A new 'tougher' thread... and so it continues

ragz_2

Happy New Year all! I was not online yesterday, my New Year's Eve celebrating didn't start until after midnight as we got our car stuck in a grass verge! After much pushing and shoving, huffing and puffing, we gave up trying to rescue it and stayed at the pub (where we'd only intended to be 15 minutes!) until 2am then went to DH's friend's house. Borrowed a car and tow rope in the morning... (which was entertaining with hangover!) Feel awful that we were late to pick up kids from MIL (didn't wake up until 11.47am then had to to walk to the pub and tow the car out) and made her miss her lunch out so will buy her flowers tomorrow to apologise...

In my defense, it was the first New Year' Eve I had spent out since I had children, and I nearly didn't go. As another poster said, the idea of packed pub/getting home/all the drunk people put me off. When I got to the pub (it's DH's local, I barely know anyone) I was so uptight and uncomfortable but after a few drinks I was dancing with the locals! I had a really good time, I am glad I went, and I expect next NYE I will be at home again so it was nice to get out for a change.

I too am a little old style before my time, my friend's/family joke about my freezer fetish and I often wear an apron. I am not ashamed of this though...

New Year plans
- Savings! I will save...
- Stick to the grocery challenge
- Keep track of ALL spending... I have an app on my phone I use for this, it works well though I can't track what DH spends in the pub (he only goes for a few, a few times a week) or on little trips to the shops for cider/baccy but I can track most...
- Get a water meter fitted. We spent about half what we do now when we had one in last house, we may have an extra child now but we don't have the gardening so should even out.
- Look into getting pensions (I'm only 26 and it scares me to think I may be a pensioner for 20+ years!)
Will think of more later...

I tried to find a new avatar the other day, as I decided mine looks frumpy and grumpy! I wan't something more positive. Off an an avatar mission!

gailey_2

Morning guys.

Got thinking about what you mentioned last night.

I have moved quite a few times.
mostly due to work
initially majority of mates were met through work.

When I went on maternity and gave up work was quite a shock.
none of my freinds had kids and lived far away or worked in week.

I did make few freinds with antenatal group but unfortunatly they were horrid used to call them the power mums.

Hate going to new toddler groups as can be cliquey.

but slowly have built a life here last 6years forced myself to be more social.

met few mums waiting for eldest at gym class
go to few holiday clubs where meet people
started going church more often
now eldest at school made freinds that way.
joined pta at school been good way to get me to be brave
joined slimming world and made few freinds there like it as not all mums and mix of ages just like ehere.
Now this year would love to join wi and maybe zumba.
in addition to all this I volunteer at breastfeeding support group at clinic.

Need to get motivated this morning another unsettled night pretty sure babys teeth.

My toddler was far too quiet this morning went down she took box of washing powder from kitchen andand placed on laminate floor in lounge:eek:swept most of it up.
Despite most of house being total tip im trying not to stress new me!

Currently trying to get baby to sleep.
then will start in kids room and workd downwards
have all day no where to be
hubby not home until 9
but do need to cook some defrosted stuff and shortdated stuff into meals and meal plan for next 14 days!

I just keep telling myself be positive it can be done!

back to normal tommorow

have school run
slimming class
got to go up high street bank pay money in but get to check out new greengrocers and health food shop.

Hope everyones having a nice day.

cant quite belive ireland increasing vat to 23% means nearly quarter every purchase tax so maybe we are better off in uk

prepareathome

Byatt my daughter had the laser treatment on her eyes in the summer and says she wished she had, had it done years ago, she loves not having to wear glasses, wish I could have it done but I am long sighted so cannot even get contact lenses even to read the smallest print I need to hold the book/Mag whatever at arms length and even that is becoming to near so have to wear glasses all the time now 'sigh' So long as she goes somewhere reputable and has one eye done at at a time - daughter looked into it all and found that is best so they can see how you react, just on the off chance there is a problem, its only one eye not both, but as I said she is fine and her eyesight is perfect now.

