Six on Sunday - Celebrating Jesus at Easter

Now that little J is able to at least partially understand what Easter is about, I've been trying to think of ways to celebrate and teach him about the meaning of Easter. I spent the week leading up to Easter scouring Pinterest for ideas and have come up with some real gems that I thought I'd share with you....

1. Passover Seder

I love the heart behind the Jewish Passover Seder - to teach the stories of God's goodness to future generations in a fun, visual and interactive way. A full on Jewish Passover Seder is a pretty big undertaking and probably beyond us for a good few years yet. We did however have a candlelight lamb dinner, drink grape juice and talk about God rescuing his people from Egypt and sending Jesus to rescue us. We also let little J stay up late to watch Prince of Egypt with us too. I really want for Easter to be a time that our kids see as special and exciting and there's nothing like getting to stay up past bedtime to get kids excited!

2. Easter baskets with meaning

Easter has become all about the chocolate eggs and kids have little or no idea what the meaning behind the eggs are. How about giving the kids an Easter basket filled with a variety of sugary treats that each clearly relate to part of the Easter story.  Here is a great example of an Easter basket with meaning.

3. Easter walk

When we were kids we would often go for a walk on a Sunday afternoon or on a Bank holiday. Why not take the kids on a walk and give them a scavenger hunt to do along the way with scripture verses as clues. For an example check out this site here. 

4. Resurrection Eggs

We have advent calendars to count down to Christmas so why not have some kind of countdown during Holy week? Resurrection eggs are just that. The idea is to fill plastic eggs with symbols that relate to part of the Easter story and each day you open an egg and read that part of the story. There are loads of possible variations on how to do them and you can easily tailor it to your kids ages. Here is one example and here is another that includes additional extension activities.

This year I didn't get organised in time to do a countdown to Easter so instead we adapted the idea to use as an egg hunt on Sunday afternoon. I cut up this Easter puzzle and hid the pieces inside plastic eggs along with some chocolate buttons. Little J had great fun hunting for them and when he was done we used the pictures to briefly tell the Easter story.

5. Resurrection rolls

This is a great easy recipe that I hope to introduce as a tradition for breakfast on Easter morning.

6. Easter story biscuits

This idea is pure genius and I'm gutted I didn't find it in time to try it this year. Every step of this recipe tells part of the Easter story and I know little J is gonna totally love seeing the result the next morning.

Hope you've found these ideas helpful. Happy Easter to you all!!

Josiah's diary - April 14th 2014

Daddy says mummy has a baby in her belly. I'm not sure how it got there and I thought he was just messing with me at first but then mummy's belly started getting bigger so it must be true. The other day we went to the hospital and saw a lady who poked mummy's belly and showed us some things on the TV. Daddy said it was baby on the TV but it didn't look like any baby I've ever seen - it was just a black fuzzy blob!

Grandma got me a book all about the house in mummy's belly to help me understand but I'm still not quite sure how it all works. I read that baby shares the food mummy eats. Can I share my food with baby too? Do you think it likes cheerios? Daddy says that even though I can't see baby I can still talk to it and give it kisses so every now and then I get mummy's belly out and give baby some kisses.

Mummy doesn't always like it when I get her belly out though. Like when I tried to get her belly out during daddy's citizenship ceremony the other day she told me to put it away cos the mayor doesn't want to see it. What is a mayor? And what is citizenship? All I know is daddy got a certificate for something but I don't know what he did.

Daddy says I used to be in mummy's belly. I wonder how I got out. And how long will baby be in there? There's still so much I don't quite understand.

Baby is not the only thing I don't understand right now - there's a lot of things in life I'm trying to work out. For example, I've been working on learning to throw but I'm struggling to work out the rules about throwing. If I throw some things I get a cheer and if I throw others I get shouted at. I've been trying to narrow down which are the right things to throw to get a cheer and it seemed that throwing balls is good and throwing toys is bad. But then the other day I found a ball that daddy called a pool ball and when I threw that I got told off so now I'm confused again.

Mummy says that throwing things 'at' people is mean and I shouldn't do it but sometimes she asks me to throw something 'to' her. What is the difference between throwing something 'at' someone and throwing something 'to' them? They both look the same to me!

Six on Sunday - rainy day ideas

Due to illness/teething/bad weather we've had a quite a few days indoors recently. When you have a very energetic little boy it can be hard to know how best to keep him occupied on those days.

1. Play dough 
As a kid I remember my mum making home made play dough for us and had been looking for an excuse to give it a try. The basic recipe is:

1 cup plain flour
1 cup warm water
half cup salt
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
food colouring

Just mix it together over a low heat until it pulls away from the sides and clumps together. If it's still sticky cook it a bit longer. We didn't have any cream of tartar and didn't want to walk to the shop in the rain to get any so we made ours without and it still turned out ok. One thing I learned was make sure you mix the food colouring with the water before adding it instead of trying to add it after cooking - much less messy and better results too.

