A Mother's Day wish for Kristen...

Hello,
How do I find you today? Well, I hope! Here in the United States, we are celebrating Mother's Day. 
I have to say, I prefer celebrating this special day a little later in the season, as it gives me the chance to do some planting... and what better way to spend an afternoon? That and a nice cuppa :-)

Anyhoo, I wanted to share something with you, today... It's quite a tragic tale, but, hopefully, one that can have a happy ending. Last summer, I was introduced to my neighbour's (and good friend) sister-in-law, Kristen, a young mum and ER nurse. We pushed our daughters on the swings, chatted about motherhood, and she told me  how she was pregnant again. Happy days! However, at 8 months pregnant, Kristen was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Her baby daughter, Scarlett, was born healthy (thankfully). Kristen, however, was battling daily seizures. She is now on medication to control these. The brain tumor has been diagnosed as a grade II Astrocytoma, which is a type of tumor that is slow growing, but life-threatening. Due to the seizures, Kristen can no longer work as an ER nurse and has now lost her job and, subsequently, her health benefits. As a mother, I can't begin to imagine what Kristen deals with on a daily basis. When most new mothers are enjoying their newborns and battling with their hormones, Kristen carries this heavy load with her. The fear of the illness, coupled with the debt of any treatment that could help prolong her life.  So, I am asking anybody popping by here today to please visit her website. 

http://www.gofundme.com/savekristen

Offer words of encouragement or, even better, a donation. If you have a blog site, please help raise awareness for this site. This is a mother who deserves to celebrate many, many Mother's Days with her children.
Happy Mother's Day, all!
Lx

A recipe for strawberry & rhubarb crumble...

Hello, hello-
Me again. I didn't leave it as long between visits this time, did I? I'm trying my very hardest to get back into my blog stride. So, today, I squeezed in a little *us* time between the laundry folding and bed. Don't you just hate laundry (I can see you're nodding right now)?

Anyhoo, I'm not about to get into a rant about my never-ending laundry pile, but if anyone knows how to resolve this conundrum (other than the kids walking around in their birthday suits), please let me know, because, today, I did a whole butt-load of laundry and yet, when I went to the girls' hamper at the end of the night, it was already back at the top again... I think they're hiding another puppy in the bottom of it.

Speaking of puppies... my little Lucy is off to be *fixed* this coming Thursday... to say I'm nervous is an understatement, but never mind me... poor, poor Lucy. She has no idea! One minute, she'll be merrily chewing bones and the next minute... well, we all know what happens...

On a brighter note, it does mean that she'll be convalescing for a few days and so, hopefully, with the wind knocked out of her sails, she might give me a break and stop stealing laundry... It wouldn't be so bad if she took it, never to be seen again, but, instead, I'm forever finding knickers (and the like) dotted all around this little old house... I'm back on laundry again, aren't I? Well, this post is not titled, 'Laundry,' so I best get onto the subject in question... Rhubarb!

I lurve rhubarb, so when I popped into my local farmer's market the other day and spied it on the shelf, I decided to rustle up a Rhubarb and Strawberry crumble.

Now, as a child, my mum typically made an Apple and Rhubarb crumble and, while it was delicious, I just love the combination of rhubarb and strawberry, as  the sweetness of the strawberry really balances out the tart rhubarb. Add the delicious buttery, crunchy topping and you have on your hands one pretty fantastic dessert.

Why don't you give it a whirl? I promise you won't be disappointed!

Here's Lucy blissfully unaware...

Oh, and while I remember, here's a picture of my Lucy Boo... Aww, if only she knew what was in store for her...
Take care all.
Lx

Rhubarb & Strawberry Crumble

Ingredients

4 sticks of rhubarb sliced into approx. 3 cm chunks

2 cups strawberries, stalks removed and sliced

2 tbsp vanilla sugar (use regular sugar if you don't have it)

2 tbsp water

1 1/2 cups (approx. 200g) of plain flour 

1 stick (114g) unsalted butter cut into cubes

1/2 cup (approx. 100g) of brown sugar

Method
Preheat the oven to 350F
Place the rhubarb chunks in a pan and add two tablespoons of water. Sprinkle with the vanilla sugar and place on the hob on a low heat, remove when the rhubarb starts to soften (don't allow it to stew, otherwise you'll end up with a rhubarb gloop). 
Transfer the rhubarb to a ovenproof dish, using a slotted spoon.
Sift the flour into a medium sized bowl, and add the butter. Rub the butter into the flour using your fingertips. When the flour and butter have been rubbed in, the mixture should look like bread crumbs. Stir the sugar into the flour mixture.
Add the sliced strawberries to your rhubarb and sprinkle with a little vanilla sugar. Spread the flour mixture over the top of the fruit, ensuring that all the fruit is covered.
Pop the crumble in the oven for 35-40 minutes. When finished the crumble top should have a lovely golden top.
Allow the crumble to cool for 10 minutes, as it comes out radioactive hot!! Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream... Mmmmmm!

What a lovely Spring...

