Out with the bad in with the good...

I have decide to put my foot down

I have been too 'scared' to write some of my blog ideas in the fear that i will be judged

or people will think its about them

And as harsh as this is

I dont care anymore...

This is my blog my life my safe place to vent

you dont like it dont read it

if you think its about you, your wrong

Anyway thats the end of my little rant

onto the blogging...

I have had a realisation..

Its taken me awhile but i think finally the penny has dropped and quite frankly

im sad and disappointed.

In myself and the people i surround myself with

A beautiful friend of mine said to me awhile ago that she

"wanted the old bubbly me back"

It was a light bulb momment

I read that, i cried and i thought...

WOW

She was right i had changed.

i wasnt happy i was miserable and angry..

But WHY?

Its become clear that its because i was letting other people bring me down.

Their bad moods and their negativiy have been wearing off on me

I dont want to be that person.

Normally i am quite happy

Im ever so thankful for what i have in my life

I do complain (who dosent) and somedays i wish i had more or i could do better at

But at the end of the day this is my life...

I have 2 beautiful healthy children, a roof over our head, lots of materialistic things

(which of course are not importnat but i think this makes us very lucky)

A job to go back too, freedom

im sure you get my point

I am lucky, i have worked hard for what i have but im grateful i even had that chance.

There are so many people out there doing it way tougher then anything i'll ever go through.

So from this day forward

i will NOT be brought down

I will NOT walk on eggshells

I WILL celebrate the happy things, the love i have for my children and lifes momments

withOUT feeling guilty that i may upset someone.

It dosent mean i dont care that

that person is going through a rough patch

or that this person is having a bad day

or that they are having no luck

I care very deeply and i will do anything i can too help them out

I will ALWAYS be there to listen and give advice to whom ever needs it

BUT

At the end of the day this is MY life, i need to live it for me and my children not everyone else

i need to make it what i want it too be

I need to be happy

I love this quote

"No-one can make you feel inferior without your consent"

 Eleanor Roosevelt

I think its quite fitting

Maybe we all need to take a step back and see how our attitudes affect the people around us

Because...

You only get out of life what you put in

Its all about the power of positive thinking.

Cliche?

yeah i know but its true!

image from here

well here it goes.... 'Publish Post'

Recipe Book - Spring Rolls

My mum use to make these for us when we were younger they are so delicious!

The recipe is from the

Famil Circle Fast Finger Snacks

cookbook its also where i got my meat pie recipe.

Ingredients

1 Tbs of oil

200gms Pork mince (i use beef mince)

2 small carrotts, coarlsey grated

2 spring onions finely chopped (i dont use these)

60gms Chinese Cabbage, finely shredded

60gms Bean Sprouts, roughly chopped

1 small red capsicum, cut into short thin strips

2 cloves of garlic (i dont use)

1 tsp grated fresh ginger (i dont use)

8 Lge spring roll wrappers

oil for deep frying

soy sauce/sweet chilli sauce for serving

Method

Add oil to frying pan, add mince and over medium heat for 5 mins or until mince is browned and most of the liquid has evaporated.

Remove mince with slotted spoon and set aside to cool slightly

Place vegies garlic and ginnger in large mixing bowl and combine using your hands

.

Transfer to frying pan and stir-fry for 2 mins or until soft.

Combine vegies and mince in lagre bowl and mix well

Working one at a time, lay spring roll wrapper diagonally in front of you. Place about half a cup of mixture across front half of wrapper, fold the corner closest to you back over filling, tuck in sides and roll up.

Moisten corner with water to stick down.

Heat oil in pan (for deep frying)

Gently lower spring rolls into hot oil. Cook for 1-2 mins or until crisp and golden.

Only cook 1 or 2 at a time

Carefully remove spring rolls with tongs or slotted spoon.

Drain on paper towel.

Serve with soy or sweet chilli sauce

ENJOY!

Meal Planning Tuesday...

*image from here

This weeks meal plan is

Wednesday - Pumpkin and feta risotto

(sorry miss Fawn we had takeaway that night last week lol)

Thursday - Homemade spring rolls

Friday - Massman Curry with Rice

Saturday - Basil Pesto Chicken pasta

Sunday - Lasagne

(will make saturday as i have my first market for TeeLee Blue this day)

Monday - Creamy Chicken Vol-au-vents

Tuesday - Chicken Pie

Snacks - Cheesy corn muffins

Enjoy om nom nom

Meal Planning Tuesday - on a thursday..

