Easy Homemade Cards

We have lots of birthdays to celebrate in September and we are big fans of homemade cards.  Now that MaxiMad is at school, time to make elaborate and complicated cards are a thing of the past.  We needed a quick, all inclusive idea.

So we made ........................

Chicken cards, which are ever so easy and very effective.

All you do is take a piece of card and trace round a plate, cut it out with pinking scissors, add a few feathers, a foam beak and a googly eye.

The only part I do is the cutting, MaxiMad does the tracing and both the boys love gluing and sicking. 

It makes for a home made with love and inexpensive card.

Anyone with anyother ideas for basic cards that can be done, easily and by littleones, please let me know.

Tesco are getting on the Green Bandwagon...

Tesco has just launched a Greener Living website, which is aimed at  assisting the "environmentally aware shopper make the right decisions"

The Green in me thinks that Tesco should concentrate on trying to make the ordinary shopper more environmentally aware.  It should offer incentives for people to purchase green.  Many of the suggestions include a link to a purchase from Tesco or Tesco direct and it comes across as somewhat of a marketing ploy aimed at making shoppers feel greener for shopping at Tesco.

I try to balance being environmentally friendly with cost, especially in today's climate, being frugal is a must.  It allows me to spend time at home with my children.  I have been known to shop at Tesco and I am not knocking them in particular, but supermarkets as a whole need to take a more hands on role in my humble opinion.

There are a few common sense, easy things we can do to be more green, which don't cost the earth (if you pardon the pun).

• Turn down your thermostat by 1 degree
• Use draught excluders at your back and front door - we also have a curtain at our front door too
• Fit a in line draft exclude to the door from your integral garage (if you have one)
• Share baths or take a shower
• Teach your children to turn off the lights
• Switch to energy saving bulbs
• Leave large packaging at the supermarket - not only does this mean you don't have to recycle it, hopefully it will encourage the supermarket to think again on packaging
• Buy second hand - thrifting is becoming hugely popular, charity shops are in vogue
• Try and make a commitment to walk to school if possible or use public transport one day a week.  The MiniMads love going on the bus or train and see it as a real treat!
• Don't flush the loo every time or pop a brick in your cistern if it is an older toilet (this will reduce the amount of water it uses).  In TheMadHouse the boys cant reach the flush anyway!!
• Get a water butt, now is the time to buy one, as they are often less expensive as they are out of season.  we got one at the beginning of the year and it has watered all our veggies (bar once) for the whole of the growing season.
• Menu Plan again not only does this mean you only buy what you need, but you can also reduce waste and have a head start in the kitchen and I have found that the Mini's love the routine this affords.
• Recycle, recycle, recycle, please don't take the attitude that if I don't use my green bins, then I force the council into a weekly rather than fortnightly collection.
• Use reusable shopping bags
• Use throws and blankets, it is lovely to snuggle under them as the cooler nights come in.
• Get back to using a hot-water bottle in bed.  I love this one from Etsy

Now we had to do a lot of these things last Autumn anyway, as TheMadHouse had major issues with its boiler and heating, so we purchased thermals to wear under our PJ's, hot water bottles, lovely throws, draught excluders and all went to bed earlier and snuggled and read books to the children of a night.  Well the boys remember and out have come the hot water bottles, hot chocolate and bedtime stories in mummy daddy's bed and it is great.

So take a look at the Tesco Website, they have a trolley dash game on the site with the possibility to win a new washing machine.  At least they are trying, even if it is just a money making scheme (after all that is what the shareholders want).    Also come back to me with any great green tips that you have too.

Oh and just so you know I may or may not get a copy of Sarah Beeny's book "Green Your Home: The Complete Guide to Green Renovation and Repairs for blogging about this. 

The Mad Family

MaxiMad had to learn his address last week as homework, which was great as he knew all bat the postcode already!!

This was for his excursion this week to the sorting office to learn how letters are posted.  He was asked to draw a picture of his family and this is what he did.

His teacher then filled in the address and they franked their letters and when to a post box and posted them.  A friendly postman then collected their letters and the children started walking to the sorting office to see the next stage of the journey.

The above postcard arrived in the post the following day and I couldn't stop laughing, as the bit about Mr Smudge is just so like MaxiMad (in case you can not see it, is says "an outline of the cat, as the cat is white and you cant see it on white paper").  Oh I want to be four again.

MiniMads First Day at preschool

My baby is grown up.  MiniMad his first time at preschool today without me.  It was so hard leaving him there, but he was really happy until 4 minutes before I collected him, when he wanted to come home.  They think that was because he was asked to tidy up.

