inner pickle

hiatus

I haven't been taking many photos this week - something about getting out with everyone and their shoes on/hats on/bags packed etc, the camera just doesn't make the list. (Hence another iPhone shot above, thanks Ad.)

Just dropping in to say I'm having a blog break and will be back next week (Monday 2nd August). It must be the season for it, a good friend of mine has just announced she's closing up shop which is very sad, and another favourite blogger, farmama, seems to have dropped off the RSS feed, hopefully only temporarily. 

Time for a regroup? 

I think so. Enjoy your week and weekend, see you on the other side!

xxx

 

notes from a Monday

1. Adam went back to work today after three lovely lovely weeks of paternity leave.

2. Today was my first school drop off and pick up with three kids. It poured with rain last night. I figured, sure, getting kids in and out of the car in the pouring rain? I can do this. 

3. Morning was going well. It wasn't actually raining outside. Everyone had eaten breakfast, was dressed and the school bag was packed. I even remembered the home reader. We're out the door. Tilly says (with screwed up nose) "why are you wearing that skirt Mum?"

4. I have a flash forward to my daughter at fourteen. I try not to scowl.

5. I do not say: "because I could not for the life of me find the one pair of jeans I currently fit into even though they could only be in the cupboard, the laundry or on the line. Who knows. Maybe they are with my only long sleeved top that's NOT a maternity top that fits me right now too. Or maybe they took my sense of humour and went to the pub. Get in the car, wretch."

6. We get to school. It's a Monday. It's garbage collection day. The streets all around the school are filled with green sulo bins. I eventually stop the car in the middle of the road, jump out and move an empty bin so I can pull in.  The kids don't (a) exit the vehicle while dangerously parked or (b) drop over into the drivers seat and drive off without me. So I'm feeling really good.

7. Ivy goes into the baby sling and stays asleep. Gorgeous wee thing. Tilly finds a big stick. And a large puddle. I spot her in the playground surrounded by kindy boys as she demonstrates how to achieve an enormous splash by throwing the stick into the puddle. Henry says proudly: "That's my sister." I'm so overcome with the sweet siblingness of the moment I ignore the fact her shoes are wet. Her socks are wet. Her jeans are soaked. Whatever. Henry loves his little sister. She's a cracker. 

7. We had a wonderful day at home with a visit from my sister-in-law Rachel and my gorgeous gorgeous niece Stella Paella.

8. No Paella is not on her birth certificate.

9. Pick up time. It's terrificly overcast but not actually raining. We don't have off street parking at our house, and because the street was full earlier, I have had to park the car quite a walk and two streets away. That's cool. I've allowed time. 'Cept at the car Tilly announces an urgent toilet need. Too far to go back home. Ivy's already in her seat. So I suggest a tree on the side of the road, which Tilly happily agrees to. (At what age is it inappropriate to facilitate a wee on the side of the road do you think?)

10. We get to school on time. We get to the classroom without drama. Ivy stays asleep in the sling. You know, I think we can do it all again tomorrow. No worries. 

xxx

this moment

Inspired by Soulemama's Friday ritual, here's my moment to cherish this week:

 Adam and our newest addition, Ivy, three weeks old. Asleep almost instantly in the Baby Bjorn on Daddy's chest. 

Photo from my iPhone (using Hipstamatic.)

Have a gorgeous weekend.

xxx

day in pictures

First: you lot have some excellent stuff lurking in your pantries!! 

Sue: can you email me a photo of your mystery vegetable by any chance? 

Am now on lookout for uses for balsamic pickled cucumbers, rye flour (I have a bag of this too, Angie), middle eastern fig confit (YUM) and mango pickle. (Yvette - I have moved interstate and back with out of date pantry items! But salt has such a long shelf life, that's gotta be the one to beat!)

Pantry discussion to be posted shortly. 

Notwithstanding the fact our smallest smallie only got up once last night (what a wonderful little person) my brain is a tad frazzled today so am posting pictures instead! 

