Earlier this week I accidentally outted my new job on Nic Avery’s blog. Nic was interviewing me about being a full time WFH mum and I mentioned where I work. Fact is, Mumtastic – the awesome new website I’m editing – doesn’t ‘officially’ launch until next week. Ah well. You read it here first! Or…
Archives for October 2015
Wholemeal buttermilk pancakes
Do you have a go-to special breakfast? Ours is buttermilk pancakes with bacon and maple syrup. Oh my, we love them so! Health warnings be damned – bacon is just too important. This is my favourite buttermilk pancake recipe that we’ve been making for years and years. I’ve got my pancake making down to an…
Permission to do nothing
Last week I was laid up in hospital with a lot of time to ponder. I mostly pondered how bad hospital life is, but occasionally my thoughts did wander elsewhere. Apart from the fact that it was a very bad time for me, it was a very good time for me. I thought, “It’s not…
Everyday rituals | Picnic
At the end of ‘one of those days’, when everything goes wrong and the children insist on telling you about it over andover with that special whine they reserve just for parents, a little break is in order. Now, it’s tempting to cook a simple meal for the kids to eat, rinse them through the…
5 characteristics I think good parents need
Right now I’m in the ‘golden age’ of parenting. That magical space between the utter hell of raising small children (0-5 years) and the utter hell of raising bigger children (12+ years). This is a unique space to be in when you have three children, for it’s rare for all three to fall between the…
Weekend Rewind | Few words
I have very few words in me tonight, but I wanted to thank everyone for your support through a very trying week. I was in hospital for five days, which seemed like a very, very, very, very, very long time. Yes, there are benefits from forced rest and hours open to contemplation. But, no, there…
Quick mix cookies
Sometimes you don’t want to muck around making the world’s best chocolate chip cookies. Because biscuits like that involve creaming the sugar and butter for a rather long time. Sometimes you just want a quick mix biscuit recipe that you can whip up in a storm. This is that recipe. It will take you 5…
How to make a smash book (and why you’d want to!)
Years ago when our firstborns were babes in arms my sister Al and I decided that we would become scrapbookers. We had visions of ourselves spending long afternoons lovingly cutting out photos and embellishing them with… well, scrapbooky stuff. To be honest, our scrapbooking dreams were rather hazy. We bought some cardboard, we even visited…
5 ways to help your kids relax before bed
We’ve all been there. You pick the kids up from school / pre-school / daycare / the floor and race off to swimming, change them into their swimmers (“Just put these ones on… you can wear your favourites next week… they were in the wash… just put them on”), they swim, swim, swim, change out…
Chicken and leek pies
I love making these chicken and leek pies for family picnics. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever made them to eat at home! There’s just something about a pie that demands outside eating. These pies seem a bit fussy, but they’re really not. You can add in extra vegetables if you like a vegie flavour…