Monday's Menus & Tidbits

This week is filled with special little celebrations. It's our wedding anniversary today. It's Dh & his twin's birthday later in the week, and Mum will be staying overnight again one day as well. Lots of good things...lots of things that will have me at home more this week ~ I might even get my dress finished!!!!!!!!

So...our meals may look a bit more dapper than usual, now you know there's a reason!

Monday: Baked Parmesan & Herb Salmon, vegies (the kids are having frozen fish)
Tuesday: Honey Mustard Chicken, vegies
Wednesday: Singapore Noodles
Thursday: Scotch filled with creamy mushroom sauce, vegies (the kids will have chicken with the sauce I think)
Friday: Slow Roasted Pork, vegies, (chicken wings for potentially picky eaters) Chocolate Berry self sauce pudding for dessert
Saturday: Homemade Pizza
Sunday: Soup (we didn't have that this past weekend)

Now before someone looks at all that and decides I'm depriving my children of all the special things....they don't like salmon much but love frozen fish. I bought an 8 pack the other day so there would be 3 pieces left for them. They're very happy. None of them really like beef that much but they will really enjoy the chicken. See....I'm not so mean!

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I love it when you go into an Op Shop and discover the very item you had been drooling over in a retail store. As a result you acquire the item at a fraction of its original price. Such was my joy again this week. A beautiful skirt that suits me perfectly was found at Savers last week. I had seen it in Target earlier in the year and desperately wanted to buy it then and there. The fabric was light, but weighty enough to fall beautifully and the detail of the pattern was embroidered flowers, in the same colour as the fabric. Simple, but stunning. I now have the skirt. It fits beautifully, looks great and it only cost me about 1/5 of the retail price :)

Those Proud Moments

It took so much preparation and now it's all over. Year Six Graduation. We had the most precious night on Thursday night celebrating with our Year 6's. Specifically...MY Year 6!!!!! What a poised, confident young lady, with a sparkle in her eyes and more energy than I can imagine Miss Sunshine was that night. Well...she always is, but Thursday night just had her shining. We had The Dress and we borrowed this hairstyle from She Does Hair.

Each student delivered their third and final Toastmasters Speech and they all did magnificently. I couldn't have been more proud... of all of them. Some of the kids performed musical items, poems, a couple of dances. Their character, personality and creativeness were highlighted all the way through.

At the end of the night I had the privilege of handing them their Toastmaster certificate while one of the 5/6 teachers handed them their graduation certificate.

The Year 6's celebrated yesterday with a morning at an indoor pool and then lunch & shopping at the shopping centre across the way. Poor Miss Sunshine was so tired that she asked her teacher if she could go home with me instead of returning on the bus. Not one to miss all the fun, no matter what, I knew she was tired when she requested that I put her to bed and leave her at home while I picked the other two up from school.

I had a moment yesterday morning where I had to walk away from my baby girl who is almost all grown up. Tears in my eyes and the very real awareness that the end of Year 12 is only a short six years away. In that moment she will be a grown up with the world before her, as prepared for life ahead as any 18yo will be. Knowing how quickly her seven years of primary schooling has flown, I know that day is ahead and will be upon us before I realise where the years between went.

Floral Flannels

I love hand-quilting. I don't know why. It seems that most ladies who go through the quilt shop in Our Town send their quilts off to get machine quilted. I don't know....maybe it's the lack of control I am able to retain when handing over a quilt for someone else to decide what they will do with it. I do love sitting under a quilt-in-progress in the winter though. It's reason enough to have piecing completed through the rest of the year, just to be able to sit and be cosy in the colder evenings!

The quit above is the one I'm quilting right now. I bought the fabric about two years ago, just because I wanted a nice warm cosy quilt to snuggle under while watching telly. It's just for me...not for anyone else to commandeer or snaffle. The diagonal lines are quilted. The perpendicular and horizontal lines are just the basting that keeps the three layers together. That will get removed once the quilting is completed. Since the very outside border is quite wide I'm thinking maybe I might find a nice template and quilt a pattern in that area too.

What a Blur

What a blur the last few days have been. A flurry of photocoping, typing, rolled certificates, cleaning, hair cuts, excitement over new dresses and pleadings for new runners and glasses.

