Coolest mom ever

I forgot to tell you that I’m the coolest mom ever! A title very proudly bestowed on me by my kids *insert smiley beaming face here*
Laaast weekend- ye I know this is late- but have you seen my dealines??? *shock horror* (and another smiley face- cause I’m silly like that)
I took the kids for a butterfly walk in Kloofendal Nature Reserve. If you haven’t been I can highly recommend it. Entrance is for free, and the guided walks are very interesting.
The butterfly walk was very informative. The guy who guided us told us all about butterflies. We caught quite few with nets and then put them into little jars to study it closer. The kis loved it and is now very interested in all things butterfly. We let all the butterflies go afterwards, but recorded what we caught as the reserve likes to keep a record.
Here’s a few interesting things we learnt:
The difference between moths and butterflies is that moths sit with their wings open and butterflies with their wings closed.Apart from the fact that moths are nocturnal and butterflies love the sun.
There is a rare butterfly that occur in the area- Roodepoort copper.Although the reserve has the host plant and ant that’s needed for the butterflies to survive they have only been found at the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens (literally 5 km’s up the road)
Butterflies fly up when you catch them and moths down. So when you catch a butterfly, you turn your cannister around and then screw the top on.
Butterflies love the sun and are plentifull on sunny days.
The guide recommended a book What’s That Butterfly? It’s a good starter books for novices and easy for kids to understand as well.
The kids really enjoyed the outing and loved running around after butterflies.
A very enjoyable outing. With the added bonus of being awarded a cool mom badge.

Healthy living

So for the past week I’ve been doing bootcamp. I’m really enjoying it. After months of doing excercise by myself it’s nice to be pushed a little by doing excercises with other people and an instructor.
And because the instructor stresses that you must do it at your own pace I dont feel under pressure to overcompensate and injure myself. Great fun. I can highly recommend it.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday:Cold meats and salad
Tuesday: Roast chicken with salad
Wednesday:Pork snitzel with sauerkraut, mashed poatoes and mixed veggies
Thursday Chicken salad
In all instances salad is carrot sticks,cucumber sticks,beetroot,small tomatoes and fresh fruit.

Healthy living

I’ve discovered that I dont do the change from winter to summer well. I luurve summer – dont get me wrong, but once the warm weather arrives I have no interest whatsoever in cooking. Just the mere thought of putting dinner together makes me grumpy. This week I’ve scraped by with the bare minimum and veggies is an afterthought. Last night I made chicken wings and when everyone asked me what we are having with it I looked at them dumbfounded. Indeed what?
So to get out of my funk I’ve decided to properly plan a menu this week, and take a trip to the local fruit and veg shop. Variety and straight from the fridge is going to be my watchwords.
Cause wragtig, I’ve got no energy and part of the problem is not eating properly.

Good ol’ Mac and cheese

We had a looong discussion the other day about mac and cheese on the forum I frequent (only a bunch of women that can natter about mac and cheese for that long and of course some of the recipes was so divine I had to go and make mac and cheese. This is a much more fancier version than I normally do- my standard mac and cheese is cheese sauce and macaroni
Anyways here goes:

(Excuse the quality of pics- cellphone camera)
Ingredients:
Half a packet of macaroni (500g packet)
Packet of Woolworth’s Neopolitana sauce
Packet and half of bacon (half was too little and if I took only the one packet, I didn’t know what I was going to do with the half)
Half a red onion sliced in rings(left over from a dish I made over the weekend)
Red pepper pesto
Two cups of grated cheddar cheese
Parmesan cheese

Step 1:

Boil water for the macaroni

Step2:

Get the stuff together for the cheese sauce
300 ml milk
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons of flour
Put the butter in the milk and melt – in the microwave
When that is done put the 3 tablespoons of flour in a bowl an mix with a little bit of the milk. Do this until it makes a smooth paste.

It helps to have a trusty assistant to do the mixing

Mix the paste with the rest of the milk and butter mix.

While the assistant is watching the sauce cook in the microwave (about 3 minutes) cook the bacon and onions and of course the macaroni is already in the pot boiling.Add the neopolitana sauce and pesto after the bacon is cooked.Mix well

 

 

 Unfortuantely we had a bit of a mishap here. The sauce cooked over and the assistant got such a fright she ran of to her room. At the same time the wash basin was overflowing.

But never fear!

Our second trusty assistant stepped in, stirring the now cooked sauce and issuing some orders. He instructed me to go calm the first assistant down, as we might not end up having dinner. Orders followed and after hugs and kisses dished out, all was back on track.

 

Dish Assembled

Assemble the dish as follows:
Macaroni at the bottom, bacon mix on top, pour sauce(mixed with cheese) on top. Bake for about 15-20 minutes in oven at about 200 deg celcius

                                                                                                                                    Voila!
                                                                                                                       Dish Cooked.

The tale of the princess and the three knights

One day long, long ago a princess and her three most trusted knights set of on an adventure. They had heard tales told of a magical kingdom with beautifull flowers and a sight that was too magnificent too describe.
The princess and the three knights set off and before too long reached the magical kingdom. It was as everyone had described , beautifull and in the far off distance they could see the magnificent sight.
The princess and the three knights decided to rest a bit, to quench their thirst and fill their tummies. The three knights thought that it was a good opportunity to practice their many knight skills and training ensued. Since princesses are required to complete knights training as well, in order to protect themselves from dirty scoundrels that might want to bring them harm, she joined in. Much serious and not so serious practice took place.

