Category: Life as a Wife

Sconnoisseur

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To say that Hubs loves scones would be an understatement. He loves scones. When our lovely neighbour made some the other week, Hubs devoured them and claimed they were the best scones he’d ever had. So when we had said lovely neighbour over for dinner last night, I asked what her recipe was.

She reminded me of Nanny when she told me she had to recipe. You just start with about 2 cups of self-raising flour, and add the right amount of butter, a couple of spoons of icing sugar, an egg, some very cold cream and chopped dates. Her tips were to just use a knife to stir (handling as little as possible) and use a very hot oven – about 240 degrees. Also, if it’s an electric oven, cook the scones on the bottom shelf, and if it’s gas, cook on the top.

Seeing as how I’d never made scones before, I thought I’d give it a go, as Hubs has his first exam this week and I wanted to do something extra nice for him.

I didn’t have dates so I substituted with craisins. That reminds me of one of our favourite moments in the TV show My Family, where Susan is cooking dinner (she is not known for her skills in the kitchen) and she says “I’m cooking Duck a l’orange. But I didn’t have any duck so I used mince. And I didn’t have any oranges so I used pears.” Ha ha ha ha ha!!!

Anyway. Back to the scones. This is how the mixture looked:

It wasn’t until I had put them on the tray that I realised I’d forgotten the egg. And the icing sugar. But I figured they looked pretty good, so I’d give them a go. What do you think?

They were very very light and fluffy and quite delicious, even if I do say so myself! We had them straight out of the oven with a bit of butter and a cup of coffee, sitting on our deck. Chanbe even liked them!

As I was sitting there, enjoying our view, I thought to myself once again how lucky I have been to have had Hubs around so much in the last 12 months. A lot of people say to us how hard it must be with Hubs studying full time, and not having an income. And as much as it sucks not having money most of the time, having Hubs around to see Chanbe’s first year, and to give me sleep-ins and a cooked breakfast a few mornings a week, and to be able to have 3 meals a day together a lot of the time, and and and and… well it’s worth being broke for a while. Hubs has 1 more year of full-time study, and then it will be a totally different ball game. But I’m looking forward to the challenges that will bring.

We made it!

/ Renae / 1 Comment

Here’s cheers to the first year of parenthood! It gets easier from now on, right? 🙂

And here’s cheers to my 600th post! I’m currently trying to make scones for the first time ever. And I just realised I forgot to add the egg. Oh well! We’ll see how they go…

Happy Birthday! (the first of many…)

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As I mentioned, we hosted mothers group at our place this week, and I decided to throw a combined birthday party for all the kids!

We had such a lovely time with all the kids tearing around, showing off all their new skills. And of course, there was cake! I saw the idea for this cake months and months ago and knew I had to give it a go. And I gotta say, it turned out pretty damn nicely.

All the birthday boys! (The one girl who is part of our mum’s group couldn’t make it)

We then headed outside for the kids to have a run up and down our deck, pushing their carts.

 
Chance really rose to the occasion, and even though he missed out on his morning sleep (which usually goes for 2 hours) and only had 45 min at 2:30, he’s still awake at 7pm and having a great time! But Dadda just got home so Chanbe will be boarding the sleeping train and will hopefully be in sleepy land very soon. What a great day!

I’m going to bed now

/ Renae / 1 Comment

means different things to Hubs and I. For me, it means:

Taking the dishes from the coffee table to the kitchen
Making sure all the food has been put away
Going to have a shower
Brushing my teeth
Taking my seretide
Hear Chance wake up
Go and feed and re-settle Chance
Turn the lights off, lock the doors
Get into bed
Realise I’ve left my phone in the loungeroom
Go and get phone and then get back into bed

For Hubs, it means:

Walk into bedroom, take clothes off and get into bed

Boys are such simple creatures 🙂

Wifey’s new clothes

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I don’t mind a spot of clothes shopping here and there, but since I had Chanbe, my body has changed somewhat and many of my old clothes didn’t quite fit right. So I culled. Big time. I donated all the clothes that I hadn’t worn since Chance was born, and many of the clothes I had been keeping “just in case my body morphs again and I fit into them some day.” I figure, in 10 years time after we’ve had our 7th baby (ha ha ha ha ha) I won’t be looking to fit into the clothes I had 10 years before. I’ll want to buy new stuff. So I let them go.

