Getting back into the swing of it

First week back started with a bang! Kids back to school on Monday and i had two meetings on Monday night, so no easing back in gently for me!  First meeting was the Cleveleys Forum, which is run by local Councillor and the aim is get various local groups together helping each other achieve what they want to. It was really interesting, with all the cuts that are having to be made by the local councils, the main message was that there is not much money for things like parks for example , so the locals are encouraged to group together to for friends groups and trust and apply for various funding that are available via the lottery etc, and all the small businesses in shops were encouraged to work together to resolve issues and encourage new trade and use other local businesses. It had really community spirt at the heart and made a lot of sense. There were some people who really didn't get it and thought perhaps the council were trying to encourage them to physically the grass on the parks themselves!!! But over all the message seemed to get across, that you can't sit whinging about something, you have to step up and get involved. I was there representing the gala and i made quite a few contacts that will be really useful and found other whom the committee and i could get involved with. So with my head still full from that meeting i dashed over to the Gala meeting, which was another productive meeting and we made lots of our plans firm, so yesterday and today i have been calling people getting everything booked and now have a mass of emails and website updating to do, but its all good fun to me and i am looking forward to it all ( not the paperwork side though!)

I have found a bit of time in the evenings to keep up with my resolution to finish stripy blanket! which has now been on the go for TWO years! and its about half way through, so i have decided to do just one row a night and think i have about 150 rows left, so it won't be done anytime soon but at least its not sat in a basket anymore.

It would easily cover a single bed if you wanted the stripes running down the bed.

Also we have reintroduced craft and game Wednesday, as it got forgotten about in the last few months, so each Wednesday we will play a big board game or do a craft, this week me and Fred built his Bob the Builder house he got for Christmas, which is really cute as it has proper bricks and cement, that sets hard, but can be washed off so it can be built again.

Molly wanted to make some with here Beadeo gem kit

I have to share my bargains of the week! i needed to pop to the out of hours doctors on Tuesday night and while i was waiting for my bus popped into Asda, i came out with a fill carrier bag for 56p!!!

Every thing was either 5p or 6pm loafs of bread, sauage rolls, cupcakes, cream cakes, steak bakes, so we all have nice lunches the next day!

On Saturday we continued our family buffet night with Spanish Night!

I made Prawn Pealla

Spanish Meatball and butterbean stew

Spanish Sauage and Potato

Spanish Stuffed peppers, with chorizo

It definitely was a hit!, its nice to be able to do things like this and it gives me chance to try out new recepies and the kids to try new foods, they love the fact they can help themselves.

I let Alex have a bubble bath with me on Saturday night as i realized he never gets a bubble bath as he always shares with Fred and Fred has such bad skin, we can't use anything at all on him, or put anything in the bath, Ali enjoyed it.

First week over, now just another 50ish to go before Christmas! xxx

Last of the holidays

The last couple of weeks with Paul and the kids off has been really nice, ok it was mad busy the first week getting ready for Christmas, but i love the week in between, where there is nowhere we have to be, no time restraints and just freedom to relax and enjoy each others company. Although i had plans for walks and family outings we didn't really leave the house all that much. In the mornings we would get up and i could sit knitting for a couple of hours and watching 48 hours on the net while the kids were happy playing and Paul was tidying up, he seems to understand now what its like for me to be constantly picking up all day and that its easier to leave it till later on otherwise you just end up doing it all over again! But its definitely nice sharing the load for a while whilst he is off.

We made it to the Tower Circus on the Tuesday, Ewan wanted to go and play with his cousin, so we dropped him off on the way.

I love the intricate decor at the tower and the circus is no different, its amazing

I would love to have these tiles in the house, not sure where though

The kids really enjoyed it and Molly came home with a big bag of circus things, like spinning plates, much fun has been had trying them out this week

On New years even we went to a party at the local football club, we have never been out as a family on new year before and actually Paul and i have only been out once and that was 2007!

Molly has been asking me to dye her hair pink and i explained i really couldn't do that, but i did eventually do a few little streaks in the middle underside of her hair and only left it on for 10 minutes so she just got a few pastel pink streaks and after i curled it up for her, which looked really good as you could just see the pink in the bottom of the curls

It was a great night and the kids were dancing and playing games, in fact it was full of kids! we met up with my friend and her family

Fred lasted till 9pm and then we put him and Ali in the pram and Ali soon fell asleep too

After eating so meny roasts dinners and left overs, i made a Lasange and Pizza toasts for New Years day, nice comforting food and  these rainy days

Tonight Ewan is having a sleep over at Nannas with his cousin, so as he doesn't like spicy food we had a Mexican buffet.

The kids like helping themselves, so we have decided that this will be our Saturday night thing, i will make a few diffrent things and they can help themselves, also its nice to eat as a family which we always do on a Sunday, but as Paul finishes quite late during the week, the kids eat, then we eat.

Molly is wearing her Chinese dress she got for Christmas despite it really being a summer dress, but once Molly has decided something you really can't change her mind.

