734

Each morning she begins her day in the same way. She rounds up Eduardo and positions herself in her cosy corner, squeezed between her trunk and play table, on top of the heating vent. She then loves Eddied until he can't take it no more!

733

One of the strongest reasons I have for wanting a bigger, more interactive garden. It pulls at my heart strings oh so hard!

732

We only catch up with my family a few times a year. My parents are close by, but my siblings are not. We have a Christmas get-together and another part way between my parents birthdays, which was was we celebrated this weekend.

I was on dessert duty to help mum and opted for slightly uptown tiramisu. Made as little individual towers they were a huge success. Absolutely delicious and cute to look at. The only complaint, a united too small!!

731

It's out. The first of the last set of baby teeth in this house has been safely dispatched to the Tooth Fairy. Leila managed her loose tooth very differently to the way her sister manages hers. She wiggled it, fiddled it, twisted and turned until by 2pm yesterday it was in her hand. Last night before bed she was beside herself with excitement. I suggested perhaps she would like to take her tooth to kinder today for show and tell and then put it out for the Tooth Fairy the next night. "I want my dollar", was her reply. This morning Peg Pillow held $2.00 and was covered in fairy glitter and our babe was utterly content.

730

The youngest one in our household told me this morning that her tooth was loose. I've heard this cry before and they've never been loose. Imagine my amazement this morning when it was genuinely loose - like really loose! Highspeed sewing was called for so this precious first tooth will have a safe place to call home until the Tooth Fairy comes to visit. Not yet 4 1/2 and losing her first tooth, where has the time gone.

PS A very dear friend thought of me and sent me a link to this song, which reduced me to tears in the loveliest of ways. Thank you Sandy.

729

I feel that I've let my life run away from me. I'm not sure that there's anyone I can blame for this but me, although it seems that I've been laying my issues at the feet of another. I think too much and always have, perhaps often say too well exactly what I'm thinking when in fact I should hold myself more in check. There comes a time when you no longer know why you're so hurt and upset, when you lose sight of the reasons why. It's hard to work back from that but if you don't you know exactly what the path ahead will look like. I never realised before that it's almost easier to be angry and so much harder to work through that and see the other side where everything is as you imagined it could be. Those first steps, well I'm honestly not sure how to take them.

728

I ordered this book a couple of weeks ago and am keenly waiting its arrival. Doing so reminded me of a recipe that I saw a long time ago and have long had on the must try list.

My MIL is having a knee replacement tomorrow so the inlaws came for afternoon tea, a wish of good luck from us.

I love a good doughnut but the fat in the fried ones always puts me off, so these are perfect, or at least I hoped they'd be. Let me tell you, they are certainly worth the effort. Very simple and very delicious and unfortunately completely moorish! Be sure that everyone is at the ready so they are devoured straight from the oven and their wash in their delicious sugary bath. I'm not sure how they'll freeze, but I've put the leftovers in and will just zap for a few seconds to warm them up before gobbling.

Definitely give them a try with the bonus of almost not guilt!

PS Is anyone else having trouble with blogger spreading the spacing in posts? Honestly it's driving me nuts! Despite altering the html it keeps doing whatever the heck it likes!!

727

Full of a heavy cold but really okay. I remember breakfast in bed as a child, what a treat. As an adult I can't think of anything worse, crumbs in the sheets and all that stuff, but that's just me.

726

It's Old Fashioned term at school, it's quite amusing what the children consider old fashioned. Amongst the items families took in to share with the class there have been genuinely old items, such as quills and ink bottles, but also a couple which really intrigued the children - a type writer and a I think they call them rotary telephones - the type that most of us who are 35+ grew up with. The children found these really intriguing!

As part of the terms activities there was a visit to Ripponlea followed by an old fashioned school day last week where they wrote with quills and ink in copperplate and dressed up for the occasion.

The pictures are terrible, it's been so wet this week there are only kitchen shots. Both Ella and I were thrilled with her outfit. The dress is a repurposed ladies cotton shirt from the op shop ($2). Removed the cuffs and gathered, removed the collar and replaced with with cotton trim and added some ties at the waist. The apron is from an old sheet and the bonnet from an old pillow case. Ella and I both giggled with delight at the overall effect, our version of Laura Ingalls!

725

This day marks Geoff and my first date and this year it was 16 years ago. We met at the Kino in Collins Place and bought tickets to see Farinelli. We then went to dinner at a Malaysian restaurant in Chinatown and I remember smiling at the fact that he folled his shirt sleeves up. We then watched the movie and I remember apologising that I had to run to the loo half way through. After that we went to the Cellar Bar at Florentinos for a nightcap. In the taxi on the way back to my apartment in St Kilda Tina Arena sang Sorrento Moon.

I definitely did the pursuing of the man who became my husband, requesting the first date and eventually proposing, but he said yes at every turn. How fortuitous that I met him all those years ago, who knows who I would have been without him.

724

Inspired by a recipe from here but with a few tweaks according to what I had in the cupboard. We also prefer the crunchy muesli bars over the chewy ones, so these were baked.

