Bum or Cherry?

Adam has a slight cleft in his chin (whenever I say that phrase I always think of Gaston in Beauty and the Beast because it's in his song).

The other morning Zach climbed in to bed with him (Adam, not Gaston...) and squeezed his chin together from the sides.  He giggled a bit and then excitedly said "you have a little bum!".  But to add to the cuteness, anyone who has heard Zach talk will know he has quite an idiosyncratic way of speaking, where he lengthens the last syllable of a sentance, especially when tired, which he did on this occasion so it came out more like "you have a little berrrrrrm!".  Then went around all of us squeezing our chins to see who had bums and who had cherries.

Oh I love you Ken(wood)

I've had the baking bug today.  This morning Zach and I made scones together for our "Mummy and Zach" time.  We tried out a recipe for scones that has oats in after Sandy mentioned that she'd been baking some like that.  They turned out pretty well, but need a little more sugar for me :)  or maybe some nice bits of fruit in.  I did half the batch with raisins for everyone else, but left some plain because I despise raisins in anything.  As far as I'm concerned fruit and nut chocolate is evil and raisins are the devils way of spoiling a perfectly good chocolate bar.  But I digress...  The scones also have the added benefit of being quite filling and reasonably healthy so I don't feel so bad about letting the kids have that 'treat'.

Then for dinner tonight I made pizza entirely from scratch.  With the exception of the oregano that came out of a spice bottle.  I made the dough, including one free range egg from Mo's chickens.  The sauce included an onion from Dad's allotment.  And the sauce was topped off with mozzarella (from Tesco seeing as I don't know anyone with a buffalo...) and basil from my very own basil plant on my windowsill that I'm very proud to say has been there about 4 weeks and I haven't killed it yet.  Me and plants don't play well together really.  Must be a tough little thing :)  The pizza was lovely, although next time I need to roll the base much much thinner, I totally underestimated it's rising potential and it was about twice as thick as a traditional Italian pizza should be.

And now that we've got Zach and Tilly off to bed, and we're off to Sandy and Jake's in a bit I have made my next batch of Cookies and Cream Truffles.  Delish.  But I have raved about them enough I think :)  They are now in the freezer in an attempt to get them set quick enough to do the chocolate dipping before we go.

So I'm feeling quite hippified and pleased with my domestic efforts and I even managed to sort the washing and tidy the house too.  My food processor has been in use much of the day in my various endeavours and I'm still enjoying having my lovely Kenwood.  Come to think of it would earth mother hippy types have food processors?  Probably not eh, just a big bowl and a wooden spoon.  Phew, not a hippy then :)

Something's on my mind...

I need a few minutes to sit down and rest this afternoon so seems a good time to catch up on a bit of blogging.  Zach has decided he wants Balamory and Tilly has gone off for another little nap so I'm sitting on the sofa next to Zach while he nearly falls asleep - we're trying out a new tactic with him of removing his daytime nap altogether.  The hope is that he then doesn't give us grief in the evening at bedtime.  Also, lately he's been waking up grumpy after his nap and not getting much better through the afternoon, so we figured he may as well be grump from being tired and then at least he'll sleep at bedtime.  We only started yesterday and that went fine.  The other phase of the plan is that when Tilly has her nap I will spend some time with Zach so that he gets some individual time with me.  We hope that this will help combat some of his temper tantrums and attention seeking behaviour - the most annoying one at the moment is speaking in a babyish voice.  I think he's regressed a little bit because he sees the attention that Tilly gets.  Anyway, he turns 3 at the end of October so this horrible behaviour can't go on much longer can it?!?

I have something that's been on my mind a lot.  Ever since it was introduced in to my life by Karen 2 weeks ago.  They're Cookies and Cream Truffles and they are AMAZING.  And very simple.  You mixed crushed oreos with cream cheese (twice as much oreo as cheese), roll into balls, chill and then cover in chocolate.  And I'm having real cravings for them all the time, theyre just soooo good.

I can't remember if I wrote this down yet or not, but a little while ago Lani told me she'd had a lovely dream about shoes.  There was a pair of beautiful shoes and she told me she didn't have a dress to go with them but she got them anyway :)  She's a very girly girl and loves lots of pretty sparkly girly pink stuff.  She also quite recently said with a sigh "I wish I had more shoes..."  She's enjoying being in Mrs Blanch's class in year 2 and this week started going to the Strictly Dance club on Weds after school - brilliant as she's been wanting to do dance class for a long time.

