Mostly.....#5

I've been a busy little bee of late! And I haven't done a little round up post for ages, so here goes....

As I may have mentioned, and as you may have gathered my favourite friend in the whole world got married on Friday. We had rubbish weather, but a lovely day!! She looked beautiful. And for as long as I live I will never forget how funny it is when a bride in a big dress needs a wee!!! I think, personally, what I will remember the most from that day is how fabulously Biscuit behaved. She looked adorable and I was just so, so, proud of her.

Proud Mama

On Saturday it was our Village's Open Garden weekend. Essentially people with really very lovely gardens open them up for other villagers to have a nosey. I often feel a little weird about this and traipsing around strangers gardens can seem a little intimate, but it is very interesting! I helped my Dad out for about half an hour sitting on the gate of a beautiful garden, taking pennies and asking questions. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. 

My Mum goes to the local Art Group and they had an exhibition in the church of their paintings.  Because Biscuit goes along with Mum during the school holidays I suggested that she paint something for the exhibition.  She was thrilled.  She painted a little picture of a garden, with some birds, flowers and butterflies.  In the middle she drew a jail where the naughty babies go.  No comment!!!  Anyway, because she did so well, my Mum bought her a "prize" for entering.  She gave her a little pink bracelet and Biscuit was pleased as punch.  She wore it all day and told everyone we bumped into that she'd won First Prize!  It was the only "prize" but I'm not telling her that!

There was also a great Farmers Market taking place on our Common to coincide with Open Gardens. It would have been rude not to take a look.... We bought Homemade Damson Chutney, bunches of wild garlic, a bag of local onions and a big bunch of rhubarb. Lovely!! 

On Sunday we went up to the allotment, planted some carrot, parsnip and spring onion seeds. We earthed up our potatoes (they have to be buried to stop them going green) and did a spot of tidying. All very productive!

After that we went for a lovely walk up the hill behind our house. We allowed Biscuit a well earned trip to the swings on our way home which she enjoyed. She usually bumps into a little chum and has a chat. She's a sociable creature.

We used some of the wild garlic to slow roast with some lamb shoulder. Our whole house smelt amazing! Then we used our rhubarb to make a crumble, a proper Sunday!! 

On Monday I had to work in the morning, some overtime, which is always handy. As I work part time, working on a Bank Holiday doesn't phase me, though I can understand why those who work full time treasure those days off. I'm happy to help out. It was busy and exciting. 

When I got home we had bacon sandwiches. We pottered around for a while then all went for another walk around a local nature reserve. The weather over the weekend had been such a contrast to Friday's, it seemed silly not to make the most of it! We saw Dragonflies, butterflies and some horses out on a hack.

When we returned home Mr Husband watched the football and the rest of us enjoyed tea and blueberry pancakes in the garden with Mum, Dad and my brother. 

I've had a really lovely long weekend, spent enjoying friends and family. I hope you've had a great time too. 

Love, love

Stuck in a rut - baby food ideas

I'm going to say something that's bordering on blasphemous: I am fed up of Annabel Karmel.

That's it, I've said it now!  Should I hide for fear of releasing of whole storm of mummy-hatred?  Probably not.  It's not that I hate her, I own several of her books, it's just that I'm bored of her, and that can't be good, right?  Actually I'm also a little bit suspicious of her; she has perfect hair, perfect clothes and a perfect smile, how can a woman who looks like that SERIOUSLY be an expert in feeding babies?  Surely, to truly be an expert in this field you should have weetabix in your hair, blueberries all over your dress, (usually in a place where you can't see them but everyone else you meet can) very smelly milky vomit on your shoes and a weary expression.  To be really true to life she should probably also be toting either a massive coffee or a gin and tonic.

I'm sorry to say this Annabel love, but I don't consider "Take banana, mash banana - feed to baby" to be a "Recipe".  It isn't.  Neither is "Add lemon curd to Greek yogurt - feed to baby".   I'm bitterly jealous of anyone who makes their millions coming up with such silliness.