Meal planning tuesday yet its thursday hmmm

slightly late but meh better late then enver right? lol

Wednesday - ravioli bolognese with garlic bread

Thursday - Chicken stir fry

with the new kantong stirfry sauce lemongrass lime and corriander and rice

Friday - Beef and red wine casserole with herb dumplings

Saturday - Pumpkin and feta rissotto (curtosey of miss Fawn)

Sunday - Chicken Schnitzel, roast vegies and gravy

Monday - Beef and tomato rice in the rice cooker

Tuesday - homemade meat pie with home made chips

snacks - not so healthy chocolate chip cookies YUM

whats on your meal plan this week?

Our Cooking Adventures...

Today master J and I were able to bake some cookies.

and BOY was i surprised at the little man that was before my eyes.

We just used a Betty Crocker packet to make them

But he had a ball pouring and mixing and then spooning them on too the tray.

It was like he knew exactly what he had to do without mummys help :(

As for the cookies they were delicious and i loved spending that quality time with my Boofa.

With a busy life being a mummy of two with my own little business

It was great to just forget it all and teach my little man some life skills.

I dont want him to have that stigma of "Males cant cook anything except a BBQ" attacthed to him

so im glad he enjoys being in the kitchen with mummy or daddy!

I think we'll be doing this a little more often

I wont say once a week because i cant gaurnatee we will always have the time

but i'll defiantlybe aiming for that!

What do you love to do all the time with your babies?

Busy Bee

Its been quite busy over at my FB business page TeeLee Blue

I had my page revamped by Amber of Sprowt Graphic Design

and i could not be happier with how it turned out!

I now have a gorgeous new logo, welcome page and contact tab

She also did my business cards, order forms, invoice template and product sheets

TeeLee Blue Logo

As you can see it all ties in with my blog that Amber also designed for me

I had 2 Valnetine and 1 Birthday Sweet Treat Box orders for Valentines day

and they looked AMAZING!

Sadly they didnt travel aswell as i was hoping so its back to the drawing board for them

I also completed all Wipes Cases that were on order

I think im in love with Brown Braiding now it looked really good with the RB All Stars material

and as you may have seen in my last post i am attending the

Marion Indoor Market

on Feb 27th

So i thought instead of having bunting or a banner or nothing at all with my business name on it

I asked the lovely lady behind the FB page Kale to put my logo on a canvas!

Heres the end result!

I am soooo happy with it it looks amazing

So as you can see its been quite busy i have also been cutting lots of material ready to put wipes cases and facewashers together for the Market.

Ive also got a few orders in the works!

And on that note i better get back to decorating my "Funky Letters and Numbers" i have on order and playing housewife and mummy ;)

Recipe Book - Filo Parcels

This weels recipe is from the website Taste

and it was tonights meal.

Quite easy to make even though it dosent look like it and even Master J loved it and asked for more!
Its now been added to the family favourites.

Chicken, Feta and Sweet Potato Filo Parcels

Preparation Time

35 minutes

Cooking Time

65 minutes

Ingredients (serves 6)

Olive oil, to grease

500g orange sweet potato (kumara), peeled, cut into 2cm pieces

125ml (1/2 cup) olive oil

1 large red onion, chopped

500g chicken thigh fillets, trimmed, cut into 2cm pieces

60g baby spinach leaves, washed, dried, roughly chopped

250g feta, roughly crumbled

Freshly ground black pepper

18 sheets filo pastry

3 tsp olive oil, extra

3 tsp sesame seeds

Method

Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease a baking tray with olive oil. Place the sweet potato and 1 tbs of the oil in a large bowl. Toss the sweet potato to coat and place on the greased tray in a single layer. Roast in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until tender and light brown. Set aside for 15 minutes or until cool enough to handle.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tbs of remaining oil in a large non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, uncovered, stirring frequ-ently, for 3 minutes or until soft. Transfer to a large heatproof bowl.

Add half of the chicken to the pan and cook over medium-high heat, uncovered, turning occasionally, for 4 minutes or until just cooked through. Transfer chicken and onions to the bowl. Repeat with remaining chicken.

Add the spinach and sweet potato to the chicken mixture and toss to combine. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly. Cover and place in the fridge for 10 minutes or until cooled to room temperature.

Sprinkle chicken mixture with feta, season well with pepper and toss gently to combine. Divide mixture into 6 portions.

