The Gallery - One Sunny Sunday In August

In honour of those 3 marvellous mummies who have gone to Bangladesh with
Save The Children to help raise awareness of the terrible situation young children and their mothers face there, Tara at Sticky Fingers has made this weeks The Gallery theme 'One Day In August'. The idea is that on Sunday 29th August, the same day Josie, Sian and Eva set off half way across the world to make a difference, we The Gallery participants take a snapshot of our lives on that day: to show what we were doing that Sunday, the day #Blogladesh became a reality.

This bank holiday weekend made a real change as Burton, his Daddy and I went to Cornwall for the weekend to stay with the OH's parents who had hired a holiday cottage. For once the weather was glorious and we took Burton to the beach for the first time which he LOVED!! He has only just started taking a few steps over the last week with our assistance, but paddling in and out of the cold sea he did not want to sit down he just kept walking and clambering over the rocks! It was lovely to watch and here he is with his Daddy having so much fun ( he got quite upset after half an hour when we said it was time to leave)











Looking at these photos and seeing my healthy baby boy playing in clean water, I feel very fortunate to be so lucky when there are so many children in countries like Bangladesh, who are not so blessed. Thank goodness for organisations like Save The Children and good luck to those intrepid #blogladesh ladies.

The Gallery - So Proud

This weeks prompt by Tara at Sticky Fingers for The Gallery is to chose a photo I am proud of.

Hmmmm.....well this is a difficult task because I have different photos that I am proud of for different reasons. However, I am trying hard to just select one photo this week as most weeks I tend to display at least two!!

So I have decided to use a photograph which I am proud of due to who is featured in it (as if you couldn't guess lol).

But it is more than that, this was the first photo I took of Burton alone. (Up to this point the OH had taken all the photos, bar a couple I took of him holding Burton.) It was up on the ward about 5 hours after he was born. His daddy was asleep in the chair and I should have been sleeping myself but of course, despite being awake for well over 48 hours, I just couldn't. I wanted to take another look at my little baby boy who I had carried for the last 9 months, while there was no one else with me. This little bundle of joy who I had given birth to. I just wanted to take it all in really and think about how I felt to be his mummy. Wondering how I was going to cope now he was here and feeling a little scared. At this moment I still couldn't quite believe my luck that he was just so perfect, and healthy and gorgeous!

Therefore, although I have photos of other subjects that I am proud of and could have used this week, none of them encapsulate the feeling of pride I felt when I took this









and indeed still do feel every time I look at him :-)

Pasta Pronto! A Product Review

The lovely people at Garofalo recently sent me some packs of their pasta to test out and review on my blog. I love cooking with pasta: it is so versatile and quick to use and it is a meal that you can use almost anything in so it is perfect for busy Mums like me!

The recipe I used with the Garofalo pasta is a made up one using whatever I could lay my hand on from my fridge, freezer and cupboards! That's the great thing with pasta dishes as long as the basics are right almost anything goes! So here is my cooking with Garofalo!

Pasta Pronto (served 2 hungry adults and 1 little mouth!)

I used:

1 red onion, diced

1 yellow pepper, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 courgette, diced

1 pack of cubed pancetta

2 handfuls frozen peas

1 carton/tin of chopped tomatoes (I used ones with basil & oregano)

A glug of white wine

1 clove garlic (I use garlic purée)

1tbsp tomato purée

Black pepper

Olive oil

Pasta

To serve: grated cheese

Method:

In a non stick medium sized pan add a glug of olive oil and place on a medium heat on hob. Add the pancetta and fry for a couple of minutes until the meat starts to brown and crisp up.

Then add all the chopped veg and the diced garlic and sauté for about 5-7 minutes until they have softened

Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato purée, the wine and the peas and give it a good stir and bring it to the boil.

Once at the boil, let it bubble for a few minutes to let the wine burn off the alcohol taste and then put on a low heat, taste and add as much pepper as you think necessary. Put a lid on and let it simmer for about 15 minutes stirring occasionally.

Now cook enough pasta as required for the mouths you will be feeding. I used Garofalo rigatoni which are the big pasta tubes (like large penne pasta) which takes 14 minutes to cook

Once cooked, drain the pasta and add to your ragu sauce and stir through. Then dish up and top with cheese

Mmm nom nom nom!!

