Easter Holidays week one

We started with a wee trip to A&E for Sam, after clattering into a pillar in Asda. Luckily no stitches and in and out within 30 minutes, but not a great start to the holidays. Then we had Jess, Jonny and Baby Annabella for a couple of days, which was lovely and I lost my big boy toa couple of long minecraft sessions with Uncle Jonny, which he adored as he had someone to talk about it properly to.

Then we had a trip to the Wakefield Museum with Amy and her two. To be honest, ‘Museum’ is a bit too grand a term for it, it was a small exhibit of just a few small rooms in the Library. It worked in our favour though as the children didn’t have a chance to get bored. There was a home room showing a war-time sitting room with a wireless that had peoples’ memories recorded on it which were really interesting.

There was also a facial hair over the years exhibition.

 

Such fun! I think Henry’s is my favourite. And of course Amy and I we’re just doing it to entertain the kids. Uh huh.

Fun with hats and wigs! Who needs a degree to wear the mortar board 😉

Bit weird as they’re cousins, but I love Ethan’s ears in this, with his skinny little head!

Then at the weekend my parents were up and did an easter egg hunt for the children, which they loved, and we’ve all been in a slight chocolate haze since.

In our house now, 11 chocolate eggs and their assorted sweets, a small box of guylian chocolates (mine), a small bunch of little lindt eggs (Richard’s), and the assorted egg hunt eggs. Not to mention the multipack of white chocolate buttons for Henry, the small assortment Ethan and Sam got from primary at church, and the 5 leftover Kinder eggs from my nursery class as I had fewer children than expected.

We’re all going to get very fat. How was your Easter haul? Are you about to get as fat as us? or were you well behaved and only got one, or even better behaved, got more than one but are rationing it. In which case I salute your willpower!

In other news, Our washing machine appears to have died as I’m writing. We were hoping it would limp on until we moved so that we could buy a washing machine to fit the new kitchen, but alas. I’m going to go survey the damage, but we shall see. It lasted us about 7 and a half years of heavy use, not bad for a secondhand £50 job! Rest in peace old friend, I bitterly mourn your passing 😦

Growing

First the literal growing – Last night I had a church activity where we planted seeds.

I wasn’t sure whether to go to be honest, I wanted the goods, but I was very tired. I did go (obviously) and I’m so glad I did! I had a great time chatting with friends and planting. There’s just something about growing stuff that is just so satisfying. We’re lucky enough that one of the ladies has an allotment and talked us through step by step. She told us that we should see shoots within 3 weeks, so exciting times! We planted cherry tomatoes, beetroot, peppers, peas, spring onions and an assortment of herbs, so if I manage not to kill anything, in a few months we’ll be eating some great salads!

Now for the figurative growing.

I’ve been swimming for just over a month now, at least twice a week. It’s the one form of exercise that I actually love, and I’ve swam (swum?) just over 10,000 metres, thank you speedo app 🙂 I’ve now got a gym membership that was surprisingly cheap through the council and I can use it at several centres, which might come in handy as my chosen pool is closing for 2 weeks for repairs 😦

And briefly back to the literal growing:

He’ll be six next month! I snapped this picture a few nights ago and on a whim wrote this poem for him. It was late so take off your judging pants before you read it 😉

Slow down
I shout as off you rushto more adventures.
with pirate fights or hero flights
and less and less with me.
I wished for this
I realise with a pang
When early hours brought crying fits
and sniffs of “I need you.”
Just a little bigger. Just a bit.
Then it will be easy (ha!)
So we help to mould you
and we do our best,
only now realising what we were wishing away.
Yet it makes it all the sweeter
When you fold up those grasshopper legs,
climb up on my lap,
and need me again.
Slow down.

 

The next post is a bit important, I’ve been working on it for a bit. It’s not quite finished, but it will be soon. Intrigue!

Valentine’s day and the end of the chocolate ban

Time has once again slipped by without a post. What can I say? Three children under 6 is BUSY. I also try to abide by the rule of Bill Murray in Groundhog Day, where he says to the groundhog, “don’t drive angry!” though in this case it’s don’t blog grumpy, as being hungry tends to make me a little snappish.

I love this movie more than is a normal amount.

So, quick roundup. We’ve had a fairly uneventful month, although after a week of sleeping through Henry got another cough and it was all over, sad trombone. However, it has now passed again and fingers crossed, he’s back on track. 