For some more exciting play dough recipes including scented, glittery or glow in the dark go to Nurture store for loads of great ideas.

2. Nursery rhyme puppets
Little J is just about old enough to handle basic arts and crafts so I decided to look for some age appropriate crafts to try. He loves singing songs so I was thrilled to stumble across some nursery rhyme themed crafts. He loves singing itsy bitsy spider so we decided to give that craft a go. I cut out all the pieces while he was having his nap so there would be no chance of him getting hold of the scissors. When nap time was over I handed him a bag of parts and we started to assemble our spiders together. He loved sticking on the googly eyes and enjoyed playing with the pipe cleaners too. I found it quite hard to judge where to put the finger holes and how big to make them part apart from that it was a very simple craft.

3. Building a den
After a particularly bad nights sleep due to teething, we were all tired and needed a low key indoor activity to keep us amused. Earlier in the week little J had been trying to use the clothes airer as a den so I figured why not give him chance to do it properly.  I took the clothes airer into the lounge along with plenty of cushions and sheets and we set up a den. I love this idea for making a den but for now the airer and sheets would do. I curled up with little J and read books for a while but it turned out he was still quite full of energy and soon wanted to get out and run around the house again. In the end hubby and I fell asleep in the den while little J headed to the kitchen and started making his own dinner!

4. Visiting the library
Little J has quite an impressive book collection and loves to read at every available opportunity. As a result he goes through phases where he gets bored of the same old books (not to mention how bored mummy and daddy get reading the same ones over and over again).  Luckily we live only 5 mins from the library so I've started taking little J for a visit every couple of weeks to read some new books and choose a couple to take home. It's a great way for him to regularly have new books in the house without me having to keep finding extra space for an ever growing collection. It's also a good way of teaching him about looking after things properly and how a library works.

5. Messy church
Last rainy weekend just happened to be Messy Church at a church near us.  A lot of churches seem to run these but we'd never been before. When we arrived there we several crafts set up around the room on the theme of Easter. We spent the first hour making chicks, decorating cookies, colouring pictures and planting a mini garden. When the crafts were done we all went into the main church area and sung some kids worship songs with actions and had a brief interactive talk about the meaning of Easter and Jesus being the best gift ever. After that we all had dinner together and got home just in time for pyjamas and bedtime. It was really good fun to go together as a family and also great to see little J interacting with kids of all ages and (mostly) having a great time (he got a bit frustrated that no one passed him the ball in football and couldn't understand that the other kids didn't know what his shouts of 'rah rah rah dah' meant, but other than that he loved it).

6. And finally....
Not entirely rainy day focused but still great for days when you're short of ideas - check out this great list of ideas for things to do every month of the year.

Another funny parenting tale

Well I've been very slack at blogging recently due to a mixture of a teething child and pregnancy kicking my butt slightly. I thought it was about time I shared another funny story with you all to make up for it.

Little J is growing so fast and learning so quickly that it's hard to keep up. Now he's this mobile, curious, bundle of energy that is in to everything. The other day we went to a friends house for lunch and took little J along. I hadn't realised ahead of time but it was the first time we had been to the home of a friend without children since little J had learnt to walk. I'd begun to take for granted the fact that at home I can just let him run around the house and know he's not gonna get into too much mischief (though he just learnt to open screw top bottles so I have a feeling that's all about to change!).

When we go to the houses of other friends with kids, they are like our home - toys everywhere, slightly beat up furniture and anything breakable or valuable hidden well out of reach! But not so at our child free friends house. They have a beautiful home full of all kinds of things for Josiah to break and/or ruin with grubby little finger prints. At first little J was polite and cautious but soon he was running around the house nosing through everything!

Little J is very helpful and already quite well house trained. He loves to help with laundry and even knows which buttons to press to put on a wash. This is fine at our house as the washing machine is always turned off at the wall but not so at our friends place so the little monkey kept turning the washing machine on and off.

Then there were musical instruments to play with, magazines to 'read', all kinds of things to look at in the kitchen and a bed to climb on.

I basically spent the entire time chasing him round the house and got very little chance to just sit and chat with the grown ups. At one point when I did finally sit down for a moment, little J wandered into the lounge with a bottle of lube he swiped from the bedroom when noone was looking!

Add to that the screaming over tired meltdown he had towards the end due to having missed his lunchtime nap and I think it's safe to say we probably wont be getting another invite any time soon!