I don't know if I updated from the other day after Miss Mischief's optometrists appointment? She's long sighted like her mother and requires glasses for reading and close up stuff. "Mum, when can we go and pick out my glasses" is her constant plea. She's so excited about the idea! I have a feeling that might be Saturday afternoon's job....along with new runners for Mr Busy who has skidded holes into the bottom of his soles!

I will have a new quilt block to show you after today. More hand piecing :) I've also been meaning to show you my quilting progress of the flannel quilt I've had on the go for 2 years. And of course, I have a few Courthouse Steps completed too. My I have been neglectful, haven't I?!

Frittata

I stumbled upon this idea last Thursday at lunch. One of the girls in my sewing circle group is on a wheat free diet and this was her offering for our feast. I really wish I'd thought to try it out before now!

Frittata

5 onions, peeled & diced
400g can peeled tomatoes, drained & chopped
3 slices ham, chopped
1/4 cup oil
30g butter
parsley and basil to taste
6 eggs
2 tablespoons grated parmesan cheese

1. Heat oil in a large pan, add onions, cook until onions turn pale golden brown. Remove from heat, stir in tomatoes. Return to heat,, stir over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Drain oil from pan and allow mixture to cool.
2. Combine onion mixture in a separate bowl with ham, parsley, basil and cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Beat together eggs, and add to mixture; mix well.
   
3. Melt butter in pan; while butter is still frothing, pour in egg mixture. Cool over very low heat for 10 minutes; do not stir. Place pan under hot grill for 3 minutes or until mixture is set. Do allow top to brown. Cut into wedges to serve.

I balked at five onions....I can't imagine the torture that would create for the female members of our household! I used one onion and I chopped up a bowl of leftover grilled vegies (capsicum, eggplant and zucchini ~ about a cup's worth) and added it to the pan. Really, you could use whatever you have in the fridge to get rid of: carrots, sweet potato, cabbage....whatever you have little bits and pieces of, because you don't need a whole lot of any one thing!

Would you believe I had this post half ready before I took the kids to school this morning. My how differently the day ended up being. I think from now on, if I'm at school for any reason, I should take my lunch just in case! It's getting to that end of the year where everything is happening very quickly and all at once.

Page 56 Meme

Rel has tagged me for the most ultra super fast meme I have ever encountered!

The rules:

Grab the book nearest you, turn to page 56 and go to the fifth sentence, typing that sentence and a few others around it.

The book I grabbed was not exactly near me...I have none on my desk. Who reads at their desk? Not me! So I got the book I'm reading, which is 'The Summer The Wind Whispered my Name' by Don Locke

"We'd been having those duck-and-cover drills at school for some time now, and I never quite understood them. For one thing it didn't seem like something we needed to practice."

I'm tagging Lisa, Tina, Frances and Kate

Don't Blink, It's Monday Again

What? Again? Already? I swear it was Monday just yesterday. The final weeks of the year are flying by oh so fast. So much is being jam packed into these next weeks that I have abandoned the calendar on the wall ~ the squares are much too small to fit in all the information required! I found some free printable weekly planner sheets so I am busily filling the spaces up on those instead. And miracle or miracles I have a diary now for next year. My book club and Women of Worth events are already in there as the first day of school for 2009.

But what's for dinner this week you ask? Well...here's the plan:

Monday: Frittata, salad
Tuesday: Ricotta Fritters, vegies
Wednesday: Honey Mustard Chicken, hassleback spuds, vegies
Thursday: Graduation Night
Friday: BBQ at school for lower primary
Saturday: Mrs R's Vegie Soup
Sunday: Homemade Fish & Chips

Hey how's that...I get two nights off from cooking dinner! And actually, I'm thinking that since Monday night's dinner got eaten on a night last week, I might shove a chook in the crockpot. I have a busy day tomorrow, which will be further occupied by an optometrists appointment. Miss Mischief keeps telling me her eyes are stinging a lot. I'm beyond trying to figure out if she's just angling for the glasses she so desperately wants to wear! It's time to bring in the professionals!

I'm going to post the recipe for the frittata later in the week. It is wonderful...why hadn't I had a go at that before now, I wonder?!