i like doing the laundry. kinda. i like loading up the machine, putting in the powder and softener, figuring out what water level it needs, and i love the smell when it comes out. fresh laundry smells so good. and it smells good after it comes in off the line too.
but therein lies the 'kinda'. i do not like hanging out washing.
big items like shirts and pants are fine, but socks.... i detest hanging out socks. i dont know what it is. i dont think its just because they're small, because hanging other underwear doesnt bother me, and neither do my son's clothes. just socks. and there are always so many socks. especially my kid's socks. there always seem to be far more than he's worn since the last wash.
sometimes im tempted to separate the wash before i hang it out, into 'underwear' and 'everything else' and put the underwear in the dryer, just so i dont have to hang it out.
actually, i did this once, but i had a good reason. our clothesline is broken, and has a habit of collapsing if more than 2 strings (on each side) are used.. so i was hanging the wash on the stand inside, and there wasnt enough room for everything - not to mention the fact that it takes FOREVER to dry inside. so i hung what i could, big items, and tossed everything else in the dryer so we would at least have clean underwear.
and there might be a dead bee on the grass just outside the door. and i dont know where my shoes are. and i dont want my kid outside right now. and my back nad wrists hurts to carry the washing basket.
quit complaining kaeus. be thankful its a sunny day, and the washing will get dry; and that God has given you strength to carry a basket full of wet washing; and you live in a house where you actually have the option of line drying; and your feet are hard enough from never wearing shoes that a bee sting wont hurt TOO much, not to mention you arent allergic.
Wednesday 26 September 2007
Tuesday 25 September 2007
so big
critterbug's room is finished. i think. there are a couple little patches of paint that need fixing up, and we need to get a couple wire baskets or something to put in his toy cupboard so everything stays a little neater, but its basically done. the walls, ceiling, and trim are all painted; hubby attempted The Sanding Of The Floor to see if it would help with the weird black marks; the blackboard - sorry, chalkboard - is done, although now we need chalk; the furniture is moved back in and the toys are in the cupboard instead of all over the house; the bed is in, and pirated, and he loves it - "oooooooooooooooooooooooooooh mummy its my big pirate bed!"
we've even managed to get the laundry hamper painted, and bought fabric to make a new lining - a blue-on-blue room with a dark blue laundry hamper looks just a bit silly when the lining on the hamper is striped yellow, white, and grass-green. now i just have to finish the lining for our hamper, and get sewing on his. its not terribly difficult, just fiddly. overlocking (i believe its called a serger in the states. cuts the fabric and uses 4 threads to finish the edge as it goes) at right angles is tricky... and i HATE re-threading the machine. so so so fiddly!
but yes. my boy is in his room. he loves it. he loves his toy cupboard. he loves his big pirate bed. he knows which drawer contains which clothes. he puts his dirty clothes in his hamper. hes growing up. in fact, as i type this, he's pulled a table over to the kitchen sink and is cleaning it with both a scrubbing brush and the sponge.
"what are you doing over there love?"
"um. i just cleaning, really."
and now hes started on the roasting pan sitting on the counter next to the sink. how do they grow up so fast?
on saturday he will be 3. three years ago today i was terribly itchy, tired (exhausted), sore (i have loose joints anyway, and baby-hormones which are supposed to loosen your hips wreaked absolute havoc on my knees and wrists), and most likely in day stay, having my blood pressure and urine checked, to make sure i wasnt pre-eclamptic yet. i say most likely because i honestly cant remember. i was in day stay most thursdays and fridays though, so its very likely. in fact, it might be the day they changed their minds and decided he wasnt cooked enough, and that i would have to be itchy for at least 2 more weeks.
i love my boy, he makes my heart sing. i miss my dear one, with the Lord and safe. and i so want more... but hubby says now is not the time. so i have to learn to put thoughts of more out of my head. its hard.
we've even managed to get the laundry hamper painted, and bought fabric to make a new lining - a blue-on-blue room with a dark blue laundry hamper looks just a bit silly when the lining on the hamper is striped yellow, white, and grass-green. now i just have to finish the lining for our hamper, and get sewing on his. its not terribly difficult, just fiddly. overlocking (i believe its called a serger in the states. cuts the fabric and uses 4 threads to finish the edge as it goes) at right angles is tricky... and i HATE re-threading the machine. so so so fiddly!
but yes. my boy is in his room. he loves it. he loves his toy cupboard. he loves his big pirate bed. he knows which drawer contains which clothes. he puts his dirty clothes in his hamper. hes growing up. in fact, as i type this, he's pulled a table over to the kitchen sink and is cleaning it with both a scrubbing brush and the sponge.
"what are you doing over there love?"
"um. i just cleaning, really."
and now hes started on the roasting pan sitting on the counter next to the sink. how do they grow up so fast?
on saturday he will be 3. three years ago today i was terribly itchy, tired (exhausted), sore (i have loose joints anyway, and baby-hormones which are supposed to loosen your hips wreaked absolute havoc on my knees and wrists), and most likely in day stay, having my blood pressure and urine checked, to make sure i wasnt pre-eclamptic yet. i say most likely because i honestly cant remember. i was in day stay most thursdays and fridays though, so its very likely. in fact, it might be the day they changed their minds and decided he wasnt cooked enough, and that i would have to be itchy for at least 2 more weeks.
i love my boy, he makes my heart sing. i miss my dear one, with the Lord and safe. and i so want more... but hubby says now is not the time. so i have to learn to put thoughts of more out of my head. its hard.
Friday 21 September 2007
not a good day
and im hardly into it. its not even 9am yet. nothing has gone wrong, i just feel... off. i just know im going to be too harsh on my critter today, wont get as much work done as i want, and will most likely be short with my husband at some point. and i dont know why. i will try my hardest not to, but at the moment it seems inevitable.
and praying isnt bringing the peace and calm it usually does. i wish i knew what was wrong with me.
all i want is to curl up in a corner and cry... and i dont know why. theres no reason. maybe i just need a hug.
i just dont know. my brain isnt working today either.
and praying isnt bringing the peace and calm it usually does. i wish i knew what was wrong with me.
all i want is to curl up in a corner and cry... and i dont know why. theres no reason. maybe i just need a hug.
i just dont know. my brain isnt working today either.
Tuesday 18 September 2007
losing weight
my throat has been so sore lately. partly is this horrible cold-thing we all have, partly its paint fumes. but its got me thinking a lot about all sorts of stuff.
when i was a teenager, i was bony. ive seen pictures. i cant believe i was worried that i was fat back then. then again, i was training for ballet, and most of the others were practically skeletal, so maybe its not such a shock that i thought i was fat. by the time i was 13 my hips were already too big to fit into a dress my mother made for herself in her 30s. and my legs build up muscle like anything. its a little scary. but honestly, compared to the 25 year old me, 15 year old me was a stick.
the easiest way to lose weight is to simply not eat. i did this once, when i was about 19. i lost 5kg (about 11lb) in a week. ONE WEEK. i could be down to my ideal weight in about a month. how great would that be?
but i wont.
when this happened to me before, it was because i was sick. i now think i might have had viral tonsillitis. (why do i think it was viral tonsillitis? well for one, the pain. for two, antibiotics didnt do a single thing. for three, when i was about 2 or 3, i had viral tonsillitis. i had a fever of 105 fahrenheit, and my parents put me in a bathtub full of ice to get the temperature down, because i was vomiting constantly, and 'cold' water from the tap where we lived was warm. i didnt have my tonsils out.) all i knew then was that my throat hurt. a lot. all the time. to the point that during that week all i ate was about 4 serves of macaroni and cheese. all week. and i drank maybe 2 litres of apple juice. all week. because everything hurt. if saliva built up in my mouth, i couldnt swallow it. i had to find a sink and spit it out. i was in constant pain. but i lost 5kg.