1/4 cup of golden syrup
1/4 cup almond butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup slivered almondssplit the batch in two 2 - one with 1/4 cup dried cranberries, the other with 1/4 cup dried apricots.

Heat golden syrup and stir in the vanilla.
In a separate bowl, combine the oats, amonds and dried fruits. Pour in the heated syrup and the almond butter and stir until everything is well coated. With damp hands roll and compress into walnut sized balls. Have ready a parchment or wax paper lined baking sheet. Put into a preheated oven at 150C and bake for 20 minutes. They would be equally good chilled I'm sure.

723

I find food and small children quite, quite frustrating.

Both our girls were really good when small, up to the age of about 2 1/2 I would say. They would pretty much eat anything in front of them. Then they got fussier and I got more weak willed and we've found ourselves where we are.

We've given them too much choice at times. I don't remember choice as a child, it was what it was, take it or leave it. I'm well aware that sometimes there is simply too much conversation on some things and food is one of the main ones.

So, last week the girls and I made a decision (or I made it and they agreed to go along with it). Every Monday night (the one night we don't have after school commitments) we three, the girls and I, will have family dinner together at the dining table (rather than me sitting watching them eat their dinner in the kitchen). I will eat with the girls but we will eat something new to them and they have to try it. We discussed what try means and I said that I wouldn't make anything I knew they would dislike, but it would be things new to them. I would therefore expect them to eat as much of it as they liked, but give it a red hot go.

So tonight we had macaroni cheese with bacon in it. It's not a complicated dish, but the girls aren't good with sauces, so this was a way of introducing them to something different. My rationale - you like butter, you like flour, you like cheese, you like milk? Yes, well then you like cheese sauce.

Was it successful? Well they didn't complain and they ate a very small amount without fuss. I have to be in a very patient mindset, very accepting and encouraging and not exhausted. We'll persevere because honestly, we have to move more towards shared meals as they get older, so the groundwork has to go in now.

I know I could argue that dessert shouldn't figure in the scheme of this new arrangement, but honestly, I'm trying to coax them, and if a little cheats apple tart helps them on their way, I'm all for it.

722

Happy Mother's Day to you and your mum.

I felt very appreciated today. I was treated to breakfast here . The place was absolutely rammed with queues out the door, but service was great, staff were universally nice and particularly so with the higher than average requests from the younger guests.

Outside we took these snaps and I adore the ones of my beloveds "busting moves".

We then had a run around this park for a bit of old fashioned tiggy. We then oggled the mansions along the river on our way here to watch this.


We're all now exhausted from all the appreciation. I hope you are too!

721

The things this giggling gerty has me doing - honestly.

I think parents at parks tend to fall into two categories. There are those who sit on their bums, generally speaking mobiles at the either or at the fingertip and those who participate and play with their children. Depending on the park numbers are weighted one way or the other.

Today were had the park almost to ourself the whole time, which was good considering what this little miss had me doing. Of course I could say no, but where would the fun be in that?

The slide you can see Leila standing the top of, the one that's enclosed for the top part. It's about half my height when I'm seated, but I HAD to come down with her. Snack bag choking me on one side, camera choking from the other, hunched over to fit beneath the roof, dragging Leila in so she could be in front. Down we went, down a super slippy metal slide only to see me with Leila onboard slide right off the end onto the ground.

There's also a kind of oversized donut swing at this park, suspended in three places that spins around and around on a swivel. Well it's just the right size for a mummy sized (my size at least) bottom to get stuck. Then I started to feel queasy from Leila spinning me round and round and my 4 year old had to help me out.

When Leila laughs oh my it's infectious. Thankfully, oh so wonderfully, we seem to do so much giggling these days and it's much more fun than most anything else.

720

The trees in our yard are all on fire.

719

718

I think I've been working on this appliqued quilt for about 18 months now. Actually perhaps not so long, perhaps just a year. It's getting towards the end of the appliqueing, then onto the quilting part of it. I think I may get someone to quilt this professionally for me, not sure. I've only ever made patch quilts for the girls before and the finish on them is decidedly homely. I don't mind that, I'm just not sure how to quilt around these pieces and also it's queen sized, so don't think my machine could handle it. Not so fond of hand quilting the whole thing, that doesn't appeal so much.

717

We always share a meal at ours for my mum's birthday. Just us four and them and it's always lovely. This year it was brunch instead of lunch, just to mix it up.

We had chippolatas with roasted thyme tomatoes and scrambled herbed eggs. Poached quinches with vanilla bean yoghurt and pistachios. The highlight, particularly for the lovers of baked goods, was this delicious brioche type loaf. I started it at 7am and was taking it out of the oven just on 10am when they arrived.



The recipe is from the April 2011 Gourmet Traveller, Honey, apple and walnut loaf with whipped honey butter, I couldn't find the recipe online though. Tweaks from me, I used maple syrup instead of honey as I find the latter can be a little overpowering in baking. I also used pecans instead of walnuts, just a personal preference.

Absolutely delicious - D E L I C I O U S! Only downside, there are only two pieces left. Upside ... I don't intend to share!