Sunday (Flylady day 28)

Well, back to sort of normal with Mr. Lacer back. Mr. Lacer seems more concerned about Boy Lacer now he’s back as he’s spent a large part of this last week with his nephews, who are all very different from Boy Lacer but then again, they are slightly older (although Mr. Lacer says he perfectly remembers what they were like when they were Boy Lacer’s age). All kids are different though and Mr. Lacer’s nephews are particularly loud. Still more appointments for Boy Lacer next week and the week after, I must chase up the all important developmental check appointment, he was meant to have one around now and we haven’t had the appointment through, from what I’ve heard that’s going on in the children’s department at the hospital, it’s not surprising.

I did some gardening yesterday afternoon with Girl Lacer, our front garden is bordered by original walls from 1936, that have a thin layer of earth between the two brick layers, that you can plant plants in, at least theoretically. These walls are a common feature of our estate and many of them have some really beautiful trailing plants, but they always look really established, we’ve tried planting stuff in the wall before and it’s never worked, so we tried again yesterday. These are what the plants are supposed to look like when they’ve grown.

 Trailing plants (from Bakker)

I’ve only planted two of the three types of plants; Basket of Gold (Alysum Saxatile) and white Candytuft (Iberis Sempervirens). The pink Soapwort (Saponaria Ocymoides), will be planted elsewhere, along with two remaining Basket of Gold and Candytuft plants. I’ll let you know if they actually grow!

I have a lot of gardening to do over the coming months; the garden has been neglected quite a bit and it needs clearing with a flame thrower really. It took quite a while to do the small amount of gardening I did yesterday (I’m a slow gardener anyway and 3 year old assistants slow you down!) and I have more to do today, which meant I neglected Flylady a bit yesterday and was greeted with a messy kitchen this morning, it’s hard to combine both. Anyway today is Flylady day 28 and we’re reminded that we need to look after ourselves every day, easier said than done.

Saturday (Flylady day 27 – menu planning)

Saturday’s arn’t quite as laid back as they used to be what with Girl Lacer now doing ballet first thing in the morning. I had to take Boy Lacer along this time to and may do that more often as he seemed to enjoy it, lots of 1 year old girls to smile at! After ballet we went into town, to do some much needed shopping that was postponed from yesterday after Girl Lacer was naughty in the morning and an impromptu playdate in the afternoon. By the time we got back home Mr. Lacer had just arrived back home to. It’s odd, feels like we can’t really truely say hello to each other until the kids are in bed. I did a lot of thinking yesterday regarding the kids and the father in law’s funeral and thanks to some wise words from friends who pointed out to me quite correctly when I voiced my concerns to them, that well they are my kids, so I’ve put my foot down, the kids arn’t going to the funeral, my dad’s coming to London to babysit them. Mr. Lacer had planned (when he thought the kids were coming) to go up the day before, even though the service is in the afternoon, I had to remind him, he’d honestly forgotten, it’s Boy Lacer’s birthday the day before. I think I may suggest that Mr. Lacer goes up in the evening the day before anyway and I’ll get the train on the day, I don’t want him getting stressed because my dad’s ‘late’. I’m going to get the train back anyway, rescue my dad before bedtime.

Anyway today is Flylady day 27, we’re meant to be thinking about what’s for the evening meal before you actually start cooking the evening meal. Flylady in general advocates menu planning and I did try it, earlier on in the year and it just does not work for me. Initially it looked great, I was saving money but in the end food was still getting wasted because there’s no way on earth that I know on a Wednesday (when I used to menu plan) what I fancied eating on a Sunday! Plus I’d plan a meal that required x amount of time on a certain day and something would crop up that meant I didn’t have the time to cook it and sorry I’m not about to turn down a playdate or something just because I’m planning on making macaroni or something! Even when I was menu planning unsuccessfully, just because I wasn’t cooking a dish that I had planned, it did not mean that any of us were starving as over the years as I’ve learnt to cook I’ve accumulated a range of quick dishes that can be made with stuff I’m pretty much guarenteed to have in the house at any one moment, so I had this menu plan which I had taken ages to work out and I was cooking the same short cut dishes when I wanted them, depending on the immediate circumstances of the day in question, not what I had thought about the Wednesday before. Maybe I don’t need menu planning? Somehow I suspect Nigella Lawson doesn’t menu plan! My final dislike of menu planning is that although I’m not strictly speaking following Paul McKenna’s ‘I can make you thin’ at the moment, I still distinctly remember the programme’s rules and one of them is ‘eat what you really truely want to eat’ and I can really believe in that, eating should be a pleasure and I just don’t fancy eating something like a chicken dish just because I decided days before that I might want to eat it when really I fancy a salad instead. I believe in listening to your body, if you listen well enough it’ll tell you what it needs then and there (and it’s not always doughnuts!). So I don’t menu plan and I’m not going to start, however I do when creating my shopping list for the week (I do a weekly online shop), as well as making sure I have my staples for my quick short cut dishes, I’ll pick a cook book I fancy cooking from that week and will have a flick through to see if I fancy anything in particular and whether I need to order anything specific. Most of the time I cook those dishes at some point but I’m just as likely to be suddenly inspired to use that cream I ordered for something else.