The Five Fs blog

Meal Planning Monday - another 5 for £20 edition!

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:01:00 +0000

You may remember that I have in the past reviewed the Sainsbury's meal plans. Last May, we tried the £50 weekly one and then in October, we tried out one of their evening meal plans, which offer 5 evening meals for a family of 4 for £20. Sainsbury's have just launched a new meal plan so have given me the chance to try the latest one. The meals have generally been brilliant, although I do find some of them rather carb heavy so I tend to cut back on quantities now if it's a pasta or rice dish in particular. And they add mozzarella to risottos - what is THAT all about?

The meal plans are great if you don't have time to meal plan and they often suggest veggie options. You can print a shopping list for you and transfer most of the ingredients into their internet shopping site - you have to add some of the items for reasons I will never understand.

So here is what we're having this week, courtesy of Sainsbury's.

Monday - Tomato and broccoli risotto
Tuesday - Simple sausage supper
Wednesday - Creamy pork and mash
Thursday - Sandwiches or soup and sandwiches
Friday - Turkey chilli with rice
Saturday - left free for family party
Sunday - Cheesy jacket potato with bacon and pepper ratatouille

Come back next week and I'll tell you how we did. Don't forget to visit Mrs M's blog to check out the other entries in this week's Meal Planning Monday and feel free to check out Sainsbury's Live Well for Less site and all their meal plans.

What's on your menu this week?

LifeCircle 2012 - Progress report

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:01:00 +0000

Having done our life plans, it's time to return to the actions you committed to two weeks ago. Well, it might not be two weeks right now but it should be by the time the linky is published next Thursday.

What I want you to do is report back on:

- whether you completed your actions or not, whether they are partially completed or whether you have not even started. Come on now, be honest! It will be useful for future reference.
- how it went when working on your actions.
- how you felt about doing them,
- if you didn't complete your actions, explain why you didn't and how you feel about that. Again, be honest. If you procrastinated because you were scared of tackling issues, please do say so.
- whether completing your actions has made you feel different about the issues you were tackling, aspects of your life or your life in general.

I am really interested in barriers so the more honest feedback I get on why you might have not managed to complete your actions, the more I can help you later on. If you feel uncomfortable sharing that with your readers, I'd still like to know so I'm happy for you to email me with this. Don't worry, I'm not going to be telling you off: I just need to know the issues so we can work on them in future tasks.

I bet you thought this week was going to be easy, didn't you? Well, this is what LifeCircle is all about; pushing yourself a little bit.

Get writing those posts, publish and come back on Thursday to link up. I can't wait to read them, I think there are going to be some interesting reads.

No mess messy crafts

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:01:00 +0000

I may have said before, many times, that I am not good at crafts. Whether it is a side effect of being left-handed (or cack-handed as it is so delightfully put sometimes) which has meant I've never been quite as able to use crafty things properly, or whether I just have no talent or imagination in that field, I'm not really sure. I'm not particularly interested. Missy Woo, however, does like making things. Which is a problem, when you have a mum like me.

Missy Woo with her kit

Another thing I dislike is mess. Well, yes, I have children, we live permanently in a mess but I can cope with untidiness even though, in an ideal world, the house would stay tidy and the children would clear up after themeselves, which we all know won't happen. But mess that I actually have to clean up? No way, I'm not a fan. I don't have time for housework as it is, why do I want to give myself any more cleaning to do?

This is again problematic when you have small children as you do really need to let them do messy things and anyway, it's fun. We have managed in the past with judicious use of messy mats etc although most activities with high mess factor have been relegated to the kitchen, which is wipe-clean friendly. The only things I allow to be done in other rooms is colouring with crayons and felt pens (thankfully, we have passed the draw-on-the-walls-when-Mummy-is-not-looking phase) and sticky mosaics that I discovered during the Toyologist programme. Even playdough and its inferior alternative, Moon Dough, cannot be trusted.

Then I was offered the chance to try some Sand Art kits from Kids Bee Happy and thought we'd give it a try. We got sent two kits, one a very girly set of pictures and one of a more boyish nature, complete with little tubes of sand. The picture boards are self-adhesive and you peel back the different shapes and pour the sand on, and it sticks to the self adhesive bit.

Making their pictures

I left the children doing the pictures with Daddy on Sunday morning and all he had to do was put them on tray and he was happy to let them make their pictures in the living room. When I came back, the pictures were virtually done and all the waste sand was on the trays apart from a little bit on the coffee table which was easily cleared away. The only thing was both Monkey and Missy Woo decided that you didn't peel off the background bit so they both have yellow backgrounds to their pictures! Oh, and Monkey pulled a bit too far when peeling one of the shapes off and managed to pull some of the picture away but he is clumsy and generally needs to take more care.

Both Monkey and Missy Woo loved doing the sand art. I thought that Monkey might get bored but both of them were completely absorbed in the activity. The pack also comes with laminating pouches so you can preserve your little darling's creation but our laminator has sadly laminated one sheet too many and expired some months ago so that is not an option for us.

And afterwards, it was pretty simple to clear up! Bonus!

These kits cost £8.99 so they make a great present for any child really. It doesn't require any drawing ability so even a 3 year old can produce a nice looking picture. The children loved it so much that they want to do more, which speaks for itself. The children were happy and I was happy too. No mess messy crafts. That's what I like!

(We were sent two sand art kits to review and I have received no other compensation. I was not told what to write and all opinions, words and pictures are my own).

LifeCircle 2012: Life Plan

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 00:01:00 +0000

I guess you've come here to read my life plan. I've written it before. It therefore might look pretty similar to that as it's only a few months later. Remember, it's ideal lives we're talking about so I'm hoping you're all using lots of positive language in your posts. I shall be checking your work later, she said in her best schoolmistress voice.

We'll start, as before, with five years from now. By then, Monkey will be 11, nearly 12 and Missy Woo 10. Monkey will have just started at high school, one that we believe is right for him. Missy will be in Year 6 and due to follow her brother the following year.

We're living in the same place but with the house well maintained and a new kitchen installed. Workwise, I see myself doing the same thing, working from home, kept sufficiently busy to be earning a good income, possibly with enough work to require some help, from a varied portfolio that is both interesting and challenging. Financially, we will have enough to pay all the necessary bills, leaving a reasonable amount of disposable income for nice things like holidays and a bit in reserve for those unforeseen events. We'll be a couple of years off paying off the mortgage, if not paid it off a bit early.

In terms of my health, I'll be in good health and have maintained a size 12. I take regular exercise that I enjoy and eat healthily most of the time. When I'm not working, I'll have time to pursue interests that keep my brain ticking over as well as spend quality time with friends and family.

What about a year from now? To be honest, it's not that different to a lot of the above. I'd like to think that I would be kept sufficiently busy to be earning a good income within a year as I'm doing more all the time. As we're not planning to move, I'd like to think that we could spend some money on redecoration or updating parts of the house. The key thing for me is that I intend to be a size 12 by then (if not sooner). Everything is pretty much the same, except that the children will be younger. I'd like to be able to afford a new car by then, partly because I don't think my current one is going to remain viable for much longer.

Having completed this exercise brought into sharp focus how much importance it is for me to sort out the work/money issue, and achieving a size 12 again is a close second. Most other things are minor in comparison, probably because many of them depend on or are connected to these two things. You'll notice that the vision I have for my life is not massively different to my current life, but I am not after total life change, which was reflected in my scores on the Wheel of Life exercise.

