Mixed up Monday

A mixed up post with a few little bits! 

Mr H and I had a slightly overdue discussion about trying for another baby yesterday. Much as I don’t want it to be, the only sensible option is to wait until we know what’s happening with Mr H’s job come November, whether he’s staying in the new group or whether they’re all being made redundant. This means that trying for baby #2 has had to be postponed, probably, until next year.

Due to the above I’m really going to try and stick to the diet (I know, I’ve said that before). I used to say to myself that we’ll be trying for a baby before too long, there’s not point being too strict now, I’ll wait. Well since I’ve now got a year or more I’m going to try and get myself down to a healthy BMI, or ideally the middle of the healthy BMI. I’m going to try and remember to weigh myself every Monday morning and update my weightloss page accordingly, though I’ve not had a good start to that – I forgot this morning! I’ve not been too good lately so I suspect I’ll go up rather than down when I next weigh myself but at least I’ll know where I stand. My nephew, J, is being baptised on 4 May so that’s my first aim, be able to wear something nice and not look pregnant (I did on some of my sister’s wedding photos).

The Mums and tots fitness class I’ve been going to has been given another 8 weeks of funding to continue after Easter so hopefully that’ll help the weightloss as well. Last week was great, though I didn’t half ache on Thursday. We were doing circuit training with 14 different 2 minute stations. This week is all exercise based around gym balls…I bought one of those to sit on when pregnant with the munchkin, I might get it out and have a try and using it for the exercises… I know that doing regular exercise will help me lose weight and get fitter, I’ve just got to get off my backside and do it!

I’ve been browsing the internet this morning trying to find somewhere that’s not going to rip me off completely. I’m looking for (very) reasonably priced flowers to send to my grans for Mothering Sunday…. Most of the cheaper ones I can find are rather pathetic looking bunches of carnations (I hate having such a budget but we didn’t manage to get the remortgage organised before a couple of payments at the high variable rate). Does anyone have any recommendations of sites that might be worth a look? If I lived nearer I’d go and see them at some point over the next couple of weeks and take something then, but as it is I have no idea when I’ll see them next (probably baby J’s baptism).

 And a follow up to some comments from my photos post:

Littlemissbliss – while Mr H is my toyboy (by 7 months) he’s not that young! He’s 26, though he was only 21 when we married.

Beccy – here you are: 

Chocolate brownies (pinched from V, though I don’t know where she got it from)

 100g Butter/marg, melted
1 cup Sugar
1tsp Vanilla Essence
2 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1/4 tsp baking powder(only if you’re using plain flour)
1/2 cup choc chunks (or more!)

Blend butter, sugar and vanilla together. Then add eggs, cocoa, flour, baking powder, salt and chocolate.

Pour into a greased (or lined) baking tin (suggested 9×6 inches)
Bake at 180 C fo 20-25 mins

I baked mine in a 7×7 tin and ended up with rather crunchy edges as the middle wasn’t cooking, but they’ve softened with time (not that I gave them much!) and were nice and chewy by the next day.

Well that’s it for my mixed up Monday! Hope you’ve all had a good start to your weeks. Take care!

 

Friday photos

A few photos from the past couple of weeks. I know the right edge of some of the photos has been cropped off, am trying to tweak the blog template (it should {!} take less time that changing all the photos!)

 Yesterday’s brownie.

 

And the chocolate and banana cake. (I know, I have a fair bit of work to do on photographing food!) NB, this plate is a lot bigger than the plate the brownies were on.

 Feeding the ducks in Ilkley.

 And feeding Daddy!

 Flying down the slide. (I must admit that Mr H took this one,. the rest are all mine)

 Away from Ilkley and now above the woods near my parent’s house. Looking over the valley to the church we were married in. It was about 4:30pm on a misty day.

 Looking like a proper little girl (rather than my little toddler/baby) sitting at the top of another slide.

 On the swings, Granny is off to the right pushing her.

Walking back down the hill with Granny.

There you are, some photos for Friday (otherwise known as Hannah couldn’t think what to post today!).

 

Nigella move over!

I’ve come over all domestic goddess today.

There’s chocolate and banana cake in the oven and a new recipe for chocolate brownie sitting on the kitchen surface ready to be tried as soon as the oven is free. Zooarchaeologist – I think your chocolate answer is fab! 3/4 of the banana cake and 1/2 the brownie is going into the freezer for the next WHY? day. The rest, of course, needs sampling today, quality control you know!

