Loving it - week nine

Well, it's practically week ten but I've said it before and I'll say it again- better late than never!

I'm trying hard to stay positive at the moment but the stress of having an uncertain job future lying ahead of me has taken a toll on my body somewhat and my pbs has flared up.  Having a chronic condition is a real pain in the ass.... like totally.  I have been pain-free for quite some time after months of prolonged discomfort and 'flare up' after 'flare up'. So as you can imagine, I was pretty upset when I was struck down on Tuesday. I ended up crying on the couch, pumping myself full of nurofen and hugging a hot water bottle. Ugh.

Anyway, the thing about chronic conditions is that you're stuck with them, so at some point you have to make peace with it.  I've spent too long envying other people their ability to eat anything and drink anything, to never have abdomen pain that feels like fire in your lower belly. Getting stressed about the situation only makes it worse, so now I try to be as zen as possible about it. But sometimes that's easier said than done.

Still, making my list of things I love serves to remind me that life 's not really that bad and of course they're all things that make me happy, so the stress levels drop and the pain reduces - score :)

The pics above are all of  a cake baking session Mila and I had when we hung out during the school hols.  We made a chocolate cake on Bastille Day in honour of my nana Sylvie, who died earlier this year.  July 14 is her birthday but I couldn't really think of anything particularly French that my nana would like (she was a pretty fussy eater). She did love chocolate cake though so that's what we went with.  A little bit of tweaking was required as I didn't have exactly the right ingredients (happens to me all the time) but Mila and I were pretty stoked with the end result. The cake we made was adapted from a recipe from the book Gran's Kitchen by Natalie Oldfield.

Other fun things we did on our day together, which I'm loving, include watching make-up tutorials for ages and trying to achieve a 'smoky eye' (we didn't) and also doing a couple of yoga videos thanks to the lovely Adriene from YWA (she's awesome, youtube her). So basically I'm loving the internet, days off with my daughter and chocolate cake!

The International Film Festival is on in Auckland at the moment and I've managed to check out two films so far. First up was The Lobster, which was the opening night film.  It was so good, but so weird. On the weekend we took the girls to see Enchanted Kingdom in 3D, which was an Our World-type nature doco about Africa.  It was pretty cool to and was narrated by Idris Elba (Stringer Bell from the Wire), which for some reason made me giggle.

On the Thursday we saw The Lobster, Ben and I also went to Little and Easy for an after work drink and checked out the Street Food Collective for dinner; a pretty sweet date night all in all. I'm definitely loving the Street Food Collective and am keen to head back to try some more stuff.

And well yep, I think that sums up what I'm loving at the mo.... onwards and upwards I say xx

Loving it - week eight

This is a two part post, the first part being a re-hash of my weekend fun times on Saturday and the second being a list of some of the things I've been loving of late (there's some overlap, I admit)

First up, a nod to friendly occasions.

This weekend my pals and I threw our first ever mid winter Christmas complete with turkey, presents and the best feckin' dessert you can imagine (thanks Chris).  We had the party at our house and Ben spent all Saturday smoking a pork shoulder in his new Smoky Mountain Weber bbq. 

The smoke was intense! So much so, that a sheet that had been drying on the line had to go through the wash again the next day because it stunk. The weather totally played ball, it was one of the most beautiful clear Auckland days you could have hoped for, but so, so cold. 

After about 11 hours of cooking the end result was pretty amazing, although the intense smokiness of the meat did take some getting used to.

We also had amazing vege loaf, potatoes, salmon, stuffed turkey roll, brussel sprouts, broccoli, Yorkshire puddings and gravy, I was stuffed afterwards. Liz and Chris were in charge of pudding and made chocolate orange souffles with custard. They were divine.

Before dinner we 'secret santa'd' and had mulled wine. Seriously, could a group of people get more festive? I don't think so.

I scored 10 scratchies, which I thought was a pretty swell gift- so much fun scratching to be had and then I made $5 and won an extra free ticket - sweet!

Felice Navidad peeps.

And on that note, a list of things I'm loving of late.

First up a shout-out to Chris and Liz, who own OTT patisserie in Birkenhead.  Our Christmas desserts were so yummy and the almond croissants and lemon meringue pies you left behind were life-saving the next day. If you're day-tripping to the shore, or more importantly if you're a shore-dweller, you need to visit this place for bready goodness.

