Make a Plan Monday 25th June 2012

Review

The plan for last week was to survive, follow 'My Life Schedule' and enlist the help of Lovely Hubby and Lil' Sis'.

Well I survived! I was worried about keeping on top of things given the fact that I had work to contend with as well. By getting the major tasks done at the beginning of the week and keeping on top of the little tasks daily meant that things didn't get too out of hand. This meant that I stuck to 'My Life Schedule' as best as I could.

One thing that helped was that Lil' Sis' and I were at the pool doing some laps at 6.15am Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Oooh get us eh! It was great, it meant that I was showered and dressed by 7am! Ready to take on the world!

As for roping in Lovely Hubby to help. I can't really complain. Poor man! On Thursday he had the Cherubs all day...I didnt get home until 7.30pm! He was ratty before I even left but he had a great day. His highlight was being proud daddy at Darling Daughters swimming lessons, not sure how or why but she is the star pupil, he quite enjoyed basking in her glory! Much to my delight and relief both Cherubs were bathed and ready for bed on my return.

I left a list of the daily tasks I do (how is he meant to know what to do if I don't tell him but 'telling' him would be construed as nagging so next best thing write it down). I didn't tell him about the list I just left it on the kitchen work top...subtle as a brick, I was a bit scared to tell him given how ratty he was already. And lo and behold he lived up to his name. He did everything apart from the hoovering and mopping (I just shoved it on the list just in case he got round to it). Pretty good going considering there was very little napping from the Cherubs.

The jobs I lined up for Lil' Sis' never came to fruition. I did the hoovering myself on Friday. The dog was away getting groomed so I whizzed round while he was out of the house. The other thing I hoped she might do with the Boyf was walk the Hound but he has been in the wars and has a split and punctures in his paw *winces* so he is house and garden bound until that heals. She did me a massive favour chumming me to the pool and Cherubsitting while I worked on Saturday so I can't complain!

The Plan

This week the plan is as follows

1. Try not to loose any more electrical equipment! (post on this to follow).
   
2. My tiny little boy Second Born Son is starting daycare in two weeks so I am hoping to spend plenty quality time together and maybe see if I can help him improve his sitting up.
3. Get to the pool 4 mornings again and do the 'Trig Run' on Saturday morning. The aim with swimming is to do it for the next 6 weeks at least. By then the mornings should be getting lighter and I can get running down the beach again with the Hound!

If my calculations are correct this is week 2 in my little pattern. That means this should be an ok week.

Look out next week it will all go to shit!!

 

Electrical Faults

My poor electrical appliances had a bad week last week...

It seems to be a family thing.

Any new gadget my parents get seems to either just not work or malfunction early on its life.

Lil Sis has done for a lap top and two cameras since she's been living with us!

As for me I'm pretty sure if I read the Instructions I would get more out of the gadgets we own. This was not the problem last week though.

Meal Planning Monday 25th June 2012

In case anybody is interested here's what The Simpson Clan are eating this week...

Monday - Popeye pasta, this was on last weeks plan but we never got round to having it.

Tuesday - Grilled chicken (I'll need to brace myself for the mess, I've recently rediscovered my George Foreman grill, it makes yummy chook, but it's messy), roast potatoes (more gadgets, I'll use my actifry to do this), accompanied by curried mushrooms. Lovely Hubby will have to make the mushrooms, these are one of his creations. I'll get him to show me how and I will blog it later.

Wednesday - Pasta with creamy garlic and pesto sauce (out of a packet but yummy), with crispy bacon and some grilled courgettes/zucchinis. I'm working all day so nice and easy.

Thursday - Chilli with tacos. I'll make a big batch earlier in the week and freeze portions for future use. Tis used to be Lovely Hubbys speciality but I took over not long after Darling Daughter came along. I love chilli. We have it with tacos, baked potato or nachos. Topped of with cheese, sour cream and of course, the Simpson staple, jalepenos

Friday - Chicken in a bag. We had this last week and Darling Daughter ate with us and she loved it. I'm making it later in the week so that I can use up the veg I have left over after making mush for Second Born Son. There is a specific list of veg your meant to put in the bag but I don't stick to it. I aim to put in potatoes, leek, sweet potato/kumara, butternut squash and carrot.