I think her ideas are great for those early stages, but we are currently at that difficult stage when puree is out but toddler meals aren't suitable yet.  I have to confess that we've fallen into a bit of a lazy rut recently, especially when we have had a few days away and This Baby was fed largely on jars of baby food.  That isn't something I have a particular problem with, I highly rate Ella's Kitchen and I think their pouches are bloomin' marvellous, they actually taste of what they're meant to contain.  And yes, I've eaten some!  If she's gotta eat it, the least I can do is try it.  No, the problem I have is that there isn't really much choice out there for this weaning stage and we all know that eating the same thing over and over and over in an endless cycle can soon get pretty tiring.

So I decided that I needed to pull my socks up a bit on the baby food front, especially as I had noticed This Baby had started producing red tinted poo due to an overload of tomato based products.  Sorry for mentioning poo, it's a Mother thing, our post-partum conversations take an instant nose dive from slurry Saturday night debates such as "What's actually in a Mojito?"  to biscuit in hand, tea fuelled chats with friends that seem quite normal dispute starting with the sentence "I was studying my little darling's poo the other day....."   Some sort of conversational assassin sneaks in and takes over without our knowledge or understanding.

I would spend sodding ages messing about in the kitchen producing delicious nutritious meals for my oldest, I once faffed about for hours producing a homemade baby version of baked beans which contained cheese, chives and gold dust probably.   Would she eat it?  Would she heck!  She still wont eat beans to this day, I probably scarred her.

I'm looking forward to the day when we can share our adult means with This Baby and just give her a simpler version of what we're having.  We can pull that off sometimes now, chicken casserole, lentil daal, roasts and that sort of thing come her way, but some things aren't really suitable for one so little.  If something is too grown up for her I noticed that she just spits it straight back out, this often seems to be when something is too dry for her palate, she needs some kind of sauce to help things slip down comfortably.

So yesterday I went about producing her a sauce with a base of fresh tomatoes, red onion, herbs and a little broccoli.  This was then cooled and put into the freezer with a view to taking out a chunk and adding it a little of our meals so that's it's easier for her to deal with. &nbsp I didn't take pictures whilst I was making it, as I was too busy, well, making it.  I'm also not going to insult your intelligence with a "Recipe" because it really isn't one.  Just some food, suitable for a little tinker with a big appetite, smooshed up. But it looked good, smelt good and tasted yummy.

I also roasted some butternut squash with a view to doing the same, it's handy for making a sauce out of and adding to a little rice and cheese to form a risotto.

I've never been a particularly big fan of buying too much food that's specifically aimed at children, but after becoming an avid reader of Hattie's inspirational blog Free Our Kids I've really gone off the idea. I feel bad that I've fallen down this slippery slope and on this basis I'm going to try and limit the food based kiddie crap that we buy in future.  One thing in particular that really annoys me is the concept of children's pasta.  Pasta is pasta, right?  There's no such thing as children's pasta!  Just buy smaller shapes, or mash it up!  Don't pay an extra £1.50 for the privilege of being told that's it's the perfect size.

One thing that I've stumbled upon for This Baby that I wanted to share with you that I swear by, SWEAR BY  is Orzo, otherwise known as rice pasta.  It's a fabulous size and a really interesting consistency.  I bought this whopping great big bag from Tesco recently in the world food section for £1.  There is a Tesco Finest one as well, but it costs double for the same amount and in my mind it's a less authentic version...

It's ideal for her little mouth, bulks out a vegetable puree or a sauce that I've made and tastes really good.  In fact I was trying to get a fabulously arty shot of This Baby's bowl with her spoon in, but she was having none of that and whipped some of it it into her mouth impatiently.  Now that's a very good sign!

I'd love to hear any hints or tips that you have for this stage of weaning.  Any favourite recipes?  Any suggestions or foods you can't live without?  Please, please let me know .  Hopefully we'll be able to stay off the jars for a little while!

Love, love,

St Valentines? Not a fan...

I am massively unimpressed by Valentine's Day, I definitely don't think it should be necessary to force couples to publicly show their love for one another in order to keep up with other couples.  Ugh.  The whole idea makes me pukey.

But, I am not a Scrooge.  I appreciate that some people like it and think it's cool, and that's fine by me.  So, here are a few things that I do love.  Not all of the things I love, there isn't a big enough blog space in the known universe....

