The Marching on of Time.... Again

 

Well, January is already more than half way through. And what a wet January it has been so far! I feel for anyone affected by the flooding :( We had severe flooding here in Gloucestershire in 2007 - for more details click this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire/floods/
Our house wasn't touched by water in any way (other than our back garden and patio being very, very soggy) so we were lucky there. We didn't have electricity for just over 24 hours - but the worst bit was no running water at all for 16 days. It was the very start of the Summer school holidays - we wore clothes for days and days and went to relatives and friends further afield in the county for a bath/ shower every few days (making do with strip washes and baby wipes in between) and to do a load of two of washing. We flushed the toilets with rain water, scummy washing up water, cooking water..... it wasn't much fun after the first few days. However, there was a great sense of community and people were looking out for one another, which was lovely.

Back to the here and now - Mr G is still job hunting - he had an interview yesterday, so fingers crossed for that one! We had large food supplies in the garage before this (tins, rice, pasta) - they have come in handy and are now much reduced. We aren't yet watching every penny totally - we did indulge in a £10 takeaway this week - it was the end of a long, tiring week. I did choose what we had with regards to cost, though - so was mindful. It was much appreciated - all the more so for being a very occasional thing now. I have a budget for food, toiletries, cleaning things, newpapers (an occasional Sunday Observer) and guinea pig food/ bedding of £300 for January (2 adults, 2 teenagers, 2 primary school children & 2 guinea pigs) - it's going to be tight, but I'm doing my best to achieve it! The takeaway will come out of that budget, too (eek!)

Am having a pottering about sort of Saturday today. The small two had swimming lessons this morning, but after that it's been 'a bit here and a bit there' sort of day. I've made robot suits with the small two from two large-enough-for-them-to-wear cardboard boxes, toilet roll tubes, bits of scrap/ recycled ribbon, a lot of sticky tape and colouring in with felt tips - they've had a great time! Other than that, I've done the usual washing, kitchen cleaning, tidying, vacuuming - but it's felt quite indulgent because I haven't felt rushed to HAVE to do something/ be somewhere. I have a small grocery shopping list of about 6/7 items, which I will do tomorrow. I *do* need to go into town to do some banking for various things, but that can wait until Monday or Tuesday, depending upon the weather. 

I've been in the kitchen a lot this week, making various things, including a spinach, mushroom and lentil dhal/ curry type thing, courgette and tomato soup, lentil and bacon soup, a lot of croutons from crusts to go with the soups, cornflake flapjack (using up the 'dust and tiny crunched bits at the bottom of the box), 3 root mash (parsnips, carrot and potatoes) to go with leftover slow braised lamb shanks from a couple of weeks ago and Paul Hollywood's lemon drizzle (see this link on another blog - http://whatwouldnigellado.com/lemon-drizzle-cake/) I made it as both a loaf version and as 12 cupcake/ small muffin sized ones. The loaf version was nicer, in my opinion. I chose his recipe rather than my usual one because a- I thought I should try a recipe from his book which I had for Christmas and b - I wanted to use lemon curd up and my usual recipe doesn't use lemon curd (I could have added it, I know) Paul's version isn't lemon-y enough for my taste. Next time I would replace one third to half of the milk with lemon juice and also add zest to the batter. And double the amount of curd! I rarely keep a recipe 'as is', preferring to play and make my own changes to suit my taste and storecupboard.

I shall try adding some pictures later!



lentil & bacon soup


tomato & courgette soup

garlic and  basil croutons



cornflake & sunflower seed flapjacks

lemon drizzles

Another Year Over.... and a New One Just Begun! :)

So.... 2013 has gone...... It was a hard year for us here at the Green House. DH's contract came to an end back in May and he has not worked since. Initially it was a lovely break and we were able to enjoy the lovely summer weather we had with the children in the holidays. We figured he'd get a job come September... but although he's had many interviews these are sadly not turning into any job offers :( Needless to say, this has not been brilliant for his state of mind at times - but we are surviving, even if it is somewhat stressful at times and tempers between us can get rather frayed!!

He has a couple of possibilities at the moment, but we are acutely aware that, realistically, nothing will happen for the first part of January, meaning that a job offer is unlikely to materialise before late Feb at the earliest. Still, we are all healthy and the children are all faring well at school - I've seen some of the challenges some of my friends have faced health-wise in the last year (and some still continue to face) and I am truly grateful for what we have!

I'm proposing to keep a spending diary in January - I will look at setting it on another page, but I'm blog-technologically challenged! So will post it in the 'regular' posts in the meantime! :)

Today's spending: £7.42 in Tesco - £3 on 12 pints of milk and £4.42 on reduced meats (pork loins and sirloin steaks!)

I'm unsure about when to totally de-Christmas the house - I'm itching to clear some things away and have a good clean, but am aware that the children are keen for the decorations to stay up longer. I've taken down non-family cards at the moment - they're displayed in the playroom, anyway - and chopped a few into tags - not many, I have to say, as a lot of the cards were not what I'd call 'festive', featuring Moshi monsters, Angry Birds, Disney and similar :) All uncut cards will be recycled at a local supermarket. I've also put the cut holly (from the garden) which was festooning the mantelpiece in the garden waste green bin. The Christmas runner has been removed from the dining table, along with the gold chargers and napkins. The table cloth will come off for washing when I've removed the Christmas table confetti and lots of Lego! (I have to wait for DS2 & DS3 to sort which Lego belongs to each of them!) That still leaves family cards, lots of decorations in lounge, dining room, playroom, 6 trees, a few decorations in the children's bedrooms and one in the kitchen to take down. Oh - and the hall! (not to mention the outside lights.... although we need a less blustery day for that!)

We have a glut of parsnips, sprouts and carrots to deal with (all bought for 18p/ 20p bag) so I feel more soups coming on! (today's was lentil and bacon, with yummy garlic-y croutons - was fabulous!)

On that note, I'm off to the kitchen to finish inventory-ing the freezer! Happy New year to one and all - may health and happiness be yours xx

Christmas Food & Leftovers

We had chicken this year for our Christmas dinner - we used to have turkey (a Bronze free range one which used to cost a fortune) and none of us really like it that much, so last year and this year we went for chicken instead - after all, what's the point in cooking a dinner which no one is actually that keen on?! This year we had a lovely 2.5kg free range, corn fed chicken (bought yellow stickered in a supermarket and put in the freezer) and it was gorgeous!. We also had pan fried sprouts with pancetta, spring greens, carrots, cauliflower cheese, peas, sweetcorn, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, sausagemeat stuffing balls, Yorkshire puddings and pigs in blankets - oh, and bread sauce and red cabbage (the last two made beforehand from Delia's recipes and frozen) Pudding was a few hours later after that lot! - adults had pears poached in red wine and orange juice with mixed spice, served with whipped double cream and the children had ice cream - only I like traditional Christmas pudding - but the pears were a lovely festive dessert, and much lighter than a rich pudding! :)

Onto leftovers - we only ate most of one breast and a leg of the chicken for the day itself. I just put the carcass in a large tub on the day in the fridge and dealt with them the next day - when I stripped the carcass and made stock, fishing out all the tiny crumbs of chicken from the stock afterwards. I took the remaining breast off in one piece, together with the other leg and some other large pieces of meat.

We went to the panto on Boxing Day - it was good fun, especially watching our four year old belly chuckling at a lot of it! We had an easy dinner that night - DH had another Christmas dinner with leftovers (just fresh greens cooked), I had bubble and squeak made with bits of all leftovers, DS had pasta with the crispy bacon from the top of the chicken added to the sauce and the others just had sandwiches/ jacket potatoes.

Most of the veggie leftovers then went into more bubble and squeak yesterday, leaving about one portion's worth to be had as a side with something later. Chicken crumbs from the stock were used in a creamy basil pasta sauce. That means our Christmas leftovers today are that last bit of bubble and squeak, more chicken breast and leg which I'm just about to freeze in the remaining gravy) and two part tubs of ice cream in the freezer. Oh, and two portions of stock for the freezer. I'm pleased with that! We have a lot of uncooked carrots left - but these will be eaten by our guinea pigs and also snacked on raw and a few used in carrot muffins and carrot and lentil soup (which will use up one tub of stock)

We also have LOTS of biscuits and chocolates (there are 6 of us) Ones which people aren't keen on will be used up in fridge cake - a sort of rocky road. I love fridge cake and flapjacks - not to eat, but as 'vehicles' for using up a bit of this, a bit of that, a couple of those and a spoonful of these - it's never the same recipe twice, but it keeps our wastage right down! Most other biscuits and chocs will be consumed as snacks and desserts - and we did get through quite a few at the panto, rather than buying sweet treats there!

