Minecraft .... Why I love it

Hello, faithful readership and lucky googlers. I don't know if it is everywhere but I know that here in Australia the game Minecraft has been getting a lot of mixed reviews lately. There has been tabloid TV articles proclaiming it as doing everything from helping children with autism to creating a monoculture of intellectually adept, social inept children who spend all their time creeping and building. If your kids aren't into Minecraft, read on, they may well be into it soon or at least their friends are already. If your kids are too young for Minecraft, read on, at some point they will ask the question. And if you are in the same boat as me where there are multiple builders in the family, read on... you may be interested in how we manage Minecraft and computer gaming in general.

First up, a snapshot of my family. We have 5 kids varying in ages between 11 and 2. They are all intelligent, curious, active kids who love to play imaginative games and joke around. They are awesome. A few years ago they saved up and pooled their money (the older 4 at least) and with our permission bought an x-box.

Now first things first, and I could get a little controversial here, but they are my kids and I get to decide how much, what and when they play computer games. Call me old fashioned but the idea of the kids dictating the terms upon which they play would be complete and utter chaos, especially with 5 of them! We have set times that they can play the x-box on the weekend and during school holidays and it is a fabulous "currency" for my boys especially, to have it taken away due to poor behaviour.

Anyway, Minecraft! Well, it entered our house two years ago now and I was very nervous about the whole thing. I had heard the reports of kids being addicted etc etc. So, when the packet got opened I sat down and became player number 4. I lasted just long enough to get the general gist of the game before I became horribly nauseous due to the spinning of the platform to view the "world" we were creating. But here is what I found out:

• Minecraft has no point per se. The idea is to build, you build a house, a village, a garden, mine for minerals, whatever you would like really. It is creative and fun.
• You can work together. We had a great time building our house and then furnishing it before heading to bed for the first (virtual) night. We all had to go to bed at the same time (bit like family life really!) to make the game continue.
• There are a number of modes. Creative mode is the mode my kids play most of the time. There are no baddies that can tear down your village or cause any grief. Survival mode leads you to certain obstacles or challenges that you need to overcome to continue. My 9 year old loves it but my 7 and 5 year olds find it scary.

After I nearly vomitted all over the carpet due to the motion induced waves of nausea I felt in my first attempt at being a Minecrafter, I have watched from a distance. And this is what I love about Minecraft:

My mini minecrafters in position on a Sunday morning

• My kids love to play it together. They chat about their world, build things together, have shared Minecraft goals.... They even had a party in the house they built for me out of diamonds!
• It is open ended, unlike other games like "Skylanders" they can't get to the end. They can keep playing and playing for years with the same challenge. It is really quite good value for money!
• For my kids, they interact with each other much like they do in the imaginary games they play outside.
• They can learn the difference between the virtual world and the real world, much like they do their imaginary worlds and the real world, in their own family.
• They set goals, achieve them and have fun. One of my kids love farming in Minecraft so much it has spurned a real passion for agriculture and farming!
• I use it as a motivator! Not ashamed to admit that the two set times they are allowed to play is after bath/before dinner on a Friday afternoon and before church (provided they have shoes on ready to go) on a Sunday morning. It makes my life much easier!

Here are our Minecraft Rules that work for the Freckles. May also help you get your head around the pixel world! 

Remember each family is different, this is what works for us:

1. Set times - remember you are the parent. They can play for finite times on certain days.

2. No internet connection - we play Minecraft on the x-box as we have chosen to have it as a static console. They are not allowed to play the internet version on the PC. They are just too young to understand. They have whinged about this many times! But for me, it is the safety net I am comfortable with, you may not agree, but we are all different, so that's ok! We happily have their friends over to play x-box in person if they are concerned about not playing Minecraft with their mates!

3. Parents must be around - it is not a set and forget. If we are not floating around the place then no Minecraft.

4. Real life consequences for Minecraft meanness! So if you knock down my house, you can't play the game and have a 10 minute lock out. Controller surrendered, timer on!