I had to post this picture which sums up our lazy PJ week, with Alex asleep on the couch.

So the tree is down and the house is slowly getting back into shape, Its been a great Christmas and i will Sad when Paul goes back to work on Monday. I have lots to keep me busy and have some new craft projects on the go, also i finished a virus shawl, so i will post that later.

xxx

New Year, New Me?

I posted this title last year and having just read it through its pretty much the same as what i want to post this year.

I am happy with me and really proud of all this things i have achieved this year 2015, the gala was success and i have made lots of new friends and got involved with quite a few new groups, i have pushed myself to make speeches and do things that i previously would not have been able to do.

Being involved with the Gala has been such fun and Paul and the kids have enjoyed it so much, Molly is desperate to be Princess and Fred to this day keeps asking if we can dress up and walk on the road!!! yesterday he had a blanket wrapped round him and said he was Queen Fred! Paul now comes to all the committee meeting as my Mum baby sits for us so he can be much more involved and is now Parade Marshall and is in charge of organizing the Sports events we are reinstating. Even Ewan wants to be Prince Charming!! even though he is a "teenager" according to him!

I have got more involved with the children s centre and now run the Craft and Chat sessions. I have been helping the Friends of Pheasants wood and set up the friends of Bourne Ward Group and have lots of plans regarding this for the future over the next few years, which i will keep to myself for now. I love getting involved with community projects they are such fun and i think are a real benefit to the local people.

Personally my main goal this year is to get my back/hip sorted out, i have been seeing specialists and physiotherapist and am currently having acupuncture, but really its not working, so i need to speak up and get them to do more, although i am starting to accept that its probably permanent, as they keep telling me there is not much they can do. Last year i thought that more exercise could help but unfortunately  its only made it worse and at my last visit i was told i should rest more, but thats impossible with four kids and a very active lifestyle.


We have so many wonderful plans for next year, Fred is looking forward  to his birthday that we will celebrate at Haven in Norfolk, that we have already booked.  Its going to be along wait though as he keeps asking already! we have the gala and mine and Ewans trip away, which might now become Paul and Ewans as we have just found out about a Star Wars convention that Paul is longing to go to, but the tickets are not on sale yet.

I just hope that 2016 is as wonderful and happy for our family as 2015 has and that the kids are happy and we can send time watching the little ones grow.

Hope you all have a fatastic New Year and that 2016 brings you everything you hope for xxx

Christmas Day!

Its boxing day ( well when i started writing this!) and we have been for a lovely buffet lunch at my Mum and Dads, my brother and sister-in Law and Niece and Nephew were there and it was really nice to spend the day relaxing and seeing them all, and its been such a busy month.

All the plays and party's, and finishing up for the year and our time off and last week was spent sorting the house out and getting everything ready for Christmas. Such a lot of work goes into just a couple of days of Christmas and sat here now i can completely understand why so many people go out and buy all the ready made food thats available in all the supermarkets, my Sister in law was working on Christmas morning so they had bought everything from M&S and my brother was telling me how easy it was to just put everything in the oven and as it all comes in foil tins ready for the oven, there was not much washing up either! Sounds good to me, maybe i will think about doing that next year. As for me i like to make life as hard as possible when  it comes to Christmas dinner. One of the things i love doing is trying out new foods, well not new foods, but different recipes. I do love cooking for special occasions, its something i enjoy and though i make new recipes a lot during the year they tend to be quick and easy family meals, but for Christmas i like to pull out all the stops and try something extra special, that hopefully has the wow factor. The problem with this is that its requires lots of planning and is very time consuming so usually i end up absolutely knackered, like i am now!

Christmas eve we got up extra early and set of to do the food shop at 8am, normally i do it in the days before but this year i decided to try it on Christmas eve as usually the kids are so hyper all day, that we thought if we keep them busy all day we would A) keep the house tidy ( as we had a massive clean and tidy the day before) and B) they would be super tired and go to bed earlier than usual on Christmas eve to give us time to sort out and build some of the presents without us having to be up all night. So we got to Aldi and did the shop, but there were a few things that were sold out, so off to Morrisons and a quick trip to Fleetwood to get some charger plates, then through the drive through at Mc Donalds for some lunch and home to unpack. We had then planned to go the Blackpool Tower Circus in the afternoon as i had a couple of free adult vouchers, but a last minute thought made me call them only to find out it was booked up! should have realised it would be, so we decided to go to the cinema, but the kids where then happy playing on the xbox and doing other things so i got started on the food prep. This was at 1pm, we had a quick break and popped to the pub for tea and then back to the prep.

 Basically i spent 6 hours preping the food and table, then tiding, mopping the floors and putting the presents out, We stopped for an hour in between to do all the kids stuff, putting the stockings out and reindeer dust etc, thought unfortunately Fred had already taken himself off to bed fully cothed, and was fast asleep! bless him. Paul built up Alex's train table, it was 12.30pm when we finally finished and got to bed, aching and tired!

