Bright and Zany Costume

For my Musical Theatre show, I need to come up with a Bright and Zany Costume.  I already had a black tutu, so decided to buy some knee-high rainbow socks, and was looking at different tops; unfortunately, anything half decent cost more than I was hoping to pay for. 

So, I bought a cheap Tshirt from ebay, that I thought would clash beautifully with stripy socks, and I decided to have a go adjusting it myself.

Then I searched various ways to DIY or hack or improve Tshirts, and decided to use a combination of them to make this simple Tshirt, more 'goey-outy'.

First of all, I decided I wanted to cut open the neckline, and then weave the Tshirt to make a bit of a fancy pattern.  Following some easy How-Tos on the internet, I cut out the neck and made multiple slits in the Tshirt all around the neckline.

Then you pull each loop through the neck one, and it creates almost a plaited pattern.

I cut the centre loops to tie them together.

Unfortunately, I didn't like the sleeves on the Tshirt either, so I used a Salina Bear clip from YouTube to make a cold-shoulder effect with cute bows on either side.

As you can see from the photos of me wearing the Tshirt, it looks better than I was hoping for, especially given that I am not arty/crafty at all.

The photos aren't great, because I am wearing a dress underneath, so doesn't show the shape of the Tshirt as good as it could be.  Additionally, I had to sew up a couple of places where the seams started to separate from where I had made cuts, but the photos were from before I had finished.

It makes me wish I had altered Tshirts back in the days when I used to live in them!

A Small Confidence Boost

DD1 (11) is going to secondary school in September (her choice).

For a bit of fun, she's doing the 2018 KS2 SATs just to see where she lies (for her/my benefit - this won't be passed to the school). This morning she did the two SPAG papers, not in "exam conditions" as such, but I wouldn't let her ask or look up the answers, until she had finished. We just marked them together and she got a raw score of 38 marks, which has an adjusted score of 100. (100 is the expected standard at the end of Yr6.) She is rightly pleased and I feel proud of her!

Given that we unschool, we certainly haven't been teaching-to-the-test, or spending hours learning what fronted adverbials or co-ordinating conjunctions are. We've not done a spelling test, nor have I specifically taught where apostrophes, commas or colons are meant to go in sentences. Though she was a very early reader, DD1 hates reading, preferring to spend her time dancing, singing, making up songs on the keyboard and watching youtube. Yet, she has still managed to reach the expected English level of a schooled child, without being forcefed an education.

We have a dance festival to go to the next couple of days, and will hopefully find time to do the reading, the maths and the reasoning papers next week.

Weekly Update No21

I have lost nearly a kilo this week, which isn't bad going, considering how much I have eaten this weekend!

Smoothies for lunch during the week has been easy, filling and delicious.
Making food for tea has been a struggle - even with "easy" things like slow-cooker recipes, I've not been making them in time.  It hasn't helped that I've been ill this week. I take antihistamines all year, and usually have to increase them from Easter.  This year I haven't had to - until this past Tuesday when everything has hit me at once.  I was left with streaming eyes, running nose, sinus headaches, fever and chills.  It wasn't pretty.

Fortunately the worst of it only lasted 48hours, dosing up on antihistamines and taking my blue inhaler a few times put me back in control.  I have now been left with a chesty cough and a croaky voice.  Not great considering I am in an adult musical theatre show in 3 weeks' time (a medley of songs from different shows); had a practice tonight and I couldn't hit half the notes, and now I'm home my cough is worse.

This week, I'm on the road two days as my girls are in a dance festival.  I have to have a good think tomorrow to plan the days properly so I can eat healthily, rather than just stuffing my face with snacks and pub grub.

Musings about Beliefs

I'm a Christian, and whilst that means I believe Jesus is the Son of God, outside of that there are many different views, opinions and beliefs that differ, not only between different Christian denominations, but between individual Christians.

I like to use this blog to talk about things that are going on for me atm, and part of that includes talking about my faith.  There are a few different things that I want to comment on atm, but because my faith is important to me, I will need to discuss what I believe.  And yet, I am aware that some people will not even read what I have to say because i call myself a Christian; others will assume that because I call myself a Christian, I must believe XYZ; others yet will see that because I actually believe ABC therefore I'm not a real Christian; and I'm sure there are others besides. 