How was it for you? What is your ideal life like? How did it feel to be imagining it? Did it throw up any issues you'd not previously considered? If so, what were they? What does it tell you that needs to change sooner rather than later? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Just a quite note in case you are new to Life Circle. Please visit the Life Circle page above for more information and links to previous posts. Feel free to join in where it suits you - you can go back and do the previous tasks on catch up, or just start with the current task. Doing the previous tasks may help your thinking and inform the current task but you could equally start from now and it wouldn't be a problem. It's your shout.

Link up your posts below. The linky will start to accept posts from 6am on the day of publication, then will remain open until 9th February. When you link up, remember to put the URL of your blog post in the URL field and this needs to be WITHOUT the http:// bit at the beginning, because your link won't work if you do. If you get stuck, just shout as I can edit the links from the Inlinkz website. This time, I have allowed you to delete your own links if you so wish.

A conversation

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:01:00 +0000

"You know, you bought her what she needed."

He frowned. "Bought?"

"I meant brought. I always get those wrong."

"Oh. What was it?"

"When Dad died, she was lost. She needed company, someone to care for, someone to boss around..."

"She was good at that!"

A tear sprang from her eye. "She needed someone to share her life and her home. You gave her that."

"Listen, I...." he began.

"Don't," she interrupted. "I'm here to say thanks. Mum died happy. She knew she was loved. Even if we fell out now and then, I'm proud to call you my stepdad."

This is entry in this week's 100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups over at Julia's Place

The prompt this week was "... you bought her what.."

Meal Planning Monday - the OMG it's still January edition

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:01:00 +0000

God, yes, is it still only 23rd January? I could have sworn it was February this week. Christmas feels like an age ago, although admittedly, other times it seems like yesterday. Make it finish soon. I'm still on a BBC Good Food tip this week - particularly as I love that it adds nutritional information so I can make sure I'm not overdoing it. I'm still being good, and trying to keep up our veg intake. Here are this week's delights.

Monday - Italian style beef stew (adapted for the slow cooker)
Tuesday - Chicken, leek and parsley pie
Wednesday - White fish with spicy beans and chorizo
Thursday - Sweet potato and coconut soup with bread
Friday - Lazy cheesy veg hotpot
Saturday - leaving free
Sunday - Honey and mustard pork with broccoli and mash

Don't forget that Mrs M host the linky every week. Why not pop over to check the other entries? And don't forget to tell me what meals you have planned for this week?

LifeCircle 2012: Let's do a lifeplan

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 00:01:00 +0000

I hope you're all busy beavering away with your actions you set after this week's post. We're going to put that to one side because if you remember, I gave you TWO WEEKS to complete your actions. We will return to that later.

No, this week, we are going to return to another exercise that we did before - writing a life plan. If you did this last year, feel free to skip and come back next week. However, you may find it useful to revisit the life plan you wrote then and review how you feel about it and whether, already, you need to change it. Life plans are living documents and they are only plans - things may change, life circumstances may change, you may change. There is therefore no shame in changing it.

If you didn't do it before, I'm not going to write all the instructions again - they are here. And they haven't changed. So there! You'll be using the results from your Wheel of Life exercise but if you're joining late, you may want to whizz back and do the exercise before you do this as it will help you, although you can write a life plan without it.

As I wrote before, you don't have to share the full details of your life plan with anyone. Give as much detail about it as you wish to give when you write about this exercise. But do ask yourself these questions:

Did this exercise throw up an issue you need to be tackling now that you've never realised is quite so urgent? How does your ideal life look?
Did it surprise you?
Has it spurred you into taking action already?
How does having a clear vision of your ideal life in 5 years time make you feel - about your life now, and your future?

Write your post, then come back here next Thursday and link up, as ever.

Good luck, everyone. Have fun life planning.

Why is it so much easier with only one?

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 01:13:00 +0000

Partners in crime

People thought I was mad when I had two children only 16 months apart. I never saw it that way because they had such similar needs. One was hard work anyway and it didn't take much more to meet the needs of the other. As an added bonus, they slept at the same time at least once a day mostly so I got a break.

It seems to have got worse as they have got older. Now they are both at school, it should be a doddle but the period between school pick up and their bedtime, even if we have nothing on, is really stressful, especially when I'm on my own with them. It's not that they argue or fight but they seem to tag team me, pestering me in turns. Even if I offer them things, you can guarantee they will ask me for something the second I sit down. The hours pass in a whirl of readings, spellings, making and eating tea, a little time for playing or watching telly, bath time and then catching up with Daddy when he gets home.

Somehow, it seems that it's now much much easier when there is only one child at home. It's not even as if they fight. Take this week - Missy Woo was off to her friend's for tea, so it was just me and Monkey after I school. In the past, he's been known for walking out of school and in the few paces (and seconds) between the classroom and me, he would turn from the angel Gabriel to the devil incarnate. In that time, he would come up with the most unreasonable demands - he'd want to go to the playcentre we went to only yesterday, he'd want chocolate even though he'd had loads, he'd want his Daddy even though he knew he was at work. I swear he did it just to be able to have a massive tantrum. The child who has never been told off at school ever would turn on a sixpence. Admittedly, he's got better since he stopped being so tired after a day at school but boy, was it fun. Not. I would be the parent resorting to dragging my child, red-faced and screaming, across the playground, under the gaze of parents who were mostly offering up a silent prayer of thanks that it was not their child creating this scene.

I picked him up this particular afternoon and as we walked back to the car, he asked if he could play computer games when we got home. This is often another flashpoint as my stock answer is to say he can, once he's done his reading and spellings (which takes 15 minutes tops). In fact, he usually spends so long arguing with me over this, he could have done it all in the time and be playing. I remind him he needs to do this, especially as for some reason, his teacher had taken his homework folder away and not given it back for two days and brace myself for the usual outburst. "Oh yeah", he calmly says and gets in the car. Whoa!

I made him toast, which he ate and then we set to work on the spellings, which he did in seconds and we sat down to do his reading, which turned out to be a book he's been gazing at for months but now he is on the appropriate reading level, he is allowed to read. He happily read several today, whereas the day before, he'd been sent to bed early for arguing with me over reading and wouldn't read his book properly. We talked about it, until he suddenly said "Can I play now?" and I saw no reason to refuse. Every time I asked a question, he politely answered or if I asked him to do something, he replied "Yes, Mummy" where I would usually get a curt "No" or a whiney "Do I have to?". He did get himself in a tizz over eating his tea and continuing his game until I pointed out it would wait until he'd finished, and possibly missing Pointless.

Oh yes, Pointless. Monkey loves it with a passion. It appeals to his geeky side. He doesn't know most of the answers but he knows I can have a go and he often asks me if the answer the contestants have given are right. I must admit, I like it too, but not quite as obsessively as he does. I mean, we were even at a friend's house last week when 5.15 rolled around and he walked up to my friend and asked if he could watch it when he had friends his own age to play with. She put it on for him and was amazed that he followed it intently from start to finish.

We watched Pointless together, with him sat right next to me. It seems like these days, the only way I get true affection out of him is when he's going to bed or we are on our own together. He's already at the point where he won't be seen kissing, hugging or even holding my hand (the latter only if I insist for safety reasons) in public.

