Moog's meanderings

[Quick aside - Oh My Goodness is it really 2 months since I last blogged?? Note to self: 'Must Try Harder']

Ok, so it was yesterday but I do love the Mothering Sunday celebration at Church. It was a really beautiful sunny day yesterday. It is finally starting to feel as though spring may come (although no daffs out yet, just a few crocuses). The boys were both up quite early so we were in plenty of time to walk to Church via the canal and feed the ducks on the way. We were even lucky enough to see a barge passing and the driver waved to us. Munchkin was very excited. Having arrived, we discovered that the smallest child of a friend of mine was being baptised during the service – extra special as I hadn’t seen them in a little while and particularly appropriate given that it was mothering sunday. As there was a shortage of daffodils due to the cold weather so late in the winter all the mothers in the congregation were given a primula plant. This is something that I find lovely about the Church service – our younger choristers had out flowers to all the ladies in the congregation whether they are known to be mothers or not. And our sermon was partly about the fact of it being a celebration of ‘mothering’ in all its positive senses rather than just motherhood itself. Mothering Sunday provides a break and a celebration in the middle of a sometimes barren feeling period of lent and it certainly uplifted me this year.

For days I have been thinking that I must blog about this or that, and that it’s been ages since I managed to post. Now that I have a few minutes I am wondering where to start!!
We had a lovely few weeks over Christmas and the New Year which seemed to disappear and suddenly it’s already mid-January. We hosted two sets of very good friends who came over from the US, we spent some time with my parents at their home, I went off to a meeting in London while my mum-in-law babysat the boys for me (felt very odd going off to do that, not in line with my day job at all these days) and we visited my sister from Canada while she was staying with my parents (that was just a week ago). So many wonderful things but all back to back and up to last weekend – no time to get over anything, just wham bam and suddenly here we are. Today is the first time I have taken the little ones to any of our regular groups and it’s nearly two weeks into the new term!!
Oh dear – pumpkin has decided to cut nap short so better dash. Hopefully continue later…..

Well, our swimming expedition last Friday didn’t go as well as I had hoped but we did survive. Pumpkin has been seriously suffering teething symptoms for over a week and Friday it was really bad (I can see that the tooth is finally very close to cutting through now). He was clingy and generally unhappy the whole time. Munchkin was fine swimming but kept complaining about the lack of Daddy and refusing to swim with the instructor – meaning I had them both hanging off me some of the time. Pumpkin screamed from the moment we got out of the pool and didn’t calm down until after we were all dressed and I had managed to get him all wrapped up and snug in the sling (which was a little while). At which point I was shattered and it was only 11am. Thank goodness for friends and buttered toast!!
Last weekend we had a lot of fun decorating the house together with the boys. Usually we’d have left it until this weekend coming but we’re really busy and we’ve got friends coming from the States so thought we’d better get it done. Munchkin has really been enjoying his advent calendar. I had originally wanted to get one of those wooden ones with drawers or make a felt one with a pocket for each day but as usual ran out of time and it would never have happened. So I bought a sticker advent calendar from our local christian bookshop. It’s a nativity scene and you stick on a sticker every day – filling out the animals, angels and presumably the holy family at the end. He has really been enjoying it and is getting quite accurate at putting the stickers in their outlined space. He is a lot more excited by all the Christmas things going on this year – the lights, baubles, displays, tree, etc. I am finding that his simple awe and joy about things is adding a new dimension to the season this year. It’s lovely!

