Happy First Birthday Sophia!

One year ago our little baby girl arrived and totally roacked our world. How quick time passes!


(I wanted to compare with an up to date photo, but can't find the camera leads. Will post more pics soon, hopefully!)

A quick link

I have been enjoying making chutney and jam lately (homemade Christmas presents here we come...!)
Today I made caramel apple jam, and judging from the taste of the leftover bits stuck to the wooden spoon, it's delicious!

The much awaited Green Tomato Chutney recipe

Last year my friend Danielle made some green tomato chutney and gave me a little jar of it, and it was yummy! I decided that if I ever got the chance I would either steal her entire supply of it, or even better, get the recipe.

This year, thanks to the heat and then the rain, my in laws had a lot of tomatoes that were refusing to turn red. I asked them if I could have some, and they graciously gave me many many of them, and I also had lots of onions my father in law had grown on his allotment. How could it get better than that? Homemade chutney, made with homegrown ingredients.

Danielle duly gave me the recipe, and thanks to the power of google (actually, come to think of it, it was the swag bucks tool bar I used) I was able to search and find the original website the recipe came from. And since I'm a bit lazy I will just give you a link to the yummiest chutney I know. I took some photos when I was making it, but I'm not awake enough at 6.45am to do all that camera/computer/leads malarkey. All I can say is check out the link and try it! Also, it really is worth dicing up the tomatoes and onions - they pretty much stay the size you cut them, and if you cut them too small it'd just be too chunky.

I made 5 jars, one's going to Danielle, one's gone to my in laws, and I may give one to my mum. The other two I'm fiercely guarding. It's just too yummy!

hello, oh blog of mine

See, I knew that my blogging streak wouldn't last, but did you enjoy it while it did?

Today I'm at my parents' house. My wonderful daddy looked after Sophia while I got my hair cut. I also looked for some new clothes, but only managed to buy some underwear, but that was needed, so it's all good.

Ok, Sophia's trying to help me type, so I shall leave you with this... a rare photo of Sophia with a hat on (note my arm putting the hat on, and Sophia's hat about to pull it off again!)

Who would've thought it?

I don't eat fish. The thought of eating fish makes me feel queasy, even the smell of fish makes me feel sick, I avoid it at all costs. And yet, nowadays I buy it about once a week and cook it, without feeling sick, for Sophia. Wow, things have certainly changed.

I've been making green tomato chutney. I made one batch Saturday night and took some photos as I did it, although they weren't that good. I bought more onions today as I have enough green tomatoes to make one and a half times the original quantity I made. I will post the recipe and my photos once I've got the camera and computer to agree to link up.

Dreaming

I had a funny dream this morning.

I dreamt I'd gone back to visit the school where I worked before I went on maternity leave and didn't go back! I walked into a classroom, which was sort of the one I used to work in, but also differnet. It was Friday afternoon and that's the teacher's non-contact time, so there was a supply teacher there, but she was getting all flustered over teaching them about 'more than' and 'less than' (> and <). I was even getting them to tell me thumbs up or thumbs down or in the middle (or green, amber and red traffic light colours), to indicate how well they thought they understood. I was an amazing teacher!)

Buy anyway, I noticed I could hear this sort of babbling noise that someone kept making in the classroom and I was going round trying to find out who it was. I was getting so frustrated that I found out the classroom next door was empty and sent the supply teacher in there and was in the process of sending the children there with her one by one to figure it out by process of elimination. I was down to a couple of boys and I was looking at them, but none of their mouths were moving, so I just didn't know who was making the noise...

...and then I woke up, and realised it was Sophia chatting away to herself in her cot.

The fun of free food

Guest post by HB my sister:

This summer I have loved eating free foods picked from the wild. My husband and I had a week at my in-laws house while they were away on holiday.
In their garden they have a large number of runner beans, an apple tree and a couple of plum trees. So we had a feast of food to eat!! We'd been instructed to pick the beans daily and eat as many as we could and give some away. Believe me, there were masses of beans, I'm amazed they weren't coming out of our ears!!! But it was lovely being able to give away beans to friends and neighbours.
We picked many plums and apples too and I made a lot of crumbles for puddings while we were there. We were also able to take some away with us to share with my family and to bring back home with us.
On the way back home, we also visited a friend and decided to go blackberry picking along a country lane. By the time we were home we had several bags of fruit to put in our freezer and we are still eating our way through blackberries now!!
I wish I had fruit trees in our garden. Maybe when we next move I'll have to put it on my wish list!! In the mean time I'll just have to carry on raiding my family's gardens and the wild!! I thoroughly recommend you give it a go too :-)

Daddy's girl

Thinking thoughts

Why, when the weather is about to turn, did I suddenly feel like cleaning and washing everything - like the pillows and duvet cover...? I'm trying to be realistic though, cos I know it's going to rain tomorrow!

I made apple cake and Menard says it's yummy. I'm trying to avoid eating any, but it does smell good.

Sophia is getting better at walking with her push along toy. I'm sure she'll be doing it by herself anytime soon.

I'm starting to think about Christmas. I know it's still September, but I figure at least this way things will be ticking over in my mind and I'll be all organised. Worth a try anyway!

Holday smiles

(Thank you Grandad (aka my daddy) for letting me raid your photo collection!)

I'm addicted... to my slow cooker

I have a copy of 'Fix it and forget it lightly' and I decided that I wanted to start using my crock pot more, this is apparently a match made in heaven!
Last week I made bolognaise sauce and then on Sunday I tried a recipe from my cookbook, and this is the one I made and loved...

Lemon Garlic Chicken
(makes 4 servings, ideal slow-cooker size 3 1/2 quart)

1 tsp Oregano
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
4 chicken breasts (I used turkey breast steaks cos that's what I had!)
2 Tbsp butter or margarine
1/4 cup water (I put more like 1/2 cup)
3 Tbsp lemon juice (I put about half a lemon, but didn't really measure!)
2 garlic cloves, crushed (I used 3 cos Menard loves garlic)
1 tsp low sodium chicken bouillon granules (I used vegetable)
1 tsp minced fresh parsley

(can you tell I'm one of those people who uses a recipe just as a basis?!)