5. If we fight, it gets turned off. Simple, they get along or don't get to play.

So there you have it, some Minecraft ideas from the Freckles. And if you don't suffer from motion sickness then I encourage you to give it a go... it's really fun! You may even get a Diamond Castle made for you too!

Felicity xx

Bit of a patty cake palette

Little Miss 11 has been home from school for a few days now... Nothing too serious just enough of a cough to keep us both up most of the night, enough of a headache to make her grumpy and enough of a runny nose to warrant shares in Kleenex. So what do we Freckles do when we are feeling tired and grumpy (or sick or stressed or any extreme emotion really) - we bake! 

So bake we did!

Miss 11 has a penchant for fondant icing so after we made our delicious chocolate patty cakes (I'll post the recipe for that one for you soon... Best...Patty... Cakes...Ever!) we cracked out the fondant icing and gave it a whirl. 

First up we roll and cut the icing into disks.

Next we brush the tops with some strawberry jam (I use IXL cause it's got no bits in it) that's been melted in the microwave for a few seconds.

Then stick the disks on...

Now here in lies the revelation... Bought these puppies at Spotlight and we use them all the time to do this:

 

So then little Miss 11 and I sat down to a well earned cup of tea and patty cake. And yes, I believe it did make us both feel a little better.

 

Birthday gift guide... What to get the Tweenager that has everything!

Perhaps, the hardest age to buy gifts for is the pre-teen girl. It is a tricky age group. Can't go too old, can't go too babyish, can't go too pink, can't go too boyish but definitely can't go too little-girlish.

When it was time for the my 10 year old Miss Freckle to go to a birthday party we had some serious shopping to do. Obviously, when choosing a gift, budget is a consideration. With 5 children and many, many weekends spent going to children's birthday parties (they seem to proliferate in the Prep year but wind down a little by 10!) we need to set a budget. I like to get the kids thinking about their friend and things that they like or don't like to give me some clues. Then working within our budget (usually under $15) we try to come up with some ideas before I go to the shops.

Things I am looking for are usually 

1. something to do with the child's interests and

2. something that the parents won't hate me for giving their child

So, here are some ideas that Miss Freckle and I came up with for her friend's 10th birthday.

Lyrics:

This particular friend loves Katy Perry. Went to the concert, sings the songs constantly, wears Katy Perry t-shirts etc etc. So my Miss Freckle came up with the idea of putting some lyrics in a frame. I did some photoshop magic so it looked a little like glitter and voila, Katy Perry in a frame.

Glitter:

Glitter is big at the moment in the pre-teen world. Generally not pink glitter as I have only met one tweenager in the last few years who actually (admits that they) like pink. But really, anything that glitters. We found a cute notepad at Target that shimmies and sparkles away but when researching this post I found all the glitter craft that you can do on Pinterest and I even got a little sparkle-eyed at the possibilities... From one tween to another - I know my daughter would love that!

found on Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/pin/155796468334283118/

Mugs:

My daughter was given a fancy mug for Christmas and it is seriously one of her most treasured possessions at the moment. Most tweens don't have any of their own crockery to use exclusively so this is a cool gift, especially if you can get them something that captures their creativity. My daughter loved this one for $5 from Target...

                                         

Cooking:

If the pre-teen in question is in to cooking there is a veritable plethora of options. 

One little friend of Miss Freckle loved to cook, and was quite accomplished at it, so we bought her an Adriano Zumbo Packet mix and a few cookie cutters and she had a ball (her mother loved me too! She said they were delicious).

I also saw this little beauty at good old Target:

Guaranteed winner this one! Who doesn't like frozen deserts and mum is happy because it is fruit. And only $15.

In the same vain as this there are cupcake makers, donut makers, snow cone makers etc etc. All a bit of fun.

