Today he decided he wanted to come in through the window and tried desperately to get me to let him in:
Sorry young Ollie too many members of my family are allergic to felines so you have to stay outside!
Friday, 4 January 2013
Feline Friday
Our neighbours' young cat has discovered that if he perches on the children's playhouse then he can see in our kitchen window:
Today he decided he wanted to come in through the window and tried desperately to get me to let him in:
Sorry young Ollie too many members of my family are allergic to felines so you have to stay outside!
Today he decided he wanted to come in through the window and tried desperately to get me to let him in:
Sorry young Ollie too many members of my family are allergic to felines so you have to stay outside!
Thursday, 3 January 2013
Operation House 2013: Part One
Regular readers of my blog with know that I really struggle to keep my home uncluttered and tidy! Every year I start off determined to sort it out but for various reasons I always end up failing miserably. So once again I'm going to try and get my house in order... this time I will not fail!
Yesterday whilst cooking for my new Hairy Diet I got frustrated with my kitchen so decided it was a good place to start making it more organised and feel more spacious. First step was to clear out the foods and spices that were far too past their use by dates. Some had been put in the cupboard when I moved into the house in August 2010 and hadn't been used up! My bin soon started to smell amazingly fragrant as it was filled with the contents of various jars! Its hard to throw food out when you think about how much it cost but enough was enough and space was being wasted by stuff that was no longer any good.
With my newly downsized cooking essentials I could swap them to a smaller shelf in a top cupboard and move the metalware from the side into a cupboard. Then I tackled the food cupboard and again found some dodgy items lurking at the back. Once only food that was still useable went back in it seems a lot easier to find things and there are no longer tins lurking under the cupboard!
When I moved in my family had helped unpack my kitchen equipment into whichever cupboard seemed good at the time. Over the last 2 years I've sometimes struggled to get to various bits of kit due to the cupboards being awkward shapes. Today I emptied everything out and put them back into the 2 cupboards in a much more organised way. Some items were put on one side to give to charity as I don't need them.
The re-jigging of these cupboards freed up enough shelf space to move glasses, serving dishes and tea set from the lounge storage into the kitchen. This meant I could then put away the new games etc. we have accumulated this year doing toy reviews. A nice bonus! Freed up work surface has meant I can re-jig a bit so that my bread bin now has the extra mugs on top of it and my cooking spoons and knives are much more conveniently positioned.
Next step is to look at the rest of the work surfaces to remove all the stuff that doesn't belong in the kitchen (I spend a lot of time in there so paperwork etc. tends to migrate there!). A nice start to Operation House 2013 but there is a long way to go... Just mustn't get distracted by the view from the kitchen window:
As and added bonus all the bending and stretching has really made my calves ache so its been great exercise too!
Yesterday whilst cooking for my new Hairy Diet I got frustrated with my kitchen so decided it was a good place to start making it more organised and feel more spacious. First step was to clear out the foods and spices that were far too past their use by dates. Some had been put in the cupboard when I moved into the house in August 2010 and hadn't been used up! My bin soon started to smell amazingly fragrant as it was filled with the contents of various jars! Its hard to throw food out when you think about how much it cost but enough was enough and space was being wasted by stuff that was no longer any good.
With my newly downsized cooking essentials I could swap them to a smaller shelf in a top cupboard and move the metalware from the side into a cupboard. Then I tackled the food cupboard and again found some dodgy items lurking at the back. Once only food that was still useable went back in it seems a lot easier to find things and there are no longer tins lurking under the cupboard!
When I moved in my family had helped unpack my kitchen equipment into whichever cupboard seemed good at the time. Over the last 2 years I've sometimes struggled to get to various bits of kit due to the cupboards being awkward shapes. Today I emptied everything out and put them back into the 2 cupboards in a much more organised way. Some items were put on one side to give to charity as I don't need them.
The re-jigging of these cupboards freed up enough shelf space to move glasses, serving dishes and tea set from the lounge storage into the kitchen. This meant I could then put away the new games etc. we have accumulated this year doing toy reviews. A nice bonus! Freed up work surface has meant I can re-jig a bit so that my bread bin now has the extra mugs on top of it and my cooking spoons and knives are much more conveniently positioned.
Next step is to look at the rest of the work surfaces to remove all the stuff that doesn't belong in the kitchen (I spend a lot of time in there so paperwork etc. tends to migrate there!). A nice start to Operation House 2013 but there is a long way to go... Just mustn't get distracted by the view from the kitchen window:
As and added bonus all the bending and stretching has really made my calves ache so its been great exercise too!
Wednesday, 2 January 2013
Fresh Start
Home today properly for the first time since December 22nd when we set off down south to visit friends! Since Christmas Eve we have been staying with my parents as there was so much going on it made sense to remain there. I have nipped home a few times to collect or deposit things but we are now all home to stay.