1. Combine oregano, salt and pepper. Rub the mixture all over the chicken. Brown chicken in the butter (or margarine) in a skillet. Transfer to slow cooker.

2. Place water, lemon juice, garlic, and bouillon in skillet. Bring to the boil, loosening browned bits from the skillet. Pour over the chicken.

3. Cover. Cook on high 2 - 2 1/2 hours or low 4 - 5 hours.

4. Add parsley and baste chicken. Cover. Cook on high 15 - 30 minutes, until chicken is tender.

Per serving 180 calories

(Also posted on One Weigh or Another)

The Very Hungry Catapillar...

I seem to be creating my own version of The Very Hungry Caterpillar on the top of my fridge...On Satuday he ate through three pears, four avacadoes, some crossaints and a box of plums...

Introducing

There are a whole bunch of blogs which I read intermittently (because sometimes I forget about them and sometimes I just don't have time to read) that I've been thinking I ought to add to my blog roll.

So here they are...

We are that family - I started reading this blog when Works for me Wednesday moved from being hosted by Rocks in my Dryer to here. I got hooked by the posts about real life, real love, real faith, and I'm still reading.

The Diaper Diaries - I remember following a link from someone's blog to find this blog. Probably Shannon's blogroll over at Rocks in My Dryer (before she changed her blog around and I had to start finding other people's blogs for myself!). I have dabbled a little into her 1 Cor 7:5 challenge, and would recommend it to other Christian wives!

The Common Room - I first came across this blog while living with Blest for three months (My Texan adventures!). I have come to recognise that The Deputy Headmistress, as she calls herself, writes wise, thoughtful and thought provoking stuff both at this blog and at Frugal Hacks. I might not always share her opinions or come from the same background, but I always come away with some little nugget to chew upon.

switching off, one plug at a time

Ok, I have a question. I'm sure I could google it and read lots of articles, but it's more fun to ask my readers...
I've got a bit obsessive about turning off switches in this house, especially in the kitchen (although obviously not the fridge or freezer). But I generally just switch them off, I don't remove plugs from the socket. Do I actually save energy/money by doing that? Or should I be unplugging things where I can as well?

Less than 12 hours old

How time has flown.

Debs thinks about blogging

I am a blogger. I still blog. I write blog posts ALL THE TIME. Problem is it's usually when I'm lying in bed, or sat in the car, or even on the loo! When I sit at a computer there are way too many things to distract me from the actual sit down and type it bit. There's facebook and twitter, my blog roll and other people's. And then there are all the blogs that I read that I really need to get around to adding to the blog roll. Then there's replying to tweets and checking my @debsenglishrose messages. Then making some comments on facebook, checking my emails, saying hi to the goigs, looking at ebay to see if any of my stuff has sold, and then refreshing the page to see if anything else has changed in the past ten seconds. And... no wonder I'm better at blogging in my head than at the computer.

Well, I'm trying to change. I love blogging, and I love the feedback I get from other people. People who have similar lives to mine, and people who are totally different. People who comment, and people who don't so much (but who I would love to hear from once in a while, especially if you knew me in a past life, so to speak - Esther, Imogen, Bud I'm talking to people like you..!)

I have so many blog post ideas wandering around in my head. Things like showing you photos of Sophia that have finally been uploaded from my phone, we're talking early days here people, blast from the past and all that! Not to mention photos and stories from our holiday just recently. And then (I like those two words today) there are ideas that are just forming. Ideas that I'm trying to get straight in my head, that I'd like to blog about, but I'm hesitant to do so cos I don't want to be shot down (for example, thoughts on contraception). And then there are the random, out of nowhere, silly thoughts that surely my blog ought to be a good outlet for.

Ok, so I'm trying. Watch this space. And if nothing happens, go away for a few days and do your own thing, and then come back and watch some more. I'll be here, eventually. Blogging's in my blood, I just can't help doing it.

Does not compute

I was reading a post on Kathleen's blog yesterday about buying school supplies (at least I think I was, I just looked and I can't see it anywhere now, did I just dream it?) and it reminded me of the same thing I've thought every time someone talks about school supplies at this time of year.
"What? You have a list of things that your child has to have for school?!"

You see, over here (by which I mean my limiter experience of British schools) sure you get ready to go back to school, but you decide for yourself what you need. At primary school (age 5-11) I recall that we were mostly encouraged not to bring our own stuff from school, but rather use the school's pencils etc. I can understand that thirty 5 year olds arguing over which pencil case belongs to which child is not really ideal. I think that towards the end of primary school we were considered sensible enough to bring in our own stuff to use, but again, there were school resources there to use, and we were encouraged to use them.

Or course at secondary school you had to bring your own stuff. I remember the days when my pencil case had been the one thing that hadn't been stuffed back in to the weighty overpacked bag and I'd have to spend the day blagging off over people. Pretty much you were on your own with that. But no one ever told us buy this folder and not that one, or buy such and such. Actually, to be truthful, I vaguely remember being told what sketch pad and pencils to buy for Art lessons, but that's about it. Oh, and maybe an apron for Food Technology.

But really, this whole list of exact specifications of what to buy just does not compute in my brain.

Bargainous!

Those of you on twitter, or who pay attention to my twitter box on my sidebar may have noticed that charity shop shopping was the thing to do while on holiday this year. My grand total in the end was 51 charity shops, two children's stuff second hand shops and one general second hand shop. These were found in a number of towns and cities, including, but not limited to Exeter, Exmouth, Sidmouth, Topsham and Cheltenham.

