Its official!

Friday 30th March, the day I officially became a Stay at Home Mummy!

I had a lovely last day at work and was treated to some beautiful flowers, a lovely white orchid in a pretty pot, cards, a cute little doggy and also £30 of Boots Vouchers. My colleagues decorated my desk for me with shiny stars and a huge banner, I had cuddles and kisses all day from Friends, emails came through all day wishing me luck and many tissues were used to mop up my tears. Aren't I a lucky girl!

I was very upset to be leaving but have woken up today feeling refreshed and happy with
my New job.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!

I think thats all I can really say to sum up my feelings at the minute!

I want you to picture that Eeeeeeeeek in 2 ways and then I will talk you through it!
First Eeeeeeeeek is done in a "oh my word how scary" way, as in "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeek theres a really big spider".
Second Eeeeeeeek is in a "whoop whooop Im so excited" way, as in "I just found a £20 note!"

So now you have those in mind ( I will colour code them!) let me explain!

I am now into my last week at work, my Redundancy leave date was moved forward and I finish on Friday, they will still pay me until May 31st and I will be oncall so to speak in case they have any dramas. But all staying well as of Monday I will be a Stay at home Mummy. Feeling a bit apprehensive about finances, even though I will get a fairly generous pay off in June. I worry if I will manage to budget well? Will we ever manage to have treats again? How will I find talking to nobody but a 3 year old for most of the day? What if I have to admit defeat and accept that I am not the person I thought I was and I'm not able to be a Housewife! And then I think how much I am looking forward to keeping my home, baking again, crafting and all the other things I currently do not have time for.

I feel that the whole Family will benefit from me being at home. Whilst I have been commuting I have been so tired and have had no energy for anything, Chris has had to help me a lot by cooking most meals due to my unpredictable hours and doing the bulk of the Childcare. By me being at home I can take over the household tasks, meaning he will not be as tired. I will not have a back log of chores that takes over my weekend preventing me from having Family time, meaning we can have picnics and fun times.

Yes I think it will be hard at times, its going to take a lot of work and planning but on the whole I am very excited by my New Job :-)

Springy Sunday

As it was so warm and Springy I decided to spend some time in the Garden, pottering about and having a little tidy up. Aidan of course wanted to "help" so he began by watering my pots, the Daffodil and Tulip bulbs are just begining to come through and the purple crocuses look so pretty.

Then we looked for Lady bugs, there seems to be a lot of them around which I am pleased about as they always make me smile.

We soon found one and I picked it up so it could tickle Aidans palms, she happily wandered around and eventually flew away.

A nice Afternoon and didnt cost us a penny, even the water was from the rainfall caught in the water butt :-)

Hope you are all enjoying lovely Weekend Weather too x x

I can think of better places to spend a Saturday!!!

So my Saturday didnt exactly go to plan!

I have been having tooth ache for the week, finally got to the point that I could ignore it no longer and luckily I managed to get an Emergency appointment for this afternoon. I HATE Dentists, I had a lot of orthodontic work when I was younger and it has left me quite traumatised, but I was brave and went to the appointment on my own expecting a filling.

Only it didnt quite go like that!

When she looked she decided that the tooth was quite infected and really it was best if it was extracted, but this wasn't any normal tooth, oh no no! In true horrific dental style it was no less than a Wisdom tooth that needed to come out!

Now what does every girl do when they are scared about a medical procedure? I rang my Mummy who came and held my hand!! 25 minutes later after injections, snapping, pulling, tugging, some more snapping and a bit more tugging my Wisdom tooth was presented to me on a piece of tissue and what a mean looking thing it was too!

Still all over and done with now, Dentist and Dental Nurse were both very kind and friendly and as yet the pain is not too horrendous. Just feeling a little sorry for myself now :-(

Happy St Patricks Day!

Last night Aidan and I set his Leprechaun trap in the hope of catching one of the tricky little fellas on the eve of St Patricks Day. Aidan decorated the trap with pretty, shiny Shamrocks, we baited it with a sweet and a toothpick was at the ready to fall and trap him!

BUT that pesky little Leprechaun got away by clawing at the box to escape, he left Aidan some gold as compensation.

We DEFINATELY caught one though, Im sure of it ;-)

One step closer to being a Stay at Home Mummy............................................................................
I leave work on March 30th!

I like to watch all of the Cookery programmes on TV. I don't always feel compelled to immediately jump off my sofa and start rattling the pans but I like to make a mental note of things I would like to try whenever I get a minute.

I was watching "The fabulous Baker Brothers" on Channel 4 the other week and they made a Ploughmans Pasty which I thought sounded really yummy, a mental note was made and then nothing further. Well today, a month later, I found myself with a few minutes free and when I searched here I discovered that I actually had most of the the ingredients. I used:

• 400g potatoes
• 150g pickled onions
• 200g mature cheddar, grated
• 100g chutney
• Good pinch of sea salt
• 1 beaten egg

I cheated and used shop bought Pastry rather than make it from scratch, I am sure its easy enough to do but really lifes too short!

1. Scrub, peel and boil the potatoes. Drain, cool then chop into medium sized chunks.

2. Slice and fry the pickled onions in a bit of butter and olive oil until soft and brown. Season with some salt and pepper.

3. Mix the potatoes, pickled onions, cheese, chutney, together in a bowl. Add the big pinch of sea salt and a generous grinding of pepper.

4. When you're ready to cook the pies, preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7. Divide the Pastry into 6 and roll each piece out to the thickness of a pound coin.
   

5. Place 220g of the filling on the nearest half of each round and fold into semi-circle to encase the filling. Leave the underside with an overhang, then brush the edge with water and fold the overhang over to make a tight seal. Crimp the edges of the fold with fingertips.

6. Place the pies on a baking sheet, brush with beaten egg and sprinkle some more smoked sea salt on top. Bake for 30 minutes until golden.

They have a book to accompany the series, I foresee it accidently falling into my cart on Amazon ;-)

Still Alive!

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick little post to update you and to let you know I am in fact still alive!

My flat finally sold, it was such a relief to stop paying 2 mortgages! I had a little money back once the Solicitors and Estate Agents had taken the Lion share and I am trying to use it as wisely as possible. Chunks have been paid off of 2 of my credit cards, the car is now taxed for a full year, little holiday to Norfolk is paid for and some is retained for cars MOT in April and also other general Emergency.

My poor Nan has been in the wars as tripped over whilst trying to put her recycling boxes out and broke her arm. Today she had to have an Op to wire it together and Thankfully is now home recovering, she is a tough old bird for 86!

Not much other news in truth, still travelling, still being made redundant in May, still trying to remain a stay at Home Mummy once I do leave!

Will be back soon, hopefully with some nice news to share with you ;-)

TTFN x x