The makings of a wedding present for an adored cousin of mine...

Lunch: vegetable and barley soup. Hearty and delicious on a very cold Sydney day!

Sisterly afternoon cuddles. 

Dinner...

   

Hope you're warm wherever you are: it's freezing in Sydney tonight!

xxx

masterchef challenge

Revelations: 

# If I wanted my life back once Masterchef finishes this weekend, I probably shouldn't have started watching Mad Men. Given I've got the whole first series. And given I'm a bit inclined to put my feet up once the kids are in bed and not do anything (i.e. watch TV) in the evenings right now. 

# Turns out I can cook Malaysian food. Not usually my forte. But on Sunday night my darling pal Nessie set me a masterchef challenge: I showed up at her place and she presented the ingredients I had to cook the entree with. They were kaffir lime leaves, coconut milk, red chillis, chicken, lemongrass, mushrooms, a whole fresh coconut and fish sauce. I was cooking for four adults (we made pasta for the kids) and Ness had a vision of what she wanted after tasting a white soup served in a wine glass with crushed dried lime leaves around the rim in a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur last month. 

# If you scarf down the soup you will have no soup to take a photo of. I really wish I'd taken a photo. But it worked out so well I'll make it again and blog it. Promise. 

# I brought the ingredients Ness had to make up a main meal with: organic beef, 00 flour, pumpkin, sage, garlic, ricotta. Here's what she made:

Pumpkin and ricotta ravioli with butter and sage sauce and roast beef and a herb and mayonnaise salad. SO good. Photo by Adam (thanks babe.) 

# My pantry (and fridge for that matter) is a masterchef challenge waiting to happen. Bottles of this, jars of that, puy lentils anyone? What's something you have in your fridge/pantry that you're looking for inspiration to know what to do with? Got five languishing zucchini you need  recipe for? Marinated figs? Throw it open to the comments! Come on, hit me! 

xxx

Looking good, Vern. (Or not).

So I MAY have forgotten that the community nurse was coming to our house this morning to check out Ivy.

Now I know she's not 'community services' and she's not actually technically judging me in terms of my competence, but I really didn't do myself any favours. 

Bit of a disturbed night, not too bad, but up a few times and a bit bleary this morning. One of my godsons, Sebastian, arrived early for a play while his mum went into work for a few hours. I was in the shower. Adam's still home, thankfully! Another week!

An hour later, Ad suggests he walks up to our local cafe to get some coffee for us, and thinks he'll take Ivy (cafe owner Judy is already smitten with our little lady.)

So at some point I hear the kids open the front door and an adult voice say: Is your mother home?

I look at my two, it's a cold day in Sydney and they seem to only be wearing their pyjama bottoms. Sebastian at least is dressed. But is carrying a gun. (A gift from my brother for Henry. A Nerf Gun. I keep finding Adam playing with it.) 

The house is a mess and I don't mean that generously. It's a mess. I'm dressed, albeit with excellent bed head and committed ugg boots on. I am so all over this parenting thing. 

Of course the nurse wants to see Ivy. Oops. Call Ad, thank goodness he took his mobile. He retrieves Ivy from Judy and flies back down the hill.

I guess this nurse goes into lots of muddled houses. She did comment that our children seemed very happy (they were marching through the house with drums and maracas at this point.) She surprised me by commenting as she left what a confident mother I was. 

Confident my two half-naked smallies weren't going to catch pneumonia? Confident an additional kid (Sebastian, I mean) actually makes things easier, not harder, 'cause he plays so well with the other two? Confident that coffee happily cures all bleariness?

Oh yes. So confident. 

P.S. Don't know about the kids, but I am happy. Grateful for my family and friends and most of all my gorgeous wee girl, well, healthy, settled.  Very grateful. 

xxx

ode to three

Three years old, that is. 

My Mum, who now has eight grandchildren, has a lovely rule that she must have a three year old photo of each of them.