It was lovely. It was so lovely in fact, I was even moved to ask him why he isn't like this more, when Missy Woo is around. His answer? "Well, Missy Woo annoys me." Now, I don't believe that for a minute. She is definitely the calmer of the two, if a little giddy at times, and most of his arguments are with me and nothing to do with her. She might egg him on to be silly a bit and the same is true of him, but I can't figure it out. It is not that I don't give him attention when she is there, nor do I ignore her when he is around. They aren't competing for my attention as they either play together or they do their own things.

I had such a nice time that I almost didn't want to go and collect Missy Woo, but as it was so close to bedtime, I didn't have to deal with grumpy children. And no doubt, tomorrow, normal service will be resumed and he'll be arguing with me from the second I pick him up unless he totally gets his own way.

Maybe it's the rule of divide and conquer. I've focussed on Monkey because he is often the harder work when they are together - Missy is mostly angelic, but more likely to be sulky. She's working on her diva training for I had the first "I hate you!" shouted at me by her the other week (although she told me she loved me within half an hour.). But one thing is for sure; I don't know what it is, but one child instead of two in the house is less than half the work - and stress - for me. I really appreciate the one-to-one time I get with either child.Whatever it is that makes them so wonderful in that situation, it brings out the best in them.

And it reminds me why I love my children.

Life Circle 2012: Action

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:01:00 +0000

This is not the post I was going to publish. I worked through the task as I set it and I wrote a post. I admit that I found it difficult to write. To be honest with myself. To work it through. But I managed it, and I committed it to cyberspace.

BUT

I looked back and I realised that I couldn't publish it as it was. I couldn't share it with my readers. It was too personal and a bit painful. I felt uncomfortable at the thought of baring that much to the world, there for any passing person to read.

So I started again, and this is it. I considered for a while if I could do a cut down version but every time I started, I wanted to include more and more. Needless to say, my head is a lot clearer for writing it; I am just not up for sharing it. Maybe I'll blog about it one day. Maybe I won't. I hope my readers will understand my reasons for doing this. This, after all, is one of the principles of Life Circle - we are only sharing what we are happy to share.

That's me. Move along now, not much to see. Sorry.

How did you get on? Do join in with by blogging what you want to share about the exercise and linking up below. The linky will stay open for 2 weeks so don't worry if you don't get it done straight away. Please come back on Saturday when I will set the next task.

Before I go, and give you the linky, I thought I would let you know that we'll carry on weekly until the February half term. When I set that task (on 11th February), the linky won't appear until the Thursday after, which is 23rd February. Then, we'll revert to what should feel like the usual routine.

Right, get linking. Please remember that I've set the linky up to open at 6am after the post publishes and then is open until 2nd February.

Frustration

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:24:00 +0000

Sometimes, the words roll around in my head but they just won't come out. The frustration freezes my brain, immobilises my fingers and I stare blankly at a screen, pixels dancing in front of my eyes and wish I had more inspiration. Thoughts remain abstract as I can't articulate them; well, not the way I want them to look or sound on the page. I want my words to sing in perfect harmony, dance in perfect time, to delight and entertain readers but they end up singing and dancing like a drunk at the wrong end of a heavy session.

I'd like to tell you stories that will make you laugh and cry, whilst moving and inspiring you. You wouldn't be able to wait to tell your friends and associates. You'd comment, you'd retweet it, and it would be like the post was taking over the world. It would be everywhere. I mean, that's what we all want for our posts when we publish them, don't we?

Sadly, that post is not this. Lack of inspiration is leading me to vent my frustration at what I see as my limitation of my blogging talents instead. Blogger's block is firmly in place at the neck of the bottle that contains the articulate and erudite sentences that I aspire to write. I've tried to remove it but it's not happening.

Anyone got a blogging corkscrew?

Meal Planning Monday - the mid-January doldrums edition

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:01:00 +0000

I'm not really sure why I called this the "mid-January doldrums" - because I'm in a relatively good mood but January seems like such a long month, doesn't it? I've chosen, mostly from Good Food again because the February edition seems to have some lovely recipes in this month and I want to try all of them. This menu was cobbled together quickly when we got a 25% off Ocado voucher in an email but it wasn't difficult this week. I may have to change Friday but apart from that, we're good to go and as the food is already here, all I have to do is cook it, and I'm looking forward to trying some of these.

Monday - Full English frittata with smoky beans
Tuesday - Light chicken korma
Wednesday - Fish pie
Thursday - Soup and sandwiches
Friday - Spinach and chickpea curry with naan
Saturday - kept free
Sunday - Pork stir fry with honey and ginger

Another week of meals done! So, what's on your menu this week? Tell me and don't forget to check out At Home With Mrs M for more Meal Planning Monday entries.

LifeCircle 2012: Taking action

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:47:00 +0000

Apologies for being late with this, folks. I was busy having a life yesterday and started this before I went to bed last night, meaning to come back to it this morning. Then I forgot. I come back to the post today and nothing was there so I'm having to start all over again. Many apologies.

So, next task here we come and I want to build on the last exercise. Hopefully, as a result of doing your Wheel of Life, you have identified areas of life that need your attention as a matter of priority. We're going to tackle them this week, or at least make a start.

What I want you to do is take one or two areas of your life that you have identified as more urgent and analyse them. It's up to you if you choose one or two; I really don't mind. Generally, they will be the ones with the lowest scores but they don't have to be. That's because sometimes we give a low score but the reasons for that are beyond our control and we're prepared to accept that, at least temporarily, it is low but it's not a priority to change it because either circumstances will change because of other people and events, or at some point in the future, there will be something that you can do to change it.

I want you to consider the area(s) chosen and analyse them using something we used before last year, the TGROW model. Consider why the score is as you gave it and what you can do to make it better. Don't forget to consider the reality - why haven't you done anything before? What has prevented this score recently? Has it changed (if you did it before) and why? What might stop you taking action now?

As a result of this, I want you to commit to two actions per area (ie maximum 4 actions) that can be completed within a fortnight. Don't worry about taking action before you publish your post. In fact, DON'T. When you set your actions, make sure they are neither too easy nor too hard. Give yourself a bit of a challenge but don't make it too hard. Remember even small actions are goals too, and they should be SMART.

Don't forget to come back and tell us how it went. By the way as a rule, this exercise should take around an hour so don't spend hours over thinking it. And then, come back here on Thursday when the linky will be published and you can read everyone's posts. The linky will be open for two weeks so there is no need to rush if you are a little behind. And as always, you only need to blog what you are happy sharing with your readers.

Good luck with the task, and see you all on Thursday.

Would you buy a five year old girl a Rihanna t-shirt?

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:04:00 +0000

You know that difficult age where kids feel they are too old to like "babyish" characters but you feel they are too young for more "grown up" ones? Missy Woo is precisely at that point.

Is it me or is that more likely with the characters aimed at girls? She feels that Peppa Pig is not for her any more and although she still likes her Dora duvet and her Charlie and Lola one, neither form part of her viewing habits these days; it's more CBBC than Cbeebies, more Nickelodeon than Nick Jr. She's a bit of a Disney Princess fan and thankfully, her favourite appears to be Rapunzel who is pretty kick ass . I'm not keen on Barbie and all the model type dolls around because of the whole body image thing that it can stir up. And then, there is Hannah Montana. Missy Woo's never even seen it but she does like some of the merchandise - her school bag is Hannah Montana but she chose it for the sequins more than anything.

