Well in the early hours of this morning (the exact due date) my Sister-in-Law Tami gave birth to the cutest baby I have ever seen. His lips are amazing. My little brother, Ross, is now a Dad!!!
Ethan Ross Anderson was born at 12.19 am today 18th August 2008, weighing in at 7lb 8oz.
Here are the pics to prove it 
Here’s a cool wee pic we took in Alnwick Garden last weekend amidst the water sculptures
This weekend we took a trip to Cheltenham. I have never been before and it was lovely. Sadly we had little time to really see the place and so I sure we will go back. However the reason for being there was to go to a wedding. This wedding is one I have longed to be at for a very long time. My good friend from Uni, Al, found himself an absolutely lovely wife. When I say found I should clarifly that by saying that their story clearly points to the work of God in both of their lives. I have to say that I thought Nigel and I had a quick courtship but Al certainly knew what he had been given and what he wanted. So just about 3 months after they started dating he proposed in November 2007 on St Andrews beach and here, at the beginning of August 2008, they are now married. It was a wonderful sunny day , the service held at Becky’s (Al’s wife!) local family church and then in a marquee in her parents garden.
Now the reason for writing about this today is that I managed to take a picture that speaks of the joy wrapped up in the occasion. I know how it feels to wait for the one God has got for you but Al has waited that bit longer and remained faithful to God in that time of waiting. As he stood to give his speech he uttered those wonderful words…”On behalf of my wife and I…..” this picture is the smile he gave as the applause went up. Praise God for His wonderful and timely provision.
Here are a few more piccies:
I have decided that frugal Friday to me means making the use of some of the leftovers in my kitchen to avoid a repeat trip to the supermarket before Monday! Although today I did go back to pick up some ingredients to make a meal to take to my aging Grandparents tomorrow. I think this is ok!
So my frugal tip today is to make Chocolate Quesadillas. I had some left over tortilla’s and wondered what I could do with them so I made a chocolate quesadilla. I heated my griddle pan, spread a moderate layer of chocolate spread on one half of the tortilla, folded it over then toasted/grilled it in the pan.
Oh so yummy. Not the healthiest lunch in the world but one of the tastiest! and a great way to use up left over tortillas. It reminded me of chocolate crepes from the German Market at Christmas. Mmmmm
Well I have been searching around for good homemaking inspiration over these past few weeks and have been learning a lot. This morning Crystal at Biblical Womanhood encouraged us to do a number of things but one of them was do share the meal plan for that day. Now I have become a bit obsessed with meal planning. I plan our menus every week on monday morning and then go and do the shop! We now have a plan stuck to the kitchen cupboard door and my husband knows exactly what is coming on any particular day. I share this thing I do with a number of people from time to time and often initally sound surprised and then pause and think and consider that it might be a good idea.
So why is it a good idea for us? Well one thing is my husband eats his lunch in his works canteen, they have nutritious, filling, reasonably priced food and so it seems a good idea for now. However, before I meal planned, I often suggested a meal for the evening only to find he had already had the same thing for lunch! Also as I work 3 days a week and often don’t get in until 7pm. Before I meal planned if Nigel arrived home before me he would look bewildered through the cupboards and fridge unsure what to put together.
So what advantages does meal planning bring. I can come home late from work and know there is a small chance dinner might be getting started, I can produce a meal and know that if hubbie had it for lunch aswell it is his own fault! And finally I buy less food, throw less away and can make a few meals up on monday for the week ahead (just as I did today, spaghetti sauce for wednesday and meat sauce for a lasagne on sunday!)
Back to today, so I planned to use a recipe I picked up in Sainsburys this evening, from Jamie Oliver’s “feed your family for a fiver” range, the fishcakes one. Sadly for Sainsburys I actually did my shop in Tesco’s so they didn’t really benefit! Anyway the result was very pleasing, the pre-cooked version is shown here.
The recipe said to cook them for 15 minutes but I found they hadn’t crisped up very well so I left them in for another 5-10mins. Served them with salad and a little bit of warm crusty bread. They were delicious and very filling! I forgot to photograph the finished item until after we had eaten. However there was one left and so I just manged to catch it. All in all I can thoroughly recommend the recipe. It may even become one of my entertaining recipes! (Although not for my mother as she really doesn’t like fish!)
And finally what does the week ahead hold as a result of meal planning monday. Left over cold meat and baked potatoes tomorrow, spag bol on wednesday, beef rendang on thursday, out at friends on friday, left overs sat and lasagne sunday. I lvoe meal planning mondays
Today was exciting, it started out as a quick trip to the local B&Q (DIY store) and ended up being a mammoth trip around the city culminating in the purchase of a new vacuum cleaner. For months now I have been hoovering the house in spurts. Our hoover has been sick for some time but lately it would only let me hoover for a certain amount of time. How much carpet I could cover in that time depended on how dirty the floor was and how speedily I moved around the house. Even then I could ususally only get the hallway, lounge and part of the dinning room done in one go. The hoover was then done for the rest of the day. This meant that hoovering the house could take all week! I tried not to complain but my husband knew the frustration I felt and so today we got a new one. And what a bargain it was. Not the Dyson we originally intended on getting but an LG. Even so my first attempt at using it was very exciting and I can’t wait for monday (cleaning day!) to really give it a proper try.
Can you see my delight!
The full view!
Having been encouraged by a number of frugal Friday posts I thought I would add a couple of my own frugal activities into the pot.
