The littlest things

Hi All,

Sometimes it's the littlest things in life that make you smile.  Like a warm cuddle from the child who clambers into bed in the morning, or the smell of bread baking in the kitchen.

Today, I decided to shine my sink...  Yup, you heard right, I went and made it shine, clean and bright, and it made me smile.  There's been a lot going on lately, and I've only just managed to stay on top of the housework, but I finally decided to go back to the FlyLady website (flylady.net), and start getting things back on track.  So hopefully it means I'll be getting a few more posts up here, and that I'll be getting more done around the place.

So here it is, in all its before and after glory!

Before

After

Because sometimes in life, you just have to take that first step.

Love to all,
Mama Fern

Alien pikelets and new furniture

Hi All,

Just lately, we have got the kids to try lots of things they wouldn't normally do.  For instance, they've all had a chance to light the fireplace, and we've got a ginger bug going, to make our own ginger beer.  But I have to say, our oldest boys pikelets have to be one of the cutest results from all our work lately.  I left him alone in the kitchen, with a pikelets recipe and told him to make pikelets.  Not bad for a 10 year old with no parental assistance!

Strange looking, but tasty all the same!

We spoilt ourselves with our first ever matching bedroom set (two dressers, two bedside tables and a bed frame), which has made our room feel so much more homely.  I'm absolutely adoring it!

And, we replaced the bed of our middle boy.  The youngest has to wait a little longer, but we're slowly getting them more organised.  We still have to change around his walls a little, but he's keeping his room a lot tidier as a result of the extra storage space.

Anyway, that's all from me tonight.

Love to all,
Mama Fern

Last six months catch-up

Hi there,

Still no camera cable, but we've managed to extract the photos that were on the camera via the memory card.  So here's a rough round-up of some of the things that have happened in the past six months:

We bought a couple of beds for the girls, and left Sam to assemble them all day.

Mr Assembler man, on the job!

Our girls rooms, moved into the dining room

Bed number 1 done

Bed number 2 done

 We managed to make a store-room out of the rest of the room that the girls are in now.  More room for Warhammer and books!

Storeroom shelves for Warhammer

Storeroom bookcase and shelves

We got our first batches of carrots and onions out of the front garden.  They were absolutely delicious.  We've also had a rush trip to the vet for Major Tom, who had a big bite taken out of his shoulder.  He's much happier now, and stopped limping, but has a bit of a jumpy personality ever since.

Major Tom, chilling with Sam's phone

Carrots and onions

Ahhh, Christmas...  We decided to try out a couple of new family traditions, which everyone in the house thought was amazing.  Borrowing from some European traditions, we spent the afternoon of Christmas Eve making chocolate truffles and writing Christmas cards for our friends and neighbours within walking distance.  The kids and I then walked around the block, delivering our gifts, while Papa Sam cooked a light fish and salad meal for us.

Once we got home, we had dinner together, and then opened our presents (yes, on Christmas Eve).  On Christmas morning, the kids already had their presents to play with, and we surprised them with stockings full of little bits and bobs and sweets.  They thought it was awesome, having a whole Christmas Day just to relax and hang out with family.  It was the most relaxing and happy Christmas I've personally ever had.

Cards and flowers for neighbours

Chocolate truffles

Our Christmas tree

We also continued our normal tradition of Olliebollen for New Years Eve

Olliebollen for New Years

Papa Sam had his birthday first, and I quickly painted a couple of miniatures to go on top of the yummy passionfruit white chocolate mudcake.  In case you don't understand Warhammer, there's two miniatures on top of the cake, one Eldar and one Ork, hence the "F-orking Eldar-ly" on the top of the cake.

Yup, Sammy's getting older

Our youngest was next, and I made him a cupcake train, while our second youngest got a gorgeous monkey cake, made by Papa Sam (his baking and cake icing skills are really getting good). 

