We're leading up to yet another long weekend here. The husband will be off work on Monday and Tuesday of next week so we're looking forward to that.
Last week didn't go exactly to plan, a few things were shuffled and a few things were dumped altogether, but sure you get the odd week like that.
Monday
Pizza and garlic bread. I went a bit overboard making part baked pizza bases and now it looks like that's the only thing I have in my freezer:)
Tuesday
Soup. I'll throw all the ingredients in the crockpot and let it sit all day. I don't really have a name for it though, bits and bobs maybe. I have frozen white beans in the freezer along with cooked chicken, smoked lardons and chorizo. I'll sweat saute the lardons and chorizo along with some diced onion and garlic and then chuck the heap into the crockpot along with some chicken stock. I'll possibly add some fresh tomatoes and sliced yellow pepper about half way through the cooking time.
Wednesday
Fish and Chips. I haven't had fish and chips in ages, but I'll make it at home because I still have cod in the freezer. I can't batter the trout, I've tried before and its just not right.
Thursday
Salad. I'll do my shopping on Wednesday afternoon and pick up some fresh fruit and veg so I don't really know what will end up in the salad until I've done the shopping.
Friday
Sandwiches. I'll use up any leftover soup as well and make up some sandwiches with crusty bread and whatever each person wants. I'm trying to give them a night of picking their own thing and this is an easy way to do it.
Saturday
Snack night. I have to admit I haven't done this in a couple of weeks and I've missed it, kind of. Curling up in front of a movie with nibbly bits and pieces is nice. I'll make onion rings, chicken goujons, dips and throw in some wraps and philleous fogg crisps for the starvos.
Sunday
The husband will get Venison along with the usual potatoes and a veg or two and I'll bake a pork fillet I have in the freezer for Toots and I and the husband can then have roast pork sandwiches for lunch with pickles and chutney and what not. I might stuff the pork fillet but I haven't decided yet.
Baking
Oat flapjacks. They're handy for a quick breakfast or snack.
Banana muffins. I'll need to make them early in the week. I have no idea how I ended up with so many bananas in the house.
And although I'm not making Doughnuts this week, I received an email asking for the recipe so I've posted it here.
Wonderhubs Strikes Again
Would you ever take a look at the little cat house my fabulous husband just threw together using odds and sods he had lying around the garage.
I think you'll agree she looks very comfortable and happy in there.
And not to be satisfied with building just your average bog standard box, the husband had to go the full hog with this this. Can I just point out that this particular box features cavity walls, floor and roof and every square inch of cavity has been stuffed with polybead. Not to mention the yacht varnish, non-toxic sealant and tarred base and roof to keep the elements out. This thing has a higher R rating than my own house. Its an ark built for one, basically.
I think I may have lost my title as The Handy One around here.
Isn't he just wonderful.
Ta muchly hubs!
I think you'll agree she looks very comfortable and happy in there.
And not to be satisfied with building just your average bog standard box, the husband had to go the full hog with this this. Can I just point out that this particular box features cavity walls, floor and roof and every square inch of cavity has been stuffed with polybead. Not to mention the yacht varnish, non-toxic sealant and tarred base and roof to keep the elements out. This thing has a higher R rating than my own house. Its an ark built for one, basically.
I think I may have lost my title as The Handy One around here.
Isn't he just wonderful.
Ta muchly hubs!
Tale of the Lost and Found Phone Photos
onto two I'm pleased with myself today, I managed to get a ton of photographs sorted out last night and filed properly. It'll hopefully make them much easier to find. I also copied a load as slide showscd's for my mum. She'll eventually ask me for prints of the ones she wants, it would be too much to print all of them (although she would if she could).
I completely forgot to take my camera to the park with us last week, but the husband managed to take a couple of photos on the Blackberry.
Her upper body strength is amazing, but I think all kids are like that aren't they. She swung like that for ages.
I'm surprised actually that they turned out as well as they did considering its supposed to be a phone, pleasantly surprised really its a lot handier to carry around than my huge camera. I really do need to see about getting myself something more compact. Any suggestions of a nice, compact and more importantly easy to use camera would be really appreciated.
I've been thinking ahead. Sometimes being organised can be a bit of a pain and yo may hate me for it, but I've been double checking my Christmas list and making sure that I've made a good start on everything I'm going to need.
Then while I was sorting out photographs I came across this one.