I figured it would be a few years before she perhaps started being considered a tween by the marketeers. It seems I was wrong.

It all happened when Argos asked me if we'd like to try out their kids clothing range. When I looked at the range, I was perturbed at some of the items on offer for girls her age. There were a lot of Justin Bieber clothing which is more disturbing from a music point of view than anything, as well as The Wanted, One Direction, The Saturdays. And Rihanna. Yes, there is a Rihanna t-shirt for 5-6 year old girls. I was shocked. I honestly have nothing against her, I think she is a great singer and I like some of her songs. I'm sure kids like her songs; mine sing them in the car. I don't however think she has the right sort of image to be sold to kids in that way; she's just a bit too "adult", isn't she? I actually do struggle to understand why anyone would want their child to wear such a t-shirt. I mean, look at her face. She is a little angel (mostly) - if you ignore the odd look on her face there. Why would I want her to wear a t-shirt with a picture of a woman known for being racy and who got told off by a farmer for being "scantily dressed" in his field in Northern Ireland?

Thankfully, I did manage to find something for Missy Woo to try. A Tangled nightdress with hairbrush, of course. To back up my point, I found it less difficult to find things for Monkey, so much so that I couldn't choose between a Lego Harry Potter hoodie and a Lego Star Wars one but we were delighted to be sent both. They were meant to turn up in early December but an out of stock item meant they didn't arrive until Christmas Eve. They turned up beautifully wrapped with ribbon so we decided on the fly to give them to the children as a little something to open on Christmas Eve before they went to bed. Missy Woo adored her nightdress and it is really beautiful. She could happily wear it as a dress - it feels very soft and it's obviously well made. With her long blonde hair, she really does look like Rapunzel wearing it, it's a very pretty and special nightdress.

Monkey was also overjoyed with his hoodies, especially the Lego Harry Potter one. He lived in it for days over Christmas, I virtually had to peel it off him to get it washed. Again, it feels nice and is well made, plus it washes up nicely too, which is a bonus as Monkey is a pretty messy child. That's boys for you.

I'd happily buy more things from Argos, especially as at the moment, some of the items are half price and full price, I do find it quite expensive for children's clothes although I accept you get what you pay for. I do, however, have huge reservations about some of the items available in the girls range, which is meant to be aimed at under 10s. Very possibly, some of the things could be suitable for girls at the upper end of that age range. But for 5 year old girls? I don't think so. Certainly not Rihanna.

(I was sent the above mentioned items by Argos to review. I have not been told what to write and I have not been received any further compensation.)

LifeCircle 2012 - Wheel of Life, revisited

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:51:00 +0000

So, if you were around in late September, you'll have done this before so doing this again feels like meeting an old friend. However, I've almost been procrastinating about doing it but I can't put my finger on why. The fact I dislike the period after my birthday until the end of January does not help with this so I am expecting lower scores than before all round. I've been trying not to look at my previous scores so I'm not influenced by them but I'll compare once I've finished. As before, I have a self-imposed rule not to blog about my relationship so I will skip that but the other scores are there. Here's the squiggly line bit:

Fun and Recreation - 6. We do have fun but what limits us is finances. We're very lucky and I know we are blessed with the blogging opportunities that come our way. I'd like to have a bit more fun and not to have to think about whether we can afford a treat or not. I don't want to shower the children with everything, I just want to go mad a little occasionally.

Career - 7. You probably know this by now, but I started my own business working as a virtual assistant last ear. That is code for I'm available for someone to use my services - my business is just me, working from home with my computer. I do love what I'm doing although I'm still learning the juggling bit as when I've been busier, it's been hard to fit everything in. I have had more work recently but this looks like it won't continue. That means there is pressure on me to find more work soon as I need to earn more to keep our finances on track. But the fact I enjoy the work is a big plus for me, as is the fact I can work from home, be here for the children and don't have to rely on other childcare arrangements.

Health - 5. I know I have given myself a lower score from this. Generally, I am fine and have no major illnesses. What is bugging me is my weight. I don't weigh myself but I know it's going back up and I don't feel in control of it. Yes, I know we all put weight on over Christmas - although to be honest, I paced myself Christmas Day and didn't do too badly. But it's not just about that and I know it's creeping back. I still go to class 3 times a week but I know I have got to control this and stop getting back to very old, very bad habits. I've been trying to eat healthily since Christmas but I am seriously hungry in the evenings which is a bit worrying.

Personal Development - 9. I am pretty happy with this aspect of my life. My job means I'm learning new things all the time. I have a philosophy of lifelong learning so even if I am not actually studying for a paper qualification, I always try to learn. I don't need any major qualifications to do my job, and anyway I don't think I could afford to go off and get any more qualifications at the moment.

Friends and Family - 8. I am reasonably happy with this. As I said before in September, I'd like to have some more friends locally who I could go for a coffee with from time to time, although I have met some great people through blogging which has really enriched my life. My family - well, it is what it is. No family is perfect and we are the same, and much is beyond my control so I'm not going to worry about it.

Environment - 7. I love living where we do. I'd like more money to decorate and do some more things to make the house better so again, I'm constrained by money. I'd like there to be less clutter. *glowers at children who drop toys everywhere* And over the next few years, we'll need to decide if we do stay here or move as we're just outside the catchment for the school most of the children's classmates would move onto, although both options are good schools. And I'm well aware things can change in the time, which is less than 4 years away, before we have to decide and choose where they go.

Finance - 4. I know this is same as last time as I feel this has not really changed, I've just survived for longer. I need to earn more money and I just want to be more comfortable than I am, I hate worrying about money. It impacts on other aspects of my life - it's impacting my scores for Fun and Recreation, Environment and Career. It's tough - I know that if I had a job, I'd be less happy with it and how it would keep me away from the children but it would remove the pressure to earn to an extent. It is the eternal dilemma.

My squiggle turned out fairly square - generally, the scores are mid to high and I know that my two key areas are Finance and Health, and some work on Career may help the Finance aspect. Other than that, the scores are pretty similar - nothing else has changed dramatically. That's good because I wasn't as negative as I feared I might be.

How did you do? How did you find this exercise? Did any of the results surprise you? If you did the exercise before, what has changed and why? Can you see any progress since last time or has one area of life had a setback?

Do join in with by blogging what you want to share about the exercise and linking up below. The linky will stay open for 2 weeks so don't worry if you don't get it done straight away.

I'll set the next week's task on Saturday so come back and check it out then. I can't wait to read your posts.

Meal Planning Monday - the reality bites edition

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:07:00 +0000

So, my birthday has been and gone, the kids are back at school and reality hits home. It's January and I want to eat as healthily as I can. The month feels like it goes on for ever too so let's hope this one passes quickly. The healthy eating well explain why there are three dishes containing poultry on the menu this week. Again, all the recipes (apart from the risotto, which is just made up) are from BBC Good Food this month but none of them have reached their website. And excuse the chicken pies - they are in my freezer and I've actually checked, they're not too bad in the calorie department.

Here is next week then. Nothing out of the way, I'm leaving Saturday free because I am not currently sure what we are doing.

Monday - Chicken risotto

Tuesday - Baked turkey meatballs with crispy potatoes and broccoli

Wednesday - Mushroom stroganoff with rice

Thursday - Chunky pea soup with bread

Friday - Chicken pies, mash and mixed veg

Saturday - left free

Sunday - Salmon and broccoli cakes with salad.

