School dress up days. Otherwise known as crazy things Mums do for their kids.

Tomorrow is dress up day at school, or yet another day that I have to remember to add some cash to the school bag.

The theme is Hollywood, Big Screen, Actors or Singers, basically go as some type of singer or film star. Last week Popps had a brief moment of wanting to go as Katy Perry, but considering she only knows the song from Elmo, she gave up on that.

I suggested she just goes in casual clothes which was also an option and really, the best one for me.

But no, that would not do.

After weeks and weeks on end of singing the songs, watching the YouTube videos and driving Mr H so crazy with Annie the Musical that he placed a 24 hour ban on Annie in the house, we finally got to the performance on Friday night.

Today after school she confirmed that she will be going to school as Annie in the morning.

Right. OK.

She doesn't have red hair, or curly hair, and thankfully, isn't an orphan.

She does have a red dress. She can wear her school shoes for the black shoes and white stockings as it is way too cold for bare legs.

So I have done what all good mothers do the eve before a big day and searched YouTube and looked up how to curl hair with rags.

Tonight she sleeps like this, because Tomorrow, is only a daaayyyy awaaaaaayyyyyyyyy.

You say potato, I say prepared packet.

I hate fresh peas. I hate frozen peas. Tinned peas can roll on my plate any day.

It's not right I know, should be the other way around, but growing up we had tin peas whenever the garden didn't have fresh ones, I hated when the fresh ones grew in a plentiful harvest.

We all get used to foods tasting a specific way and expecting them to taste that way. For me, peas should be mushy in texture, a grayish green shade...but not with a hunt of mint.

There are other foods I would never even consider eating from a tin; carrots, mushrooms, potatoes, capsicum, chicken...spam all the things that I have never ever had served to me as I grew up.

Tonight my BIL spent the afternoon making a huge amount of gnocchi, from scratch. It was delicious, he had a stew in the slow cooker that he had been preparing for 24 hours to go with it, it was a wonderful end to a fully packed weekend.

Popps and Immy love gnocchi so much that I have a few different ways to prepare it, Mr H never eats gnocchi, so we often have it on days he isn't home.

But neither girl would eat the home made delicious gnocchi on the plate tonight. They swirled it around, politely trying to look interested, they ate some veggies from the stew and declared themselves full.

In the car on the way home Popps requested that we never have that stuff again, can we please always have gnocchi bought from the supermarket.

I would love to have told her that from now we would only consume home made little parcels of potato goodness, but the truth is, in our house, gnocchi arrives in a packet. And peas arrive in a tin.

Do you have a prepared food weakness?

 

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Does the right wardrobe get you in the right mental place?

I am back from my twice weekly attempt to keep some level of basic fitness. I have been doing this forever and the mental challenge to get myself moving remains my biggest hurdle. It's the boredom. I listen to music, I try and listen to the radio, there are TV screens with subtitles on them so I try and make out what they are saying.

Mostly I look around at other people. I am still bored.

Today I realised something.

I am not wearing the appropriate gym gear.

My 3/4 trackie pants from 3 years ago and a gym top I picked up at kmart for about $6 last year are holding me back, and worse, when I looked in the mirror it was rather noticeable, I need a new sports bra.

I don't look like a runner. I actually look like a hobo. Red faced, shuffling along, unco-ordinated wobbles going this way and that.

Could this be what I need?

A few of my friends got the fitness bug last year, they all started as non runners and they have blitzed the goal of 5 km and all moved on to achieve the 10km mark, most are now striving for the 14.4km race. When I look at all their photos they are all wearing the right gear, running leggings, watches that tell you your heart rate and most of all SPORTS BRAS. Never underestimate the value of a decent boob tube.

When I get dressed in my business suits I go into work mode, when I get into pjs I get straight in to sleep mode, so will it be the same that if I get dressed into black running lycra with special powers to repel demons and keep me sweat free that I will get into running mode?

Tickets to Lipsynch worth $318. Get them here.

The Arts Centre in Melbourne has some fab shows on, I admit I haven't been there nearly enough over the last few decades but last week I was in hysterics while at Sing a long Sound of Music, ladies, if you go to such an event ever, remember the Tena. Take a good look around the audience and join in. So much fun!

Coming up in a couple of weeks is an amazing show, for major theatre buffs, for people who like real art, real acting and something a little extra.  I call this extreme theatre going. They call it LipSynch. It is a nine hour show, correct, nine hours, with intervals and a meal break.

I can't tell you heaps (anything actually) about it as I haven't seen it, and I am too busy trying to make friends at Popps' school and going to the $25 a night fundraiser (social life is a rockin' in burbville) so I am giving away my tickets right here.

These tickets are worth $318 for the double pass and as they are the tickets reserved for media - yes, that is me - usually they are pretty decent seats.

Here is the Youtube clip to tell you what LipSynch is all about.







