The Dreamer's Dictionary

I had one of those dreams last night.  You know the ones, where they are so real that when you wake up it takes awhile for you to realise that you have been asleep and dreaming. 

Some of the books on my bookcase belonged to other people but the oldest book I've got that I bought is "The Dreamer's Dictionary".  It's easily 25 years old and in my twenties I checked it after every dream.  Not only did I check it but my friends frequently called me to interpret their dreams.  "Hey if you're coming over bring your dream book, I had a great dream last night".  So my dream book and I became a twosome.  Every time I remembered my dream first thing I'd do in the morning is analyse it.  It has bought me comfort after a bad dream and many laughs.

Poor book doesn't get consulted much these days but I wouldn't part with it.  I've had others but this one is special...it doesn't have either cover, is yellowing with age and has got that old book smell and I love it.

Sweet dreams and you know where to come if you need to know what your dream means...

Cooking books

We have 3 companies that deliver books to work, parents get to have a browse and purchase if they want.  Depending on sales, Kindergym gets to choose some books to the value of 10%, which we then put away for our raffle.

This is one of the best cook books I've bought from the book displays.  The recipes are sorted into sections:

breakfast and brunch

quick snacks

children's meals

marvelous melts

wonderful wraps

comfort food

This cook book is one that I've probably used the most out of all the cook books I've bought.   It has some great recipes but do you know why this book is worth every cent I paid for it?  It has one piece of advice that has saved me soooo much time and mess:

"Line an electric frying pan with baking paper and pour olive oil on top..."

That's all, just "line...with baking paper".  How simple is that?  So so so much easier when you're cooking schnitzel or anything that has a habit of sticking to the bottom of the pan - that just about covers all my cooking.  When you've finished cooking just pick up the baking paper and put it in the bin, the pan just needs a soapy wash, no scrubbing or soaking.  I did learn the hard way tho that you can't put baking paper under the grill - well unless you're 'flame" grilling something.

Marley and Me

I've started reading the book for bookclub - "Marley and Me".  A friend told me to read it with tissues.  Just what I need, a book to make me cry, but then I thought about it and decided to get straight into it cause we all know that on a bad day even a sooky television commercial can make me cry. One sad moment already, but hey I was having a good day when I read it so no tears. 

We're lucky enough to share our lives with 2 puppies - Julius and Lulu.

Julius the Blue Heeler X

Lulu the Kelpie/Doberman X

Julius was 8 months and Lulu 3 months when we bought then from the Animal Shelter in April.  Julius had been hit around by his previous owners so is terrified when visitors come to the house or if we go for a walk and there are lots of people around.  Lulu would just like to love everyone.  We've been having visits from a dog trainer to help us help Julius with his behaviour when people to visit.

Lulu loves to steal toilet rolls and they have ripping good fun.



And just like Marley, they've grown...





The Beauty Mirror

I'm the youngest of 4 girls.  There's 7, 10 and 12 years difference between me and my sisters.  So while I had sisters I didn't get to do the "sister thing" really until I was older and the age gap wasn't so noticeable.  I did get to hang around them alot, tho I think not always their choice and I can remember a few bedroom doors shutting in my face.  Sister number 1 got to take me as a 4 year old on her dates with her boyfriend (now husband).  My brother-in-law said I would whinge to go with them and then whinge to go home...lucky them.

I remember when sister number 2 got a trendy hair cut when I was 11.  I know I said it looked nice but having her cut my hair in the same style wasn't really the best of ideas.  I went from having long hair in pigtails to short hair with wispy bits around the nape of my neck.  Of course the boys at school took about 5 seconds to give me a new nickname "Coconut Head".

Sister number 3 had the joy of sharing a bedroom with me until number 2 got married.  I hated sleeping in my own room and use to creep into hers and hide.  Sister number 3 also had to supervise me after school.  I've heard many times what a pain I was - I don't remember being painful so obviously it didn't happen.

