Cooking

I like cooking. It wasn't always this way. I used to hate it in fact. Until I got married. Then I faced the decision either to cook and like what I'm eating or to cook and not like what I'm eating. That settled it quite quickly. I'm by far no fancy cook or anything but it tastes alright most of the times, unless it doesn't. Husband thinks it's great most of the time and the rest of the time he's too nice to comment about it... he often even likes the things I think turned out BAD. Ou well... lately I got a bit bored with my usual meals so I added another little challenge to my live: cook one new meal a week. It's nice to experience with new ideas, adopt them a little bit and be surprised with the result.

The other day I tried a new cake called a Japanese Cotton Cheesecake. And I have to make a confession right here and now: I ate half of the cake. Literally. I did!! I felt horrible. I could not stop myself. If you ever try this cake, you will understand. It's somehow a mixture between a cheesecake and victoria sponge cake and oh so good, fluffy and melt-away-on-your-tongue-ish. I am struggling a bit with keeping my healthy life style at present, I guess the honeymoon phase has gone and really healthy life has started... so here I was eating half a cake all by myself... Ben ate the other half though (okay, Ned had one piece as well).. sigh...

Well, and as it is "me" I'm talking about, cooking wouldn't be cooking without little... uhm... "incidents". Like a couple days ago... I didn't really know what to cook for dinner. Ben re-formated our computer so I wasn't able to check on my weekly meal plan what I'd planed for the day (I am quite faithful in creating this weekly meal plan, but so far I changed things around every single week since starting it), and I could not remember without the computer. So I was procrastinating a bit reading a new novel. Then I got a call from a friend from church if I was able to prepare a meal for someone in church who are struggling. Our church does that, and I think it is an excellent idea. So I said I'd make some pizza sometime this weekend and put it in the freezer in church for those people. That made me think pizza.. hmmm... I was laso thinking about the meal for the next day. For that day we planed to have those people over whose house we are buying, we thought we'd like to get to know them a bit better and they said yes, they'd come. But what do you cook for people you don't really know at all??? Then I thought of Raclette. I love Raclette. People here don't seem to know Raclette at all. So I thought I'd give it a go, it's something fun do to (if you don't have a clue what Raclette is check here). As Raclette is basically unknown on Australian shores I can't find genuine Raclette cheese but any old cheese will do.

All of a sudden those two thoughts (pizza and Raclette) melted into one (just like the cheese in a raclette or on a pizza). Is it possible to make mini-pizzas on the Raclette?? Well, I stopped procrastinating and got to work. I thought I'd give it a trial for dinner for ourselves before trying it on some people we didn't really know.

First I needed to make the pizza dough and lazy that I am at times I thought I'd just pop everything in our breadmaker. I still needed to measure the ingredients though (they really should invent a bread machine which does that for you as well), so I took the pan out of the machine, poured the water in and put in on the scales. Next came the flour. When I tried to put a teaspoon of sugar in... alas... I somehow knocked the whole thing of fthe scales and water and flour was everywhere on the other side of the kitchen counter... where, unluckily, we had our backpacks parked... sigh. Well, finally everything was kinda cleaned up and the machine was doing it's magic so I went to one of our boxes from Germany and went for the search of our Raclette grill. It was found... eventually.

And we discovered that it is an excellent idea to make mini pizzas with your Raclette grill... our guests had so much fun creating their own little pizzas as well as eating Raclette the more traditional way with potatoes. We learned that the lady is an architect and designed the house herself and that it was built by her dad.

And yesss.... dessert was that aweful cotton cheesecake... I shall not make it again in nearer future as I just cannot stop myself.. sigh.... ou well, healthy eating has been established again and now I need to get going an get dinner ready

Darling boys

This was my darling boys' display yesterday morning. They were stereo crying/screaming for at least half an hour. I thought I'd go MAD and was contemplating why we didn't get that cute puppy instead... but nonetheless I am reminded that at times I just behave like them to my heavenly Father, and He does not contemplate why He didn't get a puppy instead of me. He loves ME with all my faults and failings (aka sins) and just like He loves me so I just love my darling boys.