Saturday - Lentil Dahl. May make something else depending what's kicking around the cupboards but if I'm stuck I always have what's needed for this.

What's everyone else having. Pop on over to At Home With Mrs M by clicking here to join in with this great Linky x

 

 

The 'Trig Run' Tracker

Don't suppose anyone noticed there was no tracker last week.

The crazy ladies that are Super Fit Mummy and Actual Super Mummy instead opted for the equally lovely challenge that is the Tough Guy And Gal Challenge! A hideous sounding assault course kind of thing that leaves you caked in mud, freezing cold and down one pair of trainers! Oh dear what a pity I had work so I couldn't participate. By all accounts though they had a great time, crazy I tell you crazy!

Lovely Hubby isn't called Lovely just for the hell of it. He is actually Lovely! Not only was he willing to stand in for the girls and do the 'Trig Run' with me, he was willing to do so after a sleepless night with the eldest Cherub. But I didn't think he would still want to go so I left him sleeping in Darling Daughters room. A bit naughty on my part but a week off is not the end of the world.

I got back on the wagon this week though. Just me and Super Fit Mummy again this week.

Eek it was dark. Running through the first bit you have to go under an arc of trees which was lovely this week, I didn't have breakfast but that was rectified when I got a mouthful of cobwebs and goodness knows what else running under the arc of trees.

The only problem with it just being the two of is is that I really can't run up 'Mount Paraparaumu' at the best of times let alone while trying to talk as well. I tried to keep running and talking as far as possible but it wasn't very far. I was in front (by chance not skill) so I was able to dictate the pace and the pace I chose was a brisk walk. Good choice I think!

Here we have the view from the top...

A lush view as usual. Reason enough to traipse up the 'Trig Run' hill each week.

I had all my gear ready to go the night before to minimize faffing around in the morning and maximize sleep time. But Sleepyhead Simpson (that's me by the way) still managed to forget to put the strap that goes round my ribs to measure my heart rate even though it featured in the pile of clothes I had laid out! So this week I only have a time to report...46minutes, sleepiness also meant I forgot to take a picture of the heart rate monitor watch at the end.

Please note although we walked we still finished faster than the last time which was a walk too. (Clutching at straws of success me thinks)

Until next time, TTFN...(that always makes me smile, sad creature that I am).

 

Silent Sunday 24th June 2012

Caption This Beauty!

Saturday is #SATCAP day.

Here we have yet another cracker of a snoring (yep she is asleep) pose from Darling Daugher! After a long 6 hours at Kindy she just couldn't keep her eyes open. I didn't have the heart to move her, besides I didn't want her getting too comfy it was far too late for napping! She started off on the stool leaning against the sofa arm, I nipped into kitchen to make a cup of tea and came back through to find this....

FYI the shoes are her choice...and for some reason she doesn't seem to mind them being on the wrong feet, personally I find wearing shoes on the wrong feet feels hideous!

Click here to see more #SATCAP action over at mammasaurus.com

 

Making Mussels

 

Yep I did it, I prepared Mussels this week for challenge 2 of my Fortnightly Fish Challenge! I had a great recipe from the Countdown website...Spicy Mussels, all I needed to buy was the Mussels I had everything else in the cupboards already, my kinda recipe!
 Lovely Hubby and I picked out our select few from the Little Mussel Shower in our local Pack 'n' Save.  Actually I got Lovely Hubby to do it because I was terrified of breaking the machine or dropping them or doing something stupid!  Great that he did it but it meant I didn't take much notice of what they looked like close up.  So when I chatted to my fish expert Mummysknee on Skype about what I was doing with them and she asked me if they were de-bearded I had no idea what she was talking about!  I'm not a researcher you see, I am a fly by the seat of your pants, blagger kind of chap.  I had no idea about Mussels and their preparation, whereas most folk would have done a bit of research beforehand I was banking on a bit of google assistance and/or Lovely Hubby's odd 'general' knowledge of all things to do with films and food.