled out recovering from our meal…

The rest of the gang gathered together to test the apparatus…

And then we were off to find the flowers…

We met the ostrich family…

And their babies…

A couple of tortoises…

And a heap of buck… sitting in fields of flowers…

We loved the rocky ridges…

The birds were simply amazing… even flamingoes in the lagoon…

And lots of teeny tiny ones that all flitted out of the photograph before you could say click…

And the lazy lagoon…

And this is where my kids really want to go on holiday!!! West Coast Houseboats…

So we saw our restaurant from a distance…

And the sun finally came out and we caught the flowers in all their splendor just as it was time to go…

We headed home…and incase you think it was an easy ride:

This is where we first ran out of petrol…

And don’t laugh but this is where we ran out of petrol again!!! Thank heaven for audio books and friends who come to the rescue!!! And in case you think our car enjoyed the ride “it is now in for repairs” for who knows how long!!! But it was worth it… a day out, without the crowds in all that gloriousness!!!

Here are our previous West Coast Posts…

• Se7en + 1 Visit the Strandloper.
• Se7en of the Best Places to Visit Around Cape Town.
• Se7en Significant Hikes.

And what a week it was… rainy and sunny, cold and warm… the weather is confused… or we are… or both!!!

But you will see lots of poppies on our blog in the next while because they have started to pop in all their glorious spring splendor – lovely!!!

Otherwise there were birthday parties…

And friends…

And Kirstenbosch…

And glorious trees…

And races…

And statues…

And families…

And curiosity…

And books…

And bookshelves…

And Lego’s…

And little friends…

And farewell to best friends who are by now settled in on the far side of the world…

And balancing…

And little beasts…

And smaller beasts…

And fungis ( blog this, blog this, blog this… )

And this stafish (yes that’s what it is!!!) was the contribution of the week, from all the sweet contributions that land on my keyboard…

And brothers…

And sisters…

And innocense…

This is our book of the week: My dad read it to me when I was a kid and we are reading it again for school… one of those, “Just one more chapter” books…

And this is what each of the hoods got up to:

Hood #1: Was victorious…

And made some DNA…

Hood #2: Discovered new heights…

And survived more school:

Hood #3: Continues to read and read and read…

Hood #4: A hole heap of mudlarking…

And more school…

Hood #5: And this one did make the effort to take his shoes off – I won’t mention the socks…

And busyness…

I am having an internet free day today. Don’t faint, it occasionally happens!!! So send me some lovely links in the comments or link up… I am relying on you all to do my surfing!!!

So these are my se7en favorite links of the week:

1. Look at these cool and not beyond reach garden projects from Green UpGrader: Stunning and doable the kind of project I love!!!
2. The Write Start has a beautiful Nature Table: Everything on the Write Start is inspiring, pop over for a visit!!!
3. On Simple Kids: Being an Example: Helping Our Kids get Organized by Modeling it for them: There is so much good stuff in this post that I had to link it!!! This is packed with good stuff…
4. Mapping the Seasons from Imagine Childhood: Would you look at this – I just love it and it is a definite potential project. We have done this on paper but I love the idea of the night sky on fabric.
5. Ohdeedoh has had a week of fabulous kids book posts… Book ideas, book nooks, book fun, best books – go and have a look at the stylish world of kids books – fun!
6. Apartment Therapy posted Lisbeth Salander’s IKEA Shopping List: If you are a A Girl with the Dragon Tattoo fan then you will find this fun!!!
7. I found Get in the Hot Spot via the Problogger: If you are looking for fab blogging tips them pop over for some real treasures!!!

And the Se7en + 1th thing…

8. Mother*Lode Quilt Photographs: I have to stop looking at beautiful quilts and admit I will not be quilting but aaahhhh… don’t they look wonderful!!!

So tell us what you are reading and Link up your favorite Posts or Fun thing you did with your kids this past week…

Here are the rules:

1. Anyone of our crafty/mom blog reader friends are welcome to join in.
2. Any of your kids who want to write a blog post and link it in are welcome to join in.
3. Please mention “Se7en’s Fabulous Friday Fun” in your post and direct the readers back to our Carnival. For example: “I linked this post to Se7en’s Fabulous Friday Fun” would work for me!!! Or pop our button onto your site. so that other readers can enjoy a couple of your favorite favorites… and get to meet all of you.
4. Make sure you link to your fabulous post and not your website, so that it is easy for readers to find your favorite… rather than wading through everything!!!
5. Enter a very brief description of your post in parenthesis in the Mcklinky line where you enter your name, so that we know what to expect when we get there.
6. Visit and leave comments on other folks posts who enter the Carnival – it is the nice thing to do!!!
7. Finally this is a family blog and remember some folks kids are reading it – please keep your posts appropriate. I reserve the right to delete any post that would not be appropriate for my kids to glance at.

Thanks for playing, Link away, Comment away…