And boy, did we find some good stuff. The photos below show some of the stuff we bought, but not a lot of the stuff my parents got, cos it was getting a bit ridiculous, besides, my mum could only distract Sophia for so long while I laid it all out.
There were lots of toys and books. Notably one on baby signing, and I've now taught Sophia to ask for milk (blue book on the left). The best toy buys were probably the yellow box of Duplo (the small people's version of lego) - 90 pieces for £3, and the box to boot. And the ride on/push along toy. We've been thinking of getting something like that for Sophia to practice walking without us (and she did for the first time today, photo to follow at a later date).
We also got lots of clothes. Actually, a lot of my clothes finds were actually on the final Saturday, and therefore after I'd taken this photo. Here we have several dresses and tops for Sophia, and a cardigan which she was in great need of. Towards the left you can see a blue top and a black with flowers top which are mine. And one of my favourites, the hat at the top, which has strings, so I can tie it on Sophia and she can't take it off again in the next mili-second. It was a total bargain as I got it for 10p!
Finally, a lot of the stuff I found were named brand items. I got clothes for Sophia from Next, Gap, and more... and at prices like 50p or 99p. Sounds good to me :)

I'm back!

But tired and recovering from food poisoning (yeah, not what you want when you're driving home).
Hopefully tomorrow I will be eating proper food and blogging again :)

On holiday

Although we have wi-fi in our flat, I couldn't get Menard's I-pad to let me write a blog post. So this is me writing a quick one on HB's computer. We're loving being on holiday with my parents, especially the bits where Nana looks after Sophia at 6.30am and lets us go back to bed. Nana is definitely flavour of the month so far as Sophia's concerned. Mummy's useful when it comes to the serious business of milk, but otherwise Nana is Top Dog!

Back once we're home, with pics (hopefully, my camera is about to die and I forgot the lead to charge it, but my dad's got his camera too)

photo catch up

It was Sophia's dedication* on the 25th July and we had a wonderful party at her Nan and Grandad's house afterwards (that's Menard's family). Little diva that she is, she even had an outfit change mid-party.
* We chose not to have Sophia Christened as we don't think that we can decide for her whether she wants to follow Jesus and be a Christian. That's a decision she will have to make for herself a bit later on. However, we do want to recognise that she is a wonderful gift from God, and to thank Him for her, which is why we 'dedicate' children in our church.

It's the giggle that gets me

I'm still nursing Sophia and will be for the next however long until she and I are ready to stop. Early on I wasn't producing enough milk for her so we had to give her bottles as well, but I was determined not to stop breastfeeding, and I haven't. I got through sore nipples and mastitis back in the early days, and now mostly it's smooth going - although there was some experimentation when she first got teeth! I generally dumped her down on the floor if that happened, and she soon learnt that if she wanted the milk, she had to keep those teeth out of the way.

Anyway, I was thinking about all this at about 5am this morning. We had a rough night. Two nights ago she actually slept right through, but not so last night. So although she's mostly night weaned, sometimes she gets some extra, just so that she can get back to sleep and mummy can get some zeds too. She woke at 5am, screaming and soaking wet as her nappy had leaked. I brought her into the living room, changed her and calmed her down, and then we headed back to bed for some milk. As soon as she lay down and I pulled up my top she gave this little giggle. It's a wonderful sound, it's the sound that tells me she's happy, she's excited that she's having some mummy milk, that it's like she's having a special treat. And that giggle is one of the reasons I'll continue to breastfeed. So long as I enjoy it, and she enjoys it, we'll keep going.

Gone fishin'

Sorry to have been awol for a few days. To add to my dodgy ankle, Sophia ran a really high temperature from Tuesday evening til Friday morning. It's back down to normal now which is a relief. We did get her checked over by the doctor and he said her ears, throat, chest etc were all fine and that most likely it's teething related (added to the slightly funny nappies and runny nose evidence).

We can't see the tooth/teeth as yet, but you can sort of see something on the top gum that looks like it might be something trying to get through, so we shall wait and see, and hope for a normal temperature and good sleeping in the meanwhile.

I drove a bit yesterday and today, and my ankle is bearable. Still doing my best to avoid driving and walking around too much, and trying to rest with it up as best I can.

A little whine

My ankle hurts. It hurts, it hurts :( When will it be better?

Monday was a tiring day

I drove to the supermarket (emergency toilet roll trip, and a good excuse to try driving). It was not a success, and I don't plan to be driving again for a few more days. My ankle is very sore again this evening.

Check my beautiful bubba sleeping on Grandad (my dad) on the afternoon of her dedication.
If I'm not here, you may find me over there.

bits and pieces

Thanks all those of you who left concerned comments on my last post. My ankle is still sore and aching. The bruising is still progressing in colours - we're now at the darker, more boring green sort of end of the scale, with a few areas of purple. I'm hoping that it will stop aching soon, because it's very wearing. I actually stayed home from church this morning and went back to bed cos the constant pain (even if just a throb) was getting me down, and I was just exhausted. Menard's also taken Sophia to his mum's house this afternoon, so it's been a lovely break. I went back to bed and slept for more than two hours, and this afternoon I've cooked some food that I can reheat for lunch for the next few days and now I'm pottering around on the computer.

Last week I was very blessed to have several visitors. Especially at the start of the week when I could barely walk, let alone walk holding a baby. Luckily she's an excellent crawler now. In fact she's probably still faster than me, even though I am able to limp about a fair bit now. So big thanks to my mum, Danielle and Rachel & James who kept me sane.

I'm feeling a bit more inspired to blog, so hopefully I'll be around a bit more than I have been recently. Talking about blogging, some of us are blogging again over at One Weigh or Another. We will be weighing in on Monday, and taking it from there. I am very much ashamed to admit that I put back on all of the weight I had originally lost, and a bit more. But, I'm making a fresh start, and it's going to work! I know that last time around one of the things that kept me going was being accountable to folk online and their encouragement when things got tough, so feel free to drop by over there to say hi, or to join us in our weight loss journey if you would like to.