1 - Mr Husband Sir,  he is the best boy ever.  He even puts up with me.
2 - My little family.  They rock
3 - My Best Girl.  I can't tell you how much I love this chick
4 - My girls.  The little sister thing they have going on makes me so flippin' happy.

So.  How about you?

Mostly...#2

Thought I'd do a little round up of what's been happening in my neck of the woods:

• Mr Husband Sir has now recovered from the evil sick bugs and I'm hoping that we're all on the road to recovery. I am so bored of germs! As soon as this snot disappears I am determined to stay fighting fit...

• That Baby came home from school Friday beaming with pride at receiving a special award sticker from her Headteacher. I was a proud Mumma. We asked her what it was for and she replied "Sitting still and keeping quiet" . Hey, you've gotta take praise wherever you can get it, right? *despair*

• I'm planning my first night on the tiles since "This Baby" arrived in a couple of weeks. Some friends from work and I are plotting cocktails and amusing dancing, I am ridiculously excited, it's all in the anticipation for me!

• We don't "do" Valentines here, it makes me wretch. Love how Husband checks every year that I haven't irrationally changed my mind. This year I'm going to a WI meeting instead. I'm dead looking forward to it, we have a speaker coming to talk about Haute Couture who worked in some of the big fashion houses. In our little village? How cool is that?

• Last night we joined my Ma and Pa in their extension for a really lovely meal cooked by Pa. I didn't picture the starter, it was too delicious and didn't last long: Brie cheesecake. Amazing! Followed by quail, followed by posh trifle (retro) followed by coffee and white port (who knew?) flippin YUMMERS all of it, thanks Pa xxxx

That's about it really..... How are tricks with you?

Teeth!

Well! The big news round here is that "This Baby" has finally cut her first teeth. Not one. but two jagged little razor blades have just poked their way up through her squishy pink gums. It's about time! She's pretty much exactly eight months old and we've had weeks of pink cheeks and dribbling to no avail. Finally she has something to show for it!

I am a terrible Mummy for not noticing, I'd become fed up of checking her mouth and being disappointed, at toddler group today another mum said "Ahhhhh, she's got two little teeth holes..." What? Eh? When? How? Hurray! Teeth! Stop the world! We have teeth!

Both my girls amaze me. They make me so proud. And I grew them; go me!

The story of our allotment

I wanted to write a post about our little allotment, I'm not sure if I've mentioned on here before.

We are very lucky to share a blessed little plot of land with our friends Impressive E, Impressive D and their wonderful little boy Woolly (who also happens to be That Baby's favourite friend) it's a short walk away from each of our houses. It's beautiful there, surrounded by trees and close to the river.  We have a little shed with garden themed curtains which houses our tools.

This year will be our fourth year of allotmenting.  We were complete novices when we started out and in many ways we still are.  We're very lucky that either side of our plot there are some seasoned pros who are happy to point us in the right direction and give us a few tips.

The first year we were given the allotment it was just a patch of scrub land.  I remember that year clearly.  That Baby was knee high to a grass hopper but desperate to help out as we spent an incredibly long hot May weekend digging and digging and digging.  It was back breaking.  Cue filthy feet, filthy baths and aching muscles all round.  But we turned that patch of nothing into a place where things grow. And it made us bloody proud! Stupidly we didn't take any photographs of our plot before only during and after it's renovation.

I love this picture!  It shows Mr Husband Sir and I digging like crazy and my Dad sitting in the middle and watching!  That little house to the left at the back was our only shelter at the time and and the only place where we could store tools, wheelbarrows and things.  It was a wonderful little wendy house that belonged to Woolly and he was very kind to let us keep it there.  It became the model for our future shed!  You might have noticed that we decided not to dig traditional style straight plots. We thought we'd go rogue and plumped for a sunshine themed arrangement for our beds.  The logic behind it was that we had two small people to try and keep on the paths and not the vegetables, so we should try and have a lot of paths for them to run around on.  And I have to say it worked.  To an extent.

The sunshine pattern progresses...

Mucky feet mean a good day's work.

Yes I used to dig in ballet shoes,  I actually wore these on our wedding day.  They were ruined, but what does it really matter? I have proper welly shoes now.