Tilly is still not walking (now 18 months old).  She will stand for a little while and this morning managed to move one foot towards Adam before collapsing to the floor to crawl instead.  She has holes in the knees of nearly all her trousers...

Crochet - the proof

In my excitement to give my first crochet baby headband to its intended recipient (Darby Allsworth) I forgot to take a picture of it first.  So this is the second one I made, as the first one turned out a little too big, I decided to make another one a bit smaller.

My intention is to try and learn a little bit more and try something like a hat next.  I'm told they're easy, but we'll see...

Busy Buzzy Bee

It's been a really busy time lately, haven't had anywhere near my usual quota of time to waste on the internet :)  This is down to a few different factors all combining at the same time.

1) Leilani's school is 1 mile away.  Which doesn't seem much, but I try and walk it wherever possible.  This means 4 miles a day and, if I walk each trip, I end up walking 20 miles in a week.  (Although the last 2 weeks Adam has dropped us off in the morning on his way to the gym so it's only been 3 miles a day).  So one way on my own I can usually do in 20 mins.  But 2/4 trips is with Leilani so it's slower, then there's the time of getting her in and sorted, a little wander through town (with obligatory trip to Heron* with Sandy and Angie), get a few groceries and head home and all in all it takes an hour and a half from when I leave the house to when I get back. Sometimes longer.  So just by Lani starting back at school I've lost 3 hours of time at home.

2)  I'm getting my head in to the new routine of back to school.  This in itself takes some adjustment from holiday mode of "aaah, I'll just do it whenever..."  So my to do list of the normal housework chores just seem to take longer to get through because I'm still thinking I've got loads of time and not many constraints on it, which is of course wrong and the sooner my brain figures that out the better.

3)  My week to view diary ran out.  Being a teacher (and having an irrational love of stationary) I usually have a week to view diary to plan my things to do that runs according to the academic year, so it ran out in the holidays.  This is the first time in 8 years I won't automatically be given a lovely new Espo (school stationary company) diary.
But, feeling the withdrawal symptoms, I sent a facebook message to Andy (the head of maths at my old school) to see if there were any spare knocking about that I could pinch.  There almost always are one or two that are left over, despite the "right" amount being ordered way back when the numbers were worked out.  I wasn't disappointed and will be going in to get one some time next week and will be able to get my brain (which incidentally is very much a visual learner and does much better when it sees things written down) back in gear.

4)  I have started teaching early morning seminary.  This makes my head spin, in all ways possible.  I get up at 5.50am, there's head spin number 1.  Sooooo hard and I spend a lot of evenings feeling more than a little bit dazed.  During the day I need to prepare the next one, which will take around an hour, and until it's done it's always nagging at the back of my mind.  And the lessons go into quite a lot of depth, which uses up my limited daily supply of mental faculties.

So when I come to having a little bit of free time in the evening I rarely have my wits about me enough to make any sense on a blog post.

*for those who don't know, Heron is the best shop in Louth (and some other northern places).  It is not possible to walk past Heron.  Whether you think you need anything or not you must go in and look anyway.  It has lots of freezer stuff and sells things that are near their use by date very cheaply.  Yesterday I got a pack of 18 Petit Filous for 35p which is now in our freezer ready to be brought out for Lani's lunches when the Froobs run out that I bought a couple of weeks ago (3 packs of 9 for £1 and are also excellent in the freezer).

Autumn: one buh-conker..

(written on Monday, got interrupted by children as usual...)
I think Autumn is well and truly upon us.  I have had a load of washing on the line that has been showered on twice when I wasn't paying attention and I finally brought it back in to dry indoors.  (Incidentally it has been lovely and sunny and blustery the rest of the afternoon, so have chanced it and put another load out, ever the optimist!)

(will now carry on - it's Thurs now)

So my washing made it through a few showers and got dry again and I am playing washing line lottery with a fresh load.

On Monday on the walk home from school we discovered that the big horse chestnut tree on our route was ready to drop it's load and so started the great conker collection of 2010.  I love conkers, don't know why really, they don't really serve any purpose other than for playing conkers or just to look pretty.  But they are so lovely and smooth and a gorgeous deep brown.  (as an aside I was recently told they deter spiders if kept around the house, all the more reason to love them!)  The kids love hunting through the grass to find the spiky shells and then stamping on them to squash out the conker.  Zach and Leilani are building up a collection of them each and when we got home on Monday Adam came to tell me he'd just spied Zach sat counting his saying 1 buh-conker, 2 buh-conker, 3 buh-conker.... in the style of 1 potato, 2 potato, 3 potato, 4...  I guess he's not twigged that Leilani is saying "potato" when she does that rhyme, but rather hears it as buh-tato.

