Monday 12 December 2011

Mini Christmas Puds

Quite a number of years ago now my inlaws bought a copy of Colin Buchanan's King Of Christmas DVD (which the kids loved so much we of course had to buy a copy of our own)

And on this DVD there is a cooking segment in which Colin makes Mini Christmas Puddings and ever since then it has become an annual event, and yesterday was the day!

So I think it is only fitting that I get a little Christmassy for this post and SHOW you how to make mini Christmas puds!!!

Step 1...take one bought fruit cake

Step 2...Smoosh the fruit cake
 until it looks like this




Step 3...Add a packet of Nestle Dark Chocolate Melts...melted of course
And then stir and mix and smoosh until it looks something like this
Then Step 4...Roll into balls


And this is where I left them to it, Grub decided that that was the perfect time to wake up and NEED a breastfeed so I just sat back in the dining area and watched them while I fed him
hmmm, perhaps there are some advantages to them growing up...and they didn't do too bad a job either
Top with white chocolate and decorate with chopped glace cherries

...and I would like to take this opportunity to say that it's worth using melts again here.  Woolies had sold out of white chocolate melts so I grabbed some Plaistowes cooking chocolate instead and it melted down really runny which meant it ran off the puddings a bit too much and didn't hold the cherries very well but the kids were really happy with the result and that is really all that matters :D

What do you think?


They turn out a LOT better with thicker chocolate I promise :D

A Year Already???

It's less than 3 weeks until the end of the year now...Which means it's less than 3 weeks until Grubs first birthday.

Where on Earth has that year gone?

I'm not quite sure but it has had me thinking a little bit about his birth...and all that happened after! Now I've already told you a little bit about his birth in A Little Reminder but I wanted to add a bit!

It took a bit of getting started but once I was in labour it only lasted a couple of hours.  This was on new years day...1-1-11 and the Geek was really keen for bub to have that as his birthdate but as it got later and later and nothing was happening I really didn't think it was going to happen for him.  Once I was in labour and it was getting closer to midnight he kept patting my belly and saying come on bub you've only got 10 minutes to go, but I am pleased to say he made it just in the nick of time.

The Geek had mentioned that he wanted to do the "catching" and we ended up with a fantastic midwife who not only let him catch but also suggested that I use a birthing mirror.  I had never been keen on the idea of a birthing mirror but the way she brought it up I didn't really feel that I could say no.  WELL...best thing I ever did.  Having the mirror gave me such a sense of control over the birth because I could SEE what was happening.  It was amazing and I'm so glad that I did.  If I were to ever have another baby I would DEFINITELY want to use one again.

Anyway, skip over the retained placenta and the true tight knot in his umbilical cord...Geek headed off to a friends house to get some sleep and I was wheeled onto the ward to try and get some sleep.

But sleep was not on the cards!

In the wee hours of the morning I had a hemorrhage and bled EVERYWHERE!  I lost consciousness at one point...sitting on the toilet no less...and all I can remember thinking was "Lord, I'm not ready to leave my children yet"

Suffice it to say I scared the living heck out of myself!

The nurses were very professional and got the bleeding stopped and then call the Geek and told him what had happened and that everything was okay and that he should go back to sleep.  One of the nurses told us a few days later that I had scared the living heck out of them too!

I was moved to a private room and basically was not allowed to move.  I had a catheter and an IV and a blood pressure cuff was left on so they could check my BP frequently and I felt like I had tubes and hoses everywhere.  I spent the entire morning stuck to the bed, unable to attend to my baby and completely covered in my own blood.  They estimated that I had lost 2 litres of blood though when I had a transfusion a couple of days later the 2 units they gave me didn't bring my hemoglobin levels up anywhere near as much as they expected so it may have been more.

The Geek didn't turn up until about 11am, and I am assuming that being himself, when the nurse rang at 4 or 5 in the morning and told him what had happened, all he heard was the last bit...that everything was okay and to go back to sleep  and he didn't really realize exactly how serious it had been.  At least that's what I choose to believe, because when he eventually did come in he took straight off with the baby and went to show him off to the other dads on the ward.

I am, I think, a fairly sensible sort of person and in hindsight I can see it for what it was...a simple lack communication, but at the time postpregnancy hormones and extreme exhaustion made it hurt.  I felt like I had almost died and nobody even cared.  I actually struggled with it for quite some months and even now sometimes it catches me off guard and I feel that it took away from some of the specialness of Grubs birth. 

I know that he won't remember that...nor will he remember his first birthday but I feel that I really want to try and make it a special special one. 

His actual birthday will probably be fairly quiet as I think the family will all be here on new years eve anyway so we will probably celebrate then but that will be kind of nice I think.  It will be nice to be able to have a biggish party but also to be able to celebrate with him as a nice little family.

I hope that as he grows up he realizes just how special he really is

Saturday 10 December 2011

Special Saturday - My Favourite Blogs

As I mentioned in "I'm Back" I've not had a lot of spare time lately for writing my blog...and the same applies to reading other peoples at the moment (though I do go through phases of being addicted to them!)

But there are a few that I have mostly kept up with!

Now because this is a Special Saturday post, it makes sense to start with the ones about additional needs.

