Menu Plan Sunday

It doesn’t have the same ring to it as the blog I read that has Menu Plan Monday, but I don’t do my menu plan on Monday lol!

Monday – steak and veg
Tuesday – beef rendang in the slow cooker
Wednesday – fish and chips (home made)
Thursday – left over rendang (mmm so good second time around!)
Friday – Narrabri
Saturday – Narrabri
Sunday – left over bolognese from the other day

No, we’re not eating Narrabri, that’s just where we’ll be Going to visit the family, before it gets too hot! The girls are looking forward to seeing Nanny and Poppy, not so much the long drive to get there. Nor the visit to the dentist beforehand. Abby has been complaining of sore teeth recently but won’t let me look so I don’t know if it really is sore teeth or just a bite to the inside of the mouth. We’ll soon see!

Got up early today and did Zumba before the kids were awake. It was OK, not too flash at it yet, some things were so hard, other bits just too easy, I’m hoping that as I get properly familiar with the steps, I’ll be able to make it more of a consistent aerobic workout. Need some new songs for my iPod for my runs, getting a bit tired of the same ones in the same order, and I don’t think C25K even has a shuffle option for the music.

OK pumpkin time!

xoxo

Busy Weekend

The last few nights we have had children awake at 11pm…need I say more about why I haven’t blogged?

Another week of doing all three C25K runs, whoopee! I’ve also taken up yoga :O I’ve never really been attracted to it, but recently I just had a niggle to try it and I’m really enjoying it! I follow a free video on the internet and I’ve borrowed some books from the library and am muddling through. We went for a walk as a family this afternoon (the little girls didn’t walk for long but that was OK, we remembered to grab the carriers on the way out!) then Kim put them through the big bath out in the shed (as opposed to the tiny plastic tub we usually put in the shower recess) while I went through my workout while the leftover stew warmed itself in the slow cooker!

Note to self – Abby (nearly 4) will not go to sleep before 10pm if she sleeps at all during the day, no matter how busy or active we were

We’re starting to plan Kim’s 50th for next April, I really hope a good crowd of people can come! We think we’ll hire caterers and ask people to pay for their meals instead of gifts. Speaking of which, I have a few more emails to send, so better get to it!

Windy Wednesday

I could have gotten so much washing dry today, but the weather looked dodgy regularly this morning so I didn’t risk it. Still got some done, so that’s good It was windy in a pleasant way, I was out at about 4pm taking scraps to the chooks, and it was just pleasant to be outside at that time, nice cool wind but not so cold it burned my ears.

K goes home tomorrow, we will all miss her. Praying for safe travel.

Hannah got her crayon rocks from Spiral Garden today, she’s very impressed! I’ve asked her to keep them a secret from the younger girls as I’ve bought them some for Hanukkah. She likes secrets so this is not an onerous task for her LOL!

I got a letter from UNE today with details about enroling in my course and my student number etc. Must log in and check my UNE email address, it MUST be checked regularly!!! I commence 14th February 2011, off campus part time, Commonwealth supported. I ordered the text for my first subjects but it is currently being reprinted and won’t be here until next month. That’s OK, I’ll have no time to read it this month anyway. Maybe it will arrive in time to be some light holiday reading ha ha! Good excuse to buy a diary especially for managing my study I love diaries, very much. I’m much more disciplined these days though, usually one diary, one calendar. Will treat myself for this occasion though.

Beth is making her way here and Abby is already in our bed with Kim, having woken, afraid, a little while ago, poor possum, so good night!

Terrific Tuesday

I am posting on my iPod tonight while I’m watching Survivor! Very exciting day today. I came home from town to find K cleaning my kitchen, thoroughly! I nearly cried, it’s so lovely and clean and fresh, and a bit better arranged. Then I checked online and found my uni application was accepted – it only took me fifteen years but I’ve finally worked out what I want to be when I grow up lol! I’ll be studying psychology at UNE Slowly at first while the girls are small. Ordered my first text so I can start reading over summer.

