Thursday 4 February 2010

The early bird speaks louder than words

Our morning ritual is more than a given, its required as much as one requires water to survive.

We awake and feed, then baby goes back to bed allowing me time. I make a cup of tea and tend to my plants, turn the heating up a notch and read the news.
I make a cup of coffee and sit for a while pondering the mind and smoking an illicit cigarette from the kitchen window.
I take the stairs regularly to check on my beautiful princess, leaning in over the crib and gently touching her cheek or stroking her hair, occassionally Ill touch her palm and almost wake her but realise just in time that the more sleep she has now the more smiley the day ahead will be.

I generally find 2 hours of of peace and relative quiet which without I seem unable to function and our whole day ends up out of kilter.

Today so far is going to plan, there is an underlying cloud of sadness for some reason I dont know and so far am unable to lift - but all will be well once baby wakes and our day together begins...
after all, no [wo]man is an island, but for a couple of hours at least.

Wednesday 3 February 2010

Dinner dinner

Sausage Casserole & Mash (spot the recurring theme...?)
20 Organic happy pork sausages (grilled to almost cooked)
2 onions finely chopped (softened in pan with olive oil/butter)
2 carrots ditto
Thyme
Sage
2ltrs water
A good sprinkling of Paxo (to thicken)
Stir
Casserole dish & Oven for 1 hour on quite high (gasmark 7)

Mash with dollop of butter.

Served 4 adults & 2 kids

I nearly didnt bother as I cooked out this evening... but it fed so many so should mention.

An oxymoron & the moron

free·load (frē'lōd')
intr.v. free·load·ed, free·load·ing, free·loads Slang
To take advantage of the charity, generosity, or hospitality of others.
free'load'er n.

But thats ok if its your daughter in law it seems...

The mothership is knackered, its a valid reason why, but she really must learn to say NO once in a while and DiL needs to start running her own life & looking after her own family (or getting someone other than MY mother to do all of her running about).

Ranty ranty... and she didnt even say hello or apologise for ruining the rest of our day... all because of her & her inability to foresee anything and make arrangements other than those which the mothership provides, all too often.

Dad is pigsick of not having his wife around, if she is it's with a 2yr old extention to her arms and Im annoyed that I didnt spend more time with B this evening - she had tummy ache and a big school trip tomorrow that shes desperate not to miss.

Knees up mother

Visitors this morning, a good two hours worth of entertainment from a 2 yr old and baby was highly amused watching him too.

A mission this afternoon, at least 3 more hours of entertainment. It requires us to actually get dressed and leave the house , which, if Im honest doesnt happe that often.

We like our hermit status and love our own company. But, nonetheless it cannot be healthy to live in such a small entity.

Baby changed her requirements this morning, only slightly but enough to leave me feeling ready to explode with her breakfast... amazing how an hour can cause so much confusion to ones body.

Tuesday 2 February 2010

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur

so so true

Bene vixit qui bene latuit

"He lives well who lives unnoticed"

I have been promoted from lowly citizen to a spy... such an honour

Dinner Dinner

Homemade Spinach & Ricotta Quiche & Homemade Chips

Make quiche a lá Delia online
Cut x 4 floury white potatoes into large chunky chips, drizzle a little olive oil, a liberal dose of sea salt chucked over & stick oven for 40 mins
Serve with green leafy salad and salad cream

Honey cake & custard
Make generic cake mixture, adding 3 tbsp runny honey
add another 3 tbsps honey to bottom of cake tin & bake for required time

Serve straight from the oven with lashings of custard

Let sleeping babes lie...

but draw the line at 12 hours and wake them up for fear of a leaky nappy :)

Snow is a four letter word

and its back

He who dares weans

maybe we're bonkers for wanting to wait until baby is 6 months old? Maybe the MiL is right and she will struggle due to loosing some important reflex... goodness knows how mankind have managed to survive for the last billion years.

Monday 1 February 2010

Take one...

screaming baby, disgruntled due to gumpain/colic/tummy ache, administer 2.5mls calpol, B feed for comfort, once dozing gently place on favourite blanket & hold thumb in region of mouth for no more than 60 seconds...

et voila

peace & quiet to eat dinner/watch tv for a while at least.

Dinner dinner

500g beef mince
tsp flour
mushrooms
carrots
oxo cube
400ml water
one encouraging splosh of nasty red wine kept for occassions such as this... cooking that is

shortcrust pastry

oven for 30 mins

Mash sweet potato & a decent amount of butter

Weaning what?!

Weaning 'party'... championing those formula feeding?! Quite a waste of time & info was out of date... having researched BLW (baby-led weaning) we aim to stay open minded & keep our somewhat 'wingful' approach to child raising - its going well so far :)

Whatever happened to BF championing? or is it just a changing mindset of the HV's to make the local oiks feel included?
Tomorrow is stranger than fiction