I’m planning what to cook for Mr H’s dinner when he gets in (something with the chicken breasts that are defrosting on the kitchen surface), possibly risotto, possibly some sort of curry.

The dining room is tidier than it’s been in weeks and this week we’ve actually managed to get the munchkin’s toys put away in the living room before she goes to bed (usually it just builds up and up and we don’t go in there in the evenings). Mr H and I spent last night relaxing in the living room, snuggled up watching TV, something we’ve not done for weeks. We’ve tended to dive into bed (not for that!) to watch a DVD on the old laptop.

The dishwasher’s running, the dry washing has been put away, the washing machine has been run and emptied and I’ve started writing this week’s shopping list (before I forget all the things I need.

I hope I can keep this up, I feel so much better when the house is in control (ok, so there’s still a long way to go but it’s a start).

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ps. There is a down point to this domestic goddess stuff….I’ve just realised that I’ve not had any breakfast this morning…and I’m ravenous now…ooppss! Oh well, learning point for another day!

 

Imaginative title here….

Firstly…grrr…… internet explorer just crashed as I was finishing writing my post…I hadn’t thought to save a draft either….grrr! Oh and apologies for the lack of imagination in the title of this post…apparently my brain isn’t coming up with anything today!

Right then…where was I…

The munchkin actually slept for 1 1/2 hours yesterday afternoon. I put her back in her cot at 3:30 since she was too tired to do anything other than flop on my shoulder. She went straight to sleep and I had to wake her otherwise she wouldn’t have slept properly last night. She slept until 9:15 (when I woke her) this morning as well. She did wake briefly in the night, but after I changed a very wet nappy she went straight back to sleep. She’s so much happier today fro having got more sleep. She’s been happy to play in her room while I did the housework upstairs and then read/play with stickers/draw the the dining room table while I’ve done the downstairs housework. I’ve almost finished everything today, whereas yesterday I had to abandon a lot as she needed too much TLC.

I had a bit of a breakthrough with Mr H as well yesterday. He’s always told me he doesn’t like risotto (it’s too stodgy, samey and he doesn’t like it when the rice is a bit crunchy). However last night he came home from work very tired and drained so I suggested a risotto as easy to eat comfort food and he agreed to try it. He actually liked it! I made a chicken and mushroom risotto (we had chicken that needed eating and I thought I’d chance the mushrooms – he says he doesn’t like them either!). It suits me that he’ll eat risotto now, I love it and it fits in very nicely with my Slimming World diet. I think I’m going to try a butternut squash risotto next (maybe just for me while he’s away). Does any one know a nice recipe for that?

Right then, I’m off to cook some lunch and then hopefully have time to read a few blogs (and hopefully comment – you never know!) afterwards.

 

Looking up!

I was a little worried about my friend coming to stay this week (she basically invited herself) and after a couple of weeks of us being poorly and trying to get back into a routine I thought that it’s be hard work, but it was great. I last saw her at our mini college reunion in the spring and it was great to see her again. We didn’t exactly do much but just relaxed and for her it was a change of scene (what I think she needed after a busy term at school). I cooked us a full roast dinner on Tuesday which was yummy (except the vast quantity of washing up a roast leaves behind) and Wednesday was spent pottering around the house and then shopping in the afternoon. She left yesterday morning for her train back up to the distant north (she’s almost a Geordie ).

Yesterday was a lovely day. It was Mr H’s birthday and hence we had a cooked breakfast before he went to work (nicely timed also to set my friend up for her journey home) and cake later in the day (which was why we had to go shopping on Wednesday as he wanted a chocolate caterpillar cake – he’s 26!!! – made by M&S bu they didn’t have any in stock). We also had a visit by the health visitor. The mucnhkin is doing incrediably well for her age in everything except her speech, but that’s near enough that she’s not worried at the moment. Her vocabulary is increasing (exponentially at the moment) and she’s starting to string words together. The health visitor was very impressed by the munchkin’s builing skills, she got out a little pile of bricks expecting her to make a tower of 4, the munchkin used all 7 and then looked for more I’m not sure how she does it but she’s very good at making stable towers, maybe she’ll be an engineer like her father!

A definite benefit of having R staying with us is that we have a babysitter on hand (not that we used her before last night). Mr H and I went out for dinner and then on to the cinema as a spur of the moment extra (dinner wasn’t great – Wetherspoons, get your food descriptions accurate and have the currys in stock on curry night! Neither of us could have our first choice of curry, and mine was no way a mild curry, I supposed it serves us right for not going to a proper curry house but we’re skint!). We saw Ratatouille, and it was fantastic. One of the best films I’ve seen in ages (ok, so I haven’t been to the cinema for at least 2 1/2 years, but we’ve bought DVDs in that time), almost, though not quite, on a par with Shrek. We loved it. Definitely one I’d recommend (ok, you get the idea!)

We’ve got a reasonably busy weekend ahead (Mr H helping with recabling the church PA tomorrow, then church morning and evening – I’ve been offered a lift and achance to sing in the worship band in the evening, something I’ve wanted to do for ages), but we have got the house to ourselves as R is away for the weekend at a wedding. It’s nice to be just the three of us for a bit. I still haven’t set up bloglines, hopefully by Monday……

 

Just a quickie…

… I haven’t got long, my friend is due to arrive any time in the next 2 hours, had a busy morning getting everything sorted (though I still need to get Mr H to dig out the air bed) and have managed to bake some scones this afternoon (the munchkin’s new favourite food!).

I don’t think I’m going to b able to say hello at all tomorrow, hopefully on Thursday (though probably not until the afternoon as the health visitor is coming for the munchkin’s two year check in the morning – I can’t believe my baby is going to be two in exactly a week!). I’ve still not got anywhere with bloglines…one day!

 

We’re back!

Hello!

We had a lovely time away in Scotland. The weather held out most of the time and we all managed to get a little rest. Mr H spent a lot of time with his brother in law, G, climbing, cycling and chatting in the pub. G has since described Mr H as the brother he’s never had. He’s an only child and isn’t close to most of his cousins. I spent a lot of time with the munchkin and Mr H’s sister D.

I did get rather frustrated at one point about the amount of time Mr H was spending out with G. In the first 3 days he spent far more awake time with G than he did with me and the munchkin, I had to point out to him that I was on holiday too and wanted to spend some time with him as well. D and G were very good about baby sitting and let us go out for an afternoon and evening which was fab. We definitely needed the time out, I don’t know when we last had time to ourselves without worrying about the munchkin or listening out for her. Sadly however the munchkin was a complete nightmare for D and G and refused to eat her dinner or drink her milk so she went to bed with an empty stomach. She’s got two molars coming through and they’re being difficult.

The munchkin had her first experience of the beach and the sea and loved it, though the water was rather cold, she didn’t spend much time paddling, but loved playing in the sand (so did Mr H!). I’ll try and upload some pictures later this week, they’re all still on the camera at the moment.

Another bonus of the week was that D and G are both following Slimming World as well, so with the moral support from the three of us we’ve all stuck to it rather well, albeit using the vast majority of our sins on alcohol! I’ve got a bit more inspiration and motivation now and really hoping to keep it up. I’ve learnt a few new recipes and today cooked cous cous for the first time! It was yummy!

We called at Mum and Dad’s on the way back form Scotland. It was the first time I’d seen Dad since he’s been ill and it was a bit hard at times. He’s still pretty much in denial that he has a problem with his memory, though he can’t deny the blood pressure and eye sight issues. He’s seeing the opthalmologist tomorrow and hopefully there’ll at least be some answers to the eye problem there. While we were up he completely lost the keys to church and home, as well as forgetting to change the altar frontals front white to red, despite having been reminded many times and mentioning it himself just before he left on Saturday night to prepare church for the Sunday services. I’m finding it really hard to be at all positive about the long term, my mind is constantly going back to the idea that this all could be a brain tumour….I’m really hoping it’s not, but I can’t seem to help it.

Now I’m back I’m determined to really get on top of the housework. It’s fallen a little by the wayside and I really want to get the house tidy and more organised. I’ve had a good start by attacking the bathroom sink which gets really limescaley thanks to the crummy water around here. It’s not quite shining, but it’s as good as I can get it at the moment. Tomorrow I want to clean the bath and shower and get rid of the limescale there.

I hope you all had good weeks, I’m going to try and catch up with your blogs over the next few days, it may take me a while, especially if I do manage to get he housework under control…..

 

Not very chilly chilli!

Well, after my mini mission on Wednesday I blitzed the kitchen yesterday….I don’t think it’s looked as good since we moved in! The challenge now is to keep it that way, we’re a right pair for dumping things (paperwork, toys, shopping etc.) on the surfaces, especially the breakfast bar, and forgetting to sort them later. I now have a small box on the dining room table that paperwork will go in until it is filed and that’s it. I really want us to get on top of the cleaning in this house and we won’t do that until we can be organised.

The quorn chilli was a success on Wednesday, it was the first time Mr H had tried quorn mince and as a carnivore through and through he was a bit wary of it. I think the fact I’d inadvertantly put too much chilli powder in for my taste helped somewhat! (he has an asbestos mouth) I had to have rather a lot of low fat natural yogurt just to be able to eat it. I kept tasting the chilli as I was making it but couldn’t taste any heat in it, but by the time we came to eat it the heat was definitely there.

Cooking from scratch has gone well so far, though tonight’s tea is reheated chilli, it’s better than a ready meal. I’m glad we have some of the chilli left over….there’s nothing in the house to cook for dinner, we seriously need to do some shopping tomorrow. We’ve had an e-voucher come through for Tesco that gives us £15 off if we spend £50 which isn’t difficult with nappies to buy so we’ll get all the branded stuff we want from there and shop in Aldi for the fresh stuff tomorrow morning. I love the food in Aldi, most of it is at least as good as the stuff in Sainsburys, but it’s a lot cheaper. Their fresh food is also a lot fresher than the food in Tesco or Asda (I’ve seen mouldy fruit and veg in our local store so often).

Well, that’s all for now, going to sort out our lunches and then have a second attempt at gettng the mucnhkin to nap….she was having none of it earlier! Bye!

 

Diet understood…next step: cook from scratch…

So far I’m finding the new diet really easy to understand. I’ve already worked out that Green days are much easier for me than original ones, I’d far rather eat carbs than meat! I couldn’t cope with the lack of potatoes, pasta etc with the original day Itried. The idea of being able to eat as much lean meat/fish as I wanted to was nice, but I just couldn’t do it, a meal without carbs was not great. I could add some in as healthy extras or count the syns but that then limited my breakfast choices….

I have managed to teach myself to eat Weetabix, and vaguely like it. That’s quite an achievement for me, I’ve spent years saying I hate it and not touching it, but I needed an easy breakfast yesterday so I grabbed a couple, put them in a bowl with a little milk, a couple of spoons of natural yogurt, a chopped banana and a sprinkling of sweetener and it was yummy! We had it in the cupboard for the munchkin (not that she’s much of a fan of it either), but we’ve run out now, I’m going to have to head to Lidl this afternoon and buy some more.

The onyl problem at the moment is the time at which Mr H is getting home from work. It’s been around 6:30 for the past week, which is just before we put the munchkin to bed. That leaves us not thinking about our own dinner until almost 7:30, by which point we’re too tired to cook properly and end up with Mr H having soup and me having a pasta ’n’ sauce (free food if I make it without milk, though I usually have some of my milk allowance left). I’m so desperate to eat proper food, that’s part of the reason I decided to start doing Slimming World rather than Weight Watchers again. With WW I always end up on the points plan as I’m not very good at knowing when I’m full, and on the points plan I always seem to end up eating crap. On SW there’s so much free food and the healthy extras that I can eat when I want to and I don’t get so hungry, I’m trying to completely re-educate myself about food and for me that also means cooking decent food from scratch as often as I can.

It’s been hard to plan what to cook when I don’t know when Mr H is coming home as we can’t put food in the oven on a timer (we have a gas cooker) and the half hour when we put the munchkin to bed is time I can’t be in the kitchen. I think I’m going to have to start prepping all the ingredients after the munchkin’s tea, before we put her to bed, so that I can (and have to!) cook them once she’s in bed. Tonight shouldn’t be too bad as I have some Quorn mince to use so I’m going to make chilli this afternoon then I can just re-heat it when I cook the rice once the munchkin is on bed….

I think I’m going to sit down this afternoon and plan out what foods I have in to cook for the rets of this week and work out how best to go about it. Mr H has been very tired when he’s come in this week so I need to plan things I can do without any help from him….let’s hope I can stick to it when I do it!

Right…there’s a plan then….cook pasta for a salad for me for lunch, do some ready for the munchkin’s tea too (I can do a pasta bake for her), plan meals, cook up the chilli (minus kidney beans as Mr H won’t eat them), clean the hob (because it’s in dire need of it!) and then see where that all takes me to…wish me luck! Bye!