Disaster Quiche

Yesterday was a big of an interesting day. Not bloggable interesting, but more a "lets see how different stimuli act in this test" type of interesting.

Anyhow, part of the experimentation that went on was me trying to think of healthy, edible alternatives for the girls for weekend lunches... I was so "involved" in the experiment that I even went so far as to whip up a batch of cheese and vegetable muffins.

There is a VERY good reason that you don't see any results here in picture form, and that is because they TRULY SUCKED.

They were dry, crumbly (a very brave V did say that they were tasty, but he had to swallow several times to get the words out - they were so dry, they didn't just have liquid deficiency, they created a liquid vacuum) and I spat the dummy (unfortunately not the first dummy-spit I had - nor the last - yesterday).

The girls ended up with toasted ham, tomato and cheese sandwiches for lunch. I make a mean toastie - obviously far more proficient than muffin maker.

So last night, the quiche I had envisaged got a unique crust - made of crumbed cheese and vegetable muffin - and was based on a lorraine recipe - so cream (okay, it was Philly light - but nearly cream) and bacon made an appearance - as did all of our vegetables because I was darned if we were going to go without a bit of time down at the front and it meant our whole meal could be in one pan cooking while we took advantage of the good weather.

I didn't take a photo of the beginning of the meal (mainly because my third dummy-spit of the day had just been incited courtesy of a child's carseat - don't ask) (and the wine still hadn't kicked in) and it crumbled into a million tiny pieces on the plate...

However - it was a success, because the crust was delicious (very rich - but will tweak the cheese and vegetable muffin mix and try again one day) and both girls ate enough to tick the vegetable quota boxes.

(Fear of my dummy-spits played no part in that, I have been assured).



It still looks disgusting, though!!

Saturday afternoon

This Saturday is the first beautiful (weather-wise) Saturday for it seems like forever.

I am inside looking out at the sunshine - but I have a toddler sleeping (still - shhhh) and plans to get out there when she awakens.

Although it is Autumn, there still may be a few Saturday afternoons at the beach - we can but hope.

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Regarding the last post - I am so tired of being negative.

I am time poor, I am cash poor and it seems for every great idea that flits, ever so briefly, across my psyche, I can crash it down into a whole big pile of never-going-to-happens.

A part of that is probably due to the weather - when you are cooped up because of impending, current or just upended rain, the humidity warps your mind as you are swelling to the edges of your shelter.

A whole lot of it is me. I can look at a wonderful situation and pick it apart to find all of the possible negatives. I have worked out it is no longer a gift, but a burden.

I am so tired of feeling negative. I always have the reason why not, the ready-made "but" - I know WHY I have that response, I just have to work out a way to still give myself room to make my life choices without kyboshing all of the possibilities.

I have decided that one of the ways I can chose to not be so negative is to take a good look at positives, and for at least a while, identify and acknowledge them.

I know that it isn't going to be easy (look at that - true to form, I find the excuse) because there is often a core reason as to why we do the things we do. I also know that, according to the books (or would it be blogs these days) it takes at least 28 days to change a habit.

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So I am going to try, for the next 4 weeks, to meet the world with a "whyever not" attitude.

I cannot promise that it will mean that I am going to be up for everything (just in case spammers want to offer me international roles or for me to act as their intermediary in getting back Mubarek's millions) but I am hoping that it means that I can live more consciously.

Gratitude

1. I am grateful that today, I woke before anyone (except Eddie) and got to have my cup of tea in peace.
2. I am grateful that I saw a link to a new post by an excellent blogger who always make me think.
3. I am grateful that the sun is promising a gorgeous day - I love rain, but have a thing about moderation and there has been little of the moderate of late with our weather.
4. I am grateful that yesterday was the start of the sunshine, and V ticked off some items on his looooong list of things he wants to get done. One of them was to dig out the Poinciana sapling that had nestled along the neighbour's fence and moved it to the centre of the back yard - not an easy task considering our back yard consists of large boulders slowly filtering anything looking like soil into the netherworld. We used to have one near the back (eastern) window, and the glow of red throughout the kitchen thrown by sunlight through blossom was so delightful - less delightful for our neighbours, however, who couldn't get their washing dry and were fearful of its roots interacting with their slab. It also was a rogue sapling from a previous poinciana...
5. I am grateful that today is Thursday, which means that it is the last day of my working week and I can look forward to spending time with my gorgeous girls and V.
6. I am grateful that I worked extra on Tuesday afternoon, so I can leave early this afternoon and collect 'Salina from school and have my precious one on one time with her.
7. I am grateful that she loves her new school and is enjoying the learning process - it is half the battle won!
8. I am grateful that, touching wood, neither of my girls are sick. We have had little niggly things dragging on around here, and I am starting to get jumpy about it all.
9. I am grateful that Paris is the sort of child who goes to bed without drama, and when she wakes she plays in her cot and sings songs until she is ready to face the day.
10. I am grateful for all of my extended family (including some very wonderful friends), living in this country, living in this part of the country, having enough work to survive, having enough food to not be hungry, having my own health, V (far more than one letter, really), being alive - gee, once you open up this gratitude list thing, it sort of grows, doesn't it?

Which, I believe, is my cue to start the day.

Have a lovely morning all.

Aaaaah insomnia...

I remember many years ago (back when I used to blog on a semi-regular basis) I had a recurring theme of insomnia.

But I got over it. I got busy. I got married. I got an extra child. I got a job. I got 2 jobs. I got another and extra work on the side.

The last few weeks, it seems to have returned - not every night so I could anticipate it, but enough nights for me to be very frustrated about it.

I know what is causing it.

Currently I have 3 part-time jobs (plus occasional work for my own little tiny business) and the third one has added a degree of theoretical logic that would make Douglas Adams proud.

Don't get me wrong - I love the new job, because it is a "feelgood" job - BUT I went from fitting 25 hours into 4 days to trying to fit 31 hours into 3.75 days - which is still doable (if you make your breaks the time travel between workplaces) but when you put a "you can't work more than 4 hours without a break, but must work a minimum of 2 AND can't start any of them before 8.30am" it starts making the calendar of activity I put on the wall for the whole family look very confusing.

And then my 20 hour a week job is having a few staffing issues and/or changes which mean that I am (a) dealing with new members of the team with little to no clue (and currently not looking like switching on before the person he replaces leaves) and (b) currently having to come in and close up every day (see the above paragraph in regard to timetabling - its another layer of logistics).

Of course, my few extra hours means a lot more load is falling on V to be the parent on hand with the girls - and hats off to him because he is doing well, but it means I get mobbed when I do appear and I get sad when I am away from them so much - especially at moments like this afternoon, when instead of having my afternoon pick-up after school with 'Salina I am going in to work AND after her last afternoon up there (long story - end result going in to Mum's work isn't as fabulous on Wednesday afternoons as it used to be on the occasional Saturday) she chose catching the bus home...

And I also feel like I am missing so much. Its 'Salina's first year at high school and she is going great guns - apparently, although I do worry about my little fish in that big pond. Paris has moved into a new room at daycare and suddenly has gone through a whole development spurt to suit.

Gee - uplifting much - hasn't cured the insomnia and still remains that I have 3 jobs to go to in a few short hours...

I miss my old insomnia whinges. They weren't so depressing. Or frustrating. Or tiring.

Footloose (or Shoe Post Three, I suppose)

On Thursday, I went to work as usual.

Well, not quite as usual. It had been raining all week, which meant that the dryer was busy and the line under the house heaving with those things not friendly for the dryer - like bras and stockings (well, I don't wear stockings - urgh - but those stocking-y socky things that I wear under trousers with shoes).

So on Thursday, I grabbed my shoes and handbag and keys, kissed Paris and V goodbye ('Salina was still at my sister's) and went downstairs to put on my shoes and stocking-y socky things - only I didn't, because I realised that I only had x minutes to get to work, when it takes y minutes to get there and x was a smaller number than y - so I made the decision to put on my shoes and stocking-y socky things when I got there.

So on Thursday, I drove to work (in silence - don't ask me about the stereo) barefoot (yes, illegal in some states) and actually got there in x minutes (woo hoo) and contemplated putting the seat back and putting on my shoes and stocking-y socky things in the car - when I thought, nah, much more comfy to do this in my office chair, so I walked barefoot in to work.

So on Thursday, I got in to work, said good morning to my colleagues and chatted while I sat down, pulled on my stocking-y socky things and grabbed my shoes. My black shoes. My brand-new black shoes as the stitching in my old black shoes had started to disintegrate on Monday.

Only they weren't. My brand-new black shoes, that is. Well, technically, one was. The left one. The other one was one of my old black shoes. The left one.

On Thursday, I was very quiet (especially when I snuck up on people).