And then came my birthday, for which Papa Sam made me a lovely lemon madeira cake, iced my favourite colour :)

   

Finally, so that we can keep the Warhammer and general wargaming enthusiasts in our lives who read this blog happy, we started another blog.  It's called Napalm Elf & Rebel Scum, and has all of the pics of our progress painting miniatures and wargaming.

But one last Warhammer pic, for the road....  In the words of the Doctor....  Monsters are real :)

 There's lots more to update you all on, but that will have to wait a little while longer (the camera cable should be on a courier to us right now).

Love to all,

Mama Fern

Break in transmission....

Hi All,

Well, I still can't find the cable for our camera, but I thought I'd at least put something up here, since I get the occasional complaint about lack of updates (I'm sorry, people, really I am!)

We had a really great Christmas and New Years, surrounded by lots of family, followed by a trip up to the Bay of Plenty to visit friends and family.  Hopefully we'll find that cable and get pics up soon.

Papa Sam and our youngest both had their birthdays.  Sam got his usual white chocolate passionfruit mud cake, with some quickly painted Warhammer figures on top, while our youngest got himself the train cake he's begged me for quite a few times.

I took part in the Kapiti Women's Triathlon, and didn't finish last in my age group, which was the main aim.  I've got a Duathlon coming up next weekend to do as well.

Oh yeah, Papa Sam and I finally made it over to Melbourne and stayed with my inlaws.  It was really lovely to finally meet everyone.

As for the garden, it's starting to look decidely winterish, and will probably be heavily mulched sometime really soon.

The kids are doing really well, although I'm sad to report we lost one chicken (Tilly) and one guinea pig (Lance), which the kids have buried and held little services for, underneath a couple of suitable trees.

Anyway, that's all I can think of for now, and I know it's always boring without the pics - we're getting there!  So much has happened since I last posted, that I'm sure I will have forgotten something important too.

Take care, and love to all,
Mama Fern

Prepping for Summer

Hi again all,

Another Saturday afternoon spent in the front yard, preparing our raised beds for the summer harvest.  Sam spent hours hauling our wonderfully dark topsoil from one side of the front garden to the other, filling the tyres and planting out our seedlings.

The truck dumping our lovely tasty topsoil!

Papa Sam's Everest!

We filled one of our raised beds with 3 (+ a few) sisters (i.e. Corn, beans and pumpkin), as well as some zucchini and sunflowers.  Around the edges we've filled the tyres with onions and carrot seeds.

Our second raised bed has our first attempt at growing asparagus...  Shame we have to wait 4 years to see if we did it properly or not.  More onions and carrots are around the tyres in this bed too, and our eldest's dwarf apple tree will go on the south side of the bed once it's dormant again.

The bulbs under the front bedroom window are all starting to come up, and both those and the plants outside the front fence are starting to get positive comments from people walking past the house.

I've planted out two bougainvillea (Scarlet O-Hara) and a Dublin Bay climbing rose on the front porch which will hopefully give some much needed summer shade to our lounge and bedroom windows.  And yes, those are plastic rubbish bins I've planted them in...  Far cheaper than pots, and apparently UV treated (here's hoping).  In front of the right hand picture are pots of beetroot, orange jasmine, night-scented jessamine and capsicums.

Also on the front porch, the seedlings we're growing for the school fair in a few weeks time, my beautiful columnar apple trees (polka and waltz) that are starting to fruit, and Head Rodent Killer, our cat, Major Tom.

The first Polka apple

Seedlings for school fair

Major Tom, ready for duty

And some other pics from the front yard...  Everything is either starting to bloom or in full bloom.  The bees are starting to hang around the foxgloves, cornflowers, lavender and the sage.  I can't wait for summer!

Echeveria from under the letterbox

Small pomegranate tree

Fabulous foxgloves

More to come soon, including our anniversary present pics :)

Love to all,
Mama Fern

xoxox

My fave chocolate cake recipe

Hi All,

I keep getting asked for the recipe I use for my chocolate cakes, so I thought it was about time I put in up on the blog...