Speaking of illness, I have got a raging case of tonsillitis. It began a few days ago with a tickly throat and continued with a trip to the walk in clinic on friday night (the big V!) where I was told “Oh yes, that is a lot of pus.” Why thank you  grumpy nurse, that’s exactly what I wanted to hear about the inside of my throat. Gross. This was then emphasised by the pharmacist who when checking my antibiotics said “so take 2 four times a day…. is it a bad infection?” Clearly that is a large dose of penicillin, for which I am very grateful. Don’t worry, there is no picture. This is not that kind of blog.

Last weekend my Dad was up to visit now that he’s home from New Zealand which was lovely, I’ve missed both him and my mum while they’ve been gone. She’s still out there, sunning it up! Dad was kind enough to take the big two boys out on Saturday afternoon so that Rich and I could have a bit of a rest and then we had a delicious chinese takeaway for dinner, naughty but oh so good. So good in fact that Rich and I had it again for dinner when I got back from the doctor on friday… oops. While he was up he took this picture for us, which is I think the first one of the five of us together.

Even though it was taken before I could get my Sunday morning make up on, I still love it.

Valentine’s day was a bit drab what with the illness, but it was still nice. I made this for Rich…

Which now I look at it kind of seems like an order, or slightly obnoxious. “Hey, You love me!” At least we all know now who wears the pants… The words in the back are the lyrics to All I ask of You from Phantom of the Opera, which was sung at our wedding. I totally stole the idea from seeing something similar online, but changed the scrabble tiles for keyboard letters, because we’ve never played scrabble ever, and also because we had an old broken netbook. He loved it, and got me my favourite chocolates now that the ban has been lifted. which segues us nicely into the diet.

So, I’ve lost 12lbs in about 4 weeks. I cheated once as my sister Sam sent some homemade chocolates over for a belated Christmas gift and they weren’t going to last. I’m pretty pleased with myself, that’s a decent chunk of weight and I’m almost to the first stone off. All the right places are shrinking, and I feel a lot better about myself already. My end goal is to be able to fit into my wedding dress by our 9th anniversary, which is July 23rd, so I’ve got plenty of time. In between I’ve got little goals to get to, the first one being 12st 7lbs, which I beat just over a week ago. The next one is one stone off, which will be 12st 4, only 2 lbs away. I’m not happy with the numbers, but I’ve decided I’m not ashamed to write them down. They’re only numbers, and they don’t define me. My body has done amazing things (insert cheesy music here) and grown 3 humans. It has acceptable wear and tear. But just because I’m not ashamed doesn’t mean I can’t improve.

As for the month of no chocolates and sweets, I thought it would be harder. I’m really glad I did it as it made me realise how I was eating a bit of chocolate here or a few of the kids treats there. I’ve not felt the need to gorge on it now I can have it. My dad brought me back two large bars of Cadbury’s Blackforest Chocolate, which is quite possibly the most delicious flavour ever, with little biscuity and cherry flavoured jelly bits. I ate more than I should have, but not as much as I would have before. It was however still too much for my digestive system since I had my gall bladder out, which it reminded me of with some wicked stomach cramps. Therefore, I still have chocolate lurking about the house and hopefully it’ll last me a fair while longer. So, success for now!

Last of all, I’ll just mention the amazing family trip out yesterday where I dosed myself up and we all went indoor surfing with extended family. I was however doing the surfing and don’t have the pictures back yet so I shall do a proper post on that another time. 

For now, despite the tonsils that are trying to kill me, life is good.

Diets and Weight and Hunger, Oh my!

I hate diets, totally and completely. I’m also not a fan of self loathing or obsession with weight or the size of one’s own hips/bum/tum. Especially when it’s me doing the self loathing.

However, having had a not so happy relationship with my thighs and belly for quite a while, something had to be done. I don’t want to go on and on about it, but I need to write it down so I’m accountable.

First of all, I decided on no sweets or chocolate for a month. That also happened to be on the 14th so I’ll get to have a treat on Valentine’s Day. I thought it’d be awful as I am always picking at sweets left about for the kids or worse, buying something at the terribly convenient shop 4 minutes from our house that is a 30 second detour from the school run. And also Cadbury’s keep bringing out new and delicious varieties of dairy milk mixed with awesome stuff. However I had a (rather unpleasant) epiphany a day or 2 ago. It went a little like this:

Chocolate is a treat, and therefore should be for occasional consumption.