So after a LOT of hard work, this is what we achieved:

Neatly dug over and planted

You can still see the string marking the boundary line...

In that first year we grew pretty much anything we could.  We were late starting that year, by May many things should already have been in the ground so we planted what we thought would survive and were jolly happy with our efforts.

A year or so later we added the shed.  That was a great day, we made a bit of an outing of it, had a bbq lunch up there, drank some wine, it was wonderful fun.  We were pretty useless with the actual shed construction.  Impressive E and Impressive D had to do pretty much all of it (hence they are impressive and we are not) but they were very gracious.

Impressive D doing his stuff...

They added a jovial wee wee hole for boys, tsk!  That IS Mr Husband Sir's finger.  No really, it is.

The finished shed, though it now has curtains of course.

Last year we were offered an allotment extension and doubled our ground space. We didn't really manage to dig it over properly last year as I was pregnant and Impressive D was away a lot and unable to help.  But lordy this year, we have great plans!  Although Impressive E is pregnant this year (due in June - I am beyond excited) we plan to take that allotment to task and get it back on track.  We let things slide over winter and we needs to do some serious sorting.  When I manage to get up there with my camera I will take some photographs so you can see how wild it's become!

This is what it's all about, our first basket of home grown goodies,  That Baby was particularly impressed at the prospect of a near endless supply of vegetables!

So, that's it, the tale so far!  I'm going to start a small series of grow your own themed posts with a few things that we've learnt, though we are by no means experts.  They will begin shortly with the delights of the home-grown potato.  You don't even need a plot of land!

Love,

Man Logic...

Him:  I've saved  nearly £30 on Rocksmith!  I am so good at saving money.

Me:  Wow £30 eh?  That IS impressive! I wish I'd managed to save £30 on something.

Him:  Yep, check out my skills.

Me:  So, what is Rocksmith?

Him:  A Playstation game.  The one that teaches you to play guitar, you know!  The one I really wanted to get, the one I pretty much bought the Playstation for...

Me:  Oh yes, the Playstation that cost £180.  Isn't that also the reason that you had to buy a new guitar?

Him:  Erm, yes.

Me:  The new guitar that cost £50

Him:  Erm, yes

Me:  So in order to SAVE £30 on a game you had to SPEND £230?

Him:  Erm, yes.

Me:  Nice logic.  Real nice.  What do I get then?

Oh Happy Day!

Ever had a really lovely day that you just weren't planning at all? I have; today!

I dropped my oldest off at school this morning, then went to her (monthly) church assembly. Brrrrr.

Then I went to my home group made up of some really lovely local Mummies. It's hosted my a very dear friend of mine and its always a treat because, not only is she excellent company, she also has splendid coffee in the most beautiful grown up cups.

I always think that it's fate that we know each other, we first met in hospital in 2008, we had baby girls, both by emergency c-section on the same day and we were bed neighbours on the ward. She calmed me and soothed me when I had a hormonal cry over not recognising that it was my newborn baby that was crying from across a room. I nodded and smiled and did my best for her in return when she had a little cry about her husband not knowing which maternity top she was describing to him when she gave him a list of things she needed. She'd been wearing it for six months, how could he not know which top?!!!! There really is no logic directly after childbirth!

Unknown to me at the time I had worked with her younger sister for a number of years, so we also had a mutual friend. We lived in different places, but kept in touch after the girls were born. Two years ago an unexpected change of circumstances saw her moving to the same tiny village that I live in with my little family. Our girls are now in the same class at school and are firm friends. I am so lucky to have her nearby, and to count her as one of my best friends. She's wise and calm and thoughtful and sweet.

As That Baby's now at school for whole days I didn't have to rush off for the lunchtime pick up This Baby and I stayed for lunch. It was a lovely unplanned affair, good food, and good company. We ate, drank tea, swapped tales, ate and laughed all afternoon.

When I woke up this morning I had no idea that this was how my day would pan out, but I'm really bloody glad this is the way it went.

I'm off to join the Women's Institute tonight, but more on that tomorrow!

Happy Thursday to you all :)

unHappy Happy Birthday

First of all hello and welcome to my lovely new followers. I'm chuffed to bits that you're here along with me, thank you so much :) :)

Yesterday was Mr Husband Sir's Birthday. I thought I had bought him inspired, considered and thoughtful presents alongside a couple of things he asked for...

