Saturday morning I worked. I spent most of the morning photocopying pages out of books, ‘ageing’ them with used teabags and then stapling them to the wall. I cut out some calligraphy letters that I’d drawn on black paper (I got a calligraphy set for Christmas when I was a child and was really into it for a few years but hadn’t done any for years and years and quite enjoyed that) and finished my display on ‘stories from history’ which is full of those ‘my story’ books, titles like Carrie’s War, Anne Frank and various other children’s book set within historical periods or events. I’m really pleased with it, must take my camera in to work next week to get a picture of it.
I booked some display space for the children in March as one of the tasks in the Wildlife Action awards is a display. We need to decide exactly what the display is about and try and plan some art work for it. I’ve got a few ideas to put to the children so we might try and at least have a plan formed for that this week.
One of the things we noticed at Marcus and Michelle’s was how comprehensive their glassware and crockery collections were ;). We have always had a mix of stuff that we’ve collected over the years based on how much we can fit in our limited cupboard space and how much the kids and I (mostly me) have broken. I realised this week that although we had four wine glasses we didn’t have any other glasses to drink water out of with our meal and luckily we did have four of each plate / bowl for the three courses I’d planned for dinner but none of them matched. A look round the charity shops earlier in the week had made me plan to keep an eye open in there for nice glasses and crockery to see if we can build up a better collection. So yesterday with the last £2 we had I bought three red onions from the greengrocer and four glasses and a glass jug from one of the charity shops for a £1 :). We’ll make proper grown ups yet ;).
Back at home Ady and my Dad had gone to a house a few roads down to collect a sofa bed from a freecycler. One had come up just a few days after us deciding that was what we needed to put in the newly tidied and emptied playroom so is now a proper spare room with a bed for guests and a sofa for the kids to use when they’re in there. It was hardly ever used as a bed and is in pristine condition. It is more of a large single / small double but it fits perfectly and there is room for a single airbed / camping mat either side of it so we could easily put a family of four up in the playroom now, along with Scarlett’s bed and room for a double airbed / mat on her bedroom floor and probably about 10 people in Davies’ room. Feels like the house is adapting well to growing up children :).
I came home and we had lunch, I admired the playroom and then for some odd reason decided to tidy the cd tower in the lounge. It was very messy and packed full of cds all shoved in and in the wrong cases (ADY!!!!) so it now looks all organised and like a cd tower rather than a crap magnet (you know how I feel about them!). A little thing that noone else would probably ever notice. And clearly some sort of procrastination tactic given how much else I had to be getting on with!
So I finally got into the kitchen at about 3pm. I’d been agonising over the menu for the evening as Mike and Rose are vegetarians and I’m, well not. I know that some veggies get really fed up with being served meat dinner substitutes all the time – spag bol made with quorn mince or tofu and veggie sausages etc. so was determined not to do that and to make something nice that didn’t feel like it was missing an ingredient by virtue of not having meat.
I had a plan for the starter – that posh wedding we went to last year served red onion and cheese tarts for starter and I had some feta cheese I’d bought at Christmas and not used. So I made some pastry bases and baked them blind (well actually Scarlett did the baking blind bit – and most of the onion chopping too), while the onions caramelised. I cooked them for about an hour on a really low heat and then topped the pastry with onions and crumbled feta cheese and a sprinkling of herbs. I bunged them back in the oven for about 10 mins just before serving them for the cheese to melt. They were lovely but could have done with some sort of garnish.
Main course was pasta. After 3 very successful goes with the pasta machine it decided to not work 🙁 I had planned to make farfalle (little bows) which would mean just using the machine to roll the pasty very thin and then cutting and shaping by hand. But the machine just wouldn’t work, the rollers kept jamming and sticking and I ended up rolling most of it out with a rolling pin which gives a way thicker finish and then using the tagliatelle cutter instead. It was fine, but took about twice as long as I’d expected it to and I was getting really stressed. I served it with red pesto, herbs and oven roasted tomatoes. Ady thought it could have done with some other roasted veg as well. I thought it could have done with some bacon! Also made garlic, rosemary and parmesan flatbread to go with it.
Dessert was my Baileys and chocolate meringue cake as made on my birthday. It was as good a second time but was also time consuming to make. I was in the kitchen for about 3 and a half hours which I mostly enjoyed although the pasta debacle was a bit of a downer. It was worth it though, everything was prepared ready to shove in at the appropriate times so aside from nipping out to the kitchen a couple of times I was able to sit down with everyone (at the table ;)) and enjoy the evening in a relaxed manner while still feeling I’d made a really good meal :).
Davies and Ady did some serious room rearranging in Davies’ room while Tarly and I were in the kitchen including setting up a bed for Tarly and the TV / video in there for the evening. We’d said they could have a sleepover and watch telly as we were having friends over. Originally we’d said they could stay downstairs with us until we started eating but the room looked so enticing they chose to go up to bed early :).
They did come back down and Rose was taken on the grand tour to see both kids’ bedrooms and meet all Tarly’s soft toys :). Then they went back to bed and although we could hear them chatting and laughing it was actually a nice background noise and they went to sleep about 11pm. We were really proud of them and they had a great time and want more sleepovers :).
We continued to have a very pleasant evening. Interesting and funny conversation, we managed to drink 4 bottles of white wine, 2 bottles of red and a fair few bottles of beer between us and they left about 3am. I was very happy and buoyant last night – less so when I woke up this morning!
Today was by necessity a late start. Ady still got up fairly early, before the children (they got up at 830am) and cleared up while I slept in. He brought me tea at 930am which I couldn’t face and I finally got up just after 10am. I drank lots of tea, lots of water and ate lots of leftover garlic bread and started to feel human again.
The kids have DS’d, Scarlett did some painting, they both did loads of lego-ing. Davies wanted some star wars figures and a quick check online at prices convinced me to allow him to make his own with a black marker pen as he’d originally asked. So we now have a Darth Vadar and a C3PO – none of which means anything to me but I can see they are a good likeness from the front of the film case. We watched the dvd that comes with Do Try This at Home!
Davies found a mini bead kit he’d got at Eve and Rei’s 5th birthday party in a pass the parcel (quite how we managed to still have it and remember where it originated from I don’t know) so he and I made a bracelet for him to add to the growing collection on his arm that started with his green Wickstede armband that he still wears. I then found another bead kit that Tarly had – I think from a birthday present from someone – and she did loads of threading making necklaces, bracelets for her and I and a ‘toe bracelet’ that she worked hard on a repeating pattern on. I know she’s late to such things but it’s the first time she’s ever decided to do a pattern.
We probably did other things but I don’t recall them. I know Tarly spent a lot of time sitting on me!
Ady cooked a lovely roast beef late lunch which the kids devoured but I made rather less of a dent in. Very nice and plenty of leftover beef for tomorrow too :).
The kids had a bath and should have had a very early night but Davies suddenly came back downstairs in floods of tear saying he’d changed his mind about his bedroom and wanted everything put back how it was before :(. Bless him he was really upset, partially because he thought Ady would be cross / upset having spent so long up there with him yesterday moving everything around. We put his bed back to it’s previous position and will move the rest of it back tomorrow.
I had intentions of going to bed early to catch up but I don’t quite seem to have made it somehow…
LOL at our glass and crocks! Cutlery /utensils not quite so comprehensive. Need to work on that.