Not a lot has been happening....

There has been sleepovers and dogs that don't understand they are not human. The extra place setting wasnt with Dotti in mind.

Cricket and cheerleading (gawd I wish she had chosen a different "sport") training, library visits, the walk to cure diabetes and visiting. Exercising dogs and indulgent reading in bed.

I am working four hours a day from 8 am till noon. At the risk of sounding rediculously lazy.. I LOVE THIS! It is just brilliant and I so wish it could go on forever. I have time for lunch with girlfriends. I can spend hours preparing dinner for my family. (Or not!) Another mum does the morning school taxi lifts and I do the afternoon one. I have time (and the energy) to follow Anna and her friend though the mall. I can have a nap if I want! We can go and feed the ducks, turtles and eels after school. The dogs don't act as if I have abandoned them.

I have time for craft and gardening projects. And I don't feel as if I should penny pinch madly. (The "meaness" remains though - I still go for the markdowns at the supermarket...) The laundry and housekeeping isnt madly behind and moving on its own.


The passionfruit vine I planted only ten days ago has its first flower.... and yes I planted it in an ugly old tyre for its own protection against the dogs, whipper snipper and the drought. I have plans to hide the ugliness soon.


And the dogs still think they are human - even after the eight foot fence has been erected (hence passionfruit vine being sent up it) and my dogs are semi-outside dogs now. Well, of course excepting when they think they need the airconditioner.

It would be nice if this working arrangement could go on forever. The weather is gorgeous (if a little dry)and very little seems to be happening in my little place in the world.

I hope everyone else has a lovely peaceful time too.

Another post script... I can forget all the important stuff

William had a traumatising time at first cricket training with the awful bastards who dismissed him as too short - he forgot to wear undies and when given the cup thingie? to wear when batting of course it just fell out of his pants.

He was somewhat embarrassed about all of this.

So this morning I ask ten times.. are you sure you have undies. And of course - I bought him his own cup thingie. (I find the thought of sharing them somewhat... not good)

Well - games over and we drive home and get an ice cream on the way... and he tells me "My legs are all itchy for some reason". I think... damn sandflies and/or mossies OR the pants we bought him are way too long and I made him fold them up? So maybe that made him itchy and I would have to find someone who could sew this week. I discover an hour later that not only was he wearing undies.. but he was wearing shorts underneath and the brand new cricket pants still had the shop tags dangling about in them! In that heat of course your going to be bloody uncomfortable.

Being a mother is harder than you think.

And WHAT idiot decided on white for cricket pants?

William's first club cricket day.

He did great. Ok - so his bowling needs work - and after a few ok ones they were mostly "wides?" (What a mother! I never understand the rules or terms in these things!)But his enthusiasm was wonderful (instead of the soccer "kick it to me" summer seems to about to be "throw it to me!")

And as you can see by the photo - we may have a problem with the pad thingies. On the other 12 year old boys they go just above the knee. For William they come up to his pelvis and make movement excessively difficult. Mother on a mission - must find small size pad thingies.

Lucky for William today he didn't get a chance to bat. (He could hardly walk in them running was definately going to be... difficult) His team played well - and they only get 30 mins to bat on these club days if they dont get out. The game starts at 8 am and must finish at 12 noon so that the next club game can be played on the field. So - he missed out. A weeks reprieve on the movement issue.

I stayed for a while - and Christian bought William and I MacDonalds breakfast to the field.. and then went home to supervise some (incredibly dodgy) paving we are doing out the back... Returning in time to watch Williams team successfully... get out? (Gawd I have to read some sports type reporting stuff one day!)Well - the other team didnt make many runs up the dooby dacker!

All week on my list of "too do's" was - get William a cricket hat or cap. Guess what rotten mother completely forgot that item and couldnt do anything about it on a very windy Saturday morning at 7.45 am? I tortured him with sunblock on his face and neck. The shirts are meant to be three quarter shirts.. but luckily for Wills... they are longer for him.

I got a sunburnt chest. A lopsided sunburnt chest. To add to all the skin damage I have stupidly done in the past. I remember my face. I remember my arms. I never remember the thing that is aging the fastest and most dreadfully. I also find it ironic that the pain of sunburn is a mistake I can still be so stupid to make.

Anna had her own drama's today. She and I had words earlier..... She was assaulted by a shoplifter at work (who was related to our former neighbours- who are excellent at stealing- if excellent doesnt include not getting caught) - the police came... one superviser indicated that she could get introuble at work because of her assault...Anna was upset... I went over to find the superviser who wasnt on duty today also there same time as me and willing to back Anna up - apparantly when Anna pushed away the shoplifter who PUNCHED her... and another supervisor rushed in and "defended" or assaulted the shoplifter.. the other supervisor said Anna shouldnt of done that? Ok - no one will make any sense of that. My life is like that a lot.

But Anna doesnt want to let her friends down..I was proud when she refused to let work down and come home with me when I gave her that option when she was upset at the threat to her job... and.. I told Anna that considering she has work in the morning sleeping over and attending parties tonight after this drama and last nights excitement would be somewhat undesirable considering she is a person who really needs sleep... So really she should stay home and go out again next weekend.... she told me I completely suck and ruin her life.. and then fell asleep at 9 pm... (Huh? See? I knew she would? I KNOW she cant handle no sleep) But it still makes me feel sad she blames me. It would be nice if I could give her a couple of hundred dollars a week pocket money. But sadly - I just can't. If she wants the money she has to work.

