to make a Christmas cake or plan your vegan Christmas dinner

to buy a vegan cookbook or kids book  – today, Monday 19th is the last day for free shipping with Amazon but there are various other delivery choices all week.

to get a t-shirt  from us, the deadline is 20th Dec with express shipping

order from hotel chocolat by 4pm Friday for Christmas Eve delivery.

Ethical Superstore‘s last order dates are Tuesday 20th 12pm for standard delivery and Thursday 22nd for express

The Book People have next day delivery available until the 22nd.

Or you can just say, ‘no, I am not buying anything else,’ and go for a nice walk instead… probably the better option

in the woods

 In case we don’t blog before it’s all over, have a happy festive time

Related posts:

title proved by gorse flowers

No matter how cold it gets there’s always one somewhere

Seasonal bits:

Frugal Christmas and Vegan Yule have been updated and weeded free of dead links and outdated information. Lebkuchen from Lidl now contain butter

Drawing attention to Rose Elliot’s Vegetarian Christmas just now (see last years blog review of it) as it is currently still available for 1p from marketplace sellers on Amazon. That will change nearer Christmas.

A new inhabitant of the wood shed, he joins the toads for winter, they will probably not be kissing…

newt

Related posts:

last mow of the year

 lentil soup recipe added to frugal

beautiful colours everywhere

geen leaves

and I found this exciting, £1.49 from Amazon:

moo free choc Santa

and the phenomenal apple abundance continues unabated…

apples

Related posts:

vanilla cake with cream and buttons

creamovita and chocolate buttons - recipe for sponge on this page 

colours from the garden – a smoothie to be (added avo, banana, and OJ)

moth

check out VegaNation, a new vegan online shop! 

boy by sea

Pennan

girlish toes in the sea

salad

cauldron

sequins

Books of the moment:

Ecstatic Beings - Shazzie and Kate Magic

The Brightest Star in the Sky - Marian Keyes

Balletboyz - Michael Nunn and Billy Trevitt

Waldon and Other Writings - Henry David Thoreau

Related posts:

random bug on a sunflower leaf

education:

Potatoes for Schools registration is now open for 2011 – free seed potatoes, available to home educators too

The BBC Scottish History section is very good, nice timelines going on.

on self esteem:

We Teach What We Are - a blog from Wayne Dyer on the best we can do for young people.

Page 20 of Ladies First Magazine has a beautiful article about womens body image and self esteem.

and there is an excellent article on aspergers here

…and a small mention for Twitter, some of the above were passed on through there. Last weekend we won tickets to an early preview of Despicable Me, complete with many freebies, thanks to following Cineworld on there. Very funny film, one of the few weve seen that actually makes the 3D element worthwhile. Follow us on our vegan family account or as Frugaluk where we pass on many competitions

Related posts:

rhubarb and ginger jam

We have a veritable forest of rhubarb so into jam some of it went yesterday! recipe over on frugal where there is also a twitter competition detailed on the front page to win my copy of The Moneyless Man (who is vegan by the way, don’t think I mentioned that before)

Gathered some elderflowers in the wood yesterday too and made some cordial sort of from this recipe though I made much less as I know it doesn’t keep for long even in the fridge, even with citric acid which I didn’t use this time… the taste of summer in it is amazing…

Related posts:

more snow… some little bits I’ve been meaning to mention spread among the lovely signs of spring to come

Wayne Dyer’s new program: Excuses Begone! – been enjoying listening to that – he is always so motivational and uplifting.

The Bristol Dyslexia Centre has some interesting stuff on it’s site including some free educational games taken from the Nessy learning program.

