Isn't everything so very complicated?

This Is Oliver. He is our Cat. Life is not complicated for cats.

Sometimes (OK a lot of the time) seemingly simple tasks seem to be complicated. 

I was trying to analyse my blog statistics. But my Google analytics disappeared when I changed templates and it was so long ago I couldn't remember how to do it so I had to read lots of stuff and then I did it and came back to check it after a few weeks and...it hadn't worked. Repeat. (ooh boy the grammar checking thingy isn't going to like that sentence, but it is meant to be read in a slightly breathless and frantic fashion).

I decide I want to look at a recipe on my phone but the app needs updating, then the phone needs charging. Then I forget and check Twitter.Repeat.
Eventually I find the recipe and discover I need to wash the dishes to prepare it and also go to the shops because I just ran out of some essential ingredient.

I like my Fresh Meat course (this is Roller Derby, not butchery by the way) but now I am getting better the training is harder and there are so many things to think of, tactics, not falling over, hitting, being fit and training hours are going up and up. I just think it is fun, but suddenly it is complicated. I find myself having an existential crisis brought on by roller skates.

Do you have days where despite your best efforts every task turns into an epic melodrama?
 Sometimes I think life is too complicated and want to lie down under the table with a cool flannel over my eyes...but the floor under the table needs a vacuum and the robot is out of charge and the other one is in the shed. 

See what I mean?

Or is this just me?

Morning!

I am woken by a baby wanting an extended schmoozy breast feed and cuddle and I ensure I make a double shot cappuccino for myself and beloved before our boys bring their own brand of energy to the party. I keep the espresso machine in the en suite so I am not pounced before the caffeine hits my system. Have you tried to steam milk with an excitable 4 year old asking difficult questions when you have not yet had a coffee? It's terrible. So coffee machine in the loo it is then. 

Sometimes I am berated soundly for having incorrect breakfasts on offer, sometimes there are meltdowns because I insist apparently unreasonably that Mr Free Spirit wears shoes, or a jumper or knickers to school, or that he goes to the correct school (kindergarten is only three days a week) Sometimes his older brother sobs because he expected a different jam on his crumpets or I wouldn't give him four crumpets. 

But not today.

 Today they are mounting an expedition to Everest. So turning up at the table with Crash helmets on and backpacks stuffed full of (apparently) icepicks and oxygen tanks, they happily ate their porridge and muesli.  Sir Chatsalot has a new picture atlas he carries nearly everywhere he goes (one never knows when one is going to need a reference book handy) and seems to have absorbed the relevant Everest details. Round blue eyes stare at me with excitement as they wave plastic mallets around.
I get asked about Everest and feel very inadequate with my hastily thrown together answers about altitude sickness. I frequently feel inadequate around my curious children. 

Sir Chatsalot stares at his porridge asks why steam always comes from food that has been microwaved in Winter. I try to explain that it was to do with the relative temperature of the room and that heat rises but this isn't good enough.
"Why does heat rise?"

"It's to do with thermodynamics."

"But why? How does thermodynamics work?"

"It's to do with gravity of the substances...and their atomic and molecular structure."

"But gravity is on the ground...are atoms in space?!"

"Yes well, umm it's really hard to explain without a background in physics and chemistry kiddo."

"Oh......OK....what do you mean by a background in physics?"

 He is six.

Turning to our ten month old baby who I feel will be more on my level I tell her, "If you want more of my porridge you need to give me the spoon back." Which she does without hesitation.

Sir Chatsalot continues eating his porridge and says to me thoughtfully,"Mummy, I am more clever than you and Daddy about a lot of things aren't I?".

Maybe kiddo, maybe.

This is why I have a coffee machine in the loo.

This post is written for the Blogfast Club, a blog challenge link up with the lovely Kate Says Stuff

Dull Roar Breakfasting

I am a terrible breakfaster.
I just somehow don't breakfast. I am not one who feels sick in the mornings or any plausible sounding excuse. I do get swept away in the chaos of the day two children to get ready for school, breastfeed the baby, get everyone else breakfast, manage to make a couple of cappucinos for myself and long suffering Husband etc and before I know it it is lunch time and the blood sugar is plummeting. 

Not good, not slimming either. It seems to have something to do with keeping your metabolism cranked up and not letting your blood sugar get so low you are inhaling pumpkin gingerbread by 11.50am. (by the way I LOVE pumpkin gingerbread. I am also aware that it probably negates the redeeming features of having healthful, ingredients if I eat eight slices in a sitting, which I have done- did I mention I liked it?).