Munchkin has been quite trying for the last two days. Nothing major – no lying on the floor kicking and screaming in the supermarket or anything like that – just refusing to do almost anything I say/suggest and whining and crying about almost everything. It’s getting rather tiring. Hubby was back in time to help with bedtime last night which was a real blessing. He also helped with the weekly Gymbabes & Tumble Tots fiasco this morning before going to the airport. Every week I wonder whether I am mad to juggle both, but Gymbabes and then Tumble Tots has done so much for Munchkin’s abilities and confidence (it’s really obvious when he’s with others of the same age who haven’t done it) so I want Pumpkin to have the same opportunity. It means that Munchkin has to sit nicely through Gymbabes (not playing with the toys, climbing on the equipment or getting in the way of the under-1’s) for 45 minutes which is a BIG challenge every single week. Then we go to the playground for an hour (Big thanks to God here for the fact that out of 6 occasions it has been fine weather exactly 6 times!!) and have snacks while we wait for the Tumble Tots class to start. During this time I am trying to manhandle a pram, boisterous munchkin, his toys from trying to distract him during Gymbabes, the changing bag and all the other clobber one needs while having the now 8-month old and getting heavy Pumpkin in the sling. Supervising Munchkin through his class with Pumpkin in the sling is getting harder but does seem to work. By that time I am usually tired and scratchy from constantly telling him not to do what he shouldn’t be doing all through Gymbabes and wandering around the playground for an hour. Not sure what I am going to do with Pumpkin during Munchkin’s class when he is too big to be carried (at that point he’ll probably be walking). We get back an hour late for lunch because of the timing, and they both go for a late nap. It does work out but it means that Thursday is my Crazy Day.
Tomorrow I am taking them both to their swimming lesson on my own (argh!). I have never taken them both swimming on my own so that’ll be interesting. Technically they’re not allowed to participate without a parent/carer each but I asked in advance and the instructor is going to come in the pool and have one of them so that they don’t both have to miss out, which is really good of her.
I am very much hoping that Munchkin makes life a bit easier for us by cheering up a bit over the next day or so. I am already looking forward to Hubby’s return although it’s likely to be after I am in bed tomorrow night.
Ooh – by the way, the mince pies worked out quite well. Munchkin won’t even try them (something he does with a lot of things these days ), which is a shame but means that there will be more for hubby and me!!

Ok, so in the spirit of trying to keep on blogging I figured that if I get a few minutes and use them to blog then I might just get back into the habit rather than never getting around to it.
I have just spent nap time making mince pies. I made the pastry the other day thinking I would make a batch that evening, but More Important things needed doing so the pastry just got put in the fridge. I remembered to take it out this morning just in case I had time this afternoon and it was even almost at room temperature by the time I needed it. I have experimented with another slight variation on my gluten free pastry mix so will let you know how they turn out! The first batch is probably almost cool enough for tasting. I have discovered that being too hasty in testing mince pies often results in a burnt tongue, so I am not planning on doing that today.
We stayed in all morning waiting for the parcel to be re-delivered, and it turned up at 11.40am. Shame it wasn’t slightly earlier so that I could take the boys out for some fresh air before lunch/calming down/naps, but at least they came and I got the stuff. It was a bulk order of tapioca flour and potato flour (actually potato starch) which are a staple of my gluten free existence but seem to be rather hard to come in the usual shops. The last thing I wanted was for it to be returned!! I also received the new pressure cooker gasket that I had ordered. The old one has gone brittle and started cracking in one place and the pressure cooker hasn’t been quite right – letting out too much steam and sometimes not coming up to pressure. The information that comes with the spare gasket says that with normal use they need replacing every 6-9months!!!!! That was rather a surprise to me, but as it’s rubber and subject to high temperatures and pressure on a regular basis I suppose it does make sense. Must remember to keep an eye on the new one so that I don’t let it get to the same state that the old one is in!
Hubby is back later tonight – hooray for a bit of adult company for the evening before he jets off again tomorrow, even if he won’t be back until after the boys are in bed.
Anyway, I am off to enjoy a cup of tea and a mince pie for a few minutes before Pumpkin (and then Munchkin) wake up and demand my attention.

I was prodded by a family member a couple of weeks ago now about the fact that my blog posts are rather less frequent that at times in the past. I decided to make a point of trying to post once a week but have failed miserably as that was over a fortnight ago!! But here I am.
Hubby has gone away until tomorrow night so things are a more tiring than usual. Then he’s off again for the rest of the week. In some ways things are much harder work (mealtimes, bath/bedtime with the kids) but in others a bit easier. When he’s working at home I always feel as though we’re in the way and I worry a lot about distracting him. That’s obviously not a problem when he’s not here! The other thing about him not being here all week is that I have ordered a few things online and had dispatch notifications for them, which means I’ll end up missing deliveries. I already missed one and will now have to stay home instead of going to our usually stay’n'play group tomorrow (or go quite a long way north of the city to pick up from the depot).
Ah well, Munchkin is much easier to entertain at home these days – especially thanks to an enormous box of brio train set that we have been passed down from his older cousins. Pumpkin is getting around and trying to chew on anything in sight. I had also forgotten how impossible it can be to change the nappy of or dress a baby who is intent on rolling over and escaping to the other side of the room!! It’s fun though and the two of them entertain each other as well as getting in each others way. Munchkin particularly enjoys baking (well, making a mess with cake/biscuit mixture and then eating the final product) but the problem is keeping Pumpkin entertained/away from things he’s not supposed to be playing with for the duration.
Both of them are currently up in their room having a nap. I hope that this will continue for another hour or so, but cannot count on it (especially in the case of the little one). Probably not a good idea to start on anything big or that needs things spreading out (e.g. Christmas Cards or making Mince Pies) as inevitably Pumpkin will wake up and then revel in the joy of making a mess in what I haven’t managed to clear up in time. I think I’ll do a bit of tidying up instead.
And I’ll try to remember to stop by a little more often!

