Day 50

13th December 2021

Bike Rides

Good morning, sunshine! ๐ŸŒž

The sun makes us feel so happy.

Liam took the kids on a bike ride through the streets to the bush track.

They wanted to take Pepe but he is so enormous, we can’t fit him AND the bikes in the car.

Liam had to drive behind them while they rode their bikes to the track. (And that is just one reason why Dad is way cooler than Mum!)

Dad stalking behind in the car with the dog. ๐Ÿ˜‚
Some parts they had to ride by themselves. On the road! ๐Ÿ˜ฎ (Look at the dust on our dashboard! Must remember to care more about these sorts of things).

Nice Cream

I’ve been following this cool Danish woman on Instagram who lives in a house amongst the trees with her husband & two adorable children.

They live a minimalistic life, growing and cooking from scratch, striving for zero waste.

She’s vegan and posts lots of delicious recipes.

Anyway, she eats lots of nice cream, and as its super healthy, ice cream for breakfast suddenly doesn’t sound so sinful!

We’ve made this before, but we always have it as a desert thing.

Lately, we’ve been making it for breakfast. It’s nice and light first thing in the morning, & so delicious!

Oh, if you want to check out my Danish digital friend, her Insta handle is neohippie.dk but she’s leaving at the end of December so you’d better be quick!

Kids eating mango
Before the nice cream, they got stuck into some mango on the back step. Man, these kids eat a lot.
Mila making nice cream
They both LOVE using kitchen appliances!
Nice cream for breakfast! ๐Ÿ˜Ž We used 2 frozen bananas, 3 or 4 fresh strawberries, a good handful of frozen blueberries & about 60ml of soy milk. Blitz well & serve right away.

French Fries

Next, Lincoln wanted to make McDonalds French Fries. He came across a video on the process and decided he could make them at home.

Did you know McDonalds French Fries consist of 14 ingredients?! Ew!

The fries go into a ‘flavour bath’ which is a combination of oils, hydrolysed wheat, milk, sugar, beef fat & some scary sounding chemicals.

They are fried twice to remove the starch and add extra crisp.

After realising we couldn’t follow the McDonalds recipe exactly, Linc agreed to use chicken salt as his flavour bath.

We were ready to take them on!

Linc cutting potato
Learning to julienne the potatoes.

We dried our potatoes and put them in a pan with 1 tablespoon of oil.

We don’t own a fryer. We almost never cook with oil, so the idea of an oil swimming pool was just ew.

Right, it was time for the big test.

They drove to McDonalds and bought a large fries and came home for the blindfolded test.

McDonalds French Fries
McHomemade French Fries

Watch Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCVxltu4_NY

He guessed right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZa4BjvvPpY
Without hesitation, Mila guesses correctly as well.

Outcome

The kids voted McDonalds fries as the clear winner. ๐Ÿ˜‘

They liked the crunch. They said they couldn’t taste the potato as much when compared to our fries, but they still liked them better because they were skinny & crunchy.

Liam and I liked our homemade fries.

I like tasting potato in my fried potato!

When McDonalds washes the fries in sugar and the flavour bath, it washes off the starch and then the double frying ensures they are fried to a crip.

Our fries were delicious! They contained only 2 ingredients, 1 tablespoon of oil & potato. Zero chemicals.

Last week

Well, it’s the last week of term.

We’ve survived our first 50 days of home-school!

So much has changed already, since our first day.

My beautiful curriculum sits collecting dust, and I’ve almost stopped caring.

Being opened to following their lead has taken us on some pretty cool adventures.

Next term we’ll continue with Ocean & Farm School. Their additional chosen topics & sports are:

Lincoln

  • Wresting – He’s been watching old videos of The Rock. ๐Ÿ˜‚
  • Kung Fu
  • Japan
  • Physics
  • Decimals – He wants to get a job & says, “I need to know decimals!”

Mila

  • Netball
  • Crystals
  • Screen Painting
  • Chemistry
  • Geometry – “I need to learn about angles. I only know right angles.” Mila says.

Exciting News!

Over the Christmas break we’re going to work on our family cook book!

The recipe pages are soooooo long overdue. Sorry, in case you’ve been waiting on them.

We’ll cook a new recipe every day and post it here on the blog and by the start of term one, we should have our book.

Then the kids can start cooking dinner! Which feels like this. ๐Ÿ˜†

Yes!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS0RA9eCsQk

The Challenge: Home school for 1 year while not losing sanity or love for children and/or husband.
Contenders: Mila 8yrs, Lincoln 10 yrs, Me (Mum), Liam (Dad), Pepe (dog)
Home School Days: 200

This blog was inspired by the film Julie & Julia, starring Meryl Streep & Amy Adams.

Julie decides she will take her love of cooking to the next level by cooking every recipe in Julia Childs French cookbook, in one year! 500 & something fancy, technical recipes!! While working full time!

Julie writes a daily blog about her time in the kitchen for herself & other amateur cooks who may, or may not be, reading along. You gotta watch it (http://thehomeschoolyear.com/about/).  Or read it here. (http://thehomeschoolyear.com/book)

I loved that she wrote every day. I loved hearing about her small everyday frustrations, with the recipes & with life. It really inspired me to throw myself into something.

The timing was perfect as we have just decided to homeschool our children as a lifestyle choice and I thoughtโ€ฆCool! A daily blog will be perfect!

There must be other families out there wondering if there’s another way to live? Another way to do ‘family life’?

If you’re here, then hello & welcome aboard! Please feel free to sit back & watch it all unfold. Put the kettle on & check in with us each night to see what went down and how we all got over the line. I’m sure we’ll find our rhythm, right?

Are you a homeschool family? If you’re watching the wheels fall off this thing, I’m open to your emails or comments any time. I would love them! I am very friendly, & I could use the help.

Ok, come hell or high waterโ€ฆ.I’m in. A daily blog, for 12 months. I’ll be right, here.

Kindly, Lisa x

Can we be friends?!

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