Hello, there...
I'm still here. I've just been a busy bee finishing off projects (and starting new ones) around this old place... I tell you what, your work is never done when you're living in an old rickety house like this one! I have to say, though, while the sun has been shining, I have been neglecting the old indoors and spending as much time as possible in the garden. Now that, my dears, is food for the soul!

I don't think I am ever happier than when there's dirt under my nails, the sun on my face, and a nice cuppa in my hand (the best reward after grafting all day in the garden).

So, "What have you been up to?" I hear you ask... well, let me tell you, we have shifted three tonne of gravel, laid umpteen stepping stones, cleared a zillion tree roots and finally have a path which leads us all the way from the front gate to the back door! This is a huge deal in this little old house, as it now means I can get from the front door to the back without the need for wellies... Thank you for small mercies.

I was hoping to pop a picture up on the old blog showing the spoils of our labour, but alas it was raining, so you will have to wait... I promise, I will get some up here (pinky promise)... I also owe you some bathroom shots... yep, I did eventually finish that, too... I'm just so behind on pictures... You know, I find that with this blogging malarkey, it's not the writing which takes up my time (writing's like talking for me; I always have plenty to say), it's the pictures I struggle with. I have a million and one things I want to share with you, but never have the pictures to back it up!

 Anyhoo, hopefully I'll get better, as the hubby bought a new DSLR camera (I dropped the old DSLR and smashed the screen)... he has (cautiously) said I can use his, so, with this new gadget, I might finally get around to getting those piccies (weather permitting).

Meanwhile, here are some Spring shots taken a couple of weeks ago, when everything was just starting to bud... the garden now looks like it's mid-May... Oh, and it has a lovely path leading to the front of the house... Did I mention that?

Right-o, I best be off... it's getting late and I'm sure a gal that needs her beauty sleep!

Have a great weekend!

Lx

Puppies and clovers...

Hello there. It's been a while, hasn't it? But, I can confirm that I am still here in this crazy blogosphere...
I'm not going to get into the, 'I am a bad blogger' yada yada... you know it, I know it... let's just say I've been crazy busy and move swiftly on...
Anyhoo, what has little old me been up to these past months, I hear you ask (you didn't? Nevermind, I'll tell you anyway)... Well, what with decorating, gardening, teaching my eldest to read (proud mummy moment), we also added to our little brood... No, no... don't get your knickers in a twist. I haven't been busy making babies in my absence, but I have been nursing a little pup... (not literally of course because that would just be out and out gross)... I have been cuddling, wiping up lots of pee-pees (and poops), walking and fussing over our new pup, Lucy. Jeez she's cute...

So, while cooing over said puppy, my blogging time went on the back burner. But, today, I dusted off the old keyboard and thought to share a little moment of my life with you...
My eldest found this four-leaf clover today...

...she then swiftly lost it... I was a tad disappointed, but she simply replied, 'Don't worry, mummy. I'll find another'... I then proceeded to tell her that, when I was her age, I, too, found a four-leaf clover. My mum pressed it in a huge dictionary where it still resides today. I have looked for another four-leaf clover since and to this day (over 30 years later), and I have yet to find another... The moral of the story being that she probably won't find another (I know, I'm a mum that bursts the bubble).
She proved me wrong, as later that day, while playing in the garden, she only went and found another four-leaf clover!!! Moral of the story... if you believe it, it will happen!
Keep smiling!
Lx

Thoughts for Thursday: Wisdom Teeth

Hello again -
This week started pretty yucky, with a much needed trip to the dentist for a wisdom tooth extraction. The dentist had informed me at the last visit that, 'this was going to be a difficult extraction'... these are words you never want to hear from your dentist... or anyone else for that matter...

A picture of a flower... far nicer than anything to do with dentistry...

Anyhoo, I went into the surgery room bravely (albeit after a minor panic attack in the waiting room)... After much pushing, cracking, and general nastiness, the offending tooth was out... Now, I have to say I actually don't know the point in wisdom teeth. For me, they have only ever been the cause of pain. As a teenager, I had perfectly healthy teeth removed to make room for them and now, as an adult, it appears it was all in vain, as the wisdom teeth themselves have gone! Am I any wiser? Only to the pain of tooth extraction. Perhaps tooth pain is needed along the path of enlightenment to attain ultimate wisdom. For now, though, I look like I've been popping testosterone pills, as evidenced by my new manly jaw.
Anyways, I best get off... I'm making soup...
Take care.
Lx

Thoughts for Thursday: Too many signs??

Hi there,
Well, we've made it past "hump day" and we're on our way to the weekend! Can I please hear a big sigh of relief...? Not that weekdays are bad, but there's still nothing like that "Friday feeling"... and yep, I still get that feeling, even though I am a stay-at-home mum and not bound by the conventional work week. Saturdays mean I have an extra pair of hands to break up squabbles, feed the kids, play Strawberry Shortcake and the likes... and let me tell you, those hands are as welcome as an oasis in a desert!

Anyhoo, that's by the by... what I wanted to chat about today was the amount of labels and signs appearing in homes... signs informing us what to do, whether it be relax, bathe, or simply breathe... or informative labels telling us where items are stored or which room we are about to enter.

