me v's the kitchen

Well its no big suprise cooking is NOT my forte, i would much rather do the dishes than cook a wholesome meal for my family, luckily ABD is a masterchef in the making and will happily come home from work and whip up a 5 start meal however in the last week or so he has been working past the dreaded witching hour (the time between 4.30 and bedtime that you kids completely loose the plot, and i thankgod evryday that the children in the photo below do not belong to me)

so anywho moneys been non exisent tight of late and i have stumbled across so many cheap recipes and im talking below $10 that will feed a family of 5 and still have left overs for ABD to take to work for lunch
i though i would share with you what we had for dinner last night

sausage pasta bake

1 packet of sausages from woolies $3.79
1 packet of spiral pasta (i get the big homebrand packet so it does 2 meals)$1.15
1.tomato based pasta sauce,i got a raguletto garlic and red wine sauce for $1 at woolies yesterday
i use to buy the proper "pasta bake sauces" that are around $4 but was told by a friend thats its all the same,
frozen vegies i already had so around $1 was used
and shredded cheese, usually around $4.99 but like the pasta will get 2 or 3 meals out of so say $2.50 for this meal
you brown sausages,
cook pasta (cooks quicker in oven),
put pasta and vegies in baking tray,
mix sauce through,
cut up the sausages into little pieces mix through and add cheese and put into oven at about 200 degrees cook until cheese melts,
and there you go a quick, easy, cheap meal, that takes about 10 mins for prep time and 15-20 mins to cook, you could always prepare it through the day and then pop it into the oven just before you eat it
so my cheap meal comes in at $8.88 and was a 10/10 with the kids who all asked for 2nds

lazy sundays......

For the first time ever i feel relieved for the weekend to be over,
i worked friday morning, came home and mowed the lawn, ABD is doing 12 hr shifts and the lawn looked like the scene from jurassic park where all those little dinosaurs pop out of long grass, yeh wasnt ready too loose a child.
Then we had the kids welcome bbq for school, which of course i had brought tickets for before i knew i was going to riding solo with the 3 boys, all whom wanted to go on different rides and refused to wait, so meant i had to cut the umbilical cord and just let J run off with D and their mates, walked through the door at 8pm quicky put their pj's on and staright to bed as we had to be up and out of the house at 9 to meet their new soccer coaches....oh and get rady for the big twist, i got sucked into to being J's because all the other parents had work comitments or other children they had to shuffle around, so after the initial shock wore off i packed them all back into the car and headed off for our last nippers day off the season still wrangling the 3 off them by myself, whilst trying to fix up mine and ABD belated birthday plans we had made the week before but had to can at the last minute, so got that fixed headed home at 5 pm he got home not long after..we went, we ate, we drank....much needed mummy and daddy time, and of course he got called back into work today for a 16 hr shift.
so yes im very much looking forward to the weekend finishing all the boys are at school tomorrow so i will be enjoying some pink time yes a long relaxing bath sounds good, what do yu ladies like to do too unwind after a hectic week/weekend??

party season

ok so here i go on a rant again,

j recieved his first party invitation yesterday and while i was talking to some of the new kindy mums about when our childrens birthday come up , we got too talking about part food, it was then i discovered that i could possibly be the only mother left in the world that served lolies, chips, and all sorts of yummy treats including cordial, at my kiddies b'days?? surely this cant be the case... can it????
apperently so with group this mums .
when i was a child we never had that stuff on hand, it was simply "party food" we couldnt go to fridge or cupboards and help ourselves to copius amount of chips, lollies and choccies which im sure is the case for most families with little people (including ours), so i dont understand why most birthday parties are being over ruled by fruit platters and rice crackers and healthy alternatives, not saying there is anything wrong with those things, and i do always make up a yummy fruit platter, but really its a birthday party, we pump enough healthy stuff into them throughout the week with our constant lunchbox war's without depriving them of some party food on the odd occasion,i think its a great way of teaching them about "sometimes food" i dont ever buy cordial at home but when my kids go to partys i let them drink it, why?? because letting a 6 yo have a couple of glasses at a party will not kill them , but rather "teach" them that its ok to have these thing on an odd occasion such as a party but you dont need to have them everyday, my children usually still choose water over any other drink, and love most fruits and vegies, so for me letting them have a little treat at party is speacial thing that they enjoy

sleep ins....

So im wondering how many of you mumma's out there actually have a child that sleeps in or a baby that sleep's through and by that i mean a solid 12 hours, i no some mums who state the babies sleep through but its from around 10 pm until around 5am? i dont call that sleeping through i call that tortue!! and sleeping in is anytime past 730
well im one of those women who NEVER had a child that slept through /slept in
my babies always woke around 2 am for a feed than a sleep even up to the age 1
i couldnt reason with myself to let them cry it out at 2am so it was easier for me the enitre household, just to feed them and go back to sleep, than back up at 6.....
well i got sucked into having a clothing party ( which i had last night) by one of the new school mum's who has just started doing them, everyone arrived by 730, hubby was out because the thought of that many women in one room
scared him a little, the boys had been picked up by their aunty who was going to have them for the night, mummy was enjoying a few voddy's looking at the clothes, everyone was enjoying the night chatting away when my little monsters darlings came running through the front door, jordy had gotten upset and wanted to come home, it was a round 10 pm???? my kids are usually in bed at 730 so by the time they actually got to bed it was 11 pm, i was thinking to mysef and having a bit of a brag saying oh they will sleep well tonight they have never stayed up this late before, but you guessed it 630 this morning i hear them playing! hmmmm i really do envy these mumma's of babies that sleep in especially on mornings like these

back online

Oh how i have missed my little cozy pink blogspot!!
no interent access thanks to changing over from carriers (blah blah blah)
having a computer with no net is like having a bowle with no food!!
speaking of no food i have been reasonbaly good, been to a few body combat and body balance classes over the last 10 days starting to feel good, still being a little bit naughty with the food tehehehehe, but needed to occupy my time with something while i was internet-less!!
having 2 kidlets at school
e

(had to put a photo up sooo cute)
is making it a lot easier for my but to get into gear, started at a toddler time library group with jordy love having that one on one ime with my little man, and its nice for him to have a group of little people to play with
big boys started soccer so can kiss my arvo's goodbye,and sleep ins on weekends PFFFTTTTT im expecting to sleep in around the yr 2025

gym junkie

bwhahahaha i laugh when i read it because its far from what i am!!
but tomorrow this mumma is taking her but off to the gym AGAIN
i joined our local fitness first around ummmmm 6months ago (whoops)
and used all the typical excuses, no time, hubby works too long, not one to watch the boys, I'm sick their sick we are all sick, lol my favourite <...i never wanted to be the fat mum and always promised myself i would loose the weight before the boys started school but yeah that never happened and now Dylan is in
 
So here it is : PM pre monster F/T full term
PM: 69 kilos
F/T: 99 kilos
Fell pregnant with jhye : 92 kilos
F/T jhye 113.9 kilos
Fell preggas jordy 103 kilos,
F/T jordy 109 kilos
Now 113.5 kilo's..yep that's right same weight i was when i was 9 months pregnant with jhye!!
i feel incredibly sick even talking about it, im so very ashamed that i let myself get so big,

 so where is this sudden realisation and reality check coming from????
 hmmm a photo my cousin posted on facebook, me of guard ohhhh yuck, I'm pretty sure i nearly vomited when i seen it no more excuses no more pretending I'm not fat..no more hiding under baggy clothes, I'm doing it so back to the gym i go for a body balance and body combat class, wish me luck i will need it

mummys of kind babies

To all the school mummy's out there...here's a round of applause for surviving the school holidays with all your kids intact lol, i have spent the most part of tonight , packing bags/lunchboxes laying out the uniforms!!! that's right school is back tomorrow...well for most the kiddies our kindy babies don't start until Thursday as they run the best start programs, i cannot believe jhye will be starting school this year, so that means its just mummy and jordy at home except Monday's and Friday's!!! that means they are the first 2 days i have had completely kid free in just over 7 yrs, i have either been pregnant or had a child at home!! i really don't think i will know what to do with myself!! massive reality shock and quite possibly a clean house??? yeah right lol
so anywho i thought i would share some of my tips with mummy's of kindy babies, as i was one of the first in my mummy's group to have one i felt so overwhelmed and it took me quite sometime to settle into a routine of sorts, and because I'm incredibly UN organised these are my basic school tips
1. lunchboxes on benches as soon as the kids get home
Give them a wipe out, rinse drink bottle while your doing dinner make the sandwich ( so u can put the knife/cutting board in with your load of dishes after dinner)put it in the lunchbox ready to go i put all the recess snacks and fruit and a frozen popper in there as well and pop it in the fridge, it all stays fresh and the snacks don't spoil ( don't recommend bananas in the fridge if they are really ripe they go black) encourage your kids to put them in there bags the next day before you leave it becomes habit after awhile, this saves at;east 10 to 15 mins in the morning
2. lay out the clothes the night before include everything socks/singlets/undies/hat
if they need hair washed do it of a night time, that way they can have a quick freshen up shower in the morning, i do this straight after breakfast and they brush their teeth in there as well, then as soon as they jump out their clothes are ready to go.
also save alot of time because they WILL loose their shoes, socks and school hats every morning sometimes several times
3. snap lock bags
snap lock bags are my bestest friend in the world, i use them for EVERYTHING notes/money/anything that needs to go in their bag that you do not want lost or damaged from drink bottles, i always put the excursion notes and money in these and write on it how much is in there etc that way they have less chance of loosing it
4. homework pencil case
i have a pencil case full of lead pencils/textas glue sticks scissors because even though they "don't do homework" in kindy they will ask you to bring in drawings pictures and information on different topics that they are looking at, so instead of scrummaging through there art boxes you have one already equipped with everything you need for little projects
5.i keep a storage container and a file box which i keep special pictures/drawings in it and the file to keep the important things like school report,s merit certificates, copies of receipts and absent notes and just all the little bits and pieces you do and will manage to collect along the way ( you can pick these up from kmart for around $8
6. on my sons first day of kindy i took a photo of the class list, I'm not sure why i did at the time but it came in handy!!! its a good idea to have a reference of the kids in you child's class and also its a good idea to meet the parents where possible and swap numbers, ( i don't no how many times i have been stuck with things like classmates birthdays and not having a number to contact on so, swap numbers and mingle as much as possible just avoid the school politics, after all its the kids playground not ours
and last but not least GO WITH IT!!!
this is there time i trust my kids and just go with the flow!!
enjoy it and have fun!!
Oh and heres the big one label EVRTHING otherwise you will be replacing jumpers and hats every week

cheers katie