Some of the items hadn’t even been worn, as I had bought them years ago thinking “when I lose weight” blah blah blah. Well I did lose some weight a few years ago, but those things, mainly skirts, never suited my body type. So to Vinnies they went. In the last few weeks, I have been practically buying a new wardrobe. We had some money come in that we had been waiting for, and finally we could relax a bit with our super-strict budget, and splurge a little bit.

I still bought most of my stuff from KMart and Target, and as much as I love op-shopping, it was really lovely to buy some new stuff. I also bought some super-cute dresses on an online store (after trying stuff on at a shop to get my size) and I cannot wait for them to turn up! And it turns out that my complete body shape/type change has worked in my favour in many ways. First of all, I could never before fit into Target trousers, but the other day I bought 6 pairs of pants in the one go! 6!!! And I don’t mind saying, they look pretty darn cute!

This is one of the first times in my life that I have bought a whole bunch of clothes that fit beautifully right now. Not clothes that I buy because they’re on sale and they’re 1 or 2 sizes too small for me and I stash them in my cupboard and they sit there taunting me, waiting for me to lose the weight I keep promising myself I’ll lose. No. I’m buying for who I am right now, which means, also for the first time (maybe just in a long time) I’m accepting myself for who I am, and what I look like. Not just accepting, but loving. I tell you, as a girl who has struggled with body image for a looooonnnnng time, this is a damn nice place to be.

I can’t wait to show you some of the outfits!

Dear Hubs

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I’ve not been overly inspired to blog lately, as I mentioned, but as I was walking with Chanbe in the pram the other day, I started thinking about all the wonderful things that are going on in my life. They are not overly newsworthy, but I am definitely really enjoying life. I then started thinking about Hubs and all the wonderful things he does for me and Chanbe, and started compiling a list in my head. It went something like this:

Dear Hubs,
these are just a few things that I love about you.

1. I love how you seem to have every type of lead and adapter for every type of gizmo and gadget thinkable. And if not, you can often make one out of something else you have.

2. I love how even though you don’t like watching the footy, you have been tuning our media PC into the local tv channels so I can watch Friday Night Footy.

3. I love how you watch Friday Night Footy with me.

4. I love how, after I’ve gotten up to Chance for the third time in the night, when I come back to bed, you give me cuddles and tell me how I’m an amazing Mum and that Chanbe is really lucky to have me as his Mum.

5. I love how even though you have an interrupted night’s sleep as well, you always give me sleep-ins on the weekends and sometimes during the week when you can.

6. I love how after you have given me a sleep-in, you often bring me breakfast in bed consisting of poached eggs and toast – more recently your home-made sourdough. And a cup of tea.

7. I love how you “made” me watch Firefly and didn’t say “I told you so” when I thought it was one of the best tv shows ever made.

8. I love how even though you think I look pretty when I get all dressed up, you like me best in my jeans and a t-shirt.

9. I like how we don’t have that much in common, so we can both experience new things, and I love that you challenge me to try new things.

10. I love that you don’t take things at face value, and that you constantly ask “why”?

11. I love how you play with our son; how you love and adore him; how you play WWF wrestling with him and let him win.

12. I love how you take such good care of me in so many ways.

Where to start

/ Renae / 2 Comments

This is the problem with not blogging “live” for a while – too much to catch up on!! For those of you who were in on the secret, the surprise weekend birthday party for Hubs was just brilliant. Maybe I’ll start with that, and work my way backwards. A few months ago, Hubs’ sister and I started planning for her and 6 of Hubs’ friends to fly down to Melbourne, drive to Mt Beauty, and turn up on our doorstep as a surprise to Hubs, and spend the weekend here. I cannot tell you how many times I accidentally nearly blew the surprise. Sleep deprivation does not help with keeping surprises a secret, but I managed to keep my mouth shut and even convinced Hubs to go snowboarding on Friday (didn’t take much) so I could prepare for the arrivals.

