Friday Quicktakes

1. Well, I promised y'all I'd be honest about my 5:2 program so here goes.... I weighed myself yesterday for the first time in 2 months and I lost .....nothing. Nada, zip, zilch. So that's a total of half a stone since the end of January- not exactly stellar and I wanted to burst into tears right then and there on the scales in Boots (none at home thanks to the full blown phobia I have going on there, but thats a whole other blog post.) Truthfully, except for one week off fasting at Easter, I've been sticking rigidly to my 2 fast days per week so they're not the problem. But when a fellow 5:2er's husband cheekily asked her recently, 'Is today  a 500 calorie or a 5000 calorie day?, he may have inadvertently hit the nail on the head! Let's face it, it doesn't take Einstein to work out that I'm overindulging somewhat on the other days.

Yes, I did briefly consider chucking the whole thing in completely, but the honest truth is this program suits me. Overall, it brings a balance to my eating patterns, I feel healthier and I've lost SOME weight! (Oh, and there are loads of health benefits associated with intermittent fasting too, which I totally overlook).
Obviously I could do with reining it in on the non fast days, but overall I'm enjoying my food, not putting on any weight and I'm into size 14 jeans for the first time in years. And even though I'll not be winning 'Slimmer of the Year', or falling down a grating any time soon,  for once I'm eschewing the quick fix in favour of the long game, so I've decided to keep 'er lit for now...I'll keep you posted.

2. Years ago, before I had kids and a minivan we moved to America and I watched the Oprah Winfrey show. One day there was a woman on talking about a book she'd written called 'Simple Abundance- A Daybook of Comfort and Joy.' Basically, it's a series of daily reflections which show  'how your daily life can be an expression of your authentic self' and it also involves keeping a 'gratitude journal', where you write down 5 things you are grateful for every day.
 I know it all sounds a bit American and new agey  but I figured if it was good enough for Oprah, it was good enough for me!  I must've gone on about it a fair bit, because Loverboy later went to Barnes and Noble & bought it for me. Sadly, despite my initial enthusiasm, I lasted about a week and it ended up gathering dust under the bed.
Looking back, while I could appreciate it as a  worthwhile exercise, I just wasn't there yet myself. Maybe I  needed life experience and a few more years on the clock before I could apply it to myself?
 Then, lo and behold and as if by magic, what turned up this week when I was doing all my redding out, only the (slightly mildewed ) book and accompanying gratitude journal.  Maybe five kids later and now in my (earliest of ) forties, the time has come to give it another try. And just for the fun of it, here's a little peek at my old  gratitude journal... I DO find it reassuring that I'm still grateful for them all these years later!

3. Speaking of pics, here's how my kitchen looks... so whaddyathink? Can I just draw your attention to the lack of checked wallpaper and the smell of fresh paint? I even managed to hound Loverboy into making a photo wall for me, instead of having them all higgledly piggledy over every surface. Love love love it!

Wise up to yourself!

4. The 'rents are in Vienna this week- for the past few years we've all clubbed together and bought them a city break for Christmas, because apparently they've enough ornaments. They'll have the feet walked off them and my dad will take about 1000 pictures of old buildings which will never be labelled, and now I've got that Midge Ure song 'Vienna' playing in my head. Which randomly reminds me of a psycho I knew in college who properly stalked him! He found out where he lived in London and actually went over there and hung around his house like a bad smell-this was all pre-internet too- he'd done all his stalking research by post and phone for goodness sake! I remember listening to him talk one day and just thinking  'You're a Nut Job! Why would ANYONE want to stalk Midge Ure?'

5. We're off to the Caravilla but I've mixed feelings because it means we're going to miss the GAA festival weekend right here at home. There's a local 'Strictly Come Dancing' -closed rehearsals have been going on for months and the competition is FIERCE! There's also Bingo, a big Sunday morning breakfast but I'm most gutted to be missing Con Jovi on Saturday night. I know it's not the same but I'll just have to put on my 'Slippery When Wet' album up at the caravilla instead.

6. You know what's coming, don't you?.....Here's this week's Booster Seat Boogie. Enjoy every long haired moment, skinny jeaned moment and do have a fabulous bank holiday, whatever you're up to, Emmaxx

A Cleansing Breath....