I am so proud of him, he looked like a little man.  What is it about putting a uniform on children that all of a sudden makes them look at least a year older than they are.

He loves his "work" outfit, as he calls it, although it makes it harder for me in the park after school now, as I have two in red in a sea of many others, at least when he was in his own clothes I could always spot him!!

It is strange not having a child at home with me and it is the first time that this is going to have happened and also the first time in nearly five years that I will have consistent time on my own.

What this means for me is that I will have to crack on with the paid work now!!

I hope that tomorrow goes as smoothly as today did.  The seasons they are a changing.

Autumn is here, the season of change

It seems apt to me that it is Autumn, it is a season of change, a season of colour and a season of harvest.   I love Autumn and Spring the most.  I love crisp days walking through leaves, hearing them crisp underfoot.  I love hats and scarfs, I love hot chocolate when you get in to warm up.  I love watching the ever changing landscape around us.  I love berry picking and eating!  I love the closing in of the evenings and closing the curtains.  I love that I can peek into other peoples houses when I pass.  But what I am trying to say is it just seems right, for us as a family to be where we are now.......

Change - there is lots of change going on in TheMadHouse this month and also there will be even more in the coming months.  MiniMad has his first afternoon at Preschool today (well if he is feeling well enough, we have been vomit city, but that is enough of that).  MaxiMad is settling in well to school, enjoying his new challenges, his new responsibilities and getting to know his new classmates.

I am going to be working from home part time doing some accountancy work, which will enable me to take and collect the boys from preschool and school and be there for them at all times.

We are trying to sort out the clutter we have accumulated, both times we moved I have been pregnant or just given birth, so we didn't clear anything and although it is not evident on the surface, the garage and loft are full of "stuff".  So we are busy ebaying and sorting through it all with the intention of doing a few car boot sales and recycling the remainder.

Colour - we have just decorated the study/sewing/ironing room a lovely silver and pale grey colour and added burgundy curtains.  We are also planning on painting both the sitting room and dinning room before Christmas.  I have just changed my cushion covers for lovely orange ones and brought out our winter throw, a huge red and orange checked one.  For me these are the colours of autumn and make me feel warmer.

Harvest - we are just enjoying the fruits of MadDad's labour in the garden.  We have harvested our pumpkins, onions, carrots, marrows and squash and are contemplating what to plant next.  The MiniMads are also so aware of harvest due to my MIL being a farmer and MadDad growing up on a farm.

That is enough comtemplation for now, safe to say we are busy, busy, busy and I am also nesting and planning, as my next operation will be on Monday 3 November.

Capri-sun pencil case

I have been practicing my sewing again whilst also thinking about affordable homemade Christmas presents for my niece's and the children's friends and found a recycled drinks pouch pencil case on the great Skip to my loo blog.

My mum had some 8 inch zips in her stash, so I though I would give them a try and you know what the boys love there's.

So now we need to drink more Capri-sun, so that I can make more for all the youngsters.  I am thinking of putting together art bags for them all.

But best of all they cost me nothing and are a great way of recycling and are fun, unique and funky, well they are according to the Mad Household.

Cooking with Children

Mini and Maxi Mad both love helping out in the kitchen, but I am as guilty as others of often not letting them get stuck in due to time constraints or only allowing planned projects.

Today we had no such time issues, so me and MiniMad weighted out the ingredients for a basic pizza dough and popped it in the bread machine:

540g of strong white flour - Lidl do a really reasonably priced one

1 sachet of yeast

1 tablespoon on oil

1 tablespoon of honey

pinch of salt (you can leave this out, but it helps it prove)

350ml of warm tap water.

Maxi Mad then pretty much did the rest.  He rolled the dough out and then made the garlic butter for the garlic pizza bread.  Rather than use the garlic press, I offered him the pestle and mortar and he had so much fun mashing the garlic and butter together.

I let him make the decision on what toppings we should have, out of what was in the fridge and store cupboard and he picked one with ham and sweet peppers and one plain cheese and tomato.   So I chopped the ham and peppers and grated the cheese. 

I also opened the box of passata, but he added the herbs and spices to the bowl and took great pleasure in tasting it and adding a little more back pepper!!

The finished results were wonderful, so tasty and they went down really well.  In fact we are thinking of making this a weekly thing.  I am so glad that I relaxed my attitude and allowed MaxiMad a bit more freedom in the kitchen.  He is capable of much more than I give him credit.  He is a wonderful cook and as MiniMad put it nothing like the angry cooks in Ratatouille!!