Some days are all sunshine and roses… and other days are all tantrums and dirty looks.

Have your kids ever lost the plot in a public place?

Play Wordless Wednesday with My Little Drummer Boys :)

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Real Life Wednesday is a post from: picklebums.com

“Hasn’t he grown!” a random relative said to me over the Christmas period.

While I knew that remark was coloured by the fact they hadn’t seen him in almost a year, it suddenly dawned on me that he had, in fact, grown, and not just in height.

Last year was busy. Insanely busy in the true sense of the word. Things happened that I never dreamed would happen, good, bad, and indifferent, and somewhere, in the middle of all that, my middle child grew up.

Looking into those endless blue eyes that often twinkle with mischief but sometimes stare back still, clam and deep, I wonder how it happened without me noticing.

How did I not notice that he was charming, sociable and funny?

His confidence has blossomed and his imagination has grown to match. He is quirky and, I suspect, a little different to your average four year old boy. Still obsessed with all things green. Still wanting to be a chef… or a lion tamer. He has no interest in super heroes, but plays both boy roles in the Narnia stories and puts his own, little boy, spin on all the games and fantasies his sisters concoct.

Once I thought he would be ‘the death of me’. That he would wear me down until there was nothing left but a dried out shell of a person, crinkly and crumpled in a dusty corner. Now he is the one who builds me up, whose funny high pitched giggle makes me smile when I need it most.

It’s funny how the things you think you will never cope with, morph into the things you think you could never live without.

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He Snuck Past Me… is a post from: picklebums.com

My kids would eat tacos every night of the week and never tire of them.

They like soft tortillas with their tacos… lots and lots of them, but those things are expensive, not to mention full of all kinds of crap. Speaking of crap… there is a lot of that in store bought taco seasoning too. For a long time I thought about making my own taco seasoning and tortillas, but it all seemed too hard. In reality, it’s actually not hard at all!

So here it is, my first adventure into cooking from scratch….

Taco Seasoning

Taco seasoning is one the of easiest, most forgiving, ‘from scratch’ things I’ve ever made. What’s more, you probably have all the ingredients you need in your cupboard right now… or something else that would do just as well!

There are many great ‘recipes’ for taco seasoning online, I have pinned a few on my ‘family food’ board on pinterest, but I don’t follow any of them to the letter. Here is what usually, probably, sometimes goes into our home made taco seasoning…

Homemade Taco Seasoning Recipe

2 tsp chilli powder – or hot paprika works ok if you don’t have chilli powder but maybe put a bit less.
3 tsp garlic
3 tsp ground cummin
3 tsp mixed herbs
3 tsp sweet paprika
2 tsp salt
1 tsp flour/corn flour

Mix well and store in a sealed container. You can adjust the ingredients or amounts to your taste… Put in less chilli if that is not your thing, leave out the herbs if you don’t have any, put in less salt, or none at all if that is what you’d like. This is very forgiving but I’ve found the taco-ish flavour comes from the cumin, garlic and a little something spicy and in my opinion the salt is important too. Use as much or as little as you like!

Soft Flour Tortillas

Making your own flour tortillas is a little more work than the taco seasoning, but it’s not hard. A little time consuming, yes… but not difficult! There is no yeast, no waiting to rise, just lots of rolling out little circles, though (thanks to an enabling friend) I have been coveting a tortilla press which would make it a sinch.

Homemade Flour Tortilla Recipe

4 cups of flour – bread flour is better, but regular flour works ok too.
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup of ‘shortening’ – animal fat works really well but you can also use a vegetable oil or butter
1 – 1 1/4 cup water (generally I need the extra 1/4 cup)

Combine all the dry ingredients. If you are using shortening or butter cut it into small pieces (if you are mixing by hand I’d melt the shortening/butter first). I dump the dry ingredients into my food processor with the dough attachment (which is actually terrible for kneading proper bread but ok for this) then add the shortening and set it to a medium speed as it mixes I pour the water in slowly, stopping when the dough begins to come together. I poke it a bit with my fingers and scrape down the sides of the food processor to decide if I need to add a little more water… you are looking for a firmish dough, a little like pastry dough. You can also mix by hand and knead well for a little while until you get a smooth pliable ball of dough.

If you have time wrap the dough and pop it in the firdge for 20 minutes. Cooling it will make it easier to roll out, but I never have time for that!

Divide the dough into around 12 balls, more or less, depending on how big you want your tortillas to be. (We usually make more smaller ones, so everyone gets lots). Roll them out, the thinner the better in my opinion, but by about number 5 I give up on the perfect thinness and just get them done.

