Hindsight’s pretty good, eh?

Yesterday was a small disaster.  It started off okay, the usual Monday morning kinder drop off for Matthew (running late, as usual), did a few things there, came home, cleaned the kitchen while Gabriel got feral in the backyard with the dog.  I called him in to do kinder pick up and oh, nice, while I was busy in the kitchen, he had soaked his shirt, pants and nappy so we ran late (again, as usual).

Pretty standard there.

Before kinder, Matthew had asked if we could go out to the shops for lunch and “a toy.”  Maybe…  Once I had both boys in the car and he mentioned his plans to me again, I had to let him down gently that there’d be no toy purchases today because, you know, Christmas is coming soon, and if I buy him everything before, Santa might not have any ideas left.  So, he happily agreed to having lunch and playing at home for the afternoon, which was good as Gabriel was ready for a sleep.

Uh-oh.

I went in to feed him to sleep and like most days, he had Piglet under one arm and my book of the moment under the other arm.  Doesn’t sound that bad, except that my book of the moment is “Eclipse“, the third book in the Twilight series… (hush now, yes, I am one of them)…  I started reading, Gabe fell asleep, Matthew was quietly playing Lego and, “I’ll just finish this chapter…”

“One more chapter…”

Gabriel was well asleep by now, hadn’t heard from Matty, “Ok, I’ll just read another one…”

Four (yes, FOUR…4!) hours later!!! I came out of my Twilight induced haze to the sound of tiptoes and, “Mummy…?  I’m huuungry…”  It was 5:00pm and not only was I well overdue to start dinner preparations, but no one had eaten any lunch!

Nothing like realising you forgot to feed the kids lunch to light a fire under a mother, eh?  Never mind, apparently Matthew had sorted himself out for lunch to the tune of about 8 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup miniatures and who knows what else, those were the only wrappers I found and he admitted to.  I organised some cut up fruit and had a brain wave… “Let’s make some bread, hey?!”  Had to redeem myself someway or another.

Popped the boys onto the kitchen bench to help with measuring and weighing, and something I should point out here, is that I always weigh my ingredients rather than using measuring cups (I even weigh the water).  Clearly I was still in my Twilight haze because when it came to measuring out the yeast, I decided to weigh 4g of yeast.  You see, my scales only measure in 2g increments, so even though I was spooning yeast in, nothing was registering, and I kept spooning until I realised half the packet (from a packet for making 4 loaves) was empty!

I quickly tried to scoop some of the yeast back out to save the loaf, but didn’t like my chances.  I put the pan in the machine, got Matty to press all the right buttons, meanwhile stressing because I knew he was expecting this bread (”We don’t need bread from shops, do we, mum?”) and what was I going to do when it didn’t turn out?

Well, this is where the photo of my bread disaster should be, but it was just too much of a mess that the camera didn’t even enter my mine.  Alex got home and wanted to know what the “yeasty smell” was all about, I remembered the machine and there was dough pushing at the window.  I opened the lid and it was overflowing the pan, nearly reaching the heating bar, so I pulled it all out and decided once it had a chance to rise again to put it into the oven to bake.

Needless to say, the kids still got bread, the kitchen still smells “yeasty” and I still have a book to read.

Yep, definitely been waiting for the nice warm weather to come back…

What’s lurking in the bottom left of the above photo…

Laughing at how few nappies are there, owing to the fact they are all either in the wash or sitting in the nappy bin!

Playing along @ picklebums!

Why is it that I never feel as busy as we are during the school holidays?  We wait ten weeks for a break from running around here and there for kindergarten, swimming, dancing and everything else.  Finally that break comes and the question on everyone’s lips is “What are you doing for the holidays?”

The next thing you know, you’re going somewhere meeting someone every day for the next sixteen days.  Busier during the break than than you were the last ten weeks!

The zoo(s), the museum, the aquarium, the shops, a haircut, a day at grandma’s, a concert, free cupcake decorating, meet daddy for lunch, see friends we don’t go to kinder with anymore, see mama’s friends we can’t usually see during the term, ah and chuck in a few more days at grandma’s *ahem*.

There are ads on TV, in magazines, in the local paper, at the library (oh, got to plan a trip there as well apparently), in emails (forgot about going to the cinema and bowling).