So with Autumn we get lots of lovely things like gorgeous colours and conkers and feeling cosy.  However this does not outweigh the terrible feeling that summer is long gone and winter is fast approaching, bringing with it endless cumulative hours spent putting on coats, hats, gloves, scarves, wellies etc etc for the kids before we can even venture out the house.  And the great battle of the thermostat will begin in no time I'm sure as Adam will undoubtedly keep putting it up and I (being the one who sorts out the household bills...) will keep trying to put it back down without him noticing.  I will be doing my annual battle of wills trying not to use the heating until October.  Let's see how far I can get this year...

Along came a spider...

Yesterday when we got home from school, Leilani noticed a medium-sized spider scuttling along the driveway.  She said "Look at that fast little spider".  She and Zach crouched down to watch it for a few seconds and then she quickly stood up and squished it with her foot.  She walked away saying "Not fast enough...".

I must remember...

...that Zach is gorgeously cute.  It's his saving grace.  The only thing that keeps him alive at times.

Yesterday, walking back from dropping Leilani off at school I showed him a dumper truck and explained how it was different to a digger.  On the way to get Lani that afternoon we passed it again and here's how the conversation went:

Zach:  Look Mummy a dumper truck!  What does a dumper truck say?
Me:  Hmmm.... I don't know...
Zach: (pleading) Tell me...
Me: I don't know baby
Zach: It says dump dump dump!

Oh and while I'm at it, my favourite funny quote so far comes from Lani.  Walking to school one day she said "You're very skinny for a Mummy" :)

Something funny I read today

This, from my youngest, still YSA, little sister Jess (although not so little anymore, she is pushing 22 now...!)



It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.  It is a truth nationally acknowledged, that a single mormon in possession of a good testimony must be in want of a registered place at the Manchester YSA Convention. The end result is often the same. :D

Seminary

for more info: mormon.org

Last week I was called to teach early morning Seminary.  After working out a few practical problems, we've come to a final arrangement of it being at 6.30am at my house Mon-Wed and Fri.  On those days Vicky, who can't get to Louth, will do it with us via Skype.  On Thurs eve we'll have that day's lesson over at the chapel in Manby, because Vicky has to be physically in the lesson once a week in order to pass the course.

I was released from first councillor in Primary on Sunday, which, whilst I enjoyed the calling, is a relief to not be doing anything on a Sunday because dealing with my own 3 is such hard work as it is.

I was officially called by the Stake Pres (Ash Poulton) on Thursday evening and I had my first activity and meeting for Seminary at Hull (the stake centre) on Fri where I was overloaded with information and materials.  I didn't get a chance to look at any of it until Sunday evening and found it all a bit daunting and feeling the weight of the responsibility.  So after getting the kids to bed, I spent a coupe of hours going through it all and preparing for Monday and felt better about it all.  Our first lesson on Monday went really well, and I even coped pretty well with getting up at 6am.  I think the students enjoyed it too - Alastair told Adam (without any fishing for it!) that he'd really enjoyed it, that it was a good lesson and worth getting up for, so that made my day :)  I had a great day, on a high the whole of the day.  2nd lesson went well today apart from it being really hard to get up this morning (much harder than yesterday!) and Vicky had a power cut 20mins before the end, so I rang her and told her what to do out of the student manual for the last part of the lesson.  Hopefully she'll be back with us tomorrow.

I'm really enjoying it so far.  I had forgotten the depth of Seminary and loving really studying my scriptures and thinking about it properly, not just about the obvious answers.  I really hope I can inspire my students in the way my seminary teachers inspired me.

(anyone wanting to find out more about what I'm talking about go to mormon.org)

Karma

Had a great day on Thursday - reasonably good journey back from Reading with the kids, house tidied and garden done when I got home, presents waiting, evening spent flicking through the next directory, eating Thorntons choccies and relaxing in front of the TV.  So of course I was due a bad day on Friday just to restore the balance :D

Zach was mental.  From the moment he woke up to the moment he fell asleep.  He screamed and yelled his way through most of the day, really outdid himself on the tantrum scale.  We even had to cancel a trip to visit our ex-neighbour Mary because I knew he would just be too much to handle (Mary is elderly and has quite a lot of ailments).  It took 3 attempts to get Zach to go to sleep for his nap, finally ending with tying his bedroom door handle to the banister so he couldn't open it again and letting him scream it out 'til he calmed down.