Mind-blowing right? It was less that though, than the thought that for pretty much the rest of forever, chocolate will now probably have to be a once a week small bar kind of thing. That makes me sad, I miss my 17/18 year old metabolism that let me eat a large bar for breakfast in the sixth form common room with a little pint carton of milk. Let’s be honest, I’m lucky to not have type 2 diabetes by now. I actually haven’t been craving chocolate or sweets yet, even with sweets in the house. I’m hoping it’ll be easier than I thought, though there was an incident with a custard filled choux bun topped with chocolate sauce stuff where I was very very tempted.

Second of all, I’m back doing My Fitness Pal. I love it. It’s only calorie counting (with an app), so while there is an irritating amount of packet reading and food weighing, I can still eat fun things in very very small amounts. It’s really helping me re-learn correct portion sizes too, and let me tell you, they seem incredibly small. So far I have managed to stay under 1300 calories a day, though my goal is 1200. Any exercise done also earns you calories back to eat more, which is giving me that persistent poking in my conscience to get back to walking in the mornings while Sam is at nursery. So far I haven’t but I think it’s coming, ha.

So there it is, my rather babble-y written proof of commitment. I’m almost certain I won’t mention it again until Valentine’s day, and normal service will resume in the next post. Your boredom has been appreciated 😉

Magic Chocolate Cake

 I’ve had a few requests so here it is, the un-killable cake. I made more this week (goodbye waist!) and forgot to take it out of the oven for like 15 minutes, and it was still fine. I’d turned the oven off at least. Right, let’s get to it.

200g/7oz self raising flour
225g/8oz caster sugar
1/2tsp salt
25g/1oz cocoa powder
100g/4oz margarine
2 eggs
150ml milk
splash of vanilla

Preheat the oven to 180°c.

Mix the dry ingredients then rub in margarine. Mix the wet ingredients and beat. Combine.
Bake for 30-35 minutes. I usually stick it in what I think is a 9 inch round tin.

This is how the recipe pretty much reads in my book. It originally came from the Be-Ro baking book via my lovely friend Jannine, and I have since had and lost 2 Be-Ro books. They sell for about 80p, but last time I was in morrisons I couldn’t find a replacement. Luckily I had it in my recipe notebook, although it looks like this through my terrible handwriting and overuse:

The original calls for 5tbsp of evaporated milk and 5tbsp of water, but Jannine and I both thought, nah, that’s just milk, and replaced it. Because evaporated milk is gross, and I never want to buy it. I also usually have to cook it a little longer as the batter is really quite runny. I’ve swapped butter in for the marg, and I’ve never used caster sugar, just bog standard granulated, because when I make cake it’s usually on a whim, and who has caster sugar just in the cupboard? Aside from you know, grown up people who bake properly.

Now for the icing, because of reasons.

9oz sieved icing sugar

2.5oz butter/marg

3tbsp hot milk

1tbsp cocoa powder

1tsp vanilla

Melt the butter, add the hot milk and vanilla, then the cocoa powder and sugar. Beat it to death, done. If you want it thick enough to spread (like the above picture) add a bit more sugar. I can’t tell you how much more really because I just go til it looks right. Also I tend to guess with the cocoa too, but basically, you can’t go wrong with this either.  Both last a few days, which is more than enough.

So there it is, make it, eat it, and curse me on the last slice. If you intend to take it somewhere or share, and you have willpower like mine, make it right before you need it, because it is very much moreish.

Also if anyone does manage to ruin it, let me know and I’ll make you some kind of award, because seriously, you’ve got recipe destroying skillz.

Sam’s Birthday Week

 My boy is 3. THREE. Insanity. You may recognise this cake. He had the same last year. We didn’t have cake candles then either, but it was sparklers then, not tealights. Bad mummy!

 That face though. So happy to have blown out candles that they could have been anything with a flame.

 He is still all about the nee naws and choo choos. ONLY MORE. Especially the trains. We got him this Thomas ‘take n play’ set, and mum (who came up the night before and stayed for the birthday) got him a couple of trains to go with it. Ethan chose some chuggington trains, and he was good to go. For literally days. And that’s only so far.

 Today was family dinner at the Brown’s house, and therefore ‘proper’ birthday cake was required, which was good, because atleast half of the Peppa Pig cake went in the bin. Quite frankly, it was disgusting, and tasted faintly of plastic.

Thomas cake was requested, and I made my idiot-proof and delicious Milk Chocolate Cake. It always works and is moist and delicious, without going soggy. Proof: I made this one at 8pm after a hugely busy day and an iffy night with Henry. I put the ingredients in in a different order, because I was tired and couldn’t remember what I did last time. I baked it at a different temperature by accident. I had not quite enough cocoa and added a bit of hot chocolate powder to make it up.

