A TEENY BIT OF DOMESTIC GODDESSNESS

So there are a lot of things that I would like to teach myself that I do not seem to be able to find time to; you know bake, sew, knit and the list goes on.  I do cook, but I am no chef I make home cooked food like roasts, lasagne, chilli, soup, beefburgers, blah, blah, blah.  I don't even attempt the gourmet stuff and I generally stick to the same things that I know that I am good at and will get eaten.

As I am in awe of this lovely lady who has a little one the same age as mine and a teeny tiny and still somehow manages to bake, cook, make cards, get creative with her little lady, etc, etc, etc, I was inspired to step it up a gear yesterday and cook something out of my comfort zone with A&D so that they could have some fun too.  My other reason for doing it with them was that as much as I try to give them a varied diet and succeed quite well at it I am rubbish when it comes to fish.  I really don't generally like it and, as much as I try to not to let my dislikes rub off on them, I don't cook it as much as I should and thus they don't eat it very often because I don't cook it very often and they are just not used to eating it.  I thought that if they made it themselves they may be more inclined to try it.

So we decided on Fish Triple Decker .  Admittedly this is a recipe from I Can Cook With Katie so is very very simple, but A&D like to make Katie's recipes and they are very easy to follow for them.  We did alter the recipe slightly by substituting the tomato ketchup (yuk!) for tomato puree, haddock for cod and also swapping olives and mushrooms for peppers.  Oh and I almost forgot we added a sprinkle of mild chilli powder to the cheese and breadcrumb topping.  The tiddlers thoroughly enjoyed making their own dinner and although they didn't eat the whole thing they did eat the toppings and try some of the fish which is all I ever ask of them so I was very pleased.  On top of that him in doors and I loved it (I cannot believe I just said that about fish) so definitely something we will be eating again.

I was so on the ball that I even remembered to take photos (although not very good ones) so here is the finished product. 

THE FIXER

I am a fixer.  You know one of those people who, probably like most, cannot stand to see the people they care about in any hurt or pain or predicament and always has to find some kind of way to make it better,  but today I am stumped and it is bothering me somewhat.

I found out yesterday that the father of a friend of mine has an incurable disease.  What do you say to somebody when they tell you that?  What are the right words to make them feel better?  What do you do to make it easier for them?  The answer of course is nothing.  You cannot make it go away, you cannot say anything to make it better or easier for them.  Their world has just fallen apart and as much as you want to you just cannot take that pain away.  I've concluded that the only thing I can do is to make sure that they know that I am here if they need anything and hope that they take some comfort in that fact, but as a fixer that just doesn't sit right with me.

I don't know my friend's father personally, but I do know a few things about him from the way my friend talks about him.  He works hard, he loves his wife and family dearly and will do anything for them and along with his wife has raised three children that any parent would be so so proud of.  For people that all live in different parts of the country and the world I get the impression that they are such a close family which is probably in part down to their dad and I am sure that they will be each other's rocks through this tough time.

I wish that I could finish this post with something wise and inspiring, but the fact is that my mind cannot rationalise a situation like this so I have nothing wise to say on the matter.  It was just one of those occasions where I needed to process my thoughts somewhere and if they ever happen to stumble across this blog they will know that I would have fixed it if I could.

LIKE SOMETHING FROM THE RAILWAY CHILDREN

So I promised to fill you in on Sunday's great little discovery, the fabulous Evesham Vale Light Railway .  I was actually looking for the name of the park that we usually go to in Evesham when I stumbled across this and given A&D's fascination with trains at the moment it seemed like a good place to try.  I won't bore you with the details of the trains (I couldn't even if I wanted to as I really don't know anything about trains), but they were bascially mini steam engines that go on a short journey from Twyvern station to Evesham Vale station which are essentially on opposite sides of a lovely picnic spot.

Dougal - one of their fabulous engines.



A - beside herself with excitement to be on a steamie

The guys who run EVLR are just lovely, very knowledgable and happy to accomodate everybody, especially the children, wherever they can.

The picnic spot is just fab, lots of space for the children (and in our case the grown ups) to run around and even some hills to roll down.  Again not just for the children!  You can also fly a kite, check out the orchard (obviously A&D had to bring an apple each back with them, it would have been rude not to) and  my fave bit was that you can even stand on top of the bridge and watch the trains go through the tunnel and wave to everybody on them in true Railway Children style.

D - checking out the sky



Can you believe we picked our own apples Mommy?

