Meals on a Monday

I've started getting pretty into this cooking malarky since I accidentally became a housewife (shhhh don't tell anyone) but I'm really not one for making anything fancy that takes a lot of preparation time. If it takes longer than about half an hour (not including cooking/baking time of course) then the chances are that I'm already bored and have wandered off to order a takeaway. I'm a big fan of meals that look super impressive but don't actually require a lot of skill or patience, as I don't possess much of either when it comes to cooking ;-)

I'm not going to start with today's meal as we're moving house this week so in a bid to a) keep it simple and b) empty the freezer, I'm making sausage and mash. Scrummy though this classic meal is, I'm sure that you all already know what it looks like and how to make it!

So starting next Monday (or actually, more likely the one after due to moving) I'll be reporting from my brand new and bigger kitchen (!) and I will attempt to share with you some of the more interesting/successful recipes I attempt. I can't promise that I'll always make them on a Monday (in fact I probably hardly ever will - who cooks fancy food on a Monday night??) but I'll post it on a Monday anyway because really, how rubbish does Meals on a [insert day not beginning with 'M'] sound?!

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The one with a brief comeback

I know I said I was having a blog break and things are manic around here with the move but something is playing on my mind at the moment and I want to record it so that if I'm right, I can say "I knew it!!!" and if I'm wrong... well this post will never be mentioned again :-)

I made a semi joking remark in my last Emma's Diary post about being two days late starting my new pack of contraceptive pills and having an 'oops' incident before I realised.

I know the chances of pregnancy resulting from this are incredibly slim but I'm experiencing a few weird déjà vu's (or a few imagined déjà vu's more likely!) from my two week wait with Oliver that are making me wonder slightly. The main one being light cramps. I am in the middle of my pill pack now, nowhere even close to my time of the month - I NEVER get cramps at any other time. So what are these? Another reason being 'Are they? Aren't they?' sensitive nipples. I remember this one from before, they aren't exactly sensitive but I keep being aware of them which of course, having had nipples for the last 25 years, I'm generally pretty used to them and don't normally do this! Thirdly I'm experiencing mild nausea exactly like my previous morning sickness... before you all laugh in my face at the crazy earliness of it, I started experiencing nausea with Oliver before I even tested positive (admittedly not quite this early though) so it's not completely ridiculous. My fourth (and least plausible) reason is just this weird heightened spatial awareness thing I get with my stomach - it's like it's bloated (which it is!) and I feel like there's something in there that I don't want anyone to come anywhere near. I feel uncomfortable with Oliver sitting on my tummy, like he's squashing something. Plus if I'm honest, I just kinda have 'a feeling' and I was right last time.

This is probably all just because the possibility of pregnancy is playing on my mind and making me feel these symptoms but they're all familiar from my first (successful) pregnancy so I wanted to record it anyway! If I never mention this again, you can assume I'm not and don't mock me :-)

I don't know how I feel about this possibility - it would be completely unplanned and far sooner than we had imagined but I can feel that if I let myself I could start getting really excited over the idea of it so I just keep reminding myself that I'm almost certainly not which would be a far better outcome if we're being sensible about it. So we're watching this space...

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The one where I wonder (When is the right time to have another?)

Yes, you did read the subject of this post correctly and no, I am not planning to become one of the TTC bloggers just yet! However I am finding that it's an ever increasing conversation topic between hubby and I...

Is there such a thing as a right time? I feel very conflicted over the whole issue. On the one hand, I'm so very broody already and the sight of a newborn baby practically makes my ovaries clench but on the other hand, Oliver is only 7 and half months and the idea of actually having another baby anytime soon seems not only ludicrous to me but perhaps rather unfair on him. However, then I started thinking about the main arguments for waiting before having second babies.