In general, Cedric has been such a little wincher and moaner... gone was my little sunshine boy... I suspected he was sick somehow... I mean, more sick than just a viral cold which he seemed to have had almost all the time in Australia so far... but you don't really go to the doc because of a tiny cold (okay, almost 3 months cold)... I hate going to the doc. He didn't show any symptoms of anything serious though... no rubbing of ears, no temperature, no nothing... just whining and crying and wanting to be carried... I mean it could have been teeth.

Yesterday then after lots of napping but still being miserable and my baby laying flat on his belly in the lounge just whining pitifully, I had enough and we went to the doc today... I was right. He had an ear infection... on both ears... those eardrum were little balloons... and that's quite painful, now I rather wonder that he didn't cry more. Now he's on antibiotics and I pump him full with painkillers (not REALLY pump full, but you know... in the allowed quantity) and man, what a change of baby.... uhm, toddler I mean. I have got my little sunshine boy back, what a difference. I wonder if Ned's hatching some sort of bug as well... he asked to go to bed before bed time... gash.

Darling boys

I seem to not be able to upload videos here on this blog... I wanted to show you this one of my boys display yesterday morning. They were stereo crying/screaming for at least half an hour. I thought I'd go MAD and was contemplating why we didn't get that cute puppy instead... but nonetheless I am reminded that at times I just behave like them to my heavenly Father, and He does not contemplate why He didn't get a puppy instead of me. He loves ME with all my faults and failings (aka sins) and just like He loves me so I just love my darling boys.

In general, Cedric has been such a little wincher and moaner... gone was my little sunshine boy... I suspected he was sick somehow... I mean, more sick than just a viral cold which he seemed to have had almost all the time in Australia so far... but you don't really go to the doc because of a tiny cold (okay, almost 3 months cold)... I hate going to the doc. He didn't show any symptoms of anything serious though... no rubbing of ears, no temperature, no nothing... just whining and crying and wanting to be carried... I mean it could have been teeth.

Yesterday then after lots of napping but still being miserable and my baby laying flat on his belly in the lounge just whining pitifully, I had enough and we went to the doc today... I was right. He had an ear infection... on both ears... those eardrum were little balloons... and that's quite painful, now I rather wonder that he didn't cry more. Now he's on antibiotics and I pump him full with painkillers (not REALLY pump full, but you know... in the allowed quantity) and man, what a change of baby.... uhm, toddler I mean. I have got my little sunshine boy back, what a difference. I wonder if Ned's hatching some sort of bug as well... he asked to go to bed before bed time... gash.

My little muffin turned one

Time flies and my baby grows up. We celebrated Cedric's first birthday today.

And I must have know beforehand that there is a reason why I love to call him "MUFFIN"...

...he had WAY too much fun with this one (by the way, normally I'm really not much into icing stuff, but this icing is SO good, I could sit in it, bath in it, drink it and eat it all day... sigh.. I'm still in love with chocolate, and yes I did eat one muffin with chocolate icing... but I resisted to eat another thousand of them...)

I did somethingtoday I always said I'd NEVER do: I bought matching hoodies for my boys... and I think they look darn cute in 'em. So I thought, I'd try to get one good photo of the two of them: I took hundreds but none turned out 100% satisfying... either one is blurry or one looks the wrong way or Ned pulls silly faces.... grrr... here are a couple attempts

Little muffin... I'm so unspeakably grateful that you came along to interrupt our boring life. I love your cheeky smiles, your speaches, your giant brown eyes, your cuddles (if I am quick enough to get them), and many, many more things... you'll always be my baby, although you ceased to be a "baby" officially today... sigh. May I call you baby Cedric for the rest of your life???

house hopping

Well, it has been more than 3 months now. Three months in Australia... wow, time flies. Just the other day I said to Ben that I feel settled, although WE aren't settled, meaning we're still house sitting.

This is the forth place we stayed in so far.

First place was at my in-laws.

I couldn't find a pic of their house though, but here is one looking out of it... into the pouring rain (taken a couple years ago)

The second place was this one.