And while we're giving out shout-outs, one to my pal Viv of Revival massage therapy who organised for me to have an hour-long massage on Sunday with a new, prospective therapist.  It was so good! I am now able to move my neck again without any pain- life-saver Viv!

I'm also loving leftovers, especially the pulled pork sliders with coleslaw and bbq sauce Ben created on Sunday, along with afternoon drinks at the pub on Sunday (the best way to pick up your kids!), impromptu visits from sisters and nieces who helpfully sit with you and make crepe paper streamers, cuddles with Olive- who just gets cuter everyday, and having my girls back home under my roof again. 

Bliss x

Loving it - week seven

I had the girls over the weekend and as mentioned in my previous post we had a fairly quiet one on the Saturday night; just Hook and meatballs for the win!

On Sunday, we visited my grandad and raided his lemon tree, so one of my things to love this week has been all the citrussy goodness brightening up our kitchen. There are bowls of lemons on the divider, on the kitchen table and on the butcher's block. Lemons everywhere and ripe with possibilities... Ben made an awesome cake with the last load and I made lemon delicious for pudding which is basically the most epic thing you can do with lemons in my opinion (apart from lemon curd which is also a triumph).  This time round we may look to incorporate them into some savoury dishes and an alcoholic beverage or two.

I had a baking fail on Sunday, but I'm gonna spin it into a positive and say I love baking- win or lose- and taking into account the wonder that was pudding on Saturday, I can live with the failure that was my date scones on Sunday.  They smelled great but looked like deformed pancakes and tasted like chewy, weird, baking powder-laced crap.  Still, I love to bake and I shall not be beaten!  Just need to find a better recipe perhaps....

Mila has gone off with my mum for the week and Juno heads off  today, so a child-free and quiet house for the rest of the week.  Have to say, I'm loving grandparents stepping up and taking care of the girls- it's a massive help and I'm always super grateful.

Hard to believe it's Wednesday already, I'm so keen for the weekend... x

PS: Check out my pretty flowers in the pic above given to us from my pals Tori and Carl who visited on the weekend.

A nod to tradition

On Saturday night, the girls and I sat down to eat meatball subs on a picnic rug in the lounge as we watched a movie together. The whole ritual of making a sauce, then meatballs, compiling subs, picking a movie and then eating together has become our own little family tradition and it's great.

It's weird how once you have kids little things slip into your routines that become part and parcel of any event.  While Anton and I were together, we created our own traditions/stories for the kids, like fairies in the shells of boiled eggs and Anton's favourite fun-fact that ALL horses come from Cambridge (is it tradition to make your three-year-old constantly sing back to you that horses come from Cambridge every time you go to visit your mother?).

After we broke up, the girls and I moved into a tiny flat; our very own space for the very first time. It was devoid of any tradition and at times, I guess, a somewhat sad (yet oddly liberating) place to be.

It was Ben who introduced us to the idea of an inside picnic and it was Ben that won us over with subs as a dinner choice. The first time we all sat down together it was to watch The Croods.  Our plans for an out-of-doors feast had been thwarted by the weather, so we got creative with the blankets inside instead.

For some reason, the habit of eating inside on the floor and always eating subs kinda stuck and now I would say it's pretty much tradition round our ways.

A lot of the time it's just me and the girls and it ends up being something I really look forward to. Thinking about the movie, getting all cosy together and just chilling out on the weekend is bliss.

In the early days after Anton and I separated, I would spend those Saturday nights alone with girls and sometimes feel like I was the only person stuck at home, that every other person my age was out having a life or with someone else, socialising, having fun, making the right life decisions.

With time, I have totally got over that weird misplaced fear that I might be missing out on something better all the time.  I don't know why I felt that way, but to say i'm generally a FOMO sufferer is putting it mildly.

Now I can't wait for a chance to put the 'tradition' card into play and do nothing but watch telly and eat with my favourite girls. Sometimes Ben makes it along, my sister and nieces have gotten involved before and that's great, but if it's just the three of us keeping each other company and generally having a laugh, well that's pretty great too. xx