And if her work says Anna pushing someone off her who punches her on the chin/neck... there will be more to this story. I dont think there will be - the supervisor that Anna spoke to with me there this afternoon was.. exactly on my wave length. No one should assault anyone ever.. however.. when it happens.. if you do react defensively...blah blah.

Anyway - thats to sort out tomorrow. After "Walk to cure diabetes". WHY CANT ANYONE ORGANISE THINGS THAT LET PEOPLE SLEEP IN? Anyway I better get!

Tonight is Sara's 21st birthday spent in Sydney with her fathers family at a pub in Cremorne. I hope she has a wonderful night.

P

This is the photo I wanted to show to demonstrate Anna's beautiful hair.

What a night. I am so tired. She just showed me her photographs and told me how gorgeous everyone else was. And how the food sucked. That is my baby. You cant beat home for food.

My babies keep growing up

Tonight is Anna's first formal. Year ten formal. She argues with me that it is an "informal" because they are not expected to wear long dresses. This much attention to me is still a formal. I knocked off work early and came home to a distraught Anna who had... I kid you not.. used diploratory hair remover on her eyebrows. She put "Nair" on her eyebrows and then cried on me because half her eyebrow was missing. (I have a terrible feeling this kind of stuff is heriditary.)
I said .. well we will just have to buy a brown pencil.We went to our new hairdresser S's place and she did Anna's hair and also tinted and waxed Anna's eyebrows... rectifying the... errr... mistake....
M and the kids arrived early and M and I assisted with Anna's makeup....



William came inside with all the boys and said (in front of all his mates) "Oh - Anna you look beautiful"... I swung around to hide my tears. M told me later that she also teared up.

Dotti the wonderdog wanted to be in the whole thing too. Of course. She wanted to chase the whirling skirt and eat the lipsticks.





And I need to Photoshop out the red eye... but pfttttttt...I still think she is just so very beautiful. From the minute she was born - my natural (well forceps and lots of drugs is as natural as I ever got) till now... she has always been so very beautiful. I rang my father (who is/was also a red head) and told him she had red hair.. and he said... "Oh - the poor thing". And for the last hmmm..... 7 years? she has complained her hair colour gets her teased. Pfftttt on the teasers. How beautiful is that?

She will be home in a minute and shoot me for this.

Cheerio!

Mama's chicken liver pate

More simple celebration food.
Ingredients
3 or 4 chicken livers
2 rashers bacon (optional)
1 small onion
1 shallot
1 clove garlic
small bunch of parsley
1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 tablespoons thickened cream


Cut the livers into four pieces, shred the bacon, dice onion, shallot and garlic and fry until soft in a frying pan with a some good olive oil. Cook until just softened. At last minute add the fish sauce. The house is going to smell terrible for a few minutes. But it is all worth it.

Transfer the mixture to the blender. (If you dont own a blender you can grind the whole lot through a seive - tedious but it works)
Add the parsley and cream. Blend until smooth. Taste test to see if you want salt or pepper. (Fish sauce is salty enough I find)

My Mama uses clarified butter to set it. Put a bay leaf in the centre of the container and gently pour the clarified butter onto it until all the pate is covered. I prefer a tablespoon of gelatine and a chicken stock cube - add boiling water, stir and gently pour over the top of the pate.

Serve with crusty bread and butter. Makes two small pots.

School holidays, work and no tales to tell

Tomorrow is back to school. Hooray! I only worked two full days and three half days these holidays. Jane and Anna fought. Jane and William fought. We had endless sleepovers. Endless mess. We put an eight foot fence around the yard to keep the dogs from pissing off the neighbours. The kids kept letting the dogs out regardless.
The boys enjoyed swimming at my friends house. We ate lunches down at the Marina, enjoyed walks on the beach with dogs (ours and friends borrowed dogs)and had regular accidents like bee stings and cut feet. Pretty eventless really. Probably because I succoumbed to Austar (cable tv) and they... sigh. Next holidays will not be spent sitting in front of the box. We FINALLY got broadband too - we are probably the last people on earth to do so. And yes.. it is wonderful.

Seafood stirfry with Oyster Sauce

Celebration food! My favourite. Yesterday was MOTH's (Man of the house aka Christian's) birthday. And he worked it! And today too! (The no boat motor thing is killing him!)

This recipe is so easy and feeds stack loads... or just four gluttons. Sorry I only took a photo in the raw stage. We got distracted once the feasting began.

Vegetables - what is in season. Use bok choy, celery, onions, shallots, snap peas, sugar peas, mushrooms - whatever takes your fancy. (Or is cheap and or in the marked down section at Woolies)

Two packets of ukon or hokein noodles.

Fish fillet - about 600 grams. (Yesterday King Salmon was on special at the fish market) Cut into cubes.

Green prawns - about 800 grams. Peel them and devien them. (Eating prawn shit is disgusting people. Dont do it - take two extra minutes and take it out.)

three squid tubes. Cut into rings

scallops - roe off - about 250 grams

baby octopus - about 500 grams. Cut the bigger ones in half.

Add half a bottle of oyster sauce to taste. And that is it! A meal fit for a King.

Stir fry it with a good olive oil. Everyone can do their own individual batches. We put it on the table with the little gas camper cooker... and everyone has their own turn with the wok. Interactive meal - heaps of fun.