Choosing to Chill!

8.30 am Saturday morning. A meltdown occurs.
Younger child has snuck into older child’s stash
of jelly beans from a birthday party the previous
weekend, and eaten one. She would have got
away with it completely had she not chosen to
flaunt this small victory. “Look Mum” – jaws open
wide. “Gosh, look at all those teeth”. “No, look!”
“Jellybean!” Older child inconsolable as stolen
jelly bean was the last pink one. Mother feels dark
fog creeping over brain as she tries to think of a
peaceful solution. It had been a long, busy couple
of weeks in our household, culminating in a very
long and busy Friday, and Thursday and Friday
nights had been too late for 3 and 5 year olds.


Suddenly the Saturday plan of ballet, groceries, a friend’s
birthday party just seems way too busy for the degree of
exhaustion wafting over our household.
The thing that I dreaded most about being a school-going
family, and the thing that still wears us out the most, is the rush
factor. Rush in the morning to get ready for school, rush in
the evening to cram in afternoon tea, play, homework, dinner,
bath bed. Ugh. For this reason I have stuck to my plan of
only one extra-curricular activity - that being Saturday ballet.
Theoretically this should leave us pretty chilled out over the
weekend - ballet is at 11.45 am so how much of a rush can
that be? Somehow however it still seems like a mad panic
- we cruise for the first part of the morning and then end up
in a flap - where are the ballet shoes, get the drink bottles
organised, find some snacks for before and after. Then we
do ballet and decide that while we’re in town we will do the
groceries and some other jobs, and before you know it we’re
rushing home at four in the afternoon in a mad panic getting
dinner ready and the whole things just feels like another day
spent racing around like the proverbial headless chook.
Not for us this weekend! After 30 seconds reflection, I pulled
the pin immediately and we spent the entire weekend at home.
Friends visited, we spent lots of time at the beach, we did a
few outstanding domestic jobs and we did some cooking. We
read books, did art, watched DVDs, and had an early night.
By Sunday night it just felt like we were a human family again,
rather than a family of out of control aliens lurching from one
engagment to the next.
How easy it is to end up feeling over-committed despite your
best intentions, and how hard to make that decision to put on
the brakes - but how great does it feel. I just need to remember
to step back and take a chill out spell more often - before the
wheels fall off and we skid to a halt!

Frittata

This is really great recipe for a Sunday night, or
one of those evenings when you don’t really have
a plan! For variety you can add spicy sausage.

• A handful of cooked potatoes or kumara
• Cooked seasonal veges
• Feta cheese, grated parmesan or tasty cheese
• 1 red pepper, sliced
• 5 - 6 free range eggs
• Fresh herbs and garlic, to taste

Beat the eggs and mix in the other ingredients
except the red pepper and the fresh herbs. Gently
fry the garlic and the red pepper, then pour in all
the other ingredients. Cook over low heat for 7 - 8
minutes, then finish under a pre-heated grill for 5
- 6 minutes until browned and set. Rest for a few
minutes before serving.

Gotta Love That Learning.......

As clichéd as it is, I reckon that one of the many amazing things about parenthood is how much we learn from our children, mostly when we’re trying to teach them stuff.  Sometimes it’s a gradual feeling like a fog clearing, other times it’s like being slapped in the face with a wet flannel, but I know that I’m a much bigger and better person than I was before I had kids .  We recently had a holiday which included a visit to the snow.  We had intended to make snowmen, maybe hire a tobggan, and just generally have a fun hour or two in the snow, with a bonus being if one or other of us could sneak off for a run or two on the snowboard.  Our last visit to the snow had been with a 6 week old baby and a two-year old - I won’t go into it but many hopes were dashed that day.  This visit was quite different.

On arrival at the mountain our five-year old announced that she would like to ski, followed of course by an echo from our three-year old that she was going to ski too.  There was no dissuading them, so lift passes and equipment were obtained.  And wouldn’t you know it, away they went.  

Miss Five took a little longer to warm up due to a technical incident involving her mother cutting the circulation to her feet by doing the boots up too tight (too many memories of days as a wanna-be ski racer) and there was a grim period over lunch with an almost unrecoverable melt-down from Miss Three due to mis-timing of the provision of food.  At this point the father did comment that it looked as though it would be several years before we would be doing this again.  