The rigatoni was really nice, although 14 minutes is longer than some other pastas take to cook it was well worth the wait as it was perfect pasta! It was a nice change to have larger pasta as the sauce went inside the tubes, which added to the taste experience.

I would definitely recommend Garofalo pasta and it certainly went down very well in my house with clean plates all round :)

Garofalo is currently available via Ocado at the moment priced at £1.99 for 500g. It can also be found in CostCo and numerous independent delis nationwide.

(Please note that this review is based on MY opinions and all comments made are my own.)

The Gallery - Memory Box

After taking a week off last week, Tara from Sticky Fingers has come back this week with a corker of a theme : Memory.

So much happens to us when we are babies and yet we have no recollection of that time when we look back in later years, as our earliest memories tend to start when we are 4 or 5. All we have instead to tell us what we were like, are the memories that our family have, together with photographs and/or home videos or any other memorabilia from that time.

So as I am sure many of you are also doing, I am saving my own 'memories' to show Burton when he is older so he can get a glimpse into his baby and toddler years. However, I am not just doing it for him but for me also so that I don't forget this special time that we are sharing, and have done since I first held him in my arms.

So I have a box which I call my Burton 1st year memory box. It was actually a gift that one of Burton's grandma's gave me for my baby when I reached my 3 month milestone as it contained a Teddy bear. Inside I have kept all the things I feel are memories of his life to date and here they are



It contains his baby firsts record book, my baby scan photos, his hospital tags, all the congratulation cards we received when he was born (64 cards which is an unbelievable amount!), his first Christmas cards, his first easter cards,his first birthday cards, a hand and foot cast I had done when he was about 8 weeks old and his birth certificate.

So far my memories of our time to date are very happy ones. I know sometimes it is tiring and hard work and he can be whiney and grisly, but the majority of the memories I have of him so far are like this



Just a cheeky, funny, happy and good natured little boy, memories that make me smile :) oh and cry lol!

That first box of memories is full now so I need to get another one to keep the next chapter of Burton 'firsts' in, of which I know there will be plenty more.

The Unprompted Gallery - Water

While Tara is away on holiday this week is actually Gallery free. However, a few die hard Gallery fans (namely RedTedArt and Chelle's Place) have decided to do their own one this week and the theme is Water.

Water water everywhere
Not a drop to spare

Well at the moment here in North Devon you would not realise it was summer due to the wet weather we seem to be having.

Rain rain go away
Come back in a couple of months lol

Therefore, my entry is a scene taken at the little fishing village of Appledore here in North Devon where it really rained the other day!





If you fancy entering or seeing who else has then please visit

http://www.mschelles.com/2010/08/pretend-or-unprompted-gallery.html

Eating Yoghurt

Ok just time for a little Burton fun on this dull and wet Monday afternoon.

I have been trying to encourage him to use a spoon on his own recently which sometimes he wants to do, and other times he seems to prefer Mummy to feed him food with it instead.

Well this lunchtime he decided to feed himself yoghurt and I took some snaps and thought I would share them on my blog!

Ok so to start with he does manage to get some out of the pot onto the spoon and kind of into his mouth

Then he realised it would be easier to tip the yoghurt onto his tray

See Mummy, I know best!!

Hey mummy let me give you a kiss lol!!

Attempting to eat yoghurt:done!!

Officially Bankrupt

I am officially bankrupt.

There I have said it on print for my blog - the first time I have heard myself say it.

I am not writing this post to brag about it or show off, because although I am actually relieved to be on my way to becoming debt free, it is also mixed with a touch of regret and emotion because it is not a nice thing to admit to either. Afterall the stigma that used to be attached to bankruptcy has gone now, and I should therefore not feel ashamed. However, despite this I have not yet told some of my family members!

No, I am sharing this because I know I am not alone with having large uncontrollable debts, that I have no way of paying back and nowadays bankruptcy is very common. I just thought that if anyone reading this is contemplating it themselves then maybe I can help them to make the decision and go for it.