last year i started the CSIRO total wellbeing diet, because, quite frankly, i was fat. i had always been slim, until i moved to america. i stopped doing ballet 11+ hours a week at age 16, and i put on a bit of weight then, but it wasnt until i moved to america and started eating junk all the time that i got fat. then i got pregnant, and despite the fact that i could hardly eat anything (the only things that didnt make me want to throw up were chicken nuggets from mcdonalds, cheerios, and turkey/olive/swisscheese sandwiches on white bread. i forced myself to eat other foods, because that would have been a horribly unhealthy diet for myself and the baby, but i didnt eat an awful lot of anything), i gained SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much weight. i dont even know how much it was, but i lost 11kg during the week after my son was born. and he weighed less than 4kg. i think most of that extra weight was retained water, but i still had a lot of extra weight hanging around.
then last year, after coming back from a holiday in the states, i decided to do something about it. my sister was on the CSIRO diet, so i decided to give it a go. lost 15kg (about 33lb) in 3 months. and then it stopped. no matter what i did, i could not lose more weight. i ate less, i ate more, i exercised more, nothing worked. so i gave up. and luckily, i didnt put on any weight when i stopped.
then this april i lost a baby. and i have been on the edge of depression* ever since. and eating far too much sugar. chocolate helps with everything. i have gained 4kg in the last 4-5 months. i need to lose it. and more. my husband should probably lose some weight too. my son... well if he lost any weight he'd look like a skeleton. lucky thing.
so tomorrow im starting the CSIRO diet again. as best i can. im not going to cook separate food for me than for my family, so if they occasionally eat something made for me, or i eat something a bit 'bad', thats just how its going to be. but i lost weight before, and i can do it again.
*i know the difference between 'down' and 'depressed'. i was on medication for about 4 years. and for a year or so after my son was born. this is not quite to the medication needing stage, and most of the time, now, i'm fine. but there are some very bad days. im not just 'sad'. if i didnt already have a gorgeous child to look after, and a husband who loves me so much, and a God who takes my pain... i dont even like to think where i'd be right now.
when i was a teenager, i was bony. ive seen pictures. i cant believe i was worried that i was fat back then. then again, i was training for ballet, and most of the others were practically skeletal, so maybe its not such a shock that i thought i was fat. by the time i was 13 my hips were already too big to fit into a dress my mother made for herself in her 30s. and my legs build up muscle like anything. its a little scary. but honestly, compared to the 25 year old me, 15 year old me was a stick.
the easiest way to lose weight is to simply not eat. i did this once, when i was about 19. i lost 5kg (about 11lb) in a week. ONE WEEK. i could be down to my ideal weight in about a month. how great would that be?
but i wont.
when this happened to me before, it was because i was sick. i now think i might have had viral tonsillitis. (why do i think it was viral tonsillitis? well for one, the pain. for two, antibiotics didnt do a single thing. for three, when i was about 2 or 3, i had viral tonsillitis. i had a fever of 105 fahrenheit, and my parents put me in a bathtub full of ice to get the temperature down, because i was vomiting constantly, and 'cold' water from the tap where we lived was warm. i didnt have my tonsils out.) all i knew then was that my throat hurt. a lot. all the time. to the point that during that week all i ate was about 4 serves of macaroni and cheese. all week. and i drank maybe 2 litres of apple juice. all week. because everything hurt. if saliva built up in my mouth, i couldnt swallow it. i had to find a sink and spit it out. i was in constant pain. but i lost 5kg.
last year i started the CSIRO total wellbeing diet, because, quite frankly, i was fat. i had always been slim, until i moved to america. i stopped doing ballet 11+ hours a week at age 16, and i put on a bit of weight then, but it wasnt until i moved to america and started eating junk all the time that i got fat. then i got pregnant, and despite the fact that i could hardly eat anything (the only things that didnt make me want to throw up were chicken nuggets from mcdonalds, cheerios, and turkey/olive/swisscheese sandwiches on white bread. i forced myself to eat other foods, because that would have been a horribly unhealthy diet for myself and the baby, but i didnt eat an awful lot of anything), i gained SOOOOOOOOOOOOO much weight. i dont even know how much it was, but i lost 11kg during the week after my son was born. and he weighed less than 4kg. i think most of that extra weight was retained water, but i still had a lot of extra weight hanging around.
then last year, after coming back from a holiday in the states, i decided to do something about it. my sister was on the CSIRO diet, so i decided to give it a go. lost 15kg (about 33lb) in 3 months. and then it stopped. no matter what i did, i could not lose more weight. i ate less, i ate more, i exercised more, nothing worked. so i gave up. and luckily, i didnt put on any weight when i stopped.
then this april i lost a baby. and i have been on the edge of depression* ever since. and eating far too much sugar. chocolate helps with everything. i have gained 4kg in the last 4-5 months. i need to lose it. and more. my husband should probably lose some weight too. my son... well if he lost any weight he'd look like a skeleton. lucky thing.
so tomorrow im starting the CSIRO diet again. as best i can. im not going to cook separate food for me than for my family, so if they occasionally eat something made for me, or i eat something a bit 'bad', thats just how its going to be. but i lost weight before, and i can do it again.
*i know the difference between 'down' and 'depressed'. i was on medication for about 4 years. and for a year or so after my son was born. this is not quite to the medication needing stage, and most of the time, now, i'm fine. but there are some very bad days. im not just 'sad'. if i didnt already have a gorgeous child to look after, and a husband who loves me so much, and a God who takes my pain... i dont even like to think where i'd be right now.
Monday 17 September 2007
i was in a cleaning mood
doesnt happen very often. but when it does, i HAVE to clean something. anything. a table, kitchen counter, cupboard, floor, anything. today, i happened to be in the bathroom, about to have a shower, when the cleaning mood struck, so i cleared out the cupboard under the sink in the bathroom.
WOW. seriously. W-O-W, WOW.
i could not BELIEVE the amount of stuff i cleared out. almost all of it was shampoo and conditioner. a couple bottles of face wash, an exfoliating scrub, one bottle of toner, but the rest of it was shampoo and conditioner. there was so much of it all that i had to get a second box. and i didnt even touch the other shelf where the feminine products and bathroom cleaners are kept.
this is what happens when you have 4 adults in a one-bathroom house, and they each use different hair-care stuff. or to be more precise, this is what happens when people are allowed to buy new hair care stuff whenever they want, instead of using up what they already have first. admittedly, i now have 4 different shampoos, and 3 conditioners, but i actually use them ALL. if i use any one product for too long, no matter what it is, my hair complains. so i use them all, in an odd sort of rotation.
some of the stuff in those boxes ive never seen before, and we've been back here for over 3 years now. its just crazy.
and now i dont know what to so with it all. theres a chance my mother or sister will want some of the items, so i cant just throw it away, but mum wont be back for at least 2 or 3 weeks, and my sister... well. the chances of her actually taking anything, even if she wants it, are less than a million to one. the study is still full of the stuff we cleared out of her room that shes been promising to clear out for the past 3 months plus.
so now i have two boxes full of hair stuff that are going to sit around for weeks. fun fun fun.
WOW. seriously. W-O-W, WOW.i could not BELIEVE the amount of stuff i cleared out. almost all of it was shampoo and conditioner. a couple bottles of face wash, an exfoliating scrub, one bottle of toner, but the rest of it was shampoo and conditioner. there was so much of it all that i had to get a second box. and i didnt even touch the other shelf where the feminine products and bathroom cleaners are kept.
some of the stuff in those boxes ive never seen before, and we've been back here for over 3 years now. its just crazy.
and now i dont know what to so with it all. theres a chance my mother or sister will want some of the items, so i cant just throw it away, but mum wont be back for at least 2 or 3 weeks, and my sister... well. the chances of her actually taking anything, even if she wants it, are less than a million to one. the study is still full of the stuff we cleared out of her room that shes been promising to clear out for the past 3 months plus.
so now i have two boxes full of hair stuff that are going to sit around for weeks. fun fun fun.
potatoes
for some reason, chat potatoes are 69c/kg at the moment, instead of the usual $1.98 or so... and the big potatoes are still well over $2/kg.. so we've been stocking up on chats. they dont taste very different to me, and theres really not much difference using the small once to using the bigger ones. just cut them in half instead of quarters.
theyve been cheap for 2 weeks in a row now, and the price of beans seems to be going down too. $4.99/kg this week, when not too long ago they were closer to, if not over $10/kg. which is good, cause i like green beans.
what i dont understand is how the price can be SO different depending on where you go. harris farm had red delicious apples for nearly $5.oo/kg, whereas they were about $2.50/kg at woolworths. i know that as one of THE supermarkets in aus woollies can get their stuff cheaper, but sometimes its the other way round. its so... odd.
i hope the cheap prices keep up. food is so expensive here.
theyve been cheap for 2 weeks in a row now, and the price of beans seems to be going down too. $4.99/kg this week, when not too long ago they were closer to, if not over $10/kg. which is good, cause i like green beans.
what i dont understand is how the price can be SO different depending on where you go. harris farm had red delicious apples for nearly $5.oo/kg, whereas they were about $2.50/kg at woolworths. i know that as one of THE supermarkets in aus woollies can get their stuff cheaper, but sometimes its the other way round. its so... odd.
i hope the cheap prices keep up. food is so expensive here.