Craft:

Can be a bit tricky at this age. It is important not to go too young. Look for something a little edgy, old school or cool they can make. Or even something practical! We gave this DIY drink bottle kit to a friend who is a boarder at our kids school, so definitely didn't have a lot of space for impractical things, not really edgy or cool but very practical and gave her a bit of fun too.

I have also seen some really cool, retro embroidery for pre-teens in the craft section at Big-W.

Nail Polish/Lip Gloss:

Big hit here too! I don't go past these items in terms of cosmetics as each family is different but a clear sparkly lip gloss or a pack of pastel nail polishes goes down a treat. Hint: Always buy nail polish remover to go with it!

Daiso:

I love this shop! Take your tweenager, pick up a basket and collect a load of things to stick in the present box that they can then pick from when a party comes up. All sorts of cute, Asian bits and bobs like these... all $2.50 each! Hooray!

Slippers, Houndstooth - two of my favourite words, together, as they should be!

Book end or iPad holder - or both!

fluffy pigs... who doesn't love them?

and why not? Get two or three different colours for a mix and match!

Der bloop anyone?

ipad case

Things to avoid:

- Clothes: sizing is awkward, styles are so individual and quality is a family thing.

- Make-up

- Anything that says 6+

- pink

- DVD's: they have so many and once again, what may be OK in your family may be a big no-no in another

- Vouchers: they are still young, a present is nice

- Anything that will make a big mess or need parental help

Hope this helps with your shopping adventures!

Felicity xx

Internationally renowned scones... with a twist

I am a scone maker. Ta-da!

I love a scone. Even my little Freckle who doesn't eat sweet things and cries when we try to make him eat birthday cake (because really, peoples, this ridiculous behaviour just has to stop!) loves a scone (sans jam).

I would love to say that I got this recipe from a one-armed lady in Cunamulla who had been baking them for centuries but alas, this is not the case. The truth is that I have no idea where I got the recipe from... I think that someone just told me one day, when I was whining that my scones never turn out soft and fluffy that "It is as simple as 1,1,3".... for all you scone novices out there, like I was - that is 1 cup of lemonade, 1 cup of cream, 3 cups of self-raising flour. That's it! I have for your printing pleasure done a lovely little printable recipe so you can put it in your recipe file, along with Grandma's Nut Roll and Aunty Shirley's Butter Gems, or you can just remember 1+1+3.

So, after I have made these delicious morsels... practised a bit, actually, they were perfect the first time but I had to try them another 20,000 times just to check, I started to pull out the good 'ol scone at functions. And the requests for the recipe came flooding in, and now I believe that my recipe has gone international and made it all the way to Essex where a sweet friend of mine is humming 1+1+3 away in her kitchen. I am actually awaiting Masterchef calling me in the next short while to be guest judge on their scone episode.

Even Baby Freckle got in on the scone making act today!

My Yr 8 Home Ec teacher told me to put scones on the tray like this... she made us use a ridiculous recipe that made my fingers hurt from rubbing in the butter but this trick of putting them all on the tray touching is actually a winner as they rise higher. Thanks Mrs Brown!

Another tip: if you aren't serving them straight away wrap them in a tea-towel. Keeps the steam in and stops them from becoming little rock cakes.

But great, I hear you say, what is the twist? The twist for these little morsels of joy, is that the secret ingredient actually, does not have to be lemonade. This time I used orange mineral water just because it was what I had in the fridge to be used up, but you could use whatever bubbly (haven't tried champas but hey, give it a go and let me know!) liquid you have lying around. 

Want to make savoury scones? Add some salt, herbs and a little cheese and use soda water instead of lemonade.

Want a little zing of lemon? Use lift or solo. 

And it works.

So here once again, is the link to the recipe on my website, I even have a thermomix version and an ol'school version. Or you could just remember the scone-algorithm for perfect scones, every time - 1+1+3!