However, the afternoon was magic.  They were both away, which was just amazing to watch, and were so keen on the whole thing that we went back again the next day.  I was surprised to find myself not in the slightest bit disappointed that the only contact I had had with my snowboard was to lug it from the car to the snow and back again - it was just such a buzz to watch and help the girls get the hang of it.  Miss Three did struggle with the fact that she could not actually do every single possible part of the whole game on her own.  The fact that you couldn’t actually ski uphill was difficult to accept, and we spent quite some time sitting adjacent to the lift queue, watching it gradually pass us by, while she refused all help to actually enter the queue.  

This is where some serious self-reflection was required by me.  As a child we lived for some time near the mountain, and spent a lot of time skiing.  In those days it was all about maximising run time and minimising queue time.  It took all my willpower to actually sit calmly beside the queue, doing nothing for maybe 20 minutes, until one of my interminttent offers of help was accepted.  And why not?  It was a sunny, warm day, not uncomfortable, quite pleasant in fact.  But a huge challenge to my idea of what skiing was about.  So now I’m thinking more about all those moments when I bite the inside of my cheek wanting to keep things moving along - maybe it’s more important to try to relax and enjoy that moment for what it’s really about. 

Spinach and Blue Cheese Pasta

If you like blue cheese try this on your kids - mine love it and it’s super easy. 

Ingredients:

A big bunch spinach

Chopped garlic

A packet of pasta

Blue cheese

Light sour cream

Parmesan cheese to serve

Directions: 

Cook a packet of pasta according to the directions.  While it’s cooking, melt a cup of light sour cream and 100 g of blue cheese (if you want in creamier and less strong use more sour cream) in the microwave.  Saute some chopped spinach and garlic in a frypan.  When the pasta’s cooked mix everything together in a big bowl, then serve topped with grated parmesan cheese.  

Ideas for When You Absolutely Have to Get Out of the House....

So, if you happened upon my previous article, you will have found me full of chirpy suggestions for making the most of a yucky day indoors.  Well as it turned out, having merrily expounded, on Friday evening, the virtues of entertaining pre-schoolers inside, just a few days later Sunday saw me stuck indoors on a rainy, cold day in the middle of moving house.  Just to keep things really interesting, Miss Nearly-5 had been up all night with a terrible cough, so was in absolutely rotten shape.

No problem, I thought, let’s start the day with pikelets.  Good start, much sifting, stirring and beating was enjoyed by all, along with the fruits of our labours.  The kitchen was not quite cleaned up when some sort of altercation occurred outside involving two pre-schoolers and some chopsticks (I had turned a blind eye to the escapees into the Antarctic conditions in the hope of getting on top of the kitchen mess) so I lured everyone inside with the promise of playdough making.  Fantastic, so two batches of playdough later (one pink, one yellow – shortly to be melded into a highly attractive yink/pillow) all is well at the kitchen table for some time.  Playdough morphs into play school which involves mat time complete with news (which must be presided over by the adult who has to pretend to be the teacher, of course) kai time (didn’t we just have breakfast?) more news, ballet lessons, an attempt at a board game involving some sort of 3-year old melt down, a desperate call for lunch - soooo when the man of the house walked through the door at just after 1 pm I announced that we absolutely had to get out of the house, poked the kids in front of a DVD and slunk off for a shower.  Hence the theme of this article...

Sometimes you just absolutely must view life beyond your own four walls, regardless of what the weather is doing.  Here are some ideas when another coffee date in an over-crowded café just doesn’t appeal to the mind or the wallet.

Rug up and go for a walk  Get all your winter gear on, get out there, get wet and wild and come home, throw everyone in the bath and snuggle up warm.  Whether it’s a trip to the park, a walk on the beach, Gray’s Bush or in the arboretum, sometimes everyone benefits from getting wet and muddy and wind-blown.  There’s something smugness-inducing about getting out there on a yucky day, and nothing better than getting warm afterwards.

Invite yourself to a friend’s for lunch  If you’re craving company, hit the supermarket or the bakery and then head around to a friend’s house for a bit of a BYO lunch.  It’s often easier and cheaper than the café variety, and you all benefit from some company other than your own.