According to the Ministry of Justice during the first quarter of 2010:

the number of individual bankruptcy petitions made by creditors (to whom the debt is owed) was 4,329


the number of individual bankruptcy petitions made by debtors (the person who owes the debt) was 16348

My bankruptcy was voluntary. In a nutshell, before I had Burton I owned and ran my own business (a cafe) and although it did ok I never really made a decent wage for myself and due to a VAT error and borrowing from the bank I just could not make it financially viable anymore. I sold the business at the end of last year for less than I bought it in the end because I was a new Mum and just wanted to get out and start afresh as soon as I could. Truth be told I should have gone bankrupt a couple of years ago, but in true Jenny style, I struggled on not wanting to lay my staff off, hoping it would all be ok in the end! Hmmm!! I worked my arse off, as you do when it's your own business, rarely taking time off and with notable exceptions working 6 days a week even up until 10 days before I had Burton! So yeah there is also a little bit of frustration that I lost money and owed so much by the end as I worked so hard for 5 1/2 years for so little return.

Anyway, after months and months of worry (spanning about 3 years), having no nails (yes all these years of worry has made me have no nails!), visits to my local CAB and, more recently, letters and phone calls from debt collectors I have made the step to becoming debt free. I know there is still a way to go yet, but there is light at the end of the tunnel at last!

While waiting to see the judge and speak to a receiver today, I thought to myself that going bankrupt is NOT the end of the world and at the end of the day I have something far more important to worry and think about now and that is what IS important. When I got home my little boy gave me the best hugs and squeezes a mummy could possible ask for - he is my future whether bankrupt or not and he is the most important thing in my life.

If you have debt problems I can recommend contacting:

your local CAB http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/

National Debt Helpline http://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/

who are there for you to offer free and confidential advice

Don't wait for your debts to mount up out of control - take the plunge and sort them out :-)

The Gallery - Playtime

This weeks The Gallery theme chosen by Tara at Sticky Fingers is Playtime.

I think everyone, whatever their age, enjoys playtime. Since having Burton it has been great playing with toys again,making silly faces, blowing raspberries, rolling around on the floor and just generally being a kid again! Such great fun and happy moments with lots of laughter and learning.

Burton's favourite playtime though is at bath time. To start with he did not like the water at all and screamed!

However, since he was a few weeks old we have given him a bath almost every night as part of his bedtime routine. After a few more weeks we got him used to having water splashed on his face and lying in the water, to give him confidence and to not fear water.

Well it soon became clear that he loved bath time and water and some times it has been hard to get him out of the bath!! Sometimes I think Daddy and I have got more wet than he has from all the splashing and kicking....and the floor.....the window blinds.....and the baby changing unit!!

This has helped with us introducing him to swimming at the local pool he loves it! He splashes about, gets dunked and sits on edge of the pool and pushes himself into the water! We have been taking him since he was 6months old and other swimmers have marvelled at how confident he is in the water.

Now at bath time we have to fill it so full of toys and the baby product bottles, I am surprised Burton has any room to enjoy the bubbles! He sits up one minute, lies on his front splashing furiously the next and more recently has started trying to stand up!! The whole time laughing and smiling.

Here are a couple of recent bath time play time photos

He loves either the taps or shower being run so he can play with the flowing water!

Playtime is the best time:fact!

Need My Running Mojo Back!

So since my ever so honest post a couple of weeks ago, regarding me and my feelings on running and how I was going to get out there and do it for the #mummyto5k challenge, I thought it was time I revealed how I have been getting on.

Well in a nutshell, I have been RUBBISH!! So far I have done the following:

Ran at a reasonable pace for about 11 minutes (which gave me very sore blisters!

Swam a little (was with Burton and his Daddy so wasn't able to swim for long!)

Done 3 x 1 hour brisk walks with the pushchair

I have been watching what I eat and have lost about 2 lbs in a week

But that's it!! I feel pretty lousy that I have not managed much more. Especially as I read on Twitter about all the other fabulous #mummyto5k participants and their brilliant efforts. I guess I have lost my running motivational mojo. I have no excuse really, I have just been rubbish :-(

I did try out Mirka's #fitnesstuesday exercises (bar the skipping as have not yet bought a skipping rope) for 2 days but then forgot!! So will start that up again and buy a skipping rope ASAP.

Last Friday I had plans of running/walking fast to the pool have a swim and then run/walk home again, as my Mum had Burton for the afternoon. However, just as I was packing my swimming bag my friend turned up in tears having received some sad news, and I could hardly tell her sorry I am off for some exercise!

So I am hoping to go on another brisk buggy walk later and try run tonight after tea and kick myself up the arse to get back in to this training malarky, after all, I don't really want to eat everyone else's dirt at Hyde Park!!