Ben's sis Jill lived in the second last unit for 2 or 3 months while working at Albany hospital for a time.

Then we moved to the beach, into a 70 style house wih purple carpets and orange counter tops.

Our present residence has the prominent landmark of a couple big palm trees along the front... those stupid thing drop their "fruits" or seeds or whatever it is with a loud "bang" on our roof, which really needed getting used to. It has the great advantage of having a fireplace, unfortunately that warmth doesn't reach our bed room, which feels walk-in fridge like.

And that's my cheeky monkey... we went for a walk in the rain the other day.

And although he IS very cute...

...I want you to look past him...

Do you see that house????? That will be our next home.

Actually, it'll be our first home, as we just bought it (together with Ben's sister) and hopefully we'll be able to move in beginning of next month.

If that isn't exciting?? All praise and thanks to God, it hasn't been a straight forward road but rather the scenic route, but God was with us, so it was worth the wait.

Garage sales

I've mentioned it before, but I think garage sales are GREAT!!!!! We don't really have garage sales in Germany, only flea markets, which isn't really my thing. But garage sales, I think they are great.

Well, our newest (old) addition is this beauty:

A sewing machine, probably older than me, but we got it for 10 bucks, inclusive some spider webs. My old girl has only two speeds: fully on or off, but it's just great to have a sewing machine. Just a couple days previously I'd said to Ben: "I really would like to have a sewing machine" and voila, the very next garage sale we went to (Ben that is actually, I stayed at home with the boys) there was one... yay!!! And I tried her and she works just fine!!!

Random thoughts

Does it happen to you as well???

I have to go to the shops, just quickly... to get one particular item, lets say toothpaste. So I don't bother with a shopping trolley... I mean it's only toothpaste, right?? Well, while I'm on my way to the dental hygiene section I see the puffed pasty sheets in the frozen goods aisles. So I quickly grab one of them and proceed on just to see that my favourite apples are on sale so I better get a bag of those as well... I still haven't reached the tooth paste I came shopping for, but all of a sudden I remember that we area also almost out of toilet paper and while I'm here I better dump a package on the top of the pile in my arms. A couple minutes late two tins of tomatoes and 3 tins of corn join the toilet paper. Finally I reach the tooth paste aisle but going past the hair stuff I try to squeeze a bottle of shampoo and conditioner under each armpit. By now the frozen puff pasty slip away this way and that, the apples almost fall out of their bags, the shampoo just doesn't wanna stay under the armpit and the tins a bunch of unruly rebels.

And in sight of the toothpaste it happens. My not so carefully stacked but rather randomly dumped pile falls down with a loud clatter, I run after the apples, try to recapture the tin rebels and think to myself how stupid I am to go shopping for toothpaste without taking a trolley. So here I stand infront of the ruin of my shopping items and I start afresh, stacking and piling the goods carefully in my arms this time so that the same disaster won't happen again at the checkout.

So what is this all about you might wonder.

Well, I think that's how I'm feeling right now in life. There are different areas in life I needed and wanted to work on, where I needed to improve, but I did it without a plan, a system or order and everything just seemed to slip and slide. At one point I had one thing kinda under control but behold, another started to slide and slip. until the whole pile came crushing down with a big bang. I know I will never be perfect, never even come close to it but that shouldn't hinder me trying to do my best for the Lord. So now I'm trying to place my "life's pieces" carefully together, align it to God's word and get a balance. Some of those areas are "Exercise", "Healthy diet", "God's word", "Family time", "Ministry"... I don't know if it makes any sense what I'm babbling ...