And that has to start with Stuff With Thing

The Geek has cyberknown Marita from Stuff with thing for a loooong time!  Since before we met at least.  Since before Marita had children and learned to live with Autism.  I well remember his excitement when she gave birth to each of her children.  And while I am a relative newcomer to the cyber world I have always heard bits and pieces of her life with her girls.  It seemed only a natural progression that Stuff with thing should have become one of the first blogs I started to follow...and I am constantly encouraged by Marita's dedication to doing the best for her girls!

And then there is This Is No Oridnary Kid.

I stumbled across This Is No Ordinary Kid back in May I think...when the blog was only about a month or so old.  I was sitting there with my, then, 4 month old baby boy and I read through that first months worth of blog with tears streaming down my face for the story of Jane's 5 1/2 month old baby who had contracted meningitis and almost lost his life.  Cameron is now 16 and making some very encouraging progress and I have laughed and cried many a time as I have read every single post (although sometimes I get a few weeks behind and have to catch up)...We have also had the extreme honor of meeting the Danzi family and getting to know them a little bit too and I hope that we will always be friends.

Another Blog that I stumbled across is The I Love You Song...and if you click on the link you may notice that I didn't link you to the most recent post, but rather to the very first post I read, which REALLY touched me at the time...it was VERY close to home.

There are other additional needs blog posts that I have come accross....and most of them from reading through Marita's weekly Autism Hero Highlights and many of them have been very good but I haven't really kept track of them all.

Now as much as there are days when it feels like an Autism Mum is all I am and there is no room for anything else, I do actually have 6 children and I want to be a good mum to them all so sometimes I need a link to the outside world...where Autism doesn't rule the roost...and that's when I drop into some of my other favorite blogs for encouragement. Jodi's World has given me much inspiration this Christmas and watching Jodi prepare for her first Christmas as a Mum has had me thinking a lot about MY first Christmas as a Mum all those years ago when Ducky was a wee Duckling.

The Mummy Disorder, The Surprise Beginning and Random Ramblings Of A Stay At Home Mum are also good ones for reminding me that it's okay to be human :D

So there you have it, my favorite blogs...but while I'm here I probably should link you to The Geek's blog too...seeing he is my husband and all!  Actually although his posts are a little bit intermittent, they are usually a fairly interesting read so here it is :D

Enjoy!

Friday 9 December 2011

The Christmas Nappy!

As I said in "I'm Back" I have been inspired by the Christmassy posts over at Jodi's World and something very Christmassy in this house at the moment is the nappies!

Now I started the silly season swearing blind I was NOT going to buy a Christmas nappy.  Instead I decided that I would buy an itti bitti Galaxy nappy...


Christmassy but still wearable throughout the rest of the year.

And then Seedling Baby released their Christmas Gift Pack which contained a both a red and green gingham nappy...and I had recently tried a seedling baby nappy so I knew that they were great nappies


Again...Christmassy but wearable throughout the rest of the year..and a bargain at $30 for two nappies!


But then came the penguin!

I was just innocently perusing facebook when I came across this picture...


at Kat's Creative MCN's and Baby Creations.  And it wasn't even all my fault...I showed the Geek and he loved it too!!! (it's a geek Linux thing) so we commented and as it happened Kat was happy to make it into a nappy for us :D

So I had bought a Christmas nappy after all, and I was excited.

And that was that...only it wasn't.

Kat was running a competition for a Christmas Custom to celebrate hitting 600 likers on facebook.

Now I don't often enter these competition things...but occasionally I do so just for fun...and Kat's competition called to write a Christmas poem or song...and I had just written this... and my penguin nappy had just arrived so I couldn't help myself...so I wrote...

Twas a month before Christmas
End of year at last
And bubby's first Christmas
Was creeping up fast

Nappies were arriving
In red and in green
But the one with the penguin
Was the best to be seen

From Kat's Creations
Twas the favorite of Mother
And she couldn't deny
She wanted another!


There were some awesome entries but I made it into the final five which meant I had to take a quiz...a fun Christmassy quiz...and all five of us got all the answers right so the winner was random.orged...AND IT WAS ME!!!

Oh I was excited now!  But as a Christian I wanted to get something that honored the real meaning of Christmas...The Jesus story!

So I put it to Kat and this is what she came up with...
 Perfect!

But it got me looking at the other ones she had up for sale...bad bad bad.

She had this gorgeous lil pudding embroidery...and since we ALWAYS make mini Christmas puddings with the kids...every year...it was perfect!



Again, it wasn't all my fault...the Geek had a say too...a small say but it just happened to end up in the same parcel as the prize nappy (hehehe)

And they arrived today so I have a new family of Christmas nappies...




and Grub is gonna have one cute little bum come Christmas day!!!

I'm Back!!!

I've been a bit quiet these last couple of weeks...it's been busy and if I'm honest it's been difficult to keep up. 

Business has been slow but there is still lots to do every day.

The kids have been a but feral, which is normal this time of year.  I've been a Mum for over 18 years, so I know that but EVERY year it still manages to catch me off guard.

And then of course there is Christmas, and I really want to do all the fun stuff we normally do at Christmas.

But it's all good, school is finished next week so mornings will be easier and I am keeping on top of the important stuff

So that's why I've been a bit quiet!

But I've been inspired by all the Chrismassy posts over on Jodi's World to make a bit more of an effort so I'm back :D