Random thoughts on a Thursday

I only seem to have random thoughts at the moment.

• I feel like I've lost my crafting mojo - I'm still stuck on an unfinished project without the inclination to finish or to start a new project. There's been pretty much no crafting around here for weeks!
• I feel like I'm scrambling up hill most days, trying to keep on top of the washing, the cooking, the shopping, the stuff, the dishes... This going back to work thing is beginning to feel like it is costing our family a lot in terms of my time, my energy - at least it means we can pay the rent though...
• I did a big load of dishes this morning and that made me feel so great. We have a little kitchen - the downside is that it gets messy really quickly, but the upside is that it usually doesn't take much to clean up.
• I love to put on an apron when I'm at home in the kitchen, whether I am cooking or cleaning (and I am usually trying to do both at once). It makes me feel like I am ready to tackle anything!
• I also took a mopportunity while little-miss-e was asleep and cleaned the kitchen cupboards which I have been staring at for weeks. 
• I love the idea of mopportunities - it comes from a friend and is the simple concept of doing a quick clean up when the opportunity presents itself. An example is mopping the kitchen after your daughter has poured water from her cup all over the floor, so you don't just mop up the spill, but take the opportunity to mop the whole floor. I pretty much clean only by mopportunity these days. 
• I am thankful for my lovely husband, my lovely little-miss-e and our lovely friends and family and our lovely church.

I am so glad I started writing out these random thoughts - I've gone from feeling negative to feeling positive over the course of this little list! From feeling the grey in the clouds to the sun shining through! Thanks to Sophie and her friend Ange for the topic

library collections

I am such big reader. I love to read and I love wandering around the library selecting whatever takes my fancy. My favourite method is simply to pick up a book and start reading - if I like the writing I take it home, if not I put it back and try again. I love reading a book without knowing anything about it. I usually try to avoid reading the back of books altogether and just dive straight in.

So seeing crafting is suspiciously absent from my life at present, I thought I'd join along with Kate from Greedy for Colour and her library collection.

This is our current collection:

It's little but big! I am slowly ploughing/plodding through Les Mes. I'm yet to make up my mind about it, so I seem to be reading it in fits and starts. And we're trying out an audio book - I have to say that it is not going as well as we thought. Finding the time to sit down together to listen is harder that I expected.

I have to say my favourite from little-miss-e's pile would have to be Leslie Patricelli's In the Bath. The story and illustrations are delightful and little-miss-e loves it too.  Little-miss-e loves books - she is such a book worm - although her favourite book at the moment is not from the library, it's this one:

Everytime she sees it she excitedly shouts "HAM!" and then tries to foist it in our direction to get us to read it to her.

How about you? A you a library person? What's currently in your library collection?

cooking up big

I am a big fan of the cook-up. I always have been. Even when I was just cooking for myself it would seem I could never cook less than 4 serves. I love to cook, so once I am making something I figure I may as well make a lot of it! In the past this has worked out well for my hungry housemates and friends living nearby. In more recent times, it has worked well with little-miss-e. At least 2 nights a week we eat 'freezer food' cooked up and frozen some other night, ready for tired-after-work-need-to-eat-now kinda meals.

I have, however, been finding it harder to cook like this in recent weeks, mainly due to the adjustment of going back to work. So our freezer stocks have started to look a little depleted. But today, after a big pot of pumpkin soup (made by me) and some left-over beef stroganof (made by my lovely husband) I am starting to feel back on track.

So tell me - what is your favourite freezer meal? Do you like to cook up big?

the easiest biscuits you'll ever make (healthy, sugar and gluten free)

So, there's not been much crafting going on 'round here. Mostly because I am still stuck on the frog/snake puppet and am yet to finish that, or to work out what my next project will be. But also because we have been the house of sickness, on top of my return to work, little-miss-e starting childcare and other adventures in normal life. So, there's not been a lot of craft to show and tell.

But I have been baking, and I wanted to share these biscuits with you. They are easy, healthy, sugar free, gluten free and my one year old LOVES them. Basically they go like this:






Take 2 bananas and a cup of oats*. Mix, spoon onto trays, then bake about 10 min at 180 C...




That's it!

 

I've been making these like crazy. They are super easy! I've added and adapted as I go along. I often reduce the amount of oats and add in other stuff instead - dessicated coconut, almond meal, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds or qunioa flakes... Sometimes I put in a spoon of peanut butter, some currants or cinnamon or vanilla... Given little-miss-e is so little, I tend to make teeny tiny biscuits that are barely a teaspoon-ful. She loves them.

It is worth noting they don't store all that long, a few days at the most. But I pop them in the freezer and then they last and last (at least until we eat them all!) Little-miss-e loves to gnaw on them frozen, or they defrost pretty quickly cos they are so small.

So there you go - the easiest biscuits you'll ever make.

Give them a go!


*NB: Oats are controversial in the gluten free world, but my lovely gluten free husband can eat them, so they are counted as gluten free here on marjoryjane.