Christmas Eve Quickie

No not what you think.... Minds out of the gutter people, only room for me down here :-)  Now onto the serious task of my actual blog....Well alright since I tricked you here is a hot Santa or three...

Its Christmas Eve and the naughty household, like everyone else, is madly running around trying to prepare for the big day.  Naughty 1950's Husband is at work and I am trying to get in last minute shopping, with two kids in tow. ( shout out to the awesome chick at EB games who helped me find, buy and hide some presents whilst the kids were underfoot).  However its at this time of year that I think I have discovered that I have a problem.  For now I think we should call it Cleaning Attention Deficit Disorder (or C.A.D.D). 

It all started this morning when I woke up and realised everything I had to do.  My brain overloads and I end up doing little bits of everything, with nothing finished.  It started with making a shopping list and ended with this little craziness this afternoon.  C'mon you all know what I'm talking about, we've all been there. This afternoon,  I walked into the bathroom to go to the toilet and realised I needed to refill the toilet roll holder.  So then I headed to the laundry to get the toilet rolls, where I discovered that I needed to put on a load of washing.  I emptied the dryer only to be called into the bedroom by one of the boys to get him a drink.  He runs off and before I get the drink I see the photo album and stack of Elf on the shelf pictures that I want the elf to leave behind when he goes back to Santa tonight.  So of course I have to load the photos into the album.  Its then that I walk out of the bedroom and discover the dishes I forgot to load in the dishwasher from this morning ( which I was distracted from by making my shopping list)and load them.

Then I throw the tea towel in the laundry and, oh wait that's right I was loading the washing machine.  I complete that task only for the littlest to come back to me and ask if he can PLEASE have his drink.  Then I think surely I can't be the only one going through this; time to blog.  Which takes us to now. 

Probably should be making dinner for the family, but I got distracted.  :)    I am very focused at work but take me out of the office and its "ooh Shiny".  Please guys tell me I'm not alone here!!

Merry Christmas Eve Everyone xxx

P.S.  And I have just realised that I still haven't done the thing that started all this.  I am off to load the toilet rolls now..... if I don't get distracted ; )

        

Recipe for Disaster

In the spirit of my new found domesticity ( and my new kitchen finally being finished), I have recently been experimenting in the kitchen a LOT.  The most recent of my experiments culminating in my attempting to make arancini for the first time ever. 

Now I didn't know much about what goes into making this delicious meal, only that it was very very hard.  Warnings about oil being too hot and split rice balls, rice not cooking properly and just general disasters when making this dish.  So although I was excited to be attempting this, I was also mentally preparing myself for complete and utter disaster.  

Firstly the recipe I chose was from a recent Coles magazine and was actually for Pumpkin and mozzarella arrancini.  As much as I don't mind pumpkin soup, I'm not a huge fan of eating pumpkin, so I thought I'd be tricky and make a mushroom version.  ( because making this for the first time wasn't hard enough).  So I set about getting all the ingredients ready and once purchased, locked down a day to make my meal.

Now I don't make mistakes, its all about learning new inventive ways to do things  : )   So I give you...

Learning number 1

Cooking arancini takes more than a day to make.  Yeah didn't read that properly before I decided to dedicate a day to cooking.  So there I was all my ingredients ready to roll, had the whole family super excited for a tasty dinner and I read that the risotto needs to sit; preferably overnight in the fridge before you make balls with it. ........ OK, so tonight's dinner is now pumpkin soup, however the risotto is still being made.

Learning number 2

I've never even made risotto before.  Did you know risotto takes a really, really, really, really, long time to make? Really. You add stuff and then you stir... and then you add some more and you stir and it just keeps going and going and going.  And it just seems weird putting uncooked rice in the pan.



This is 45 minutes later after adding mushrooms. Is it arancini yet?



Learning Number 3

Be patient.   The biggest lesson I learnt about the whole exercise?  Don't stress and be patient. I read an online recipe or blog from Jamie Oliver about making an arancini way more complicated than what I was attempting.  And his advice?  Do a certain number of steps and have a rest. Do some more and sit on the couch with a wine.  Keep going step by step slowly so you aren't frustrated and making silly mistakes through lack of patience. 

But in the end ( many hours of cooking behind me), the final product wasn't half bad .

My final advice, that really works no matter what you are cooking?  Always cook with a glass of wine in your hand.  Works every time :) 

XX



Martha Stewart eat your heart out

 

 

I have to say, lately I have been feeling a bit crafty and not just in the naughty way.  I have always enjoyed cooking and pottering around in the kitchen ever since I was very young, but now with more time on my hand, its all about experimentation. 

 

For example, every year in the lead up to Christmas, you see all these wonderful homemade gifts people make and give to their friends.  I have always looked at these and thought wow I have to try that, and then promptly ignored it until I had more time the next Christmas holiday; where I again think WOW... and you see how it goes.  But this year I thought was time to change all that.  Once I got past the initial concerns of whether people thought I was being cheap giving homemade gifts ( thanks Facebook Friends), I decided to choose something fairly simple and get to work. 

After seeing a post about a quick and easy Christmas body scrub I thought I'd give it a go.  It was very simple and took me less than 30 minutes to make four small jars of this beautiful scrub. 

