this week

snuggles while watching peppa pig

dancing to daddy's final hurrah on the (my) double bass

making bottle after bottle of cordial with our lemons

enjoying blooms from our garden

taking the dolls for a walk in their prams

outdoor picture-painting for our baby's room

tending the vegie patch

growing and cooking

this past week or so,

i have managed to get up off the couch

(turns out i was iron deficient - all fixed now!)

and we've spent some time together

in the kitchen.

the girls love helping - cracking eggs is their favourite -

and big sister has an excellent shell-free cracking record.

little sister, on the other hand, 

prefers to crush, rather than crack.

  but she's getting there!

 pastry cutting and rolling was loved by the girls as well,

though we could not really share those pinwheels,

 since they received so much hands-on love and care...

(i'm not sure why big sister has her face in her hands,

because she was having a good time!)

the tomatoes above come from my parents' garden,

and made a mighty fine batch of tomato sauce indeed.

yesterday i planted out our new vegie garden,

my 29th birthday present,

and today i spent some time on our picnic rug,

reading in the sun,

and keeping one eye on little sister,

who likes to dig and pull out my seed markers!

baby no.3 is growing well - just 6 weeks to go...

saturday sweetness

this morning we feasted
on banana pancakes with rice malt syrup
(a fructose-free honey alternative available at supermarkets):

:: ingredients ::
2 bananas
6 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon

:: whizz together in a blender ::
:: cook in a frying pan like any other pancake ::
:: the mixture is fairly thin ::
:: we made 9 decent-sized pancakes from this batter ::

recipe originally from bridging foods

(note: this recipe is fructose-avoider-friendly
if you don't eat any other fruit for the day)

this is a picture of big sister (in the white dress)
with her friend k (in the purple dress)
outside at night-time with a dinosaur.
little sister is one of the stars.

new ways of dining...

this week i've been able to spend more time with my sewing machine, which has been so lovely. below is another crayon roll, but this time it's a gift for a friend to give to a child from her mum's group:



i enjoyed the process of refining my design (by adding an extra embellishment across the pockets and using a ribbon instead of buttons for tying it up), but got the most blessing from being able to support K in this crafty way.

during the past few days we've started dining in the beautifully communal way husband's family (both here and in friesland) do - with dishes and pots clustered in the centre of the table, for serving straight to plates as everyone sits together:



i want this to become our family way of dining - to practice sharing, serving one another, being generous and gracious and considerate of others. i look forward to seeing the beauty of this approach grow as our family grows.

finally, missy has been making some dining progress of her own - expanding the definition of finger foods to include things that i consider spoon foods, like hommus:



(i am okay about the mess, i am okay about the mess, i am okay about the mess...)

take care,
em

a colourful week...

this past week has been full of colour, from things i'm making for school:





to the gorgeous clothes we bought in holland that are now the right size for wearing:



to delicious blood oranges and beetroot risotto:





(yes, beetroot risotto does actually taste delicious!)

take care,
em

the end of a busy week...

it's been a busy week. we made it to school and child care. missy is learning to sleep amidst the noise of the nursery room, and i am learning to be firm with students who are pushing me as hard as they can. after claiming to be anxiety-free when it comes to school, nervousness crept back in on friday morning. but i'm thankful for opportunities to serve others, even others who take their shoes off ten times a day and who thrash around and would rather cause trouble than take part in my lessons. i met the mum of one of my students yesterday - she is a kind lady with a difficult life. i admire her a lot. sometimes i wonder how the parents of my students carry on and on and on like they do. i am grateful to send the students home at the end of the day and be reunited with my delightful daughter, who is easy to love.

blogger seems to be having trouble loading my pictures, so i'm afraid my words will have to do for now.

take care,
em

what a shame...

i shouldn't be able to write this post - i'm supposed to be at work - but unfortunately missy's sniffle has turned into conjunctivitis (which i'm pretty sure she gave herself from rubbing her eyes with dirty hands) and so she's not welcome at childcare this week. sigh... i was actually looking forward to going to school, which is a great and surprising blessing - my teaching rounds and even the first two terms of school last year before missy was born each began with me feeling very anxious and looking for ways to get out of going to work, but that hasn't been the case this time.

so instead of teaching, yesterday and today have been filled with tissues, eye drops, humidified air, canceling appointments, cooking hearty vitamin-c filled food, warmth, isolation, and cake made from the oranges we picked on the weekend at my in-law's farm:



this was supposed to be shared with my mums' group and a visiting friend, but now husband and i have to eat it all ourselves. what a shame...

take care,
em

the most unfavourite...

lunch is definitely my most unfavourite meal of the day. i suspect if i was able to eat wheat and dairy, and so have melted cheese sandwiches everyday, i would like lunch a lot more. but i can't, so i don't. which is why i've been making soup so often lately. i thought i'd broaden my horizons this time and include vegetables of colours other than orange. i had quite a rainbow:



shame that when you mix them together they produce this colour:



oh well, the soup tastes good but.

take care,
em

baking biscuits...

i've just baked these anzac biscuits for our bible study group tonight, and i'm so pleased they've turned out well. this recipe brings back vivid memories of the night missy was due to be born (which turned out to be 6 nights before she was actually born.) i used this recipe to bake some biscuits so i'd have something in the house if people came to visit, but in my fat-lady-"hurry-up-and-be-born-now-baby" haste, they turned out quite badly - the butter and golden syrup separated from the rest of the mix while they were in the oven, so the biscuits spread out and were really hard - i've never had a "cooking fail" quite like it! husband and i ate them anyway, they tasted okay if you were prepared to test your teeth out on their rock-like exterior, so they were mostly gone by the time missy actually arrived, but i'm still not quite sure what went wrong that night.

now our house smells like biscuits. mmmm...

take care,
em

soup, my mum and our crazy cat...

i've been making pumpkin soup today, to fill up our freezer and to provide a yummy lunch for our babysitter tomorrow (while i go in to school to meet my new class.) this soup always reminds me of my mum, whose pumpkin soup sets the benchmark for deliciousness, and of our old cat, who always went crazy whenever pumpkin soup was being made. i blame the nutmeg...



tomorrow i will reveal to you my latest sewing triumph - i'm planning to join in for the first time with a weekly show-and-tell called "my creative space," based out of the blog of a lass named kirsty (found here).

take care,
em

persimmons - so yummy...

this week's box of victorian vegie goodness contained persimmons - so yummy. even missy thinks so:



hope you're having a lovely day.

take care,
em

happy mothers' day!

this is what i woke up to this morning (made by husband, and minus the coffee):



what a delicious way to start my first mothers' day!

take care,
em

pesto goodness...

this time last wednesday, missy was outside playing on a blanket with three other little girlies while the mums stripped basil plants in preparation for making a giant batch of pesto. the basil plants (and garden where the babies were playing) belong to one of the mums from my mums group, who generously shared the fruits of her garden with us for helping her make the most of her basil harvest. it was delightful to sit and chat while stripping the basil plants, soaking up the last real sunshine we'll see for a while (even though we were rugged up against the chilly breeze!)

and below is the loot - which husband is enjoying on his lunch today:



take care,
em

mini-muffin tin love...

tomorrow, missy will be baptised, so today has been filled with preparations for celebrating this fantastic event. and my new mini-muffin tin has loved me as much as i have loved it - here's a preview of some of tomorrow's munchables...



take care,
em

yummy shortbread...

below is the egg-dairy-gluten-free shortbread i made to have during morning tea for our mums' group first aid training today. the fork-prints around the edge are the influence of my nanna and masterchef on me, and despite being everything-free, it is surprisingly delicious - even dairy and gluten-loving people think so!



take care,
em