Saturday 15 September 2007
oil-based paint...
makes my throat hurt more.
on the upside, critters room is getting mighty close to being done. just need a 2nd coat on whites/blackboard/silver trim, sand the floors, and it will be ready for furniture. the bed arrived today. im so excited. he still doesnt realise its going to be HIS room. cutie pie.
he fell asleep tonight curled up on a chair. while the tv was on. rather loudly. he sleeps through ANYTHING
on the upside, critters room is getting mighty close to being done. just need a 2nd coat on whites/blackboard/silver trim, sand the floors, and it will be ready for furniture. the bed arrived today. im so excited. he still doesnt realise its going to be HIS room. cutie pie.
he fell asleep tonight curled up on a chair. while the tv was on. rather loudly. he sleeps through ANYTHING
Friday 14 September 2007
has somebody..
put alcohol in my cordial? seriously. cause i'm finding 'fanny farmer' a lot more amusing than usual. i mean, ok.. its always funny, since the american and australian meanings of 'fanny' are slightly different, and therefor no australian would EVER be called fanny.. and a fanny farmer cookbook? come ON...
but im finding it a little hard not to giggle in an embarrassed manner at the moment.. and oh dear ive just remembered that bum-bags are called fanny-packs over there as well.. all the more amusing because they tend to be worn in front...
maybe i just need more sleep....
goodnight interwebs.
but im finding it a little hard not to giggle in an embarrassed manner at the moment.. and oh dear ive just remembered that bum-bags are called fanny-packs over there as well.. all the more amusing because they tend to be worn in front...
maybe i just need more sleep....
goodnight interwebs.
fearful noises
as a parent, one of the most terrifying things i have ever heard is silence. sounds odd doesnt it? but really, silence can be scary. there are other scary noises for a parents, but silence is definitely up there.
my critter was a noisy baby. he snuffled. so much that we actually HAD to put him in a different room in order to get any sleep. if he was within about 3 metres of us, we couldnt sleep because all we could hear was snuffling. he was also the kind of baby that wakes up every 2-3 hours regardless of whether he needs feeding or changing. he would wake up, scream for a few minutes, then go back to sleep. wasnt THAT fun.
so back to scary silence.
one morning i woke up feeling oddly refreshed. i lay in bed for a minute, enjoying the peace and quiet. i rolled over, and glanced at the clock. 7am. what a good nights sleep! wait.. a good nights sleep... but my baby wakes me up every couple hours.. why didnt he wake me up during the night? not only that... even if he slept all night, why did i wake up ON MY OWN this morning? oh please Lord dont let there be anything wrong with my baby.. and i ran into his room, heart pounding, not knowing whether to be terrified or not.... to find that my mother had got up to him during the night. gee mum, give me a heart attack why dont you?
what made me think of this was waking up this morning to silence. my family is afflicted with a horrible cough. i seem to be the only one who's lost a voice in return for the cough, thankfully, but my boys are coughing up their lungs just as bad as i am. so when i woke up this morning, and heard NO COUGHING from my sons room.... i panicked again. after all the stuff thats been on the news the past couple of months about this horrible flu thats going round... and that poor woman who woke up to find her son had died from flu during the night...
silence is a very scary sound.
my critter was a noisy baby. he snuffled. so much that we actually HAD to put him in a different room in order to get any sleep. if he was within about 3 metres of us, we couldnt sleep because all we could hear was snuffling. he was also the kind of baby that wakes up every 2-3 hours regardless of whether he needs feeding or changing. he would wake up, scream for a few minutes, then go back to sleep. wasnt THAT fun.
so back to scary silence.
one morning i woke up feeling oddly refreshed. i lay in bed for a minute, enjoying the peace and quiet. i rolled over, and glanced at the clock. 7am. what a good nights sleep! wait.. a good nights sleep... but my baby wakes me up every couple hours.. why didnt he wake me up during the night? not only that... even if he slept all night, why did i wake up ON MY OWN this morning? oh please Lord dont let there be anything wrong with my baby.. and i ran into his room, heart pounding, not knowing whether to be terrified or not.... to find that my mother had got up to him during the night. gee mum, give me a heart attack why dont you?
what made me think of this was waking up this morning to silence. my family is afflicted with a horrible cough. i seem to be the only one who's lost a voice in return for the cough, thankfully, but my boys are coughing up their lungs just as bad as i am. so when i woke up this morning, and heard NO COUGHING from my sons room.... i panicked again. after all the stuff thats been on the news the past couple of months about this horrible flu thats going round... and that poor woman who woke up to find her son had died from flu during the night...
silence is a very scary sound.
Thursday 13 September 2007
my dear sweet child
a couple days ago i suddenly realised, in the midst of doing the dishes (we have a dishwasher in my house. her name is kaeus. actually we do have a dishwasher.. my dad bought it some 18 years ago and its never worked. until my son did something a couple months back and it started making noises. i dont know how to unplug it....), that my son had not made any noise for a few minutes. any-one with children knows this is cause for immediate alarm. what have they gotten into??
well i went searching through the house, rather worried, and was pleasantly surprised. he was in grandma's room, putting his pants in his laundry hamper. "i did wee-wees in toilet ALL myself!!" oh arent you just the cleverest little man in the.. what? how on EARTH did you manage to climb onto the toilet?
but he can. and has been ever since. today in the middle of breakfast he stood up and announced "i go do wee-wees in toilet all myself now" and since he hadnt done anything OTHER than that for a while.. i followed him just in case. "no no NO mummy you not following me! i go all myself!" ok darling.. i'll just wait outside the door. just in case. "ok. MUMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i do BIG POOOOOOOOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and im glad i waited. cause he hasnt mastered the toilet paper yet. climbing onto the toilet, fine. FLUSHING the toilet, fine. he can even turn on the taps to wash his hands, although he hasnt grasped the concept of soap, or figured out how to turn the taps off.... but he cant understand toilet paper.
ah well. he's only three.
well i went searching through the house, rather worried, and was pleasantly surprised. he was in grandma's room, putting his pants in his laundry hamper. "i did wee-wees in toilet ALL myself!!" oh arent you just the cleverest little man in the.. what? how on EARTH did you manage to climb onto the toilet?
but he can. and has been ever since. today in the middle of breakfast he stood up and announced "i go do wee-wees in toilet all myself now" and since he hadnt done anything OTHER than that for a while.. i followed him just in case. "no no NO mummy you not following me! i go all myself!" ok darling.. i'll just wait outside the door. just in case. "ok. MUMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i do BIG POOOOOOOOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and im glad i waited. cause he hasnt mastered the toilet paper yet. climbing onto the toilet, fine. FLUSHING the toilet, fine. he can even turn on the taps to wash his hands, although he hasnt grasped the concept of soap, or figured out how to turn the taps off.... but he cant understand toilet paper.
ah well. he's only three.
