Meat diapers

That's what I've decided to call those little pads that soak up the meat juices in the packaged meat you buy at the supermarket. Whenever I have to peel one off to throw in the bin, I feel like I'm handling a wet nappy!

Something about our house that I'm really thankful for

Having lots of linen cupboard space. We actually have 2 linen cupboards - a standard size single wardrobe one and a big double size one. With having 5 people in the family There is no way that I would fit all our linen into the standard size single one - 4 sets of sheets per child, 2 bathtowels each, swimming towels, tea towels, hand towels, spare blankets, spare sheets, spare pillows...

Hospitality culture

When I invite people over for a meal, have the kids friends over to play, or do some baking/cook a meal for someone, I don't expect the gesture to be returned. It isn't the motivation for me doing it and it doesn't even enter my thinking when I consider who to invite etc. But is this standard thinking of the general population? I think not, with the wide variety of mum's I deal with I continually get the vibe that there is an invisible tally card kept of hospitality given and received. So when I have people over or give people some food, they are grateful but at the same time seem to think that this means they will have to repay the favour at a later date (as they assume that is what I expect/what is expected of them from society). Does this mean people are less inclined to accept my invitations to come over or create feelings of guilt within them when they recall they haven't 'returned the favour' from a past gathering? When from my point of view, I enjoy cooking, enjoy having people over and want my house to be a place where my children's friends enjoy spending time.

And on the flip side, I frequently wonder if when people do things for me eg. drop the kids at school or kindy, are they doing it because they want the same favour returned or are saving up brownie points for different favour. Because the reality is no matter how much I would like to return the favour (not because of a 'invisible tally sheet' expectation, but because I truely care about them and are grateful for their hospitality), sometimes returning the exact same hospitality/favour isn't possible and that is why I am so grateful in the first place for them offering.

What is your experience/impressions?

Well it didn't happen

I never got those pants of Ben's patched before lunchtime. Originally I thought I didn't have enough fabric to patch them (the uniform shop lady actually gave me the exact matching material to patch them with). But after talking to my Mum (the sewing expert in our family), we decided to modify my plan which means I have enough material, but need to make a trip to Spotlight to get some fusing material (stuff that glues 2 pieces of fabric together). So it will have to wait until next week now.

Forgot to add

Having a breadmaker can be a bit tedious - having to put stuff in the breadmaker each night when we'd rather be asleep of blobbing on the couch. But I must say I find it a lot easier to chuck some ingredients in the breadmaker than dragging the kids to the supermarket or realising we need bread for the morning when the supermarkets are closed.

Our favourite bread varieties

It will be 6 months next month since we got our breadmaker. We have got into a rhythm/routine making a loaf of bread most nights (putting it on timer to be ready to take out when we get up in the morning) and sometimes a 2nd loaf in the morning (depending if Peter and I have leftover dinner to eat for lunch or need to have sandwiches). We are a bit like our bread, as we our with our dinners - we like lots of variety and trying out new recipes. But there are a few that we make regularly and really like. They are:

• Honey bran
• Cornmeal (great for toasted sandwiches)
• Garlic herb
• Wholemeal rye
• Mixed grain
• Oatmeal

Others we have tried (and have or would like to make again) include:

• Parmesan Sun-dried tomato
• Vanilla sour cream (great substitute for brioche - slightly cakey bread that can deal with sweet flavoured accompaniments such as chocolate and berries)
• Rasin cinnamon
• Nutty prune wheat (I have prunes leftover from making christmas cakes)
• Zucchini wheat (great for using up an abundance of zucchini or the ones that grew too big to taste good eaten on their own)
• Dried apricot
• coconut
• pumpkin and walnut

I have also tried a couple other non-standard breads (ie. do dough in breadmaker and then divide/shape before putting in normal oven to bake - Brioche and Chocolate chip Hot cross buns.

It's a good feeling...

To get tasks done that have been hanging around for a while and I haven't got around to yet. Just totally decimated my sewing pile this morning - a few pairs of Joanna's winter pants/skirts that the waist needed taking in and a elastic headband that she had bought with some of her pocket money, that needed to be shortened. Still need to patch Ben's school pants (long ones for winter) and shorten the elastic in his school shoes - I hope to get the pants done before lunchtime (the shoes I can pick up and do anytime as I don't have to get the sewing machine out for them).

Trying something new

I've just made my first savoury crackers. I used Destitute Gourmet's 'Cracker snaps' recipe and it is dead easy.

1. Put dry ingredients plus butter in food processor;
2. process;
3. add water while processor running and form soft dough;
4. roll out dough to desired thickness
5. cut into desired shapes - easiest using a rolling pizza cutter (like I did) or pasta cutter for fancy edges
6. put on baking tray
7. bake for 15 minutes

It is so easy that I have made a second batch straight away. The first batch has poppy and sesame seeds in them (as the original recipe suggests) and in the second batch I'm trying garlic and Parmesan cheese flavour.

Seeing as the recipe is so simple I think I'm going to try and make it regularly during the term to use for the kids morning tea instead of buying savoury crackers from the supermarket. I'll vary the flavours - I'm thinking sundried tomato or cumin or cracked pepper...

These crackers are also healthy as they have no sugar and only 1/2 teaspoon of salt in a whole batch, unlike a huge majority of savoury biscuits in the supermarket which are both high in sugar and fat.

Second batch have just come out and they taste great! Will just have to see what the kids think of them now.

Going to the circus...

Zirka Circus is currently in town - they're in Hamilton for nearly four weeks. They've been cruising around Hamilton putting their signs up on whoever's fence will let them put them up. Being on a main road, they asked us if we would let them put one up - Mel was a little hesitant because we don't usually let people put stuff on our fence. But then they offered a free family pass to the circus... and we were sold. There was no way we would have considered going otherwise - we don't have that much money lying around for something like the circus! Ben was as excited about the circus as I've ever seen him get about anything - he was bouncing off the walls!

The show itself was pretty good - lots of cool stuff like clowns and juggling and balancing and swinging from the top of the tent. The kids certainly enjoyed it, although Naomi was too tired to think much of the second half - she ended up falling asleep.

I'd be happy to recommend it - even though we wouldn't have had the money to go if we hadn't got the free pass. A handful of photos are at flickr.

Ben's first term

It's school holidays, as Mel has mentioned... but we didn't mention much about how school was. Ben's been rapidly learning his reading and writing, which have both improved significantly since the start of the year. He's also recently become far more interested in drawing - probably because he's more proficient at holding a pencil properly, so he has more control over what he draws.

At the final school assembly, Ben also received his first award - he got an academic achievement award for numeracy for his class... I guess he's following family tradition! Here's Ben getting his certificate from Mr Mossop, the principal: