It’s been a crazy busy month, with bouts of a sinus cold coming and (hopefully) going. Hence the lack of writing.
Around here, we’ve been busy GROWING.
Growing things in the garden. But mostly, growing little CHILDREN.
Look at this one!
5 months and growing fast
And I think the familial resemblence (her 5 to my 6 months) is uncanny:
the luna baby now – 5 months
me at six or so months
Do you agree??
Little Luna, or Boona or Boo Boo as we affectionately call her, is now four months old.
How time flies.
She is having a nap. So cute.
the sleeping babe: friday nap-time
On my side, I’ve been noticing the effects of a cumulative lack-of-sleep and breastfeeding multiple times in the night for the past four months. Most particularly:
But on the positive side, Luna is well over the 100% percentile for weight, which is awesome as O is still off the other end of the scale. So at least I have one fat little dumpling. Yay. And she slept through the night for three nights in a row – from 6:30 pm to 4:30 am this Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, before reverting on Wednesday and last night to a single feed at 2:30 and then another at 6:30 am. WIN! I’m hoping that this is the start of a new period which lasts for at least a few weeks!!
This is my life. Feeding, sleeping, eating, watching, learning and trying to rest in-between.
But the rewards are big. Look at this beautiful girl!!
Luna playing. Our little boomba.
We had a lovely weekend away at Lake Cootharaba – camping at Boreen Point.
Oscar ran wild through the bush around the campsite with the other two year old
Bush play – camping at Boreen Point
sparklers at dusk
and the two babes slept like the proverbial babes.
sleeping like babes in the bush
I enjoyed a swim and an unplug. Mmmmm.
strawberry-balsamic-icecream… yum!
If you’ve never made icecream at home before, this is my all-time favourite no-cook simple recipe. Nothing beats freshly made strawberry icecream with a hint of balsamic. It can be done without an icecream maker if you want to experiment. Yum!!! Make it now!
450g fresh strawberries
150g caster sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
150ml whipping cream (36% fat) (i.e. plain cream)
adapted from Liddell, C. & Weir, R. Frozen Desserts 1995
So. I have been on a cooking spree again in the past few days. I love my chickens, and I love their eggs too. I look at the pile of eggs in the fridge (4 a day at the moment, did I mention we got some new chickens a few weeks back? mmm… no, just a post about when we got #1 & #2..) everyday, and think of the yummy things I can cook. And since I’m obsessed with dessert, I’m on a dessert-making spree.
This week’s inspiration came in the form of Maleny Dairy cream, which the local fruit shop had in stock (I’ve been on the hunt for it for months after getting excited about great cream looking at Inner Pickle’s butter-making with her 2l of local fresh cream, and finding the Maleny one as the closest, minimally processed version I could find). I bought 3 bottles of cream, then decided to make icecream. Since it’s a new variety of cream, and the fat content is rather high, I thought I’d experiment with tried and true recipes first to see how it worked out. So a french vanilla icecream custard in the fridge cooling, I thought, well, better make another one as I’m going to have the icecream maker going anyway (yes, I have an expensive compressor-version icecream maker that doesn’t require freezing – so you can just turn it on and keep churning! It was a purchase a few years ago that I absolutely cannot do without now). So I also made a vanilla American/Philadelphia-style (for those of you not in the ice-cream making know-how, it’s an uncooked version without eggs). ….
mmm. That night when freezing my icecream I decided that I may as well use the strawberries that were in the fridge… So balsamic and strawberry ice-cream came out too…. because it is one of my favourite and is soo simple… (recipe tomorrow).
strawberry-balsamic-icecream... yum!
Then I decided last night that after dinner as the kids had both gone to sleep before 7pm (what a miracle), I had more energy. And wanted to use up some more eggs on a recipe I’ve been meaning to get to for a while: chocolate eclairs with fresh choux pastry. So I made the choux and baked them last night.. This morning made the creme filling, and will put them together for dinner tomorrow… Pics to follow. I suspect they won’t look beautiful but will taste divine.
choux pastry mini-eclairs - baking
and just to prove I don’t just eat dessert, the meal plan for the week just gone:
num num num. I love food!
We had a great time at the beach late last week / over the weekend. We did a lot of playing, digging, walking, whale and dolphin watching, and of course, swimming. The water at Cylinder Beach, Stradbroke Island, was absolutely divine. Little O came ‘out the back’ with me, happily diving under on a count of “one, two, three” to get past the big waves when they were breaking over us, until we got past the break. The water was so clear it was like it was 2 inches deep when it was 8 feet. mmmmm.. And I got a few minutes all to myself to just float. Bliss.
feeding and playing on the beach....
I am suffering from post-beach-holiday withdrawal symptoms: thinking of next beach holiday and how it is too far away…
babes on the beach (hah!).
a few shots to share…
love a good self-take!
Thankfully we do have the next trip planned already. Camping in two weeks time for the weekend. Yay!
so I lost my wallet today.
well, yesterday actually, when we were coming back from a holiday at the beach.
but i discovered it was missing this morning.
so ransacked the house and car looking for it. for a few hours. before finally admitting defeat, and calling up and cancelling all my cards. then stewed the rest of the day about the $600 cash I had in it (the most I’ve probably ever had, weird that I even had more than my usual $20).
….
thankfully my husband is better at looking for things than I am.
it took him 30 minutes of solid looking to find it after getting home from work tonight.
where?? Oh, IN the toy fire-engine in O’s room, on the toy shelf.
Of course! Can’t think why I didn’t look there earlier…
The muffins we made on Saturday are a staple around our house – simple, sugar-free (just honey), take about 5 minutes + cooking time, and can be done with pretty much any fruit you have about. The original recipe calls for blueberries, but we usually do apple. They are so simple, kids can help measure, mix, spoon and they are ready in a jiffy.
cupcakes! AKA apple cinnamon poppyseed muffins
1 banana, mashed
¼ cup vegetable oil
…“ cup honey
¾ cup milk
1 cup wholemeal self-raising flour
1 cup white self-raising flour
½ cup poppyseeds
big dash ground cinnamon
finely grated zest 1 lemon
2 medium-large granny smith apples, diced 1cm or smaller cubes
substitute 1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen) for the apple, and omit the poppyseeds, cinnamon and lemon zest.
the original blueberry recipe from: Creber, Ann. (1988) The Almost Healthy Cookbook p13
P.S. Always looking for new muffin recipes – let me know if you have a favourite!
what I should have photographed.
not the morning tea consumption post-swim:
morning tea at the pool – muffin, watermelon and strawberry
more interesting would have been:
Consolation prize for me was that he loved our swim together! And enjoyed the morning tea thoroughly. And there is no visual evidence of my bits being exposed at the pool.
love mum
P.S. thanks to Baby Mac for the inspiration for this post as her swimming experience this morning sounded just as traumatic so I thought I’d share too.
“Mum, can we make cupcakes?”
Mmmm.. I don’t think he’ll know the difference between cupcakes and sugar-free apple and cinnamon and poppyseed muffins….
Let’s cook!
can I lick the spoon now??
We mixed the batter, licked the spoon and baked.
They turned out well:
cupcakes! AKA apple cinnamon poppyseed muffins
off to the garden for breakfast:
Eating the end result!
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