Strangely both children are still asleep. Hubby went off to work some time ago and I was left wondering whether to risk hanging the nappies out on the line to dry. I didn’t, and am now quite pleased as it has just started raining.
Pumpkin has been sleeping really well the last week. I was really starting to go a bit crazy with him getting up 2-3 times a night between 10 and 6am for feeds, the sleep deprivation was building up and I was doing silly things like putting biscuits in the fridge (though thankfully didn’t make the mistake of putting ice cream in the cupboard). He has slept from 7.30pm to about 7am for 5 nights out of the last 7!! I am feeling much better. Lets hope that sleeping through is going to continue permanently (obviously with the exception of teething, etc.).

Last week my parents’ freezer packed up (it’s a new one, but let’s not get into that). They managed to get some of their frozen stuff into the freezer of some friends of theirs but when they were visiting at the weekend they brought a lot of the stuff with them for us to use up.. Mostly defrosted blackberries, spinach, raspberries, redcurrants and gooseberry puree.
It turned out that we had friends coming for dinner that night so we firstly made a blackberry and apple crumble (yum). Our first crumble of autumn and the apple season (my parents also brought some bramleys from their tree) which was great – and given the strong wind and horizontal rain we had been having in the early evening it was quite fitting really. Hubby has made a batch of blackberry ice cream which is just heavenly! He also has mixed up a batch ready for the ice cream maker of raspberry and redcurrant as well as gooseberry. In spite of the fact that I also made a batch of (extremely tasty) blackberry muffins (see below – gluten free, of course!), we still have a LOT of defrosted blackberries.

Blackberry muffins:

I looked around on the internet and found this recipe
and adapted it to be as follows (making it gluten free and in measures that are easier to follow):
INGREDIENTS
290g Doves Farm gluten free plain flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
200g half fat creme fraiche
20g milk (about a tablespoon
160g sugar
115 g warm melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
12 oz of defrosted frozen blackberries, drained

METHOD
1 Position rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a standard 12 muffin pan or line with paper muffin cups. (Actually, with the berries you’ll have more batter than just for 12 muffins. This batch made 18 muffins.)
2 Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
3 In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, sour cream, milk, sugar, butter and vanilla.
4 Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix together with a few light strokes, just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Add the berries. (If you are using frozen berries, defrost them first, then drain the excess liquid, then coat them lightly in flour.) Do not overmix! Overmixing will cause the muffins to be dense, not fluffy. The batter should not be smooth.
5 Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the middle of 1 or 2 of the muffins comes out clean, 17-20 minutes (or longer). Let cool for 2 to 3 minutes before removing from the pan. If not serving hot, let cool on a rack.
Serve as soon as possible, preferably within a few hours of baking.

Well, obviously not my PhD. And this is a bit belated – those of you who know hubby and me in real life will already have this bit of info. The deadline for corrections was Friday 11th September and in hubby’s usual style of cutting it fine we were up late on the evening of 8th September doing a final proof before it was e-mailed to the printers. He travelled down to Cardiff on Thursday 10th September and met with his internal supervisor to go through the changes, and it was all fine. So now really has got it! We received the hard bound copy for our bookshelf last week and it’s very impressive looking. Very pleased and relieved that it’s finally really actually done and finished. Yay!

