Late Night Contemplation

As most parents know, there is nothing more perfect than looking at your angelic sleeping child and well thinking how perfect they are. However as the crack of dawn approaches and your angelic sleeping child is .... well no longer sleeping but beckoning you to arise and feed their starving appetite well it is hard to see them in the same angelic light.

The other day while 17 month old E was having her day nap, CLF and 4 year son T decided to use the time to have a swim. CLF had the biggest epiphany while enjoying this special time with T. As T looked at me so adoringly I suddenly realised how my time is divided between two children. I know dah pretty obvious when you have two children that you will be divided. It was a bit of a sad moment realising that I cannot capture every moment with one because there is always another. This has both pro's and con's I know, siblings aid children to be better at a lot of things like sharing, as they learn from a young age to share their parents with another human being. Still I want to make myself be aware of each child and appreciate their uniqueness and really know my children. I have heard far to many stories of parents who find their teenage children's choices or behaviour 'out of character', but maybe we as parents just don't really see them for who they are but make up who we want them to be. Do we really or should I say do 'I' really take the time each day to appreciate my child, get to know my child ......

Cooking passion ignited ...

Cranky Little Fishwife loves loves loves to cook.

Any chance clf gets to try a new recipe is jumped at. This week while viewing another blog clf stumbled across a recipe for Spanish donuts mmmmm.

Now being the savvy cook that clf is and liking the challenge of a new recipe and making it her own, clf made the recipe a savoury donut recipe and coated the tasty little morsels lightly in salt rather than cinnamon sugar and then dipped the treasures in sour cream to serve to hubby on his arrival home with an icy cold beer to compliment. Hubby was suitably impressed.

Here is the delightful little recipe:


Churros
125 ml water
125ml whole milk
110 grams butter
pinch salt
large pinch sugar
150 grams flour
3 eggs

Canola oil for frying

Cinnamon sugar for coating

Place the water, milk, butter, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring this to a boil. Add the flour all at once and stir with a wooden spoon until it comes together into a smooth ball.

Transfer this mass to the bowl of an electric mixer (or can do it by hand) and start mixing with a paddle attachment. When most of the steam has evaporated, add the eggs one at a time. Mix until it comes together to a smooth thick mass.

Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a star tip (#5).

In a wide pan that has tall sides, pour about 3" deep of canola oil. Heat it to 350F. When it reaches the temperature, pipe the batter into the oil and cut with scissors. Fry them until golden brown. Remove the churros from the oil and roll them in cinnamon sugar. Serve immediately.

Uncontrollable horn

Ok so today I pack up T & E in the crazy morning rush to get T off to kindy, and what do you think should happen. Less than 2kms down the road.....my horn decided without any assitance from me to go off. Now when I say go off I mean like someone was pushing down on the stinking thing without taking a break. Did people stare... YES... did people glare ... YES ... Did people abuse me ... well I am sure they would have if I had given them the opportunity. I thought what can I do, so being unsure about my next move I promptly call hubby and give him an earful. I was stressed, a loud horn, crying children and a hubby being reasonable makes for a stressed and cranky me. So after deciding to drive home, unload the children and call RACQ with my horn STILL blaring and my neighbours I am sure staring, I sit and wait and hope the RACQ man arrives SOON.
So after the RACQ man diables my horn, I reload T & E take T to kindy and E and I go straight to the auto electrician. Now of course something that goes wrong with our car is not going to be a simple fix....hmmm no. The auto electrican discovers our cars computer reading are all out and apparently our 6 year old car has only done just over 6000k... awesome we should sell it NOW.
Some good news has coem from this day, when I got back in the car I wen to move the seat back into the right position and I find and ipod, the one hubby lost about 3 month ago and has already replaced... so now for all todays efforts I have scored myself an ipod.

What if ???

Hubby and I have been discussing whether now is a good time for me to return to the workforce. It is such a difficult decision to make, as our desire is for us to be the primary influence in our young childrens lives. I would really like to get back into the workplace and have a different view to what I have now ..... at the moment my day takes pretty much the same shape......EVERYDAY.

There are always those nagging What if? questions .... What if I ruin them by putting them in childcare, are they still too young .... there are too many questions to ponder. I know as I spent most of last night pondering those very questions.

I don't want to miss those precious moments that can never be replaced ....

So the questions remain, I am still on the fence on this one

Education is a lifelong journey

They say having a child is like walking around with your heart outside your body. I can say there has never been a truer statement made. I have two children T who is 3 almost 4 and E who is 14 mths old. When I look at my beautiful children I often wonder how such a miracle could have occurred, they have their own unique personalities and traits yet they came from the genetic make-up of my husband and I...... amazing.

Today I enrolled T into prep for 2011 (at two different schools) I like to have options, and I am very indecisive, so lets hope that come interview time next year, I will be able to make a firm decision as to which school will benefit my lil guy the most. To think of him as growing up makes me sad and contemplative for time lost and my own mistakes in parenting. I want to do the best job I can in raising these precious children to be contributing grown ups in society, but more importantly to be kind, gracious and generous. And this has to start with me .... they learn from me. Having children is like going back to school all over again and having to learn the alphabet from scratch, only now I am paying far more attention as I can see the outcome can be good or bad ..... I want the good. So my lesson for today is learn learn learn now and help my babies to grow to be all they were created to be. And I thought my days of education were over ......

New beginnings............ 1st Nov 2009

Sometimes I am a cranky little fishwife

ok maybe not to the extent of the the actual meaning

fishwife 
–noun, plural -wives.
1.
a woman who sells fish.
2.
a coarse-mannered, vulgar-tongued woman



but I can be honest enough to say that sometimes I hear myself having a nag to my hubby and my children, so this is how I come to the name .... cranky little fishwife.



I am a wife, a mother, a cleaner (no by choice, but by need), a cook or master chef as my darling 3 year old refers to me, a renovator, a protector, an educator, a creative influence, and many more interesting or otherwise things. That being said in simple terms I am a stay-at-home mum. This is a job I love and loath all at the same time ... it is a strange phenomenon that most mums understand.



I used to bc (before children) take my time to get ready and always had my hair, make up and clothes in place .... now ac (after children) I rarely get the opportunity to take a second look at myself before leaving the house and hubby has been known to wipe marks from my face or point out puck or other unknown substances on my clothing !!!!! ahhh a different life