Apparently I am nowhere near as good at present selection as I imagined. Since when were tea bag squeezers a bad present? I keep trying to explain that they'll revolutionise the tea making process in this house, but it doesn't seem to be sinking in. Pah, we'll see who's right!

To celebrate his birthday my beloved enjoyed a trip to Sainsbury's together with his family. He treated himself to a Playstation 3, he'd been wanting one for ages. After the children were in bed we enjoyed a two dine for £5 curry meal deal, ate birthday cake and watched Shutter Island snuggled up on the sofa. I even managed to stay awake for the whole film. Ahhh, simple pleasures :)

Happy Birthday sweet cheeks xx

Unsuccessful Sale Shopping

I do enjoy watching a spot of rubbish television every now and then. I'm not so keen on reality TV and I feel like the only human being alive that doesn't watch X Factor, Britain's Got Talent or I'm a Celebrity. I am a sucker for an occasional make over programme though.

Which explains why I found myself watching Gok's Style Secrets last night. Mr Husband Sir was in the kitchen producing an array of nibbly snacks (good man) and I was channel hopping when I got glued on the first episode of this new series.

It featured Gok and a goth. A lovely goth. A hot goth! A goth who was (like myself) slightly bonkers. She genuinely didn't know how brilliant she really was.

The show wasn't J-Cliff's cup of tea, so I only watched the beginning before we changed channel. No matter I thought, I'll catch up on 4od. Which I did. Thank the Lord for 4od! I means I can catch up on rubbish telly, satisfy my guilty pleasure urges and nobody needs to find out.

It was good I enjoyed it. But it made me want a leather pencil skirt. Can I find one anywhere? No! Can I heck?! It seems there were masses of perfect ones kicking about but then they were added to the sales for measly sums so they've been snapped up. Unless you're a size 6 or 20 you'll be out of luck.

I am rarely lucky with sale shopping. I guess it's my own fault. I tend to favour charity shops. Not just because of price, it's also the contribution they make. But perhaps the thing I like most about them is that they only usually have one of each item. It is whatever size it happens to be. It either fits or it doesn't. You have to really look at the item, assess it, try it on, see if it suits you and work out if its right before you buy it. Now that just doesn't happen in chain stores. If orange skater skirts are in fashion you have no choice, it's them or nothing. You find the one in your size and you buy it. Because that's the way it is. There isn't any other choice, you don't need to look at it, it doesn't need to look nice on you, you just need to know that it's fashionable.

Hmmmmm, do I REALLY want a leather pencil skirt after all? Maybe when they hit the chazza the perfect one will find me :)

Our Very Own Bonkers Family Vocabulary....

Our family has it's own little set of words and phrases that are kind of special. They make sense to us without any need for any explanation, but sound like total gibberish from the outside looking in.

Some examples from our (slightly bonkers) family vocabulary include:

Smoosh: baby food.

Nibbly snacks: indulgent adult only food consumed after tea time when small children are safely tucked up in bed. Our Christmas nibbly snack list got so big it required a separate trip to the supermarket. It was great though.

Gnomper-chomp: the way babies eat by using dribble to melt their food.

Nothing to see here!: a highly useful phrase used to explain away any little embarrassments that may have occurred.

Flomping: the way a baby learning to sit up falls over. A sudden topple without warning.

Wah!: a very loud cry.

Having a lion: means having a lay in. A blissful once weekly occurrence. "Shhhh, Daddy's having a lion..."

Woooooh hoooo!: A loud cry used in a similar way to dolphins who employ echo location to find one another. When one member of the family "wooooh hooos" the others reply with a "wooooo hoooo" in order to either be found, or to announce their arrival. A sort of shortened form of shouting "Where are you?" And "I'm here!"

Grumpus: an affectionate way of pointing out someone is being moody, eg "C'mon, don't be a Grumpus, I love you"

Ham and Cheese: means family. Shamelessly stolen from Granny the Sloth in Ice Age Four. We sing it to one another when we are happy.

Do you use words or phrases that only make sense to you and your nearest and dearest?

C'mon, share some with me, lets broaden our vocab!