By the time I'd gotten Zach to go to sleep, Tilly was awake from her nap, so I didn't manage to synchronise them so I could get some quiet time.  Tilly then turned on the mischief.  She wasn't having tantrums like Zach, but getting in to everything when I wasn't looking and she climbs on everything now so can reach an awful lot more.  The worst was that she went in to the kitchen cupboard and pulled out the oil - brand new 1L bottle, had just been opened, and emptied half of it over herself on the kitchen floor.  After crawling around in it she then ventured out on to carpet in the hallway and through to the living room.  It was only after she climbed up on the leather chair (thank goodness it wasn't the fabric sofas!) that I noticed.  I looked over and saw it looked wet and thought maybe her nappy had leaked.  After having a closer look I discovered what it really was and then went to find the source...

So then I needed to go shopping to get some bits for dinner and some staple items but couldn't because Zach was asleep.  Time was getting on, it was 3.30pm and I had to leave at 5pm to go to Hull for a seminary meeting.  So Ad came to my rescue and said he'd sort out Zach so that I could get the stuff done I needed to.  Went out, did shopping, got in at 4.55pm.  5 mins to turn around go back out and start the 2 hour journey to pick up the students and get over to Hull.

Tough, busy day.  Didn't even get any proper facebook time! :D

Latest goings on

A few bits to catch up on, so think I'll try get it done chronologically.

Our 9th anniversary was on Wed.  We decided to celebrate properly this evening though (Sat) because firstly I was away in Reading with the kids and Adam had a branch council meeting that evening anyway, so didn't see much point in me coming back for it, if he was going to be out anyway.  So we said our "happy anniversary"s over the phone and I got a lovely soppy message from him in the morning.  Contents of which will be written in my personal private blog because I think he may be more than a little embarrassed if I published his soppiness for the world to see.

We went home on Thurs morning and I gave him his present as soon as we got out of the car - some stuff for his ipod he'd wanted.  He said he didn't know what to get me so he had tidied the whole house and garden as my present - it was fantastic!  I'd got that gloomy feeling on the way home when you know the housework needs doing when you get back - our trip to Reading was so spontaneous that I hadn't done the usual Monday clean.  So to get home and find it all done (plus a glass of my favourite drink, pink fanta, and some oreo cookies on the side) was the perfect present for me.

Birthday pressie from Amy and Mark

I also had some things waiting for me when I got back - a birthday present from Amy, Mark and Ollie, which is Mama's Italian Cookbook.  I'm trying out spaghetti and meatballs from it tomorrow with focaccia that I already know how to do.  And the top I'd ordered from Next with my birthday money had come too along with the new directory.  So I had a lovely relaxing evening in front of the telly flicking through that, lusting after beautiful clothes :)

Dress I found browsing that I really want now!

Crochet!

Trying to re-learn crocheting... and I'm off to a rocky start to be honest.  I used to do it in my early teens along with knitting.  The knitting I got back into in my early 20s and picked it up again very easily and thought this would be the same, but no.  Mom kept laughing at me because I was trying to "knit" using my other finger as a 2nd needle.  Mom showed me how to do it, but it took quite a few attempts to get a very slow rythm going.  I've now got a bit of a chain going, hope it turns out how I want it!  There's been a lot of "grrrs" and tongue sticking out whilst trying to pull wool through holes that are too tight.

So I was writing this whilst doing my first little project and I've just finished it.  Won't be winning any awards or anything but I'm quite proud of it :)  Will pop a photo on when I have one.

Bank Holiday Monday

Sunday night Dad called for his usual Sunday evening catch up and mentioned they were going to Harcourt Arboretum on Monday.  Whilst on the phone Ad told me I should just go down and join them for the bank holiday Monday.  After hanging up I um-ed and ah-ed about it, whether it was worth it for just the one day, but in the end decided to come down with the kids for a few days.  Ad stayed at home because he needed to work.

We left first thing Monday morning and got there at about 12.  I thought the kids might find it quite boring, but they loved it.  There were lots of trees (obviously!) to run around and in and out of and hide in and climb on.  And we did a trail with a GPS doo-dah and a compass to go around and find 5 hidden boxes and collect stamps to get a prize at the end, and in each box was a little set of activities to do.  They really enjoyed it, especially using the GPS thing to find their way around.

Only thing was poor Tilly, who is still not walking, so had to spend most of it in the pushchair.

We had a bonfire tonight in Mom's new firepit - which she's very excited about and the kids loved having some "fire time" too.  We sat around with deckchairs and blankets and toasted marshmallows.  And Grandma spoiled Lani by sneaking her more marshmallows when I was putting Zach to bed.