School Holiday Lunch

I got the idea for this meal while we were in Ballarat over the Easter weekend.  We stopped at a little cafe for morning tea on our last morning, on our way to Mum & Dad's place.  I'd had breakfast so it was just a chai latte and some banana bread for me, but something on the breakfast menu piqued my fancy.  Breakfast bruschetta with with roasted cherry tomatoes and lemon ricotta and basil leaves.

My version has tomatoes, basil pesto, sauted mushrooms and some lemon infused ricotta.  Once the tomatoes are roasted it literally takes me as long as the bread takes to toast to pull it all together.  Pane di casa bread takes a little longer to toast so I throw the mushy's into a pan when I put the bread in to toast.  Two minutes later it's all on the plate.

After a breakfast of cooked fruit with some butter and maple syrup, topped with the same lemon ricotta, this has been the perfect thing to hit the holiday spot.

Mr Busy - The Spoilt One

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I think it is actually official in our house:  Mr Busy is the spoilt, youngest child.  The girls have been talking about being the favourite and the perfect ones.  Mr Busy was always left out of that loop, but today I figured it out.  I succumbed to his innocent-eyed ways when I had to take him back to the orthodontist to get a wire put back on.   He is just spoilt, and I pretty much stopped caring too much about that around him being 13yo. Aside:  Seriously - an hour of driving for a 2 minute job.  Two minutes.  What are we doing??!

Anyway, after two minutes he was back out and we were loose in a shopping centre.  You all know I've said how much I hate shopping, and I do.  But that's where we were.  So I took the opportunity to organise Gold Class tickets for Dh and I to see My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 next week and then Mr Busy decided we should "get coffee".  What this really means is that he should get coffee.  And cake.  And be royally spoiled just because he happens to exist.  Because he's the only boy.  Because he's out with a parent without any siblings.

He is also the child in our home at whom I have thrown utter garbage and called it school lunch.  White fluff, masquerading as bread, with cheese and bacon on top?  Sure that's a perfect lunch for a growing boy.   Every day.  For four weeks.  Can't eat bread too easily?  Of course tinned spaghetti is the perfect, nutritious alternative.

Clearly this child has sucked me into some youngest child vortex in which even the person with the least amount of niceness in them is just undone.

Well Done, Mr Busy.  Don't expect it to happen again - I'm on to you.  Except the spaghetti because braces are a whole thing.

For the Love of Good Friends

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Ever since the beginning of the year I have been wrestling with how to find myself someone who would be willing to clean my house -- someone trustworthy and effective.  We're at the end of March and this has been something I haven't been able to get off my beam.  I haven't known where to look nor who to ask.

Yesterday I had lunch with a very precious friend.  We talked about a whole bunch of stuff -- faith challenges, kid challenges, life challenges.  In amongst our conversation I was talking about how tired I am in particular areas related to being a mother.  In amongst our conversation I mentioned that I need to outsource my cleaning.  A few minutes later we circled back to that idea and my very already-precious friend asked how I would feel if she did it?  How would I feel?  I nearly cried in relief.  I have had this friend on my mind for a long time for this task.  She is an awesome house cleaner!  Hers is spotless!  She needs a little extra income -- I have a job I'm willing to pay someone else to do.  She has the time -- I do not.

We decided the first week of term will be a good time to begin, and my balance beam just got a whole lot less tricky!

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A whole school term seems to have whirled by in a flurry since I last posted.  Working full time is not conducive to blogging!  My new little class of 18 Year 3's and 4's is gorgeous.  Apart from two new-to-the-school students I have known the rest since they were in Prep, respectively.  They are delightful.  I've worked very hard this term without some of the practical support structures of my previous school.  Over the past two weeks I've worked to put those structures into place for myself, so I'm expecting the coming term to be less overwhelming.

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Miss Mischief has begun her internship at church.  She is thriving and growing there, as I knew she would.  I somehow can't see a secular University for her.  Bible College seems a better fit.  One of her goals for the year was to determine what she should do next year.  She has deferred a degree in Criminology so will need to decide soon.  It's so hard when you really have no idea what you want to do with yourself.  Miss Sunshine always knew she wanted to be a teacher.  Me?  I figured I was good at typing fast so I went and did a secretarial course, a way back in the day.  I did not get out of bed with a zing in my step so I could go to work and type, I can tell you that!

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Mr Busy's teeth finally caught up with him.  Or maybe my full-time income did.  Either way my poor baby has just joined the ranks of fellow teens with braces.  By the end of Day 1 I wanted to take him back to the orthodontist and insist on their removal.  The moment a 15yo boy realises he can't eat is heartbreaking.  Especially when it comes with tears in his eyes.  The following day I had him alternating between panadol and neurofen.  Being at the same school was never more precious than that day!  Two weeks later he is getting used to things crashing about in his mouth and is eating more like usual.  Minus pizza crusts, bread, chocolate and lollies.  And his toothbrush follows him everywhere.

Christine Lindsay's "British Raj" Series - Complete at last!

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A way back in 2014 I had the incredible privilege of reading and reviewing Christine Lindsay's "British Raj" series.  A beautifully written, captivating trilogy set in colonial India.  I was very excited to get an email from the lovely Christine, this week, to tell me the final book is now available and the trilogy is complete.

I can only imagine the hours and hours of hard work to make this all happen.  I am so excited for Christine, but I am even more excited for her readers.  If you haven't read this trilogy you need to put it on your list of books to read very soon.

To see my reviews of Christine's books click on the links below.