The first argument, I imagine, is usually money. For us (although I am not naive enough to think that having a second baby won't cost us anything!) the money isn't quite so much of an issue because we have made all the big, expensive baby purchases already with our first one and also I am staying off work indefinitely with Oliver anyway so the whole 'childcare cost for two' problem is eliminated.

The other reason that is usually given for waiting before having another that it's not fair on the first child to have to share you so soon. While I can completely understand this one, people seem to forget that only a first baby will ever get the luxury of being an only child! What about the poor, 'hard done by' second, third (and beyond) babies of the world that are born having to share you? Nobody worries about them do they? ;-)

I suppose the decision (and the reasons behind the making of it) really are different for every couple. The reason we have chosen to wait a little while before having another isn't because of money or Oliver at all really - it's for me, selfishly wanting to feel like myself for another year or so before once again becoming a large, lumbering, non alcohol drinking, bundle of hormones :-) Although that said, I accidentally started my pack of pills two days late this month and didn't realise so perhaps the decision will be taken out of my hands.....


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The one with the heart shaped cookies

Hiatus clearly means to me "Write more!"
Still there's nothing like saying you won't be doing something to make you want to do it I suppose...

I recently subscribed to My Cake Decorating because I thought it looked really fun and the free gifts actually looked pretty useful!

So I couldn't resist sharing yesterday's creations with you.... not bad for a first attempt I thought! They taste pretty good for breakfast too ;-)

Aren't they pretty?

The one with the new house

Ok so I'm back briefly by popular demand *ahem*... I've been asked by many to explain myself regarding our 'sudden' house move. I thought I might as well make a bit of effort and explain properly so **WARNING** lots of photos!!

On Sunday, David was on the phone to his parents and they happened to mention that our rabbits make a lot of noise with thumping at night (presumably at foxes) and that it wakes up their dog who then starts to bark... so all in all, not an ideal scenario I'll admit. However we hadn't planned on moving from our flat until we had a deposit to actually buy somewhere, although with summer around the corner and Oliver's mobility and curiosity (and possessions!!!) gradually increasing we were both starting to feel that a) we need more space and b) a garden would be really nice.

So David decided to have a look on Rightmove 'just to see' what was out there and stumbled across this little gem...

Now although it's very pretty (and there's so much potential for making that front garden lovely) I would have discounted this place straight away because I have a silly "They're for oooolllldddd people" prejudice against bungalows. In fact I usually just filter them out when doing searches like this, which is why I'm thankful that David was the one looking! As we looked further into it, we discovered that....

... it has a lovely entrance hall which is as big as a room.

Which leads to...

... on the left, a decent sized lounge which would nicely house our giant corner sofa (and many wouldn't, due to their shape or size)

... and on the right, the master bedroom (which we will be decorating!) which is big enough for a kingsize bed, two big wardrobes and two chest of drawers with plenty of room to spare. This is necessary with the amount of clothes/shoes we both have!

There is a seperate dining room...

...(which will also be decorated)...

...and kitchen...

...(this might seem like a small thing but it's something David has dreamed about since we first moved into a flat with a single kitchen/lounge/dining room)...

... although it does only have one bathroom where our old place (rather unecessarily!) had two...

... less for cleaning I say!!

We also have two more bedrooms...

... the bigger of which will be Oliver's...

... and the smaller of which will be a study and has a door (as does the kitchen) which leads to our pièce de résistance...

THE GARDEN!!!

Greenhouse, summerhouse, patio....

... and just general awesomeness.

I think we're going to like it here (once all the decorating etc. is done!) and I can't wait!

To read all about our updates to this house click here >>>

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The one with haitus

Despite all my best intentions, I think the next few weeks are going to an unofficial 'hiatus' from blogging for me. To cut a long story short, we are soon moving to a bigger house with a garden (so excited about it too but more on that another time!), David is working later evenings and also has a dissertation to finish by mid May which means Oliver's bedtime is my responsibility for now and our weekends are absolutely chock full until the end of May with hen nights, weddings, christenings and birthdays. Somewhere in all this we have to find time to pack our lives up, move them to the next town over and then get our current place cleaned etc. for the landlord, ready to be rented out to *sniff* new people.