The first carload of people rocked up at 5pm and Hubs came home a bit after 6 and got a great surprise! The beers and rum began to flow freely, and by 11:30pm I was beat, so left Hubs and 3 of his mates (2 others had retired earlier) to catch up. I knew Hubs’ sister and other friend were due to arrive after 3am and I could hear Hubs and Uncle Ben – the last men standing – chatting and drinking into the wee hours. I thought they would come to bed, and have Lsl wake Hubs up to surprise him, but Ben had other plans. They were still up when Lsl and Hubs’ mate arrived at 3:30am and he got another great surprise!! I popped out to say hi and set up extra beds, and retired again around 4:30am. Hubs didn’t crawl into bed until 6, and guess who woke up, ready to play with Mama at 6:15am!!! WOO HOO!!!! Thankfully after a little brekky and play, Chanbe and I rejoined Hubs for another hour of sleep around 8.

So Saturday was spent with a walk into town, a visit to the local Tavern, and a push home in the stroller. (I had driven Chance home earlier.) Oh, and Hubs’ last birthday cake for this year.

I had had the Tetris cake idea in my head (and in my iPhone reminders) for months, and I was pretty happy with how it turned out.

We spent Sunday at a few wineries and the Bright Brewery, and had dinner at home. At this point, I might share some photos instead of more words.

Hubs at the first winery

The whole gang at the third winery
Too cute at the brewery
It really was such a great weekend, and quite sad to bid everyone farewell on Monday morning. I would like to take this opportunity to say THANKS FOR COMING – you really made Hubs’ 30th birthday something special x x x

Hubs’ birthday cake (one of them anyway!)

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I don’t have a lot of spare time at the moment, so I’ll just give you a quick run-down on the cake. I wanted to do another layer cake, but didn’t want to have to spend the whole day making it, so I made 2 cakes – one vanilla cake (double the recipe) and a chocolate cake (a Green’s Choc Mud Cake with an extra block of chocolate thrown in for good measure.)

I then divided the vanilla cake up into 4 equal (ish) amounts and coloured them. And then I put big blobs of the cake mixture into the cake pan. (I used a brownie tray for this cake.)

I then attempted to smooth the top down. Rainbow Paddlepop anyone??
Once it was baked and cooled, I put it in the fridge overnight for 2 reasons. 1. I was tired and wanted to go to bed. 2. Cakes are much easier to work with (icing etc) when they are cold. So the next day I got it out of the fridge and cut it into 2 layers. The colours were lovely!

Next time I must remember to give the tray a good bash before baking the cake, to get rid of the air bubbles! I then trimmed all three cakes/layers so they had square corners and straight edges. Then I iced in between each layer with the vanilla bean icing from the vanilla cake recipe.
I then iced the outside with the same yellow frosting.
I knew I wanted to put the ganache on top again, but wasn’t sure how. I looked outside at the crappy weather and then it hit me: Drizzle!! HA HA HA!!!
I was very happy with the overall effect. And the taste? Well I’ll let you make one for yourself and you can decide. But here’s a hint…
Yum yum yum yum yum yum!!!

Bumper weekend part II

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After our late bed time Saturday, Chance had a bit of a rough night, so I was more than pleased when he went back to sleep at 7am and didn’t wake us til 9am Sunday morning. We rushed around and got ready for church, and were our usual 5 minutes late which isn’t bad all things considered. The service was run by a visiting minister from Albury and his message was really great. I’m so glad we made the effort to go. We did the usual mingling afterwards and played “pass the baby”. We belong to a really lovely congregation, who we will also miss once we move. Hopefully we will feel the same sense of homeliness at the UC in Mt Beauty.

After church we headed home for some yummy leftover pasta bake for lunch and some faffing around for a couple of hours. The weather was pretty nice in the morning, and we were hoping it would continue for the afternoon as we were going to…. the local footy match! I’ve been wanting to go to watch a local footy game since we got here, and the local derby was on so I begged and pleaded with Hubs to take me and he finally agreed. I was SO excited! We walked there around 1:30, paid our $6 each to get in, and took our “seats” on the hill (i.e. sat on the grass).

