Mrs Tiggy-winkle

I had 2 choices on Saturday afternoon - stay home and do the washing and ironing or go out to afternoon tea with girls...Hmmm, tough choice - but the afternoon tea won.

The downside of going out?  I'm now feeling a little like Mrs Tiggy-winkle...

I have wet washing hanging everywhere - here's some...

and some of the ironing pile

It's such a mess having washing all around the house but I'd rather have a cuppa and cake with my friends anyday.

I really should of looked up...

The other night I did have a little spring clean around the place - well just the areas that the technician was going to see or so I thought.  I pulled out furniture and sucked those dust bunnies up the vacuum cleaner hose.  I dusted and tidied and had most of it done with the expectation that he'd be late the next day and I could finish off....

We said "Come anytime after 1.15, because Judith will be home from work by then" and he did...exactly 1.16 with the breakfast dishes still laying all around the place, the last of the shopping still waiting to put away, 2 clothes horses of wet washing etc etc.  All that last minute stuff that I was going to do because he would be late.  Wouldn't be so bad if we didn't know him...his wife worked with Richard up until a couple of weeks ago.

All was cool..."yes he understood completely...yes I've got 3 children so know what a messy house is like...yes that's fine you keep tidying and I won't be in your way"...and then he went into the ceiling through the manhole - no probs there either until he came down and said...

"You've got a large infestation of redback spiders up there."

And then we both looked up at the manhole and ceiling...

Oh how I wished I looked up and got those spider webs before he came and then I could of looked all surprised and said...

"Spiders...redback spiders...well I never would of guessed that."

As I don't fancy the thought of getting up there and killing each one individually...off to the shops on the weekend to get some spider bombs. 

The Catcher in the Rye

I'm struggling with "The Catcher in the Rye".  Several people have said they enjoyed reading it but I having a bit of trouble.

No joke, I'm doing housework to get out of reading the book.  I know, I know, I'm not meant to talk about a bookclub book before we meet but someone tell me why they enjoyed reading it.  I ended up googling it, in the hope that it would help me get a move on if I knew where the story was going but no good.

I've got to go now because I have to spring clean the bedroom in the adverts of first of the final Oprah shows. Workman coming tomorrow and of course he's going to be working in one of the dusty dusty corners.

A few days off

It's taken a while but I've finally finished "Second honeymoon" by Joanna Trollope.  It was easy to keep track of the characters so it was a good book for the car.  The story line wasn't too taxing so I didn't have to keep referring back to refresh the story in the my head either.  I don't think I'd say it's a book you have to read tho.

I've started the chocolate diet book, but have still only read 5 pages of "The Catcher in the Rye", and as for "Prohibited Zone" I haven't even started so for the next few days - at least - I'm going to have to be a bit of a book worm.

Hope everyone enjoys their weekend and for those  who live near me - let's make the most of the beautiful weather tomorrow and get outside before the wind and rain arrive.  Hopefully I'll get home from watching Michael play football before the wind starts and I'll be able to sit in the sun and read.  Fingers crossed.

Where's the off button?

Don't you wish that sometimes you could find the "off" button.  Julius has what seems to be unlimited energy (and could I please have some).

It doesn't matter how fast asleep you think he is, if he hears you laugh, it's play time.

It doesn't matter what time of the day it is, he's always ready to play, to run, to jump and get wet.

He's a creature of habit.  Wake up around 6am, quick lick to let me know he needs to go out, straight to the kitchen for breakfast, outside again, back in and then a sit down by the heater.  He likes to sit in the middle of the clothes horse so he doesn't get the direct heat.

He's a gorgeous boy, but sometimes, just sometimes I'd like to find the off button for 5 minutes.

Rebecca's blog

What seems to be ages ago Rebecca and I started talking about blogs - she reads lots and I'd never read any.  So I started reading some and then Rebecca inspired me to try writing one.  I thought Rebecca was on the brink of writing one herself too, so I got started.  I think you could say I love the whole world of blogging now thanks to her.

At last Rebecca has started her own blog.  I'm sure she'd love you to pop over and check it out.

Now just in case you're wondering what's for dinner tonight... I was going to make a beautiful mushroom risotto in the Thermomix (where else) but...no mushrooms and since the boys emptied my purse this morning it will have to wait until tomorrow.  Spaghetti Bolognaise instead with the sauce made from scratch not a jar as usual.

I grabbed this book from the library last week, just in case I need to diet because of my renewed interest in cooking -

I would imagine it will be quite easy to melt chocolate in the Thermomix...mmmmm...I love chocolate.

Me and my new bestfriend

I spent the afternoon with my new best friend - Thermo.  We made the vegetable stock concentrate.  It was exciting I used all fresh ingredients - no more unwrapping of small stock cubes for me.  Here's my finished product.

Doesn't look too appetising does it?  But just think about all the goodness in it.  You put rock salt in it so you can keep it in your fridge to use during the week in other dishes.

Then I started on my choice for tonight's dinner, Beef Stroganoff.  I sauted the onions, while I chopped the herbs and mushrooms, and then put all the ingredients into the Thermomix at the same time and set it to cook for 20 minutes.

Mmmm it smelt good.  Richard and Michael came home from watching football and I proudly removed the lid to show them what was for dinner.

Grabbed a fork so I could get out a piece of meat for Richard to try...I found plenty of mushrooms and then finally found the meat - sitting on the kitchen bench - I think that counts as one whoopsie.

When I eventually managed to stop laughing I started all over again.  Good thing the Thermomix cooks beef strog in 20 minutes.  Meanwhile I peeled the potatoes for mash and cooked the greens,

and finally we ended up with tea.



