Recipe for Healthy, Homemade, Low Fat, Fruity Frozen Yoghurt

We are so lucky to be experiencing some sun this summer, and my girls are asking for icecream and cold drinks at the drop of a hat. 

Now I am always concerned about letting them have too many sweet treats, so when I heard on the radio yesterday that frozen yoghurt was more hydrating than ice cream as it contains more water, as well as of course being healthier and much lower in fat, I set about finding a recipe. This one was taken from the BBC Good Food website.

We had a punnet of strawberries in the fridge that were a couple of days past their best, looking rather sad if the truth be known, so we used them, but any berries would do.

You will need:

Large handful of strawberries
Half a can of condensed milk
large tub of natural yoghurt

ice cream maker and/or freezer proof tub

Method

Wash and puree fruit with a blender or smash down with a fork.
Stir together with condensed milk and yoghurt.
Pour into ice cream machine or semi freeze in tub in freezer before mixing round and freezing until set.
I re-used the yoghurt tubs to store the ice cream.

Enjoy!
Remove from freezer 15 mins before you want to eat the ice cream. Serve in cones, wafers, alone in a dish or with fresh berries.
We liked it on top of some home made jelly! There's a stash in the freezer for when Natty and Mia have had their tonsil ops...

Last day of school term: A time to reflect, and the teachers' present debate.

Tomorrow (finally) is the very last day (we thought it would never come) of our school year! Natty has finished her second year of formal education, we call it year 1 in the UK (confusing I know, but it comes after Reception Year).

It's been a wonderful year with many highs, culminating in a school report with all A's for effort in every subject, regardless of achievement. Yep, that's our Natty, throwing herself into everything she does with gusto. 

Natty has learnt to write all her letters, has just moved to reading books at level 2 with a couple of sentences to a page, and loves her number work. 

Not only that but she has made many firm friends and creates games with them, throws herself into PE and loves to chat over lunch with others. There has been far less 'hands on' interaction with her peers when she is tired, so she has learn appropriate behaviour for her age.

She's a valued member of her class and has become increasingly independent with all areas of self help. We are overjoyed! And how far we have all travelled in that past year, when I look back to the worries and fears I had when she began her scolastic journey.

So, how do we mark the end of a year's worth of mornings of dashing around the house shouting 'shoes', 'finish your porridge' and 'where's the dog/book bag/hair bobble/show and tell/Doublebase cream?' while Natty sings Mary Poppins, and Mia draws another picture of a dinosaur for a friend???

Well, we thank those we couldn't have done it without.

There's a lot of chat about whether we should give gifts to teachers at the end of term. It's just their job, they're paid to do it, right?

Well, yes they are, but most of them really go the extra mile to ensure that our most treasured loved ones are happy and healthy and reach their potential in a fun way. And if your child has a TA or two that help them personally, then they deserve even more recognition. They have encouraged and explained, nurtured the friendships, known when to stand back and when to get involved. They have learnt the art of helping without being seen, monitoring whilst sitting next to someone else. They have liasied between home and school. They have spent evenings and weekends making materials and planning fun new ways of learning. None of which falls into 'simply doing your job', not at any price.

And more importantly, what lesson are we teaching our children when we encourage them to write a thank you card and give a simple present? We are teaching them to show gratitude, to say thank you to others for their efforts. It's a simple question of manners and being part of a community that helps each other.

So, we have a little gift for the 2 teachers and the TAs (plus an oh-too-cute-not-to-buy babygrow for one TA's new baby,) and for everyone else the girls decorated a cardboard box tonight. I have bought some inexpensive treats to go inside to make a staff room hamper: tea, herb teas, coffee, biscuits, chocolates, cordials and so on. 

I know other parents give cut flowers from the garden, freshly laid eggs or homemade cakes or crafts. It really needn't cost the earth to say thank you.

And after all, what goes around comes around...

I Love You x

Mia is often the spokesperson for both girls

3 small words. Too often spoken. Not said enough. 

"I love you."

Our daughter Natty, Natalia, Noo Noo is very vocal, very chatty, little girl with Down's Syndrome.

She's had speech therapy over her 5 and a half years, half-heartedly from local SALT sources, (because they are under-resourced), and once a year from a UK top private therapist who visits all our local children when we've fund-raised enough to bring her down. In between it's Mummy and Daddy who provide the additional help. Thank goodness my background is in teaching...

We tell our children we love them all the time, many times a day. Natty has begun to repeat those words, copy us parrot fashion over the last 6 months.

Tonight, as I lay next to her in her crisp white, pink-dotted bed, after reading Where The Wild Things Are and acting out the comedy 'terrible roars' and 'gnashing our terrible teeth', she looked at me, squished me close and said;

"Mummy, I love you."

The perfectly articlulated sentence pierced my ears and filled my heart all at once.

My head said "Good talking Natty", but my heart melted. It crumbled, tears welled, despite my trying to hide them.  In 5 and a half years I have not heard this phrase spontaneously spoken. A phrase that I heard from Mia at around 14 months as I recall. Back then it brought tears to my eyes, when it arrived, on cue, as expected...

"Mummy sad?" asked Natty.

I bit my tongue and coughed. Smiled and squeezed her hard. Smiled like a Cheshire cat.

"Noooo, Mummy is crying because Mummy is happy" Much Makaton was used to reinforce the message.

We snuggled and I said goodnight, Daddy and I swapped children and he and Natty had their snuggles too while Mia and I read Clarice Bean together. But the lump remained in my throat.

Coming downstairs and reflecting on hearing that phrase, the phrase that all family relationships pivot around, brought the tears back. I realised that I had told myself that not hearing those words spontaneously was not an issue. It didn't matter. I had buried the feeling of wanting to hear them, smothered it in pride about Natty's other achievements, taken her hugs and kisses as supplements for the phrase itself.

Mia says it all often, draws pictures even, to show us how much she is loved, and that has always filled the void. It has more than made up for hearing the spoken phrase x2.

But at the same moment I realised that Mia is saying it less often, only when she really means it. She's 8 and has suddenly lost her chubby cheeks, replaced by racehorse legs and a bob haircut. Wanting to be at my apron strings has been filled by a desire to be an Olympic dressage rider/actor/poet. Creating some art masterpiece at 7am has become the new creeping into bed with us in the morning.

And so, in one stroke, we have a gorgeous little person realising what love is, grateful for her family and drawing us further into her intricate personality with 3 little words. And another, slightly older person, finding her wings, stable and confident in our love for her, and discovering her first footing in the world, using her family as the bow from which her arrow will spring.

That too makes me weep with tears of pride but tears of sorrow at the infant phase now lost.

This summer has been a line drawn in the sand indeed.

Read our words of love to our daughters, written in a letter at the beginning of term Mummy and Daddy Love You Both More Than Words Can Say.