Lay pastry flat on a clean work surface. Cover with a clean, dry tea towel, then a clean, damp tea towel to prevent pastry drying out. Brush 1 sheet of pastry lightly with a little remaining oil. Top with 2 more sheets of pastry, brushing each with a little more oil. Place one portion of chicken mixture on a narrow end of the pastry, leaving a 7cm border at the end and on each side. Fold front edge of the pastry over filling, then fold in sides and roll up to enclose. Repeat with remaining pastry, oil and chicken mixture to make 6 rolls.

Grease a large baking tray lightly with olive oil. Place the filo parcels seam-side down on the greased tray, brush each filo parcel lightly with the extra oil and sprinkle evenly with sesame seeds. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until crisp and light golden. Serve immediately.

Notes

Prep: 35 mins (+ 30 mins cooling time)

To freeze (for up to 3 months): As you complete each parcel, wrap it in several layers of plastic wrap. Label and date, and place in the freezer.

To cook: Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease a baking tray with olive oil. Place frozen filo parcels on tray, brush with extra oil and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until crisp and golden.

serving suggestion: Green salad.

POTD {Raising Boys}

This POTD is a little bit differnt ive also included a poem called 'Raising Boys' 

which i think goes so beautifully with my POTD pic

and with the fact i have 2 little boys.

This pic is of a half dieing half crushed tiny little daisy Master 2 picked for me on our way home from Daycare

But it is still the most BEAUTIFUL little flower i've ever seen

Master J "mum mum mum"

runs over with his hand out and places this tiny little flower on my hand

it was such a gorgeous momment one i wont forget and he was so excited to give his mummy a flower!

And this is where the Poem comes into play the very last paragraph

Raising Boys

Author: Roberta I. Teague

I scrub the wall of fingerprints,

Pick up the mounds of clothes.

I sweep the dirt that shoes track in-

Wish I could use a hose!

Meals are served from dawn to dark,

Dirty dishes crowd the sink.

Just when they’re washed and put away-

Everyone wants a drink!

The washer pulls the dirty grime

From pants worn thin and patched.

They look so very neat and clean-

Yuck, look what the pockets hatched!

Broken bones and bloody knees,

I should have been a nurse.

I take it all in shaky stride-

Just grateful it’s not worse!

Screams and shouts and arguments

Test the keeping of my cool.

They left the neighbor’s faucet on-

See their new front yard pool!

A soothing bath is ecstasy,

A reward at the end of my rope.

Raising boys isn’t really bad-

But first I must wash the soap!

A rose can say I Love You,

Orchids can enthrall;

But a weed bouquet in a chubby fist,

Oh my, that says it all!

Poem found here cant wait to post the other one with another POTD

POTD {Bath Time}

These are my boys having some bubble fun in the bath.

Who didnt do this as a kid? lol

Mater J (right) LOOOVES the bubbles and likes to put them on his face and head and then look at himself in the child friendly bath mirror we have

As for Lil C (left) he just loves to laugh at his big brother being silly.

My Bag of Tricks...

Being a mummy of Two well three if you include the hairy man child

I am alwasy on the look out for fabulous cost cutting tips, hints and tricks in cooking, just anything that will help make life as a busy mummy that little bit easier or get me out of a pickle.

Which is why it thought it would be fabulous to blog all the hints, tips, tricks helpful gadgets that i come across

Hopefully this will help you too one day..

*Homemade schnitzel, you know the drill flour, egg, breadcrumbs, cook

But what happens if you have no have plain flour? or eggs?

Uh ohhhh

dont panic you can use corn flour instead of flour and milk instead of egg too easy.

*When the weather is a little bit unpredictable
I find hanging my washing on clothes aires and tops, dresses, skirts, pants etc on clothes hangers which you then hook on the washing line makes gathering all your clothes that much quicker if it starts to rain suddenly.

image from here

*When freezing meals or bulk meat, portion up whichever you are doing into ziplock or freezer bags.

To save room flatten them out as much as you can, if you put say 2 chicken breast in a bag put them side by side instead of ontop of each othe,r if its mince pat it down til its flat.

This will help them stack ontop of each other better and also help with the time it takes to defrost your meat

If you have any handy hints or tips you want too share to make another mummys busy day that little bit easier just comment and i will add it and credit you in my next "Bag of Tricks" post.