So my apologies people but I guess sometimes living your life just gets in the way of writing about it ;-) I'll be back soon xoxo

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The one where it's holiday time!!

Oliver's passport has arrived! In super quick time too... I only (finally!) sent off the application a couple of weeks ago! Now nothing (not even money for once - my lovely lump sum of holiday pay was deposited this month) can stand in the way of our September holiday :-)

Very surreal. My very own baby has his very own passport! As David put it, "He's a real person now!"

Now all that remains is to choose where to go.... ideas for holidays with 1 year olds anyone?

Edited to say: Sorry I didn't give you guys much of a chance but we booked somewhere!!! We're going to Tenerife on the 21st September for a week!!! We splashed out a bit more than we intended (well ok, a lot more) but the place is really gorgeous and it is our first holiday since before our wedding in 2010 (no we didn't have a honeymoon... cue the violins please!) Anyway I just hope the place lives up to its shiny, 'Travel brochure' image....

The one with a few technical tweaks

Let's test Mellow Mummy's amazing work shall we???

Practicing my sitting up

And it works like a charm :-)
(I was testing border stuff in case you're remotely interested!)

The one with a bloggy makeover

No, I am not ditching my gorgeous blog design already (although it would be rather like me to do so!), I was thinking more along the lines of a content makeover. My posts have been severely lacking of late, mostly due to my scrummy yet high maintenance almost 7 month old, partly as I've discovered that I actually quite like cooking (shhh don't tell anyone!) and a little bit because I'm on something of a mission where keeping our flat tidy is concerned. Don't worry, I'm sure I'll become a proper mummy and give up eventually ;-)

Anyway, this content makeover. I don't want to make any drastic changes really but I find that the posts that seem to draw the most interest are the ones that actually have a point (no sh!t Sherlock haha) as opposed to my general "Today I fed my 6 month old puréed broccoli and then I drank wine and ate cake" type of posts. My downfall with regular blogging is that I don't always have anything to write about! So my plan is this... To start thinking of a few regular posts I can do, perhaps on certain days of the week so that I have some ideas of what to write about before I begin.

Of course by the time this gets implemented it will probably be May already...... But Rome wasn't built in a day now was it!?

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The one with (Children's finances... so many options!)

I often find my brain ticking over the subject of money for Oliver's future. When he was two weeks old, one of our first trips out was to the bank to open a savings account for him so I could put in all the money he'd already accumulated (at two weeks old!) and as a place for future birthday/Christmas/miscellaneous money gifts to go. Which of course, got me thinking about putting other money aside for him. These days, the deposit for a house in our area can easily be £30,000 (almost certainly more in the years to come) and realistically who can save that amount of money and still live at the same time? Not many I suspect... you'd practically have to start saving the day you were b... oh right :-)

So David and I made the decision to try and save all of Oliver's child benefit in an ISA. The account is in my name for two reasons, one being that child benefit cannot be paid into an account in the child's own name. Of course you could just transfer it but that brings us to reason number two - if it goes into an account in Oliver's name, he gains control of it when he turns 18 in most cases. We worked out the Oliver's child benefit could be worth about £17,000 by then (assuming it isn't reduced or taken away entirely in the near future, as I've heard rumour of!) and would you want to let an 18 year old loose with money like that? I think not!

He also has an ISA in his name which I pay a small sum into each month. I am the type of person who saves better (ie. misses it less) if it's lot of little amounts going to different places rather than some huge sum disappearing once a month into the banking ether. Don't put all your eggs in one basket right?? (This does however, conflict terribly with my desperate OCDish need to keep things all in one place haha!)

What sort of things do other people have (or plan to have!) in place for their children's futures, far away as they may seem now!? Or am I the only one who is this control freakish ;-)