Jayden heads to school camp

I thought it was supposed to get easier with the 2nd child, but I found sending Jayden off to school camp a lot harder than Taryn.  I struggled with the decision of whether to go as a parent helper or not (I went on both of Taryn's camps), but decided it would be good for him to go alone as I felt he would probably cling a little if I was there and rely on me for things he needs to learn to do and cope with on his own.
     So as I battled with what would be better for him, yet not wanting it to appear as though 1 child was being treated differently than the other, I also struggled wandering if he would be OK, what would his behaviour be like, how would he cope in the evenings when he really needs quite wind down time, how would parents that don't know about his ADHD cope with any outbursts, if he got wound up, could one of them calm him down, would he get one of his awful juvenile migraines while away and a whole host of other things.  I've always kept him close, so this is all new territory for me.
     We talked a lot about behaviour, about staying calm, about keeping voices down, about quiet time, ensuring he gets to sleep early and generally just being well behaved and nice to other people.  We packed his gear and armed with the higher end dosage of his meds, have sent him off for 3 days at camp.
     I'm confident of the ability of the teachers and parent helpers that I know who are at camp to take care of him, but I still can't help the worry creeping in just a little about how he will be.  So, I am sitting here trying to  trust my decision was the right one for him.  I guess we'll know soon enough!
    

Cheese & Chilli Mini Loaves

I am so loving the mini loaf pan mum bought me a while back and seem to be using it so much lately.  This weekend I had a hankering for some cheese and chilli bread (a bread I used to be able to buy from a specialist bakery in town when I was working there).  So, I thought hey just make some and I did and it was yum.  The mini loaves were just the right size for a serving too and when I went back later in the afternoon for a snack, I cut one length ways into 3 and it made 3 cute rectangular pieces of mini toast -that were darn hard to get back out of the toaster, but super yummy toasted with a little spread of butter (yeah the real stuff).  Mike wants them again - maybe in a proper sized pan???  Recipe below.

Place 300mls of warm water in a bowl with 1 tblspn of sugar and stir to dissolve sugar.  Sprinkle over 2 tspns of yeast (I use Edmonds Surebake with the bread improvers in it.  Designed for bread makers, but works just as well in handmade bread I find).  Allow to sit and foam a little for about 5 minutes.  Then add:

3 cups flour

1tspn salt

2tblspns milk powder

1 tblspn oil

And bring together with a knife or spoon, then knead until fairly smooth. Pop into a greased bowl and cover with a piece of greased glad wrap and place in a warm place to double in size (about 20 minutes).  

Then you can either:

a) roll out and sprinkle over 1 cup of grated cheese and a sprinkling of chilli flakes (to your desired heat factor), then roll up, cut into 8, seal each end of the cut pieces together and pop into a greased mini pan, or;

b) add 1 cup grated cheese and a sprinkling of chilli seeds into the bowl and knead them together, then shape into desired shape, or divide for greased  pans and then (with both methods);

Cover with greased glad wrap again and set aside again in a warm place to double in size, while you preheat the oven to 180 oC.  Bake for around 20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

Remove from pan quite quickly so as to avoid a moisture build up around the crust.

Enjoy!

Valentine's Day Cookies

At the Friday night crop before Valentine's day, Miss Wendy arrived with these super gorgeous and yummy cookies.  She was bagging a whole heap to give out (some poor peeps might have missed out cause they weren't at Friday night Crop), but we certainly enjoyed ours.  Thanks Miss Wendy and Vienna.

De-cluttering the office - Again!

So, in my huge efforts to de-clutter the rest of the house, all the little bits and pieces that had no home, or that I needed to sort; give away; get on trademe; throw out etc, all ended up in the office (as they always do).  So for the past few months, I have tended not to go into the office as 1) you had to try and step over everything to get to anything else, 2) You couldn't really find anything anyway and 3) it was just all too overwhelming.