Heat a frying pan to medium hotness, pop a tortilla in the pan and cook till you see it start to bubble and puff up, then flip it over and cook the other side. Place cooked tortillas on a plate and cover with a damp tea-towel to keep them nice and soft.

These are fabulous eaten while they are still warm, but you can warm them a little in the oven or microwave if you cook them a little ahead of time. Unfortunately they don’t keep well… in fact mine go hard and rather like cardboard the next day, but that’s ok because there usually isn’t any left overs anyway.

With home made ‘salsa’ (really just cut up tomato and cumber with some balsamic vinegar cause that’s what my kids like!), lettuce from the garden and loads of cheese, there is never anything left over after this ‘cooked from scratch’ meal!

Read last week’s post to find out why I am on this crazy mission to make more home made food, and stay tuned for more recipes, failures and adventures in cooking from scratch!

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Adventures in Cooking From Scratch – Taco Seasoning and Tortillas! is a post from: picklebums.com

A recent delivery came in a big box! The was much excitement as the big kids and I surveyed the long, but shallow box and pondered what we could do with it. It wasn’t big enough for a cubby, and it was too big to make into a car. Then I had an idea…

I got out the markers and drew some roads on the bottom of the box, then left the kids to decide what to do next.

A little while later there were many more roads, a beach, some paddocks for the horses, Hargid’s house, a droid workshop and somewhere for the Ewoks to sleep.

The big box had become a whole town. More drawings have been added since then and the legos have been built and rebuilt, arranged and rearranged…

Not only has it keep the kids engaged for hours and hours, it’s also contained all those tiny bits of lego. No more standing on a droid head and trying not to swear!

Stay tuned for more things we’ve been doing with the big box!

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What To Do With a Big Box? – Make a Town is a post from: picklebums.com

Despite planting this year’s veggies way later than we should have, I am really pleased with how the garden is growing at the moment.

The only thing we are eating is lettuce, herbs and the ever present rhubarb, but things are budding and beginning to fruit and flower so I am hopeful that there might be lots of food to come.

It looks like we will once again have a glut of zucchinis!

The kid-made bean support seems to be making the beans happy. Morgan is checking them every day for signs of his favourite snack to appear.

Can you see it? Right there! Hiding among the leaves… We have one, tiny, green tomato! I am still hopeful though!

We’ve never had much success with cucumbers and this year seems to be no different. The plants are still small but they are growing, ever so slowly, so maybe we’ll be able to make enough pickles for us to have one each? Does anyone have any suggestions on how I could boost them along?

We also planted a mixed cover crop over some of the bare soil that we aren’t using this year and it’s coming along great! That darn pretend cat freaks me out every time I go out there, but I don’t think the birds are remotely bothered by him!

I am always surprised what grows in our veggie garden, despite my ineptitude!

Are you growing things?
I love checking out other people’s gardens so if you blog about your garden make sure you leave me a link in the comments so I can pop on over and say hi!

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This Year’s Summer Garden is a post from: picklebums.com

We are all still enjoying the lazy days of summer holidays, and no one more so than me! No set bed times or getting up times, being able to plan as much or as little to do as we please, eating at whatever time suits our activities for the day, and long stretches swinging in the hammock dreaming up big plans for the year. These are things that our holidays are made out of. But I am becoming more and more aware of how few lazy days we have left and how soon my day dreaming will have to turn into actual doing.

I am not one for making new years resolutions or grand ‘all or nothing’ type goals, but I do like to spend some of my down time thinking about how I can make the craziness of the busy days more organized, productive and better for my family. At this time of year I am inspired by lots of ideas, books and blogs and I am often left wondering how these motivating ideas could be worked into our lives.

One of the ideas that has inspired me this summer is Little Eco Footprints ‘Skipping the Supermarkets Challenge’.

In the past our family has been inspired to consume more local produce and be mindful of where the things we buy come from, so Trish’s idea to totally stop using all of the ‘super chain’ type stores really struck a chord with me. I dislike the monopolies of the super chains, the fact that they make so much profit while the primary producers receive so little and especially the disconnect between the food we eat and the items we consume and where these things really come from. But, to be totally and brutally honest, the idea of never shopping at a supermarket or super chain, even for a little while, scares me.

