Aloe Driftwood :: WIP

I am just loving knitting top-down and in the round.  Check out these sleeves - so clever

Yes, I am still around!

My menfolk have fallen sick one after the other, over and over again these last 5 weeks.  Liam has become so bad that when it was time for the long-awaited ENT appointment he was sufficiently infected, swollen and pus-oozy that the ENT surgeon declared "grommets! tonsils out! adenoids out!".

Surgery has been booked for 6 week's time, right on my birthday.  So I have a hot date with my gorgeous little 4 year old, in overnight accommodation with lashings of ice cream.  And you know, with the lack of sleep I have had lately, it sounds delightful.  But seriously, I am thrilled about the surgery.  You see, Liam has sleep apnoea which finally a medical professional has admitted could be causing his seizures (I knew it was something to do with his ears, nose and throat issues!!!).  There are no promises but I can't help thinking that it will relieve the situation.

Sleep apnoea in little children can cause learning difficulties and behavioural issues.  His deafness caused by glue ear is causing poor speech development.  His tonsils and adenoids are causing the sleep apnoea and excessive dribbling.  And. so. on.  I am scared to pieces about a surgeon cutting into my little boy but I am praying praying praying!

Right now I wish I could have my tonsils removed.  I have shared my bed for the past few weeks with sick little boys, breathing their germs and being drooled on so it was only a matter of time and sleep deprivation before I succumbed!

This is supposed to be a craft blog too.  So enough talk of sickness.  This is what I have been up to in between playing nurse-maid.  With the weather getting warmer, I fear it won't be worn this season.  Nevermind.  I'll give you all the details when I finish.






Do you have something on the needles that won't make it before spring?

xxx

The Vitamix Diaries :: going cold turkey

My boys liked:
carrot, raspberry, apple, orange and kiwi juice

My boys didn't like:
carrot, ginger, beetroot leaves, apple, orange, mixed berries and parsley juice (it was brown!)

But then my boys liked:
green grapes, apple, spinach and orange juice

Do you get my point?  I'm just chucking in whatever fresh fruit and veggies are available and seeing what happens.  I then  follow up a dodgy disaster juice with a combo sure to please, so that the boys keep getting on the proverbial horse, so to speak.

But I will ease up a bit now because I remember learning once that we shouldn't mix too many different foods together.  Best to keep it simple.

I have been a grumpy girl today.  I decided that after spending a pretty penny on my Vitamix, I should follow through with some other healthy lifestyle changes.

Almost 10 years ago I went cold turkey on alcohol, cigarettes, coffee AND meat.  But then 4 years ago, when I was expecting my first baby, two of those little vices started sneaking back.  First it was the meat.  In my 3rd trimester I was getting mighty tired and I simply couldn't be stuffed to cook two meals so on Rick's meaty night, I succumbed.  It made me feel sick but I got over that.  And now I am eating meat probably once or twice a fortnight on average.  I know it is not a lot, but I was happy being a vegetarian (oops, I should say I was a vegaquarian as I did enjoy some fish).

I'm holding my glass next to my head to show you scale.  That glass should be called a vase!
That is how big my coffee was last week!!  

The second vice has stealthily returned.  You see, I hadn't drunk caffeinated coffee in years so on the odd occasion that the local cafe gave me a fully leaded coffee instead of my decaf order, I would be buzzing up walls and having palpitations.  Hence, I avoided coffee altogether.  But about a year ago, having recommenced on decaf coffee because we were brewing our own rather nicely, I began having the real thing.  First it started with weak coffee, then to normal then to double-shots!

So today, being rather foolish, I have gone cold turkey again off full strength coffee.  I'm not even having a black tea.  Peppermint please.

But boyoboy!  I have a screaming headache! Blleeerrrk!  And then I thought I shouldn't take any headache tablets as I need to remember how rotten this is making me feel so that perhaps I will keep myself in better check in future.

I'm sipping water and eating nuts.  In fact, the nuts are helping me not eat sugar which is my other nasty vice that I have never been able to shake off.

Yes, I am hoping that because I have told you, I will keep myself accountable and not fall off the wagon!

Definitely heading off to Newcastle City Famers' Market this Sunday to stock up on organic produce.

Do you go to market?

xx

Smoomees

Look what I've finally bought!

Yes a Vitamix.  I tossed with the idea of forking out a couple of grand for a Thermomix, but what I really wanted was all met with a Vitamix at less than half the price.

The maiden voyage to healthy eating in our new whiz-bang blender was done by one carrot, one blood orange, one kiwi and one little old apple.  I took the skin off the apple because of wax but left the core in tact for the goodness of the seeds.

The Vitamix manual says :: When you juice, a process unique to the Vitamix machine is initiated and the cell walls of whole fruits and vegetables are pulverized - thereby releasing the juice, yet retaining all of the nutritious whole food fibre. . . .by smashing the whole food fibre and breaking it into microscopic pieces that are easy to digest.  You get a creamy, smooth juice that's full of valuable fibre.

It was yum.

The boys call their juice Smoomee

I will be doing it again tomorrow with parsley and other fine ingredients.

Now I am pouring over recipes and not just juicy ones, this thing even kneads dough!

Are you gearing up for spring with some healthy choice eating?
Do you use a Vitamix?  Do have a favourite recipe?

xx

Celebration in Rocket Style

Thanks Han for snapping this cutie-pie pic!