It was perfect. I’m going to rename it the magic cake, because I literally cannot mess it up. substitutions, whatever. It’s unstoppable in it’s quest for chocolatey satisfaction.

 

I slightly messed up my proportions with the decorations which is not unusual for me – Ethan had a race track cake 2 years ago and I managed to make the track only wide enough for one car – but I think I am getting better! And yes, that’s a tiny Tardis. I had a little blue left, and what else 🙂 Ethan thought it was great, and Sam liked it enough that as soon as he’d blown out the candles (proper ones this time, thanks to Grandma) He grabbed it off and ate it. He didn’t even have any of the cake itself, just that and a tree! I also – typically – couldn’t find any of his Thomas toys, so it had to be a James Cake instead.

He then had a few more presents, another Thomas that lights up and moves, and a wooden train whistle (which may disappear now and then) from Grandma and Grandad, a colouring and sticker book, and a CD and book of nursery rhymes which we’ve already had on and he’s danced to, from Aunty Joanne and Uncle David, and this from Aunty Stella and Uncle Carl…

 I’ve just noticed Henry’s demon eyes in the background!

It’s a bull shaped space hopper! The advantage being it has four feet, rather than a round bottom, nice and stable. He’s been bouncing around on it for about half an hour (about as long as you can do anything when you’re newly three and have eaten a large chuck of icing) before being forced to dismount and get ready for bed.

We had a visit from the Dummy Fairy too this week. It went well… until bedtime. He didn’t want his new glowy nightlight, he didn’t want the fairy to take his dummies to make new ones for little babies, apparently the babies don’t want his dummies. There were a few wakings that night. However he only asked once or twice the next night, and not since, so hurrah!

Three years. He still loves ears for comfort, especially now he has Henry’s. He still has trouble keeping his covers on, not only himself, but his entire bed. He still curls his little body up and sometimes sticks his bum in the air in that classic sleeping baby pose. And yet he’s also so grown up. He sings. He loves numbers and counting, and is starting nursery school after Christmas. NURSERY SCHOOL you guys.

 It’s flown by since he was a little dot, the littlest of my three, none of whom were particularly small. He came speeding into the world with his little crop of dark hair and hasn’t stopped since. We spent a few hours in hospital (a 3am birth will do that) and then phoned around to let everyone know at about 6:30 before beating a hasty retreat from the postnatal ward. We took him back to Grandma and Grandad’s house to meet his big brother who adored him.

He still does, most of the time. They are wonderful playmates and well matched verbal sparring partners, though thankfully mostly the former. There’s the same gap between them as between Sam and Henry, and Sam has that same adoration for Henry, it’s lovely to see, the circle of brotherhood continuing.

Happy birthday mad boy. We love your crazy dancing and mad debating skills, even if they do usually just come down to simply insisting you are right until we give up. Don’t change too much my darling.

Ugh.

Ill. It’s so much fun. We’ve had a full week now of family illness. It started on Friday afternoon when  I was hit with a migraine. I laid on the couch with cushions on my head and begged the boys to play quietly, and Rich hurried home as soon as he could and sent me to bed. All fine, except a few hours later, I woke up to the sound of Rich throwing up. That night was spent pleasantly, with both of us in and out of the bathroom. Like I said, fun.

The next day we were ok, if totally exhausted. Then Saturday night rolled around, I got what he’d had, and I had the added bonus of an already exhausted starting point. At least he got some rest though. Sunday, we skipped church out of exhaustion and not wanting to spread it about. I spent the day on the couch making the sounds of the dying (I’m not good when I’m sick, I tend to go a bit pathetic. I was however proud of myself this time, I managed to be sick without bursting into tears and needing support at the head-in-toilet position.) and Ethan started saying he didn’t feel good either.

He got it next, though luckily it was quite mild for him. He stayed off school on Monday and was much better. I took a couple more days to feel up to scratch again, what with the whole growing another person thing.

Sam, the lucky little monkey, has avoided it altogether, but now has a stinking cold, along with me and Ethan. Do you know what’s especially great about being pregnant with a cold? NOTHING. There is nothing you can take. Paracetamol is the limit. I am fed up, I have been ill for a week now with various germs and ailments. I have decided to self medicate with old episodes of Friends and this:

I think it’s a good choice 🙂