An Eventful Afternoon

It was a gloomy Saturday afternoon when it happened. She was shopping with her family, trying to finally buy a highchair for the baby. She wondered where time had gone, how had Sophie got to be nearly ten months already? Anyway, it was definitely about time, and so that's what they did.

They'd exhausted the range in Mothercare, rejecting this one because it was too short, and that one because it was too light and flimsy. There was one that seemed to be right and they asked the saleswoman for her help. But calamity, there were none in stock, not in that branch, or in any of the local branches. There was the ability to order it in, but they decided to try another shop, and if they had no success there, they would order online.

After another false start at Argos, they set off for the bright lights of Tesco Extra. Surely this vast store would offer the goods that they searched for. She parked up, having stopped at the recycling zone to discover the delights of an electronic recycling machine. They exited the car and headed for the store, only to be greeted with the sounds of an alarm and crowds of people being herded out of the shop. They could not enter, this was certain. No matter, instead they found shelter in the cafe inside M&S next door. Bellies full, and nappy emptied (or rather replaced) they again tried their luck and this time were rewarded.

Tesco was open, and they were welcomed inside by the swish of the electric doors. Briefly she separated from her husband, him to look at electronics, and her to select a new pan to replace the one she had burnt a few days previous. Reunited they set off once again in search of a new highchair. She found the aisle and they moved along it. Past any number of equipment for babies, and finally to the treasure they sought. Having consulted with a helpful sales assistant they agreed to purchase said item.

And now the moment of calamity was close. She volunteered to fetch a trolley for which to use to transport the highchair, and she headed towards the door. She had so nearly reached this point when all of a sudden her right ankle collapsed somehow beneath her, and she found herself upon the floor in a heap. A security guard was asking "do you need a first aider?" and after checking her ankle she agreed, that yes, she did. Her ankle was beyond standing for the present time.

sprained ankle, busy week, back soon

Who can resist this cheeky grin?

Anyone out there?

My email system is online, and can be downloaded to something like outlook, but I've not set that up since I got married. The problem with it is that it automatically deletes emails which are more than three months old. This means that even if I should have your email, I probably don't anymore.

So, if I know you, particularly people like the folk from One Weigh or Another, I would love the chance to get back in touch with some of you. But many of you I've lost your emails and or links to your blogs and stuff like that, and I don't really know how to get in contact with you. But if on the off chance you're still reading my blog, maybe you'll do me a favour and get in touch with me!

Leave a comment or email me white-elephant AT hotmail DOT co DOT uk (this may not be the email you've had from me in the past, but it's one that does not include my name, which is why I'm putting it here)
I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

It's box time!

update

I'm still buying reduced. I gave up trying to work out how much I was saving each shop cos a) I didn't have time to stick it all into a spreadsheet and b) half the time it's not possible to know what the original price for something was. However, I have a pretty good idea of how much certain things cost, and how much I'm willing to pay for them. I think I probably have pretty low (or is that high) expectations of price for some things. I won't buy something like raspberries or strawberries unless they're very reduced. I saw some strawberries reduced to £1.19 today and just laughed.

As well as buying as much reduced as I can I've also set myself a budget to stick to. This is just the first week, and I'm only halfway through, but it's going well I think. I decided to have a certain amount of cash at the beginning of the week, and that's my limit (although I've still got my debit card in my purse for emergencies, or really good offers!). I think that using cash gives me a better idea of what I'm actually spending, rather than just blindly handing over my card and not really taking any notice of how much I'm spending.

Sophia's had a nasty cold since Tuesday evening, and Tuesday night was a really rough one. Last night was better, and she's down for the night tonight, but she's still not right. She was coughing a lot when she first went down, but that seems to have stopped for now. I think Menard may be coming down with it too, so hopefully we'll all get over it quickly. Especially since Sophia's being dedicated on Sunday and we're having a party afterwards. It would be a shame if one of us were not able to be there.

They really do exist!

Aftera fewinteresting outtakes
we finally got the "I have two teeth" shot.

more drivel?

I've got writers block. I stare at the empty blog post and my mind goes empty. I blog all the time in my head, but when I'm face to face with a computer I forget all the things I wanted to say.

I want to write real things, about life as a mummy and wife. Life trying to lose weight. Life being me. But I also want to protect my daughter and husband and not make them live in a goldfish bowl.

I want to write as a therapy to help me move on in life. Not that I'm in a bad place, but that I know that writing my thoughts helps me to analyse them. I don't know how to do that at the moment.

This blog has been a lot of things. A place for photos and to record family events, a place to share with the folks back home what I'm up to. Somewhere to show off our little gift from God and how she's growing and changing. A place to muse and ask opinions. I've been a mummy for over nine months, but I don't feel qualified to call myself a mummy blogger. I've been married for 15 months, but is that long enough for me to share my thoughts, opinions and advice about marriage?

As an aside I'll tell you what Sophia is currently doing. She's sat on the floor in front of me with two spoons - one a dessert spoon, the other wooden. She keeps holding them out in front of her with her arms outstretched and then banging them together and singing. Occasionally she'll give one or the other a lick, but then continue banging and waving them. She's so totally engrossed in what she's doing, and totally enjoying it. I'd like to be that about blogging again, just for a few minutes of my day. To sit at the computer and write, and enjoy it, be satisfied with what I'm writing. That it's not just drivel. That's all I seem to be able to come up with at the moment.

can we pretend

that I didn't neglect the bit of my mental do-to list (over a week ago) that said "auto-post some pics and stuff so that your blog isn't left without posts for a week or so"

I'd write something more now, but I'm in post-dentist appointment state, and since I had an injection, it's not pretty (it tends to leave me feeling pretty rough).