Before three, they're toddlers, after that, they are really turning into  little people (and can go through a cheesy photo stage.) So three it is. And it's a lovely, lovely age, right?

We have never had professional photos taken of our family, something I'd love to change but we've never found a photographer at the right time or in the right state (would love love love this amazing person to take a set of family shots for us - sadly I discovered her after we'd left Brisbane!)

Anyway, I was thinking of Mum's 'three' photo when flicking through these ones of Tilly at Pyrmont Park this week (thanks to reader Renee for the park tip! What a great park!)

Tilly is right at delightful three-and-a-half... still little but not big.

You know what I mean.

Soloist.

Girl in nature.

Treasure. (The stick.)   

Treasure. (The Tilly.)

Here's to treasuring precious days with smallies or whatever it is you're doing today.

xxx 

 

notes from cockatoo island

1. It wouldn't be a Walmsley family outing if we didn't eat lunch on the way there. (At morning tea time.) Vegemite sandwich anyone? On the ferry from Circular Quay to Cockatoo Island.

2. It's the Biennale of Sydney. Installation art all over the island. A jumping castle that is art? that you can't jump on? Whose bright idea was that? *stomp stomp stomp*

3. Some of the installations are really quite fabulous (a.k.a alarming).

4. A roomful of tin roofs. Pussy cat in her element.

5. Bit of alfresco breastfeeding. La la la. 

6. Does anything bother this little person? Ah, no. 

7. All kinds of fabulous industrial spaces. Adam-heaven. (He dreams of our family moving to an enormous re-fitted old warehouse one day. In fact, I have the ripped out real estate pages in front of me to prove it.)

 8. Home again, home again, jiggedy jig. Ivy in her little chair in the corner of the kitchen. Making trouble, as usual.

9. Favourite unphotographed moment of the day: Henry licking Adam's face, seeing if olive skin tasted like olives. 

xxx
      

 

apricot lunchbox snacks

My friend Lucie put me onto this book, for which I am very very grateful. 

Julie Maree Wood is full of truly excellent ideas about boosting the nutrition in the food of a small person who won't eat much of anything. 

These apricot balls, which she calls Iron Booster Balls, went down pretty well here. They look and taste like a treat! What's not to love.

Unless you buy organic apricots you'll be using apricots with preservative 220 (sulfur dioxide) which can be dangerous for asthmatics and has been shown to cause hyperactivity and behavioral problems. Like many additives and preservatives, really. 

I'll be honest: I don't always buy the preservative-free apricots, even though I know this. We have so few additives and preservatives around here that if I saw any effect of a handful of apricots a couple of times a week, I'd abandon them. Sometimes the rotten look of blackish organic apricots is a little too much for me. 

Apricot Balls (Iron Booster Balls)

Recipe by Julie Maree Wood, Feeding Fussy Kids

INGREDIENTS

½ cup dried apricots

½ cup dried peaches

2 tbsp boiling water

¼ cup almond meal

½ cup desiccated coconut

1 tbsp orange juice

2 tbsp wheatgerm

¼ cup skim milk powder

½ cup extra coconut

METHOD
Put the apricots and the peach into a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add boiling water and leave to soak for ten minutes. Add almond meal, coconut, wheatgerm, milk powder and orange juice. Blend until a firm dough forms. Add extra water if needed. Roll into balls and roll in coconut. Store in the fridge. 

xxx
 

school holidays

Turns out I've carried my love of school holidays into adulthood, now that I have a school-aged person in the house.

There's something about the rhythm of term-time receding into a break that is good for everyone. Gives us a sense of re-charging. 

It has been totally wonderful having Adam off work for these holidays, because if my energy flags, he's all go go go - let's get out and do stuff! And so we are. 

The kids fall into bed at night and Ivy is still only waking up every three or four hours so our eyes aren't falling out of our heads as those of parents of newborns often are. Very grateful for this break.

Sydney Park today, one of the coolest parks in Sydney (and damn you've got to love a park that has a kiosk making good coffee!!) 

xxx