Sunday hunting

As you can see Baby C was a lot more cheerful again this morning. I'm so glad she is back to her bouncy happy self again.

Most of this morning was spent chasing DD2 around nearby streets as she hunted down Pokemon on my phone app. 

 Happily the Pokemon hunting took us near B&Q so we nipped in to look at the injury bench and see what was going cheap. There were plenty of bedding plants for 50p or £1 a tray. I picked up some marigolds, bizzi lizzie and petunia for £1.50

The flower tower by my front gate has needed a makeover for a while. Of all the spring bulbs I planted only 3 got to flowering stage. I'm not sure if they were crap bulbs or it was the horrible spring we had.

It should look really pretty once the new plants start to flower.

 

We had enough plants left to replant the barrel tub beside the front door too.

DD2 was my chief helper and suggested we make a pattern around the edge. I look forward to seeing how it looks later on.  We finished gardening just before the rain started which should help the plants settle into their new spots quite nicely.

It's been a much nicer day than yesterday!

X x X

 

A loooonnnggg day

It's been a long day. Baby C has been in a terrible mood since the moment she woke up. I've tried every trick in the book to perk her up, and after 5 children that's not a short list. I've come to the conclusion that she's just having a sad day.

After a whole day of rocking, hugging and trying to distract a baby who only wants to sit and grizzle my parenting energy is definitely feeling depleted so I'm feeding everyone a quick dinner of spaghetti bolognaise.

The mince came from Friday's trip to the community pantry, the sauce is a cheap one from home bargains that everyone seems to like and I've padded it out with some tinned tomatoes and oats. 

  Dessert is going to be a slice of cake. DH picked it up for just £1.50 reduced from almost £10! I'm hoping an intense sugar hit might make Baby C smile just once today or possibly pass out from a crash into a nice long nap. 

 Cross your fingers for me!

X x X

These aren't just sausage rolls...

 These aren't just sausage rolls....

 These are M&S pork stuffing rolls 🤣

 I don't half find some odd things at the food pantry sometimes. My mum gave me the sausage roll idea and it worked beautifully. Even better when there's another bag in the freezer to use up later as well. I'll keep my eyes open for them in the future. 

I finished my first kit this morning. I only had the edges to stitch up but it was quite late by that point and I needed better light to do it.  I've gifted it to DD1 for her handbag, she was thrilled with it 🥰

 

 Now I need to decide which kit to do next. Decisions, decisions! 

 X

Struggles

 

 I'm finding this whole new normal stuff quite tough. After so many months of having my husband and children surrounding me almost constantly they are suddenly gone for long stretches of time. I've been spoiled with always having a spare pair or hands nearby when I needed a new packet of wet wipes or could you just pass me the ....

 The parent and baby groups haven't resumed yet and there's a sense when you leave the house that you have to be fast and efficent rather than loiter too long in any one place. I even feel uncomfortable being in the park with the smallest two for more than 5 or 10 minutes. It's an odd feeling that I can't seem to shake. 

 I'm sure I'll adjust eventually, in the meantime I'm trying to be kind to myself with little treats and rewards. Today for example I splurged a whole £2 on 6 little cross stitch kits to stitch during the long light evenings and quiet few moments whilst everyone in the house is content.

  The photo is of the one I plan to start this evening whilst sat on the sofa beside my husband. 

 X

Glitzy scrunchies

I spotted this tempting pile of fabric scraps on a local free stuff group. The photo really doesn't do them justice as they are all very shiny and sparkly in real life.

DH kindly picked them up for me on his way home from work as it was to far to walk. 

My plan is to make the girls a handful of glitzy hair scrunchies for school. 

 They sew up pretty quickly and I'm already in double figures after two evenings stitching whilst watching a little bit of Netflix. 

The three eldest girls have all said nice things about them so that's really encouraging.

I love having a little project to work on.

X x X

Greenfingers

 

 If you've followed this blog for a while you will know I am a huge sucker for plants of all kinds.

Two weeks ago I rescued two sad looking plants from the nearby B&Q's clearance section for 50p each. 

The first was a rather sad looking polka-dot begonia which needed a good drink of water and blast of natural light. 

After two weeks of regular watering and a warm sunny windowsill he is rewarding me with fresh new leaves and lots of leaf buds forming.

I still think it looks like a plant from Mars though 🤣

The second plant was a pericallis which was almost bone dry and covered in spent flower heads. Once home I removed all the dead heads and damaged leaves. A few good  waterings soon perked it back up again.

Today I noticed the remaining flowerbuds had started to turn purple and open. 

I look forward to seeing it in full bloom again soon.

 

Watching both of them recover and start to thrive has brought me a lot of joy over the past fortnight.

X x X
 

Baking day

 

I had quite a large pile of apples in my fruit bowl this morning looking quite sorry for themselves. That along with the drizzly grey weather put me in the mood for baking 🥰

I turned the apples into a chunky apple sauce with a little sugar and lemon juice.

Half the mixture became the filling of apple pies. 

 The other half went into a batch of flapjack mixture.

I even saved the seeds and popped them into the fridge with the others I'm trying to germinate as they were locally grown apples. 

The only question now is which ones to eat first! Decisions...decisions.

X x X