...sometimes I even wonder if He wants me to dump my pile in His shopping cart so that I don't have to carry the load... that sounds pretty "holy" but is it easy to do??? ou well, just a random though

So what is happening in these parts of the world, apart from feeling deep frozen most of the time. (You know, living in Germany, I always kinda smiled at an Aussie winter, I mean, there isn't any snow or ice or minus degrees, but ou girl, was I wrong, I would swap an Aussie winter in Australia any time for a German winter in Germany). It is raining.... no actually not raining... it is BUCKETING a lot. It stops for a couple minutes for up to an hour just to start bucketing like crazy again. The kids are sick a lot. I'm cold a lot... but I've mentioned that one before I believe. But despite the odds we are settling in and down and enjoy living Down Under (but oooooooo how I LONG for that summer to come... and once it arrives I shall complain how hot it is, hehehehe). Our boxes are still unpacked outside in the shed (okay, frequently opened to revive one or two or twenty items of need) as we still don't have a more permanent place to stay.... so I'm still waiting patently on the Lord, and most of the time I really do have peace in heart that He WILL take care of us and provide for us... okay now and then a panic attack ruins this peace for a little period of time, but generally I'm calm and waiting and excited and expecting great things from the Lord for His Glory.

Ned started to use more and more English. Often he mixes the languages though, but we're getting there. Did you hear about this thing called "planking"... well, neither have I really... but it's this thing where people "plank" on the oddest and weirdest things, take pictures and upload it to some website. Ned seems to know more about it than me, as he was "planking" on top of our couch the other day.

He also turned into a true blue Aussie: we enrolled him for KINDY starting next school year (which will be February... there are many things which are VERY different from the German system and school system IS very different, I could fill whole pages of all the things that slightly confuse me). My little baby grows up, sigh... We registered him in "Bethels" which is a Christian school linked to our church, Albany Baptist Church. I think I'll share a bit more about our church another time, but they are truly a great bunch of people with solid teaching. Ben went to Bethel when he was a kid. Kindy is only 2 days a week, but I'm excited, not only because I will have some time on hand but because Ned likes kids and it's good for him to interact with others more frequently. Also, I'm not really a good teacher (I lack patience and teaching him how to put on his shoes brings me to my limits) and so I'm looking forward to the things he'll learn there. We also enrolled him in swimming school starting next term (that is the end of July... everything runs in terms here, also very different than in Germany). With so many lovely beaches around it is a MUST to learn to swim I think and it is a fun thing too. We haven't really done swimming a lot in the last year, so he isn't very confident. We actually took him to the pool yesterday and almost drowned on the way to the pool, thanks to those lovely rain bucket showers. Inside the pool though it was great fun. I think I will take him a couple more times for him to get more confident before swimming classes start. We'll see how it goes. I won't be with him in the water. And he seems to be very attached to me lately. And how will he respond to a stranger giving him instructions. Ou well, he gotta learn some day, so better earlier than later:o)))

We also discovered the joys of garage sales. Finding a bargain makes one VERY happy. So now we are not only the happy owners of a lovely fridge but also 2 queen beds, one king single bed, one single bed, crystal wine glasses, printer and many other (more or less) needed things. Now we only need a home to put them.

Cedric is such a monkey. He climbs everything, or attempts to. So far no nasty fall though. AND he just LOOOOOOVES boxes, where ever there is a box, for sure my giant baba is in it in no time. Giant baba also LOVES other babies. And he goes staight for the eyes. SO far he hasn't blinded anyone nor poked out an eye, thankfully. Unfortunately he continues being a bit of a picky eater. VERY frustrating, but survivable.

Well, and for me it is almost 4 weeks without diet coke and I feel great. No headaches, no cravings or even desire to drink it... in fact somehow I heard myself thinking that I never want to drink it again... and once I start drinking sodas again (in moderation) I will go for the real sugar stuff (hahaha), but time will tell. I'm a good girl and drink my water ratio of at least 2l a day and I haven't had chocolate neither nor do I miss it (much)

Ben's started studying about 4 weeks ago... and it took him a while to wrap his brain around sitting down and studying, but he's enjoying it.. kind of... as much as you can enjoy studying business.

And Hermie??? I don't dare to say that this is the best loved teddy bear in the whole world, but she comes pretty close. The other day when we were about to leave for a walk we had to tuck her in bed (I am NOT taking her outdoors; just think of the disaster if we lost her... brrrr) and give her a good night kiss...

and another time we had to sit her on the easy chair and give her a book to read... sigh.. he's a good teddy daddy.