Then, one day I needed to get in there and do some work on the computer that I couldn't do on my laptop.  After going in and out twice, I had had enough.  I stopped the computer work and started to sort through some of the stuff.  It's only half way there and even some of the sorted stuff will be moving on to new homes soon, but certainly made a huge difference already and I don't mind going into the office any more.

I'll post more pics once I have done the final clean out.

Banana & Honey Bread Mini Loafs

With the heat at the end of January/beginning of February, fruit was just not lasting - especially the banana's, so when I spotted a recipe for banana & honey bread, I thought I'd give it a go.  It called for it to be baked in large loaf pans, but I decided to make mini loaves in the 8 slot mini loaf pan my mum bought me I while back (I use it for so many different things - just love it).  They were super yum, but can't locate the recipe again (I think it might have been from a magazine I threw out!).  If I find it, I'll post the recipe on here.

Yay, found the recipe, so here it is:

75g butter

1/3 cup each: sugar, honey

2 eggs room temperature

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 large)

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

pinch salt

1/2 cup walnut pieces

Preheat oven to 180 

Spray 2 mini loaf pans generously with oil

Cream butter and sugar and honey till light and fluffy

Add the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition

Stir in mashed bananas

Sift flour, baking soda and salt.  Fold gently into the butter and banana mix to combine.  Lastly fold in the walnuts

Spoon the mixture evenly into the tins and bake 18-20 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of loaves comes out clean.

Jayden's Puzzles

Jayden loves puzzles (and is very good at them).  He usually gets out a 1000 piece puzzle and finishes it within 2 weeks.  He had completed all the ones we had and was starting on a second round of them, but not finding the challenging enough.  His aunty Michelle bought him this one for Christmas.  He loved it and found it really hard, as there was so much of the same colour.  However, he persevered for 5 weeks and finally completed it, feeling very proud of his achievement.  

Big Girl's Room

We decided to get Taryn a new posturepaedic mattress - only, they didn't make them in 190cm lengths any more, only 200cm, which was too long for her bed. This meant a whole new bed.   I had also said many years ago that when she became a teenager, we would get her a double bed to spread out in, so this was the perfect opportunity to do both.

We stripped her room out.  Man did she have a lot of stuff in there.  This is what my lounge looked like for a couple of hours during the changeover.

Then I made her check through everything before it was allowed back into the room and she actually got rid of a lot of stuff.  Here's her room when we'd finished.

All I have to do now is finish painting her bookcase (and perhaps shorten or replace the curtains) and it will be done.

Mum Turns 70

Mum turned 70 in January, so we had the family around for dinner and some drinks.

And a yummy selection of puddings too.

My brother Brian and sister-in-law Cathie came over for the occasion, bringing my adorable nephew Conner with them.  He;s technology mad and love digital cameras and laptops.

My nephew turned up, with the haircut I had refused to give him when he was staying with us.  I asked him if I could take a nice photo of him and this is the pose he gave me!  Teenagers!!!  I do however love him to bits.

We just went with the 1 candle on the cake!

Taryn and Connor (who was more than ready for bed I think).

A Shower with Vienna

Vienna joined me for a shower during camp clean.  She squealed when I filled my mouth with water and squirted it out, thinking it was sooo funny!  Then she sat and had a play while I dried off.

Where are those toes?  I know there in there somewhere.

Hmm, you smell sweet enough V, no need for that!

Vienna at Camp Clean

I finally got to give Vienna her Christmas present at Camp clean - a set of books on numbers, shapes etc in the Hungry Little Caterpillar theme.  She really got into opening it, then got straight into having a look through them.

Once done, she went and checked out what Wendy was doing (cleaning out the cupboards) and decided she could fit in there!  Man she's so totally cute!

All curled up

Whilst at camp clean - Jayden helped me with the mattresses that we were recovering.  Whilst Glenna was sewing and I was sorting the material, Jayden decided to have a wee lie down!