In reality, I am a Christian, and I want to point people towards God, and try and explain who I think God actually is.  God is much bigger than we imagine, much more loving than we imagine and much more merciful than we imagine.  I'm also aware that I do have some beliefs that are different to some Christians because of denominational differences, but also I have some non-traditional beliefs.  I would like to share what they are, and why I believe them, but I don't want to draw people away from God.  I don't think it would, but I do fear that people could misinterpret what I stay, not least because I would openly say that this is what I believe, not necessarily anyone else.  I also don't think that people should pick and choose what bits of the Bible, for example, that they believe; and yet, if I open up about what I believe, I know I will be accused of exactly this.  My only excuse is that you should pray about everything and get God to guide you, through His Holy Spirit.  I don't believe the Bible contradicts what I believe (otherwise I wouldn't believe in it), and yet, the Bible is a collection of writings, different authors, different styles, different uses.  Yes it is God-breathed, or God-inspired, but it is not God-dictated (other than the 10 Commandments).  There is a great freedom in Christianity, but we should be wary that we create a religion around what we already believe and trying to use the Bible to justify those beliefs, rather than seeing the Bible as God's Word, shaping our faith.

Hmmmm....  that's a lot of waffle and doesn't get me closer to the solution I am trying to find.  Not least because I'm trying my best to to share the topics/specific beliefs I am thinking about right now.

Basically, I want to be able to share my thoughts, my experiences, my reasons, without being attacked for those beliefs.  I want to share with you my thoughts on current events, and explain why my thoughts have changed about that topic over my life.  I want to share some of my non-traditional Christian beliefs, in the hope it will draw some people closer to God, who may consider the traditional belief a barrier between them and God.  Yet, at the same time, I am only human.  If I am wrong about those beliefs, I still trust in God; if somebody thinks they trust in God because of an errant belief, will their whole faith crumble because of me?  I want to encourage discussion, debate and open communication; not heated arguments, name-calling, and twisting of words.  I want to discuss what was preached in my church on a morning, and share the bits I agree with, the bits I disagree, the bits I find challenging, and the bits that are calling me to action.  I want to talk about politics, and bring religion into the conversation.  I want to discuss what is happening in the news around the world, and share my frustration about what some Christians are doing, or what non-Christians are doing in the name of Christianity, or my worry about the persecution that other Christians elsewhere are experiencing.

And after all that, I want to know that if I do share this type of thing, that someone, somewhere, will read it and find it useful.  Yes, it's egotistical, but if I'm writing a blog I want it to be read.  I am aware that my most popular posts are about the politics of home education and current legislation.  To make this blog more popular, I could solely write on that topic.  But though I want this blog to be popular and to take-off, I want to write about the whole of me and my life.  So I write about a range of topics, knowing that some are much less popular than others, even if to me, I consider them an important part of my life.

Cinnamon Biscoff Donuts

Yesterday the girls made Cinnamon Biscoff Biscuits.  We used Jack Monroe's recipe, and as Jack had included the costs (14p each) I was interested to see how much we would make it for, and also, how many calories each donut is.

So, I made the girls a table of the ingredients and asked them to use the Tesco's website to look up the nutritional values of each item.  As they did this independently, depending on which items they chose to look up (eg what brand of flour etc) they got differing values to each other (the photo was also before I corrected DD2's kCals calculations).

I did have to help them with the maths, specifically writing out the equations needed to calculate the price per recipe and the kCals per recipe.

They calculated (approx) 15p per donut and 210kCals/donut.

Jack Monroe said each donut costs 14p, and when I use a different calculator (which had preset nutritional values per food) it came up as 247kCals/donut, so not bad approximation!

And yes, you can tell from the photo at the top, we have tried them, and they are delicious.  An easy donut recipe made with things already in the cupboard!
(The only ingredients I needed to specifically buy were the white chocolate and biscoff biscuits for the topping, but really you can use a simple icing to drizzle and they would be just as delicious).

Home Ed Activity Residential

So last week was the long-awaited for HE Residential.

Wow!  It was amazing!

We went with JCA Adventures, and we couldn't have asked for a better week for the kids.  The weather was great, there was a huge number of activities on offer, and the instructors were absolutely fantastic.  Both instructors Mike and Molly had a really big rapport with the kids, they were energetic and encouraging, without being forceful - that was one of my fears, that the instructors would force the kids to do things they didn't want to do, and make life miserable for everyone.  But, it wasn't like that at all, they were brilliant.  They took charge, and made life easy for us supervisors/parents.

I even managed to do something extreme for me!

