finding rhythm in the kitchen...

I feel like I've been chasing my tail a bit of late, which is why I haven't been about here much. Most of the time, I'm flat out exhausted. This bubba in the belly is really making me work. I spent a good few hours on the couch this morning, whilst Huckle busied himself with drawing, trains and whatnot. 

This seems to be happening regularly. Our days seem to go like this... Rise and make breakfast; Mama rest, whilst Huckle plays; mosey about for a bit; make and eat lunch; Huckle has a nap whilst Mama mosies about or has another rest; play outside; then four o'clock comes around and Mama freaks out "what on earth are we going to have for dinner!"; convince Huckle to come inside; rush about like a mad woman to get dinner on the table in an hour.

Let's say I'm not enjoying this last minute craziness and after reading Kate's latest post, I've decided it's high time to get back into the swing of menu planning. I make the majority of our food from scratch, which doesn't really lend itself to last minute crazy town. So tonight, I have a date with my cookbooks, a cup of tea and the couch. I'm aiming to write a fortnight of meals. I like to get a vague idea for lunches and snacks too, as we have 3 meals at home as a family pretty much every day. 

This does mean a lot of time in the kitchen, but I love cooking and have a few tricks up my sleeve to lighten the load. Some of my tricks are...

:: cook double amounts of dinner for lunch leftovers or to freeze for another meal

:: bake double quantity of biscuits or muffins to freeze and defrost when needed

:: use left over cooked vegies in omelettes 

:: make and freeze pizza dough for quick pizza nights

:: bake two loaves of bread at a time, slice the second loaf and freeze to use for toast

:: make big batches of pesto, pasta sauce and pizza sauce and freeze in portions

Do you menu plan at your place? What tricks are up your sleeve?

I've had a little helper in the kitchen most days, which has been both fun and a little stressful. But the outcomes have been delicious. We've mixed bread dough, made bikkies, grape pikelets (as seen below), sweet potato chips (below) and salmon patties. He loves to try anything along the way and is particularly fond of bread dough. Mmmm.

I'm off to boil the kettle and fetch me some cookbooks. I hope your week is coming along just fine and you're eating delicious things.

2012...

Let's hope you're full of blue skies and grant us smooth sailing. 

One can dream, can't they?

Thank you for your kind words on my last post. It was hard to sum up all that has been going on. To find that fine balance between grief and joy, life passed and life to come. 

As a young family, Huckle and Bump are the centre of our world and their constant needs and beauty have kept us well planted in the present. As that's what children do best isn't it?

This clearly wasn't today's sky, Summer is taking a little break around these parts. I do hope blue sky reappears tomorrow, for there's 3 acres of metre high lawn that needs a good slashing. Let's not mention the gum trees growing in the gutters! It's working bee day to get two months of growth under control.
My fingers are crossed.

2011...

2011 wasn't our best year. Life just kept throwing us hurdles and all we could do was try our very best to jump them. 
Just when we thought the winds were changing we learnt that Sam's Dad Peter was terminally ill with cancer. Sam spent a good part of October looking after him in Queensland, but the distance was just too much between us. So November saw us all drive up to care for him. Sam cared full time for Peter and it became clear that his condition was deteriorating faster than anyone could have predicted. He passed away on the 6th of December, just 8 weeks after being diagnosed. It was all very sudden.
December was spent dealing with estate matters. Such an overwhelming task.
It wasn't all bad though. We got to spend a lot of time hanging out with my Brother, Sister and Brother in law and in mid December we were joined by my Mum, Dad, 2nd Sister and 3 year old Nephew. 
We celebrated my Sister's engagement and a Christmas full of good food and laughter. 
We also celebrated a pregnancy... my pregnancy! I'm 21 weeks along and due sometime in May. How I managed to keep that a secret for so long on the blog, I don't know. I promise a bump shot soon, it's already so very round.
Well, that's all I can think of right now to tell you, so I leave you with my favourite instragrams of our summer adventures.
Happy Sunday to you.

home again...

We're finally home after an unexpected two months in Queensland. Life has been crazy, hectic and at times quite overwhelming. Too hectic and overwhelming to find words or photos, hence the absence.

I'll catch you all up in the next few posts, but for now I'll share the first pics I've clicked in a long time (not counting instagram of course).

I hope your festive season was full to the brim of love, laughter and lots of good food.

We came home to metre high grass! Sheesh.

One lonely chook survived the foxes.

Our passionfruits are in bloom & fruiting. Hooray!

hello there, it's been a while...

Apologies for my long absence, life is really throwing quite a lot at us at the moment. Along with not being able to find the time to blog, I just haven't been able to find the right words to express all that is happening. I'm sure the words will come eventually, but right now I'm just processing everything and trying to be the best Mama and Wifey to look after my boys.

A few lovely folk (Hello Peter! Hello Alison!) have requested some action, so I thought I'd put up these pics from a date I had with my little man last week. There's a letter to go with it too.

I hope you are all well and happy. I'll be sure to return to my usual blogging self soon.

Dear Huckle,
Today I was a very tired Mama and I was struggling to come up with to cook for dinner. You were restless and needing my attention. So I devised a plan to drive to San Remo to have fish and chips by the shore and watch the pelicans. I bundled you up, jumped in the car and we hot-footed it to the shore. 
Only to discover the fish & chip shop was closed and there wasn't a pelican in sight! 
We strolled up the street searching for a worthy alternative and decided that Thai sounded like it could do the trick for a hungry Mama and Huckle. You sat on a big chair and sipped your water from a big cup. We munched on prawn crackers (which you loved) while we waited for our dumplings and fried rice. You gobbled up the rice with a big spoon. Such a dear little fellow you were, with lovely manners sitting nicely upon your chair. I felt so proud to be your Mama.
After dinner we played in the park, where you insisted on climbing the big rope ladder. The sun was shining as you scrambled about through tunnels and down slides.
Thank you for a most perfect afternoon.
All my love 
Mama xxx