The advantages of a long stay away are twofold, firstly I am feeling relaxed and have more energy for 2013, secondly we have no naughty leftovers at home to tempt me! So now it's time to knuckle down for the new year.
I have tried to make sure none of our bits from Christmas are left cluttering up the already crowded sitting room. Tomorrow my mum will help my daughter sort out her chaotic room so we can see what she really wants to keep. I have to decide which room to tackle first on my own declutter mission. This may well be the kitchen as I am doing a lot more cooking from scratch to be healthier.
The healthy eating has kicked off with my new Hairy Dieters cookbook. It was a modified breakfast of crumpets and honey as my healthy food delivery hadn't arrived. Once my fridge was refilled with plenty of low calorie foods I set off to rustle up a Golden Vegetable Soup:
Because my children never eat my homemade soups I have now got soup already to reheat for the next few days. It was yummy and I resisted having bread with it and still felt full.
At tea time my children didn't fancy joining me with salmon with chilli ginger sauce so I managed to cook myself one meal and them a quick pasta dinner. It's useful having a stacking steamer to do pasta and new potatoes at the same time. I cooked a half portion of the recipe as I had a double pack of salmon and I'll have same dinner tomorrow - though maybe different accompaniments. There was a slight change to the recipe as I didn't have a chilli but my flakes seemed to add just the right amount of heat for my taste:
So as far as day one of healthy eating goes its a good one. Just need to work out what to have later for my last calorie allowance! Tomorrow I will have to think about exercising other than housework too.
The advantages of a long stay away are twofold, firstly I am feeling relaxed and have more energy for 2013, secondly we have no naughty leftovers at home to tempt me! So now it's time to knuckle down for the new year.
I have tried to make sure none of our bits from Christmas are left cluttering up the already crowded sitting room. Tomorrow my mum will help my daughter sort out her chaotic room so we can see what she really wants to keep. I have to decide which room to tackle first on my own declutter mission. This may well be the kitchen as I am doing a lot more cooking from scratch to be healthier.
The healthy eating has kicked off with my new Hairy Dieters cookbook. It was a modified breakfast of crumpets and honey as my healthy food delivery hadn't arrived. Once my fridge was refilled with plenty of low calorie foods I set off to rustle up a Golden Vegetable Soup:
Because my children never eat my homemade soups I have now got soup already to reheat for the next few days. It was yummy and I resisted having bread with it and still felt full.
At tea time my children didn't fancy joining me with salmon with chilli ginger sauce so I managed to cook myself one meal and them a quick pasta dinner. It's useful having a stacking steamer to do pasta and new potatoes at the same time. I cooked a half portion of the recipe as I had a double pack of salmon and I'll have same dinner tomorrow - though maybe different accompaniments. There was a slight change to the recipe as I didn't have a chilli but my flakes seemed to add just the right amount of heat for my taste:
So as far as day one of healthy eating goes its a good one. Just need to work out what to have later for my last calorie allowance! Tomorrow I will have to think about exercising other than housework too.
Tuesday, 1 January 2013
100 Books Challenge 2013
Having signed up again with both Book Chick City and Good Reads this is my kick off post! I managed it in 2012 thanks to bedtime stories so I will be making sure I categorise all of those separately this year to compare...
This widget should show the last 5 books I've read:
Becky's bookshelf: read
Bought for my 6 year old he is loving reading it out loud and I had to borrow it to read myself. A great adventure story for younger readers (7+ is aim) but also enjoyable for grow ups.
Family Fun: Exploring the Helm
The weather was finally dry enough for all three generations to don wellies and head up The Helm for an exploratory expedition. Father Christmas had brought an explorer's kit and and an archaeologist's kit so the children were keen to try them out:
So we set off to see what we could find to investigate on the way... First of all we encountered some local animals:
Then we had to work out which animals had left various tracks in the very muddy ground:
It was fun finding places to try out their new trowels that grown ups couldn't get into:
Findings were recorded in the explorer's notebooks.
Sometimes this had needed a stream sample or some close examination:
It really helped to make a 2 hour walk a lot more exciting for the children to have lots to look at and explore with their mini toolkits. I am sure there will be many more adventures and we will share them all with you!
So we set off to see what we could find to investigate on the way... First of all we encountered some local animals:
Then we had to work out which animals had left various tracks in the very muddy ground:
It was fun finding places to try out their new trowels that grown ups couldn't get into:
Findings were recorded in the explorer's notebooks.
Sometimes this had needed a stream sample or some close examination:
It really helped to make a 2 hour walk a lot more exciting for the children to have lots to look at and explore with their mini toolkits. I am sure there will be many more adventures and we will share them all with you!
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