Back soon, with, I think, at least one pic of Sophia on the beach on holiday

Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get

In the boot (aka trunk for y'all across the sea) of my car there are lots of things that probably don't help me to get the most economical use of my car, but it also means that I don't have to store them indoors. For example Sophia's buggy, my walking boots, a couple of picnic rugs, shopping bags...
There are also a few other more random things, including the orders of service from the last few weddings that we've been to. These include Bekki and HP (now HB)'s weddings. [In case anyone doesn't know, or is unfamiliar with the term an order of service is basically the outline of what will happen in the wedding service and song words, who will do what, etc. It's a lovely way to help people know what's happening on the day, and to look back on afterwards].

I started thinking about the orders of service as I drove over to my mum's house yesterday. We didn't have one for our wedding, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me explain...

They say that women start to dream about the perfect wedding from when they are little girls. Certainly, it's a role play game that little girls are often found playing. I remember our dressing up box with old net curtains being great for making veils and dresses etc. I'm not sure that I exactly ever 'planned out' my wedding ceremony, but I did have certain expectations of it. In my early teens (or even earlier) I was a part of our church's choir. This was a Church of England church, with a set wedding service. If people requested a choir for their ceremony we got to sit up in the choir stalls to sing, and got paid for it. That seemed like easy money to me! But anyway, the point is that I got used to hearing the Church of England wedding ceremony, and can still quote back lines from it.

HB and her Steve did get married in that church, they had the traditional wedding service and I enjoyed the chance to be a part of their wonderful day. I was the 'pregnant bridesmaid' on that occasion. But for Menard and myself we decided that rather than get married there, in my local parish church, we wanted to be married in our own church - Jubilee Church. This has what you might call a less traditional typical Sunday service, and consequently our wedding was less traditional than HB's.

We got married in a cinema! How many people can say that?! And who would ever dream of that from an early age (although some of the current young folk in our chuch may!) We didn't have the traditional wording for the vows. We did choose a couple of the songs, but I can't actually remember what they were. As proof of that, someone in my family said to me a while back "we sang this at your wedding" and I said "did we?!". We didn't have an order of sevice for people to read on the day and keep if they so wanted to. We actually had to additionally have a registry office ceremony as the legal obligations of the marriage ceremony could not be fulfilled in the cimema at that time. In many ways it was entirely different to what I would have expected of my wedding.

But I'm so glad that our wedding was different. In a way it prepared me for the fact that marriage itself was in many ways entirely different from what I'd been expecting. Oh, it's not a bad thing. I love being married. I'm just not sure I really understood what getting married would mean in the long term. Having a wedding is one day, a marriage lasts a lifetime. I love Menard with all my heart, and I hope and pray that this is 'until death we part'. But it's entirely different to some of my expectations.

(I will be blogging more about this soon)

Yesterday...

... I got to meet two wonderful sisters (and their parents) who I got to know online through Etsy and who are over here from the USA for a short time. They are Ace and Mags (online nicknames) and the former has an etsy shop (which is currently set on vacation mode as she's away, and has just moved house).

(L to R Mags, Ace, Debs and Sophia)

Unfortunately my mum and my camera's auto focus don't get on well, so this is the best shot I have of us at Covent Garden yesterday.

It was also Sophia's first time on the Tube. She was a little overawed, but kept the whole carriage entertained with her sheer beautifulness!

Much overdue thanks (part 2)

This post is another big thank you to an Etsy seller who so lovingly donated something so that I could have free stuff! Today I'm thanking Kim of the shop kjmSILKS. She sent me the beautiful silk scarf which my mummy is kindly modelling for me in this photo. I meant to take a close up of the detail, but I didn't, and I want to get this post up, so I'm afraid you'll just have to trust me when I say it's truly lovely.
Thanks Kim, I really appreciated your gift :-)

Much overdue thanks (part 1)

Way way back, around 8 months ago (!) I had the privilege of receiving some parcels from across the seas, thanks to Etsy and a wonderful idea of an esty baby shower. This week I finally managed to capture Sophia with two of the four things that I was lucky enough to receive, and so I'm finally writing the blog post about them that I promised.
I know that they're not the best photos ever and I apologise to littlealouette and Maryum for that.

Maryum of the etsy shop SweetDesignsbyMaryum sent the adorable dress that Sophia is wearing. She was diligent in checking the size and specification of what she would be making to ensure that it would be something that we could use, and as you can see Sophia and I are very happy with the result. Better still, because she made it with a fairly large size vest as the basis, Sophia has been able to wear it when she was small, and it still fits her now, and is actually perfect for the spring/summer weather we've had recently.

Joe and Amy Sharp from the shop littlealouette sent the wooden teether that Sophia is holding. Although she was seemingly more interested in my water bottle and camera strap, Sophia actually loves this teether and it's had lots of use both being chewed on and also just as a fascinating toy to hold and play with.

Thank you so much to both shops. I really appreciated your kindness and generosity. Sorry it's taken so long for me to return the favour! Readers, please click over and check out their shops :)

random thoughts

Why do they always talk about the torque a car has on 5th Gear, but never mention anything like that on Top Gear?

Similarly, why do they list car stats on Top Gear by saying time it takes to go from zero to sixty mph, whereas on 5th Gear they talk about 0 to 62.

Sophia loves it when you tickle her face with your hair.

My glasses make me feel like I'm living life in HD, and I'm not sure I like it. Hopefully my eyes will settle down and accept the new norm soon.

I've been having lots of random but vivid dreams lately. Some of them I can work out where they came from, other times I wake up and I'm all "you what?!".

unimpressed by mummy's new glasses

They're purple and everything. Not sure you can really see that properly in this photo. I can't make up my mind on the date stamp. I wish you could have it on, but then remove it if you wanted to for individual photos.

Reduced dinner

Everything we ate for dinner last night was bought reduced. Now, I know that we were meant to be 'eating what we'd got' for the week, but I had to go to morrisons to buy toilet rolls - they're one of those essentials you can't hold off buying, and of course I checked for good reductions, and I found lots of things.