Shadowed in Silk

Captured by Moonlight

Veiled at Midnight

If you want to buy Christine's you can find them on Amazon.

The Lone Objector: Adulting Isn't So Bad

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I have two baby adults in my house.  You know this if you've read here for even two seconds.  Miss Sunshine seems to think that being an adult is the very most hardest thing in the world.  Miss Mischief thinks it's all a bit ho-hum and is more bemused by the fact that with a half-hour drive about with someone extra in the car she is now allowed to drive all by herself.  And feels like a rebel doing so.  This is my rule-follower child.

I don't remember that becoming an adult was all that difficult and I find myself rolling my eyes every time Miss Sunshine thinks she is overwhelmed.  The child has no idea.  She is nearly 20, studying and living at home.  She works casually (for her uncle) and has enough money to keep her car on the road and buy the things she wants to buy.  Conversely, at nearly 20, I had been working full-time for two years, was married, had moved out of home and was doing just fine doing the adult thing without my parents' help.

A friend of mine recently insisted that times were different when we were that age.  And while that is kind of true, it's kind of not.  We all still have to make the transition and it comes with having to get yourself a job, make your own decisions and eventually move out of home.  We all do it.  Generations before us did, and the generations that follow will too.

In complete opposition to my oldest daughter I was quite happy to become an adult.  I have spent more than half my life making my own decisions and being responsible for those decisions.  I have figured out hard things, like how to go about building a house (I was 21 when we did that), and buying a house.  How to navigate the Centrelink labyrinth and buying insurance for cars and houses.    For goodness sake I have managed to raise three kids.  That's jolly hard work, but also the best work ever.

I wonder when it happened, that we began to focus on how hard it is to be responsible for oneself, as opposed to just getting on with the next thing that needs to be done.  My kids have often complained that "they don't feel like xyz" whatever it is they don't feel like doing.  I have just as often told them that it doesn't necessarily matter how you feel about getting out of bed/doing the dishes/doing your homework/going to work/handing in that assignment.  You just do it because it needs to be done.

Lots of being an adult is about being responsible for your obligations, whatever they are.  But lots of being an adult is getting to make fun decisions too.  I just don't think it's all as bad as it apparently seems.

Mantra for my baby adults:  You can do hard things.  Be brave!

Productive Kitchen Day - Busy Term Protection!

I was watching episodes of Rachael Ray's "Week in a Day" yesterday morning and I was completely inspired to cook some meals ahead.  Off I went to do some grocery shopping and got myself organised.  Then I got to work.  Above is a photo at about the mid-point of my cook-fest.

Can I just say, cooking ahead in one day = very hard work.

Despite my sore feet and back and needing a nice long nap afterwards I now have in my freezer:

• 3 meals of chicken burgers + 3 extra patties for a light-on-people night
• 1 roasted vegetable lasagne (I made two, only one made it to the freezer!)
• 1 vegetable pasta sauce (from making the lasagne)
• 3 meals of sloppy joe mince

After getting all that together I was too tired and sore to make the risotto I had planned on, so we ate one of the two lasagnes for dinner.  It was so much better than I imagined it would be!  You know when you take ideas from a few places and then make it up from there to suit yourself?  Yes.  That was my lasagne.  I'll post a recipe another day because it was just beautiful.  The best part is that I managed to hide eggplant and red capsicums by finely dicing all the veggies instead of leaving them as thin strips or rounds.  All together you just got a beautiful rich veggie sauce.  Any other way there would have been complaints and picking things out.  I am the winner!

As much as I love the protective layer that meals in the freezer gives me I think doing so much in one day is probably not my favourite way.  I suspect I would rather just double and triple recipes on the day I intend to make them.  Which is good to know about myself.  Or I could just sit on the other side of the bench for all the chopping, rather than be on my feet for hours.

What I am looking forward to?  A term's worth of "Fend for Yourself Friday" meals, courtesy of the burgers and sloppy joe meat.  I stopped planning Friday nights because two of the kids would be gone before I could even think about getting home so they had toasted sandwiches or eggs on toast or leftovers.  Or nothing.  I have no idea!  This year I'll be able to get home by 5pm, but they'll still be dashing off not long after I get home.  This way they'll have something they can pull out and when they need it and there will be food for others who come along later.

Spring Cleaning: The Last Mt Everest

Before - View from the front door

I have done it.  I have tackled Mt Everest and won the battle.  Above is a picture of my personal Mt Everest.  While I was studying this little corner was fairly tidy and organised.  Since I finished (over a year ago!) this has become the place where I dump my stuff.  I don't work here because the modem doesn't seem to like the front room and I have sketchy internet at best.  Besides, it's much more relaxing to sit in front of the telly, so that's where I tend to work when I bring things home.

It took me hours of riffling through piles and bags and bits and pieces.  I threw out a whole bunch of stuff I haven't looked at in ages.  It is so tempting, as a teacher, to keep great resources.  I have decided, however, that there is little point to keeping much beyond the year level I currently teach, and so much of what I have is also in electronic version on my computer.  

After - View from the front door

I have reduced my rubbish tip to one bookshelf and moved the little filing cabinet to another corner of the room where it doesn't look too out of place.  What you can't see are all the things I need to take to school.  I didn't realise how much I had collected, but I'm thinking a big plastic box/tub will keep all those things contained and defined as mine.

I think that is the last frontier that needed my attention over the summer.  I refuse to deal with the kids' rooms.  We will fumigate and replace carpet when they leave.  Just kidding...sort of.  Actually maybe it's just Mr Busy.  In any case, doors were created for their ability to close so that's the method I use to deal with their messes.