Do the supermarket shopping  For me this is a bit like cooking.  To be enjoyed as a parent-child activity, the parent must not be under any time pressure – allow the shopping to be the only thing that you really need to get done and let the kids get involved in choosing things for the trolley and putting things away at home and lo and behold the morning is filled and the shopping is done.  To be fair though, this one can go either way – if it all turns to custard buy a packet of ice-blocks or lollipops and give them one each on the way to the checkout…

If you’re wondering what wholesome family activity we engaged in during our escape from the indoors that memorable Sunday, well we actually went shopping for a new duvet cover for Miss 3 who had finally decided to sleep in her own bed.  And that’s another story…

Banana Cake

•  115g       butter                                •  ½ cups   flour

•  ¾ cup     caster sugar                       •  1 tsp       baking powder

•  1             egg                                  •  1 tsp       baking soda

•  2             ripe bananas                     •  ¼ cup     milk

•  1 tsp       coffee essence

Getting ready: 

Soften the butter and take the egg out of the fridge.  Grease an 18cm square tin with butter, and line the base with baking paper.  Preheat the oven to 180˚C.  Peel the bananas and mash them well with a fork.

Mixing and baking:

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in the egg, followed by the mashed bananas and the coffee essence.

Sift together the flour and baking powder, and dissolve the  baking soda in the milk.

Fold in the dry ingredients alternately with the milk and baking soda, and combine everything together.  Bake for about 45 min.

When the cake is cooked it will have shrunk slightly away from the sides of the tin and when you press the centre gently with your finger, it will spring back.

Remove from the oven and cool on a rack.   

Ice when cool and store airtight.

Re-use, Reduce, Recycle

At this time of year, with the dragon of rampant Christmas consumerism breathing its hot and heavy breath in our faces, it takes an iron will and a very firm plan to avoid succumbing to the excesses of the season.  I clearly remember my first Christmas of motherhood, which involved a child of not quite 6 months of age being absolutely over-whelmed with stuff - stuff from us, stuff from Santa, stuff from grandparents, aunties and uncles, great-grandparents, great-uncles, fairy-godparents and friends.....you get the picture - and, as the old but accurate cliche goes, being only really interested in the wrapping.

Every year since I have vowed that we would not go over the top - that we would just buy one thing for each child, a few stocking stuffers would be provided by Santa, and then family would complete the picture.  So how is that every year that somehow the underneath of that Christmas tree is chokka and I fully know I have only myself to blame for the vast majority of the paraphernalia that overwhelms my children on Christmas morning.


This is my fifth Christmas as a parent, so you would think I might have a few clues by now.  However, as I write this I am mentally reviewing the various things stashed in the top of my wardrobe throughout the year, adding to that the slightly OTT order that I placed via our kindergarten fundraiser, convincing myself that a worthwhile cause justified a few extra bits and pieces, and thinking that not much of that stuff is of the right size to fit inside a stocking, so therefore some more shopping on behalf of Santa will be required.  Ugh.


In the midst of all this I am also reflecting on the most long-lasting and fascinating toys to have entered our lives this year - maybe a close second to paper and pen - these particular toys arrived in the guise of a new vacuum cleaner and - you - guessed it - the rather large box encasing said vacuum cleaner.  In the blink of an eye this box became a car, and over the various weeks and now months of its existence this car has gradually been enhanced with various features (this weekend saw it sporting a large extension which apparently is a smoke stack, complete with smoke, turning it into a train).  It has been the favourite spot for reading, spelling practice, and the centre of all sorts of games.  It has had a boot added, which contains treasures of all descriptions.  Periodically it gets relegated to the garage as it (plus its smaller sibling-version) takes up a lot of room and we get a bit tired of tripping over it from time-to-time, but it always re-enters the house and is embraced with as much enthusiasm and it generated on Day 1.

So, what is to be done about the Christmas stash.  In the process of writing this I think I have come up with a plan - stick to the plan.  Sift through the stash to find the things that can be rammed into the stockings, pick one or two extra things for each child, and leave the rest in the cupboard for birthdays (our family's or others) and perhaps to be brought out at odd times when it seems like a new toy could be welcome, rather than on one crazy day when it will just be lost in the pile of wrapping paper.  Surely with Christmas now only a few weeks away I can manage to remember that plan?

Chocolate Truffles

A perfect Christmas treat - adults only!  Truffles can be made 3 days ahead, keep covered in refrigerator. Recipe unsuitable to freeze.
100g dark chocolate melted
1 ½ tablespoons dark rum
2 table spoons cream
30g butter melted
1 ¾ cups icing sugar
1 cup ground almonds 
¼ cup cocoa
Combine melted chocolate, rum, cream and butter in bowl. Stir in sifted icing sugar and almonds in 2 batches. Cover, refrigerate until firm. Shape rounded teaspoonfuls of mixture into balls, roll in cocoa, place in refrigerator until serving. Makes about 15.