Its another shot snapped with a phone. We were at the Christmas Market in Belfast in December and Toots loved the merry-go-round and I mean loved it, I think this was her third or fourth go and clearly she's still enjoying herself, plus this one also shows why I'm so impressed with the blackberry photos.
And just because it made me laugh.
This was taken one morning when I was at work very early and the husband had the job of getting Toots ready for daycare. Notice the subtle use of three hair clips down the side of her head.
When I collected her from daycare that evening, the girls told me that they had to stop themselves laughing when he dropped her off, because those three visible hair clips were in fact three of twelve.
He managed to fit twelve hair clips on the head of a three year old.
Although he still maintains that he and Toots did it "for a laugh" backed up by the fact that he took a photograph. Hmmm, the jury's still out on that one.
So that's another box on the great never ending to do list checked.
Again though if any has any good suggestions for a camera I'd love to hear them. I do like my big old camera and its very good for taking photos, but there is a short delay between pressing the button and taking the shot which is fine for static things. Try getting a four year old to stand still long enough to take a photo though, I've missed more than enough photos of her already.
I completely forgot to take my camera to the park with us last week, but the husband managed to take a couple of photos on the Blackberry.
Her upper body strength is amazing, but I think all kids are like that aren't they. She swung like that for ages.
I'm surprised actually that they turned out as well as they did considering its supposed to be a phone, pleasantly surprised really its a lot handier to carry around than my huge camera. I really do need to see about getting myself something more compact. Any suggestions of a nice, compact and more importantly easy to use camera would be really appreciated.
I've been thinking ahead. Sometimes being organised can be a bit of a pain and yo may hate me for it, but I've been double checking my Christmas list and making sure that I've made a good start on everything I'm going to need.
Then while I was sorting out photographs I came across this one.
Its another shot snapped with a phone. We were at the Christmas Market in Belfast in December and Toots loved the merry-go-round and I mean loved it, I think this was her third or fourth go and clearly she's still enjoying herself, plus this one also shows why I'm so impressed with the blackberry photos.
And just because it made me laugh.
This was taken one morning when I was at work very early and the husband had the job of getting Toots ready for daycare. Notice the subtle use of three hair clips down the side of her head.
When I collected her from daycare that evening, the girls told me that they had to stop themselves laughing when he dropped her off, because those three visible hair clips were in fact three of twelve.
He managed to fit twelve hair clips on the head of a three year old.
Although he still maintains that he and Toots did it "for a laugh" backed up by the fact that he took a photograph. Hmmm, the jury's still out on that one.
So that's another box on the great never ending to do list checked.
Again though if any has any good suggestions for a camera I'd love to hear them. I do like my big old camera and its very good for taking photos, but there is a short delay between pressing the button and taking the shot which is fine for static things. Try getting a four year old to stand still long enough to take a photo though, I've missed more than enough photos of her already.
Its funny the things you just realise
My mum had Toots on Wednesday afternoon and when she dropped her back home again, Toots went straight upstairs for her bath and my mum and I sat chatting for a while as we often do.
Ten minutes later while desperately trying to catch my breath from laughing so hard I realised that most of my memories of my mum are like this.
She's one of those people. I think everybody knows at least one and the world would be a much more dismal, dreary place without them, but she is just one of those people that can have you in a complete wrinkle, creasing yourself laughing just by telling you about her trip to get a carton of milk.
My mum seriously missed her calling, she should have been a stand up comedienne. Nobody I know spins a yarn or tells a tale quite like my mum.
She's such a bright, cheerful woman and manages to inject humour into even the most humdrum days.
She's always full of life and laughter and I'm so grateful for that. I can't understand why I didn't really notice it before. I guess we just get used to the friends and family who surround us and sometimes take their best attributes and the finest elements of their personality for granted.
I've been crafting away tonight since she went home again, but I've been remembering some of the things she got up to when we were kids.
I remember her bobbing for apples and practically emptying the entire contents of the basin of water all over the kitchen floor, because dammit she was getting that apple if it was the last thing she did.
Or smiling unashamedly to anyone she met for he full week it took to get a dentist appointment after she broke one of her front teeth eating a candy bracelet. She didn't care that she looked like something out of Dumb and Dumber.
I remember a guy calling door to door selling indoor fireworks before Halloween. Maybe these were only a UK thing but if you remember them let me know. Anyway, she lit one of them on the drop down oven door and then proceeded to beat the dung out of the thing with a wet dishcloth because the smoke alarm was going off and she thought the house was going to burn down. Just the thought of her screaming at that firework to "go out, why won't you go out" as though it might reply "oh alright then" has me in stitches.