Actually, before I left the house I looked at our almost empty fruit bowl and had a passing thought that it might be good if I were able to buy some reduced fruit. And I found loads - bananas, apples, pears, peaches, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries. As well as those new potatoes you see on my plate and also the mushrooms. And some pork chops and turkey which I've put into the freezer for another day.

But back to our dinner. I reckon the total cost of the actual dinner - meat, veg and the fruit in the smoothie, can be no more than a couple of quid for both dinners. And it's only that high because the pork was over a pound for the two pieces (one each).

The menu thus far

I made pasta bake on Monday. We had the pasta and sauce, and when I checked the fridge we had a bunch of veg which I'd mostly bought reduced so needed using, and so that's what I did. I also had some reduced blocks of cheese which cost around 19p each and a packet of mince I'd got for 60p, so all in all I was able to make LOTS and lots. In fact we had it for dinner Monday and Tuesday, and I'll probably eat the final leftovers for lunch today.

Not sure what we'll have this evening. Acutally, we'll probably eat at my in laws. Menard is going there after work to do some painting, and I'll take Sophia over for them to look after while I'm out tutoring. So hopefully they'll feed us and I won't have to russle anything up when we get home at 7pm.

We have plenty of options for the rest of the week, so I'm confident we can 'eat what we've got' all week, maybe even longer.

Eat what you've got week

I've been thinking. Which is always dangerous. But anyway, inspired partly by this blog, partly by the fact I've officially resigned from my job to be a full time mummy but my maternity pay is now over, and partly by the fact that they're just really full, I've decided that this week needs to be 'Eat out of the store cupboard' week.
I've actually been doing this with my freezer for a couple of weeks, because it had got very full of sausages and pies. We've used up all the sausages, but have a couple more meals worth of pie, and we also have various other oddments in there, including 24 doughnuts (part of operation doughnut, which may or may not be explained in another post). But in the tin cupboard I have a whole wealth of variety. Well, I think I do, I haven't actually looked at what's in there, but I will in a bit and list it here. I know that we have 8 tins of baked beans which won't even fit in the cupboard. To Menard beans means Heinz, so I tend to stock up on those when I find them on offer, which I did last week.

I'm pretty sure, from memory, that I have a bunch of soup, tinned tomatoes, tinned beans, tuna (yucky stuff, but maybe I can persuade Menard to eat it), rice, pasta, pasta sauce, olives, and probably some other things. I reckon we can make some exciting meals out of that. I also have flour, sugar, and other things that you might use for baking, various dried fruit, and some baby food (which I've been buying when I have coupons and will use when we're away on a church conference and not able to make my own baby food).
In the fridge I've got some vegetables, but again I'm not totally sure what. I know I have a lot of cheese. I really do need to sit down and make a list. I can tell you that the fruit bowl had a couple of bananas, about three kiwi fruit, maybe 5 apples and some little orange things (bought reduced and were labelled as 'easy pealers' so I wouldn't like to say what exactly they are). I'll do a proper survey, work out what I might need to purchase to make it through the week (most likely for making baby food, since I know I need to whip up a bunch of that) and get it this morning. And then I'm on my own, or on my own with the cupboards. I'll let you know what interesting meals we end up with.
I actually didn't have as many tins as I thought I did, although I guess it's still a lot. Here follows a list, so feel free to stop reading now.
Soup
Mushroom (I don't actually like mushroom soup, but it got bought once by someone else who lives in this house, so I guess it will be used at some point)
Spring Vegetables
Chicken and Vegetables

Beans
Kidney
Sweetcorn x2
Chickpeas
Cannelloni x2
Baked beans x8!

Tomatoes
Plum tomatoes x2 (ok, methinks I may have to buy some more of these)
Tomato and garlic pureePasta bake sauce x2

Meat/Fish
Red salmon
Tuna x2
Sardines

Carbs
Boil in bag rice (one sachet left)
Rice
Pasta
Spaghetti
Couscous
Lasagna sheetsRice noodles

Other
Peanuts
Pine Nuts
Raisins
sultanas
Dried Apricots
Dried Apple rings
Baby food
Packet to make rocky road
Bar of chocolate
Lots of herbs/spices/condiments
Oats

And some other random bits and bobs that may or may not get used.

Uh, I'm not too sure about that mummy

What a week

It's been a big week for my baby girl. On Sunday she learnt to clap and in the evening she took her first few leg shuffles forward. By Monday evening she was moving forward proficiently. On Tuesday evening she puked all over mummy, daddy and their bed, and it was proper grown up sick rather than baby sick! On Thursday Mummy discovered that she had at least one (possibly two) teeth coming in on her bottom gum. They're only buds at the moment, but enough to see and feel, and obviously Sophia's discovered them herself. She keeps putting her finger in to feel them and making funny faces.

She also recognises the camera and heads for it when I get it out, so I end up with lots of photos like this.

It's too early in the morning for my words to come out right*

But apparently I think best about blogging before 7am. Maybe it's to do with the fact that I don't worry too much about what to write or what I'm writing, I just do it.

Sophia was a bit poorly and sick last night, so woke up hungry for milk around 3am. She's fed and happy now, but a little bit too awake to go back to bed. So I'm giving her a little time to play before I try to settle her again. I'm also sneezing lots, which is weird cos it poured with rain yesterday. Maybe I'm allergic to being puked all over, although most people would probably say that they were allergic to that! Anyway, I'll take an antihistamine before I go back to bed.

I'm not quite sure what we're doing today, but hopefully all the things that need to be done will be done! It may depend on how sleepy I'm feeling.

I'm impressed by how much I've said about nothing in this post already, but at any rate I shall leave it there. Good morning and good night rolled into one!

* Line from a 'A Perfect Day' by Natasha Bedingfield

Too early

I lay in bed last night blogging in my head. I often do this as I fall asleep. I think there was a post about the ethics of reduced shopping and another one about something else not related to Sophia (I'm trying to not just blog about her, but it's not really worked this week!)
But I can never remember what it was I 'wrote' when it actually comes to writing it.

