Lunchtime Day 2

I know these pictures are not at the best angle but I have set up the camera in a single position to try and get a sense of the building as it happens. My aim is to take a shot each day and then we can maybe get some timelapse happening.

End of Day 1

The builder had to finish a previous job before he arrived at us around 4pm. They emptied a lot of wood from the back shed which David had described as a couple of pieces and then got started.

Let the Building Commence

This is phase 1 of our three stage building project. Removing the outhouses, building an office and reroofing the whole lot

Decluttering by Cooking and other stories

If you wander down to the girls school you would notice a small shop which opened a couple of years ago.  When they were smaller it, and it's larger brother were simply know as the 'orange shop', we shall now refer to it as Sainsburys.  One of the better things that Sainsburys produce is a store magazine which costs £1.60, as you can expect it does contain a lot of advertising for products they sell and a few uninspired articles what it does well is an excellent selection of recipes which are themed per magazine.  Normally I buy them, drool a little and then relegate them to the pile of clutter in the house without doing anything constructive, they gradually then migrate through the house and eventually create a nest in the recycling bin.

This time I was inspired and partially guilted by the presence in my house of two butternut squash from the veg box.  They have, I admit sat there for a while, occasionally requesting I turn them into soup or something equally repetative.  Their destiny was far greater than a mere soup!

Butternut Squash stuffed with lamb, pine nuts and dates.

2 medium butternut, halved & deseeded.
200g lamb mince
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 dates, stoned and finely chopped
2tbsp pine nuts, lightly toasted
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped (I used 1/2)
Handful of mixed herbs (whoops forgot to buy any so stuck in some dried herbes de provence)
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar to serve.

Heat oven to 200C (180C fan)
Make a criss cross pattern on the squash
Mix all the stuffing up (which is everything but the oil)
Splash around some olive oil
Whack in the oven for an hour or until the sqash is cooked, it recommends covering with foil after 20 mins to prevent to stuffing from burning. If like me you cannot find any, don't worry about it, just kkep an eye on it.

I served it with watercress and rocket salad.

Adult verdict - very tasty and filling
Child verdict - the salad is a bit nippy

I also made Bohemian Goulash which was very, very tasty.  The girls needed a little yoghurt to dilute the flavour but enjoyed it after that.  I should have cooked rice but there was no time to do so.  I would remake for batch cooking but honestly life is too short to deskin peppers even though they taste amazing and are sweet and delicious.  I bet there is a magic trick I am missing when I char them.

Hopping on the Bandwagon

Hello, my name is Clare and I am a clutter-holic.  I have been filling my house with all manner of things which may come in useful, which I may slim into, which I feel would be perfect if I did a fix which I somehow have never managed.

I was reading Stylish Boots and her post on having too much stuff and have followed it through to the post which kicked off her thought train.  It makes sense, a simple quote which makes more sense than a thousand epistles about why you should choose one item over another. I like the idea that 'DECLUTTERING' should become removing things that are no longer needed one by one, an ongoing and evolving process.  Knowing me the nearest I shall get to this is reading posts like the ones above and websites from organised people telling me how to be minimalist and when I feel awful and guilty reading stories of those who are worse.

Exercise

In this house that is generally considered to be a swear word but in all honesty I really do need to get a little fitter and a little lighter than I am.  I like my food so I think exercise is the better way that nibbling on a stick of celery because that just leads me to nibble on several bars of chocolate later on.

I started to follow C25K which is an excellent running programme but Ds working schedule meant I would be running late at night and that combined with snow and cold (it has been as low as -11C here) so that was put on hold.  I am now trying out a gym (The Warwickshire) which is so far very nice.  I have decided to try a range of classes before I kind of decide on which ones to do regulary.

So far

Step and Tone - I almost managed to be coordinated enough for this one.  The premise is 4 minutes of step, 4 minutes of weights.  To be honest I didn't feel it gave me a good CV workout but the weights were certainly reaching the parts they needed to.

Beginners Yoga - well if that was beginners !  I did find it pretty tough as a wrist injury made the floor work difficult but the rest was certainly working the muscles. A few of the exercises were a little ,you put what where and then do what !  I ached a lot the following day.

This week I am planning to try Pelvic Core, I may regret this one but I think after three children it may just be needed, and Zumba, I am not coordinated so it could be interesting.  I feel in the case of Zumba I maybe doing others a service because no matter how out of synch they are I will be worse.

A New Term Begins

or it does tomorrow, but as the Mum of a child in reception and one in Year 1 term began today.  The conversation, which I am sure has been echoed throughout many households this week has consisted of find your PE kit, where is the book bag, what do you mean the water bottle is a funny colour and please can you find your shoes (no, not the pink ones, your school shoes).  However, we are despite the irons best attempts to dirty as I ironed ready for tomorrow.  The alarm is set and the baby has had his sleep through the night pep talk and we are good to o.

I never used to be a big one for routine and compared to some, I still am not but I do find that it helps me keep on top of things.  The next week is going to be a period of OMG how did that end up in that state and falling over toys but we will get there. As it is the New Year it is traditionally a time to make resolutions which I know I will never keep, I do have some aims and goals for the year ahead, some are little and some are large.

• To spend more time on me.  Not a lot but just taking the time to have a spray of perfume etc
• To be able to run 5k (This is a biggie and I need to make smaller targets here)
•  
• To become more organised in the house.  (again a big title but I am going to take it slow and celebrate small successes)

Enough of that and onto the food thing.  Tonight was Cantonese Style beef which sounds impressive until you add my thanks to Uncle Ben.  I have recently been using Seven Isles prefluffed rice which is extremely easy to cook but it lacks flavour and the texture is very uniform, I much prefer a basamati.  Tomorrow is slow cooked beef in red wine with veggies.  I am off shortly to find a good recipe for it.  Talking of food I find it amusing that my focus on here is on food but they are certainly not low fat recipes and my lovely neighbour has just started a weight loss blog (see on the right)