But seriously though, it made me realise just how much has changed in our lives since having kids. It really is like we have entered a whole other world and there's no going back. We can't do things how we used to - we've had to adjust to find child friendly meals/outings/furniture/routines etc. Having said that, this new world is a fun roller coaster ride of a place to be - a world where I get to do arts and crafts and go to fun kids groups and play with toys when I take a bath!

A new take on the 10 commandments?

I always used to think of the 10 commandments as a bunch of rules - a list of "do not"s. But a friend pointed out the other day that when the Bible says "thou shalt not...." it is not saying "you shouldn't" or "don't" but simply "you will not".

What difference does that make? Well a pretty huge difference actually. It turns the 10 commandments from a list of rules to a description of how God designed the world to be and how God promises it will be one day in the future. If you read the 10 commandments in that light it soon becomes clear that our world is not as God intends for it to be - it is broken and needs fixing!

I've often heard people talk about the 10 commandments in relation to personal sin - i.e I broke one of the rules therefore I must do something to fix it or else I will go to hell. If you read the rest of the Bible you will soon see that's not what it's about at all. The problem is so much bigger than just you or I. The problem is the whole world is broken and no amount of good deeds or "hail marys" from you or I can fix it. We need a rescuer!

The Bible is the story of that rescue plan. Right from the start it shows us clues about the rescuer who is coming (Jesus - in case you hadn't guessed) and it gives us a message of hope about how life will be once the rescue plan is complete. Right now we're still part way through the rescue plan. Jesus has completed step 1 (come to earth as a man, die a brutal death, come back to life after defeating death and show the world a glimpse of what new life will look like) and he's getting everything ready for the final phase (see John 14:1-3).

I don't know about you but I find watching the news pretty depressing as I hear about all the insane and evil things that people do to each other. How great it is to know that this isn't how the world is supposed to be!? The Bible tells us that God has a plan to fix it all. One day Jesus will return to create a new heaven and a new earth (see 2 Peter 3:13) and the 10 commandments tell us how things will be in that new creation - no more death, no more jealousy, no more stealing, no more cheating, no more lying (see Revelation 21:3-5). I can't wait to live in a world like that. How about you? How do we get to be included in this new creation? Simple - the new creation will be full of all those people who have become friends of Jesus and put their trust in Him.

Six on Sunday - traditions

This weeks "Six on Sunday" is all about family traditions. As little J grows up and becomes more aware of the world around him, its got me asking myself what values do I want to teach him and what do I want for him to look back and remember as the core values of our family. So this week I've been gaining inspiration from other families and introducing some new traditions of our own.

1. One thing I'd really like to cultivate in our family is an attitude of thankfulness and an awareness of God's intervention in our lives. What better way than Family Day once a year?! A Christian charity I used to work for have a celebration day like this each year. Everyone from around the UK would get together at HQ for a massive BBQ, fun inflatables, silly games and most important of all to sit and hear stories of all God had done in the past and how we had got to where we were.

2. I'm all for healthy eating and try to feed my boys plenty of home cooked goodness - no microwave dinners in our house. However, I don't wanna be one of those parents who never lets their kid have sugar and then the kid secretly gorges themselves on "forbidden" food when they're out of the house. It's all about teaching moderation and allowing treats sometimes. So on Saturday mornings we put the Weetabix and porridge to one side and make way for "Pancake Saturday".

It's taken me several weeks to find a recipe I like but I've finally mastered the art of making American style blueberry pancakes. I've got a stash of frozen fruit in the freezer ready to serve up with fresh pancakes and sliced bananas (and lashings of syrup for mummy cos mummy's need treats too).

Check out this breakfast jam playlist I found to create a little atmosphere on a Saturday morning. Little J is a complete music addict and loves to shake his booty so I'm looking forward to seeing what he thinks of it.

3. One thing I remember most about my family growing up is that we always ate together around the table. To me it was the norm and I never knew any different until I grew up. Usually in our household, little J eats dinner on his own around 5:30pm and hubby and I have ours after he's settled in bed around 7pm. However, on Sunday nights, hubby heads out to church just before 6:30pm to help with the student group so on Sunday's we've begun all having dinner together just before 6pm.

Tonight we even ate by candlelight for extra fun. Little J loved the pretty lights and enjoyed blowing them out at the end and I enjoyed having quality time chatting to hubby before he went out for the night. Also, I stumbled across this book about making family dinner time fun and it's got me excited to come up with some of my own fun ideas when little J is a bit older.

4. I know it's a little early to be thinking about Christmas yet, but I found this great list of ideas for Christmas traditions to introduce. (Take them swimming to wear them out so they're too tired to wait up for Santa?! Pure genius!) One tradition I'd really like to introduce is to replace the usual chocolate filled Advent calendar with a countdown of festive things to do throughout December.