Wednesday 12 September 2007
what a coward
early in the morning on august 13th, an elderly woman named rachel williams woke up in the dark to find a man beating her up. he stole drawers from her bedside table. she referred to him as a coward, saying she guessed he didnt have the guts to beat a man and had to pick on little old ladies.
she was 91.
last night she died.
she had lived in the same house for over 50 years, more than half her life. her house had been broken into 6 times. after this one, she never returned.
apparently the bashing did not cause her death, the official cause is heart failure. but something that traumatic happening to someone of her age, she probably would have lived longer if it hadnt happened.
i am so disgusted that our world has come to this. that women in their 90s can be beat up in their own houses for the contents of a bedside table. that a woman will leave the house she has lived in for more than half her life because she is afraid.
it is disgusting. these people have no respect.
the age september 12
news.com.au august 21
she was 91.
last night she died.
she had lived in the same house for over 50 years, more than half her life. her house had been broken into 6 times. after this one, she never returned.
apparently the bashing did not cause her death, the official cause is heart failure. but something that traumatic happening to someone of her age, she probably would have lived longer if it hadnt happened.
i am so disgusted that our world has come to this. that women in their 90s can be beat up in their own houses for the contents of a bedside table. that a woman will leave the house she has lived in for more than half her life because she is afraid.
it is disgusting. these people have no respect.
the age september 12
news.com.au august 21
*sigh*
having my husband home was wonderful. i love being able to spend time with him, and when he gets home in the evenings after work, he's often so tired we just sit, and... just sit. during the time he was looking for work, he was home all the time other than brief excursions for job interviews, or when we went out as a family to get things for the house. it was wonderful, spending all day with him, helping him fix up the house: painting walls; cleaning walls; ripping up carpet; moving furniture. and the critter loved having his daddy home too.
but.. much as i loved it, it threw everything off. i got out of routine, because i was busily helping him with things instead of doing what i normally do. the critter got all.. weird... because daddy was home all the time, and he got confused. he was also watching a lot more TV than i would have liked, both because hubby would turn it on during his breaks, and because i was using it to keep him out of harms way, but i decided it was the least bad of the options open to me. the other options were: let hubby do all the work himself, and get in a bad mood cause he's tired, try and keep the child out of his way, fail at this and deal with a 3 year old's tantrums, and generally have the house in disarray; OR let the child help us with things like bleaching the walls and scraping paint chips off, risking exposure to poisonous chemicals (theres a distinct possibility we were dealing with lead paint. i am quite willing to risk things i would never let him be exposed to), and getting in the way and making everything take longer.
after thinking about it for a while, these seemed like much worse options than: turn on a Wiggles or Disney DVD to keep the 3 year old busy while i help hubby with the fixing, thus keeping child out of harms way, and our way, and getting everything done in half the time. the only problem is that now, he keeps asking to watch more TV.
he was getting very good about the TV. it gets turned on in the morning while we eat breakfast, and turned off at 10am when playschool is over*. he gets up and turns the TV off on his own with no prompting. but since daddy has been home, he keeps asking to watch movies, and throwing little tantrums when he isnt allowed. im not sure what to do to help him.
am i doing the right thing simply turning it off and not allowing any extra? should i try and wean him back down slowly? i really dont know. when we decided to get rid of his dummy (pacifier, binky, whatever you want to call it), we cut down slowly. first he could only have it while he was asleep (including the first ten minutes after waking up when he really wasnt with it), then only at night, then we threw it away. i dont know if doing this with the TV would be better.. cut him down to an extra 1/2 hour a day, then get less and less... i dont know.. but i think im going to continue with just turning it off and deal with the tantrums until he gets back into routine.
i did love having my husband home, but it has made it hard to get back to normal. just one of the things you deal with in life i suppose. not everything can be exactly as you want.
*i know this is more TV than many people will allow, and many people will think i am ruining him doing this. well, my child, my choice. also, most programs on ABC-kids are educational, and even when the TV is on, most of the time he is not watchin it, but running around the house like a mad thing, doing puzzles, building with his blocks, and playing 'family' with his teddies. hes not glued to the TV like some kids are. despit this, quite honestly, TV is the only reason he talks as well as he does. i am not a big talker (if i was on my own, i could happily go a few weeks without saying a single word), although ive made myself talk a lot more for his sake, but despite my best efforts, he didnt talk till after 18months, and he picks up a lot more from the TV than from me. so if TV helps him developmentally, im quite happy to let him watch "more than is good for him".
once the tv is turned off at 10am, it doesnt get turned on again till 6pm, when we watch the news until he has his bath at about 7, and then goes to bed.
but.. much as i loved it, it threw everything off. i got out of routine, because i was busily helping him with things instead of doing what i normally do. the critter got all.. weird... because daddy was home all the time, and he got confused. he was also watching a lot more TV than i would have liked, both because hubby would turn it on during his breaks, and because i was using it to keep him out of harms way, but i decided it was the least bad of the options open to me. the other options were: let hubby do all the work himself, and get in a bad mood cause he's tired, try and keep the child out of his way, fail at this and deal with a 3 year old's tantrums, and generally have the house in disarray; OR let the child help us with things like bleaching the walls and scraping paint chips off, risking exposure to poisonous chemicals (theres a distinct possibility we were dealing with lead paint. i am quite willing to risk things i would never let him be exposed to), and getting in the way and making everything take longer.
after thinking about it for a while, these seemed like much worse options than: turn on a Wiggles or Disney DVD to keep the 3 year old busy while i help hubby with the fixing, thus keeping child out of harms way, and our way, and getting everything done in half the time. the only problem is that now, he keeps asking to watch more TV.
he was getting very good about the TV. it gets turned on in the morning while we eat breakfast, and turned off at 10am when playschool is over*. he gets up and turns the TV off on his own with no prompting. but since daddy has been home, he keeps asking to watch movies, and throwing little tantrums when he isnt allowed. im not sure what to do to help him.
am i doing the right thing simply turning it off and not allowing any extra? should i try and wean him back down slowly? i really dont know. when we decided to get rid of his dummy (pacifier, binky, whatever you want to call it), we cut down slowly. first he could only have it while he was asleep (including the first ten minutes after waking up when he really wasnt with it), then only at night, then we threw it away. i dont know if doing this with the TV would be better.. cut him down to an extra 1/2 hour a day, then get less and less... i dont know.. but i think im going to continue with just turning it off and deal with the tantrums until he gets back into routine.
i did love having my husband home, but it has made it hard to get back to normal. just one of the things you deal with in life i suppose. not everything can be exactly as you want.
*i know this is more TV than many people will allow, and many people will think i am ruining him doing this. well, my child, my choice. also, most programs on ABC-kids are educational, and even when the TV is on, most of the time he is not watchin it, but running around the house like a mad thing, doing puzzles, building with his blocks, and playing 'family' with his teddies. hes not glued to the TV like some kids are. despit this, quite honestly, TV is the only reason he talks as well as he does. i am not a big talker (if i was on my own, i could happily go a few weeks without saying a single word), although ive made myself talk a lot more for his sake, but despite my best efforts, he didnt talk till after 18months, and he picks up a lot more from the TV than from me. so if TV helps him developmentally, im quite happy to let him watch "more than is good for him".
once the tv is turned off at 10am, it doesnt get turned on again till 6pm, when we watch the news until he has his bath at about 7, and then goes to bed.
Tuesday 11 September 2007
when i woke up this morning...
my throat hurt so much i thought i might have to go to the doctor. it got better. and my voice was back! sort of...
now it's gone again. not fun. i want to be able to talk again.
now it's gone again. not fun. i want to be able to talk again.
girl-shaped and proud of it
last night on ACA there was an article about women. they were talking about how women cant have it all, and how women are never satisfied with their bodies and all that good stuff.
well. i have some body issues, i admit. i dont think i know any woman who doesnt. i know i'm overweight, although not a huge amount, no matter what my BMI says. i am convinced i have solid lead bones (when i was 16 and doing Food Technology at school, we had to calculate our BMIs. mine was 19.5 even though i was BONY. i dont know where the weight comes from, other than very heavy bones). (also, most of the weight is hips-legs and bust, which is still not so healthy, but not as dangerous as being on my stomach apparently.) and i know i'll never be satisfied with the size of my legs, no matter how skinny i were to get. i know this because they were my main issue when i was a very skinny teenager.