Meal Planning Tuesday

This weeks menu

Wednesday - Chicken Schnitzel Burgers with Takka Tala Mayo

Thursday - Meatballs and spaghetti

Friday - Tacos

Saturday - Chicken, Fetta, Sweetpotato filo parcels

Sunday - Beef Souvlaki Wraps

Monday - Nachos

Tuesday - Honey Chicken and Fried Rice

Yummy yummy

Il also write up the Chicken, Fetta and sweet potato filo parcels recipe this week

The Start of my WAHM Journey and TeeLee Blue

Is excited to blog that i have started my own Facebook business

TeeLee Blue

At the momment i am currently making/creating and decorating:

*Sweet Treat Boxes

a lovely box of choclates or lollys arranged like flowers

*inspired by aunty mouse

*Signature Bears

decorated calico bears for any special occasions (18th and 21st are just a few) that people sign so you'll always know who was there to celebrate with you

*inspired by aunty mouse

*Funky Letters

wooden letters decorated with paint, scrapbookin paper and embelishments

*inspired by Miss L

*Wipes Cases

material covered huggies travel pack wipes cases

can be personalised with initials if desired

*found on homemade websites, blogs and fb pages

and lastly but certainly not least

*Facewashers

kids facewashers in all sorts of fun material patterns

*inspired by me

So that is everything that is being made and sold right now

I also have some other ideas in the works including presonalised building blocks, appliqued t-shirts and singlets and Baby Giftboxes

They will all hopefully be available soon

Stay tuned as i blog the rest of my WAHM journey

next up is the Marion indoor market on Feb 27th eeeek!

POTD { Your Child at Play}

Im a little behind in my blog posts so i thought id catch up on my Photo Of The Day idea

Which was inspired by Becky Higgins and is also being done by Jade over at Super Organiser Mum

So my POTD for today is

"your child at play"

Master J drawing on his Aqua Doodle

He loves to draw Circles and "Couwa"

Lil' C, A Birth Story - Number 2 Blue

If you read the Birth Story of my first boy Master J

you would have read that it was a long and tiring experience.

A very worthwhile one but a marathon!

This is his little brothers birth story and it is polar opposites!

Just as they are in personaliaty already.

So here we go...

If you read how Number 2 Blue was created you would have read it was a pretty rocky start

full of anxiety lots of decisons and lots of tears.

Once we had decided to carry on with this pregnancy things got off to a flying start

I got morning sickness again! but it was more nausea for a few weeks until the actual vomitting kicked in then it was all day sickness.

I was tired chasing after an almost 2yo and looking after house and working wore me out.

But i started showing quicker AND i was going through pregnancy with my best friend!

We had all the normal test all the normal ultrasounds

we even got a few more by joining a weight gain in pregnancy study

And we even ahd the early Ultrasound to find out wether we were having a little boy or a little girl!

I wont lie i was hoping i would get a pigeon pair and that this little miracle was a girl but to our surprise i was baking a peen!

Yep we were expecting Number 2 blue!

Surprisingly i was soooo excited another boy they could grow up to be best of freinds

kick a footy together, roill int he grass and of course fight with each other.

So preparations started, buying things, sorting through all of Master J's clothes and what we still had for him

The biggest thing finding a name!

We found finding a name much harder 2nd time around we already had our boys name with J and we are still yet to use our girls name.

We trawled through internet sites, books asked for suggestions and eventually we found one we both loved!

As for the baby boy baking away

he was growing spot on, not giving me too much grief, well once the morning sickness went

i had the usual heartburn, sore back, sore legs and so on.

My midwife was wonderful as we got nearer the end and the talk of due date came about

i was feeling quite happy with going into labour, staying at home as long as possible and then making our way to the hospital when the time was right!

Lil' C had ither ideas!

We made it to full term with no real signs of him making his entrance anytime soon :|

by this stage i wanted him out i wanted to meet him and somewhat get comfy again!

I had stretch and sweeps and nothing we tried raspberry leaf tea, sex walking and then i gave in

He will come when he's ready.

Hmmm kind of...

So at 39 weeks i asked for an induction at 40 weeks the MW agreed but the maternity ward said no :( i was devasted i had gotten my hopes up and then they chnged their minds.

But this then resulted in having an induction booked in at 40 + 6 YAYYY

and we made it to that induction!

We get booked into our birthing suite at 3pm on the 11th of september

Our Midwife was Annette she was gorgeous!