5. Central to our parenting of our kids is our desire for them to grow to know and trust Jesus. At this young age it's hard to know where to start so we've just started small with a quick bit of Bible reading over breakfast. Already little J is getting quite into this tradition and has begun asking for Bible readings at other meal times. For ideas for family worship time check out my board on Pinterest.

As a slight aside, if you are looking for some help revitalising/refocusing your own personal Bible/study time how about giving this idea a go?

6. And finally, for a list of suggestions collated from other families click here.

I would love to hear about some of the traditions you have in your family too. Please share your stories in the comments section.

Love Stacey x

Pancake Saturday recipe

A recently instigated tradition in our house is Pancake Saturdays. There's nothing better than a lazy Saturday morning in your PJ's eating a special breakfast. It's taken me a few weeks to perfect my pancake recipe but here it is finally....

Perfect American Style Pancakes

1 cup self raising flour
1-2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 cup milk
1 large egg
1 tablespoon vegetable oil or melted butter
a few drops of vanilla essence

Step 1: Whisk together all the wet ingredients.

Step 2: In a separate bowl mix together all the dry ingredients.

Step 3: Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just wet - don't worry if it looks lumpy, it's supposed to.

Step 4: Melt some butter in a pan and put a spoonful or two of batter into the pan for each pancake. In the meantime, put a baking tray in the oven to keep the cooked pancakes on to keep warm while you cook more.

Step 5: Once the pancakes are golden on both sides they're done and ready to eat.

Step 6: Serve with frozen berries (defrosted first of course), sliced bananas and plenty of syrup.

Enjoy!

Six on Sunday

As I sit here listening to the sound of little J snoring over the baby monitor, I'm enjoying a rare moment of peace and chance to reflect on things that have inspired me or made me smile this week. In honour of my friend Lizzie's 5 on Friday, here's my 6 on Sunday:

1. We've just started getting into Geocaching. Armed with a hand-held GPS and a bunch of clues we went off in search of hidden treasure. It made our trip to the local park more exciting and it was great finding things we must have walked past many times without realising.

2. We've finally started doing family Bible time and it's going pretty well. We've been using some great material written by a friend of ours that you can get free online here (or even better buy a copy and support our dear friend, Glen). It's short enough to fit in before I rush off to work but it's meatier than most and very Christ focused.

3. Thanks to my new chores rota, I've actually found a better balance in life and had chance to sit and read articles and play on pinterest. I just found this great article that beautifully describes what it's like to be a stay at home parent, as well as giving tips on how to make more meaningful connections with our loved ones.

4. Even on the rainy days we've tried to get little J out of the house. Earlier this week we only made it as far as the cafe at the end of the street but what a great place! Comfy sofas, long communal tables that force us to be un-British and talk to strangers and the cheapest pot of Earl Grey in town. Add to that daily specials, friendly service, books/newspapers to read and cute little touches like jars of sugar cubes with mini tongs and you've got a winner of a place to while away a rainy afternoon.

5. There are many things I hope to teach my son and values I hope to instil. One is the importance of helping others. I'd really love to get our family involved in volunteering and doing regular mission trips abroad (any suggestions?). I just got an email about one of Save the Children's latest campaigns. Could you spare some time to read to a child who is struggling in school?

6. And finally, if you're struggling for ideas of what to do at home with the kids, pop on over to Nurture store and sign up for their free weekly emails packed with fun and educational ideas.

Saturday morning at our place

I'm definitely a better mama and better version of me when I'm focused and have a clear vision of how I want life to be. It's so easy to drift along and let life happen to us but that is when I struggle to get out of bed and take part in life. Being a wife and mother is not something that just happened to me, it is a God given calling that I need to grab hold of with both hands. Over the New Year holiday period I found myself asking questions about what kind of mama I want to be, what kind of home I want to run, what kind of atmosphere I want to create in my home and so on and so forth.

Thanks to our recent family time of reflection and refocussing, this Saturday there was a whole different atmosphere in the house.

Previously, Saturday mornings in the Gallagher household were very lazy and mostly involved mummy trying to stay in bed as long as possible while little J persistently poked her in the face and repeated the baby sign for "eat".

By 11am we had eaten breakfast, had family Bible study, unloaded the dishwasher, done laundry, made BBQ pulled pork, booked swimming lessons, rotated little J's toys, fixed the broken hoover, played with blocks, built a den and still found time to sit and read the paper while listening to classical music!

New Year, New start

As a new year dawned I stumbled across these two articles about reflecting on the old year and refocussing at the start of the new year.