BUT much as i complain about it, i do not really have a problem with my general bodyshape. i am GIRL shaped. no matter how much weight i lose, i will never look like a super model, because i am the wrong shape, but i'm fine with that. i have HIPS. in fact i have what are generally referred to as 'childbearing hips' - and considering what i went through with my kid, im kinda glad of that*. i also have a bust. (it makes it hard to find clothes that fit me correctly. anything that fits my waist is.. far too small elsewhere. i really need to lose my fear of the sewing machine. sewing clothes by hand simply takes too much time.) i do not look like a supermodel, and i never will. but i do look like a girl. the only way anyone could mistake me for a guy is if i was wearing a cardboard box, or had a double mastectomy and my hipbones filed down. or currently, if they were blind and only heard me talk. my voice is not happy right now.
unfortunately, being girl-shaped is not fashionable. clothes are made to fit people who are not as curvy as me, as i've already mentioned. (especially catwalk stuff. seriously. fashion designers seem to design stuff to fit 12 year old boys. when are women going to realise they wont look good in this stuff if theyre even VAGUELY normally shaped - normal being not anorexic - not that most of it looks good to begin with.....) and i just dont understand that. people are made different shapes: some, like my mother, are straight up and down; some, like myself, are curvy; some, like my sister, have relatively slim legs, and a huge ribcage. why dont clothes people realise this? not everyone fits their clothes proportions, or is even a consistent size all over. i know a girl who wears size 12 pants, and size 8 shirts; i need 3 different sizes - one for bust, one for waist, one for hips - and we are not the only ones.
God made people in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours. when is everyone going to realise this?
*i know having big hips does not automatically mean childbirth will be easier. it all depends on how they move during the birth and the INTERNAL measurements rather than the external ones etc etc etc, but they took the strain of my ridiculously enormous belly while i was pregnant, and the kid was born in only 4 hours, despite the enormo-head which got stuck. probably would have taken longer if i had tiny skinny little hips that his enormous head wouldnt fit through.
and, for me at least, bigger hips sure are handy for resting things - like toddlers and washing baskets - on.
well. i have some body issues, i admit. i dont think i know any woman who doesnt. i know i'm overweight, although not a huge amount, no matter what my BMI says. i am convinced i have solid lead bones (when i was 16 and doing Food Technology at school, we had to calculate our BMIs. mine was 19.5 even though i was BONY. i dont know where the weight comes from, other than very heavy bones). (also, most of the weight is hips-legs and bust, which is still not so healthy, but not as dangerous as being on my stomach apparently.) and i know i'll never be satisfied with the size of my legs, no matter how skinny i were to get. i know this because they were my main issue when i was a very skinny teenager.
BUT much as i complain about it, i do not really have a problem with my general bodyshape. i am GIRL shaped. no matter how much weight i lose, i will never look like a super model, because i am the wrong shape, but i'm fine with that. i have HIPS. in fact i have what are generally referred to as 'childbearing hips' - and considering what i went through with my kid, im kinda glad of that*. i also have a bust. (it makes it hard to find clothes that fit me correctly. anything that fits my waist is.. far too small elsewhere. i really need to lose my fear of the sewing machine. sewing clothes by hand simply takes too much time.) i do not look like a supermodel, and i never will. but i do look like a girl. the only way anyone could mistake me for a guy is if i was wearing a cardboard box, or had a double mastectomy and my hipbones filed down. or currently, if they were blind and only heard me talk. my voice is not happy right now.
unfortunately, being girl-shaped is not fashionable. clothes are made to fit people who are not as curvy as me, as i've already mentioned. (especially catwalk stuff. seriously. fashion designers seem to design stuff to fit 12 year old boys. when are women going to realise they wont look good in this stuff if theyre even VAGUELY normally shaped - normal being not anorexic - not that most of it looks good to begin with.....) and i just dont understand that. people are made different shapes: some, like my mother, are straight up and down; some, like myself, are curvy; some, like my sister, have relatively slim legs, and a huge ribcage. why dont clothes people realise this? not everyone fits their clothes proportions, or is even a consistent size all over. i know a girl who wears size 12 pants, and size 8 shirts; i need 3 different sizes - one for bust, one for waist, one for hips - and we are not the only ones.
God made people in a variety of shapes, sizes and colours. when is everyone going to realise this?
*i know having big hips does not automatically mean childbirth will be easier. it all depends on how they move during the birth and the INTERNAL measurements rather than the external ones etc etc etc, but they took the strain of my ridiculously enormous belly while i was pregnant, and the kid was born in only 4 hours, despite the enormo-head which got stuck. probably would have taken longer if i had tiny skinny little hips that his enormous head wouldnt fit through.
and, for me at least, bigger hips sure are handy for resting things - like toddlers and washing baskets - on.
Sunday 9 September 2007
also...
would whoever has taken my voice please return it? my son is having far too much fun trying to make me talk, and its hard to make him understand it's not a game - that mummy is talking like this because she "has a hurt voice", not because it sounds funny.
i dont recall making any deals with an octopus involving a voice in return for legs, so someone must have stolen it.
i miss being able to speak in more than a whisper
i dont recall making any deals with an octopus involving a voice in return for legs, so someone must have stolen it.
i miss being able to speak in more than a whisper
Saturday 8 September 2007
oh happy day..
today was a good day: we got to sleep in a little (and the kidlet actually slept all night, so the sleep in was extra sweet, instead of just a necessity); the rain cleared up once we were down at the shops - which we got to at a decent time, too - so we didnt get totally soaked like i was expecting; kidlet was actually in a decent mood most of the day; we managed to get a complete set of sheets for the kid's new bed, even though it was more expensive than i would have liked, but thats what you get when you want the EXTRA SUPER CUTE PIRATE SHEET SET; i managed to FINALLY get some lemon cordial, since we went to coles instead of woolies; we got free parking since we spent so much.
we ripped up the carpet in the room, and discovered a little patch of tile in front of the fireplace, matching to the front porch and what was in the bathroom under the old tile before we replaced it 7 years ago; we discovered the under-house access is in the kids room, and had a look under the house (houses built on clay soil REALLY need a concrete slab foundation... the bare earth was all kinds of tore up down there) where we discovered a boot that must have been there for at least 25 years; we tested the freshly painted walls with masking tape and they are good to go; kidlet was very enthusiastic about helping daddy and came and asked me "mummy, you see my hammer around anywhere?"
then, to top it all off, i made a HUGELY DELICIOUS roast dinner. since we havent had one for a while, i went all out and made gravy (my first attempt EVER), and yorkshire puddings (also my first attempt) too. hubby said it was wonderful, he loved the gravy, the meat wasnt dried out, the beans werent overcooked, and the potatoes were perfect. the kid liked the yorkshire pudding, ate all his potatoes, most of his meat, and a fair bit of the beans (usually the only vegetable he likes is broccoli. he doesnt realise yet that he isnt supposed to like broccoli. silly thing). and then we had chocolate covered icecreams. yum yum yum.
all in all it was a wonderful day. yay!
we ripped up the carpet in the room, and discovered a little patch of tile in front of the fireplace, matching to the front porch and what was in the bathroom under the old tile before we replaced it 7 years ago; we discovered the under-house access is in the kids room, and had a look under the house (houses built on clay soil REALLY need a concrete slab foundation... the bare earth was all kinds of tore up down there) where we discovered a boot that must have been there for at least 25 years; we tested the freshly painted walls with masking tape and they are good to go; kidlet was very enthusiastic about helping daddy and came and asked me "mummy, you see my hammer around anywhere?"
then, to top it all off, i made a HUGELY DELICIOUS roast dinner. since we havent had one for a while, i went all out and made gravy (my first attempt EVER), and yorkshire puddings (also my first attempt) too. hubby said it was wonderful, he loved the gravy, the meat wasnt dried out, the beans werent overcooked, and the potatoes were perfect. the kid liked the yorkshire pudding, ate all his potatoes, most of his meat, and a fair bit of the beans (usually the only vegetable he likes is broccoli. he doesnt realise yet that he isnt supposed to like broccoli. silly thing). and then we had chocolate covered icecreams. yum yum yum.
all in all it was a wonderful day. yay!