This morning all I have to say is
TOO EARLY TOO EARLY TOO EARLY. Waking before 5am is TOO EARLY.

I'll return when I've had a bit more sleep.

Oh, in other news...

Sophia learnt to clap yesterday and is so proud of it. And forward movement is getting more and more fluid. Boy are we in trouble.

Oh, and Sophia is hence forth to be known as Rudolph. Well maybe not, but she did manage to lick one of Menard's paintings (which was dry) yesterday and cover her chin, nose, forehead and tongue with red paint. She can only have got a couple of licks before we caught her, but that was enough!

It's a good good good good good good morning...

...gonna be a very good day*

Sophia stayed in bed til 6.50. She woke before that, but was happy to stay in her crib until then. The bedsheets at the window bought us almost two extra hours in bed.

We now need to work on her not waking up at night and taking over an hour to settle again (Wednesday night it was two and a half hours, and then up at 5am which made it so bad, last night it was wind and took an hour to settle her again)

*Lyrics from "Good morning!" by Phil Joel on a CD called Deliberate Kids

Sleepy sleepy

Last night was a rough one with Sophia, so I'm hoping tonight will be better. We're also trying operation blackout - we're covering up the blinds to make it darker so maybe she'll sleep later in the morning.

Only the best toys for our Sophie!

5am

It's a quiet and sleepy time. Sophia woke up with a sore belly, or so I'd imagine, as once she was up she farted loudly a number of times, and then decided that "as I'm up mummy, let's have some milk now".

She's got a full belly and an empty nappy, so I'm hoping we might get to go back to bed soon. Currently she's on the floor playing with my toes. So long as I wiggle them once in a while she will somehow find them fascinating. Oh no, in her excitement she's set off backwards across the room. I think sometimes she gets over excited about what's in front of her, tries to go forward to take a better look and ends up further away. At first this terribly frustrated, but now she's learning to make the most of where she finds herself ending up. (Like now she's found her toys and apparently my sandals too, but hopefully the toys are more entertaining!)

I'm not intending this blog to become just a picture blog, or to be all about Sophia, it's just as a stay at home mummy there's a lot of Sophia in my life, and she is pretty adorable!

Hey, I think this may be working - I was hoping that blogging at half 5 when my brain is not properly awake might help me to get over my current writers block. Don't get me wrong, I'm still continually writing blog posts, it's just that mostly that's in my head as I lay in bed before I go to sleep, and when I sit at the computer to officially get them down, my mind goes blank and I wander off (online) to do something else.

Ants are currently having a field day in my kitchen. I knew that they would. Last night Menard was out and Sophia needed lots of attention. It was fine so long as I was in the room, but were I to leave it she was not a happy bunny. Anyway, this meant that last nights washing up did not get done, as by the time she did go down this mummy was too tired and having too much fun catching up with friends online. And then she realised it was half 9 and ought to head to bed in a hurry.

But anyway, lesson learnt and from now on I will be endeavouring to keep on top of the washing up so that ants don't have a giant playground over night. It's not that there's lots, well I guess it depends how many you call lots, but there's definitely enough, by any standards!

Sophia loves electrical leads. I'm sure she must inherit this love from her daddy who absolutely loves his gadgets. There are advantages and disadvantages to this new found love - I'm sure it must be dangerous, for example like last night when I found her trying to suck on one of Menard's speaker leads. However, credit where credit is due, she also managed to locate my phone charger for me at a time where I was not entirely sure of its location.

Ok, I'll end with a pic, as there are far too many cute ones waiting to be shared. This is one of her new found skills. When she first discovered she could do it she would look down at her feet and then up at you with the biggest grin on her face. It was as if to say "LOOK AT MY FEET! I'm standing ON them. HOW COOL IS THAT?!"

Backwards is the new forwards

Sophia's started crawling. Problem is she only goes backwards so far, and is often getting stuck under or behind things like the sofa!


And of course Mummy grabs the camera before rescuing her.

"Mama" - that's me!

Sophia just said "mama" to me for the first time. She's been saying it already as part of her general chatter, as well as "nan-nan" and "ro-ro" among other sounds. But today she put up her arms to be picked up and looking right at me said "ma-ma"

*slinks in quietly and hopes noone realises how long I've been away*

There are many posts that ought to have been written, and now I don't know where to start. Sophia is 7 months old now, the reduced experiment is going well, and I have lots of other random thoughts that I might have blogged about had I had them in the past!

I'm addicted to shopping reduced. I've definitely saved money, and although I generally buy fruit, veg, bread meat and tins, I've also found laundry detergent, toilet paper, washing up liquid, chocolate and other staples of life. My freezer is full of meat and bread, my cupboards are full of tins and packets, and our bellies are full of yummy food. I'd say that my method of shopping is probably changed to shopping this way at the present as I have the flexibility of popping in to Morrisons as and when I'm near there (since I'm at home with Sophia rather than being out at work). I'm getting to know the guy who does the second reductions at the chill cabinet 'reduced to clear' section - and he's willing to let me pick what I want and he'll reduce those things next. (I possibly need to find a new hobby, as last week I think I was in Morrisons about 4 days in a row!)

Sophia's well stuck in to 'solid' foods. I don't know why it's called that as it's still mostly pureed or mashed. I gave her a dried apple ring this morning and unlike most other things, it only made it into her mouth once or twice! I think it got a few licks, and although she quite liked holding it and waving it around, it got a bit fluffy so I decided to remove it to the bin.