I suggested to hubby that we sit down and consider some of the questions posed in the articles and we had a great time chatting about our highs and lows over the last year and our hopes for the new year. We made some promises to God and each other and came away with a renewed sense of vision.

There are several good habits I've been wanting to cultivate in my life. One is trying to find a balance with housework - a balance between making sure the house is clean but not spending so long cleaning that I don't get time to enjoy my family.  I'm going to try doing just one quick job each day and have written myself a wipe clean tick list for each month (I'm very much a lists kinda person and love the sense of achievement when I can tick things off). I've stocked up on cleaning supplies and created myself a handy little portable cleaning tool kit. For tips on getting organised, recipes for homemade cleaning products and a whole host of free printable organisational tools, check out cleanmama.

Another good habit I want to develop is making time in our day for family Bible study. Not easy with a little one but I knew I needed to stop making excuses and get on with it - what can possibly be more important that feeding my soul?! I've gotten so lazy in the mornings over the winter months that I've been skipping breakfast and getting ready in a rush just so I could stay under the duvet longer. Now we've made a pact to get up earlier to do Bible study and eat breakfast together. We've got some Bible study notes, set the alarm clock and even bought a big wall clock so I can see when I'm running late.

Other changes we've vowed to make include:
- Finding a new home group so we can grow together in Christ with others
- Making time to share our life with friends. We both miss our regular meals with our good friend Mike and hope to have friends round for dinner once a fortnight at least. So friends, please do invite yourselves round to our place for dinner! Also, we would love to go for more walks with friends so if anyone else is up for a good bit of fresh air, let us know.

Never fly with a one year old! (and the reasons I'll never fly American Airlines again)

Due to my hubby's family all being thousands of miles away, it was inevitable that we were going to have to take our little one on a plane eventually. Ever since he was born we've been debating over the optimum age to take him to the states to meet the rest of his family.

Well, we finally did it and I can safely say 14 months old is certainly NOT the best age for long haul air travel! The cheeky monkey decided to learn to walk during our travels and so during our five hour lay over in Chicago all he did was run around the airport non stop! He ran into areas he wasn't allowed, stole some guy's phone, unplugged one kid's Nintendo DS and tried to run off with one lady's suitcase.

Flying with a kid is certainly a lot different than flying without. Usually I'd watch at least two films on the way to the USA but with little J constantly turning my screen on and off it took me nearly 4 hours to watch one film. And if you thought it was difficult to eat your dinner on one of those tray tables normally, try doing it with a small child on your lap who insists on sharing it all with you.

In the last three weeks we have been on 5 flights, two 5 hour bus journeys and two 4 hour car journeys. The boy has coped pretty well considering and we have learnt a few things along the way that I thought I would share with you.

1. Sticking to normal routine was really helpful. I was dreading how Josiah would handle jet lag and sleeping in weird places. We managed to book flights that worked well around his nap time, took his teddy bear and used breast feeding him to sleep as my ultimate sleep aid. (Breast feeding during take off and landing also stopped him from yelling due to his ears popping.) During the travel, I kept to his usual nap routine according to UK time and then when we got to USA I kept him awake until his normal bedtime by USA time. The result was he slept all the way through the night from day one instead of waking up at 2am like I expected.

On the way home we had an over night flight and little J was awake for all but the last hour of it! We arrived in Heathrow at 8am all looking pretty shocking and red eyed. Even though we all just wanted to sleep, we instantly reverted to normal UK routine and went for breakfast. We kept Josiah awake until the start of our 5 hour bus journey home which nicely coincided with his usual nap time. We all slept on the coach home but were still so tired when we got home that we had no trouble falling asleep at our usual UK bedtimes.

2. Take plenty of snacks. We all get grumpy when we're hungry right and eating is a great way to cure boredom too. I took what I thought would be way too many snacks and the boy munched through them all. Don't give too much sugar to a small child confined on a plane though! On car journeys I found the best snacks were ones he can feed himself (bananas, fruit pouches, oaty bars) to save keep reaching over to him.

3. Book 'sky cots' way in advance. We were told to just ask when we checked in. When we got there we found there was only one sky cot available on our flight of over 200 people and it had already been booked! If you're wondering if your child is able to use a sky cot, they are usually fine up to 24lbs, but check with your airline to be sure.

4. Pick the right airline. During our travels we flew with three different airlines. Before having kids all airlines seemed much alike to me apart from some having slightly better movie choice. This time around I noticed a massive difference.

British Airways gave us seats near the front and over to the side so we had more space. They even moved the lady who was supposed to sit next to us so Josiah had his own seat. As soon as we arrived at the gate they ushered us through to priority boarding and got us on ahead of everyone else. US airways were equally good at allowing us to board early and offered us sandwiches for Josiah even though we hadn't paid for a seat for him.