She could be very creative with the punishments too. I remember the first time I ever had a drink. Not the worst thing I ever did, but it was bad enough (it gets worse, wait for it). I was 14 at the time and went a tad overboard shall we say. I was convinced I'd made it. I managed to let myself into the house and into the downstairs loo to freshen up. I called goodnight to her and thought I was free and clear as she called goodnight back and I headed up the stairs.
I was almost there too when I tripped and fell over a pair of my dumb ass brother's trainers that were lying on the second to last stair. I tried to keep as quiet as possible and shrug it off and as I was picking myself back up again I heard this snort from behind. I turned around and there was my mum standing at the bottom of the stairs trying to look angry and trying to stop from killing herself laughing at the same time.
Well apparently I was thoroughly smished because I immediately burst into tears, told her I was drunk and tried my best to apologise.
She bundled me off to bed, telling me I was in for it in the morning. I woke the next morning, feeling like someone had stolen my head and left a bag of hammers in its place and I could hear my mum on the phone downstairs telling the school secretary that I wouldn't be in that day (told you) because I had a bug.
Well, I lay in bed like Little Miss Smuggy McSmuggerson thinking my mum was the coolest mum in the whole wide world and I drifted back off to sleep....
Until a soaking wet, freezing cold wash cloth landed squarely on my face and I scrambled out of bed to face the sight of a bucket of cleaning supplies and a smiling face and pointing finger aimed directly at the bathroom.
Ever scrubbed a bathroom at 8am after a night on the sauce? No, well I don't recommend it and let me tell you it was a very very long time before I dared touch another drop of drink.
Honestly, every beer smelt just like bleach and that awful floral disinfectant until I was in my early 20s. She never used that disinfectant before and she's never used it since. I think she may have went out at the scrake of dawn to get a bottle on purpose.
So thank you mum, for always smiling and giving everyone around you no other option but to do likewise.
Ten minutes later while desperately trying to catch my breath from laughing so hard I realised that most of my memories of my mum are like this.
She's one of those people. I think everybody knows at least one and the world would be a much more dismal, dreary place without them, but she is just one of those people that can have you in a complete wrinkle, creasing yourself laughing just by telling you about her trip to get a carton of milk.
My mum seriously missed her calling, she should have been a stand up comedienne. Nobody I know spins a yarn or tells a tale quite like my mum.
She's such a bright, cheerful woman and manages to inject humour into even the most humdrum days.
She's always full of life and laughter and I'm so grateful for that. I can't understand why I didn't really notice it before. I guess we just get used to the friends and family who surround us and sometimes take their best attributes and the finest elements of their personality for granted.
I've been crafting away tonight since she went home again, but I've been remembering some of the things she got up to when we were kids.
I remember her bobbing for apples and practically emptying the entire contents of the basin of water all over the kitchen floor, because dammit she was getting that apple if it was the last thing she did.
Or smiling unashamedly to anyone she met for he full week it took to get a dentist appointment after she broke one of her front teeth eating a candy bracelet. She didn't care that she looked like something out of Dumb and Dumber.
I remember a guy calling door to door selling indoor fireworks before Halloween. Maybe these were only a UK thing but if you remember them let me know. Anyway, she lit one of them on the drop down oven door and then proceeded to beat the dung out of the thing with a wet dishcloth because the smoke alarm was going off and she thought the house was going to burn down. Just the thought of her screaming at that firework to "go out, why won't you go out" as though it might reply "oh alright then" has me in stitches.
She could be very creative with the punishments too. I remember the first time I ever had a drink. Not the worst thing I ever did, but it was bad enough (it gets worse, wait for it). I was 14 at the time and went a tad overboard shall we say. I was convinced I'd made it. I managed to let myself into the house and into the downstairs loo to freshen up. I called goodnight to her and thought I was free and clear as she called goodnight back and I headed up the stairs.
I was almost there too when I tripped and fell over a pair of my dumb ass brother's trainers that were lying on the second to last stair. I tried to keep as quiet as possible and shrug it off and as I was picking myself back up again I heard this snort from behind. I turned around and there was my mum standing at the bottom of the stairs trying to look angry and trying to stop from killing herself laughing at the same time.
