Batten down the hatches...

After this much hail in the storm yesterday,

Look what's on the weather radar on the edge of the city...

Art, a wet towel and safety in the car

An interesting day with just my youngest today. 

He's about to turn two, so I suspect today was just a sneak preview of what might be round the corner...

While I was packing the dishwasher, he drew on the wall. 

The white wall. 

With a 4b grey lead pencil. 

He was outraged when I confiscated said pencil but quite happy to join me with an eraser frantically trying to bring my white wall back to white.

Now, can I just say, DO NOT bother with the extra expense of wash and wear paint or whatever it's called. 

'Nuff said on that one.

After lunch he had WORLD"S BIGGEST TANTRUM while I was trying to get him in his bed for a nap. The phone rang about 10 minutes into our wrestling match and my first thought was someone had called the police, or maybe child protection services.

Then there was the wet tea towel shoved inside my shoe.....

And the coin carefully slotted into the spot my seatbelt is supposed to slot into, to latch correctly.

On the other hand, he can be very industriously cute, before he's even out of his pjs.

So I'll keep him. 

Latest from my beloved Thermomix

Ok, I've decided to keep my blog mostly as is, there is just too much out there and I know most of it I'll get sick of shortly after I've changed it. I'm a bit of a Plain Jane when it comes to decorating. If you could see my house, ALL of the wall decorations are pics from the kids. So before that, it was just a tad bare. From a trained photographer, that is dismal I know...to be remedied one day in the distant future.....along with actually shooting more than happy snaps again....But for now, it's clouds and I need to shoot me a header pic.

I digress.

Now check out this drool worthy bowl of yum...

Oh my, was it good??

Well, the kids and I ate it straight from the thermomix bowl, despite the fact there is a dirty great sharp four pronged blade in the bottom of the bowl, if that tells you anything, feral mother that I am.

And yes, I made them use spoons so no one lost any digits.

I found this recipe on Quirky Cooking labeled Berry Foam, but the name does not do it justice. Foam reminds me of something scummy on the seashore and Mr 4 asked if he could paint with it in the shower.

He's thinking of, uh, shaving foam..

Which I cover the shower base in and tint blue to get a bit of relief from Mr 4's never ending energy and questioning on a rainy day. Thanks to my older sis, mother of three that she is for that idea.

I'll put the recipe here, as I changed it just a smidge from that which Jo on Quirky Cooking made, and she found it on a forum and changed it just a smidge from the original. (If you want a picture of how this recipe should be presented, please check out Quirky Cooking, Jo is much more civilised than I)

Berry Foam

• Whiz about 80 grams of rapadura on speed 9 for 20 seconds:

• Add 300-400 grams of frozen berries or other frozen fruit chopped up. Whiz for 30 secs, speed 9. (I found I had to insert the spatula and help it along as per making sorbet)

• Insert the butterfly, add 2 egg whites and 2 teaspoons of orange juice and whip for 3 mins on speed 4.

Done!

But none left now...

My blog is due for a facelift....

I'll be fiddling with backgrounds and templates for while, so you may see things looking a bit odd here and there.

There's too many choices out there....

Things are fermenting in my kitchen

My kitchen is an interesting place of late as there are quite a few living things in it.

Other than myself of course.

I received a sourdough culture from a friend in exchange for some of my excess kefir grains, and I now keep two starters going; one is rye, the other spelt.

Read about the benefits of sourdough here.

A batch of kefir is always fermenting on top of the fridge.

Kefir is something I've mentioned briefly before and now I make and consume it every day. If you're after some kefir grains for yourself, check out this international list of people willing to share their excess grains. Mine were sent over by a lovely lady in Geelong.

A batch of homemade granola with soaked oats, or muesli as we know it, is drying in my dehydrator after being soaked/fermented overnight. Soaking the oats and flour with some whey (I get mine from kefir) has the same effect as the sourdough process, it breaks down the phytic acid and makes some of the nutrients more accessible.

The dough for lavash crackers (I'll link the recipe when I remember where it came from) that I make with kefir instead of milk or water sat on the bench for 24 hours to do it's work. The kefir produces the same results as using whey. It's now in the fridge awaiting rolling out.......which is a bit of a job so it will sit there for at least another day or two.

And I picked these up at the market today, some cress and radish seeds for growing sprouts

Except that I'm running out of surfaces in the kitchen to keep all these 'pets'.

All this is in the pursuit of good health and a whole foods diet. It keeps me on my toes sorting all this out but I realise people......women mostly no doubt......would have kept many of these balls in the air in times gone by. And that's without the benefit of washing machines and dishwashers and labour saving kitchen gadgets.

All of which I value highly and DO NOT want to give up. There's only so much going back in time I'm willing to do :)

Have read through the Weston A. Price Foundation website and see if you can add in a few new health giving foods to your diet this week.

Here they are

This was the weather, accompanied by thunder, lightening and a black-out....

And here are my little streakers enjoying the conditions.....as only kids can.
Or maybe I should have been out there too.....

Too many things going on right now....

I've been working a few evenings this week with kidlets in tow, which keeps us all a tad tired and the kids just a wee bit grumpy the next day.

Add to that Master H starting 4 year old Kinder this week (yes, I was one of those mums that had to stay the WHOLE first session) plus the usual gymnastics and swimming lessons, and the weather being hot and humid which is a bit unusual for Melbourne, oh and both boys are now sleeping in one bedroom (yes, my 22 month old was still in his cot in our room until Sunday just gone) and you have a sleep deprived mum trying to keep up with house, hubby and kids and being veeeeeery thankful for the bulk cooking I did with a friend on the weekend that part filled the freezer with ready to go meals.

Phew.

And not much blogging happening.

Although the kids did get to let off some steam this afternoon when the storm hit, because like any responsible mum I let them run outside nekkid at the height of it carrying long metal sticks.

Er, right.

I have some photos of that (they lived through it in case you're wondering) but seeing as I am blogging at work at 11.30pm at night and don't have access to my camera, the visual evidence that the kids are still alive will have to wait....

Another hot day...

The only thing to do on a hot day is sit in a bucket of water with an icypole.

Then squint for the photo because you put your sunglasses in the bucket.

Then poop in the bucket.

Then watch while mum tips the whole poopy mess into the toilet.

And flushes it.

Including the sunglasses.

Whoops.