There are many excuses that I could use to explain why we couldn’t possibly take part in this challenge…

We have a groceries budget of $550 a month (I must apologies I put down budget at $450 initially which was our old budget, my husband pointed out that it is $550 a month now that the kids eat 12 nectarines in a day) and there is no way we could manage without using some of the super chains.
We don’t have many options or alternatives where we live – there are no food co-ops, no CSAs no bulk stores and to get to these things would mean an hour or more of driving.
We are renovating our house ourselves, there is no way we could do that without visiting that super duper chain hardware store… and often.

I could go on, but it’s easy to make excuses, and while they might make me feel better in the short term, they are not very helpful.

What is helpful is thinking about the things we can do.

Perhaps we can’t avoid supermarkets totally, but we can avoid them sometimes. We can make more informed choices about the ones we do visit, and what we buy from them. We can look for more alternatives that work for us. We can visit our local farmer’s markets (there is one close every weekend). We can choose the smaller locally owned supermarket. These may only be small changes but every little bit count, and I think just being more aware is a positive thing.

One thing we can definitely do is make more of our food from scratch.

It’s something I have been steadily building on for a while now. Cooking food from simple, real, ingredients, using less pre-made, chemical laden, convenience type food and ingredients. Not only do I feel this kind of food is healthier, it also means we spend less, we drive into the supermarket less and we lessen our dependency on those super chain stores.

Now I am not a total zealot. We still use and enjoy some convenience foods and even the occasional take out and we do so without guilt. My goal is not to eliminate these things from our lives all together, but to cut down on them, and to be more aware.

I am not a super confident cook, nor do I have much success experimenting and making things up in the kitchen, but most of the ‘made from scratch’ food items are really basic and a whole lot easier than I ever imagined. I have a growing list of things I can cook from scratch – pizzas, bread, cakes and even home grown popcorn!. But there are many more things I would like to try. Some things are not practical to try at the moment when my kitchen still has no walls, or ceiling and zero storage, but I’ve been putting off others that are quite doable even with only half a kitchen.

Do you make many foods from scratch?
Over the next few months my goal is to be more aware of what we buy from the super chains and look for more alternatives, but mostly to cook more from scratch, to try new recipes and to share my success, and failures, with you. So keep an eye out for my ‘made it from scratch’ recipe series!

Do you think you could avoid all super chains for a year? a month? forever?
If you are keen to give it a go, then pop over to Little Eco Footprints and sign up for the challenge. I’ll definitely be following along reading Trish’s journey with interest.

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Thinking About Food – Cooking From Scratch is a post from: picklebums.com

Painting a mural together means you not only spend time painting, you also spend time negotiating, being patient and communicating.

Not to mention sharing, encouraging, working together, planning, and helping each other.

Sometimes, there’s more to painting than it seems…

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Easy Art For Kids – Painting Together. is a post from: picklebums.com

I don’t watch much TV and I usually have no clue about any media controversy unless I happen to see some tweets about it. Even then, I usually ignore those tweets and normally I would never tweet or blog about them. Mostly I’m just not interested in what some sensationalising TV show or journalist says about pretty much anything.

Yesterday I saw lots of tweets relating to nasty comments made by a journalist about Julie Goodwin’s appearance. Initially I ignored them. I know who Julie Goodwin is, I am not a fan of Master Chef but I saw a few episodes of the series she won and I quite like her style, but I always feel that buying into that kind of controversy only gives more weight to the nastiness that began it. But for some reason, I decided to click on a link, late last night, and I read Julie’s blog post in response to the criticism.

It’s a fabulously well written post about why judging someone based purely on their appearance is ignorant, but what hit home for me was this little paragraph…

As far as what I owe to myself and my children, I owe them food that is cooked from scratch, using as many fresh ingredients and as few additives as possible. I owe them mealtimes around the family table. I owe them the very best of myself, which includes (but is not limited to) keeping myself healthy via plenty of exercise, fresh air, fresh food and laughter. I owe them a broad world view and an education that includes how to be a compassionate human being. I owe them a safe home and a community surrounding them that loves them. And I owe it to them to be self-confident and self-loving so that they can feel the same no matter whether or not they end up looking like Brad Pitt.

This is the kind of mother I want to be.

The kind that creates a happy, healthy home for my children. The kind that cooks love into our meals. The kind who welcomes everyone into our home, regardless of what they look like or where they come from. The kind who can always stretch a meal for one more guest. The kind that finds the love in keeping of our home. The kind that values herself so that her children learn how important it is to value themselves. The kind that finds strength and love from judgement and hate.

Funny… This is not the post I intended to write today. It just sort of happened and perhaps that is a good thing.