It's here.

Who would think that something in a boring brown box

could be so...so...much better than sliced bread.

Voila...

This is my brand new Thermomix.  Have you seen or

heard of them?  I feel in love the minute I saw one being

demonstrated at my sister's house.

It cooks the most wonderful food and now I'm excited about

cooking again.  I've always been excited about eating

but cooking that's another story.  Let's just say everyone

in our house has strong jaws from eating the meat I cook.

You can find out more information about Thermomix here

and of course I'll let you know about my successes and

any "whoopsies".

On the menu tonight was Butter Chicken - it took 22 minutes

to cook and Lemon Custard - just 7 minutes to cook and the

best thing...no stirring or fussing by me.

The best thing since sliced bread

One more sleep until my exciting thing arrives.

So think of me when I open my front door at 1.00 pm

tomorrow and welcome what I hope will be

the "the best thing since sliced bread" into our house.



Keeping Christmas alive

Every Christmas I buy beautiful Poinsettia plants and every year I try and keep them alive for the next Christmas.  Last year I managed to keep them alive until August.  Then I made the mistake of putting them outside for some sunshine and of course forgot to bring them inside again.  Wouldn't you know it we had a severe frost for the next couple of nights and that finished them off.

So this year I'm going to nurture them throughout the winter and not buy new ones this Christmas.  I don't think they're looking particularly good at the moment but let's all keep our fingers crossed.



I think I'll need to go googling later tonight and refresh my memory with what I'm meant to be doing. 

And now for some exciting news...they did find my money for my new and exciting thing and it is being delivered on Thursday...YAY!!!!  2 more sleeps.

Happy Mother's Day

Mother's Day (and Father's Day) are low key affairs in our house.  We've never done the big fancy present.  We've encouraged the boys to do something nice instead.  So this morning I had my breakfast made for me and a cup of tea upon request for the duration of the day.  Oh and of course whatever I want for tea.

Given that I like to have a bit of junk food for my treat where else would I go but....

Being Mother's Day it also means that I get first dibs on the laptop.  Rushed off to check 'who'd posted what' on their blogs and what did I find at grannysgarden ... I was a lucky winner of a giveaway.  One of Granny's wonderful soaps...go and check them out, they look good enough to eat.

Yay for me and thanks to Granny.

Bookclub - "The Shack"

The best bookclub discussions are the ones where we all don't agree on the book and last night was one of those.

There were a wide range of feelings about "The Shack".  One of us felt it was condescending, self-righteous etc etc.  Another of us was able to share it with her daughter who has recently begun her own spiritual journey, and another was ambivalent. I enjoyed it as much the second time around.

I think we all agreed that it wasn't a book you could just right out recommend to all of your friends.

Mandy made a very yummy white chocolate mud cake, very nicely "plated up" with raspberry coulis and cream.

The next book for us to read is....

Did you read this at school?  I didn't and neither did Val who has chosen it.  There is no blurb to read on either the back page or inside front cover, so I'm going to be reading with no idea what it's about - first time ever I think.

I finally managed to get to the bookshop and buy our friend's new novel - "Prohibited Zone".  Can't wait to start reading it but must do the bookclub one first.  Well maybe I could read a little of both.  Richard has said he'll read our friend's book too - could take a while because reading's not high on his list of things to do.  Good thing I set the example for the boys.

School pick-up

I didn't think I'd still be doing school pick-up with one in Year 12 and the other in Year 10 but I do.  Not every night, maybe 2 or 3 times a week.  Some nights we have extras as well which can be a bit squeezy if I have the small car instead of the 7 seater but they don't seem to care.  I love listening to their after school chats - they make me laugh often.

One of the boys we pick up in the morning too, not so often now, as the Year 12's have different start and finish times depending on their timetable.  He's been part of our school pick-up and drop-off since Year 8, so I'll miss him next year.

What I also love about school pick-up is that I usually get there about 30 minutes before the bell goes so that means I get to read...uninterrupted and with no guilt attached, you can't do the ironing or housework if you're not at home.  This week I've been trying to finish "Second Honeymoon" by Joanna Trollope which I started ages ago.  It's taken quite a while to get "into" but I'm getting through it a bit quicker now.  I want to get it finished because tomorrow night is Bookclub and that means a new book to read.  Gotta be happy with that.

Who's got my money???

I've been so excited because I've bought the

most exciting thing ever.  Well it had better be
otherwise I might be divorced fairly soon.

I was expecting to welcome ? into my life this weekend

but disaster...the lady called me today to say they

hadn't received my money.

So she went back to her office and I went to my bank and

looks like it's temporarily lost somewhere...their bank account doesn't have it (supposedly) and neither does mine.

My cynical husband said I should tell them I'll do a

fraud report.  He said it works a treat, nothing makes someone look harder to find your money than if they

think it's going to be investigated by a bank's

fraud department.  Since he's a banker I'm inclined to

believe him. 

But meanwhile where is it?

Is it down the rabbit hole with Alice?

or

Lost in cyberspace?

Fingers crossed that the person looking for it

just needs these...





The Real McCoy

On Saturday I blogged about trying apple cider vinegar for some of it's health benefits. I had bought some "off the shelf" in the supermarket and tried it once.  Fortunately for me From Beyond My Kitchen Window dropped by and told me it had to be the organic stuff that contained the "mother".

So I googled for more information and today after a  quick stop off at the local organic shop I came home with the "Real McCoy".

I also put my 2 teaspoons in apple juice instead of water, and surprise surprise it tasted a lot nicer.

If you want to read more about Apple Cider Vinegar just click here.  Fingers crossed that it's all true.