Mondays Menu

Here is my Mondays Menu. Last week worked a treat.

Monday Tortilla Source Weight Watchers Magazine June 2009 pg 66

Tuesday Chicken and Pumpkin Risotto Source Weight Watchers Magazine May 2009 pg 65

Wednesday Ginger Chicken Stirfry

Thursday Bolar Roast in Crock pot with veges

Friday Pizza

Sat Pumpkin Soup

Sunday Hamburgers

I hope this week works well as everyone is back at school

The Whirlwind is Home

Yes DS1 has been on residential respite care for week. This enables him to have a holiday and us to catch up on sleep and energy, do things that ordinary families do without the unusual constraints that come with DS1 and in general achieve things that we probably others can do.

He usually cant wait to get there and we trust in the process of him being well cared for and happy.

It is always great to see him home but when he is away it brings into focus how demanding his needs are on our lives.

We love him none the less.

Here he is on his first day home playing with bubbles.

The bathroom

Sometimes all the renovating we have been doing just doesn't seem worth it. Today was just one of those days. The worst part of it is that this room is the last one of the house that needs the plastering done, the priming/ sealing painted on, the painting and not to mention a new bath in and this time I will have to learn how to tile in the splash zone.

Then the finishing touches, extractor and light will need to go in and a towel rowel hung and that is it. The basic and mirror are in great condition.

Who knows how long it will take us to finish this but maybe in a month we will be well and truly just tying up the loosing ends in each bedroom.

So thanks to my own little troupe of home handymen, my father and husband, for taking up to 3 days to work out how to build a frame for the new bath...(without laughing too much I must comment here that the bath did come with instructions for building a frame but they were not discovered until half a days thinking had gone into)



I will back into the plastering tomorrow.

Injury

It has all been drama in our house. DD and DS2 were playing outside with something that was in our inorganic collection. I was an old heater that had wheels. Now it was a dangerous thing to play with as it was not stable, but fun none the less because of the wheels and a bit of imagination FUN is the key word. Now the common sense side of me had to make comment about safety and 'someone will get hurt'.

Hmmm the temptation to play was too great and before too long there was the very loud scream and one DD with a cut about 2cm long and 1cm deep. Blood everywhere. So a trip to our nearest medical centre was made and 1 hour later with 3 stitches and one very sorry and hobbling daughter later. I am not sure whether she is sorry that she didn't heed my gentle warning or for the fact that she was told that she wasn't allowed to play hockey.

One sorry and hobbling daughter just after stitches


So I guess today a lesson just might have been learned in our house the very hard way.

Here are the 3 stitches 2 days later.

Monday's Menu

I thought it might make life just a little easier, especially when school goes back and I am working, to make more of a menu plan. So I came across this blog...I'm an Organizing Junkie...to get inspired. I was thinking that I would mean that DH would be in the menu loop too when it was he turn to prepare diner.

Now I know that I am two days late but I thought that I would post it anyway to see how things go.

Monday.......blank for this week

Tuesday......blank for this week

Wednesday Roast Chicken with vege and salad (bbq)

Thursday Hearty Beef Casserole source Weight Watchers Magazine July 2009 pg 71

Friday Pizza This week I am testing to see if I can freeze my home made base.

Saturday French Onion Soup source Weight Watchers Magazine June 2009 pg 64

Sunday Toasted sandwiches and leftovers.

Fingers crossed that this works for me because it would make life easier I think.

Holidays

The school holidays are coming to an end here in New Zealand. This break from school is just two weeks long and in the middle of winter. I feel sorry that my children are not getting to go away but that is how life goes in our house this break. We are renovating the last bathroom in the house, yes we have 3, and then the house is about ready to put on the market to sell. I hope that this is all ready to sell in about 6 weeks.

So the renovational challenge is putting in a new bath. I think easy and I can get the new plaster board in etc etc. How wrong could I have been. It will be a saga that I will be able to blog about for some time. Firstly the old yellow, think of a babies nappy, bath was glued in and needed to be smashed to get it out. Then the bath required a cradle to be build to rest it in. My DH and father thought that they would tackle that task. Hmmm all morning they tried to sort out the cradle and then just before lunch DH comes to me laughing saying that they have just discovered the instructions for building one. Well I had to laugh too, a whole morning spent trying to work out something that was on a bit of paper that came with the bath.

Here is the bath. Oh the room had paint over wallpaper which has to come out too. Finally you might wonder why a bath rather than a shower. The house already has two showers. No need for any more I think.



Bath out.



Now to get the bath level and fitted close enough to the bath so that we can, I mean....I can, tile two rows of tiles as a splash board. I guess that is for another blog as novices can take some time to work these things out.

Watch out for those photos.

I Ache

Did I tell you after all that gardening I ache all over. Oh I ache. Thank goodness it is all finished.

Why is it that something that is very satisfying to finish gives me pain.

Hmmm. Off to relax now.

Mid Winter Gardening

I am not a keen garden but our house sits on a sit of a approximately 1100 m sq with garden surrounding three of the boundaries. Now when I say garden I really mean plenty of garden beds, dirt and weeds and not so many plants. We have been trying to put plants in place but with money restrictions it is a slow job. So in the last two days DH, the children and I have been outside dealing to the mess that winter has left us. The first task that had to be done was to perform so serious surgery on the old and rotting Kowhai tree that decided to fall down. See this post here. 3 hours later and a seriously attended to tree is looking much more stable. We are really sad that such a beautiful tree is really on its last legs but I guess that is nature.

Here is the final part of the tree to come down. (photo by DS2 5 years old)



and another shot by DS2




So today I attended to the flattened garden, when the tree fell down, and the copious leaves that are now smothering the lawns and garden beds. Thank goodness that DH got a mega leaf blower for his birthday because it sure has been useful today.

Here is the Kowhai tree (the next day.) DD 8 years took the photo.


I still have another days gardening to go and then it will be on to the next renovation task. That is for another blog entry. Weeding to be finished, de-weeding the pavers that line our driveway, spraying for all the moss that is everywhere and finally mowing the lawns. Phew I feel exhausted just thinking about it all.

I Customised my Blog

I have had a try at customising my blog. I hope you like it. I think there are a few other things that I would like to try and do but I have run out of time at the moment so I will leave it at that.

Having a play

I am having a play with my blog. It might take me a few days so if things look a little funny it will because I have got stuck with what to do next or I need a break and will be back.