Lavenderbees far to much sugar and the doughy might just be you are using ordinary flour not bread flour. I also would change the butter to oil - I always use olive oil, it helps to keep the bread fresh as well. I usually put in 2 tablespoons although the official recipe for basic bread for mine ( its a Kenwood, very similar to the Panasonic which most people seem to have but when choosing a new one in the summer the Kenwood just pipped at the post for me, although cannot remember why now and prices were about the same.

Cannot remember whose daughter is now in and out of hospital I feel for you, we spent the first 6 years of youngest sons life in hospital, he would be in for every virus, cold etc., we would just get him home and back he would go. Ended up we had a room on a ward they kept for us as he couldn't be in an open ward, more chance of picking up more infections so we made the room our own taking in toys of his, stuff for me as I used to sleep on a pull out in the room and sometimes the other two children did as well. They even put a lock on the door so no other parents could go in it when we were not there so we could leave things there. Thankfully he slowly needed to go less and less and hasn't been in hospital since he was about 11 and he is 28 now with two children of his own. Its expensive as well, as whoever stays at the hospital still has to eat, and as my hubby is not made of homemaking stuff he used to bring the others to the hospital every day and he would go back to work and I would feed the there, buying the meals sometimes or if ward wasn't to busy I was allowed to cook for them in the ward kitchen, then he would come and buy his own after work and stay till it was time for others to go to bed, homework etc would be done there, then he would take them home to bed, he could manage to see to them for that and get them ready in the morning take them to school, call in on me and son and then off to work. If son wasn't to bad I would pop home for a bit to catch up on things but there were times I didn't get outside for a week or more, I used to crave fresh air. I look back now and it feels as if it was a dream, trying to run a home and give you attention to all your children so the well ones don't feel left out or unloved when one is in and out of hospital is not easy, not easy on the marriage either, but all my children talk to me and I have asked them if they every felt pushed out they said no, it was just normal for them and I did always make time for them, one plus of all being stuck in one small room with no tv, so guess I got something right:)

LavenderBees

...you're all fab! Thank you.

We reckon the BM is at least 15 yrs old probably older, so I'm guessing that the recipes in the booklet (I have the original!!) reflect that earlier time when we didn't know salt & sugar should be reduced.

Even the wholemeal bread recipes have at least 1.5 - 2 TABLESPOONS of sugar.

I probably won't be trying a new loaf for a wee while (have I mentioned diet starts today :eek:), but have bookmarked your replies so I can go back to them easily, and will try some experiments. I didn't know if the effect of reducing sugar would mean bread not rising or something like that.

Do you think the doughy taste is related to this or do you think I should reduce the amount of yeast too? I don't have sachets of yeast, but the recipe book says 7g = 2.5 teaspoons. Does that sound ok?

It's like being back in a chemistry class :rotfl:just need a bunsen burner...

ETA - am definitely using bread flour (from Lidl), though have had the same doughy taste with strong bread flour from ASDA. Will try the oil method too.

ragz_2

I though 7g was HALF a teaspoon?

grandma247

Fuddle my mother accused dh and I of being like an old married couple when we were courting because we were os even then which is over 40 years ago now your mentioning buying a gardening magazine reminded me I used to buy Mother magazine so I knew I was going to have kids. Here I am now with six kids and eleven grandchildren. I am truly blessed.

Taurus it is so good to see you posting I wish you a speedy uneventful recovery.

Hobsons choice I am glad all that rain is NOT snow because we would not be able to get out of the door if it was. We already have a lake down the road because the drain is in the wrong place.

Hello Nuala nice to "see" you.

I have this written inside my bible and am going to add it to my sig. " Happiness is a journey not a destination".

About three weeks ago I watched an episode of the food hospital and decided to try the low starch diet that was recommended to a spondilosis sufferer. I have arthritis and am overweight, I also have known for a while that I had a problem with breads and sugar etc.
I have lost half a stone and my energy levels are rocketing, even though I am tired (late nights and overwork) I feel good. The weight should keep going down until it reaches a normal level then I just need to maintain it.