Are you planning your meals this year? What are you planning to eat this week? Tell me, and then visit Mrs M's place to visit the other entries in this week's linky.

Life Circle 2012: Drawing a line in the sand

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 12:18:00 +0000

This week's task will be familiar to those of you who joined me in Life Circle at the end of last year. I make no apologies for this. I said we would return to it because it really does help to draw lines in the sand occasionally, so we have a starting point if you're new but also to review our progress if you've done it before. If you really feel it's not appropriate for you to repeat the task, then sit it out this week and come back next week for the next one, but I would really recommend you do as it will give you an idea of what to tackle next.

We're going to revisit the Wheel of Life.

It's a simple and effective task. Actually, it looks simple but it is very thought provoking. It allows you to assess your life as a whole and to compare how you feel about the competing aspects of your life and it makes you realise how interdependent all the different areas of your life usually are. Very few of us lead compartmentalised lives where the different areas of them are completely independent of each other. For instance, money problems or worries often impact on the fun in our lives, limiting other opportunities to keep up with friends and family, and sometimes impacting on the relationship with our partners.

So here is what you do. The Wheel of Life is divided into 8 sections, representing the 8 major aspects of your life. Score your life out of 10 for all 8 areas. The score should reflect how satisfied you are with that aspect of your life. Once you have scored all 8 areas, do a quick double check comparing them and adjust any scores you feel you have scored incorrectly in light of the other scores. Mark your score on the lines between the segments - 0 is in the middle and works outwards from here - and join all the scores together (Either take the image above and print it, edit it on a PC, or grab another image of a wheel of life and use that, some are simpler than others) Look at the shape you have created by joining together all your scores - if it were a real wheel, how smoothly would it turn? How does that reflect on the way your life runs?

Consider each score and ask yourself why you gave it. What factors influenced that decision? What other aspects of your life have affected that score, whether their impact is good or bad? Would you have given yourself the same score 6 months ago and how would they have been different? If you did do this back in October, how has this score changed and why?

Then, write your post about the results. As I have said before many times, share as much as you feel comfortable sharing. It's up to you whether you give a full breakdown of scores and how you arrived at them all, or you can give an overview of the scores and which areas it has highlighted needs most of your attention. It's really up to you. At the very least, I'd like you to identify one or two areas of your life that you are most dissatisfied with, and why that might be.

Remember, this exercise is about being objective rather than self-critical. What won't matter is how you got to be there - what will matter is what needs some work and what you do to improve those scores. Don't be afraid to celebrate the good in your life. Feeling positive about yourself will help you to make progress.

Don't forget to come back next Thursday when I will publish the linky. If you can, it would be lovely if you could try to visit 2 or 3 other blogs and comment, offering support and helpful comments. It won't be necessary to comment on all of them, it's just to get the sense of community, or creating our Life Circle. If you can visit more, then all well and good. If you can't due to time pressures, don't worry.

I look forward to reading your posts next week.

The case of the missing birthday present

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:42:00 +0000

So, yesterday was my birthday. Anyone who has an early January birthday will tell you it's a difficult time to have a birthday because you kind of get merged into Christmas. Folk either forget it, or you get an afterthought. Sometimes, you get joint Christmas and birthday presents. In my family, because I am so far from the rest of them away down south, they tend to send something with the Christmas presents - because husband often works over the Christmas period, making it difficult to go down there - and anyway, its easier to be here for Christmas.

This year was no different. My mum packed up the presents and posted them off to me, much as I had done the same. They arrived, thankfully without seemingly any interference from courier companies - as we had a year where my parcel of presents arrived at my Mum's opened but all presents thankfully intact. We checked the box straight away and because the children were excited about presents, we had to take them all out and sort them to put them under the Christmas tree. I saw some cards and I thought I put at least one saying birthday to one side. I stress the thought bit.

Anyway, Christmas came around and when we were opening presents, we found a couple of birthday cards which I gave to my husband to put to one side for him to give back to me on the day.

The morning of my birthday dawns. The children get up with Daddy and prepare breakfast in bed for me and they arrive in my room with presents and cards. After opening a few, I notice there was no card in my mother's distinctive handwriting. "Where's Mum's card?" I said. Husband looks blank and tells me they were all the cards he had been given. As she normally sends me a voucher in a card, this is a bit worrying.

We decide that perhaps it's fallen down the back of a chair somewhere. After the children had been deposited at school, husband has a look and comes to tell me we can't see it. So, we set about looking. We pull out all the furniture, and find things that have fallen down the back of the sofas. We at least know where half the pens in the house have gone, and discover things like the missing camera case and a receipt I need. We turn everything upside down.

Husband suggests I ask her whether she sent anything to me. I tell him I can't possibly do that as she'll go mad. It is something she gets very touchy about, as she frequently reminds people that once, when we were children, some money got thrown away with the wrapping paper one Christmas. Now, we'd been careful as we could over Christmas to catch all the vouchers and cards we thought but the doubt was placed in my mind that perhaps we'd thrown it out.

We carried on looking but it was fruitless, and anyway, I needed to get ready to go out for lunch. At the back of my mind, I knew that my mother would inevitably ring at some point. I decided I had better say thanks for the present anyway and disguise our apparent incompetence. I would much rather do that than suffer my ear being bent for losing it. (If you were one of my sisters, you'd understand).

And inevitably, whilst I was getting ready and husband disappeared for a shower, the phone rang and I saw it was her number. The conversation went a bit like this.

"Hello"
"Hello, happy birthday."
"Thank you."
"Did you get some nice presents?"
"Yes, thanks. And thanks for yours."
"What did I get you?"
"Er, what? Um... vouchers?"
"Which ones?"
"Erm, love2shop?"
"Oh good, I couldn't remember what I'd given you or even if I'd put it in the parcel. My operation in November threw out my Christmas shopping this year."

Damn. Oh well...

When Five Fs go bad - a guest post

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:56:00 +0000

Photo credit - dsigning

I'm having a break from blogging today, because it's my birthday so instead, I'm giving you a guest post from the lovely Jo Middleton who blogs at Slummy Single Mummy as a little present from me. When Jo asked me if she could write a guest post and asked what she could write about, I told her that as long as it fitted roughly within my five Fs, I'd be happy to publish what she wrote. She took me up rather literally on this, and decided to cram them all in at once. In one post. Brace yourselves...

I was instructed before writing this post that the theme should fit in with one of the ‘five Fs’ - family, football, food, fitness or fun – and so being the awkward person I am, I decided I would challenge myself to make it fit in with all of them.

Family, food and fun are easy of course, but football and fitness are more of a challenge, as I’m really not very keen on either, but then I remembered a rather unflattering story about a family football match...

I have quite a small family, but on my Dad’s 60th birthday last year we managed to get about 15 of us together to celebrate with a wholesome family picnic. (Food, family and fun – check, check and check).

My Dad’s birthday is in November, which isn’t exactly ideal picnic weather, and the light drizzle and biting wind wasn’t exactly adding to the occasion. Someone, (not me), came up with the idea of us all warming up with a game of football. (Football and fitness – check and check).

I felt a bit like how I imagine an alcoholic feels when they accidentally find themselves in a pub – I knew I wanted to play, but I also knew I shouldn’t.