Well Hello Stranger! Did you miss me? Did you? Did you? Don't answer that, because I'm QUITE certain you didn't even notice my prolonged absence over the Easter break. I mean really! Why on earth would you miss little old me? Hmmm? Did you say something? (Shamelessly fishing now- Best ignored.)
Okay then...moving (not so swiftly) on... quite slowly actually.....still glancing round me....Anyone?Anyone? ......Alright- I'm going!

 Monday, and it's back to porridge, but, as I chirpily told the boys on the way to school this morning, 'Sure, you wouldn't appreciate the holidays if your whole life was a holiday!'....No, they didn't go for it either.
It WAS a lovely break though- first trip of the year to the caravilla and we went for walks and windy picnics, spent time with good friends, drank wine, ate chocolate, did a 1000 piece jigsaw, (totally addicted now), started watching 'The Killing', (new girl crush alert on Sarah Lundt), drank more wine, ate more chocolate and (thanks to my MIL), I even learned to knit!. (I DO still say 'in the wee bunny hole, round the big tree' in my head, but still!)

And now it's over, and its Monday, and my jeans are tight, and the ironing needs done, and the dinner needs made, and the homeworks are looming, and I'm on a fast day, and it's all a bit of a buzzkill. Ho hum.
To be honest, I'd probably be weeping into my black coffee right now, if it wasn't for the excitement of having my new washing machine arrive this morning...and I'm not even joking! (Just when you thought I couldn't get any sadder, I go and surprise you all over again).

Pretty as a picture...

I'm literally ALL BIZZ right now, and just itching to try out my new 11kg drum! (Yep, you read that right- huge capacity with a fabulous energy rating- I'll be saving money AND the environment all at once!) I did my research (ie, hacked into my Dad's online 'Which' subscription), and this baby was deemed perfect for large families... specifically those with lots of grubby boys who enjoy rolling in the muck.

 The old machine, (a mere 7kg drum) won't be going to the great scrap heap in the sky just yet either- it's simply relocating to our 'new to us' shed at the Caravilla.
Yes indeedy, no more being fleeced for pricey tokens for the dodgy onsite machines.
No more scurrying in flip flops across wet grass, clutching my 'Small and Mighty' at the first hint of a good drying day, only to be pipped at the post by three others with the same idea.
 No more green eyed monster every time I hear the distictive hum of a final spin from next door's vibrating hut.
No Sireee! THIS year I'll be livin' the dream with my very own in-shed Zanussi, popping out to pop on a wash, as and when the notion takes me!.... So, how do you like them apples?

And on that wild and crazy note, and hopefully just before my street cred goes into free fall, (too late?), I'll bid you farewell....Alright, it's true- I do want to get a head start on my user instructions before the kids come in from school. Have a super clean, energy efficient Monday peeps! xxx



PS-I've joined up with Sarah Miles at Hello Wall today-go on over and take a peek at the rest! 

Good Friday Quicktakes

1. Much as I adore shooting the breeze here with you, my lovelies, today I don't have much time so I gotta be quick. To start with, the kids are all off school and are high on Easter excitement and thoughts of Easter Sunday's impending chocfest. I've discovered several of the boys just gazing at their impressive stash of eggs with a certain far away look in their eyes-clearly lost in a reverie of unadulterated gluttony. Neil Young must surely have been thinking of Lenten promises when he sang ' Good times are coming, but they're sure coming slow.'

2. Speaking of which, I've been less than exemplar in regards to my own Lenten challenges. One by one they fell by the wayside, EXCEPT my self imposed Facebook ban, which truthfully, was the toughest of the lot for a l'il ol' social network queen like myself!
What can I say? The first week was the worst - I HATED being out of the loop- I mean, I'm still on Twitter obvs, (Sure, the Pope himself is on there!), but it's just not the same. After that tricky first week though, I got used to it and I'm glad that I did it...but no, I' won't be doing an about turn, and preaching on about how I now appreciate real life conversations and the old fashioned telephone so much more, because I don't. Truth is, I probably went on Ebay a bit too much, texted friends a good bit more, and now and again, peered over Loverboy's shoulder when he was on FB, but that's about it. Yes indeed, you can all relax now, because I'll be back again on Sunday with bells on, clogging up your news feed and generally making a nuisance of myself. (I can hear your groans from here!)