Knights training

The three knights and the princess went on to investigate the magnificent sight. It was awe-inspiring. There was a deep crevice in the ground, over which thousands of litres of water cascaded, making the most wondrous,thunderous sound, cooling the air around it. The bush surrounding this sight had many beautifull birds in, as well as some snakes.

The princess and the four knights started on their journey back. On their way they met a friendly merchant who sold them some magic potion, to restore their strength.The magic potion was good and everyone drank deeply from it.
The youngest knight and the princess decided that the best way to drink the potion was to smeer it all over your mouth.

The princess and the youngest knight was as strong as lions after this!!!

The princess and the three knights returned to a place where they could rest and quench their thirst and fill their tummies once more. The two older knights decided to hone their skills by making use of some new fandangled technologies, which left the youngest knight to do the princesses bidding.

The princess decreed that they would have a tea party and the knight oblingly brouhgt her, her crown. No princess can be expected to serve tea without her crown.

The princess and the three knights rested well and after some training sessions grew bored. They decided to set of on their next quest. They had heard tales told of a kingdom far,far away with castles that bounce and towers so high it reached right up into the clouds.

But of this they wil tell you in their next adventures.

The end.

Andrew is 8!!

So my big boy is 8 today. I cant believe it. He was the cutest baby with the sweetest smile, and still today he is a very sweet child.
At 8 Andrew loves playing golf,running around, playing soccer and teasing. The best is of course to tease your sister. He’s very much aware of what is fair and what is not and will quickly point out when he thinks you are being unfair.
School work is ok but if it can be avoided all the better. Once you give him an incentive though(and it can be something as simple as a gold star) he is quite happy to complete it to the best of his abilities.
This year he got very good at lying and we have to get more ingenous to try to get to the truth.
His all time hero in this whole wide world is his Dad. Whatever daddie says or does is gospel in Andrew’s book.

I’m really enjoying these last moments of his childhood , as he still is quite happy to come sit on my lap for a cuddlle or hold my hand in the shops. I know this wont last much longer so I’m taking advantage of it at this stage.

He really has an awesome sense of humour and him and I often pack out in giggles at something we found funny. This makes it easy to diffuse difficult moments if I can make him see the funny side of it.

He has always wanted to become a pilot and that hasn’t changed since he was 5. He says he still believes in Father Christmas, although slowly but surely I think he realises this may no longer be true.

He really is a fun loving, loving child and is much loved by his friends ,mom,dad and little sister.

The Eczema monster

We have lived with the eczema monster for a long time in our house. Pierre has it and unfortunately so has Andrew. Carmen was lucky until this year.
As with most families that battles with this, we have tried every cream on the market,knows what works and what not. Some years you find something works, only for the next year to have the prodoct pulled from the shelves and start all over again.
Jeanette has been urging me to try Tranquil Body Treats Eczema cream and with Carmen’s eczema getting very bad , I gave it a bash. This stuff really works. Carmen’s has all but disappeared and Andrew, well Andrew’s is cronic. One patch dissapears, another one appears. But it makes it much more bearable and at least alleviates the itchiness.
I’m also using it for the rash that Andrew has developed around the Molluscum contagiosum he got.

I’ve also started to use the facial products from Tranquil Body Treats and it’s really made my skin feel so much better. She doesn’t use sulphates in her products which really helps sensitive and allergy prone skin.

* Disclaimer: In no way has anyone asked or paid me to write this. It just really is a very good product.

Healthy Living

So, I’ve been at the healthy living thing for 10 weeks now and feel much better and hopefully look it too.
The changes I’ve made seems to be really starting to pay off and even though it was a hard slog in August it feels like things are just coming more easier now and that I’m really starting to see the fruits of it.
I’m drinking more water
I try to fit at least 2 excercise sessions in, in a week and climb the stairs at work
More salads and fruit, less bread and cheese.
I meditate.
What I still want to achive:
Do more cardio- right now I’m focussing on yoga and strenthening my core, but I’m ready to add some cardio to the mix.
Really try and beat the weekend slump. I still eat quite badly on weekends, so need to find a plan that suits me.
Cut down on red meat to only once a week. I found this site for vegetarian dishes, and it looks devine. Njam

This,that and the other

We’ve had a busy few weekends and lots of exciting stuff happened, so I thought I would do an update.
The last weekend of August we celebrated Carmen’s birthday with her friends. We took her and a few friends to the movies and Spur and the kids really seemed to enjoy themselves. I orderd some Hello Kitty Cupcakes from The Cupcake Lady and they were a hit. It’s the first time I actually saw kids eat sugarpaste. Normally they dont like it and scrape it off, but this time they loved it.
We went to the Bonafatius Basar, which is a yearly fundarising event for a local Lutheran church with a beerfest, oompapa bands and the whole German fete thing.We always used to go before the kids and this is the first time we went back since we’ve had the kids. There was a dedicated area for the kids and they luurved it. They keep on asking me when are we going back.
The weekend past we celebrated our wedding anniversary and Pierre spoiled me rotten by sending me for a day to the spa.. It was bliss!! Then he made an awesome prawn dinner and we celebrated with some champaigne. All very decadent.
Sunday Jeanette and I took the kids to Stonehaven for the Antiques and Collectibles fair. It wasn’t what we expected and we left a bit dissapointed. I think it would be great if we had time for a boat ride ,but we couldn’t fit that in.
I’m wanting to go try the White House market and I’m wondering if anyone has ever been?