(That’s a yellow teddy bear on Chanbe’s new beanie, not a flower!) A couple of the guys Hubs studies with play for the Magpies, and a few of Hubs’ uni friends joined us later on to cheer them on. I just sat there soaking up the atmosphere. I don’t know what made me so giddy with excitement – maybe it was the fact that I felt like a local. That feeling of belonging to something/somewhere is obviously very important to me, and you could not wipe the smile of my face.

Not even these storm clouds rolling in could dampen my mood.

It was a very one-sided match with the Magpies dominating over the Rovers from the start. At the three-quarter mark, it really was starting to get dark and we contemplated leaving but thought we’d come this far, we might as well stay. Plus if we started walking home then, we’d probably get caught. Just as the teams ran on for the forth quarter, down came the rain.

We had to admire these fans – they had obviously done this before!
Chance didn’t really see what all the fuss was about…

…and decided it was time for a nap!
The rain just got heavier and the clouds darker, so once the full-time siren sounded, we graciously accepted a lift home with a friend. But even that couldn’t dampen my spirits! (No, I do not pardon the pun.) Particularly since Hubs loves wet, muddy football, so he was in quite a chipper mood as well. It was quite a spectacle in the end, and the Magpies ended up winning 117-55.
And last night just capped it off. We rugged up with some yummy beef stew and watched a bit of this (QI) and a bit of that (Hung). An absolutely bonza weekend (yes, I said bonza.) And I’m still on cloud 9 🙂 Not even Chance’s worst-night-sleep-in-weeks can bring this little chicken back down to earth! (Though I’m hoping and praying for a better night tonight!)

Bumper weekend

/ Renae / 2 Comments

You know those weekends that you have every now and then where you get to Sunday night and you just can’t imagine how the last 2 days and nights could have been any better? I’ve just come off one of those. It started on Friday night when, although we watched the worst movie of 2010, (and one of the worst I’d ever seen!!) I did some maintenance work on Hubs’ dreads. It was a nice relaxing evening with Chanbe asleep in bed, and us spending quality Hubs and Wifey time together.

Saturday came around and we decided to go for a walk in the morning to check out a couple of garage sales. We only ended up with a couple of things (a book for Hubs and a beanie for Chance – see next post) so we decided to head to our favourite place for coffee in Wang – Cafe Derailleur aka the bead shop. But more about that little gem of a place later. After enjoying yet another top-notch coffee we headed home. It was lunch time and our bellies needed filling.

Dinner Saturday night was to be at our new friends house. I know Kyra through mothers group (more about that later too!) and we really hit it off once we got to know each other. The more we chatted the more we realised how much not only we, but our hubbies had in common! (like they both have dreads! More about that later too too!!) Anyway, we’ve really missed being able to have people over for dinner so I put a zany idea to Kyra – could we cook a meal and bring it over to have at their place! And she was all for it. So I put the rabbit stew on around midday, and headed over to their place at 3 to prepare the gnocchi. Once that was done (and after a cuppa) I took Chanbe for a walk in the pram for over an hour, as I wanted him to have a good sleep before our night out.

We headed over for dinner and had the stew and gnocchi with home-made foccacia courtesy of Kyra. It was all utterly delish.

We then juggled our little boys (not literally – but what a show that would be!) and tried to get them to sleep with not much luck. They both wanted to stay up and party with the big kids (us). We had some home-made apple pie for dessert and topped it off with some choc-coated glazed oranges I had made. It was so nice to be amongst such wonderful company and to feel completely at home in someone else’s house. We walked home (they live just around the corner) and I was absolutely shocked to see that it was 11:30pm! We just had such a great night that the time flew by. It’s so lovely to be making new friends, but it’s also bitter sweet as we’ll be leaving Wang in just 6 short weeks. But hopefully there will be more dinner parties to come – at our new place!

Sunday’s fun will come soon…