delicious roast dinner
tonight, we had a roast dinner for the first time in ages. like, really. ages. 2+ months. so i decided to go all out and make yorkshire pudding as well. and then hubby said what a pity you dont know how to make gravy, so i decided to give gravy a try too. REAL gravy. as in add flour to the meat-cooking-fat and heat it on the stove kind of gravy. none of this JUST ADD WATER! powdered nonsense in MY house thankyou. (no offense to anyone who DOES use that stuff. im sure its a whole lot easier than making gravy from scratch. but i'm a little obsessive about making things from scratch, and try not to use pre-made ingredients whenever i can - unless theyre TRULY BREATHTAKINGLY DELICIOUS, like the tomato-rosemary roasts from coles - which is why we have tins and tins of tomatoes in the cupboard, and go through mixed herbs like anything, instead of just buying pasta sauce. anyway, back to cooking.)
if anything sounds good, theres instructions at the very end.
we only had a plain roast, since the pre-flavoured ones in woolies taste like... not nice, and we havent been to coles for months, so i sliced up 2 cloves of garlic and shoved the pieces into slits in the roast, then covered it in mixed herbs (usually i use rosemary, but no-one told me we were out of rosemary.. just shows how long its been since weve had a roast), doused it in a little olive oil and popped it in the oven, at about 4pm. then quartered (aprox. some were 6thed, some where 3rded, depending on the size and shape of the potato) 5 large potatoes, boiled them for 7 min, and tossed them in the pan with the meat.
i dug out fanny farmer, looked up yorkshire pudding, and gravy, decided i could probably do that. hopefully. if the no-egg actually works this time. last time my mum made yorkshire, we used the no-egg, and the silly things wouldnt cook. just wouldnt do it. so hubby suggested i make some with no-egg, and some WITH egg, just in case. good idea that man! so i will make 2 half-batches. the eggless will go in a square pan, the egged in the muffin tray, so i can easily differentiate. dont want kidlet eating the egg ones. he wont explode, thankfully, but the rashes are still not nice.
so about 5:30, i pulled the roast out, spooned some of the now-meat-flavoured-oil from the pan into the dish i was going to use for the pudding, and put them both back in the oven. the oil has to stay nice and hot for the pudding to go in. mix the no-egg (one tsp no-egg, 2 tbsp water), 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup flour, pinch salt, and beat with a fork till smooth. add a little more milk cause its CHUNKY and GLUGGY. and then take the square pan out of the oven, burning my wrist in the process, and pour in the yorkshire glug. for some reason, the oil decided to.... roll up over the batter. interesting. back in the oven for 25 minutes!
string the beans! fun job. it was far too quiet in the kitchen, since one boy was asleep, and the other was de-nailing the freshly de-carpeted floor, so i put on my princess bride soundtrack. it is so strange to think that the same guy who composed that - mark knopfler - is also behind dire straits. so very very different. anyway, time to get the pudding out, and silly me forgot that the oven has to be at 230 for the pudding, and only 180 for the roast (both celsius), so it stayed in there for a while longer. but i did take out the roast, and transferred the meat and the potatoes onto a plate, which i then covered in foil and set aside. spooned more of the oil into the muffin tray, made up another batch of pudding batter with 1 egg instead of the no-egg, and popped that into the oven, which i turned up. it was about 6pm by now.
put the beans on the boil, put the roasting pan on a hot plate, and added 2 tbsp of flour, and a little more oil. boy does that flour SIZZLE in the hot oil! i probably should have waited a while before making the gravy, cause that flour was sizzling away, and i still had 5 minutes to wait before the beans were done and i could put the water in the pan for the gravy! so i quickly found a ladle and stole a little bean water for the gravy, and also turned down the heat. that helped. a bit. take the eggless pudding out of the oven, and although it hasnt risen up all bubbly like it should, its cooked, and good. YAY!
i ended up turning the beans off after 3.5min instead of 5 (good move - they were perfect) and strained them, catching the water in the small mixing bowl. i added it, slowly, to the gravy pan, continuing to stir it, trying to break up the large chunks of flour that had congealed in the hot oil. add a little salt, four twists of pepper, and a dash of red wine. and keep stirring. at some point it turned into a nice liquid, instead of water with chunks of oiled flour in it. but quite thin. so i gave it a good stirring to make sure it was all mixed together and then ignored it in the hopes some water would evaporate and it would thicken up.
i checked on my egged puddings. rising nicely. much better than the no-egg one. maybe i should try no-egg puddings with self raising flour instead of plain? it still tastes good, but it definitely doesnt have the same effect when its all flat. the gravy was starting to bubble a bit, so went to check on hubby's progress in the room, and asked him to come taste the gravy (i dont eat gravy, so i dont know what it should taste like). which he did. and said it was very yummy. yay! at this point my wrist started really hurting so i went and got some aloe vera gel for it.
when i got back, the gravy appeared to be done, and the puddings were quite browned, so i turned everything off, poured the gravy into a jug (with hubby's help. i have bad wrists), and took the yorkshire out of the oven. hubby carved the meat, the kidlet started begging, and then we all sat down and ate. the kid ate nearly everything he was given (which is good since hes been a bit off his food the past couple days), nad actually seemed to enjoy the yorkshire. hubby used 2/3 of the gravy BY HIMSELF, so i guess it was a success. he also went back for 2nds of the potatoes and seemed to enjoy the yorkshires. YAY. i myself ate too much.. particularly the yorkshire. it doesnt keep, so anything left just gets thrown away.. so i ate most of it. naughty. i'll have to make less next time. i tried the gravy too. the idea still makes me nauseous, but it really did taste good. ill have to try and get over the idea thing.
instructions if anyone is interested:
roast beef
cooking time: about 20-30min per 500g, at 180C, depending how well done you like it
beef
if you have a plain roast, cut numerous slits about 1inch deep, and put a slice of garlic in each slit. sprinkle generously with rosemary (other herbs will work nicely too).
pour on enough oil to coat the meat, and nearly cover the bottom of the pan. put it in the oven while you boil the potatoes. you want the oil to be hot so the potatoes dont soak too much of it up, but start cooking straight off.
when the roast is nearly done, remove it and the potatoes to a plate, and cover with foil. let rest at least 15min before carving. nearly done, because it will continue to cook for a little while under the foil
potatoes
about one med-large potato per person. more if the potatoes are smaller, or if you want leftovers.
boil about 7 mins. when done, use a strain-spoon to transfer the potatoes to the roasting pan. keep the water in the pot to boil vegetables later.
either turn the potatoes over once, or baste them, then put the pan back in the oven.
sweet potatoes
no boiling! just cut into chunks and put straight in the roasting pan with the meat. if there isnt enough room, spoon some of the meated-oil into a second pan so the sweet potatoes get some flavour, add some garlic if you wish, ad add enough fresh oil to just cover the bottom of the pan. make sure the sweet potatoes are coated in the oil or they will dry out.
if your oil isnt meated yet, dont worry, just use fresh oil, and add some of the meat juice later.
vegetables
cooking time: 3-10 minutes
really, whatever you want is good. i prefer green beans (the long one) or broccoli. if you are making gravy, strain into a bowl instead of straight down the sink. the water will be used in the gravy.
green beans
rinse. string (cut off the ends, cut lengthways discarding the outer edge. much much easier if you have a bean stringer), or chop into 2inch lengths. boil in the water you saved from your potatoes earlier, about 3.5 minutes. strain, serve. best with a very little salt.
broccoli
RINSE WELL. make sure any little bug are out. sometimes they hide. or maybe youre not that fussy. either way. cut into florets. should be fairly obvious where is good place to cut. when you get down to the middle, just cut it into chunks about the same size as the florets. if you like the stalk (my son will eat the stalk to the exclusion of anything else, including chocolate), cut off the very bottom - about 1/4 inch - and 'peel' it: cut off only the very outside, as little as you can manage. cut in half lengthways and crossways. boil in the water you saved from your potatoes earlier, about 3-6 minutes, depending on how well done you like it. 3 minutes is still quite crisp, 6 minutes it will fall apart a good bit when you strain it. strain, serve.
yorkshire pudding
cooking time: 25-30min at 230C
when your roast is out of the oven, take enough oil from the pan to just cover the bottom of a 9x9 or 7x11 pan, and put it in the oven - turned up to 230 - to keep hot.
beat together 2 eggs, 1cup flour, 1 cup milk, and 1/2 - 1 tsp salt (to taste) until smooth. you may find you need to add more milk. i seem to.
pour the batter into the pan and bake. when it is done it will be lightly browned, and should have large puffs. also, it will probably have separated from the edges of the pan.