But let's get onto the "Beauty mirror"...  Sister number 1 had a special mirror.  It had 3 light settings - normal, day and night, each light gave you a different perception of your skin and helped you do your make-up to suit the occasion.  I loved the "normal' setting - it showed up every bit on your skin and if you turned the mirror to the other side it enlarged your face, just what you needed when you plucked your eyebrows.  I haven't thought about the mirror for years until Wednesday when by some fluke of light my bathroom mirror became that beauty mirror of my sisters.  Unfortunately it wasn't the soft 'night' light but on normal and the enlarged side.  It was a not so gentle reminder that the picture of me in my head doesn't quite match the picture in the mirror.  Where did those 'grandma' hairs come from, when did my skin get blotchy and lines - who drew those????  It did force me to have a serious chat to the boys...I'm not fussed if I need to go to a nursing home when I get older but they must make sure that someone plucks those 'grandma' hairs off my face when I can no longer do it myself. Will they remember?  Fingers crossed.

Bookclub - "The Slap"

We had bookclub last night at M's house.  Sadly I missed the first part of the get together - taking minutes at a cricket meeting while standing up at the cricket nets!  In fact I missed most of the chatter about the book - got in a couple of comments tho. 

Bookclub really is the highlight of the month for me.  While we are different in many ways we all blend together, a bit like the ingredients in a fantastic dessert.   Although the dessert's not quite the same if one ingredient is missing.

M made a chocolate cake for dessert - served with cream.  It was divine in it's simplicity. No fussiness just beautiful, light and fresh.

After dessert and a cuppa V unveiled the next book - "Marley and Me" by John Grogan.  It's always a bonus when you haven't read the book before nor have I seen the movie.



I'm looking forward to reading it as we have 2 puppies who are forever up to mischief but also bring us a lot of love and joy.

Hope you all get to eat a divine piece of cake this weekend.

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/5235/chocolate+cake

"grown up and gorgeous in your 40's" - Health and Living

Second to last chapter talks mainly about menopause, perimenopause and cancer.  Quite a short chapter actually.  Obviously it was easier to write about cosmetic surgery etc. than talk about health issues.

Looks like they've left the best till the last chapter - "living".   Already love the comment "Do the weekends pass in a blur while you rush around just trying to get on top of things so you can hurtle to work again on Monday?'  Yes they do.  How about yours?  There's a little quiz to do and some goals to set.

I love this one - "Be selfish...people who are selfish live longer."  Doesn't that go against what we've been taught.  But their idea of being selfish is to stay in bed for an hour longer or watch a movie in bed, buy a couple of magazines to read or drop into a local coffee shop.  I think I could do that sort of selfish.

Lots of gems to read in this chapter.  Finally from my $1 bargain - 5 tips for preserving emotional energy.

"1.  You are not responsible for the happiness of others...
2.  For some people complaining is just a habit...
3.  Don't feel obliged to say yes...
4.  Don't do favours that are beyond the call...
5.  Practise saying 'no" nicely." 

Bookclub tonight, yippee!!!!

"grown up and gorgeous in your 40's" - Body

"At 40 you have a mission:  to make sure that you slim down to racing weight so you can emerge from menopause looking svelte and superb"...  Tough opening comments for this chapter.  And yes, each year just a little bit of extra weight slips around the middle and stays.  I can tell when I've been really naughty as to how close to the ground I can get when we do the "up and down" song at work or how close I can get my knees to my chest when we do "Humpty Dumpty".  

We all know what to do, but it's a case of finding the desire to do it.  They have a little box called the "Balancing Act" - one glass of wine = 15 minute jog; a dark chocolate truffle = 30 minutes walking the dog or how about a magnum ice cream = 15 hours pushing a child in a stroller.  Obviously the magnum is for me and sadly I won't be able to exercise that one off because I don't have a stroller or a child that would fit in one. 

Alcohol is of course a lovely way to wind down but a great way to put on weight.  They suggest some nights to have a sparkling water instead.  I did actually restock the sparkling water today while doing the grocery shopping.  I have tried this suggestion and yes it works for a while but then it's not quite the same is it? 

Every school holidays I try to kid myself into thinking that "These holidays I'll make sure I exercise and keep up my stretching".  I even bought a Wii with Wii fit to help.  Now I only tend to use it to see what my weight is.  I do love the way it can tell me exactly how many days since I last got it out and I still get a laugh when it pretends not to know me because I haven't used it for so long.

Oh well maybe tomorrow...now off to bed to get  a good night's sleep as the book says 'lack of sleep increases the levels of hunger hormone and decreases the levels of hormone that makes you feel full'.  Maybe that's where I've been going wrong.

Sweet dreams.