Happy afternoon tea-ing,

Felicity xx

BTW - We had these particular yummy scones after school today. One of my Freckles told me he doesn't like scones. I believe this is actually genetically impossible but he disagreed, refused to try the scones and settled on a slightly floury apple instead. I had even made blueberry jam!

Why I quit the dishwasher…. Controversial, I know!

Our kitchens are full of those shiny, whizzing, pluggable wonders that have been marketed as "saviours", "time-savers", "kitchen wonders" …. but I have had it with one of them! I believe relegating it to the background has been the key to reclaiming my kitchen and getting on with my life (extreme, much???)…. I have canned the dishwasher. No, I haven't unplugged the monstrosity and thrown it to the scrap heap (yet!) but I have, for a while at least, decommissioned it.

Why? Because the very thing that was meant to save me time was actually making me busier.

You see, dishwasher stacking is a science. I believe their are PhD's awarded in innovations in Dishwasher Stacking…. so every time the little Freckles tried to load the dishwasher, they inevitably would stack things too close, too far apart, not rinse them or just leave them on the bench. Then I would have to re-stack the dishwasher, if I caught it before it went on, otherwise it would go on and then not be washed properly so I would have to re-wash the unwashed dishes….. Just how I love to spend my day!

So here is the picture. Wake up, get out of bed, put porridge on for the kids, race around trying to wake them all up (one needs to be woken numerous times as I think teenage hood has hit this Freckle at 9!), dish up said porridge, start unpacking the dishes from the night before, baby starts to cry so get up baby and get her breakfast, kids have in this time left their porridge bowls on the bench starting to dry out, I continue to unpack the dishwasher, world war 3 erupts in the bathroom, I go and negotiate peace talks and repatriation conditions, continue to unpack the dishwasher, Freckle #4 tells me that he can't possibly dress himself because he doesn't know how to count backwards from 100 and he needs to work that out and can't do both so could I please help him so he can keep counting, I acquiesce and help Freckle #4 get dressed, I finish unpacking the dishwasher at the same time that Baby Freckle finishes her breakfast (complete with porridge smeared all over her high chair), I clean her up whilst the porridge bowls continue to dry out, I look at the time and realise we have to go in 5 minutes so run around wildly dressing the baby, wiping faces (one slipped through this morning), getting every Freckle to check their "What to take to School Today" Charts, putting on my makeup and then get everyone in the car and off to school.

MEANWHILE…. While I am gone….. the porridge, still sitting in the bowls, turns into a substance that is only known to geologists and parents that is called porridge-glomerate - a mineral like substance that is resistant to removal by anything other than a pick axe or diamond saw. So, when I get home, I pull out my diamond blade and begin chipping off the bits of porridge from the bench and the plates. Honestly, I cry out in my distress, this has to stop!

And stop it has. Now, Freckles their own bowls, plates, luchboxes, you name it! I put the warm water in the sink, they wash dry and put away when they are finished. I do the baby and myself and bliss! No hard porridge to chip away at when I get home from school run…..

The success of this breakfast trial has continued to the afternoons and evenings… each Freckle brings their plates and cutlery to the sink, washes dries and puts away! No charts needed for this one… each is responsible for their own and I do believe the stroke of genius is the drying and putting away. Voila, no dishwasher to unpack!

Confession: I still do use the dishwasher sometimes. For my dishes or for the cooking things at dinner… but no more than once a day. 

Now, what to do with all the extra time I have on my hands…. I may just blog about it ;)

Enjoy your dishes, be they porridge free or not,

Felicity xx

My "Every kid in the World will eat this" Spaghetti Bol (and only $10 for 3 meals for 4+)

If there is one meal that bores more homemakers than any other it is Spag Bol. So boring, so tedious but yet somehow the kids love it. Like most Australian families who have adopted the modified-Italian method of cooking spag bol, mine has evolved over the years. A bit of my Mum's old Leggo's cookbook that was splashed with so much tomato sauce that you could barely read it, a bit of Maeve O'Meara from back in the good ol'days of Better Homes and Gardens and a bit of Masterchef all rolled into one Aussie staple.