28 weeks

Dear Sophia,

Today you are 28 weeks old. That's six and a half months that have just zoomed by. The last couple of months have been unbelieveably busy, both 'socially' and developmentally. So much has happened that I hardly know where to start! Auntie Bekki married Uncle Rob, and you attended your second ever wedding. We moved house, and we're settling in nicely. You love the carpet, and have even rolled over a couple of times to celebrate. We also visited my Grandparents - your great grandparents (on my mum's side) so that they could meet you for the first time. (Great Grandma will hate the following photo, but it's the only one I have of the two of you. You don't look too happy, but I think that's just the moment of the photo.)
For me it was a very special visit because not only were we showing you off to your relatives, it was also the fist time that I'd seen my grandad since he had a stroke last year. It really meant a lot to me to see him holding you, and to see how much he enjoyed having you around.Actually, I want to leave this post there and come back tomorrow for part two. This one is dedicated to my Grandparents, and particularly for my Grandma who is doing an amazing job looking after Grandad.

love Mummy

Happy Happy

(I have no idea what's going on with the date stamp on camera, I've reset the date and turned it off. This was actually taken on Sunday 18th April)

Photos of Sophia

Well I have some lovely photos of Sophia taken this weekend, but currently the camera lead is misplaced. I'll ask Menard if he knows where it is when he gets home this evening.

"if you don't need it, it's not a bargain"

The experiment is going well, according to my figures I spent £16 on food, which if I'd bought it at original price would have been £22 more. Yes, that's a saving of £22! Of course it helps that I started with a near empty freezer, which is probably now more than half full.

I liked what Kathleen said in her comment so much that I used it as the title for this post. Yesterday I popped into Morrisons as I'd been to the doctors which is very close by (as an aside I'll say that I'm trying to combine my supermarket trips with other errands, since it's no good saving money on food if I'm wasting it on fuel!). One of the fridge area reduced sections was absolutely crammed with stuff, and yet I only left the shop with five things. That's because there always seem to be a lot of microwave meals and that type of convenience food, and I refuse to buy those even at reduced prices. Personally I'd say that shepherd's pie or toad in the hole will taste ten times better made from scratch, and they'll probably still cost less than the reduced microwave-able version. (Especially if I use mince or sausages which I'd bought at a reduced price!)

Actually, there is one exception to this rule - I did pick up two 'meal bags for one' yesterday - it's the equivalent of a takeaway curry meal in a bag, with curry, rice and poppadoms. You can freeze them, which I did, and we'll be able to get them out at a time when we fancy a night off cooking. And they were reduced to 99p each, so I don't think that's bad!

I think I also have high expectations of the reductions on certain items. What happens is that there's one reduction done in the morning, once they discover that an item hasn't sold and today is the sell by date. Later on in the day further reductions are made. Yesterday as I stood by the fridges there was a guy doing all the second reductions on that area. That meant I could select what I wanted and pass it to him to be reduced further. They sell things like stuffed peppers or vegetables prepared for roasting - all you have to do is remove the foil and stick them in the oven. Usually these retail at £2, but even with a first, and possibly second reduction, I'm unlikely to buy them. These are the bargains you'll occasionally find at the end of the day, marked down to 19p a packet. And that's when I'll happily stock up!

(I'm suddenly aware that this post is either interesting or frightfully boring. If you're finding it boring feel free to pass on reading it, and come back when I post Sophia pics or something like that!)

The great 'reduced' experiment

I'm a canny shopper, I love my deals. I think I partly learnt this from my mum, and partly I just love maths and working out price per 100g or whether the bigger or smaller packet works out better value. I remember a time when petrol was 49.9p per litre, and watching with my mum to look out for which petrol station sold it cheapest, and what if you took into account store points and things like that. Well now petrol is reaching record highs of around 120p per litre, and I now have my own family and household to run.

I was in Morrisons* yesterday picking up some bits and pieces and ended up with a basket that was made up either of reduced items or 'value' product. And I idly wondered to myself whether it would be possible to only buy reduced or value products. Later in the day this lead to an idea, and now the idea is in practice. I want to try for the next couple of weeks to live off my store cupboard and things I buy from the reduced section, or the value brand, or a few exceptions, buy fresh.

For example, yesterday I bought two packets of mixed berries which were originally £3 a packet, reduced to 49p each. The fruit inside was still good, they'd merely reached the day of their 'sell by' date and needed to either be shifted from the shelves, or thrown away. Since we now have a freezer in our new flat I can purchase things like bread or meat products on their 'sell by' date at a reduced price, and safely use them a few days or weeks later. (I like the sound of that!)

Morrisons also has a reduced section for non-perishable goods such as tins. Yesterday I found a tin of tomatoes well within date (by more than a year) that was reduced to 19p because it was dented. I was quite happy to buy it as dents don't bother me.

So, my experiment is as follows - for the next couple of weeks or so (depending on how it goes and whether my husband gets sick of it!) I plan to only buy things which are reduced, or from the value range. The exceptions to this rule are milk, things for the baby (like formula, and potentially fresher veg) and possibly yoghurts for my husband! I know that currently we are stocked with toiletries like deodorant and toothpaste and also things like cleaning products and washing detergent, so I am not including those in the experiment.

There are several things I like about this personal challenge. Firstly the excitement of not knowing exactly what I'll be buying. I am entirely at the hands of the supermarket! I'll make sure that we get fruit and vegetables in our diet, so if I have to buy unreduced, I will. Secondly I think it will be good for me to stop and think about exactly what I'm spending. I'm putting it all in a spreadsheet (yeah, I'm a geek) and categorising what I buy (fruit, veg, bread, meat...) including a section for 'splash' - something that was reduced, but wasn't necessarily an essential.
Thirdly, I'm hoping it will be good for my diet - I'm less likely to just grab a chocolate bar to add to basket if I'm looking for bargains and trying to be canny in how I shop. Finally, I'm hoping it will save a bit of money, because after all, who couldn't do with saving a bit in the current climate!


(*Morrisons is one of the cheaper supermarkets, and their store own branded products are called 'value', whereas in somewhere like Asda they're 'smartprice'. Just a bit of clarification for any of my readers across the pond!)

bizzy backson

We will be getting broadband on Tuesday, and then I will be back!