DONT PANIC if the edges or bottom are quite dark. it is probably not burned, just very flavoured.
cut into equal portions per person. good alone, or covered in gravy.
gravy
cooking time: 20minutes?
put your roasting pan on the stove top, over a low-med heat, to heat up the oil from the roast, and with a metal spoon, try to scrape up anything stuck to the bottom of the pan.
add 2tbsp plain flour. IT WILL SIZZLE LIKE MAD. DO NOT PANIC. stir it up as best you can, spreading the flour through as much oil as possible. keep stirring and spreading. add a little more oil if theres not much there, or a little (1tbsp - 1/4cup) water if your just not sure. add seasonings to taste. salt, pepper, red wine, extra herbs, go wild with it.
after about 5-10 minutes, or you begin panicking, SLOWLY add your vegetable water, about a ladleful at a time, and KEEP MIXING. the flour will begin to dissolve, and everything will come together. add water to about 1/2 inch deep. KEEP MIXING. stir back and forth, slowly, spreading out the flour, and scraping up anything on the bottom of the pan. if its ever too thick, add a little more water. if it gets too thin, leave it to simmer for a minute or two - but only if it is well mixed together. DO NOT LEAVE IT if its still very separated.
when its done (subjective. you might like it runnier than my husband, or perhaps thicker), CAREFULLY pour into a gravy boat or pitcher of some sort, turn off the stove, and put the pan back on the hotplate with some water in it - this will make cleaning it later SO MUCH easier, but be careful carrying it. you dont want to clean up a roasting pan's worth of water from your floor.
if anything sounds good, theres instructions at the very end.
we only had a plain roast, since the pre-flavoured ones in woolies taste like... not nice, and we havent been to coles for months, so i sliced up 2 cloves of garlic and shoved the pieces into slits in the roast, then covered it in mixed herbs (usually i use rosemary, but no-one told me we were out of rosemary.. just shows how long its been since weve had a roast), doused it in a little olive oil and popped it in the oven, at about 4pm. then quartered (aprox. some were 6thed, some where 3rded, depending on the size and shape of the potato) 5 large potatoes, boiled them for 7 min, and tossed them in the pan with the meat.
i dug out fanny farmer, looked up yorkshire pudding, and gravy, decided i could probably do that. hopefully. if the no-egg actually works this time. last time my mum made yorkshire, we used the no-egg, and the silly things wouldnt cook. just wouldnt do it. so hubby suggested i make some with no-egg, and some WITH egg, just in case. good idea that man! so i will make 2 half-batches. the eggless will go in a square pan, the egged in the muffin tray, so i can easily differentiate. dont want kidlet eating the egg ones. he wont explode, thankfully, but the rashes are still not nice.
so about 5:30, i pulled the roast out, spooned some of the now-meat-flavoured-oil from the pan into the dish i was going to use for the pudding, and put them both back in the oven. the oil has to stay nice and hot for the pudding to go in. mix the no-egg (one tsp no-egg, 2 tbsp water), 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 cup flour, pinch salt, and beat with a fork till smooth. add a little more milk cause its CHUNKY and GLUGGY. and then take the square pan out of the oven, burning my wrist in the process, and pour in the yorkshire glug. for some reason, the oil decided to.... roll up over the batter. interesting. back in the oven for 25 minutes!
string the beans! fun job. it was far too quiet in the kitchen, since one boy was asleep, and the other was de-nailing the freshly de-carpeted floor, so i put on my princess bride soundtrack. it is so strange to think that the same guy who composed that - mark knopfler - is also behind dire straits. so very very different. anyway, time to get the pudding out, and silly me forgot that the oven has to be at 230 for the pudding, and only 180 for the roast (both celsius), so it stayed in there for a while longer. but i did take out the roast, and transferred the meat and the potatoes onto a plate, which i then covered in foil and set aside. spooned more of the oil into the muffin tray, made up another batch of pudding batter with 1 egg instead of the no-egg, and popped that into the oven, which i turned up. it was about 6pm by now.
put the beans on the boil, put the roasting pan on a hot plate, and added 2 tbsp of flour, and a little more oil. boy does that flour SIZZLE in the hot oil! i probably should have waited a while before making the gravy, cause that flour was sizzling away, and i still had 5 minutes to wait before the beans were done and i could put the water in the pan for the gravy! so i quickly found a ladle and stole a little bean water for the gravy, and also turned down the heat. that helped. a bit. take the eggless pudding out of the oven, and although it hasnt risen up all bubbly like it should, its cooked, and good. YAY!
i ended up turning the beans off after 3.5min instead of 5 (good move - they were perfect) and strained them, catching the water in the small mixing bowl. i added it, slowly, to the gravy pan, continuing to stir it, trying to break up the large chunks of flour that had congealed in the hot oil. add a little salt, four twists of pepper, and a dash of red wine. and keep stirring. at some point it turned into a nice liquid, instead of water with chunks of oiled flour in it. but quite thin. so i gave it a good stirring to make sure it was all mixed together and then ignored it in the hopes some water would evaporate and it would thicken up.
i checked on my egged puddings. rising nicely. much better than the no-egg one. maybe i should try no-egg puddings with self raising flour instead of plain? it still tastes good, but it definitely doesnt have the same effect when its all flat. the gravy was starting to bubble a bit, so went to check on hubby's progress in the room, and asked him to come taste the gravy (i dont eat gravy, so i dont know what it should taste like). which he did. and said it was very yummy. yay! at this point my wrist started really hurting so i went and got some aloe vera gel for it.
when i got back, the gravy appeared to be done, and the puddings were quite browned, so i turned everything off, poured the gravy into a jug (with hubby's help. i have bad wrists), and took the yorkshire out of the oven. hubby carved the meat, the kidlet started begging, and then we all sat down and ate. the kid ate nearly everything he was given (which is good since hes been a bit off his food the past couple days), nad actually seemed to enjoy the yorkshire. hubby used 2/3 of the gravy BY HIMSELF, so i guess it was a success. he also went back for 2nds of the potatoes and seemed to enjoy the yorkshires. YAY. i myself ate too much.. particularly the yorkshire. it doesnt keep, so anything left just gets thrown away.. so i ate most of it. naughty. i'll have to make less next time. i tried the gravy too. the idea still makes me nauseous, but it really did taste good. ill have to try and get over the idea thing.
instructions if anyone is interested:
roast beef
cooking time: about 20-30min per 500g, at 180C, depending how well done you like it
beef
if you have a plain roast, cut numerous slits about 1inch deep, and put a slice of garlic in each slit. sprinkle generously with rosemary (other herbs will work nicely too).
pour on enough oil to coat the meat, and nearly cover the bottom of the pan. put it in the oven while you boil the potatoes. you want the oil to be hot so the potatoes dont soak too much of it up, but start cooking straight off.
when the roast is nearly done, remove it and the potatoes to a plate, and cover with foil. let rest at least 15min before carving. nearly done, because it will continue to cook for a little while under the foil
potatoes
about one med-large potato per person. more if the potatoes are smaller, or if you want leftovers.
bring to the boil enough water to just cover the potatoes.
peel the potatoes, and cut into aprox. 1.5 inch chunks. usually the potatoes can just be quartered.boil about 7 mins. when done, use a strain-spoon to transfer the potatoes to the roasting pan. keep the water in the pot to boil vegetables later.
either turn the potatoes over once, or baste them, then put the pan back in the oven.