Where did this come from?  What about doing NOTHING during the holidays?  Nothing like playing in the backyard?  Watching some TV?  A trip or two to grandma’s not to be denied, of course…

The only thing I can think of is that it comes from school… “What did you do during the holidays?” and when they’re a bit older “Write a paragraph about what you did during the holidays?”

I think I’m ranting.  In any case, I’ll still fill up these holidays, and probably the next lot as well in another eleven odd weeks, but geez it’s busy!

I’ll leave you with a photo of doing nothing in the backyard

drew this picture ::

And he called it “My Mum”

Which made my day

8 thick pork sausages, pricked (I used 8 thin beef sausages as they were what I could find)

1 Tbsp oil

1 onion, chopped (I used a Spanish onion as I find them sweeter)

420g can baked beans in barbecue sauce (we buy and used plain no added salt)

400g can diced tomatoes

2 Tbsp maple syrup

2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp chilli sauce (didn’t put this in)

1 Tbsp chopped parsley, thick toast, to serve

1. Heat a large non-stick frying pan on high.  Cook sausages, turning, for 10-12 minutes until well browned and cooked through.  Cut them into chunks and transfer onto a plate.
2. Heat oil in a large saucepan (er, I used the same pan as above because it has deep sides and who wants more dishes??) on high.  Saute onion for 1-2 minutes, until tender.  Stir in baked beans and tomatoes.  Bring to the boil, stirring.  Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
3. Blend in maple syrup and sauces (since my baked beans were non-barbecue and as I didn’t use chilli sauce, I stirred through 2 Tbsp HP Sauce for a bit of flavour).  Reduce heat to low and add back the sausages.  Simmer for 5 minutes.  Season to taste.  Serve topped with parsley, with toast on the side.

I also served  green beans as it was all looking a bit too tan/red/brown for my liking and everyone liked everything.  Quite impressed with this new book.

In other news, I became a bit of a Do-It-Yourself plumber today.  At some stage overnight our bathroom vanity decided it wasn’t going to drain properly and this morning after brushing my teeth and rinsing out my toothbrush, the sink filled up.  The plunger was sitting beside the vanity after Alex’s previous attempt at clearing the blockage, so I picked it up and had a go.  Let me tell you this:  I did not get the sink unblocked and the water flowing down the drain freely until almost 5 or 6pm tonight (evenings are generally a blur around here; who knows what the time was!).  It took a lot of trial and error and a bit of thinking outside the square.  I noticed our bathroom sink drains out after passing the bath drain to go into the main pipe, so ended up taking the plunger to the bath.  After a few goes of the bath, then some bicarb, vinegar and boiling water down the vanity, a big BURP by the sink and ahhhh… a free flowing drain.

Meanwhile, while M was at kinder and G fell asleep in the car on the drive home, I pulled weeds from our front garden’s hydrangea bed.  It was so feral, I had to actually use tools from the shed, even though I’d started off thinking, “Oh I’ll just pull them up before I go inside…”  Ha, yeah right!  I spent two hours - TWO HOURS - weeding that garden bed.  It’s done now though and looks really nice and I have a bit of an idea what needs doing there.  The hydrangeas could use a little more pruning so they all come up relatively the same next spring and the entire bed needs remulching.  I think they were last mulched with a pine bark or something, but it appears the neighbours cat likes to dig (read: wee and poo) in the garden bed, so will have to look at pebbles maybe.

Once M was home from kinder the boys watched a bit of TV while I was busy with the bathroom sink.  I’ve started a bit of a routine where once ABC Kids is finished, the TV is turned off and they do “colour” (G’s word for it) while I prepare dinner.  They can draw in their new sketch books or picture colouring books and use crayons, markers or pencils, whatever they fancy.  It’s a nice way to signal the start of winding down for the night and if I’m waiting for something to simmer or boil, I can grab a marker and join in.

Feels nice to be blogging again :)  Here’s a recent family photo for you.

Meatball Wraps

250g beef or lamb mince (we used lamb)

1 small carrot, coarsely grated

1/4 cup dried breadcrumbs

2 Tbsp chopped parsley (left it out as not enough in herb garden to pick)

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 Tbsp tomato sauce

Mountain or Lavash bread, hummus, shredded lettuce, red capsicum (seeded and thinly sliced) and grated tasty cheese.