3. We're off to the caravilla for the Easter break. Now, I don't know how long we'll stay (possibly only a few hours if its REALLY Baltic), but its the first trip of the season, and that means MAJOR packing. Here's what our sunroom looks like right now AND I'm only halfway through, which is precisely why I'm dilly dallying around here chatting with you.
The real bummer is that even when the car and trailer are packed to the neck, and we set off like Duffy's Circus, the work's only half done. When we arrive, there's the caravilla to be cleaned, the unloading and unpacking to be done AND it'll be feeding time at the zoo again too.
As tempting as that sounds, I've a good mind to load them all up and quietly sneak back into the house- with a bit of luck,  they won't even notice I'm missing until they're over the border and I'm half through a bottle of Oyster Bay and the second series of Dallas.... a girl can dream!

4. Assuming that won't come to pass, I'm packing plenty of books, magazines, a 1000 piece jigsaw and the entire first series of 'The Killing' to bring up with me. Oh, and of course, wine, chocolate and ...my knitting. Or more accurately, my beautiful jewel coloured, Cath Kidston wool, with the metallic red knitting needles, (who knew!), presented in a beautiful 'book' tin.  Unfortunately, there's no actual knitting in there though,'cos I can't actually work out how to 'cast on'. I tried last Saturday night (party on, dude!) and despite reading the 'Knitting for DumbAsses' booklet from cover to cover, and desperately, SOS ing  Mr Google, I simply couldn't do it.After about an hour of trying, the terrible truth dawned- my horrible HE teacher was right all those years ago -I DO have special needs. (Specifically, 'senile' was her word of choice.)
I looked so forlorn that even Loverboy felt sorry for me, so HE asked Mr Google, and even with half a bottle of Cab Sauv in him, managed to cast on and was smugly clickity clacking away within minutes. Ouch! So, last chance saloon, I'm taking it with me to the caravilla, giving it one more go and THATS IT. Maybe I'm just not a knitter? Alternatively, I may start up my own Stitch 'n' Bitch , cos even though I might not be too good at the first bit, I flippin' excel at the other...even if I do say so myself.

5. Finally petals, I just wanted to say thank you for all the votes over the last weeks in the MADS. It's all done and dusted now until the Awards in Septemeber, and don't I have a wee trip to London to look forward to now, thanks to y'all. So, win or lose, thanks to you, I'm feelin' the love.
 Oh, and a very Happy Easter too- whatever you get up to, may chocolate play a major role.(Easter wishes don't come much better than that now, do they!)

6. Finally finally, I'm renaming Luke's 'Boogie in the Car Seat' to 'Booster Seat Boogie', (on account of him reaching this vehicular milestone). Now, I know I've gone a bit 80s on you the last few weeks, and to prove  I was waaaay cooler than that, I was all set to treat you to David Guetta's 'Titanium' (which incidentally I love walking to!)... but then this came on the radio and I was lost-it used to literally gives me goose bumps back in the day. Turns out, I'm not remotely cool after all....but you knew that. Enjoy-you can thank me later. Happy Easter peeps xxx

An Easter Wish...

As cardinal, he traveled by bus, lived in a small apartment and cooked his own meals. As Pope, he's shunned the palatial papal quarters in favour of communal living with his colleagues.
Last week, he phoned his paper boy in Buenos Aires to cancel his daily paper, then asked after his family. 
Tomorrow, he will wash the feet of others- feet that belong to the prisoners from a young offenders' centre in Rome. Small things maybe..... hinting at so much more.

I admit it- I'm liking what I hear about that new fella in the big job at the Fisherman's Office. For the first time in a long time, I'm starting to feel a new hope..... yes, even in the midst of endless scandal and the devastating aftermath of pain, betrayal and doubt.

Because I DO believe that sometimes, the right person, in the right place, at the right time can do great things- healing can begin,  faith can renew, tides can turn. I really hope we've got the right person- keep 'er lit, Francis..... for all of us.

Just call me Martha!

After our decadent weekend in the fancy schmancy hotel, THIS weekend was it's polar opposite. The yin to last week's yang, if you like. Actually, now I think about it, polar just about nails the weather - I mean snow, FFS? It's almost Easter!! It's just so wrong AND we're supposed to be caravilla bound in a few days. Although looking outside now I feel quite faint just thinking about it...and not in a good 'Can't wait for the holidays' kinda way, a 'What the hell was I thinking? Is there any way out of it?' sorta way. Yikes!

 Anyway where was I? Ah yes, the weekend. Well, I channeled a smidgen of Martha Stewart with a pinch of Mary Berry, and I before I knew it I was rustling up chicken broccoli bakes (one for dinner, one for the freezer), vegetable soup AND the piece de resistance -my very first lemon drizzle cake. Who's the mammy!? If I'd had The Archers on, the transformation would have been complete.