In all that’s been going on I have omitted to let you all know that Hubby has had his PhD Viva and it went very well indeed. He has been granted his PhD pending some minor amendments which he has a few weeks to complete. Hooray!! He is very relieved (and we are all very proud). Since that happened we have spent a week in Northumberland at a cottage near Bamburgh with my parents. It was really nice to get away properly without Hubby having to worry about being contacted about work (which always happens when he’s having time off but is at home) or working on the PhD. Pumpkin has started smiling a lot and gurgling and chatting back when he’s given the attention so it was great timing for my parents to spend some time getting to know him a bit. It also meant Hubby and I had the extra pairs of hands and eyes to help out! Mum and Dad took Munchkin out a few times and once took over for a full day so Hubby and I could visit Lindisfarne (Holy Island). Obviously we took the little one with us but he is very happy strapped to one of us in the sling so we were able to take our time reading the information about the Priory and Castle and soaking everything up rather than running around after the boisterous Munchkin!!

Both Pictures are of Lindisfarne Priory.

The last couple of weeks we have been having new potatoes from our allotment. They’re lovely! We’ve just started on the Charlotte variety which I am really enjoying (can’t remember what the other types are off hand). We are also just starting to get a few courgettes and hubby tells me that both the runner and french bean plants are flowering. I haven’t managed to get down to help or have a look since before we went away – timing it right with both kids is apparently more of a challenge than I can handle at the moment!

I have an appointment back at the rheumatology clinic tomorrow morning. Hubby will take Munchkin out to a picnic held by our regular ’stay and play’ group while I go along with Pumpkin. I don’t expect them to change any of my medication or anything. Healthwise things are going pretty well – just the odd blip here and there. I am so lucky to have (a very proactive and helpful) hubby working at home for the most part meaning that he’s available to help out at mealtimes (which for me are the most difficult bit of having to deal with both of them together next to bath/bedtime). I do wonder how my illness would be affected if I had to cope with him being away more on business. He does travel a bit, and generally is off on site about one day a week. I cope, but it’s obviously harder. When he does go away for a few days then I start to see things deteriorating. Lupus is affected by hormones and tiredness/worry/stress sends ones hormones off doing funny things, setting off the Lupus (apart from chronic fatigue being one of it’s big symptoms in the first place). So by the time he gets back I find myself wound up and tired suffering from a short temper from being worn down as well as the familiar arthritic problems in various joints making it hard to do lots of things including picking up/supporting the children. Anyway – I seem to have gone off on a whinge so I apologise!!

Both of the boys are doing well. Munckin will be 2 years old in less than a fortnight! It seems to have crept up on us so fast! He’s such a lovely little boy and he’s just hilarious at the moment as he’s learning to talk. He often stands there for ages looking at me and repeating the same word over and over and over, while I try in vain to decipher what it means. I often don’t manage and it either ends in tears or a very odd kind of lopsided look before he wanders off to do something else! Pumpkin is really getting interactive and smiles a lot. It’s a really nice stage when they get to chuckling and gurgling at your attempts to keep them amused! He is also quite often only waking up in the night once, which is a relief. Although not last night (so I am feeling rather tired especially as Hubby got up to disappear down South for the day at 6am). Isn’t it typical that as I ended up getting up that early having not had a great night anyway the other two boys carried on sleeping until 7.30am!!!

On the (gluten free) baking front I recently made some cheese, corn and bacon muffins (I found the recipe in Coeliac UK’s ‘Crossed Grain’ Summer 2009 Magazine but I can’t seem to find it on their website) and they were really good. A great savoury snack for when you’re on the go. I also made an enormous batch of chicken nuggets a few weeks ago (Most of them are now in the freezer). These were a variation on a recipe I found in How to Feed Your Whole Family a Healthy Balanced Diet, with Very Little Money and Hardly Any Time, Even If You Have a Tiny Kitchen, Only Three Saucepans (One with An Ill Fitting Lid) and No Fancy Gadgets – Unless You Count the Garlic Crusher… and they’re fab! I used coarse polenta to coat them and they’re really good. The apple and carrot in them gives them a very distinctive (good) flavour and it means that I can have chicken nuggets and chips without it costing the earth or being particularly unhealthy. Ironically, now that I have got around to making my own, Sainsbury’s have finally got their gluten free chicken nuggets back on the shelves again (it’s only take about a year since the scare about lactose that made them take them off).

Anyway – as both boys are asleep and the other one’s at work, I might see if I can make the most of it and go for a short rest or even a nap.