It's a really nice moist cake, covered with a thick chocolate ganache, and always goes down well.  It's also the easiest baking job and can be done either in a big bowl with a wooden spoon, or by throwing all the ingredients into a food processor and whizzing them.  It's also really versatile, as it's easy to cut and shape, so it can be a nice, unassuming plain cake or an alien bent on destroying all life other than it's own kind! (admittedly, it took a fair few skewers, and not one but four cake tins and a double mix of the recipe)

Ingredients:
1 2/3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups cocoa
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 cups milk
100g melted butter
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 Tbsp golden syrup

Mix all ingredients in your choice of food processor or bowl and spoon
Pour into a greased and lined 20cm cake tin

Bake for 50 minutes at 180 degrees Celcius or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Icing ingredients:
150gm or more chocolate (king size block of milk chocolate is always good)
75gm butter

Melt together chocolate and butter in a double boiler (or in a bowl on top of a pot of boiling water - bowl not touching the water).  Pour icing over cooled cake.

Enjoy!
Mama Fern

Mama Fern's New Years Resolution follow-up

Yup, I actually kept track of my 2011 resolutions for the whole year so far....  So, how am I tracking?

• Sew 10 items of clothing

Well, I don't think I've made anything yet this year, but I plan to do some sewing of kids clothing for Christmas presents soon, so hopefully I'll hit the 10 really fast.

• Learn a craft and sell at least one item made using it

I learnt to make a few things weaving flax, but haven't tried to sell anything yet, although the school Christmas fair is only a few weeks off.  Also learned a little about scrapbooking.

• Paint 5 paintings

Managed two so far, though one of them didn't get finished as I wasn't happy with the colours

• Make sure that every one of our kids gets an hour of my time completely focused on just them at least once a month (this doesn't count the joint activities that we spend hours on every week, or school holidays, when it's easier to spread your time)

Well, I've done pretty well, as the kids found my list and tried to hold me to it :)

• Read (and blog a list of) at least 50 books

 The easiest one thus far...  Reading book 47 (Foundation - Isaac Asimov) and counting...

• Grow 5 plants from cuttings that I've never grown before

Parrot plant (variety of impatien) and rosemary cuttings planted a week or so ago.  Inadvertently grew a grape vine from cuttings earlier this year.  Attempted roses and failed miserably, but still getting constantly high strike rate with my lavender.  So, 3 of my 5 so far, and not too many days left in the year

• Make my own picalilli - I keep saying I will

And....  I'll keep saying I'll do this someday...  Soon...  Maybe

• Learn 3 new skills that help me live more sustainably

I learnt to make a solar oven, although it was over winter, so didn't manage to cook anything with it.  Also learnt to prune plants properly, which will hopefully mean a better harvest, therefore, more home grown food for the family.  I'm also in the process of learning how to plant out the first layer of our subtropical area, so that I can start creating microclimates for subtropical plants to grow, expanding the type of food we can provide on our section.

• Get all the family photos on to the walls or at least into photo albums

Photo of Grandad Ralph finally has a frame :)  One photo done, many many more to go! And I bought some scrapbooking supplies to try out with one of the girls, in order to deal with some of the other pictures

• End 2011 with leass than 4 months of debt repayment remaining (and then get NO FURTHER DEBT, unless it's a mortgage) 

This one is tracking really well.  At worst, it'll be the 21st of March 2012 that everything is cleared!

• Send Christmas cards and bake a Christmas cake

Attempted Christmas cake...  I now know I used the wrong type of recipe...  Second cake to be baked later this week!  Christmas cards scheduled on the calendar (I know, I'm a sad little puppy this year!)

So, I'm pretty happy that I'm tracking through my resolutions fine :)  Almost time for next year's - I've already put all the birthdays and important dates on the 2012 calendar, so it's almost time to plan them

Take care all,
Mama Fern