Well this is tedious and annoying, so I’m going to sign off now

Sleepy Saturday and Sunday

I didn’t blog last night, and nearly didn’t tonight! Hannah was having her sleepover, the little girls slept until very late in the car on the way home from town and were bouncing off the walls until nearly 10pm, by which time we were all exhausted and simply went to bed. I am much the same tonight, however I have persevered and at least washed the dishes and am catch-up-blogging!

The Food and Wine Festival was great fun for Kim and K, despite being pretty late by the time we finally got to town. They got to try and buy some lovely wines and K really enjoyed the olives at one of the stalls as well. They were pretty, um, rowdy by the time I picked them up lol! We saw the police set up to breathalise as we left town, and as he had noone pulled over, I assumed he wanted me to. He said to us that everyone was giving themselves up! Kim then apologised to him for speeding through a temporary speed zone a month ago when they were having a drink-driving blitz, he hadn’t seen the signs. The fellow told him it was fine, looked at them, looked at the kids in the back, looked at me and told me not to worry about the breath test LOL!

The kids and I had a great time at Kati’s baby shower, I won a block of chocolate for guessing her girth – I got it exactly! 114cm, for the record She had guesses from 98 to 186cm ROFL! I took a kilo of cherries just in case there wasn’t anything for the girls to eat, even though we’d just had lunch, but Kati had made gluten free cupcakes, which were very nice despite the PINK and BLUE icing on top, which Beth decided couldn’t possbily be food, at first!

Today we had a bit of a slow start, but got to town eventually. Hannah decided to stay at her friend’s house while we went to the markets (after Kim had checked their pony’s hoof, which we had run out of time to do on Saturday). The markets were a bit of a disappointment, there wasn’t much there really. There was a woman with some very nice looking cupcakes, and she did make gluten free ones, but she had sold all of them already. I have her fridge magnet somewhere, just in case I ever get stuck and have more money than time

Got stuff all done today, really, apart from getting the kitchen tidied up towards the end of the day and making the nicest stir fry I’ve made so far! I got the sweet elements right, not too much chilli, chicken a bit over cooked but OK, it was just really really nice. Which was very good because K had never eaten anything like it before – she’d never had rice noodles!

I’ve got my second load of washing on for tonight, need to head off to bed by midnight so I have at least a chance of getting up to run in the morning. Need to put the iPod on the charger! I’ve been trying to download the Hamish and Andy podcast from Friday all day, but it keeps failing. I think because it’s taking too long with the internet being shaped Only 3 more days. That’s also the deadline to pay the rest of our holiday accommodation! Crikey! Best get onto that too

Night all *waves*

Friday Fadeout

I did not blog last night. After a few high energy days, I lagged a bit yesterday. I did manage to get up and go for my run, but it was only the memory of how many biscuits I ate the night before that got me out of bed at 6am :/ I dozed off after lunch and my lovely guest washed up some dishes for me!

I did get the floor vacuumed and the house was tidy and cleanish looking when I got up this morning, which was lovely. The little girls are still sleeping and I have a bowl of yummy yoghurt on hand

Beth managed to catch a swing in the face yesterday and opened up her bottom lip a little. She was outside with K at the time, and was happy enough to be brought inside by her for treatment. She elected to stay inside with me when asked, but as soon as everyone else went to the trampoline, she was out the door before I got back from the freezer with some ice for her fat lip LOL!

Hannah is having a sleepover at a friend’s house and packed her bag yesterday. It was bulging when she came to show me, so I asked if she had packed any clothes? Oops, no! I have no idea what is in the non-clothes bag but according to the card she made for her friend, it’s good stuff, and she’s ‘exited’ about the sleepover

K and Kim had a small wrestle last night just before dinner, neither of them has had anyone to wrestle with for a long while (I refuse to wrestle with Kim, I have better things to do with what little spare energy I have lol!) I think they both had fun and nobody got hurt. It’s a lot of fun having a dear old friend around, a lot of our local friends are ones we haven’t known all that long.

The lemon slice I made Thursday night was a big hit! Even Hannah, who hates ‘lemon’ with a passion, really liked it! I ate far too much, I will have to throw in an extra exercise session tomorrow to make up for it, I think *blush*

The wee girlies are up so I had better go…

Thursday – Swimming Day

I was trying to come up with a word beginning with ‘th’ to describe today but when all I could come up with at this late hour was ‘thwimming’, I thought it was time to give up!

