Happy Halloween

Hello lovely people,

I hope you are having a lovely Halloween.

The children with the help of daddy have spent the afternoon doing their pumpkins.

We had jacket potatoes with sausages and beans for tea (its normally our bonfire night meal so we may have to have it again next week).

No trick or treating tonight for us as the children have decided they are too old at the tender ages of 7,8 and 9. So they are dressed as Cinderella, a teenage mutant ninja turtle. And one of them has a sticky up hair cut.

We are now watching the black cauldron.

Have a wonderful evening

Bake day

Hello lovely readers,

Today we decided to make lots of goodies as we only get time to do this in the school holidays and the children were desperate to make cakes.

We got up this morning and immediately made a lovely fresh loaf of bread.
It was so tasty that it got used up at lunch time and we had to make another one this afternoon so that sweet man could have some.

We then made cookies.

and sausage rolls

 

 

and cakes.

 

 

 

We also played two games of Harry Potter cluedo, hovered the whole house, changed one of the beds, cooked dinner, picked up the kids glasses, did two loads of washing, some ironing and cleaned the kitchen.

 

What a good day!

 

Take care





Food waste but not on friday

Hello Friends,

I wouldn't normally post my food waste on a Tuesday but I have noticed I have let things go a little recently both at home and on my blog. So in an attempt to get back to how things should be here is this weeks food waste post.

 

 

 

My fridge was way overdue for being cleaned out and I am really pleased that it is now clean and as it should be.

 



Our food waste was a yoghurt, a cheese sauce, bacon, soft cheese and some cakes. I have to admit if I had been more on top of cleaning the fridge this wouldn't have happened.

Our fridge looks much better now and I am really glad that I cleaned the fridge out today as I have a pack of eggs that need to be used up and the children are desperate to make cakes so that will stop the eggs from being wasted and we can freeze some to help with next weeks packed lunches.

I have some butternut squash soup that needs to be used up so I am going to have that for my lunch today. I also have some baked beans that were opened a couple of days ago so one of my boys is happy to have beans on toast for lunch.

I hope you have a lovely day.

Take care!

Christmas Update

Hi Friends,

I hope you are well. I am here again with my Christmas update, unfortunately, I think the shopping part of it will need to go on hold for a few weeks as we had the opticians today and both my daughter and youngest son need glasses. My daughter is short sighted and only needs them for computer work, reading and the interactive white board at school. My son however has astigmatism in both of his eyes and is both long and short sighted in both eyes so will have to wear them all the time and this is linked with dyslexia. Ouch expensive!

So for a smaller Christmas update this weeks room to clean is my two youngest sons room, this is another room that is badly in need of decorating so it may take me longer than a week. Included in this cleaning I am going though all their clothes and pulling out anything that is too small. I also plan on scrubbing their bunk bed and sorting through their toys. Quite a task.

I still plan to carry on cooking and organising December food because the less I have to spend on food the more I can spend on Christmas presents for the ones I love!

This week I am going to make out stuffing, I make a sage and onion stuffing using breadcrumbs, fresh sage, onions and sausage meat and this is a big favourite in our house.

I may also make some more cookies for the lovely little ones.

I was very lucky this week to pop into our local supermarket before the opticians shock and get a few cars for my youngest two boys stocking.

I remember last year my darling dad saving me some vouchers out of the newspaper to get some packs of Lego for the children's stockings. They are big Lego fans and loved them and of course they were free. I do love a freebie!

 

Take care!









Menu Plan Monday

Hello Friends

I'm a bit late with my menu plan today because I have spent four hours washing and ironing our winter clothes.

But here we go with this weeks menu.

Monday - Tacos with Cheesy Nachos

Tuesday - steak and onion rolls

Wednesday - chicken casserole

Thursday - shepherds pie

Friday - Halloween buffet

Saturday - Jacket potatoes with cheese and beans

Sunday - Gammon, roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese, carrots and corn on the cob

Well that's this weeks menu, for our Halloween buffet we are going to have cheese and crackers, toffee apples, mini hot dogs and crisps and dips with lots of sweets.

Yay for lazy saturdays

Hi dear friends,

I thought I would write a bit more of a light hearted post today just letting you know what we have been up to.

I woke up this morning at about four o clock, I think this was because my sweet girl was at her first sleepover and subconsciously I was missing her. I couldn't get back to sleep so I got up.

I pottered doing bits and bobs like unloading the dishwasher, making coffee and sitting and drinking it, I then made the boys their breakfast.

 

 

 

I had to pick sweet girl up at nine. So at eight o clock I left home and popped into our local supermarket because it was having a toy sale. I bought six cars in varying sizes mainly for my youngest son as he has a big car holder that isn't yet full so I thought they would be good for his stocking.  I also saw a magic set that I think my other young son would like and now I wish I had got it.

 

 

I then picked up my daughter, yay finally, and gave her about five million cuddles. Yes I missed her.
We came home and sat and watched films, both tomb raiders had sandwiches for lunch and butternut squash soup for tea.

Tidied the kitchen, hovered downstairs, read and hugged the lovely little ones and now I'm chilling with the sweet man.

Have a lovely evening.



Sorry for the absence

I am very sorry that I haven't posted much this week, we have had two nights of parents evenings which meant working late.

Parents evening that we had to attend for two of our children and an options evening to discuss the options that our year nine student will choose at the end of the year.

We were also advised about the changes that are being made to our children's GCSE exams and ultimately their future which I feel is difficult enough in view of the extortionate house prices and lack of jobs in England as it is. I say England because as I understand the other part of the United Kingdom are not being affected by the changes to the GCSE's.

It is not very often that I will make any comments on anything that our government does but in this case I genuinely believe they have lost every marble that they may have had!

Our poor children have lost the ability to do coursework, yes we have gone back to 1988 when the GCSE's first came in (I know that because I was one of them guinea pigs that took that exam) and after changing them because they didn't work the first time they have decided to give them a second go... Just to make sure that they didn't work!

So sadly, any child that struggles with nerves or anxiety as many children do now, will become further stressed because there work is assessed on a two and a half hour exam only and not several pieces of work and an exam. I would be interested to see the effect this has on the mental health of our children as there are already serious concerns regarding the increase in children who are suffering from mental health issues.

That is not all my dear friends... oh no our government has decided it would be beneficial to increase the difficulty of our exams to the point that the children will be studying many things that were previously included in A levels and on top of that to cap the amount of children that can actually pass these exams in the first place.

So even if they have worked solidly for three years and achieved really good result if they are in a clever year group there is still no guarantee they will pass there exams.

And those poor children who have special needs have no chance, so thank you for making our children future look even bleaker than they previously did.