4.45am Ewan and Fred come in "can we go down stairs!" We had 4 hours sleep! luckily the other two were still asleep so i sent them to play in there room and they managed too till the other woke at 6.15am and we all went down to open pressies!!! They were so happy and excited with there pressies ( i had managed to stop myself buying all the extra crap, i mentioned in a previous post!) they loved there pressies and "Ewan declared it the best Christmas ever! Molly did she she would have liked her stocking filled, as well as the big pile of presents!!!! Paul got me some gorgeous Tiffany earrings to go with the Tiffany necklace and bracelet he had got me in previous years

I made the kids a special breakfast, with waffles, brioche, mini chocolate muffins, crumpets, danish pastries and had bought old fashioned little milk bottles for them, we had bacon butties which were very welcome after little sleep!

My Parents came round at 1.30pm with more pressies and they had bought Molly the dolls pram she has been after for ages and had noticed that Santa hadn't brought.

My candy cane center piece i made

The table all set up and ready, i made more effort with the table this year, making lots of things including real cranberry napkin rings and i bought red table runner, napkins, chair bows and charger plates.

Molly go so many gorgeous dresses, she is such a little princess and loves dressing up

These are the little crochet mini stockings i made to put the cutlery in

I made each of the kids these little chocolate sleighs

Finally it was Christmas Dinner time, and this is what we had

Hot Herb Buttered Prawns and Salad

Fruit Christmas tree

Whole leg of Lamb, slow cooked in Port and stock, stuffed with a stuffing made from Fresh Cranberry's, Streaky bacon, Port and Thyme.

Served with Slow cooked Festive red cabbage spiced with Star anise and cinnamon

Creamed sprouts, with double cream and nutmeg

Onion stuffing baubles, with homemade stuffing and wrapped in streaky bacon

Mixed roast potatoes, butternut squash and parsnips doused with the post and stock

Carrots, Broccoli, and Cauliflower

Homemade person Cranberry Sauce

Gravey made from the port and meat juice

Millionaires Shortcake bombe

Gingerbread cake with Caramel biscuit buttercream icing and decorated with homemade ginger 

bread

I made everything from scratch so you can see why it took me so long!!!

But it was so worth it, it was delicious!

This was so easy, to make and i got to use my pop chef for the shapes

The Ginger Bread cake and Millionaires Chocolate Bombe

I never took many pics during dinner but my Mum did so i will have to copy them. Every one enjoyed it and Ewan surprised me by saying how yummy the Lamb was!!!, this is amazing as Ewan 

usually will not eat meat apart from processed stuff like sausages.

After dinner it was chill out time

Ending with a game of Doggie doo, that involved much laughter, all i could do was sit as i was knackered!

Hope you all had just as much fun!!!

Happy Christmas all!!!

xxx

Christmas Dinner Planning

The last few years Christmas Dinner planning has involved lots of research, cook books and my favorite magazine BBC Good Food .

My love of cooking has been a long road starting when i first lived away from home when i was 19 and moved to Germany. I was lucky that my mum is a good cook and i had lovely home cooked food made for me when i was growing up, but when i was i out there on my own i really had no idea what i was doing so frozen quick fixes and a deep fat fryer were what i relied on, at least for the first six months till i was desperate for a proper meal with real veggies. So i called Mum and asked how to cook a roast dinner and then had to call several times while cooking to ask things, but it was delicious and much needed, and it made me want to cook more. So lots more calls asking how to make this and that. Followd by getting Jamie Oliver cook books and they would be my special occasion recipes all those years ago. Its funny now to think that spaghetti bolognaise which is now one of my quick fixes and the easiest meal ever, that pleases everyone was once one of the meals i only made a weekends as it felt really difficult and seemed to take ages to cook, also i had to have the exact ingredients, unlike now where i use what ever i have in.

So over the years my skills have increased and nothing really feels like that difficult, yes i have recipes that take a long time and are a bit faffy and aren't really practical for mid week family meals, but those are what i really enjoy cooking when i have the time, like at Christmas or Easter. I always like to try new things, and enjoy seeing how they turn out and often surprise myself.

When we had the newsagents it was a great chance for me to read all the cooking magazines without having to buy them, and i would just photo copy what i wanted.

So after much research this is what i have decided on for Christmas dinner 2015!

Hot Herb Buttered Prawns and Salad

Fruit Christmas tree

Whole leg of Lamb, slow cooked in Port and stock, stuffed with a stuffing made from Fresh Cranberrys, Streaky bacon, Port and Thyme.

Served with Slow cooked Festive red cabbage spiced with Star anise and cinnamon

Creamed sprouts, with double cream and nutmeg

Onion stuffing baubles, with homemade stuffing and wrapped in streaky bacon

Mixed roast potatos, butternut squash and parsnips doused with the post and stock

Carrots, Brocoli, and Cauliflower

Homemade person Cranberry Sauce

Gravey made from the port and meat juice

Millionares Shortcake bombe

Gingerbread cake with Caramel buscuit buttercream iceing and decorated with homemade ginger 

bread

Just the shopping and prep to do now!