honey jumbles

This Sunday we had to stay home from church (Toby had an ear infection and Jasper has caught his cold.  Sigh.  I love the way they pace themselves with infections diseases like this, makes the joy last that much longer…).  So we made honey jumble to cheer ourselves up!

Isn’t it a fabulous name!  Honey jumbles.  Sadly my recipe didn’t actually include honey (is that normal for honey jumbles?  Maybe the name just comes from the flavour), but once I’d told myself that was ok, we had lots of fun!

However, before we get into that, a confession.  I’m not great at baking.  I do it once or twice a week to keep something homemade in the lunchboxes, but it’s not something I love and I wouldn’t miss it much if I didn’t do it.  But having said that, there are definitely things about it that I do treasure.

I love cooking with the boys, teaching them little things that I remember my mother and grandmother teaching me (like it’s awesome if we actually break the eggs into the bowl, but it’s not the end of the world if they end up on the floor.  But it’s probably best if we don’t tell daddy).  I love the rhythm of baking…getting everything out, measuring (well, sometimes measuring), mixing, rolling or pouring, watching it transform as it cooks, the delicious smells filling the house.  I even like the flour all over the floor and clearing up at the end (again, might be best if we don’t tell daddy about that bit).

About half the time I bake, what comes out is edible and ok, but nothing fantastic.  About a quarter of the time it’s really yummy!  (Let’s not mention the other quarter.  Usually it involves distraction and smoke alarms)  Today it was a success, yippee!  They looked like tiny loaves of bread when they came out of the oven.

Even the icing seems to be ok, which is very unusual for me.  I’m very good at making bad icing.  Love this colour!

We just used a standard honey jumbles recipe; ours was from The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits by the Australian Women’s Weekly.  I cooked from this book with my grandmother when I was little, and then we were given a copy as a wedding gift.  That’s probably the thing I love most about baking…it’s such a tactile was of keeping memories alive, and of creating new ones.

haberdashery

Do you have favourite words?  Ones that give you a little tingle of delight every time you roll them around your mouth?  (Or is that just me?!)  There are a few words that I love to use…marvellous, pernickety, serendipitous, particularly, splendid…but my absolute favourite is haberdashery.

I think Jasper may have inherited my love of words.  This morning he told me that his name was Ben Bickersnaff and that he would be back in a moment, “I just have to find a suitable hairstyle.”

Anyway.  Back to haberdashery!  (Or had-a-brash-er-y as Toby says)  Just the word immediately puts wonderful pictures in my mind…lots of small wooden drawers filled with jewel-coloured threads, baskets overflowing with ribbons and trims, boxes and tins crammed with zips, and patchwork pincushions stuffed with vibrant glass-headed pins.  And of course, buttons, my favourite item of haberdashery!

Most of the vintage haberdashery that I have came from my grandmother, who was given it by her mother.  Those connections make it so special.  I think of them every time I use a piece of ric-rac or pull a zip out of the packaging that has held it for the last three or four decades.

And how gorgeous is the packaging?!

Glorious colours!

I can’t write a post on haberdashery without mentioning a little shop which epitomises all my needlecraft daydreams…l’uccello, in Melbourne.  It’s tucked away behind a fabric-covered door on the second floor, overlooking Swanston Street.  It has a breath-taking array of ‘vintage haberdashery and fancy goods’ - gorgeous fabrics, threads, buttons, trims and all sorts of other splendid goodies.  Even their business cards are beautiful!

soccer

This year has been our first time involved in Saturday morning sport!  Toby has been playing soccer with five friends, and absolutely loving every second of it.  And once I worked out how many pairs of socks I needed to wear so that I could still feel my toes at the end of the match, so am I!

Soccer has been a lot more than fun and early mornings, though.  The kids have learnt a lot about working together and using their individual strengths to build a stronger team (although I’m sure if you asked them…it really is all about the fun!  And the mud).

But tomorrow will be Caleb’s last soccer game.  He’s moving with his family to South Sudan (see lots more details on their website here).  Toby’s really going to miss him!

So we’ve got some very special little cupcakes to say a special goodbye.  They were made by the astonishingly clever Sonia of Incredible Edibles…and they truly are incredible!

Let’s hope the rain stays away…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…not that they will mind if it doesn’t!

today

Sometimes it’s good to really think about the things I do in a day.  I’m reading a very challenging book at the moment about simplicity.  Trying to work out which bits of my day and week are dispensable, looking at why I do what I do – what motivates me? – has been much more challenging than I thought!  I will do a post about the book once I (finally) finish it all.

The book has made me realised that it’s so easy to get so busy that I just hurry because that’s what I always do, not because I actually need to.  Why am I hurrying?  Is there anything more important right now – this very second – than talking about why honey makes your hands sticky?  Or marvelling that God made “one single sun”  - yes, that’s right, just the one - that lights up every country in the world in turn?  Or wondering whether cats’ paws get cold on the frozen footpath?  Or how amazing the ice crystals look shimmering on the tips of tiny (and very cold) fingers?

And it really is cold at the moment!  Gorgeous sunny days, but Sadie is always covered in ice when we head off to school in the mornings.  Sadie has a glass roof, and the boys love watching as the ice gradually slides off as we drive.

After dropping Toby off at school (great excitement today – Grandparent’s day!), it’s grocery shopping.  Jasper is very co-operative at the supermarket now, because he loves the mini trolleys that he can use.  He also scans all our things at the self-serve checkout.  He’s a good helper!  Today we bought lots and lots of tea (and some other things too!).  Such a shame I don’t like tea, some of the flavours looks so scrumptious!

All aboard!  After hanging out the washing it’s time to build a train track.

The engineer is very proud!  He takes his job very seriously.

After lunch a nap for Jasper, and a brief interlude of peace in which to sew.  Not that I’m complaining about the noisy, joyful chaos which came before it!  The afternoon was a rush of school pick up, another grandparents’ visit, and a piano lesson before dinner.

So that was our day.  It was busy, and it has been interesting to sit back at the end of it and think about all the different things that happened today.  Hope your day was full of sun and bright spots of joy as well.

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens.

Ecclesiastes 3:1