We get comfortable and set up and speak about the process and whats "going" to happen and we get started!

I have an internal at 4:30pm to check that nothing is happening and apart from some contractions that started as we were waiting to be booked in there is nothing happening.

So the FIRST lot of gels are applied

I am instructed to not get up or move too much and to lay on the bed ither on my back or on my side for an hour to ensure the gels dont move.

As soon as 5:30 rolls around i get up shower go to the toilet.

We watch some TV chat with my mum who is there and settle in for a long night.

My mum goes home to get some rest just incase shes called in the middle the night

All the mean time ive been having contractions but nothing that swinging or walking or a heat pack wont fix.

At 8pm i decide im getting tried and that i want some sleep so i ask for the shot of pethadine.

My MW does another internal to check theres no progress and yep still nothing

Im given the shot at 8:30 and was told in 15 minutes i should be able to sleep that it wont stop the contractions or the pain but it would be enough for me to rest.

UMM YEAH NAH

This mumma got no sleep!

It was until about 9pm that i was going "ummm why arent i asleep my bestfriend said she slept for 5 hours with her shot!"

gaahhhh i wanted sleeeep

9:15pm still awake contractions are stronger but i was'nt thinking it would all be over soon!

Im not sure of the exact time but within in the space of 15 minutes it was on like donkey kong!

One big contraction pressure front and back

(which i now know was him engaging)

I screamed "stuart get the mw, press the button"

but because he was so frantic he fumbled for the bell

Luckily my MW had heard me scream hahaha

She came running in asking "whats going on?"

Next thing you know the bed is set up ready for birth, lights are on, heat bed is down cupboards are flung open!

It was happening.. well so we thought!

my next few contractions were very mild, until they came back strong again.

YEP it was defiantly on all of this happened within the 15 mintues

Stuart rang my mum in a panic you need to get here NOW!

9:30pm i started pushing

Mum rushed in just in time!

My waters hadnt broken yet so the MW started checking to see if she was going to have to pop them

Yeah nah

I popped them at 9:40pm by pushing

All the MW said was everyone better step back!

Im like WTF! WHY?

She said because i have a bubble of fluid and she could see it and it was going to pop!

FUNNIEST thing EVER

water went everywhere! It even got the MW's arms

(i had Annette and a student MW and doctor by that time)

I was all water that huge belly that everyone was like OMG your HUGE was alllll fluid

HAHA!

Anyways back to the story

The MW and doctor got me pushing down (with me saying i feel like i wanna poo MW said just let your body do whatever it wants to do)

With my chin on my chest and lo and behold

His head started to crown, there it was again that ring of fire!

Once his head was out and they checked for the cord etc

i was asked to start pushing softer not as hard and just edge his body out

I dont really know why but it may be because he started coming out so quickly they needed to slow it down a bit

In between contractions i look downa and see my little man hes so gorgeous

and to the MW's surprise trying to take his first breath with his body still inside me!

At 9:52pm hes out

(i pushed for 22mins and labour was from about 9:20ish so only a 30min labour)

he comes staright out on to my chest where like joshie,

he only cried for a little bit until he was calm again.

He was here! finally i was holding my precious boy!

Stuart cut the cord, he was wrapped up and had all the tests he had to have

Then he came back for cuddles with the proudest mum and dad!

You could not wipe the smiles off our faces even if you ahd tried!

So he was here he was amazing he was perfect he was ours.

And his big brother ADORED him

Cohen Edward was born (very very very quickly)

Saturday 11th of September 2010 at 9:52pm

weighing 8lb 20z and measuring about 51-52cm

Cohen is now almost 5 months and is the most relaxed, placid happy baby

A very nice change to his brother

They really are completely differnt

We are now a fmaily of 4 and i love it

dont get me wrong we have our bad days! and lots of them

but at the end of every day i just know..

I was made to be a mother

I was made to do this!

Meal Planning Tuesday

Yes i'm a day late but ive been a busy girl ;)

Wednesday - tonights a bit of whatever we can find (we were out alll day)

Thursday - Lemon Chicken with rice

Friday - Chicken Schnitzel with vegies and gravy

Saturday - Beef stirfry with rice/noodles

Sunday - Lasagne

Monday - Italian Slow cooker Chicken and pasta (which will be prepared sunday)

Tuesday - Beef Strogonoff with rice or pasta

If youve got any yummy recipes you'd love to share i'd love to see them im starting to run out of ideas!