MAMA FROG- Alternative Parenting Blog

I hope all of my lovely blog readers had a fabulous Christmas. We were pretty hectic with 10 for lunch on the big day, and 20 eating on Christmas night. We were kindly given our turkey this year by our local farm shop, we run with weekly meat draw at our pub for them. It was a little larger than I would have ordered otherwise. I got them to remove and bone the legs, so I could stuff them and roast them as mini joints. They were really yummy, but we had a lot of meat left over. I used up my turkey and veggie (carrots, parsnips, sprouts) left overs to make this yummy peri-peri one pot dish. Which is yummy but nice and light after the Christmas carb fest. Made in the slow cooker in just over an hour, it's a great meal to chuck on before a walk in this lovely wintery weather we are having. Last night I simply chopped up the left overs into chunks and sprinkled with peri-peri seasoning. Then this morning I put a small handful of pasta in my slow cooker with a third of a pint of wa

Our families focus this year has moved away from buying things, to making them. That extends to decorations too. You can make some gorgeous decorations out of inexpensive items. I first saw these tissue pompous on an episode of 19 kids and counting. I thought that it would make an awesome winter decoration. I won't claim credit for this tutorial, but loved it's simplicity so much I wanted to share it with you.

In two weeks time, we will all be sat with our feet up and finally getting some much needed rest. But until then there's still time to share your festive blog posts with me. If you missed last weeks posts here are the links- we covered it all from days out, festive reads and creative activities. 1. The Night Before Christmas - Lucas Style 2. Woofingly Mega Xmas Pressies for Pets! 3. Christmas Baking with Busby 4. Christmas flower pot crafts 5. Snowman decorations 6. Twinmummyyummy christmas wish list 7. Scented Glitter pinecones 8. Mr Willowbys Christmas Tree crafts 9. Boos little tree This linky list is now closed. Linky Tools   |   Linky Blog 2013 So what's been happening this week? Have you been practicing for nativity plays and festive pageants? Are you little ones making their own Christmas gifts and cards? Or have the elves been busy making handmade gifts? Whatever festivity you've been up to the #festivefriday linky, just sh

This Christmas I decided to make homemade lavender balm as a small gift for my friends and family. I made dandelion balm for my husband back in the summer, and recently made eucalyptus balm as a natural alternative to menthol soothers. Homemade balm is inexpensive to make and great for a variety of uses, including baby balm, lip balm and a great barrier balm for dry skin. Because it uses only natural ingredients it's great for sensitive skin and even the smallest tot. To make lavender balm you will need 12 metal balm tins or mini silicone cup cake moulds 75g beeswax (if you can use local it will have better health benefits) 60ml Olive oil 10 drops lavender essential oil If your beeswax bar is solid, you will need to grate it before you start How to make lavender balm Pour your oil and beeswax into a metal saucepan. Gently heat until the wax desolves. Remove mix from the heat, and add the lavender essential oil. I added a few drops of English chamomile

Making your own pate may seem like a headache, but it's incredibly simple. This pate recipe require very few ingredients and can be made up in a few minutes. Nothing makes for a cosier winter night in that a delicious pate, some cheese and a bottle of wine. It's one of my favourite moments of the run up to Christmas. Being able to sit with my husband and enjoy a moment of clam whilst wrapping gifts or writing cards. This is the exact recipe I've been using in our pub for the last 3 and a half years. It's refined to perfection and can be made up in a snap. Ingredients 500g or 1lb of pork liver- my butcher charges less than £3 for this One large onion One tsp dried red chilli One tsp cracked sea salt One bay leaf 100ml good sherry 100ml single cream Olive oil Melted butter How to make Christmas Pate First finely chop your onion, warm Olive oil in a pan on medium heat, and brown your onion. Roughly chop your liver, and add it to your pan with the

A gift made by little hands is a precious one. This Christmas Craft makes a great and inexpensive present for children's relatives. This Christmas we are predominantly making our gifts for our family. This is something I try to get our son (15 months old) involved in as much as possible. This isn't difficult, as he adores being involved in whatever we are doing. The tricky part is finding a craft he can do solo, to make his own gift for grandparents and relatives. These mini artwork keyring are low cost (approx 30p each) to make and simple enough that you can do even make them with tiny tots. We just used an off the shelf keyring making kit from hobby craft. In the pack are 12 keyrings with pre cut paper for your children to decorate. For simplicity, I just put a single colour of washable paint in a tray and allowed frog to decorate the card as he wanted. The card is double sided, so we let the first side dry and then flipped it over to decorate the reverse. These

So with 20 days to go, it's suddenly beginning to look a lot like Christmas. We got our live tree delivered on Monday and have started our tradition of a decoration advent calendar. We had our biggest link up yet, last week. With some fabulous posts from friends old and new. So I'm doubly looking forward to seeing.g what you've got for me this weekend. 1. A Christmas not on the Shelf 2. Lucass Twelve Days of Christmas 3. Bauble cards 4. Elf kindness spreading 5. Cookie cutter Christmas cards 6. Katies London Christmas by James Mayhew 7. Festive fingerpaint 8. Coombemill 9. Elf on the shelf 10. Cute Christmas Crochet 11. Santa replies to Lucas 12. Let kids be kids - reindee Linky Tools   |   Linky Blog 2013

Black Friday was a harsh reminder of just why I hate shopping this time of year. It's just to much unnecessary, materialistic drama. So those on my nice list this year will be receiving an entirely different type of gift. Something homemade.

Last year was our first Christmas as parents. Frog was less than 3 months old at the beginning of advent, so rather than a chocolate advent calender, we bought a wooden advent calender instead.