1. Preheat oven to moderate 180C.  Line a baking tray with baking paper (I just spray the tray with oil).
2. In a bowl, combine mince, carrot, breadcrumbs, parsley, egg and tomato sauce.  Season to taste
3. Mould tablespoonfuls of mince mixture into balls (or wing it and grab little bits with your fingers).  Place on prepared baking tray.  Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden and cooked through.  Drain on paper towel.
4. Spread bread with hummus.  Top with lettuce, capsicum, cheese and halved meatballs.  Roll up and serve.

(From Woman’s Day Marvellous Mince & More)

I doubled the recipe, which made up roughly 30 meatballs, and there are some leftover for Alex to take to work for lunch tomorrow.  There are some tips included with the recipe such as using tomato chutney in place of hummus, rocket or tabbouli instead of lettuce, and crumbled feta instead of grated cheese.  I was thankful for the hummus though, because as I mentioned the small vegetarian above, it meant he got some protein with his meal.  G just had mounds of ingredients on his plate and played around with the mountain bread.  A thoroughly enjoyed meal that we will SO be having again.

xx

So while I’ve got a few minutes as both boys nap, I thought I’d post something (!).  Yesterday I had some time to think about time management and organisation and how it affects us, and came back to menu planning.  Generally, I don’t menu plan, never really have, but it apparently works.  We’ll hopefully know what we’re eating (for dinner at least) and that will stop the endless spaghetti meals and last minute take away.

Without further ado… my first time participating in Menu Plan Monday!

Monday  ::  Shepherds Pie (last night)

Tuesday  ::  Meatball Wraps

Wednesday  ::  Boston Bean & Sausage Hotpot

Thursday  ::  Sausage, Potato & Rosemary Pizza

Friday  ::  Pork Fried Rice

What was that - looks like a lot of mince and sausages?  Well, that’d be because I just bought this new cookbook magazine by Woman’s Day called “Marvellous Mince & More”.  It’s a great little magazine and has inspired me to mix it up a bit.  If anything turns out super-fabulous, I’ll try and remember to post the recipe, and that might get me blogging more frequently

On that note, the youngest is just awake.

Anyway, on to my compliment, I think.  Today we had a workmate of A’s and his family over for lunch (souvlakia with homemade tzatziki dip ta-da!), and it was their first time here.  I didn’t know until the last minute, but apparently this guy has just been hanging to see the place.  It seems when A first told people at work about moving and showed around pictures and floor plans, this guy thought it was just too small.  Never mind he doesn’t know us beyond working with A to know what our family needs, but as I said, never mind!  So, before this workmate and his wife and daughter arrived, we were madly cleaning the place (see, it’s not always spotless, only when “people come over”), to help show that indeed, it’s not that small.

Well, as it turns out, at some point this guy said to A that he like’s what we’ve done with the place and likes that we have just enough stuff to live… or something to that effect.  From what I understand, it was to do with clutter and furniture, and believe it or not, this is where I take the compliment!

I try every day to de-clutter and organise something.  I make weekly trips to Vinnies with a car boot full of bags and boxes.  And I am constantly thinking and looking and considering what to tackle next to make our house a home, and comfortable one at that.

Certainly this house is much smaller than our last, and certainly we have less stuff than we once had, but it’s lovely and it’s home and we quite like it here.

Also, how lovely is it when someone meets your child and comments on how polite they are?  It does help to hear these things once in a while, to give yourself a pat on the back and know you’re on the right track.  M is 5 now and I must admit so far I think it’s easier than 4 ever was.  There are still challenging days, but it’s like overnight he had a little nibbit of maturity increase.  He is starting to show more interest in ‘big boy toys’ like Lego and his iPod.  He still listens to childrens music, but I get a few more requests for the car radio these days, and often when I peek into my rearview mirror can see him bopping away, maybe even hear him humming along or trying to sing some words.

All in all, life is good, we’re all healthy and busy, and I’ve got a lot to be grateful for.  And to top it off - we have a week of cold weather ahead of us - bliss!  I hope you’re all happy and keeping warm and snug.