We are going to the shops today - some food shopping - Sainsburys sent me £14 off a £60 shop - that's almost 25% - and I have a £2.50 brand match coupon for there, too. I don't need that much fresh food, but I can stock up on some stock cupboard items to make the most of it. I shall aim to spend as close to £60 as I can :) We also need to go into town - a pair of PJs DS3 got have some poor stitching in that the seam goes across the body - rendering them unwearable! DH also had some socks which were too big (from Sainsburys, though - so we can do that at the same time as the food shopping) and DS3 received a jumper which he doesn't like very much - and we were given the gift receipt, so I'd like to swap it for another jumper which he'll actually wear! We don't need much else, but DD has some vouchers which she is itching to spend (Waterstones and WHSmiths) on books and I'd also like to bank some cash.

I received a couple of gifts which I may re-gift later in the year - some chocolates - we could eat them, but I really don't need the calories and there is already so much extra chocolate in the house! I also got a beautiful candle which doesn't match any colourscheme in the house, sadly, so I will probably regift that, too. Small cracker gifts not snaffled by our small children have been put aside for the shoebox appeal and DD has had a sort out of some things in her room and these have been put aside for selling at a nearly new sale later in the year (she'll get the money). DS1 received several new tops, so I will get him to sort out some from his wardrobe in return, as there are a few which are too small, really. If they're nice enough I'll save them for DS2, otherwise I'll sell them at cash for clothes. I used to donate it all to charity, but DH has been out of work for 7 months now and my priority is my house at this moment in time. I still donate some items, just not as much. :( However, I 'donate' hours of my time each week to volunteering, so I still do my bit!

It's currently only myself, DD and DS3 awake, so I think I need to change this, seeing as it's gone 9.30am and we have things to do! :)

Wow! Who knew how quickly time flies!! ;)

Well I hadn't realised it had been SUCH a long time since I last posted on here! Life is a little different to what it was 2.5 years ago, but I'll fill people in on that another time - for now, I'd like to wish everyone Happy Christmas!

And another Week.....

Time is just flying by - I have 5 weeks until all the children are home from school for the summer - eek!

DS1 was on a residential school trip last week for the end of Y6/ post SATs - they went to here and had a fantastic time - and brought home piles of wet, smelly laundry from the water activities! It's taken me until yesterday to catch up on the washing/ drying because of the incessant rain we had here over the weekend :(  Now I just have the ironing mountain left :)

I have finally planted all my potatoes and a load more carrots. I still have some onion sets to put in (oops!) - I figure they'll be smaller but it's better small onions than wasted sets, I guess!

Monday Musings

Ooh - another few days since my last post.

Thursday 2nd June we awoke to what promised to be a beautiful day, so I decided to take the children to  Slimbridge WWT for the Downy Ducklings event. A quick trip to the local supermarket for bread and a flurry of packed lunch making ensued and we set off.

Slimbridge is great - it's only about 20- 30 minutes from us (at the most) and we have family membership, meaning that, as long as we visit at least 4 times per year we get our money's worth. We went to the first play area (after buying a bag of seed for £1 to feed the ducks, geese and swans and booking a place on a Downy Ducklings Tour) - Welly Boot Land. Aimed generally at the smaller children, it has running water (shallow) in it and soft cushioned play surfaces, slides, a climbing frame and things to do in the water. DS3 (2) loved it and made myself, DD (13) or DS1 (11) walk around and around with him. DS1 also took him on the roundabout - which he thought was absolutely fantastic. DS2 (5) had a good time playing, climbing etc too. We had our lunch in the play area and also some ice creams - it was a super hot day and we caught the sun, even with factor30 suncream on (DS3 had a sunsuit on too, and they all had hats and sunglasses on) After almost 3 hours in the play area we had a walk around and fed some of the birds, before heading back to the main building where we grabbed some refreshing cool drinks (having drank all of ours) and a chocolate muffin each (left over from lunch) before having a tour of the duckery.