Over 25 years ago, when I went on my residential to Skern Lodge in primary school.  When younger I used to be quite active and went on many outings with Mendip Outdoor Pursuits.  I preferred water-sports (especially kayaking) but gave everything a go, and would look forward to the Christmas Caving Party each year.  However, I had (and still have) a fear of heights, so though I have tried climbing and abseiling, they are not for me!  Anyway, at Skern Lodge we did abseiling.  As I had done it before and knew I didn't like it, I didn't want to do it.  Everybody had a turn, and they persuaded me to have a go.  And I did it... but it took me 30min to abseil 124ft, and meant we missed lunch; but I did get the Abseiling Award Certificate, lol.

So anyway, after a week's worth of activities, and seeing all the children doing amazing things and push themselves, I had a go and did the Leap of Faith!

At the top of the 12m pole is a small platform  (no bigger than 1 square metre), and then you had to jump to a trapeze suspended in the air a little way away.  Ok, so I didn't jump.  I couldn't even stand on the platform!  But I did manage to climb up the rope ladder, hold on to the top as the pole was swaying in the wind, and bum-shuffle my way to the edge and lift off it.

Given I don't normally go above 3 steps on a ladder, and I can't go up spiral staircases (they type of you in church towers or castles) at all, this was a huge achievement for me!

Unfortunately, the organisational side of things let them down - we were given the wrong rooms when we arrived on Monday, and when group 2 arrived on the Wednesday; the catering for allergy sufferers wasn't as good as it could have been; and even the souvenirs that we had purchased had a spelling mistake on them!  Fortunately, none of the kids were affected by these issues (and we will be sent new merchandise with the correct spelling), so I have come away thinking that I could do it again next year.  So when I posted previously Remind Me Not To Do This Again, please keep reminding me, as though there were hiccups (and shout-out to Sarah who was fantastic at sorting everything out for us on-site) I've come away with happy memories and wanting to do it all again...

Weekly Update No20

(Yes, No19 is missing.  I did consider calling this one No19, but thought it best to stick to being aligned with the weeks.)

My weight this morning was 94.7kg, so I have put on weight over last week.  I'm not surprised, because last week the food was bountiful!  There was a buffet for each meal, so although there was a choice on the menu, you could mix and match what you wanted.

On Monday I ate too much and felt bloated.  In my head, I wanted to carb up as I knew I would be using more energy than normal. In fact, every day I more than doubled my daily step target (8K steps). But actually, I didn't need to eat that much.  So the rest of the week, I avoided extra potatoes/pasta/rice and had a main with a huge pile of salad.

Now I'm home, I'm going back to having smoothies and a proper dinner in the evening.  Tesco Man has already delivered today's shopping, so I'm looking forward to eating healthily again.

Happy Birthday to Me!

So, today's my birthday, and a friend set up a little party for me at a regular HE meet for the kids.

A vegan vanilla sponge, covered in icing and fruit, jam doughnuts, crisps and more fruit on the side. Yum. (I'm not vegan, but my friend is.  The cake was lovely and moist, really sweet and delicious.)

When there, I was asked what I had been given for my birthday, I had to confess that I'd received nothing so far.  

Actually, that's strictly not true, as I know some family have put some money straight in my bank account - since we were kids, my sister and I have given each other a fiver for our birthdays.  As her birthday was yesterday (though there are 2 years between us), I would giver her a £5note, marked somewhere, so I could tell whether she had returned the same money to me or not!  As we're not in the 21st century, we do the same routine, but over bank transfer!

I do know of two presents that I am getting today.  The first because DD1 kept repeating that my husband had bought a CD, despite that he was trying his best to stare at her, and convince her to stop talking, and that she shouldn't be saying anything, because he definitely did not buy a CD...  DD1 just did not pick up on it at all, until I stated quite calmly that my birthday was in a couple of days, and perhaps the CD was for me, and that he didn't want me to know because it was meant to be a surprise, and that he was pulling that silly face because he was trying to get DD1's attention to stop talking... "Oooooooh!!! Yes, we didn't buy anything. Nope!" No, of course not dear, lol.
And then yesterday, my husband said that he had bought me a new screen cover for my phone, which should arrive today, so that can be for my birthday too.

I had been subtle and send him a link to a massager that had been recommended to me, but he hadn't commented on it, lol.  Apparently it's very good for toning up the stomach muscles too.
And in totally unrelated news, it turns out that we have sex more often than the average couple so maybe the massager isn't needed. Sorry not sorry  for the TMI.

