Staying Out of the Kitchen

 

Do you like my new toast plate?  It was an early Mothering Sunday gift to me from my niece.  She has moved to a mental health unit closer to us and so I got to see her last weekend.  There should be a picture at the end of this post with what she has written on the back.  She got the opportunity to go to a Pottery Barn and designed it herself - very precious.

Toast is about all I am able to make at the moment.  My culinary skills along with all my general homemaking skills seem to have taken leave of me at the moment.  I read somewhere recently that this often happens during the early stages of bereavement.  It really is most queer.  

Last Saturday I burnt my plums - literally (stop sniggering), I had, had some hanging around in the fruit bowl until they had started to dry out so decided I really shouldn't waste them and could just quickly stew them and use them for a pudding.  Twenty minutes after putting them on, having got totally distracted by another task I suddenly remembered them.  Too late - it took 24 hours of soaking and then boiling water in the empty pan to get rid of all the burnt on bits.

Sunday I had one last load of washing that needed to go through the drier (having managed the others on Saturday - some success).  After putting the drier on I walked away thinking that it sounded a bit clunky, but then it often sounds a bit odd.  It wasn't until I came to empty it later that I discovered my daughters small metal Vaseline pot sitting in the bottom of the drier after taking the clothes out.  I suppose I should consider myself very fortunate that it only ruined three items of clothing, none of them being particularly special items.

On Monday I had a friend round for lunch and had thought to ask my dear husband to get a lovely broth out of the freezer that a friend had made and given to me.  All seemed to go well, we ate and it wasn't until about an hour (or probably two), that we started to clear the table and as I put the pots in the kitchen felt something burning on my hand - I had just left the gas hob on for the whole time - thank goodness there wasn't anything near to it!

Tuesday, husband made my lunch and I went to the Chip Shop to get the children's tea when husband was at work in the evening.  Tonight I will try and cook something simple - do wish me luck!

A Quiet Christmas

 
What does Christmas mean?  Family? Friends? Church? Jesus? Presents? Food? Pretty lights?  Over the years all these things have taken a turn.

This year for me it has been about Stillness.

Our Christmas Eve didn't go to plan, we usually go to the same cinema watch a Christmassy film and then go to the same restaurant.  We arrived at said cinema to discover the film had sold out (we hadn't thought of booking as in previous years films have never been full!).  We ended up having to go to another cinema to watch a different film, that turned out okay, when we came out no restaurants were taking new sittings.  We ended up going home and getting take out pizza, that would have turned out okay, except we rarely have take out pizza and it upset my stomach!  It was nice to see the children excited and I was very surprised when we went in the kitchen before bed and found this

The glass is full of water as she felt Santa needed to watch his weight!


My lovely husband was working on Christmas Day, it has happened in the past but this is the first time the children are aware of it.  This made me totally rethink our day.  Food was definitely not going to feature any importance, we had a special breakfast with lovely fresh pastries before any present opening, but that was the only meal we all at down together for.  For the rest of the day, I put a selection of nibbly food out on the table and we grazed through the rest of the day (the children did eat rather a lot of chocolate).

My mum had gone up to the East Midlands to spend time with my brother and his family (something I had to instigate to get a break).  My niece is physically closer and not in a secure unit this year so we were able to arrange for her to be brought over for a couple of hours.  She didn't want to come to church so we went to the 9.15 service which was lovely.  Sadly we had to leave before the communion to be home in time for our niece.

It was lovely to see her opening her stocking.  The children's stockings were given to the children when they were very small by my sister when she was alive.  The girls have the same ones with an angel on them and my boy has a Santa on his.  We spent most Christmas Days all together, either at hers or at ours.  This is only the second Christmas Day the children can remember not having woken up all together.  I didn't know that my husband was snapping these pictures.

In this one particularly my niece looks so much like my sister it took my breath away.  Her face profile, her body posture, her hair, oh how it makes my heart ache.

A very nice care home worker came a little too early to pick her up as we were having a go at using the girls new pom pom makers, but he very kindly was happy to sit and chat with my husband and son while we finished what we were doing.

After she left, so did dear husband.  We ended up watching a lot of television! My daughter and I did decide to start a project with her pom pom makers though, did you see the wreath in the first photo in this post?  It was full of plastic ornaments, but in common with my door wreath which you can see in my previous post we decided to fill it with pom pom's

My lovely friend in New Zealand came on line later in the evening which meant I had some adult conversation and a bit of scrabble playing.  The day then ended with the extra surprise of my husband getting off work three hours early!  Which was so lovely as we would have all been in bed otherwise.

So all in all it was different.  It was quiet.  It was peaceful.  God was there with us, it feels as though we were able to keep the real meaning of Christmas at the heart of our day.  I am now determined to celebrate the Christmastide season and not just leave Christmas behind now that the 25th has passed by.  I haven't decided what we will do, I know it will be quiet, but I hope we can keep it Christ centred.

New routines.

I find the hardest thing about creating new routines is that in order for something 'new' to happen an old routine must first be disposed of.  It is easy to think that we haven't got a routine for doing something (or not doing something), until you realise there is another way than the one you have been doing (or not).  For me Saturday mornings have been transformed. For a long time I have been really struggling with cooking through the week, however have not been able to recognise any space in my week where I could do a weekly cook-up.  My husband works shifts, they are on a 10 day cycle and so no week is ever the same as the next one.  However it does seem to work (I know there is a mathematical equation that could be used to work this out but really cannot be bothered to even try) that he is often around on a certain day of the week for about 6 weeks, before then not being around at that time for 6 weeks.  Since Christmas he seems to have been around on every Saturday morning.

Saturday mornings have always been chores and laundry day for us all.  The children have their set jobs that they have to carry out before lunch time, I have usually been up to my elbows in dirty washing and then clean washing!  However with hubby home he took on the job of doing the laundry which left me free to cook.  I did have to think things through by Thursday to ensure I could do a shopping list that meant hubby could go and shop for me.  I have now managed to do it for three consecutive weeks.  This Saturday, I didn't have hubby around so managed to do washing AND cooking, admittedly I didn't do all the cooking and so finished that off on Sunday morning, but still - it is getting done. An added bonus to doing this 'cook-up' has been the children's interest in it, they have now decided they are going to take turns to do it with me.  So far they have both had a turn and we have had a great time AND they are learning some new skills to!

This has meant that I have some free time in the evenings and I have been busy with my crochet hook as you can see on my last post.  I have also been adding promises to my ripple promise blanket and doing a spot of reading to.  Here is my latest completed project made from a plastic container that once housed cakes,  along with some more blessings I have seen this week.

  

700.  An orchid given by a kind friend back in October - still flowering at the end of January.

701.  Left over beads from when my little girl was much smaller.

702.  The relief that washes over when I arrive in my car on our drive.

703.  Picture hanging for my mum.

704.  Hedge trimmers.

705.  Birds in the garden keeping the view ever changing.

706.  Using up rubbish to create something pretty.

707.  Banks of daffodils already in bloom.

708.  Crocuses appearing between paving slabs.

709.  The smell of newly bathed puppy dog.