Happy Anniversary To Us
On November the 3rd I sat on Dan’s lap, held the camera at arms length and look a picture of us together… it’s now four years, two children and about 15kg (and that’s just me!) later! I love this picture, it’s a snapshot of the day all of this began, plus I look smokin’ hot, I wish I still had the time (and inclination) to keep my eyebrows that neat.
Mum has taken the day off to go shopping, so we don’t have any grand plans. Declan has been superb today so I was able to make some cupcakes with heart sprinkles to mark the day, Dan has celebrated by watching sci-fi shows in the morning and going to sleep in the afternoon 
Day Ten Of Confinement
I’ve hit boredom now, I’m not particularly frustrated or even upset about being in here any more, just bored out of my skull and counting down the days. Oddly enough the days seem to pass fairly quickly, I’m up at 7:30 for breakfast, have my obs taken, watch some morning telly, get my CTG done, have coffee and cake, jump in the shower and before I know it it’s lunchtime already.
My doctor came around this morning to speak to Dan and I about the delivery, I’ve pretty much decided that getting an epidural as soon as the induction begins is the way I’m going to go. For a long time I was really affected by Declan’s birth, and the amount of trauma involved and I think a lot of it was caused by my insistence that I could go without an epi and not being prepared to have one, and by the time I did finally decide on it then it was too late PLUS the morphine had worn off and I was taking in so much gas I was completely delirious and remember nothing of his birth or the first few hours afterwards. I will fully admit this time round that I have a very low pain threshold and a natural birth is not for me! As soon as they shove a needle in my hand I want one in my spine as well, my Doctor has said that it will be a walking epidural so I won’t be confined to bed and will hopefully still feel the need to push. I just hope I swear less than last time!
It sounds so crazy to say that in nine days we will be a family of four. I think Declan is going to deal with it far better than I previously thought, he seems to have taken all the recent changes completely in his stride, one of the few things I will say I did right is getting him into such a set routine, so long as that isn’t messed with too much he’s a wonderful child, and although he’s going to have to learn to develop his patience a bit more once the new baby is here, I think so long as his routine doesn’t get played with too much then he’ll cope fine with it all.
I have another 24 hour gate pass this weekend so I have one weekend to do all the last minute things and get everything sorted, I must say, it’s very convenient knowing exactly when I’m going to have a baby, it makes all this planning much easier!
Food Ideas
Mum and I have been browsing through my cookery books today (and believe me, I have quite a few) and trying to come up with something new to cook for dinners. We’ve been stuck in a bit of a rut lately with dinners, not helped by the fact that Dan and are basicly polar opposites when it comes to what we like. I LOVE spicy foods, Dan really doesn’t, I could have mushrooms with every meal, Dan hates them, Dan would live solely on pasta and creamy sauces and although I love them I just can’t eat a pint of cream EVERY night as he wants to.
In our “regulars” menu we have, lasagne, spag bol, chilli (I take out Dan’s portion before any spice gets added), stroganoff (he obsessively picks out every mushroom), fried rice, carbonara, chicken shnitzel, hamburgers, honey mustard chicken, tortillas, fajitas. But that’s about it, very rarely does something new come along and if it does it doesn’t tend to stick around no matter how nice it was as it means I have to think too much about my shopping list. We love pasta, and rice.
So, what I would love is some suggestions from the lovely people reading this as to what we could add to our regulars to add some more interest and something different to what we usually eat. Only requirements is that it doesn’t take too long and that it doesn’t require so ridiculous amount of ingredients, I love to cook but I just don’t have to time to spend all evening in the kitchen any more, anything up to an hour is okay though. Also don’t forget that we’re at the height of summer at the moment, casseroles are a no go, and anything hearty like that just isn’t right for the Australian climate.
So, any ideas?
Cheese And Bacon Damper
Today I baked the quintesentail Aussie dish, Damper. Traditionally cooked in the coals of a swagman’s fire whilst his billy boils or however the song goes, I decided to just throw mine in the oven and put the kettle on.
I added cheese, bacon, garlic, chopped onion, some basil and oregano, so not quite the traditional flavour, but super tasty anyway. Mum and I just had a slice for lunch, the rest will be served up with our dinner of pesto pasta, mmm.
Becoming More Nigella Every Day
Okay, so I don’t have the fab rack that the lovely Ms Lawson has, or the wonderful west London home, or the children with odd names, BUT I am becoming more domestic goddess every day.
The last couple of weeks have been spent making my house a home, with a lot of help from my mum I’ve unpacked the last of the boxes from moving, thrown out bags and bags of stuff and reworked my house so that it’s far more manageable. I’ve worked so hard, and I’m very grateful for Mum’s help, as my house is finally looking fabulous, I’m finding it easy to keep clean and most importantly it’s now babyproof.
I’ve also been watching lots of food shows. I love cooking and used to cook a great deal, that is until I had a small demanding being attached to me constantly, and cooking took a back burner (hah!) and I focused on Declan. Now as he’s at a stage where he’s more manageable I’m starting to cook again, it’s been fun getting back into it and trying new recipes, but also focusing on meals that I can cook with little effort - one pot meals, stuff I can make up in the morning then throw in the oven that evening, quick pastas. So far it’s been really great, and I’m hoping that it will cut down on our junk food consumption making us healthier and saving us money - which ties into the next thing on my to do list, save enough money to buy a car.
When Fingers Go Bad
I love it when a mistake turns out okay! These were originally meant to be Viennese Fingers, until Dan started piping the first finger for me (I am teh weak!) and the bag split leaving dough all over his hand. So instead the dough turned into these, very soft vanilla cookies filled with an excessive amount of buttercream, and gosh they are nice, it’s just a shame that the mix only made about eight of them, they’re not going to last one night. Next time I might add some apricot jam into the middle as well.
Dan was in the toilet earlier when I heard an “Oh jesus!” come from inside… a fairly odd thing to say, so I asked him if he was okay, all was fine, few minutes later and he chirps up again “Eugh.. that’s gross!”, I’m confused as all hell now and when he comes out I ask him what was up, “Pregnancy is oogy, I was reading about rips, tears and cuts and stuff …have you been doing those exercises?!”. Turns out an article in one of my recent pregnancy magazines titled “How Not To Tear Down There” had turned my husband completely green. It was hilarious, now I can’t wait for our birth class in two weeks time!
Procrastination? Moi?
I’m meant to be packing our bags and sorting out various odds and ends so that we’re actually ready to leave and spend the week up Port with Dan’s parents for Christmas. Instead, most of the morning went to talking to Jen and watching infomercials, that was so tiring that I had to take an hour for lunch (which was promptly thrown straight back up), I started packing once again only to decide that now was the perfect time to alter the sleeves on one of my tops, then another hour to watch Pride And Prejudice. I was just taking some time out from my hectic day of constructive-ness to eat some marble cake and take photos of my culinary wonders when Dan calls and says that he’s just on his way home.
Ooops.
Must. Not. Get. Distracted.
I'm a twenty something WAHM, originally from England and now living in a land downunder.
