Ten on Tuesday…

Ten on Tuesday this week is “10 great things that happened this summer”. The weather has been becoming nice and autumnal lately… crisp and bright, rather than the rain and dull weather that accompanied the “summer” here in the UK! It seems a good time to look back at the summer 🙂

1. We had a mini-break to Morecambe. Mum & Dad have a lovely apartment there right on the seafront. Its a great place to go to escape. The weather was AWFUL… it poured with rain but we enjoyed sitting in the flat watching the world go by. Its nice to look across Morecambe Bay and see the boats bobbing up and down. Most of all we watch the tide. Its so captivating!
2. Katie started to speak! I’ve blogged about it before… she is suddenly saying loads more recognisable words and its so lovely to see (and hear) our little girl growing up and expressing herself. She is much less frustrated now! So are we lol.
3. Robyn finished her Reception year at school. I was very glad to see Robs progress into her new class. Her new teacher is great and I am confident she will do very well this year. She is being challenged more and as a result is much more interested!
4. We found Maggie… mum and dads cat! Of course the sad thing that goes before that is the fact she was lost but we had given up hope of finding her really! We were looking after her while mum & dad were on holiday and 2 weeks after going missing she appeared in a neighbours garden like she had never been away!
5. Mum & Dad came home from their holidays. They go away for almost 4 weeks every summer and I always miss them terribly. Its always a happy happy day for me when they return.
6. I got to spend time with Robyn. She always goes to see her Granny & Dad in school holidays and I rarely get to spend time with her but this time she was at home for 4 weeks out of 6. Good times 🙂
7. I turned 30! At first I wasnt sure that was so great but now I’m used to it I feel glad to have my turbulent 20’s behind me.
8. I got a new friend. I’ve known her for a while but over the summer I’ve been helping her out alot with her new baby and its brought us closer together.
9. The car passed its MOT! We were expecting a big expense there so were very relieved when we were able to drive away from the garage without a big bill!
10. I became a Great-Auntie! It only happened yesterday but its a nice way to finish off my 10! Luke Barrie was born at 20:07 on 22.09.08 weighing 6lb. Congratulations to very proud parents Danielle & Allan!

Rainbows and the zoo…

Robyn started Rainbows this week 🙂

She has been wanting to join for ages now and her starting day has been a long time coming! She walked in and nearly all of the girls ran over to her shouting “Robyn!!!”. It was lovely to see my little girl who, not too long ago was really quite shy and timid come out of her shell and get stuck in with the others!

She is desperate to wear a Rainbow uniform. We will be buying it in a few weeks time. Look out for a photo of that one!

Yesterday we took the girls to Blackpool Zoo. Katie fell in love with the monkeys and we had such a lovely day as a family. The weather was superb… better than most of the days we had in the “summer”! I quite expected the girls to go to sleep in the car on the way home but no such luck lol. Robyn told everyone at church this morning about the zoo. I’m sure she will talk about it for a long time to come!

I’ll leave you with a photo of my two wonderful girls taken yesterday at the zoo 🙂

Lamb and Apricot Tagine

I’ve made this in the past and really enjoyed it. We are having it tonight as the weather seems to have turned quite cold and autumnal. I usually leave the apricots out and skip most of the 3rd step in the recipe.

The recipe is originally from the Adsa website.

Lamb and apricot tagine

Serves 6
Preparation time 30 minutes
Cooking time 1 hour, 15 minutes
Plus marinating time

Ingredients

• 1.5kg shoulder lamb, trimmed of fat and cut into bite-sized chunks
• 1tbsp ground cumin
• 1tsp ground ginger
• 1tsp paprika
• 1⁄2tsp turmeric
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 4tbsp olive oil
• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 1 lamb stock cube
• Pinch of saffron (optional)
• 2 tomatoes, roughly chopped (I always use 1 tin)
• 1 small cinnamon stick
• 115g dried apricots
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• 20g pack fresh coriander, chopped (optional)

Method

1 Put the lamb in a large bowl, add the spices, garlic and oil and mix until meat is well coated. Marinate for 4 hours or overnight. Put a large, flame-proof casserole dish or thick-based saucepan over a medium to high heat and brown the meat in batches. Set aside.

2 In the same pan, gently fry the onion for 10 minutes. Dissolve the stock cube in 500ml of boiling water, add the saffron, and infuse for a few minutes. Add the stock and tomatoes to the onions with the lamb and the cinnamon stick. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for 1 hour.

3 Stir in the apricots and lemon zest, then simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Strain tagine and, while keeping the meat warm, return the liquid to the dish and boil until slightly syrupy. Season, discard cinnamon stick and return meat to the dish. Stir in coriander, then serve with couscous.
 

 

Ten on Tuesday…

Ten on Tuesday this week is “10 simple things that make you happy”… a good one for me today since I seem to be feeling a bit glum.

1. Hearing my girls singing.
2. Snuggling up to my wonderful husband.
3. Drinking a nice hot brew in the warm when its cold and raining outside.
4. Being together with my family. My family (both immediate & extended) means the world to me.
5. Seeing Katie playing nicely and being happy! (Its getting more and more common now I’m happy to say!).
6. Being loved.
7. Watching Anthony and the girls playing together. Sometimes I wish I could freeze a moment in time.
8. Seeing all the hills and beautiful countryside that surrounds us here where we live in the Pennines.
9. Climbing into bed after a busy day.
10. Eating good, home-made cakes!

Back To School… Back To Routine!

Robyn started back at school on Tuesday… Year 1. She seems to be really enjoying being back and has been nice and tired in the evenings lol.

It has been lovely to have Robyn at home in the holidays but its nice now to be back in a routine. As I type Anthony is still asleep and Katie is playing in her cot really happily after a lie in. I must admit I’m enjoying having the time to myself down here!

Anthony has been poorly with his eye. Its a recurring problem and was referred to the eye clinic at the hospital yesterday. He saw 3 specialists and all of them are a bit baffled. One of them declared his eye to be “weird!”. We have to go back to hospital tomorrow and again on Monday to see a different specialist. Hopefully we’ll get some answers as to what is wrong. In the meantime he has 2 different types of tablet to take,1 lot of eye drops and some eye ointment too.

His eye is very bloodshot, very achy, very light sensitive and the iris is swollen. I’m just very glad that its being dealt with now. Its gone on for a long time on and off. At our last doctors he was always fobbed off with “Its conjunctivitis” which it so obviously isn’t!!!!