I have a reputation in my family for being a tad over-competitive, and team sports like football don’t exactly bring out the best in me. My partner recently played Monopoly with me and has vowed never again. Something about me making games Not Fun. I could surely control myself in a friendly family game of football though?

Apparently not.

My then eight-year-old daughter Belle was a team captain. “You really should pick me,” I warned her. “You don’t want to be playing against me.” She didn’t listen though, foolish child.

The rain was coming down steadily as we kicked off. I began calmly, trying to remain light-hearted, but then Belle’s team scored a goal and suddenly I was shouting at my team mates and scowling. They scored another, and it was all too much. Belle had the ball, ready to shoot, her face eager and excited. I went in for what I meant to be a gentle tackle, but completely knocked her legs out from under her. She lay crying in a muddy puddle. Everyone looked at me.

“I did tell her not to play against me!” I said, in a pathetic attempt at self defence.

Even I wasn’t convinced.

Unsurprisingly, the football wrapped up fairly quickly after that, and before long the rain drove us back to our cars, a valuable lesson learnt in why you should never try to combine the five Fs...

Remind me never to play Jo at anything, not ever. Huge thanks to her for writing this post.

LifeCircle: Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:01:00 +0000

So, this week, we're just introducing ourselves. Who we are, what we're about, where we're coming from, and where we're headed. Why we're here. What we want to achieve out of joining LifeCircle. My turn first.

Hopefully, you know me, if not in person, then courtesy of this blog. I am Kate and tomorrow, I turn 47. That sounds bloody terrifying actually - more so than turning 45 or 40 etc. I am married, my husband works in the NHS. I have two lovely children, that you've probably read about before - Monkey will soon be 7 and Missy Woo will be 6 in the summer.

For over 20 years, I worked in a variety of jobs in IT. In 2009, following a TUPE transfer and seeing the writing on the wall, I took redundancy. Since then? Well, I've been at home, doing odds and bits but also being mummy to Monkey and Missy Woo. Since Missy Woo started school, I've been looking around seriously for something I can do that fits around them and it's not easy, partly because of hubby's NHS shifts which mean that if I were to get a job and arrange regular childcare, it wouldn't be necessary half the time. After not being sure what I really wanted to do, I finally decided to try and make a go of being a virtual assistant and I've been lucky enough to get work doing just that, with a slightly more technical bias thanks to my IT background. Technically, I have a business which I call Jellybean Business Support. I'm doing quite well with it - my clients are happy with my work and there is a possibility of more work based on my clients' recommendations to others. I do need to increase the chargeable hours I work so that we can put our finances on a more even keel. I don't necessarily want to be very rich, just not have to think about whether we can really afford certain things.

Why am I here and what do I want to achieve? I need that push to take me onwards in 2012. I've got stuck with losing weight and feel I'm putting weight on again so that has to stop and I need to adopt healthier eating habits, I need to promote my business a bit more and secure more work on a regular basis. I want to do some more work on the house but I need to be able to afford it first! And obviously, LifeCircle was my idea so I think it's a great way to get that group support and push myself a little bit.

Now it's your turn. Tell the world about you and what you're hoping to do this year. Did you get anything out of writing the post? Let me know in the comments if you haven't already mentioned it on your post.

Don't forget to come back on Saturday, when I'll have another task for you to tackle next week. Onwards and upwards, friends. We're off on a journey.

Meal Planning Monday - the let's get back to normal edition

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:10:00 +0000

Well, it's all done and dusted for another year, 2011 is so last year, and we're all about 2012 so now it's time to get back to normal and thank God for that! Last week, there wasn't a meal plan - shock, horror- largely because the plan was to survive on leftovers as much as possible. One day, we were short of something to eat and I was convinced to buy a jar of sauce and to make a pasta bake with it. Everyone loved it. Except me. The smell of it was rank, so much so I couldn't bring myself to eat it. Now I know why I cook my own things. I will have to make my own tuna pasta bake soon to erase the memory.

So, it's back on the meal planning wagon this week. I've chosen all the meals and I think it really shows that I'm sick of rich food. I've been feeling really full in the afternoons, then eating my tea and not enjoying it (or eating it later) and then getting hungry in the evenings. I need to be back on the straight and narrow so went through the healthy eating issue of BBC Good Food that they always bring out at this time of year and picked most of the recipes - none of them have reached their website yet so I can't link to them.

I tend to do my shopping list as I pick each dish, then looked back and realised how much veg I'm planning to buy! Anyway, it's a healthy start to the year so that's good. Having said that, it's my birthday on Friday so I won't be cooking. I think the plan is to go out for lunch, but that means we're not going out in the evening and I'm not cooking tea for the children or us, though I guess we might going out for tea as well. There are things in the freezer I can just stick in the oven if I need to feed the children. And no, I'm not going mad doing a roast on Sunday - I've got a chicken I bought reduced stuck in the freezer, I'm planning to cook it and then the leftovers can form the basis of next week's meal plan. Also, we enjoyed eating a proper roast and sitting in the conservatory to do it so I'm going to try and do it regulary

Finally (stop talking, Kate), here is this week's plan:

Monday - Lemony prawn and chorizo rice pot
Tuesday - Winter vegetable pie
Wednesday - Chicken tagine with apricots and almonds
Thursday - Sweetcorn and chilli soup
Friday - nothing!
Saturday - Vegetable lasagne
Sunday - Roast chicken

Why not join in with Meal Planning Monday? It's really not hard, you get some great ideas from others and the discipline of having to publish a blog post helps to ensure you actually plan your meals every week. And believe me, it is SO much easier to have a meal plan than try to figure it all out daily. I certainly got stressed last week without one.

You can find more meal plans over at Mrs M's blog. Do take a look!

LifeCircle 2012: Who's joining me this year?

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:01:00 +0000

It's nearly New Year and we all set resolutions. Well, maybe not everyone but it's a very reflective time with the year changing and there may be changes you want to make about your life but you know you need a little push to get going. This is the reason I started LifeCircle - I set various tasks to help you reflect on what it is you need to change and start to work on the changes that you really want.

Whether you joined in last year, either fully or fell by the wayside, whether you never quite got round to joining in but wanted to, or whether now is the time for you to start changing things in your life, then this is for you. I really don't mind. I just want people joining in, and supporting each other. There are few rules - just write your post, add the badge and link up your post. Apologies now if some of the tasks from 2011 are repeated - feel free to skip the task if you don't want to repeat but some of them may be useful to revisit if you did them before.

I have decided to change it this year as setting a task and writing my own response in one post got too much for me, and setting the task one week and publishing it the next felt too slow. So, from now on, it will work like this: I will set a task on a Saturday, hence the post today. I will then post the following Thursday, which is when you can link up your posts. I've changed the provider of my linkies so we'll see how it goes but they will close two weeks after publication. This should give you enough time to post but also encourage you to get your post . If you do fall behind and the linky has closed, you can still add the link in the comment under the post.

If you're new to LifeCircle, then please read the first post I wrote about it here, as it contains some guidelines you need to bear in mind. They are not rules as such, but keep them in mind and they will help you with the process. When you publish your post, don't forget to add the badge, which you can find on the LifeCircle page.