American Airlines however, really don't know how to handle kids! No announcement that passengers with kids under 5 years old can board first (though when we did push to the front on the recommendation of another passenger the lady did let us through). Our seats on both flights were shockingly bad. First flight we were right at the very back, furthest away from any fire exits and last to get off. The engine noise was really loud and we were totally unable to hear any announcements (not sure they even did a safety briefing!). The second flight was an 8 hour over night flight and for some reason they decided the best place to seat a wriggly one year old would be in the middle of a row of 5 people so he can annoy not only his parents but several passengers either side. The poor guy next to me was trying to sleep and Josiah was trying to lean over and poke him and work out what the face mask he was wearing was all about. The seats all had TV screens in the back and Josiah wanted to lean over and see what the other passengers were watching too. It was a very looooong flight!!

Next time we fly I will definitely ask for more details about where our seats are when we check in and try to switch if needed. To find out about the layout of your flight and the best seats for your family, you can use this handy little site.

Despite all the challenges of travel with a little one, we did have a great time. Little J had all kids of adventures - riding tractors, chasing puppies, meeting new friends, staying out past bedtime and running around getting used to the freedom of walking. It was definitely worth the effort :)

You know you're a momma when...

During a rare moment of peace, I was browsing the net and found this fun little article about motherhood. It made me giggle so thought I'd share it with you all and share my thoughts on a few points too. So here goes:

7. FREEDOM! As a mum, any time to yourself is bliss, even if it's doing something as dull as shopping.

10. Momma's have an in built baby sensor that detects the slightest sound/movement of any child. For this reason I make hubby sleep with the baby monitor next to his head. He can sleep through anything, while I hear as soon as the boy makes a sound. When he was still sleeping in our room I woke whenever he rolled over!

12. Sad but true - sleep is what momma's crave most, even more than sex. Pre-baby our evenings went along the lines of put dinner on, do chores while it cooks, eat dinner in front of the TV, go to bed and enjoy naked time with hubby. Now, by the time we get to bed I'm shattered and often fall asleep before I've even got my clothes off. Began to realise we needed to come up with creative new tactics to fit our new lifestyle. Most recent tactic is to plan evening meals where you shove everything in a pan and throw in the oven for half hour. We put the boy to bed, one of us preps dinner while the other does chores, and then while dinner is cooking........ ;)

13. Same goes for a bath without rubber ducks/boats/other bath toys or a small child trying to push your head under the water when you try to wash your hair.

14. Yeah and if you thought pooing while someone is chatting to you is bad, try pooing when a small child is trying to shove your bum off the seat so they can look behind you and see what's going on!

15. And use wet wipes to wash on mornings when it all goes to pieces and you don't get time for a shower.

18. YES!!! I understand the boy is just discovering food and keen to try new things but I just want to be able to eat something, anything, without having to share it with him!

21. I'm working on it

24. Yep. In those first few weeks I dread to think how rarely I showered/brushed my teeth!

So if you want to bless us momma's, give us some child free time to lock ourselves in the bathroom, take a long soak in the tub and eat chocolate to our hearts content.

Autumn days when the grass is jewelled and the........

Autumn is officially here and winter is hot on its heels. Weather like this always puts me in the mood for pyjama days, baking, home made soup and mulled beverages. Thanks to hubby taking little J to Who let the dad's out this morning, I had plenty of free time for baking. I finally got round to making the cheese and ham muffins I mentioned the other week and can report they were a success.


I did however learn that forgetting to grease the muffin tin is a major error as they are now glued to the cake cases!

Way more exciting than the muffins is the very autumnal apple cake that I made. I thought I would share the recipe with you all, so here it is:

Apple Cake

125ml vegetable oil (original recipe says double that but I found it way too much and experimented a little)
2 medium eggs
200g caster sugar (original recipe says 250g but I found it too sweet. Extra sugar gives it a nice crust though)
275g plain flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp salt
500g apple (peeled, cored and diced)

1. Preheat the oven to 180C
2. Mix the oil and eggs until they go white and foamy
3. Add the sugar, flour, bicarbonate, cinnamon, vanilla essence and salt and mix it really well. You'll end up  with a super thick sticky mixture.
4. Fold in the diced apple. (Might be a bit of a challenge cos the mixture is so thick - certainly will work those arm muscles!)
5. Put it in a 20cm x 30cm tin that has been greased and floured. I didn't have one that size so used a 10 inch round tin instead and it turned out just fine.
6. Put it in the oven for about 40 mins and go put your feet up with a cuppa tea.
7. Check it's cooked through and then leave it in the tin for 10 mins before you take it out. (Just enough time to make another brew ready to enjoy with a nice warm slice of fresh cake!)