Sensory Perceptual Issues in Autism and Asperger Syndrome: Different Sensory Experiences, Different Perceptual Worlds

Olga Bogdashina has written a wonderful book here – helpful in very practical ways and quite refreshingly non-patronising in it’s manner of looking at autism and the associated sensory and perceptual issues. There is evidence that these may be at the core of ASDs and what is actually physiological has been treated as purely psychological for far too long by the so called experts. A fascinating read

Amazon.co.uk  or  Amazon.com

Related posts:

Have finally got the blog how I want it – a terrible tale of databases, installations of wordpress and corrupted (by me) css files ensued but I’ve now uploaded the archives (see drop down on sidebar) and cleaned up dead links too

Reading a book lent by my mum. She found it while scouring her shelves during the snow time (unable to get to a library) and thought it might actually be mine… can’t imagine why

Ivan Illich’s Deschooling Society is full of wonderful radical thoughts on education, reminds me a lot of Holt and Gatto. The previous owner has hardly left a page untouched, with highlighting and notes everywhere, which somehow makes reading it more interesting, an extra dimension, what someone else finds of import. I think he went a bit too far in sometimes underlining whole pages of text, but there we are

Enjoying Scotch Broth, not the most photogenic of soups but it tastes good:

Related posts:

Virtual pumpkin carving - intend doing the real thing today too… and this falling sand game is a bit odd but very ‘moreish’ – just play with it and see!

Halloween quizzes – Easy, Tricky or Fiendish - sent by my sister

Kids wrote spooky stories this morning. Both very good. Was especially impressed by how much Charlotte’s writing has come on. She worked really hard on her story all morning – I could see how home ed really suits her with this. She’s dyslexic but has lost the fear of shame from spelling mistakes so it all flows, and her spelling is improving hugely. Also there were no enforced breaks or ‘time up now’ stuff so she could keep going as long as she needed. The pressure to get things done in an allotted time at school upset her a lot – then she would end up with lots of work taken home or be made to do it during ‘Golden Time’ . She also suffered from comments from other children – “are you not finished yet?” How can anyone write truly creatively to a timer like that? Anyway both kids are quite proud of themselves and have been promised spooky treats tomorrow

Related posts:

Really must stop procrastinating and get on with some housework but nice things keep arriving in my inbox today – again from the EO list, this The Ten Commandments for Parents of Special Children though I think it really applies to all children (who of course are all special):

1. Take one day at a time, and take that day positively. You don’t have control over the future, but you do have control over today.

2. Never underestimate your child’s potential. Allow him, encourage him, expect him to develop to the best of his abilities.

3. Find and allow positive mentors: parents and professionals who can share with you their experience, advice, and support.

4. Provide and be involved with the most appropriate educational and learning environments for your child from infancy on.

5. Keep in mind the feelings and needs of your spouse and your other children. Remind them that this child does not get more of your love just because he gets more of your time.

6. Answer only to your conscience: then you’ll be able to answer to your child. You need not justify your actions to your friends or the public.

7. Be honest with your feelings. You can’t be a super-parent 24 hours a day. Allow yourself jealousy, anger, pity, frustration, and depression in small amounts whenever necessary.

8. Be kind to yourself. Don’t focus continually on what needs to be done. Remember to look at what you have accomplished.

9. Stop and smell the roses. Take advantage of the fact that you have gained a special appreciation for the little miracles in life that others take for granted.

10. Keep and use a sense of humor. Cracking up with laughter can keep you from cracking up from stress.

Author Unknown

Playing linkage today. Some articles on the biggest HE myth of all brought up on the EO list yesterday (though I do feel anyone who gives any credence to this myth must be in serious denial or genuine ignorance of what schools and home education are actually like, state schools in the UK anyway): Social Aspects of Home Education which links to this recent article from the Guardian – Call for schools to teach social skills and also We Don’t Believe in Socialisation from the states. Should maybe point out that weve yet to have someone critisise us for this (to our faces anyway) – the friends and relatives who I thought might (those who are teachers or work in schools and I assumed approved of the system) have been the most enthusiastic about our decision to HE, and full of insider school horror stories of their own.

Someone else posted this great link to whole texts and audio of various books, mostly Beatrix Potter but some others too.

Related posts: