Happy Birthday...

... to ME!

Eurovision party tonight. Yay!

Words JJ has said so far today

Mummeeee
Bah (Bath)
Bye
Dir-dir (dirty)
Hat & Head (patting the top of my head|)
Ooshed (finished)
Shoo (tissue)
NO!
More!
Meeeee
Nana

And that's just the ones I remember. He has soooo many words now.

Horsie horsie don't you stop

Riding nappy packet horses!

Jaiden - things I'd like to remember, but don't have time to make into a post of their own

Today's accessory of choice is one welly boot (Soph's old ladybird ones, so two sizes too big). Every so often it will fall off, and much is the gnashing of teeth before it's properly restored onto his foot.

JJ's started having a name for himself.  Especially if looking at a photo of himself, he gets very excited, pointing to the picture and then to his belly. He says "Ja-da" (Ja pronounced as in German for yes), or "Ja ja" - the variations of what we call him - Jaiden or JJ.

He's obsessed with Sophia's fluffy bear. Fluffy is the bear of the moment for Sophia, and consequently for JJ too. Fluffy has a nappy and soph often declares that he needs his nappy changed because he's done a poo-poo. Today I left JJ while I was in the bathroom, and I thought I heard him saying "poopoo". When I came back into the room he triumphantly waved bear's nappy above his head shouting "POOPOO!".

Cake Pops

A lovely lady called Hazel (who happens to be the mum of Danielle, who has the honourary title of auntie to my kids) has a new venture in cake, and we all know how much I like cake.

I haven't actually tried any of her cake pops yet (hint hint), but my children have, and judging from their enthusiasm, it was good!

Go check out her facebook page and like it, and then come back and see my kids enjoying her work!

Here are some pics of them enjoying the amazing cake pops she sent them for Easter...

 Soph excited about a parcel with her name on it!

 "Look mummy, it's Peppa Pig"

 It went in his mouth all at once! (It was a hot air balloon)

"Yum!"

In appreciation

My lovely friend Julia set up a group on facebook for people in our local area to share and request 'family' items. Soph and JJ are modelling the lovely welly boots that we got today from two of the women in the group. Thanks ladies!

He's Alive!

(now I may be giving you a spoiler here, given that today is Good Friday, but just wanted to share that it turns out ok!)

Recipe book

Quick post written one handed as JJ's sleeping on the other!

I bought myself a recipe book yesterday and today I've been writing in recipes from random scraps of paper, most of which I found yesterday when I gave my 'baking stuff etc' cupboards a good tidy up and clear out.

I found one recipe, which originally Bekki found somewhere, written on four different bits of paper,meaning I'd rung one or other of the family to get it on four separate occasions!

Do you have a popular family recipe you'd share with me? Either in the comments or on your blog, with a link in the comments. Pretty please? And I'll share the banana cake recipe one day soon when I have two hands to type with!

(It amuses me every time that blogger's spell check fails to recognise the word 'blog')

Cooking

When I was little my dad was diagnosed with coeliac disease, this means (very basically!) that his body can't tolerate gluten, and he needs a gluten-free diet. Twenty plus years ago, the availability of gluten-free products was very limited, and those that there were didn't always taste good. That meant that it was better for my parents to get gluten-free flour, and make things from scratch.

I don't really remember what it was like before my dad was diagnosed, but I'm pretty certain my mum did a fair amount of cooking from scratch anyway, but after, they cooked pretty much everything from scratch, and I grew up thinking that was normal.

I am sooooooo thankful that that's the case. I was just looking on facebook and one blog or other was asking people their essential freezer meals, and then attempting to re-create them from scratch. I had a think about that, and realised I don't really even think of buying any freezer meals*, cos I just think that fresh/home cooked would be better.

I'm not saying I don't buy junk. sure, everyone does. But I've never bought a cake mix in my life - it just wouldn't even occur to me to do so!

I think what I'm trying to say is thank you mummy and daddy for the way you raised me, teaching me to cook from scratch. Cos it seems that's a skill a lot of other people are attempting to learn later on in life!

* In the spirit of full disclosure, I do sometimes by ready meals off the reduced shelf for Menard to take to work for lunch. But I wouldn't dream of eating them myself! I'd much rather have homecooked lasagne than the stuff you buy as a ready meal. 

Jaiden's approach to eating

Jaiden's reacently got into using a spoon (or at least trying!)

But now he wants to use it for everything.

Sandwich? Bring on that spoon!

I *think* that's progress

Morning conversations

Soph: I want more milk
Mum: There's still milk in your cup, you can drink that
Soph: It's too wet
Mum: What?!?!?!


 Mum: Jaiden, kiss Soph to say sorry
Jaiden: Mwah
Soph: *wiping slobber off her cheek* Jaiden, that's NOT a nice kiss

Pick me, pick me

I've just been promoting my blog facebook page a little to my friends and I got a couple of new 'likes'.
That made me think that maybe I ought to actually write something on my blog. Oh the pressure.

( If you're on facebook and want to like my page, it's here
While you're at it, you might as well also like our business page too, go on, you know you want to! )

Well, it's Mothers' day here in the UK, so whether you're in the UK or not, if you're a mummy, then I'm wishing you a happy mothers' day. And to any of you for whom Mothers' day is tinged with sadness, then I pray that God's peace and comfort will be you.

Muffins and Mush!

This morning I've been productive in the kitchen and at using up things from my freezer that are from before my big de-frosting session last weekend (by which I mean the one ten days ago, and not the one that's just gone).

I made 'Healthy pumpkin banana muffins' roughly from this recipe. It's the second time I've done them, and the recipe is definitely a keeper (well, a keeper to continually mess with!).

I used all wholemeal flour instead of a mix of white and wholemeal, a mix of wheatgerm and wheat bran instead of oat bran. I made applesauce from scratch. Last time I used a mix of pumpkin that mum and I had cooked (two different pumpkins, a pot of each!). This time I had no pumpkin, so I boiled and mashed sweet potato and that totally worked!  For the spices I did a good shake of mixed spice and a a bit more than that of cinnamon. Instead of nuts I put about 150g plain chocolate.

 I also made 'sausage and vegetable mush'. Which despite it's name, is actually yummy and not as weird looking as you might think!

I took out of the freezer the sausagemeat, home cooked black eye beans, and mashed banana. I'll be putting back in 5 pots of sausage stuff, some of 46 muffins (depending on how many we eat first!), and two pots each of applesauce and sweet potato. Result!

Easy food to give to new mums (and dads)

We have lots of pregnant ladies in church right now, and many of them are due in the next few days, weeks, months.

We were so blessed when people brought us food in those early days, so I'm setting up a rota of people to take food over to them in the first week or two.

I was going to make a list of foods that would be good to take, but then a friend of mine shared this website with me, and I'd definitely recommend checking it out if you know someone who'd appreciate a meal, whether it be new mum, or old!

Marching on

Ok, so, I blogged through January and pretty much took February off.

I'm back tomorrow with a bang. Well, hopefully more than a whimper, anyway.

First time in the snow

(not more snow, just a photo from when we had the snow)0

Menard's latest video

Sometimes life can make you feel a bit run over

but it's ok to stay and rest awhile before you get up and go again!

Magic muffins

Sophia is at that fussy eater stage of life. And she's an especially fussy one. She *might* eat a baked bean or two, if you're very lucky and the wind is blowing in the right direction. She also likes to pick the beans out of Nan's rice and peas. But that's about all the vegetables she'll eat. Or that's what she thinks. I sneck them into her when I can.

Ella's kitchen baby food pouches
She likes the brown one and the purple one(see below)

Better still, she sometimes calls them liquid chocolate!
They're not the cheapest thing in the world, but it's gets some veg in, which is something her digestion desperately needs on occasion!

The other thing I do is make muffins with added extras of fruit and veg. I'll take a recipe which already contains some fruit or veg, and throw in some more, just for kicks!
Right now Sophia is sleeping, and I threw together some muffins which are reasonably low in sugar, almost fat free, contain wholemeal flour and oats and had... pear&apple puree (used instead of oil), a whole apple, a whole carrot, a whole banana, half a courgette and some sultanas. I just hope they pass the Sophia test later on!

Menard's slideshow

February

I blogged right through January!

As a reward I might not push myself to post every day in February.

We'll see.

But for now, this is me not really posting today!

Happy February!

Friday Flashback!

crazy crazies

The way I summed up the rest of my day yesterday on facebook...

"Today was a crazy crazy day, starting at 5.30am - thanks kids for graciously waking me up so I had time to fit in a ton of things. And thanks for weeing on the floor so I'd give you both baths, and tipping over a plant so I'd hoover the whole downstairs and.... I love you Soph and JJ, even if you do change up my to-do list a little."
 
Today has not got off to the most auspicious start, with a rough night, but we're off to see my mummy and daddy (once all the people stop being asleep again!) so that will be lovely I'm sure :)

Do all the things

My children graciously decided that they would wake up at 5.30am to give me plenty of time today to do all the things. So before 7am came around I'd already got a load of washing in the machine and done almost all of yesterday's washing up!

It's not yet ten o'clock and I have thus far done breakfast, caught up with the online world, stripped and changed the bedding on my bed, put the wet washing out on the airer, sorted dry washing and started putting it away, dealt with wee on the floor, and consequently bathed two children. The one that did the wee, and then the little one wanted to jump in the bath too, so he also went in, dried and dressed the kids, half dressed me (the other half is still pyjamas) and started another load of washing (bedding and towels and all that was wee-ed on).

Now I am just sitting for a minute before I make white sauce and assemble some lasagnas.

boozing it up on fruit shoot and ricecake

snapshot

Jaiden is doing something to my hair with a spoon. It feels a bit like when the hairdresser pulls two strands to check they're the same length. I suppose I should be glad it's a sppon he's holding and not something more dangerous!

Sophia is watching Cbeebies (TV channel for young children). I like to watch a bit of news and weather first thing and then we switch over for a few (or more than a few) children's programs. 'Tilly and her friends' just finished - that's one of the gentler ones, and quite enjoyable, even for mummy, as opposed to others which I turn off when they come on!

I am trying to be awake. JJ cried in his sleep a fair bit and Soph cried out at 2.30am. I went in, but she was actually asleep, but in going in, I woke JJ. He had a nappy change and went back to his bed ok, but coghed a lot over the next hour and cried and cried at 3.30am, so he came into our bed to stay! And that's that!

Happy birthday to my daddy

How to run a kids' clothes swap (beautiful assistants not included)

Last year I was sorting through Soph's clothes and had a bag of bits and pieces that we no longer needed, and that I wanted to pass on to someone, but I wasn't sure who would need them.
Why not get a bunch of friends together, all bring clothes their kids didn't need, and swap them, at  the same time we could drink coffee and eat cake (Mums are especially good at multitasking!).
The idea (not original, but my version thereof) was born.
That clothes swap was in my house. Today we had our second one, in the meeting room of my church's offices. I think it was even bigger and better than last time. Here's how I did it... and how you can too.

Set a date and a location. If the date is quite far off (as this one was) make sure you promote the event nearer the time, and remind people lots, but in a non-annoying way. (I hope I managed that).
Our planned location actually changed twice over time, but it was fine!
So second I would emphasise be flexible and don't panic!

Once you've settled upon your time, date and location, start telling people. (I went for 10.30 start this time, cos that meant those of us setting up didn't have to be up at the crack of dawn. I arrived at the location about 9.20am)

Invite all your friends with kids. Set up a facebook group. Think about how big your location is, but don't be scared to invite more than double the number you can actually fit in your venue - not everyone will be able to make it. Go through your phone and text all your friends with kids there too.
Pretty much everyone will bring baby clothes, so also invite expectant mothers, or those you think might be planning to have kids (get cheeky, people can always say no!)

Co-opt a couple of friends to be your beautiful assistants. You could do it all yourself, but you'd probably get a bit stressed. And your friends will bring new perspective and together you'll come up with some great ideas. I've had Rachel, Claire and Corena as my beautiful assistants for my clothes swaps, and I honestly couldn't have done it without them.

Think about child care for your kids during the event, cos you'll probably be busy running it and it would be handy to have another pair of hands and eyes around. Last time I had my mum and today my wonderful husband (and Claire's) were these to help with the kids and be oh so gentlemanly and assist with carrying etc etc. (Thanks!)

Think about how to display the clothes - we used a variety of boxes (pretty much anything I could find!) Last time we had a hanging rail.

Make labels. If you laminate them, you can use them again next time. Stick the labels on the boxes, thinking about which sizes are likely to have most clothes. For us, we had a lot of baby clothes, so I had my biggest boxes at that end and put them in small age ranges (Newborn and 0-3 month, 3-6m, 6-9m, 9-12m, 12-18m, 18-24m, 2-3years etc)

Ask your friends to presort if you can! It's so much easier if you can come and just tip a bag into a bag and go, but be prepared that you will need to help sort on the day too.

Think about what else you want to swap and share - we had bedding, towels, toy, 'baby equipment', shoes, socks, etc etc. But try to have a place for each item, so people can find the right boxes to put things in, and find things to take away too!

Consider telling people with older kids about the event (I set a rough guide of newborn-age 10 for the event). But sometimes people with older kids are ready to have a turn out of baby paraphernalia and are happy to donate it to those with the littles.

Don't feel like you have to make all the cakes - buy some, or ask folk to contribute too. People like doing that.

Tell people as they arrive, what you want them to do - We asked them to sort their own stuff into boxes, and then they could start taking. But be prepared to muck in too!
Have a plan what to do with leftovers (you will have leftover!) - we gave to charity, including my church, and I sent the people who were around at the end away with a bag or two to take to their favourite charity shop. Last time we stored some of the baby clothes because a number of our friends were expecting babies soon!

Be prepared to feel totally exhausted afterwards!

Start small the first time so you get a feel for it, but be prepared for it to all take off.

Above all, have fun!

(Of course, we're considering changing this system slightly for next time, with potentially a bigger venue, and asking people to bring their donations the day before so we can sort them better)

Not a picture

Wanted to upload some pics, but blogger or computer is being super slow.

So, this is not a picture of Soph in a box. You can all move along now.

Oh the possibilities....

Those with kids will understand

Happy birthday to...

...my very special little sister (who done got big!) Seriously, how did you get so old?! Here she is with her lovely Mr Steve.

Ok, so maybe that wasn't the most flattering of pictures, let's ty again...

That's better! Have a wonderful day!

snowman