This is my version. It is, like my Chicken Soup, a slapdash, give it a go, not exact ingredients then throw in whatever you have and give it a stir recipe. It is designed however for those days when you are running after kids and are completely sleep deprived.

I love the slow cooker but I do find that when I have the time to brown everything off in the pan and get some bewdiful colour on the meat, creating a jus from the pan juices blah blah blah I can make some superb dishes. But everyday in my house is not Masterchef and I really need things that I can throw in and if I don't have time for all the mucking around I can still get something delicious on the table and most importantly something that I don't have everyone whinging about!

The secret to this spag bol is getting the slow cooker nice and hot before you add the onions, then leaving it for a while before adding the meat. I recommend putting a few loads of washing on the line or grabbing a nanna nap or even having a dig in the sandpit in between steps... don't worry about it - this baby is gonna cook all day long!

The other secret ingredients (we all have a few don't we?!?!) is cinnamon and milk. Gives it a nice spice without heat, and the milk makes it creamy. And you an use any wine that's leftover in the fridge.... although I hear you ask, "What is leftover wine?".... good point!

The other important thing about this Spag Bol is that it could put the family budget back into surplus in no time. It is super budget friendly (I buy my fruit and vege from a budget shop so for me, I think, it works out to around $10 for the pot) and it serves my family as Spag Bol twice, then I chuck it in a lasagne and freeze it for later. So that is pretty much three meals (for 4 -6 depending on appetite) for $10!!!! It's also really, really healthy. And I think it is quite delicious, and so do my kids......

So give it a go next time you need a incredibly simple dinner, and let me know if it beats yours!

Felicity xx

Nom nom... get it here

Medicine: Chart that is 3am, exhausted and crying baby on the hip proof... well, almost!

Hello, Freckle followers. Another exhausting week of highs and lows in the Freckle household.

There have been tantrums, vomits, ridiculous nappies (YOU KNOW THE ONES.... EEWWW!), late for schools, birthday parties and trips to the ER. All just another week really!

No, seriously, Baby Freckle has been quite sick, in fact she is the one that has had two trips to the ER where the beautiful hospital doctors take one look at my singing, playing delight of a child and tell me that she is fine! But, she wastn't like that 2 hours ago, I say calmly. But, she has hardly eaten in two weeks, I tell them slightly agitated. But, her nappies smell like there is a dead animal inside her. Doesn't this warrant exploratory surgery, a helicopter trip to the capital, a team of gastroenterologists???? They smile, nod and tell me she will be fine. She has gastro. Could take another week or two or three before she is back to normal. Anyway, enough of my sleep deprived ramblings. We have been sent home with anti-nausea medication and been told to use Panadol and Nurofen for the pain. Poor little Freckle!

So, in the minutes that I have between ANOTHER load of washing and changing another sloppy nappy I have devised this little beauty! Sanity saver for me... I have been using something similar for year that I would scratch on a piece of paper but here it is looking all pretty!

Get it here!

I have designed it with space at the top for your Child's name... may seem silly but if you have more than one child and you have ever had them sick at the same time you will know how confusing it can be to remember who has had what, when! Then there is a space for you to write the dosage that you give the child, save having to remember how much they weigh and look up the back of the box when they are crying. I have done the chart with four spaces for Panadol and 3 for Nurofen. I am no pharmacist but I know that this is the maximum in 24 hours that a child can have. Once again, saves having to remember how much of which medicine you have given them. Most of the time, of course, you wouldn't be doubling up the Panadol and Nurofen but I have had to many times as my boys seem to have fevers that don't budge just with Panadol. 

Here is how it has looked for Baby Freckle over the last little bit:

I am hoping that this week brings an end to the sickness in our household, and I hope no dreaded bug have made their way into yours.

Felicity x