The promo tells you this:


On a flight from Frankfurt to Montreal a nameless young woman dies, leaving behind a wailing baby.
And so begins the epic panorama linking nine lives and spanning seven decades in the exclusive Australian season of Robert Lepage's breathtaking theatrical event, Lipsynch.

Directed by Robert Lepage,  Produced by Ex Machina (Canada) & Théâtre Sans Frontières (UK)


For more information and tickets.


The tickets are for  Saturday 4th August at 1pm at the State Theatre, Arts Centre Melbourne.


TO WIN:
1) Leave a comment telling me why you want to go.
2) Comments open when the post is live and close at 8pm Thursday 26 July - that is just two days away.
3) LEAVE A CONTACT EMAIL - if I can't get to you within 48 hours these tickets will go to someone else, time is vital here.
4) Anyone can enter as long as you can make it to the show IN MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA.


Disclaimer: I get nothing out of this. 

Five Minute Soda Bread - A recipe

I understand, you think you are at the wrong blog, since when do I give out cooking advice? Don't worry, it will be a rare occurrence.

I have been wanting to make some soda bread for about 12 years. Actually any bread really. A couple of months ago I bought a bread making packet and nearly put my back out kneading that dough for an hour. It still wasn't like the directions said it should be but I cooked it up and then threw it in the bin when no one would eat it.

This week I tried an Irish Soda Bread recipe from a magazine, it didn't work either but I ended up with a carton of buttermilk that I didn't want to waste so I tried my own recipe. I actually do this quite often, usually with a poor ending. This one worked well enough for me to share, especially as the dough takes less than five minutes, there is no waiting for yeast to do its business and coming back to it. Just stir and go.

It is as simple as this:

1) Grab a cup, I used a coffee mug because it was close. Also turn the oven to 200 C.

2) Get a mixing bowl

3) Add to the mixing bowl, using the same cup for everything

 - A cup full of wholemeal Self Raising Flour

 - A cup full of wholemeal Plain Flour

 - sprinkle in some Bicarb Soda

 - sprinkle in some salt

4) Mix with your hand held whisk from the second drawer down. This allows magic air to do something to the floor and activate - kind of like the wonder twins used to do.

5) Add in a cup of buttermilk (using the same cup again, no new dishes).

6) Stir with large wooden spoon until mixed

7) Knead for 30 seconds or until you get it into a nice ball

8) Place on tray that has baking paper on it and cut a deep X in the top.

Bake in oven for 30 - 35 minutes.

Cut up and layer large amounts of butter, eat while it is still hot and butter drips over your hands.

If you are a domestic goddess failure like myself, this is the easy peasy, simple pimple recipe you have been waiting for. (Serve with tin tomato soup if you have to!)

Happiness from the hard rubbish.

Twice a year a special thing happens in the burbs.

Hard Rubbish Day.

The council let us know weeks in advance of the day they expect to be in our street and people start erecting piles of odd items they no longer need. The council never turns up on the day advertised, they wait an extra week in the hope that half the stuff will be gone already.

This week the nature strips are sinking with massive big televisions that don't pick up digital channels. Where do they all go? Is there some horrible hole in the earth filled with 25 years of big fat black boxes?

I hate to think of the amount of rubbish that is placed in landfill. It is the one area where I try extra hard to be a greenie. We place stuff out on our nature strip all year long, never has it lasted more than two days, our trash, someone else's treasure.

When Immy and I went for a walk to the park I spotted an old tupperware container in a box. I grabbed it and saw many more. We walked home with me carrying six tupperware containers (quite difficult when holding hands with a three year old) and I asked Mr H if he would walk down and get some more with me. He screwed up his face. The idea of 'taking' this stuff makes him uncomfortable. Once when I got him to pull over while I grabbed some chairs he drove off and parked around the corner, making me walk with the chairs to the car. Yet he loves it when he knows our junk has found a new home.

Photobomber expert 

I have spent a couple of hours soaking my vintage tupperware in pine o clean, it has hit the dishwasher for an extra scrub and now it's looking pretty good. I am deciding what to fill it with, but whatever ends up in it, I expect it will be getting another twenty years of use around here.

Filthy old tupperware has made my day.



Do you pick things up?

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The last days of the toothy pegs?

I snapped this picture of Popps this morning as she was walking out the door. That top tooth on your left is rather wobbly and she has been waiting for this moment FOREVER!

As one of the oldest in her class she thinks it is terrible that she is one of the last to lose a tooth.

That little pearler is getting wibbled and wobbled non-stop today. She has requested an apple for lunch to see if it comes out while she is eating.

Depending on how much action that tooth gets today this could be my last image of her with all her baby teeth, if it isn't, I am going to take photos of her non stop til it does fall out and we start the next stage of gappy teeth and tooth fairies.

Were your kids excited to lose their first tooth?  (and do you love pigtails?)