For other great baking ideas, check out my beer bread recipe or Christmas cookies recipe.

Happy baking

The things we do for our kids?!

I think if people fully knew what parenthood involved ahead of time no one would ever have kids. There are certain things that you find yourself doing as a parent that are just gross. For example:

1. Clearing up sick.  Went down to get little bear up from his nap the other day and found him totally covered in sick. He was sat chatting to his bear with sick all down the side of his face, all down his front, all over his sheets and his poor bear was drowning in it! Yuck. I think I handled it pretty well - stripped the boy's clothes off, lifted him out of bed, bundled it all in a heap inside his bedsheet so I wouldn't have to look at it and shoved it in the washing machine. Phew, done!

2. Clearing up poo. Changing nappies is pretty gross but you kind of get used to it. Poo floating in the bath though, that's another story. I'm not so bothered if it's just him in the bath but we often have family bathtime where we all jump in together and splash around. The other day the bath was full of bubbles, we were all having fun. Then the boy started squatting and pulling 'that face'. By the time we realised it was too late, the damage was done. Trouble was there were so many bubbles we couldn't even see for sure what he'd done. You knew it was there but couldn't tell exactly where. Was that a rubber duck that just touched my foot or was it.......the POO!?! Hubby jumped out of the bath lightning fast and I wasn't far behind him.

3. Touching/eating gross stuff. Little J loves his food and loves to try new things - especially things on other people's plates. Recently he realised that sharing is a two way thing and that he can let other people eat his food too. He's started offering us fistfuls of his food every now and then - a half eaten rice cake, a cheerio that's been on the floor, some pasta that's been in his mouth and been spat out again. As a parent this leaves me with a dilemma. I really want to encourage this new found desire to share with others......but I really don't want to eat that stuff. In the end I decided to just grit my teeth, smile and say 'thank you hunny' as he shoves his slimy little handful of food in my mouth. Yuck!

So why do we have kids?! It's not all bad. In fact, there are some great moments. Play time with little J is amazing. His laughter is addictive. Today he discovered how fun slides are and squealed with enjoyment every time he hit the crash mat at the bottom. He even discovered how to go down on his own on his belly. From now on trips to the park will involve something more than him insisting on playing on the swing for the entire time - hooray! 

Playing hide and seek with a one year old is also awesome. J thought he was so clever hiding under a blanket while I pretended to not see him and look everywhere else in the room. He couldn't even contain his excitement at how clever he was. As I pretended to look behind the coffee table he giggled with glee thinking "silly mummy can't find me". So Cute!!!

More lunchtime snacks

Just thought I'd share with you my latest finds on my quest for a more exciting lunch.  First up is this recipe for cheesy chive eggy toast. Quick and easy to make and gets little J some extra protein. As you can see from the smile on his face, he loved it.

My other great discovery is frittata. How did I not discover this great portable feast sooner?! Frittata is basically a big flat omelette that's cooked in a frying pan then topped with cheese and finished in the oven. Today I cooked this great cherry tomato and pea frittata. In my case I don't have an oven safe frying pan so I just cooked it in an oven proof dish instead - fried onions on the bottom, eggy mix poured over, cheese on top and then put in the oven at 200C for about 45mins or so until it had cooked through. It's a great way to use up any leftovers in the fridge as you can put just about anything in it.

Less toys, more fun

I'm starting to realise that having less toys helps J to grow more.

The other day we got home from a busy day with friends and both the boy and I were super tired. I'd hoped we might both have a little nap but it soon became clear J wasn't gonna go along with my plans. I got him out of his cot and brought him into our bed. As usual, he instantly started climbing over me and exploring the things my husband and I have left on the bedside table.

J got hold of an almost empty loo roll and amused himself for ages tearing off the last few pieces and shredding it, using it as a telescope and pretending it was a trumpet. Then he started dropping bits of shredded paper over the side of the bed to watch them flutter to the floor. One simple household object allowed him to work on imagination and both his gross and fine motor skills. Who needs toys, eh?!

A few weeks ago I started rotating J's toys so he has only a handful of toys and books out at a time and I've really seen him learn so much more in a short space of time. I read this article the other day about the benefits of not having too many toys and I'm finding it to be so true. We want the best for our kids and it's so easy to think that involves letting them have every cool toy out there but just think about all the things they will miss out on learning if their little lives get too cluttered. Less really is more!

The best thing we could ever do...

As parents we all have our different styles of parenting and different ideas about what to allow our kids to eat/watch/play/wear etc. We try to do our best to protect our children from things that could be potentially harmful in some way. I think, particularly as first time parents, it's easy to get tied up in knots worrying about what is safe for our kids.