Seriously, with the amount of signs in my house, you'd think someone had gone Health and Safety-mad in there! You could even be confused into thinking my little home was a factory employing a dozen or more people (all needing to be informed where everything was at a drop of a hat), and not a poky little house next to the beach.

I have to say, it had gone unnoticed by my eyes until the hubby pointed it out the other day. Then it was like one of those film moments, where the heroine realises that there are clues to the murder all around her and the camera darts around the room to them while a dramatic tune is played on a violin and piano combo! He was right. I had gone sign / label crazy. Almost everything in my kitchen bore some sort of lettering on it... Was that the design look I was going for or had I gone overboard??? Either way, this look will certainly come in useful when my memory starts to fail me!

Anyways, I was just wondering whether this sign / label craze is just something which exists in my house or whether you've jumped aboard too...

Take a look around your home and see how many signs and labels you have. Are these design choices just another indication that our lives have become so stressful that we need to run our homes with office-like precision and then tell ourselves to relax, breathe and drink tea?? Well, I guess we'll at least know where to find the tea!!

Good catching up today!
Take care.
Lx

A spring day in January...

Hello you!
Happy Monday! I can't quite believe that it's January. We are supposed to be in the depth of winter and yet, here in New Jersey, we are enjoying weather that would be more befitting to the first flourishes of Spring. I even have a bud on one of my roses. Yet, this time last year, we were up to our armpits in snow... not literally, but it sure felt like it.

Anyhoo, making the most of this clement weather, I packed the kids off outside and did a spot of tidying in the garden. Although the weather was Spring-like, the garden confirmed that we were, indeed, not even half-way through January.

My little garden was devoid of any colour  (except for my wee rose bud)... just an array of bare brown sticks poking out of the ground. I am always in amazement that, in a matter of months, these sticks will once again come to life and I'll be seeing the sprouts of green pushing up through the ground. Yay for perennials, the plants which just keeps on giving.

Anyways, while the girls and I petered around in the garden, the hubby donned his DIY cap and set about installing bead board in the bathroom... a project that has sat on the back burner for the past 6 months... but, as I said, this is a new year, a year where we are going to get things done about this little old place... starting with finishing our poky bathroom.

It will still be poky on completion, as we haven't the room to add on, but given it's size limitations, we decided to build on it's cozy cottage appeal... in fact, that's the ethos we're adopting for the whole house!

Hopefully, I'll finally be able to show you the finished project by the end of this month, but judging by the fact I just had to stop typing to deal with the hubby's (now missing) thumb nail, I won't hold my breath!

Anyhoo, I just thought I'd check in with you and share a bit of our Sunday with you.
See you later in the week!
Lx

Thoughts for Thursday: Nostalgic for Newspapers

Hello there, lovelies...
How's your start to the New Year been? Mine has been relaxing... thus far. In fact, since my return from Blighty, the house has been a lot calmer and I've been enjoying the art of sitting down. It's fantastic! You should give it a whirl sometime... but I warn you, it is an addictive past-time.

Anyhoo, while partaking in this new found hobby, I found that, although the old legs enjoy *resting,* the brain is demanding of a little more activity... So, I've taken to reading the news once again. Now, I'm a modern thinking gal (with most things), but I can't get my head around picking up something electronic to read the daily news. I need to hear the rustle of paper... I need to wrestle with the awkward dimensions of the broad sheets (here in the States, the NY Times still remains broad). I need to smell the paper and feel the print on my fingertips. But what I love most of all is the fact that I end up reading a news story that I would ordinarily pass on, simply because it is on the same page as a more intriguing passage.

I was chatting with the hubby the other day about the down-turn in readership of the good old-fashioned newspaper. I then commented on how I couldn't ever imagine reading all of my news on a laptop or the likes, to which he replied that our daughters' generation probably couldn't imagine not reading the news electronically... My heart sank at this... I have such fond memories of the newspapers littered on the floor of the living room on a Sunday morning... sections being passed between family members, until, eventually, they were all gathered up by my mum, stored in a neat pile next to the hearth and used at a later date to help start the fire. Passing electronic devices back and forth or emailing articles doesn't quite conjure up the same soul satisfying image...

Anways, with this fond memory planted firmly in my mind, I renewed our subscription to the NY Times. Our first paper was delivered on New Year's Eve and it has been well and truly thumbed... I feel a little more informed and hope that this action of reading the newspapers at the weekend will sow the seed for my little ones and they carry on the tradition of reading actual newspapers... Although, what excites me even more (if truth be told), is the fact that the *Newspaper basket* I procured while in Blighty now actually has newspapers in it!! Come on, I know I've told you about my basket obsession before and this was just too good to pass! Oh, and just in case you were wondering, we have already created a recycling tub for newspapers.

What's your take on the traditional newspaper? A relic that belongs in the past? The only way to read the news? Or, do you take your news both ways? Let me know, I'd be interested to hear whether it's just me that gets nostalgic for newspapers.

Righty-o, I best be off. Good to catch up!
Lx