Somewhere, some how my mum is laughing at me

Right now I’m getting the distinct impression that some how, somewhere, my mum is laughing at me. You see as a child I was a fussy eater, famously my parents could only take us all out to a resturant if they served omelette, as this is all that I would eat. I’m still a bit fussy I have to admit, I don’t like white fish or sea food generally, not keen on great big lumps of meat and I don’t like most beans, also can’t stand raw tomato, but that’s me, at least I eat vegetables now, which is something my two children don’t. So history has turned around on me and now I’m cooking for fussy eaters and my mum somewhere is having a good old laugh about it, I’m sure. Today in an attempt to tentalise their tastebuds with something else, I made a rather yummy Japanese salad, attractive ribbons of carrot and cucumber, tossed in a yummy Japanese dressing and sesame seeds. I presented it to them, Girl Lacer being the only one who can really talk out of the two, did all the talking “You know I don’t like that” (she’s never seen this particular combination in her life) and this is without a morsel passing her lips, which it didn’t for either of them, for the whole meal, sigh, it’s very frustrating. I don’t know what to do, just give up preparing veg seperately (they at least eat fruit) and resort to hidden veg recipes? But they’re not exactly going to learn to appreciate veg that way. I do cook with Girl Lacer, but it’s normally baking due to time (and space constraints) in the kitchen, maybe I should get her to help cook the main stuff.

In other news, the job I applied for, the deadline passed a week and a half ago now and I haven’t heard anything . I’d imagine that they’d want to be interviewing fairly sharpish if they want a teacher to start at the beginning of term, so I guess I didn’t even get to the interview stage, which I hate, being failed on paper like that (although I guess if I want to be a writer, better get used to it!). It’s such a shame though, would of been an ideal job, just two mornings a week, giving me some non-mummy time, some money but still leaving me plenty of time to spend with the kids (hopefully a more refreshed human being) and time as the kids got older to write more. I can’t imagine who’d apply for such a part time job like that other than mums with small kids wanting only a few hours work or people of the verge of retiring looking to downsize for a few years to a part time job. So I’m sure I can’t of been a particularly unusual candidate, I’m even a qualified teacher which wasn’t actually specified, maybe my previous work experience, working in a school in the East End wasn’t posh enough for them? (This was for a private school job). Oh well.

In more other news, Mr. Lacer is still working down south and Girl Lacer is missing him and consquently being obnoxious. She has become obsessed by time and what day of the week it is, so I’ve been researching into kiddie calendars, I had been thinking about a felt velcro type affair, that showed the day, date, weather and season, see My Calendar at John Lewis but it’s expensive and doesn’t really show events other than the weather. I found another magnetic calendar that showed the days of the week, but I thought the magnets that went with it were restrictive. I found an even worse example of a magnetic calendar in the toy section at a local department store, so I walked out of the toy section in disgust that someone hadn’t manufactured and marketed the exact product I was looking for lol and wishing that I was just the little more creative so that I could make my own, when I came across the adult calendar section and thankfully I found this from Organised Mum, the Family Organiser.

So obviously being a bit hampered by the fact that Girl Lacer can’t read yet, everything has to be accompanied by my rather bad drawings, but she can interpret it and work out how long it is until daddy comes home again.

And finally, came across a rather nice surprise when I came across the cover of the latest Radio Times.

Nigella’s got a new TV series, bliss! She’s going to knock those Cook Yourself Thin girls socks off (am I the only one getting a bit bored of those girls, it doesn’t help my attitude when the recipes in their book so far don’t actually seem that successful!). Anyway Nigella Express is on BBC2 Monday 3 September 8.30 – 9pm, the blurb for the first episode is as follows.

Everyday Easy: Nigella returns with a show packed with delicious ideas for good food fast. There’s a no effort roast dinner for her father Lord Lawson and crispy squid for an after work supper.

Can’t wait for that and her new book to come out, which I think will be delivered to me courtesy of Amazon, along with Jamie Oliver’s new book, Tana Ramsays new book, a book on vegan cupcakes and the new Young Bond a week on Thursday, can’t wait, oh I said that already didn’t I!

Well just typing that has cheered me up, we’re all a very grumpy bored household at the moment, the end of holidays blues where I don’t know about anyone else but I just want to start the new term NOW!

Flylady day 3

Day 3 today in my efforts to control the chaos that is my house by using the Flylady system, something I’d flirted with back in January, but had fallen off the Flywagon. Each day you add a new babystep to your routine, the last two days have seen me meant to be shining my sink and getting dressed to lace up shoes. The getting dressed thing I do anyway (minus the shoes) as soon as I get up, the shining the sink thing is more difficult. My sink for a start is incapable of being shined, being a stained white plastic thing, also you’re meant to do it as part of your bedtime routine, I have enough trouble prising myself off the sofa at the end of the night, cleaning the sink not high on my list of priorities. However, I have learnt from my last attempt at Flylady and have started to do the majority of the sink cleaning during the day, so last night when I went to bed, ok there was a colander in the sink but the draining board was clear which was the first time in a long time.

What’s today? Do as you have been doing plus reading some of Flylady’s e-mails. Ah the e-mails, now I never unsubscribed from Flylady’s e-mail list when I last fell off the flywagon and consquently despite the occasional clear out of my inbox, I have currently have 1189 unread e-mails in my inbox, most of them from Flylady! You get I’d say about 20 – 30 e-mails a day! Alot of them testimonials from very satisfied Flybabies whose life has changed after shining their sink. You get product testimonials about how wonderful Flylady’s duster etc. is. E-mails from the various associated people attached to Flylady, such as menu planning, wardrobe planning and somehow a country and western singer. You also get remainders of routines and special tasks for that day, you even get an e-mail to tell you to go to bed! Reading the e-mails can be to be honest a pain in the neck but I think they’re part of the secret why Flylady works, they refer to it as Flywashing, constantly reading (supposedly) all these positive messages about how wonderful Flylady is and how your life can change if you just stick to a bit of routine, kind of sinks in subconsciously and you find yourself believing it.

Still, I need to stick to this. We had more physio with my youngest, Boy Lacer yesterday, who is being taught how to walk (he’s nearly 2). As well as his possible hyperextension, he also seems to have inherited my pes cava (funny that, me writing about that yesterday). Anyway he has special boots and now he has been loaned a little minature OAP style walker, which he loves, however (and anyone in a similar space-clutter predicament as me, I bet you’ll know what’s coming), there’s hardly any space in the house for him to move the walker around. Even without clutter there would not be much space anyway, but with clutter, well virtually nothing, despite the recent investment in some good toy storage (which has got a lot of stuff off the floor), so I need to get more stuff off the floor!