 

See the how to below:-

 

You will need:

• 1 ½ – 2 cups white sugar
• ½ – ¾ cup coconut oil
• 5-10 drops of spearmint essential oil
• 3-5 drops red food colouring
• Small to medium screwtop jar
• Decorative ribbon and 1 candy cane for finishing touch

Instructions:

• Melt the coconut oil in a microwave safe bowl for 20 seconds or until it becomes liquefied.
• Add essential oil.
• Pour over sugar and mix until thoroughly combined.
• Divide scrub mix in half and add food colouring to one half stirring till mixed.
• Fill jar alternating between red and white scrub.

This will be enough mixture for 2 small jars.
You could use peppermint, orange or lime essential oil.

 

 

 Its simple easy and a lovely gift to share with your friends at Christmas time :)

 

 

P.S.  I have just reread my first paragraph and I have to be honest, if I didn't know I was talking about making Christmas goodies, I'd think this post was going in a whole other direction.

Mixed Emotions

 

 

I currently have about  4 days left in my full time job before I begin my adventure into the family.  I guess I am having pretty mixed feelings about finishing work for a while.  When I'm at work, I can only see all the good things about my job and the people, and spend a small amount of time each day, wondering if I have made the right decision to have a work hiatus.  Do I really need to be at home full time to offer a little more stability to our lives?  Would just working part time offer us enough of a opportunity to have a little less chaos in our day to day functioning.

When I'm home though, I get super excited about all the potential I have facing me for the new year.  Being able to organise my house, spend more time with my kids and husband, go to school sports carnivals and help with reading time at school.  Not wanting to cringe in horror every time the kids ask to do some sort of activity on the weekend that will take up what precious little time we have to clean house, grocery shop, bond as a family etc etc.   The freedom I will have to devote solely to my family life is going to be priceless.  Sure we will have to tighten our belts a little and I am sure I will get itchy feet within a few months and want to look for out of the home "work" again. 

That's all part of it I guess.  I know there are some women  on their soapbox preaching that "Women can work full time, be perfect mothers and role models to our children and the ultimate wife...We can have it all".  Maybe that is true, maybe some women can do all and be all to everyone.  I haven't met one yet who can, but that's not to say they don't exist.  Personally for me being the superwoman who does it all for everyone just isn't working.  So for now I am just going to be happy being supermum...... at least for a little while. ; )

xx



What's it all about?

 

So I guess I should take a moment to explain what you'll read here in this blog.  Basically, you will see just about anything. If I try a new recipe I'll share it, if the kids do something funny I'll talk about it, if there is something that really gets under my skin...?  Don't worry you'll hear about it.

I guess I would officially be what you refer to as a frustrated writer :)   I do have a background in sales ( translated - I can talk under wet cement) and I've always loved writing, but never had time for it.  So this is my time. Feel free to send me any feedback or questions, or even if you have a topic you would love to start a chat about. I am open to just about any topic "Naughty or Nice" ; ) 

Until next time
xx

New Beginnings

Welcome to my new blog. Let me tell you a little about myself and my blog.  I am a happily married wife and  mother with  two boys aged 5 and 6 living in the suburbs in Sydney.  I grew up in Brisbane, in 2000 made the big move to Sydney and have been here ever since. 

I remember when I was younger always being adamant that if I had kids they would work in with my life.  I have a career, I won't let kids change that, they have to suit my lifestyle, Blah blah blah.  You can all stop laughing now. I'm sure you know how this little plan worked out for me.  Once I had my first little boy I decided that I didn't want him in care all the time so asked my boss for a part time role.  That didn't happen, so I then started planning to run my own business from home which was slightly delayed by having my second little boy. By the time he was about 8 weeks old ( and probably during one of my extremely tired, read INSANE moments) I decided to explore running my home based business again.

For two years I struggled with the start up of a new business, trying to create a client base and working all the crazy hours I could find around the boys nap times. It took over my life and for the effort I was putting in I just wasn't seeing the return. So two and a half years ago I took a full time National Sales Role.  Doesn't get much crazier right?  Well as the years have passed and my eldest has started school and my youngest will start next year, I've discovered that being a full time employee, plus a mummy and a wife has all gotten too hard.  I leave for work at 7 in the morning and get home 7 at night and my work does require a certain amount of travel, that I just can't do.  I am greeted by my boys ( one at daycare, one at after school care) every afternoon with "why do you pick us up so late", I of course have the official mummy guilt face on. 

So its time to make a change.  We have been chatting as a family and  1950s Husband and I have made a decision.  Three weeks later I went in to work and told my boss I will be leaving at the end of the year. He has been very understanding and knew the trouble I have been having balancing everything.  So what will the next few months bring?  Who knows.  Once I finish work, at least for a little, while I am going to spend the first time ever in my boys lives just being at home and getting our lives in order.  Helping the youngest start school, allowing my husband more flexibility with his work schedule ( as he is a shift worker) ; and just generally being a 1950's housewife. 

Will this work?  Will I be a better wife, mother, person?  Who knows.  One thing is for sure, we'll never know if we keep spreading ourselves so thin in our rat race of a life. So for now I will finish work, and then get started on my home work.  Being a wife, a mother and the most awesome ( and Naughty) 1950's housewife I can be! 

Come enjoy this crazy ride with me

xx