All this stuff and I still haven't told you what we're doing this week! It's quite simple really. I want everyone to introduce themselves. Who we are, what we're about, where we're coming from, and where we're headed. Why we're here. What we want to achieve out of joining LifeCircle. Why? Because I think it will be useful for us to do a little bit of team-building. A little bit of background, however much you want to give, will help with that. Think of this as the ice-breaker at the start of a course. Include some funny things if you like, anything really, it doesn't have to be relevant to what you want to achieve; just something that you think displays the measure of YOU.

As always, only share what you are comfortable sharing with the rest of our LifeCircle. Even if you cut out so much that it doesn't really make sense, publish it! The discipline of working through the tasks and writing a post, however limited it may be, will be enough because it's more about what goes on in your head than what you share with everyone else. Some people started up blogs just to post LifeCircle posts and that helped them to retain their anonymity. That's fine. You do whatever you want. I'm prepared to host anonymous posts related to LifeCircle too. I'm also always available via email or twitter if you want to discuss something you're struggling with.

It's a New Year. Let's make it an amazing one for all of us. The longest journey starts with a single step. Let's take that first step. I dare you!

Some quick ideas for using leftover turkey

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 02:02:00 +0000

Fed up of turkey sandwiches yet? We're probably coming to the limit of the time you can use leftover turkey but you're probably drowning in it, whilst not wanting to waste it. Of course, a good way to jazz up a turkey sandwich is to add some bacon, or some stuffing, or even some cheese - and toast the bread first to make it a turkey club sandwich. Yum!

Anyway, here are just a few things I make to use up what's left of the turkey. Thankfully, we don't have tons as we had a turkey crown but there is still way more meat on it than 4 people will ever eat in 10 meals, let alone one. If you are reheating the turkey in anyway, don't forget to make sure it's heated right through.

Coronation turkey - this is really quick and quite a flexible recipe. It goes really well in sandwiches but if you're bored of that, then use as a filling for jacket potatoes or just have with some green salad. Look away now if you don't like fruit with meat, this is not for you!

First, chop up some turkey meat into bite sized pieces. I don't weigh how much I've got, I just cut off enough to feed however many people are eating. Finely chop an onion and cook in 1-2tbsp oil for a couple of mins without browning it. Add some mild curry powder (about 1 tbsp) or some curry paste and cook for another minute, stirring. Then, add 1 tbsp tomato puree or ketchup, a hefty dash of lemon (or lime) juice, and about 125ml of chicken stock, from a cube or proper stock. The tomato is entirely optional, leave it out if you don't want the finished result to look quite orangey. Simmer this for about 10 mins until you have quite a thick sauce. In the meantime, chop up some dried apricots and add to the turkey. If you don't have them, use raisins or sultanas instead, or even some chopped fresh apple. Once the sauce is done, cool the sauce. If you're in a rush, run some cold water into your washing up bowl, plunge the pan into that and it will be cool in about 10 mins. Now add mayonnaise (low fat will be fine) and natural yogurt in roughly equal quantities. If you're making for 4, you'll probably need about 200-250ml of each but stir it into the cooled sauce and see if you like the consistency. Taste and season, pour over the turkey and fruit mix, stir in and serve. Add some flaked almonds if you really want and have some to hand.

Turkey tacos or fajitas - This is really quick and a nice way to serve up an informal meal with a bit of spice! First, slice up some turkey meat, some onion (red or white but red looks best), and 2-3 peppers of any sort (preferably a mixture of colours). You can also use sliced mushrooms, sliced baby sweetcorn or any leftover veg that you think might go. Heat some oil in a pan or wok and add the turkey, stirring for a few minutes, then add some chilli powder, ground coriander and ground cumin. Again, I tend to do this by eye, but usually about a teaspoon of each. Stir to cover the turkey and let the spices cook without burning, then add the veg. Cook for a few minutes until the veg are softened. Then heat tacos or some tortillas according to the instructions. Put everything out on a table in dishes, adding some pots of other things you'd like to add - such as grated cheese, sour cream (though greek yogurt will do), perhaps some salsa or some guacamole. Everyone can help themselves and build their own fajita or taco.

Turkey and ham pie - brilliant if you have leftover gammon too but you can add any ham and again, you can adapt it to what you have left. It takes longer to make but it's quick to prepare, then you can relax whilst it bakes. Chop up as much turkey and ham leftovers as you want to use into bite sized pieces. Finely chop an onion and cook it in some butter for a few minutes, then add some sliced mushrooms and cook until golden brown. Next, either make a white sauce (like Delia's all-in-one white sauce, which I use a lot) or if you have leftover cream, add that to the mushrooms and onions, bring to the boil and simmer gently until it thickens. Mix everything together - if you have other leftover veg, you could add that too - leeks, sweetcorn, carrots, broccoli are all good. Pour into a baking dish, and cover with pastry. If you have an oblong dish and ready rolled pastry sheets, it should be as simple as putting the pastry on top, sealing the edges and then making a small hole for the steam to escape in the middle. Brush with beaten egg then bake at 220C for about 20 minutes, then cook for a further 15-20 mins at 180C.

If you have any quick and easy yummy recipes for leftover turkey, add them in the comments below or blog about them and link away in the comments.

Either way, that turkey will be gone in no time!

All the trimmings?

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 01:51:00 +0000

Photo credit - Keira

So, I shared my Christmas menu with you in my last post. I do meal plan so it's hardly surprising that I've known for a week or two what we're having, not that it is vastly different than last year. The pudding is different, and so is the starter but I don't mess much with the main event. I have certain things I have to have - Dad's chestnut stuffing, which is an act of remembrance as much as it is part of a celebratory meal (though I do love it and can eat it by itself, bread sauce - which has to be out of a packet as I just can't master a decent homemade version, roasties and cranberry sauce.

As I said before, I do love making Christmas dinner. Maybe it's because I've got it down to a fine art now. Everything that needs peeling will be peeled today - although the potatoes were peeled, parboiled and frozen last weekend and will get chucked into hot fat and put straight in the oven - and everything that can be made ahead will be done. Today, I'll make some cranberry sauce and probably the smoked salmon parcels as we've now decided to make those and before we go to bed, I'll get the turkey crown out of the freezer to defrost (it's not huge at all so I'm reliably informed it will take 9 hours to defrost. Yesterday, I made the stuffing, which is now sat in the fridge. The meringues were made on Wednesday and are packed away in tubs, ready to be filled when it's time to have dessert. (Which won't be straight after the turkey, we'll be too full).

The other thing I did yesterday was write my timeplan. It's what helps me to relax and ensure there is not something I forget to prepare along the way. If you're panicking about doing Christmas dinner, it's really worth doing. Start at the time you want to serve the turkey and work back from there. I draw it up in Word so I can rejig it and not have to rewrite it as I add in various elements. Also noted on there is the likely defrosting and cooking times of my turkey crown - you can do that for your turkey here - and links to some of the recipes I'm following. Remember to give yourself a bit of leeway here and there for some things - I always finding bringing pans to boil take longer than I think it will so I add five minutes. And if you have got a menu written down, check against that to ensure you've included all the elements you're intending to serve. You'll probably discover you've got more time than you think - and if you get everything peeled and prepped today, you'll have way more time to spending with the family, instead of spending it in the kitchen.

So here is my timeplan for tomorrow.