Our visitor is here and we’re having a great time. The girls are mad with excitement and she brought presents! We chatted a lot through the mid-evening so I didn’t get to the dishes until late, and discovered when I hit the kitchen at 10.45pm that I had a slice half made and it wouldn’t wait until morning, so that’s added an extra hour to the day. Never mind, it’s done now and the house smells insanely beautiful. Mmm, lemon slice! I think morning tea will come early tomorrow LOL!

The girls did really well at swimming lessons today, although I’ve lost Hannah’s speedo some time since last Thursday (I’m sure it will turn up) and she was concentrating too hard on her backstroke at one stage and swam into the wall, head-first They’re gaining confidence and skills slowly, and will have a great time on our holiday in December.

I picked up a hindquarter of beef today as well. It took us four months to eat the last one, although there were several weeks where we couldn’t get a sheep from the neighbour so we ate a lot of beef then, I’m expecting this one to last us six months. Now if I can just organise bulk, free-range chicken, I’ll be a very happy woman! My dream freezer is a drawer full of lamb, one of beef, one of chicken and fish, one of frozen veg/pies/bread for emergencies, icecream, ice cubes (for making sorbet) and some frozen bolognese for emergencies. T-bone steak for dinner tomorrow night (tonight actually, it’s after midnight!)

Speaking of it being after midnight, I need to go to bed, have to get up and run tomorrow today!

Wednesday Wow!

I had a great day today Once I post this, my to-do list will be all crossed off, huzzah!

It was cold, very cold this morning when I went out to run. I wore my beanie as my ears had been painfully cold on Monday, and it was much, much colder today. I wanted my gloves, actually :O I’m using a program called Couch to 5K and I can’t recommend it highly enough as an iPhone/iPod app to buy. You can write down and time your workouts for free from the internet, but for under $5, the ability to program songs in, record how you went and just tap and run with all the prompts built in is well worth it to me.

I finally made some successful gluten free pastry today! It’s a Maggie Beer recipe, and it’s essentially choux pastry! I recognised the ingredients and method when reading the recipe, so I was able to follow the method from the Thermomix book, much quicker and easier. It did not want to come off the paper the recipe suggested to roll it out on, but I plonked it into the pie pan and spread it out inelegantly with my fingers, before discovering with the lid pastry that it came off the glad wrap very nicely. Next time I will roll it in wrap and see if I can get it nice and thin, as the only problem with it really was how long it took to cook, it was too thick. Mmm, apple pie! I think it would be perfect as little lemon meringue tarts. Dammit now I’m salivating!

Hannah is having a sleep over with a friend on Saturday night, which makes it possible to drive Kim and our visitor home from the Food and Wine Festival in one car, very handy. I’ll be at a friend’s baby shower with the children while they’re checking out all the wines. There are markets the following morning that I want to check out so I’ll do that and pick Hannah up, and our visitor can take her car home. Kim seems to be a popular choice for photos in the paper for the Festival. He was in it after the first one we went to, before and after last year’s Festival, and I turned the page in today’s paper to see a familiar Akubra-wearing ranga

We had 2 small girls in bed by 7.30pm tonight! Amazing! Beth was tired, whingy and clingy all day, when she wasn’t running around madly excited about something, very draining. She nodded off for a short sleep at 10.30am which was strange, but made for an early bed time. She woke at 9.30pm but went back to sleep fairly easily, hopefully for a while now. She occasionally sleeps very well these days but most nights we still get some snuggle time. I’m enjoying them while they last, the other girls started sleeping through fairly regularly once their 2 year old molars came through. Although we still have Abby in bed for a couple of hours in the early morning several days a week, it could be some time before our bed is invaded but rarely! Not that we mind, we get more sleep than if we try and make them stay in their own beds.

I worked out recently that the time from when Hannah was born to when Beth will be five is 10 years. One decade out of eight is not too much to ask to devote to raising three gorgeous babies, when one takes a look at the bigger picture. I think I need to print up a pie chart with eighths marked, one coloured, to remind myself when I’m feeling pressured and wishing these early days were over, that it’s not the largest portion of my life, but it is the most important.