I have so much energy I emptied my kitchen into the dining room on Friday and scrubbed it down with bleach and by Sunday afternoon I had cleaned and put stuff back minus some things to car boot and some that I threw away. Just a month ago I could not even bear to think about doing that much work in one go. I had devised a plan to do one thing a day!

I saw this thread and decided to buy the book mentioned and it has been so helpful because I can just scan for what I want quickly with the traffic light system. I also did a bit of checking about low starch diets and why they work it was very interesting.
The curries on this thread are lovely, I made a 3x batch of the base and pressure canned it for later use but it can be frozen too.

A big bonus and probably the most important for me is that within a week my knee pain was much less and now it has gone. The pain I have had in my hip for the last twelve months or so has almost gone so life is bearable again and I can sleep without having to get up to get painkillers. I still get stiff but I hope even that will get better. Who would have thought that such simple changes could make such a massive difference?

I have also realised why the pain was much worse in rainy weather and it has nothing to do with the wet. I ate comforting, warming food when it was raining and they were meals containing a lot of starch!

Sorry for the long post, I have just caught up.

mardatha

Very interested in the low starch diet - never heard of that grandma. It's so hard to lose weight when you're not well and cant exersize, my ME is in full flare-up just now and I feel like a poorly slug. I would SO love some energy !!!

witchwoopiggy

prepareathome wrote: »

witchywoopiggy - am just glad your OH and you were not in the car when they did it, we had our campervan blown up a few years ago, nutters were going round blowing up letterboxes and decided to add our poor old van to their list, it was off the road ( sitting in side garden) as needed some work done and so we had let insurance lapse so that was the end of our outings as we couldn't afford to buy another. Taken a lot of saving just to buy that one and it was ancient. Even though we had bomb squad, and all sorts of police involved they never caught them.

You say you don't have fully comp ins, have you checked out this is the cheapest, as was reading about how its not always the cheapest option - think it was something Martin wrote about just this past few weeks.

Am sure you will manage fine with OHs direction, good luck.

oh how allfull for you :eek::eek: i think i would of had a heart attack with a bomb squad on me door steep :eek:

at the time of getting the insurance the third party was the cheapest proberly helped by the fact its a 20 year old motor but i have told hubby your advice and poped a note in the insurance folder to remind me when its up for renewal , no chance of either of us remembering then as hubbys memory not been the same since his stroke and im on a lot of pills for head , its a bit like the blind leading the blind here :rotfl::rotfl:

Well i feel alot better today, the sun is shineing, and todays a new day, even the bunnies have decied that yes ok we will come out of our hutch and have a bounce around in our run, Have told Tammy bunny that shes safe from the stew pot today even if she does dig a new hole :rotfl: My bunnies are the tpye that would of been used for meat in the war years so i often tell them stew :rotfl:

Have scrubed the kitchen and it all sparkels like a new pin, shame about the rest of the bungalow but i will get there i would love it if no matter what day/time it was if our home was spotless so i am going to try and aim for that this year

Well better get off me bum and start the bathroom, as im on a roll

laters witchwoo xx

rosieben

fuddle wrote: »

I suppose my avatar is rather negative and doesn't really fit what I'm trying to achieve this year at all. Leave it with me and I'll try to find something that is more how I am feeling now. Thanks for pointing it out, it's not something that brings me down though. It was just how I was feeling back in November 2010 when I joined and just didn't think to change it. ...

oh I'm so relieved you're not offended I don't find your user name negative at all, I like it, I'm often to be found in a fuddle too

LavenderBees

ragz wrote: »

I though 7g was HALF a teaspoon?

I think I'll get a couple of 7g sachets and measure one out on a teaspoon and see what it looks like, then I'll have a better idea. It does seem from all your replies though, that the recipe booklet is way over on pretty much everything I should be using. I'll also weigh what 3.5 cups of flour is and then be able to translate it back to your recipes.

Once I get the basic white loaf right, I'll then be able to try adapting the other recipes.

Easy peasy :eek:

Once again, many thanks.

xx

P.S. I like the idea of leaving out the milk powder as that smells weird to me, so is probably contributing to the taste problem, and also I'll drop some sunflower seeds into one at some point. Great ideas. Thanks!