sweet potatoes
no boiling! just cut into chunks and put straight in the roasting pan with the meat. if there isnt enough room, spoon some of the meated-oil into a second pan so the sweet potatoes get some flavour, add some garlic if you wish, ad add enough fresh oil to just cover the bottom of the pan. make sure the sweet potatoes are coated in the oil or they will dry out.
if your oil isnt meated yet, dont worry, just use fresh oil, and add some of the meat juice later.
vegetables
cooking time: 3-10 minutes
really, whatever you want is good. i prefer green beans (the long one) or broccoli. if you are making gravy, strain into a bowl instead of straight down the sink. the water will be used in the gravy.
green beans
rinse. string (cut off the ends, cut lengthways discarding the outer edge. much much easier if you have a bean stringer), or chop into 2inch lengths. boil in the water you saved from your potatoes earlier, about 3.5 minutes. strain, serve. best with a very little salt.
broccoli
RINSE WELL. make sure any little bug are out. sometimes they hide. or maybe youre not that fussy. either way. cut into florets. should be fairly obvious where is good place to cut. when you get down to the middle, just cut it into chunks about the same size as the florets. if you like the stalk (my son will eat the stalk to the exclusion of anything else, including chocolate), cut off the very bottom - about 1/4 inch - and 'peel' it: cut off only the very outside, as little as you can manage. cut in half lengthways and crossways. boil in the water you saved from your potatoes earlier, about 3-6 minutes, depending on how well done you like it. 3 minutes is still quite crisp, 6 minutes it will fall apart a good bit when you strain it. strain, serve.
yorkshire pudding
cooking time: 25-30min at 230C
when your roast is out of the oven, take enough oil from the pan to just cover the bottom of a 9x9 or 7x11 pan, and put it in the oven - turned up to 230 - to keep hot.
beat together 2 eggs, 1cup flour, 1 cup milk, and 1/2 - 1 tsp salt (to taste) until smooth. you may find you need to add more milk. i seem to.
pour the batter into the pan and bake. when it is done it will be lightly browned, and should have large puffs. also, it will probably have separated from the edges of the pan.
DONT PANIC if the edges or bottom are quite dark. it is probably not burned, just very flavoured.
cut into equal portions per person. good alone, or covered in gravy.
gravy
cooking time: 20minutes?
put your roasting pan on the stove top, over a low-med heat, to heat up the oil from the roast, and with a metal spoon, try to scrape up anything stuck to the bottom of the pan.
add 2tbsp plain flour. IT WILL SIZZLE LIKE MAD. DO NOT PANIC. stir it up as best you can, spreading the flour through as much oil as possible. keep stirring and spreading. add a little more oil if theres not much there, or a little (1tbsp - 1/4cup) water if your just not sure. add seasonings to taste. salt, pepper, red wine, extra herbs, go wild with it.
after about 5-10 minutes, or you begin panicking, SLOWLY add your vegetable water, about a ladleful at a time, and KEEP MIXING. the flour will begin to dissolve, and everything will come together. add water to about 1/2 inch deep. KEEP MIXING. stir back and forth, slowly, spreading out the flour, and scraping up anything on the bottom of the pan. if its ever too thick, add a little more water. if it gets too thin, leave it to simmer for a minute or two - but only if it is well mixed together. DO NOT LEAVE IT if its still very separated.
when its done (subjective. you might like it runnier than my husband, or perhaps thicker), CAREFULLY pour into a gravy boat or pitcher of some sort, turn off the stove, and put the pan back on the hotplate with some water in it - this will make cleaning it later SO MUCH easier, but be careful carrying it. you dont want to clean up a roasting pan's worth of water from your floor.
Wednesday 5 September 2007
what is the world coming to?
the world is going more and more insane, all the time. human-animal hybrid (and another one). the justification? the resultant embryo, or whatever it actually is, would not be viable, would not survive, and would never leave the test tube. making a monstrosity does not become ok just because it wont survive.
yes, the percentage of animal dna is tiny, and animal parts are used in humans already - pig/cow heart valves and the like - but a human-animal hybrid, even if it is not viable, even if it is only a teensy weensy bit animal, is just plain wrong.
i know the reasoning behind it. find out how humans work, and we can fix them better. and thats a noble goal. its the way its being gone about that bothers me so much.
im so upset i cant even think. im going to go eat something fatty and try to forget about this for a while.
yes, the percentage of animal dna is tiny, and animal parts are used in humans already - pig/cow heart valves and the like - but a human-animal hybrid, even if it is not viable, even if it is only a teensy weensy bit animal, is just plain wrong.
i know the reasoning behind it. find out how humans work, and we can fix them better. and thats a noble goal. its the way its being gone about that bothers me so much.
im so upset i cant even think. im going to go eat something fatty and try to forget about this for a while.
Tuesday 4 September 2007
?
so it s raining, and i can hear it raining. fair enough. i glanced outside a second ago to see how bad it was and I AM NOT KIDDING raindrops are going in all different directions and BOUNCING OFF EACH OTHER and doing weird stuff. its.. weird.
Monday 3 September 2007
what a lovely day
my husband ahs been offerend a job. they are enthusiastic about him, he thinks the job will be good. its less money than we would really like, and things will be tight, but they want him in a higher position, he just has to prove he's capable, and he will be fast tracked. he starts next week.
the lord provides.
also we bought all the paint and whatnot for my kids room. and we've bought a bed for him. so he will finally be in a real bed instead of a cot with the sliding rail broken off. still not sure how he manage to break that. anyway, theres only a little bit of well left to scrub with bleacj to kill all the mildew, half the cracks are filled, and hopefully it will be finished by the weekend. then we just need to pull up the carpet. it would be lovely to have it finished by his birtdhay, and with hubby's new job (again, thankyou lord) there wont be much time left for painting after this week.
the lord provides.
also we bought all the paint and whatnot for my kids room. and we've bought a bed for him. so he will finally be in a real bed instead of a cot with the sliding rail broken off. still not sure how he manage to break that. anyway, theres only a little bit of well left to scrub with bleacj to kill all the mildew, half the cracks are filled, and hopefully it will be finished by the weekend. then we just need to pull up the carpet. it would be lovely to have it finished by his birtdhay, and with hubby's new job (again, thankyou lord) there wont be much time left for painting after this week.
Sunday 2 September 2007
fathers day
today was fathers day. we went to my dads place. well... his wife's place really. so they were there - obviously - along with her daughter, HER husband and son, and the husbands parents. and us and my sister. it was.. interesting. the food was decent, which was good, because kosher meat sometimes has a peculiar flavour. especially chicken. but it was good. i would have liked some cheese on my burger, but hey.. kosher. what are you going to do?
anyway.. it was a decent day. kidlet is a bit hot and floppy now, hes a bit exhausted, possibly sunburnt, possibly sick. its a bit hard to tell with him. but it was a decent day. and dad&sister didnt fight EVEN ONCE!!!
thankyou God, for a lovely family day with NO FIGHTS. thankyou thankyou thankyou.
anyway.. it was a decent day. kidlet is a bit hot and floppy now, hes a bit exhausted, possibly sunburnt, possibly sick. its a bit hard to tell with him. but it was a decent day. and dad&sister didnt fight EVEN ONCE!!!
thankyou God, for a lovely family day with NO FIGHTS. thankyou thankyou thankyou.
Saturday 1 September 2007
hmmmm
i think weve finally picked out the colours. now the walls are being scrubbed down with bleach. FUN. smells just FANTASTIC. all the wallpaper is off, the mildew is being bleached away, all thats left now is to fill in the cracks, sand everything down a bit, and PAINT!! WOOHOO!!!!! oilbased undercoat to help keep the waterdamage from seeping through, and a mould resistant topcoat. wont THAT be fun. not to mention trying to seal up the open fireplace.
truly, this room is much more difficult than ours was. if it werent for the expense, id try and convince hubby to get a builder in to make sure its all good. as it is we have to wait till mum is out and were renting it from her, cause then all repairs are tax deductible.
ugh. grargh.
truly, this room is much more difficult than ours was. if it werent for the expense, id try and convince hubby to get a builder in to make sure its all good. as it is we have to wait till mum is out and were renting it from her, cause then all repairs are tax deductible.
ugh. grargh.
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