Blog

List complete! Night-night!

Town Day Tuesday

Day two of my challenge

I was up early today, dinner thrown into the slow cooker, and off for a day of errands and fun! My squash opponent had the afternoon off work due to the Melbourne Cup, so we were able to play on the day, rather having to reschedule or forfeit. Actually it’s the first time I’ve managed to get on the court with this opponent, either one of us has had to forfeit or someone else has played for her for the whole comp! I say ‘play’ but it wasn’t really much of a match, it was more her wiping the floor with my arse I scored…drum roll…one point! One point in three games ROFL! I do not play well after lunch, apparently, I just couldn’t concentrate. At. All. Oh well, I may not have to play her again, if the comp is kind and I don’t have to play her in the finals.

Due to the reshuffle, I was able to go to the movies this morning, hooray! I saw Tomorrow, When The War Began, finally! I have been looking forward to seeing these books in movie form since they first came out when I was a teenager. I was glad that it takes a while to get movies to Tenterfield, our small cinema doesn’t get the reels until the bigger theatres are done with them. I was able to get opinion from my step-daughter, who is generally spot on with whether I’ll like something or not (I’ll be eternally grateful that she encouraged me to watch Pirates of the Carribean some years after it had come out!), and is a massive fan of the books. I knew if she enjoyed it, I would, and I was right! It was fanTAStic! The beginning was a little slow for someone who is already intimately familiar with the characters, but I understood that it was necessary to introduce a new generation to the story. Now I just hope they made enough money to encourage them to make all the other books into movies, it was nowhere near long enough!

I wanted to get Hannah’s hair cut today, she is tired of tangles and head lice (yuck, our first encounter with them last week, not fun at all!) and has agreed to a short style for a few years. However, hairdressers have the day off for the Cup, apparently, they were ALL CLOSED!! Not impressed. Thursday will be our next chance.

The splinter under my thumb nail last night was incredibly tender by the time I wanted to go to bed, so I sat up with some aloe vera soaking in under the nail and a wheat pack from the freezer for a while, and while it was still very sore in the morning, the dirt is easing itself out and by lunch it was much better. It didn’t bother me at all during squash. Hopefully it will be thoroughly mended soon.

My wee girl, Beth, is so grown up now that she’s two. She ran up to me when I came to pick her up from daycare and instead of clinging, she began to tell me about her day, unprompted! In the car on the way home, Abby had the things she hadn’t eaten during the day, and she told me she was hungry for the baby tomatoes, but she wasn’t going to eat them because they’d spray all over the car. What a sweetie! She got all the way to the garage before she gave in and bit one!

Blogvember!

I have set myself a challenge to blog every day this month! I’ll be away for a weekend later on in the month so I guess I should say “every day I’m home”! My internet has been shaped until 10/11 so posts may be a bit short this week, it has already taken nearly 5 minutes just to reset my password and load the site!

Tidying up is dangerous to your health, I finally have proof! I was scooping up some paper one of the girls had taken onto the verandah and drove a splinter one third of the way under my thumbnail. Boy oh boy did it hurt! Kim managed to pull out one bit, at first we thought he’d snapped it off but it turned out to be two separate pieces! I took over for the other bit and putting my squeamish tendencies aside, pulled the damn thing out. Ugh! Now hoping it doesn’t get infected. And that my squash opponent has to forfeit tomorrow!

Speaking of my squeamish tendencies, I am terrible with wobbly teeth. Hannah has taken to referring to them as WT, in an effort to prevent me from shuddering when she talks about them. It doesn’t help LOL! Of course, the most recent WT became dislodged at an awkward and painful angle while we were at the park eating lunch on Saturday, sans Daddy (aka the person who manages WT removal). She cried for about twenty minutes before allowing me to grab hold of it and pull it out (excuse me while I shudder violently for a moment). As always, there was a brief moment of stunned silence, before she announced that it hadn’t hurt at all, before she began eating again, suggesting I put the tooth in my purse so it wouldn’t get lost.

Time to shop, pack for Town Day tomorrow, plan meals for the week, put the shopping and errand lists in my iPod, and celebrate having all the items, bar one, crossed off my to-do list for today. Not a regular achievement lately!