We all had such a lovely day for the grand cost of £7 plus picnic and diesel which really doesn't amount to much.  I really did feel like one of the Railway Children and a world away from everyone and everything so I can only imagine what the children thought of it all.

This place definitely gets a big thumbs up from all of us and I am sure we will be back shortly.  For me this is what childhood is all about.  Its not about the amount of time or money you lavish on your children, but what you do with that little bit of time or money that you do have that they will remember.

Just chillin with Daddy

AND SO IT BEGINS...

Well we made the most of the Bank Holiday weekend and my mom's lack of cooking today (we often invite ourselves for Sunday lunch, but she was otherwise engaged) by going for a picnic to Evesham Vale Light Railway . This place was an amazing little find, but I will fill you in on our adventures there another time I just want to take some time today to get down my reasons for blogging which I had intended to make my initial post, but I got slightly sidetracked.

Inspired by the lovely Beth I had considered starting a blog on and off probably for about a year, but I was a little concerned about not being able to find the time to keep it up to date and I feel like I have failed at or failed to finish a lot of things since I left school and as silly as it sounds I just didn't want to add to that list, but the idea kept coming back to me so I decided to bite the bullet and get on with it for a number of reasons really.

One of those reasons is my children who I love with all my heart and who amaze me everyday, however despite my best intentions before their arrival I have not managed to keep on top of recording their milestones or keeping their baby books or memory boxes up to date which makes me so sad when I think about it.  I was like a swan for that first year though; so many people told me how calm and together I seemed and whilst I may have appeared like that on the surface in the water my legs were paddling like mad just to stay afloat and to be honest I barely remember any of the first year of their life which I do find quite upsetting.  So anyway I have now resolved to put that right going forward (admittedly quite late at almost 3 years after their arrival) so that at least they have some kind of record of our lives together to look back on.  It also means that, as we are like ships that pass in the night for four nights of the week, my lovely husband will be able to read all about what the kids and I have been getting up to during the day.

Another big thing for me is that I find getting things down on paper quite therapeutic especially if I am upset or confused about something and mostly I just write them on a piece of paper and throw them away when I have processed it so it will be good for me to have a record of these things here.  Don't worry though I will forewarn you if  a post is bit "woe is me" so that you can skip those bits if you would prefer.

Oh and as an aside I am hoping that blogging will help me to realise my accomplishments; instead of worrying about what I didn't manage to get done in a day or a week I will be able to see what I did and focus on that.

And so it begins....

THE DIESEL AND THE STEAMIE

This morning we had to make a short trip to the local indoor markets for meat, not very exciting I know.  Now normally we would have just gone in the car, quickly got what we needed and headed home.  However we decided today that we would go in on the train which actually turned a chore into a fabulously fun (and virtually cost free) morning.

A & D have been on trains before, but coupled with the love of Thomas the Tank Engine at the moment it had turned into a huge adventure today.  It is only a 10 minute train journey, but it was filled with a whole conversation about where the trains live (which luckily is right by our station) and how the train that we were on was a diesel and not a steamie like Thomas and of course when we got off we had to say goodbye to the train. 

I had forgotten however that at our destination there is an old Great Western Engine on a line that isn't used so we then spent some time looking at the steamie (through a fence unfortunately) and saying hello to it and deciding that as it was dark green it definitely looked like Emily.

The shopping in the market was pretty uneventful and too noisy for A who clung to me for dear life.  She was also quite put out by the fact that as it was raining when we had finished inside so we couldn't go in search of Joan the fennel around the outdoor markets.  Sorry I feel I should explain, you see the other big favourite in our house is Mr Bloom's Nursery (which as far as children's TV goes I really quite like) and when we were doing our supermarket shopping earlier in the week we had to make sure that we found all of the characters, but unfortunately we couldn't find a fennel so I had said that we would try today if the weather stayed nice, which of course it didn't.

Then back at the train station it was decided that we had to sit and have our lunch on the bench closest to the steamie where we spent an hour talking about the trains, in between eating of course and looking at leaflets with steamies on.  A & D were equally as enthralled by their trip home on the train and spent most of it glued to the window

Now I know to most people this wouldn't be a very thrilling way to spend their morning, but I just never cease to be amazed by A & D's imaginations and how, at their age, they soak up information like a sponge.  Despite the chore that it started out as and the rain that we got this morning all four of us had a wonderful morning and it is simple mornings like this that I am so very grateful for.