So, Happy Birthday to me!  After getting up at 7am for the washing machine repair man, going to our usual HE club in the afternoon, I am now sat waiting for DD1 to finish her dance lessons, so I can drive her to her gym lessons, whilst DD2 has more dance lessons, then my husband will pick her up.  And finally, I'll go to my church's growth group tonight. This is with new people as the previous 2 groups were getting too large, so they have split them again, so there are now 4 groups.  

I don't know what is planned for tea, but I hope my husband is buying cake.  Yes, I'm trying to lose weight, but it's my birthday only once a year.

Weekly Update No18

And the first time I missed Monday!  17 successful weeks isn't bad for someone with my memory! Haha.

I've gained weight again this week.  My usual up-and-down pattern is continuing.  I'm not going to dwell on it, but move on and try again.  It's my birthday tomorrow, and there will be cake.  I might even have a birthday week...

Then next week, I am supervising a load of HE children on an activity residential, so I won't have much control over what I eat (certainly won't be a smoothie for breakfast and lunch), but will probably be more active than I usually am.  If I remember, I'll try and post my weekly update on Sunday, otherwise Update No19 will be missing.

Musings about Bea Jaspert's Blog Post on being a Gender Critic

I've just read this blog post by Bea Jaspert on Medium.

It's really interesting reading, not least because I find myself ignorant, conflicted and confused by the matter. It is hard to find people who can coherently explain opposing points of view, without going tribal, us and them, and throwing insults around. I am ignorant (in the genuine sense) and I want to learn more. I understand there are some people who are intersex or have multiple sex chromosome combinations, beyond the simple XX or XY. I understand gender dysphoria**. What I don't understand is changing your gender identity when you don't want to change your body? I even understand, to a point, is changing the descriptor you use for yourself to a gender-neutral one, as a way to try and promote equality. What I struggle to understand is why can't we celebrate diversity, rather than seemingly forcing a change? As a child, I wore blue, I had more male friends than female, I got on better with boys, I loved football and had a season ticket at Old Trafford, I enjoyed maths and science, I hated fashion, make-up and especially shopping, I liked rock music, rather that pretty-boy-band pop, I drank pints... I could go on. I am female. I love being female, and I find it crazy that some girls with traits such as mine could be convinced that because of these external things, they may actually be a boy. Similarly, why can't boys like pink, wear dresses, play with dolls, like fairies over action heros, want to grow up to be a dad or a childminder or anything else, without people thinking they are gay (which they may or may not grow up to be) or considered to be less male? The world needs more caring men! Why are we so scared of diversity, that we're coming full circle almost and restricting things to male/female, but based on likes and dislikes, rather than science? I'm not even going to attempt to talk about things that I don't understand. I saw a meme comparing the treatment of Caster Semenya and Michael Phelps. I can't find that, but did find this article from the Washington Post talking about it. Again, I don't know the full details, but it appears from what I have read is that Caster Semenya is being treated totally unfairly. What I do know, however, it that women do need to have safe spaces. I spent a few months of my childhood living in a women's refuge, and I would hate to think that the women's safety and privacy could be shattered by a man, who identifies as a women. Before my words get twisted, I'm not accusing all men as being predatory, nor am I accusing all men who identify as women as doing so in order to be predatory, however, women who have finally got to the shelter of being in a women's refuge have been through hell. They need time to recover and grow. They will be on edge, they will be scared, they may make mass generalisations about men, but most of all they need time and they need to feel safe. Safety isn't just a physical thing, they need to mentally and emotionally recover too, and that may not happen if a man is present. If a female identifying trans person has suffered violence, yes, they need to be supported and made safe too. Just, as there are female refuges and male refuges, there should also be various gendered trans refuges too. Going back to Bea's blog, the comments about identifying as female in the boardroom, or in other scenarios, to claim businesses have equality etc. As a feminist, that is a terrifying prospect. Sexism is real and is innate within our culture. Big businesses are already known to be unethical, so this 'get-around' isn't as far-fetched as it might seem at first glance. So, am I a gender critic? I don't know. I don't understand enough either way to make that call.

**For clarity, I'm highlighting this has been edited. I previously mistakenly used the term body dysmorphia, rather than gender dysphoria. As I have repeatedly said, I am ignorant, so I apologise if I have accidentally offended anyone. That certainly wasn't my intention. If anyone reading this is confused about the terms, please read this article or this article.