The Downy Ducklings event runs during the May school half term every day and also for a few weekends after that week. You have a talk about nesting, egg collection etc and get to see them 'candle' fertilised eggs at different stages. If you're really lucky you can hear a chick attempting to break out of the egg. You also get to see newly hatched ducklings and goslings and also slightly older ones.

We have done the tour for several years now. It's not as 'good' as it was a few years ago - bio health & safety rules mean you see less and can touch less - but the newly hatched ducklings are so sweet!

We came home after our tour, tired but having had a good day out.


Friday was a bit of a catch upday with housework. I had intended to do some gardening, but spent the day doing chores in the main except for a couple of hours in the afternoon tidying up in the back garden

Saturday - DD was meeting friends in Cheltenham for shopping and I had a couple of things to do, so we took her and went for a wander around ourselves. I returned some things to M&S and we bought DS1 several pairs of sports trousers, a new wet coat and some waterproof trousers. DS2 also found himself a tshirt in the sale that he really liked, and Mr G had a new polo shirt bought him. DS1 also bought himself a second hand Nintendo DS game and some Pokemon cards with his birthday money.

When we came home we spent some more time in the back garden - it's looking so much better!


Sunday - a day of making sure the children had done all their homework, school uniforms were ready and similar things. It rained incessantly from 4am until late evening, so no more work was done in the garden and the poor guinea pigs stayed in their hutch in the garage. It was also Mr G's best friend's birthday, so we spent a couple of hours with him.


This morning is, if not warm, at least dry! I have two loads of washing on the line and another in the machine almost finished to go out. I'm hopeful it will dry! I've also made a quadruple batch of the cornflake flapjacks. 2/3rds areasper the recipe (sort of, I'm a 'throw-it-in' sort of cook, so there's less sugar, more syrup (to finsh the jar), and more oats) The final 1/3 have chopped nuts (needed using up) and chopped glace cherries in. The oven is just beeping to say they are cooked - yummy!

Wednesday Witterings...

Well, it's mid afternoon and I'm shattered, but in a good way!

Yesterday after I posted I put 5 buckets of chippings/ shreddings around the beans (to both act as a weed suppressant & to help keep moisture in). The shreddings were from some woody bushes we took down a couple of months ago and have been living in a heap behind the garage waiting to be used/ diposed of. They will eventually rot down in to the ground, too, so I'm pleased with that.

I also potted on 15 tomato plants and 9 peppers. I found 3 kilos of unplanted seed potatoes (eek -  shall be overrun with potatoes at this rate!) so planted some of those and started to empty the compost bins to earth up the other potatoes.

Two loads of washing were line dried and the majority of it ironed whilst watching CSi last night :)

In the flylady spirit I did some swish and swiping and some tidying in the lounge.


Today I have fully emptied both compost bins and refilled the smaller one with half-composted 'stuff'. The rest of the compost has been wheel-barrowed to the back of the house and used on potatoes. I have tidied and swept down one side entrance (the unused one) - clearing all the winter leaves, weeds, rubbish, mud, empty snail shells and empty plastic pots from down there. It now has neat rows of potatoes in bags/ pots.

I also have a Little Tikes slide to clean and dispose of. I would like to get that cleaned this week and advertised in the local paper and netmums asap. The eldest 2 will get the money split between them as they bought it. Still masses of tidying and potting on/ earting up to do (and about a kilo and half left of seed potatoes to plant!) - I will aim to finish it all by Friday. I need to buy some compost now (I'll go to Aldi tomorrow) - I've totally ran out of homemade - what's still left to compost may be ready in the summer holidays if I'm lucky. I am pleased with what I've achieved, but it is at the expense of doing anything in the house. I'm just off to tidy the kitchen and then vacuum downstairs, before heading upstairs to do more tidying... argh!! :) I then really need a shower!!

Tonight I have a WI committee meeting - after which I may join some friends for a social drink & BBQ if I'm not too tired!!