Breakfast time - Check turkey crown is defrosted and prepare for the oven, take parsnips out of fridge

1115 Put oven on to 190C

1130 Put turkey crown into oven

1310 Put oil in tray for roasties into oven, turn up to 200

1330 Check turkey, take out if cooked and cover with foil to rest.

1335 Turn oven up to 220C, put stuffing in oven

1345 Turn roasties over

1350 Get parsnips ready

1355 Put parsnips and pigs in blankets in oven, turn pans on for sprouts and carrots

1400 Serve the starter

1415 Make bread sauce

1420 Make gravy

1430 Serve main course!

Some point later - whip cream and fold in mincemeat for meringue filling.

I still can't believe there is so little to do. I keep checking there isn't more to do but it's all there.

As for table setting, the rest of the family are responsible for that. We eat in our conservatory, something we should do more often, and we have special Christmas mats, which we bought in a post-Christmas sale last year and were a bargain. No doubt they will have fun getting it ready on Christmas morning.

I'd really love to see what you are getting up to Christmas dinner-wise, whether you are making your own, getting it made by someone else, taking it all out of packets, going out to dinner, or just having a Christmas day buffet. So, please do join in with the #allthetwimmings hashtag on Twitter. Just tweet pictures of your food, or just tweet your menus, show us your tables, your preparations over the next day or two and add the crucial hashtag. It will allow me to indulge my nosey side but we did it last year and it was good fun.

Whatever you do, wherever you are, and whoever you are sharing it with, I hope you enjoy a fantastically celebratory Christmas feast tomorrow and that the rest of your day is joyful and spent with those who mean the most to you.

Merry Christmas.

The ultimate Christmas meme

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:05:00 +0000

I can't deny I'm beginning to feel rather Christmassy, whatever that entails. With 3 days to go (I don't do sleeps), it's allowable to bang on about it in detail and not get snarled at. So, I was tagged by The Boy and Me to complete this meme, so I thought I'd give this a go.

The Christmas song I can even listen to in June is…

This one.

Hot chocolate, egg nog or mulled wine?

Mulled wine. I cannot abide egg nog, but I do drink hot chocolate. Winter pimms warmed with a star anise and a cinnamon stick and some cloudy apple juice is also very nice and similar in taste and smell to mulled wine. And if I'm being teetotal, Copella Winter Warmer and Bottlegreen Spiced Berry Cordial are suitable alternatives!

When do you put your decorations up?

We (*cough* my husband *cough*) put them up last week, somewhere around the 15th/16th. We never do it particularly early as I don't want the children to get too giddy too early, they're giddy enough as it is. I know people who have their trees up on or before 1st December. I couldn't do it.

They come down early too. My birthday is 6th January when the decorations traditionally come down. It's depressing enough, so we take them down a day or two early and we have chance to get used to it again. Ok, me, not the rest. One year, we took them down on New Year's Eve, but we were going away straight after New Year.

What are you having for Christmas dinner?

Starter: Smoked Salmon, tho I may make something with it but it will be low effort.

Main: Turkey crown, my Dad's chestnut stuffing (it is a must in my house), pigs in blankets, freeze-ahead roasties, roast parsnips, sprouts, carrots, cranberry sauce a la Nigella, bread sauce (out of a packet, I cannot master home made), gravy. There is a possibility the kids will demand Yorkshires. I blame school dinners.

Dessert: Golden Christmas meringues from Ruth's gorgeous blog, with an adaptation for Missy Woo who claims not to like mincemeat or cream, so I'm doing a bananas and yogurt version of the filling for her) or possibly some of our Christmas cake, also from Ruth's blog with design by Missy Woo and me. D'you like it?

And I really, really do enjoy doing it. I don't get fazed by it all but I do write a full list working backwards from proposed eating time of EVERYTHING I have to do but all the peeling gets done before the big day. The last time I didn't cook Christmas dinner, I didn't really enjoy it - maybe I've got used to doing it my way.

What’s your favourite Christmas tradition?

On Christmas Eve, the children have hot chocolate before bed, husband reads them a story, and they watch Polar Express. That, or making my Dad's chestnut stuffing recipe. Or is it having Chinese on Christmas Eve? We did that as a kid and we've resurrected doing that in the last few years.

Have you ever gone carol singing?

Not actually door-to-door but I used to belong to a choir and I've done a few midnight masses at the village church and a few carol concerts. That count?

When did you discover the truth about Santa?

Well, of course he's real but one year, we had our Chinese at the International and something upset my stomach or didn't agree with me, so I couldn't sleep. I was perturbed to hear that Santa putting presents out sounded very much like my parents.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree?

With baubles, silly. Seriously, when I moved house in the 90s, I bought a set of blue and gold baubles. Over the years, we've now added to them - some are things made by the children, or chosen by them. Other colours have crept in and I think it looks very homely. The tree is artificial and pre-lit. What? I don't care. I don't like the hassle of dealing with real trees and the mess. There is no such thing as a no-drop real tree. And the price these days is shocking. We quite often go out late on Christmas Eve and pick up some bargains and one year, our tree was at a knock-down price in Asda. It's been going 3 years and looks like it will last for many years to come. What do you think?

All I want for Christmas is…

A KitchenAid, some form of tablet (not the pharmaceutical sort) and half the Lakeland catalogue.

Oh, to tag, it is now my solemn duty.

I tag

Claire at Ninja Killer Cat (who I still can't believe came and said hello when we were at the same event!)
Menai at Menai's Posterous
Choc at Chocolate is Therapy who needs a blogging push and anyway, she knows my brother-in-law and my sister-in-law.

but feel free to tag yourself if you want to join in and no-one else has. The above 3 saw my plea on Twitter and responded, that is all.

And if you're not around the online world over the festive season, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

One for the road?

noreply@blogger.com (kateab) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:01:00 +0000

Sponsored post

When I first became a driver, I didn’t have any Breakdown Cover. There was a very good reason for this. My dad was a mechanic. I don’t think he had it himself very often, he didn’t need to. Likewise, if there was a problem with my car, I knew that Dad would fix it and being the dutiful dad that he was, he’d come and rescue me.

Not that they would break down very often. Why? He maintained it of course! Nor did he let me buy any old dodgy banger – he was on hand for all my car buying and made sure there were no major issues before I bought. Not that it was difficult to spot the lemons – we turned up to see one car, the owner reversed it onto the steep drive and when he put the handbrake on, the wheels stopped but the car kept going backwards! We were leaving again within a couple of minutes.

Thinking back, I did take a bit of a risk because just 6 months after passing my test, I went off to University 100 miles away, taking my car with me up the M1. Thankfully, I didn’t get stranded on the motorway and when I went home, Dad would service the car.

Once I entered the big world of work, I still didn’t need it. This time, it was because I was lucky enough to have company cars for many years, where such cover was provided by my employers. In fact, one of them did break down on me on the same M1 I had travelled up and down to University.

Now, without the luxury of my Dad to look after my car or that of having a company car that someone else pays to maintain, and the added complication of driving with children in the back, breakdown cover is a necessity.

Thankfully, I have never had to use it for anything serious – I’ve always been able to get going again – but the worry and the sense of abandonment you feel when your car lets you down makes breakdown cover worth the money. It was the first thing I ensured was up to date before I took the children away on our roadtrip in August. Even if I don’t use it, it’s worth it for the peace of mind, knowing someone is there to help if things go wrong.

This is a sponsored post. I've been paid a fee to write it, although all words and opinions are my own although it features a sponsored link.