So I know that eating breakfast has a multitude of benefits but only if you keep that blood sugar steady (so no sugar coated flakes with milk). I also know if something isn't mindblowingly quick and easy I will simply not do it because I can be rather lazy. Doing My Blackmores program has been a little bit of a challenge but it does tend to fit in with lifestyles of the rushed and lazy fairly well so inspired by the meal plans I have a couple of faithful breakfasts I am actually managing to make and eat for more than two weeks now!
Busy parent breakfasts:
Eggs and Spinach on toast:
Take a small handful of frozen spinach, pop it in the microwave on a saucer, microwave for 30 secs, crack and egg onto it (pierce yolk AND white with eggshell or a fork if you are all lah-di-dah about it) salt and pepper, cover with a side plate and microwave for another 45 seconds to a minute whilst a piece of toast (from the freezer). Serve the egg and spinach on the toast and on the side plate used for cooking. Easy, healthy, bugger all washing up.
Porridge: use proper rolled oats not those gluey quick oats, use boiling water from the kettle. If you are feeling really lazy eat from pot with a pinch of salt and soak pot all day. Or you could add frozen bluberries. Babies like this too.
Yoghurt and muesli with frozen berries: (oh c'mon you don't need me to describe it do you?- just watch the portion sizes- scales are good for this).
 I will get a bit more experimental with breaky- maybe mix it up with a smoothie or two or a muffin I made earlier but for now I am delighted that I have found breakfasts I am actually eating I don't want to complicate things too much. 

What about you, do you breakfast? What do you eat? How do you manage it?

The Lazy Winter Garden

This is my garden currently. 

It doesn't look like much and truth be told it isn't. 

I could tell you about how I didn't get my beloved purple sprouting broccoli in this year or how my basil won't even survive inside because it is really cold this year, but who wants to read my moaning about vegetables.?
 Instead I want to introduce you to a really Dull Roar Philosophical approach to gardening.

I know it looks like a mass of weeds and that is exactly what it is! I let the wild rocket go to seed self sow, the desiccated plants and those of the scraggly Sweet Alice (Alyssum)  wwent into my mulcher which threw seeds everywhere.I am growing rocket, Sweet Alice(good for attracting beneficial insects and chickweed in abundance. Without planting. I have planted a handful of broad beans I found in the pantry. This is my version of crop rotation as the box they are growing in had broccoli in it last. I have not supported them. My broad beans are au naturale.

Somewhere amongst the rocket and the chickweed is a random mizuna plant and some parsley and spinach I planted to get rid of old past it seeds, and a struggling French sorrel.

I really like leafy greens, they were my number one pregnancy craving and I cannot get enough of them even now so this is working well.

Even in the cracks between pavers. I rather like the look so I am leaving the useful plants put and occasionally pulling out non-useful plants like milky vetch and other latex sappy weeds, fleas bane and the like.

I am enjoying the little patch of wild in the tiny courtyard that serves as a garden. If I want more I am lucky enough to have a new park around the corner which has been planted with lots of leafy vegetables, herbs and brassicas, is tended by the council and supplies the healthier locals with free greens. 

My boys love to snack on the greens when they are scooting around the pocket sized park. Mr 4-nearly-5 is making quite a habit of getting his veggies from municipal gardens- ah well it's very thrifty and healthy I suppose if decidedly odd. I am sure I have mentioned he is a free-spirited individual! 

Healthy, Strong,Happy.

So you may recall that last post  was having a whinge about being hungry when I was trying to eat less calories. I did discover that eating low calorie could be a Very Bad Idea if I wasn't keeping my blood sugar on an even keel because;hangry.

 Shortly after this I discovered that sitting on my chuff and eating cakes didn't actually lead to a sense of overall well-being either(quelle surprise!) So I started eating a bit healthier again.Then the Lovely Kate Young chose me as the winner of a three month program from My Blackmores where I can track my eating, exercise,measurements, get exercise ideas, recipes access a naturopath basically its holistic health program online. The approach is sensible and healthful and not fanatical so I am more than happy because its healthy (and free for me!). I think it is $19.95 a month which seems reasonable given what you have access to.They also offer free two week trial if you were interested in checking it out yourself. 

I am still carrying a lot of extra weight from my pregnancy at the moment and the baby in question is nearly ten months old..
I didn't have this problem with my other two pregnancies, the weight fell off but a postnatal depressive diet of tea and the occasional biscuit coupled with lots of walking and anxiety attacks is a very slimming regime!
But of course I was horribly depressed, (there is always something isn't there?) It goes almost without saying that chubby and stable is better than slimmer and depressed (almost without saying, but some poor unfortunate people really would rather be battling the black dog than have a bit of extra weight on due to an obsession with fat phobia).

So my wanting to lose this extra weight is nothing to do with wanting to 'snap' back into shape like so many heavily-promoted celebrities do after giving birth but more to do with the fact my frame is a bit too small for the super squishy curves I am carrying and my roller-skating knees would be happier with more strength and less mass. So far the eating well and exercising are making me feel good but I must stay on top of the sudden blood sugar drops! 

Have you ever used an online program to increase your health/lose weight?