I am not one to make new years resolutions, I never manage to keep them for more than a week any way. Perhaps this year I will spend a little time pondering the type of person I want to be. The type of mother, wife, friend, blogger I want to be… and this has been a great start.

What type of mother do you want to be?

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What Kind of Mum Do You Want to Be? is a post from: picklebums.com

“There’s only 3 more sleeps” my boy told his Aunt excitedly.

She was a little confused… “You mean only one more sleep? Christmas is tomorrow!”

“No!” He replied “There’s only three more sleeps till the WATER PARK!”

It’s safe to say that my kids were pretty excited that Porter Novelli invited us to a day at Adventure Park Victoria. When the day finally rolled around it was kind of on the cold side but they were not deterred… so off we went with a million changes of clothes and a hundred towels and a little apprehension on my part. My kids don’t do cold and while the girls are confident in the water they don’t really swim very well and my big boy doesn’t even like to get his hair wet! I was a little worried there would be nothing that they could do on their own and the day would be a disaster…. but I couldn’t have been more wrong!

When we got there and plonked our stuff down on some sun lounges under a fabulous shade contraption I looked around and smiled.

We were seated right in front of ‘Bonito Bay’, a huge water play area. There were squirting jets of water, fountains, squirty water guns, slides and splash pools. There was three biggish water slides, all of which ended in a big trough of knee high water rather than a big pool so I wasn’t at all worried about my girls being dumped at the bottom of the slides and not being able to find their way to the surface.

One word of caution… if you think you can climb up and take your four year old down the water slide without getting too wet… beware the HUGE bucket of water that slowly fills and then dumps gallons of freezing cold water on you just as you are waiting at the top of the slide!!!

There is a second smaller water play area and my kids spent a lot of time playing at both areas, but by far the biggest hit of the day for my girls was the Lazy River!

Again, from looking at the web site, I was a little worried about whether my girls would manage this being non-swimmers, but they were fine. The water isn’t very deep and the ‘torrents’ don’t run very fast so the girls were able to stand up and walk if they fell off their tubes (on purpose) and they spent hours going round and round and round that darn lazy river! (thanks to Misc Mum for sending me the photo of my girls and I on the river!)

There were other ‘big kid’ rides like the Aqua Racer and the Gold Rush Rapids and Wild West Canyon water slides, but my girls don’t do heights so we didn’t go on them… though I was really tempted to have a go on my own!

There is also plenty of dry action, paddle boats and canoes, bumper cars, archery, and heaps of mini golf, but it was the simple things like the giant jumping pillow and the carousel that my kids really enjoyed.

I was pleasantly surprised by Adventure Park. There were lots of things my small, non-swimming, kids could do. It was clean and the staff were all lovely.

The tickets seem a little pricey but when you consider you can spend the entire day there and not pay any extra for the rides you could certainly get your money’s worth if you were very keen. The prices are based on height (as the ride restrictions are also based on height rather than age) so it’s worth checking out the website to work out how it all works. The food was a little expensive but our fish and chips were excellent, and you could bring your own food as there are lots of picnic facilities available and lots of shade.

Adventure Park Victoria is located about half way between Geelong and Queenscliff. The Bellarine Peninsula is a lovely part of Victoria and there are lots of places to stay near by, but it’s only an hour or so from the Westgate Bridge so a very doable day trip from Melbourne.

Winner a Summer Fun Pass

Entries are now closed. Congratulations to winners Tahlia and Effie./strong>

Thanks to Adventure Park Victoria and Porter Novelli I have two summer fun season passes to give away. These passes allow a child or adult unlimited entry to the park until April 29th 2012 and are valued at $74.99 each. For more information and conditions see the web site.

To enter leave a comment on this post telling me what your favourite wet and watery activity is. I will choose two of the the most interesting/amusing entries who will win one summer pass each.

To enter you must be an Australian resident and provide a valid email address. Entries are limited to one per household.
Entries close 6pm AEST Friday January 13th 2012, the winner will be contacted by email and announced on this post. The winner must contact me within 5 days or the prize will be re-drawn. The winner’s contact details will be passed on to Porter Novelli PR and the prize will be organised directly by them.

{Disclosure: My family were treated to a day at Adventure Park Victoria thanks to Porter Novelli Pr. We were provided with free entry and food vouchers for the day. No other compensation was provided for this post and all opinions are my own.}

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Lets Get Wet! – Adventure Park Victoria Review and Give Away! is a post from: picklebums.com

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