Do we have enough smoke detectors/stair gates/fire guards in the house? Will he become obese if I feed on demand/let him snack between meals? Will he get skin cancer because I only used SPF 30 on him that one time? Will he have a low IQ because he watches trashy TV/ I didn't make him listen to classical music/ I forgot to take my folic acid once or twice during pregnancy? Will standing near the microwave give him brain damage? Perhaps I should only let him wear velcro fastening shoes so he won't trip over his laces and hit his head and die........

Today, it suddenly occurred to me that no matter how hard I try to protect J, he will never be invincible. I can smother him in sun cream to prevent skin cancer, teach him to look before crossing the road to avoid getting hit by a bus and make him eat only organic food in the hope it will make him extra healthy and live longer but the simple fact is that death is a part of life.  There is nothing we as parents can do to change that. Well......maybe there is one thing I could do....

The best thing I can possibly do for J is to introduce him to Jesus and pray that he will come to love and trust Jesus for himself. The Bible promises that "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him (Jesus) will not die but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) What a great gift to give to my child - to live in a loving relationship with his Maker that will continue for his whole life and on into eternity! Death will still be a part of his life but, by trusting in Jesus, death will not be the end of the story.

Has anyone ever introduced you to Jesus? If not, why not try reading a biography about him? There are four to choose from in the Bible written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Don't worry if you don't own a Bible - you can read online here. Investigate for yourself and see if you think Jesus is worth introducing your kids to. I'm sure you won't be disappointed!

Lunchtime snacks

Do you ever find yourself running out of ideas for things to give the kids for lunch? Bored of eating the same old sandwiches? Why not give these savoury cupcakes a try - they make great finger food for little people and you could even get the kids to help make them.

Cheddar and sweetcorn cupcakes

1 small tin sweetcorn, drained (I used sweetcorn leftover from dinner the night before)
190g self raising flour
55g grated cheddar
good pinch of paprika
1/2 tsp baking powder
55g unsalted butter (I used margarine)
2 medium eggs
120ml milk (I used full fat milk as J is too young for semi skimmed yet)
4 spring onions, finely chopped (I didn't have any so missed this out and they still tasted good)

1. Preheat oven to 180C/Gas 6 and line a cupcake tin with paper cases.

2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, 40g of cheese, paprika, sweetcorn and baking powder.

3. Add in melted butter/margarine and mix well.

4. In a measuring jug beat the eggs and milk together. Pour into the flour and cheese mixture and stir well.

5. Spoon into cake cases and sprinkle over the remaining cheese and a little paprika and bake in the oven for 20 mins until golden.

Here is another variation on the recipe that I haven't tried yet - cheese and ham muffins.

Happy lunchtime!

Lazy roast dinner recipe

I'm a big fan of meals that I can cook for the whole family instead of having to cook something different for our one year old. I'm also a big fan of meals that have minimal washing up. When I discovered this recipe that fits both those criteria I knew it would be a winner. We had it for dinner tonight and it was great - just like any good roast dinner but so much simpler and less messy. It only took five minutes to cut up the veg and throw it all together in one pan and then I had 45 mins to enjoy relaxing with my husband while waiting for it to be ready.

Child's play - part 2

Do you ever find that despite your child having loads of toys they would much rather play with anything other than their toys?!

Recently I noticed J was barely touching his over flowing box of toys and was getting into all kinds of mischief. Then I read this great article about toy rotation and decided to give it a go. I split all his toys and books into three boxes and put one in the lounge, one in his room and one in our room (to keep him occupied when we want to stay under the duvet for longer on a Saturday morning).  Each box contains at least one ball, a soft toy, a shaker or noise maker, something textured and something that is a bit of a puzzle (stacking rings, shape sorter etc) as well as a cloth book, at least one textured book, a book with flaps or similar and a variety of other books. Every couple of weeks I rotate the boxes.

The difference has been huge. Now J loves playing with his toys and can easily see exactly what is in the box without having to pull everything out. He's playing with things that he doesn't usually play with, reading his books more and amusing himself for longer periods of time. It also means I don't end up reading the same couple of books over and over at bedtime!

I also sat and wrote a list of all his toys and split them into categories like the blog suggested. It really did help me to see where J had a lot of similar type toys and was perhaps lacking in other types and has helped to influence what we buy him for Christmas.

While we're on the subject of child's play, we discovered a great game to play on rainy days stuck at home - HOME MADE BOWLING! We grabbed some empty plastic bottles from the recycling pile, set them up in our long narrow kitchen, got a soft ball from J's toy box and began to bowl. J is too little to know how to throw yet but, as I knocked the bottles down and whooped with joy at my achievement, he squealed with excitement and handed me the ball to throw again.

Why not give it a go? :)