Well apparently I was thoroughly smished because I immediately burst into tears, told her I was drunk and tried my best to apologise.
She bundled me off to bed, telling me I was in for it in the morning. I woke the next morning, feeling like someone had stolen my head and left a bag of hammers in its place and I could hear my mum on the phone downstairs telling the school secretary that I wouldn't be in that day (told you) because I had a bug.
Well, I lay in bed like Little Miss Smuggy McSmuggerson thinking my mum was the coolest mum in the whole wide world and I drifted back off to sleep....
Until a soaking wet, freezing cold wash cloth landed squarely on my face and I scrambled out of bed to face the sight of a bucket of cleaning supplies and a smiling face and pointing finger aimed directly at the bathroom.
Ever scrubbed a bathroom at 8am after a night on the sauce? No, well I don't recommend it and let me tell you it was a very very long time before I dared touch another drop of drink.
Honestly, every beer smelt just like bleach and that awful floral disinfectant until I was in my early 20s. She never used that disinfectant before and she's never used it since. I think she may have went out at the scrake of dawn to get a bottle on purpose.
So thank you mum, for always smiling and giving everyone around you no other option but to do likewise.
My little flower is wilting
And we were doing so well too.
Toots is completely off her food and the naps that were a thing of the past are back again. In fact she slept this afternoon for two whole hours and probably would have slept longer only I woke her up, which of course led to a very grumpy four year old.
I can't blame her though, I have to admit the last few days all I've wanted to do is curl up in a ball and have a nap myself.
Toots has never really known heat like this. Summer last year and even the year before was relatively cool and before that she was only an ickle baby so those years don't really count.
I need to get my hands on a better sun screen too. On Tuesday when we went to Stormont Park I absolutely plastered the poor child in factor 50 every time I could get my hands on her and pin her to the grass for a few minutes. Seriously, the child was a funny shade of blue (cause the blue tinge doesn't magically disappear) and she was fuming because her hair kept sticking to face and even with all that she still managed to come home with a tan. A ha-uge no-no in my book for a four year old.
Any recommendations on a decent sun screen that doesn't turn my kid all the colours of the rainbow, actually works at, you know, screening the sun and if it comes in a spray bottle, properly works and comes out in a mist rather than just spitting and dribbling out globs of blue cream would be greatly appreciated.
And then after my little menu plan yesterday, the poor husband ended up having to work late and I couldn't face the thought of cooking anything so Toots and I had a bowl of weetabix for dinner. Her suggestion, not mine.
I think perhaps I need to treat Toots and I to some nice Summer clothes, something very light and floaty. Maybe that will perk us up.
Still there is a silver lining to all this sunshine. I get to tell everyone that I haven't bothered to clean the outside of my windows because they'll only go streaky in the sun.
Not sure how long that excuse will hold up, but I'll push it as far as it goes.
Toots is completely off her food and the naps that were a thing of the past are back again. In fact she slept this afternoon for two whole hours and probably would have slept longer only I woke her up, which of course led to a very grumpy four year old.
I can't blame her though, I have to admit the last few days all I've wanted to do is curl up in a ball and have a nap myself.
Toots has never really known heat like this. Summer last year and even the year before was relatively cool and before that she was only an ickle baby so those years don't really count.
I need to get my hands on a better sun screen too. On Tuesday when we went to Stormont Park I absolutely plastered the poor child in factor 50 every time I could get my hands on her and pin her to the grass for a few minutes. Seriously, the child was a funny shade of blue (cause the blue tinge doesn't magically disappear) and she was fuming because her hair kept sticking to face and even with all that she still managed to come home with a tan. A ha-uge no-no in my book for a four year old.
Any recommendations on a decent sun screen that doesn't turn my kid all the colours of the rainbow, actually works at, you know, screening the sun and if it comes in a spray bottle, properly works and comes out in a mist rather than just spitting and dribbling out globs of blue cream would be greatly appreciated.
And then after my little menu plan yesterday, the poor husband ended up having to work late and I couldn't face the thought of cooking anything so Toots and I had a bowl of weetabix for dinner. Her suggestion, not mine.
I think perhaps I need to treat Toots and I to some nice Summer clothes, something very light and floaty. Maybe that will perk us up.
Still there is a silver lining to all this sunshine. I get to tell everyone that I haven't bothered to clean the outside of my windows because they'll only go streaky in the sun.
Not sure how long that excuse will hold up, but I'll push it as far as it goes.
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