To be fair though, this time it WASN'T Lady Mary who inspired me to dust off my Kenwood, it was in fact my fellow blogger Sarah Miles, who writes the fabulous blog Hello Wall, and if that wasn't enough, she pens the award winning foodie blog 'What would Nigella do?' as well. (Honestly, some people! If I didn't love her, I'd hate her.)

Despite the fact that it wasn't Lady Mary's recipe for Lemon Drizzle Cake, (it's her Bake Off chum Paul Hollywood's), she made it look so easy and the pictures were so yummy that I was dying to give it a whirl. Also, it just so happens that the Mothership is very partial to a slice of lemon cake, so I made two - one for us, and one for Herself-and they were both hoovered up in no time at all- okay, mostly by my greedy offspring, but even so.

Tah-dah!

Now, before you examine MY less than stellar pictures, and then compare them unfavourably to Sarah's (I KNOW you're going to-don't deny it), I've a couple of disclaimers. First of all, I'd no actual real life lemon, waxed or otherwise, on the premises, and it was so Baltic outside there was NO WAY I was going out specially, so I just used lemon juice instead. And hey, there's lemon curd in there too, so I reasoned, what's a bit of lemon zest between friends?
Secondly, I baked them in too big a tin- which means they look as if they'd been sat on but they hadn't....not on my watch anyway. (Note to self- you clearly CAN'T gauge the tin size just by looking, so just bloody measure it.)

Later on that evening, carried away with all this domestication, and heady with my baking success (yes I AM deeming it that), I cracked open the Villa Maria and my new Cath Kidston knitting set.....but tragically that all ended in  tears.... but there's another story for another day.
Happy Monday peeps and chin up, Lents nearly over, Emma  xxx

PS Final Call!!! Tomorrow is the very last day that you can vote in the MAD Blog Awards 2013- I'm a finalist in the Family Life category and I'm shamelessly hoping you'll consider taking a wee minute and voting for me- I'd be so grateful. (If you have already-thank you so much!)


PPS-I've joined up with Sarah Miles at Hello Wall today-go on over and take a peek at the rest! 

Questions of a Bloggy Nature....

Well helloooo there! My goodness, how I've missed you! I mean it's been a whole week and that's the biggest break I've taken from blogging since last September! Well, that's not entirely true... I DID actually post last Monday, but it was all a bit grim, which was hardly surprising given that I was on a bit of a downer. It was up for a few hours, and maybe some of you even read it, but then a well meaning friend urged me to take it down and I did.
I'd had a 'everything's getting on top of me I'm pulled in all directions and totally unappreciated and here's 5 kids for sale' sort of few days, and I put those feelings out there. Then, because I was feeling low, I trusted my good buddy's kind judgement over my own and pulled the post, and I STILL don't know whether it was the right thing to do or not. I suppose that it really got me thinking this week, amidst Easter holidays and family get togethers and even a wedding, how much I do/ should share on here. Now, I do understand that I'm making the outrageous assumption that you might actually be interested in what's going on in my tiny corner of the world, but let's just say for a moment you are-what am I prepared to share and what do you want to read?
For me, it boils down to -why am I writing this blog and for whom?  The biggest reason for it's existence is as a creative outlet- it is MY place to make sense of the day to day of family life, to help me organise my thoughts, and to find humour where I can along the way. So many older parents tell me, that the best times of their lives were when the children were young, and that if they could turn the clock back they definitely would. I appreciate when they remind me of this, because it's so easy to forget when you're in the thick of it, and caught up in the seemingly endless chores, responsibilities and needs of a busy household. I also worry that my children will only remember a bossy, busy frazzled mummy and not the chilled, fun mummy that I want to be.
 If this blog does anything, it shows me that good times should be cherished and remembered, and bad days do pass, and can often teach a lesson before they do. In all honesty, the very last thing I want to do is to present a sugar coated, half truth of my life to you, but nor do I want to sacrifice my family's integrity, or bore you to death with the negative and utterly mundane. I guess it's trying to find that balance, isn't it? I'm still working out how to do that, just as I'm learning how to formulate my thoughts into something worth reading, while learning on the job how to be a better parent, a better wife, a better friend. So there you are, that's what's been on my mind this week, and if you have any  thoughts, insights or opinions on the matter, I would honestly love to hear them. More than that actually, I would truly value them. Till next time amigos, emx