A Precious Moment.....



Every Thursday morning we pack a yummy lunchbox and head down the street to our local Community Centre. This is where I leave Louise to play, paint, draw, run without me by her side. In the beginning, it took us a lot to get there - as she cried ... A LOT! The whole first term was painful and I nearly gave it up.
She would start pretty much by Monday saying "When is it Thursday - tomorrow? I don't want to go to Big Kinder"
I would drop her off and stand in the hallway and listen to her scream then step out of the building with this giant pit feeling in my stomach. I knew it would get better - it had to get better as it certainly couldn't get any worse.




Second Term has been a dream - she is happy to go now 
and walks confidently through the door.






At the end of the day when I arrive to pick her up - she says the same thing everytime.
"Mummmeee - you came back" and I get a magical cuddle. 
We walk around the room she shows me her friends, her artwork and what ever she has been playing with that day.


This is my precious loving moment because its everything I wanted and dreamed for her. 
I want her to be confident and secure in herself, to not need me, to be able to develop her own relationships and to make choices on her own.






This post has been sponsored by the Kidspot Baby Club. 
It's a lovely place for mums and expectant mums to chat, share, relate and connect (and even win some lovely goodies!).






When I had my daughter I never expected how lonely and isolated I felt at times. Your blissfully happy but at the same time suddenly feel so restricted. So if your a new mumma or even a mum that gets moments like these why not pop over and chat - because chatting to someone that knows how you feel can always make your day a little better.
The best thing is that you can visit at any time of day or night, and if you haven't had time to shower or do your hair, we won't notice (and there's a pretty good chance we haven't had time to do so either). 








The Jam Doughnut Muffin...

Last night, hiding up the back of my fridge I discovered a lonely container of Buttermilk. I'd bought it to make a ginger caramel birthday cake a couple of weeks back, and had kept the remainder because Buttermilk keeps much longer than regular milk. I rarely make anything with this ingredient, so with no idea what to do with it, I conducted an internet search.

And came up with: the Jam Doughnut Muffin.

Let me tell you -- it's a taste sensation. And a complete diet buster. But you knew that just by the title, right?

And it's simple - just a couple of bowls, a mixing spoon, some ingredients and a muffin pan. It's everything you love about muffins... and doughnuts... in one delectable package!



Here's how (from Taste.com.au):

Ingredients

  • 300g (2 cups) self-raising flour
  • 2/3 cup caster sugar, plus 1/2 cup extra to coat
  • 80ml (1/3 cup) vegetable oil
  • 1 large egg
  • 175ml buttermilk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 tsp good-quality strawberry jam
  • 100g unsalted butter
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 180°C and grease a 6-hole muffin pan.

  2. Sift the flour into a medium bowl, then add a pinch of salt and the caster sugar. In a jug, combine the vegetable oil, egg, buttermilk and vanilla extract. Add to the dry mixture and stir to only just combine. Place a spoonful of the mixture in each muffin hole and make an indent in the centre. Fill each indent with a generous 1/2 teaspoon of strawberry jam. Cover the jam with the remaining muffin mixture and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool slightly.

  3. Meanwhile, melt the butter. Combine the extra sugar and the cinnamon in a large bowl. When the muffins are cool enough to handle, brush each muffin with the melted butter, then roll in the cinnamon sugar. Serve while still a little warm.

je'taime


A busy weekend for us - we are off to a French themed wedding tonight and tomorrow we celebrate Indi's first birthday with her Bunny themed party - hope you have a wonderful weekend filled with happy celebrations - look forward to sharing all the details next week.

Au revior mes amis



Images courtesy of Style Me Pretty

Leanne

Things I learnt this week including the fact that bus scrolls are taking over the known world

Sadly, my Fridge Chronicles did not take the blogging world by storm as intended.* But, even though they chose not to participate, many seemed to love the idea so look out for July and - EXTENDED BY POPULAR DEMAND - you can still post for June. In any case, I've learnt a lot about blogging this week, among other things...

1. Stumbleupon is a site that lets you scroll through the web on topics that interest you. It's likely to also be a great way to drive traffic to your blog if you're interested.

2. It's possible for a female, droney-voiced, rather smart redhead to become prime minister of blokey, over-excited, rather, um, cerebrally-challenged, tanned Australia. My thoughts on this are perfectly summarised in an earlier post.

3. It's estimated that dyslexia affects almost 10% of children in Australia.

4. You can't dabble in Twitter, it's an all or nothing place.

5. Kids library bags online cost over $30 (or are cheaper but so yuck)... unbelievable. Horrified, I rushed to Funky Fabrix and almost bought this lovely fabric to make my own.

6. At least 62.8%** of homes featured in Important Interior Design (IID) magazines (or 'house porn' as LOML calls them) must contain a whimsical destination bus scroll.

7. I just don't get Haiku (although Fluffy Bunnies does write some lovely ones...)

8. 'Passwords' is a really good way for Early Readers to learn their sight words. You stick words at every door in the house (hard ones at most used doors). When it's "passwords on" everyone has to say the sight word in order to get through the door. "Passwords off" means Mum gets a little break. Taking a leisurely evening stroll through the house in the same manner each night after bath is also a clever way to use the loci system for learning the words.

9. I would rather stand in line all morning than use the self-serve checkout at Woolies. It's just not right.

10. Pictory showcases the most amazing photography and the stories behind the photos. I just love it.


* Although they were not as big a bomb as that intelligent, witty, charming bastard Sir Ken Robinson.

** Please note: this statistic is made up. It means absolutely nothing and can therefore be used as a supporting fact in any argument as long as 8 glasses of wine have been consumed prior.

Flog your blog Friday

Thanks to the lovely Brenda at Mummy-time.

My Creative Space

I have been meaning to join in with my creative space for such a long time. Here are a few pictures of projects that I have been working on this week

~please be kind~




I was sent this this fab car road FQ a while back and wanted to make a special gift for a lovely friend with 3 boys. This car mat has a space for four matchbox cars then conveniently rolls up to pack it all way. Perfect for distraction tactics at restaurants or Dr's surgeries.  It took a while to work out but I got it finished in the end. Thankfully my little friends aren't too fussy for perfect stitching.





Yesterday One of my lovely friends asked for a helping hand making some canvases for her children's empty walls - this is a small sample of what we made. We really didn't have a plan as to how they were going to turn out but together we came up with these - I like them so much - I might have to get busy making one for Lou. It was such a lovely morning and it was so nice to be making something a little different.

Don't worry though - those waiting on orders, I promise they are on their way too. SEE :)




This is me not purchasing anything...

June is my 'get back on track' month for budgets. I don't know if it's the EOFY looming or just that most Mays (and Jans, Febs, Mars and Apes) I go a bit mental with the buying, but June has traditionally been the Month of Try Not To Spend As Much On Stuff You Don't Need.

So, I still shop for groceries and important things. But I wind the pantry stocks down by making weird recipes involving all those cans of soup and curry pastes that gather in Woodstock proportions over the course of the year. I also let the car blink its pesky fuel lamp at me for as long as possible (what a rush). And I cleverly delay paying any bills that come in that month. So canny.

Now, if I was buying this June, which I am not, I would definitely be getting one of these gorgeous Naomi Murrell brooches.
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