As you know, my big boy turned 4 last week.

I've gone through the classic "oh my, how quick has he grown!" response to it all.

He was the first little one to be pulled from my body and placed into my eager arms. I cradled his warm tiny form against my chest and he and I just stared at each other with the same amount of shock and "how do you do?"

Liam Raul, my first born.  The little one that made me a Mumma and turned my life on its axis.

In the four years following, we have watched him become a little boy of wonder.  While our family has been through many challenges, Liam has kept his happy-cheer, his love of people and fun times.  And we have also welcomed his little brother into the fold.  Our family is complete despite my ever longing for more children (in my moments of complete abandon of reality!!)

Liam has never asked me what the mark is on his face.

Liam has never complained about trips to the hospital.

Liam has only once spat out his medicine (was at his little brother!)

All Liam wanted for his birthday was friends and cake.  I thought I could get away this year without having a bona fide party, that perhaps he wouldn't miss what he has never had.  I just didn't realise that 4 year olds are aware of parties.  I really thought that it wouldn't be until school!

Even though he missed out on a party with his little friends, we continued our tradition of 'family parties'.  My three beautiful step-kids came with their partners/spouse and their kids/step-kids.  Rick bought a BBQ (his first ever- this man is 48 and never has owned a BBQ!), which was fired up and well used.

And the cake.  What looked like was going to be a challenge of mega sorts, turned out wonderfully.

I used my basic cup cake mix and made 3 batches, baked in a 24cm square cake tin for 20 mins each.

Rick used a round cutter and layered cake with cream cheese frosting (uncoloured) and Wagon Wheels!  The top is a waffle cone dipped in chocolate and the fins are cake covered in chocolate.  Toss in m&ms and you have a rocket cake!  I'm really chuffed.  Rick said after icing and assembling Dean's Lego cake that he wanted to make Liam a rocket cake.  And he did.  I love that about Rick.

Liam is not a good candle-blower-outerer, so he had a separate cake to catch the spray.

Liam loves his big siblings!  It was a really lovely day and has me wishing they would all visit more often.  Life is busy but at least the birthdays are well spaced so we get a good smattering of visits through the year.  It is hard when they live 1.5 hrs away and work weekends.  But we love going up there too.

Who makes the birthday cakes in your house?  If you have a blog link, I'd love to see it!

xx

Stuff

Are you getting used to my dodgy iPhone pics yet?  

Hello!

It was my baby-man's 4th birthday yesterday.  I sent him and is little brother off to Kindy as, let's face it, he had more birthday fun there with his friends than here with his mummy.

Can you see Dean eyeing off that candle? photo c/o Kindy Patch

We are having a family party on Sunday.  So he will feel sufficiently birthdayed out by Monday.

We made Liam wait until 6 pm before he could open his presents!  Totally nasty parents hey?  Rick had an early start yesterday and didn't want to miss out on the opening.  We decided to take the boys out for pizza after kindy hence the late gift giving.  Luckily, Liam is still getting used to this birthday thing and only wanted cake and friends all day.  The presents were a bonus in his eyes.

And the funniest thing was, Liam opened up his parcel of clothing (t-shirts, belt and hat) first and exclaimed "Yay! Clothes!".  Rick and I laughed so hard.   At christmas his big brother gave him some clothes and he didn't even look twice at them, wanting toys.  This time he was stoked at having clothes.  Does my head in, truly.

But Liam was even more happy to get Lego.  It was painful putting him to bed with the promise of Lego assembling in the morning.  The little trooper managed to fall asleep without too much fuss.  And yes, the first thing I was woken to this morning was Liam standing by my bed with his box of Lego "Mumma, can you open it for me . . . . puhleeeese!"

The official birthday cake is being readied for Sunday.  I am baking the cakey bits and whipping the creamy bits, but Rick is going to assemble it and sculpt it into a rocket ship.  We made a practise one last week which has me wondering if I should order a back up cake from Michele's Patisserie!

Even though I sent Liam off to kindy with a batch of extremely yellow cupcakes, I still wanted a cake for him on his special day.  Unfortunately, I didn't take a pic!  I prepared the basic of basic cakes, no baking required!  You know the one.  Grab a pack of biscuits (we used Macro Gluten Free choc biscuits) and glue the entire lot together with sweetened whipped cream into a log shape (best to whip the cream yourself as I suspect the spray can variety wouldn't cut the mustard).  Then cover the lot with cream so every inch is smothered in creamy goo.  Put it in the fridge and by morning, voila! a yummy cakey log.

Have you made one of those?  What biscuits do you use?  Do you have a variation?

We placed 4 candles on the creamy log and before we could even sing 'happy birthday', Dean blew out the candles closest to him.  Liam was very gracious.  He waited til the end of the song then extinguished his last two candles with a spray of spit, crackle crackle ppsshhh.  Suffice to say, we cut his portion from that end.

This has been a slow week for me online-wise.  I won't be posting so frequent as in recent weeks.  But I will be stalking all of you.

I won't be far away as there is much to be shared ::
~ my first giveaway
~ my new business
~ what's coming off my needles
~ and more food, health and family talk.

I love that you are a graciously patient lot.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend full of happy times and rest.

Blessings to each of you dear bloggy-buddies.

xx