The first is really all down to my husband. Last year my parents kindly gave us some money at Christmas for us to use in our new garden. We decided to buy a BBQ. However we are a couple that researches just about every big thing (and often little things too) that we buy. The BBQ ended up being a hasty exception to this usual behaviour. We knew we wanted a gas BBQ and so we went out to buy one. The local DIY shop had a good deal on the one we bought and on our first trip out to investigate we also purchased. We got it home and in true style Nigel opened the box and got going. It wasn’t until the entire thing was assembled and the box disposed that realisation struck. It had no lava rock! ie: it was essentially an outdoor gas hob with no authentic coals to add that special BBQ flavour. He was devastated, we tried to sell it on the local free ad website but to no avail. Last year was a BBQ free year needless to say, the sadness of a coal free BBQ was too much to bear. So this year as the nice weather approached we turned a corner. After much thought he totally re-engineered the BBQ and so now we have a gas BBQ with coals. Here is the re-engineering in action. I think this is a feat worthy of frugal friday
So it falls to me to add the second offering. We have a lovely neighbour, who incidently has a garden that really puts our to shame, and she grows great quantities of Rhubarb. It is growing amazingly well in our surprisingly mild early summer and so, just as last year, she appeared at my door last week with an enormous bundle of rhubarb for us. Last year I searched for a number of recipes to help me use the fruit for more than just crumble. Whilst browsing the Nigella Lawson coobook I love (How to be a Domestic Godess…”If only!”) I stumbled across this amazing recipe, Rhubarb Polenta Cake (also known as Rhubarb Cornmeal Cake). So this seemed like a great way to use the rhubarb. Now what makes this a frugal friday contribution is the other ingredients. The recipe requires Cornmeal. This is not something routinely available or indeed used in the UK but I had bought an enormous bag some months ago when I decided to make cornbread from another wonderful recipe book. In the end the recipe required very little of the 1kg bag I had bought and so it had been sitting for months not being used. Here was its chance! Secondly the recipe requires natural bio yogurt, 250g. In my fridge, reaching the end of its shelf life was exactly that amount of yogurt. So not only did I use the rhubarb but also my vat of cornmeal and my almost out of date yogurt.
The cake came out so well and was absolutely delicious. Here are the pics to prove it. Nigella rocks! 
This Friday marks a mommentous day for me. After 10 yrs of working in our church kids club I am leaving. Probably a good thing for them (fresh eyes etc) but for me it is hard, infact just getting the final allocation email was somewhat tear wrenching. This past year has been challenging but also amazing, we have seen new kids come along and an enthusiasm for worshipping God that has been so infectious. This is what will be really hard to leave.
I was just searching out some music ideas for a friend’s summer Bible club and looked for “YouTube” footage of what has become an inspiring CD and set of worship songs for our club…… SuperStrong God by Hillsongs Kids.
My blogger role model and lovely friend Jodi has 2 lovely girls (the 3rd is not quite old enough to do it yet but is still lovely!) who demonstrate here how to enjoy what is probably one of my favorite worship songs now of all time. To show how well they do it, just watch the video version here on YouTube.
The truth of this song is so real, God has given us the Rainbow just to remind us that His promises are real and true. A great Object Lesson and what a great reminder at this time of change.
I have 2 whole weeks of holiday stories I could write about but this morning something happened that made me think. So I had been awake early to say goodbye to my lovely blog supplying husband as he headed off to the fast east on business. But as it was a non-paid work day today ( I don’t call it a day off as a morning of cleaning and then a lunchtime schools club is hardly what I would call relaxing!) I thought i’d allow myself a few more minutes of sleep. The plumber had other ideas. And in fairness had I been expecting him I would not have greeted him at the door in a sleepy, blind (hadn’t picked my glasses up as I flew down the stairs!) daze and just about respectable dressing gown. In our post holiday blurr I had totally forgotten that the plumber was coming today.
So here he was on the doorstep and I didn’t have a clue why he was there! Slowly the cogs in my brain started turning and then I remembered the tap. The one that has been stiff for months. The reason for getting the plumber in was because we paid the company a lot of money to redo the bathroom and it was still under guarantee so we thought we should take the service they offered. Otherwise a stiff tap would not generally warrant a plumber. Anyway somehow in my very drowsy and clumsy mind I managed to explain the problem. Having pulled the tap off to display the presumed problem and not been able to see any problem and also having not realised it was the same man as last time I dashed through to find my glasses, relieved that my dressing gown had been tied correctly and lack of vision had only really made me appear stupid and not look it too! I left him to it and after just 5 minutes the problem was apparently solved. So somehow I managed to let him persuade me that fancy my new American handsoap was all that was required to lubricate the threads and with use all would be well again with the tap. And then he was gone!
Now I am a doctor and whilst urgent calls are not part of my daily life anymore there was a time when a bleeper would wake from sleep, yelling “cardiac arrest, cardiac arrest, ward 15″ and I would leap from my bed, dress in nano-seconds and then dash to said ward and begin life and death decision making. Granted I would shake and tremble and then drop exhausted back into bed at the end of it all but still, decision making in an sudden instant was my job.
Back to today, woken from sleep by loud doorbell, dashed down stairs with badly tied dressing gown and no glasses and then to let a plumber tell me that my american handsoap is all I need to fix a stiff tap and let him leave is hardly a tribute to my life and death decision making skills.
One day (hopefully ) the bleeper and doorbell is going to a baby crying or screaming. Lets just hope that all those times are as easily solved with american handsoap or I’m going to be trouble
PS: This is the amazing handsoap.
So this is my first foray into the world of blogging. I am really not sure what I am going to say to the world, or probably more specifically the few of you that might read my pages. Maybe that will become clearer. The one thing i am going to write about today though is how fabulous my husband is. I didn’t ask for a blog but as the past few weeks have gone by I have become intrigued by what other people write about. So whilst I was on holiday visiting my blogging role model friend he set one up for me. What a wonderful present and how well my husband knows me. So here I am writing my inaugural post in her front room! Thanks for reading this today, maybe you’ll hear from me again soon