Becoming Domestic

Another post which starts with the disclaimer ‘Sorry to everyone who was shown this trick when they were mini and therefore thinks this as being another piece of obvious knowledge’…

But to all the people out there who, like me, weren’t born knowing that the best place to keep the role of bin bags is in the bin itself enjoy revolutionising your least favourite household chore with this lovely tip.

If you keep the role of liners under the liner which you fill up and then remove you will not only save yourself the minor irritation of having to stroll elsewhere to get the replacement (or relying on someone else doing so and them then forgettng to replace the bin bag so you then chuck a whole uneaten dinner into an unbaggged bin) BUT you also get loads of warning as to when the roll is going to run out and need replacing.

Bin bag bonus.

Both my kids have successfully beaten two irritating habits this month with the aid of sticker charts fashioned from games published in two of the comics they have been given.

My daughter was coming into my bed each night at least once usually twice. I was having to wake up to escort/carry her back to her own room during the small hours which was turning me into a sleep deprived wreck.

My son was wetting the bed each night and I was finding it more and more difficult to wash & dry his bedding (usually including his duvet as he sleeps on top of it) as the days got cooler and damper.

I found these ‘board games’ in the comics and took them out and stuck them to the wall at their height with blu tack. I announced that each night they didn’t do the irritating thing they would get a sticker and on the days when they got a sticker on a coloured square (located frequently alopng the game but not too frequently). They would get a special treat.

The special treats are my choice and have varied from making cakes with me in the kitchen while the other child does something else, a visit to a fun place (when they both happen to get coloured squares on the same morning), a 10p toy from a charity shop basket of toys, watching a video of their choice after their bathtime (bathtime got moved very early). I also have a handy bag of fairly cheap toys given to me by my mother-in-law which I kept in our wardrobe the kids sometimes get to choose a toy from the ‘Nanny Lyn Bag’. I might put a replacement bag together with any excess toys the kids are given for their brithday or Christmas.
Things I have learnt:

- Always put the sticker on first thing in the morning rather than ‘Oooh you’ll be getting a sticker when I can be bothered to get the stickers’ as invariably everyone forgets and then you have to give two the next day or one because they’ve since remembered but have wet the bed / woken you up in the meantime.

- Decide what the special treat is there and then so you aren’t coerced into issuing more than one because they use the ‘Nooo that wasn’t my special treat, my special treat is going to be a new comic’

- Lots of talking about how brilliant it is that they have managed to do 3 days (in total) of not doing the thing which made you implement the sticker chart and how many days they will have managed when they eventually get to the end.

- Make a big song and dance about how brilliant it is that they haven’t done the thing again, phone up Nanna/Daddy/Uncle Dan to tell them too and give them a big kiss and let them know how proud it makes you.

Two of my already domesticated girlfriends asked me this weekend whether I had made my Christmas cake yet.

There is a great recipe in my cooking file ripped from last years Good Housekeeping entitled ‘The Easiest Christmas Cake Ever’. I made it last November and it tasted great but scanning over the list of ingredients (including crystalised ginger, angostura bitters, dried figs & prunes, brandy etc) I’m realising that the decision to make another one this year will involve a lot of shopping (as well as a lot of chopping).

The recipe says that the total cost is about £7.50 which I’m sure is good value but I’m not sure it ever gets eaten.
In a bid to simplify things at a time when both of us are feeling the pressure I’m making the reluctant decision to not make a Christmas cake this year and will see whether anyone actually misses it.

Our kids play with their playdough almost every day making little pretend dinners, worm families or faces on the table. They have a tub full of playdough tools which their 93 year old great grandmother bought for them.

1 Minute Playdough recipe:

Your will need:

• 1/2 cup of salt
• 1 cup of flour
• 1 tablespoon of cream of tartar (Cream of Tartar is a natural powdered raising agent for use in scones, drop scones, soda bread and a wide range of other recipes)
• 1 tablespoon of oil
• I cup of boiling water (from the kettle) mixed with
  some food colouring (OR a the contents of three blackcurrant dazzler fruit tea bags for lovely fruity rich purple)

What to do:

Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl and then mix vigourously with the hot water.

Makes wonderful playdough which lasts for ages in little plastic sandwich bags.

Contrary to my expectations I find it really tedious having to plan the family’s meals for the coming weeks. My repetoire of dishes we all like eating seems really small (husband and son not keen on vegetables, I can’t eat much wheat without being in agony afterwards, son doesn’t like anything with a ‘bitty’ texture, husband doesn’t like fish…).

We’ve got quite a few decent recipe books (Delia, Nigel Slater, Jamie Oliver and the like) but for some reason I find that the meals in there are not very inspiring - either they require far too many special ingredients (Jamie Oliver) or they are all too heavy (Nigel Slater) or more usually I just can’t be bothered to leaf through each tome to find 14 days worth of lunch/dinner possibiliities.

My solution? Ages ago I started a cutting file of magazine articles I liked. I was a real magazine addict but couldn’t store them all so started collecting any recipe which looked nice/easy and we’d all like to try (usually from Good Housekeeping or Country Living). I’d forgotten about this treasure trove until I recently unpacked the last box after our move in July. Had a flick through and suddenly had loads of tasty but EASY things to cook. Yay.

Tonight we are having lamb koftas which is simply minced lamb mixed with cumin, onion and fresh corriander, the other night we had falafels (very similar to lamb koftas only made with chick peas!), before that we had veg, coconut and lentil  curry, coming up soon we have a beef pie, salmon macaroni cheese, home made baked beans, poached chicken and so on.

The trick to taking magazine cuttings is to have a sharp knife/pair of scissors to hand where you usually read the mags (the bathroom in my case while bathing the children), an empty  box file to sling them in and then a lever arch file with loads of empty ‘pockets’ to actually file the articles every so often into their respective categories (in my case, gardening, cookery, things to do with kids and other misc.).

I’m really pleased I remembered my old files and had a flick through them as has brought joy to my kitchen but also as have just emailed the local Freecycle group to come and take a large box of Good Housekeepings off my hands. Will have to quickly go through and rip out anything of interest before they go to a new home.

Right better get squelching the minced lamb with the chopped onion and shaping them into long patties….

The other day we chanced upon a toy library when we had to go and pick up some business cards for my husband. It was tucked away on a little tiny business park but had bright coloured signage.

Today we went with proof of address back to join Borrowers Toy Library and all three of us were so impressed with the place and their system.

Family membership is £25 per year or £14 for 6 months membership. Once you are a member the family can borrow up to four toys from their massive selection for a fortnight.

The great thing is that they have a huge selection of outdoor toys the kinds that would very quickly clutter up a back garden if you bought any of them but with this scheme we can borrow large toys, enjoy them for a fortnight (or renew for a further 2 weeks) and then take them back. They have trampolines, climbing frmaes, mini diggers, go-carts, see-saws and so on.

Today we borrowed a lovely wooden fruit market complete with mini crates of minature wooden fruits and vegetables (I’ve seen something similar in wooden toy catalogues for sale and am aware that they cost a small fortune), a Winnie the POoh video, a wonderful wizard gown and hat for dressing up & Halloween parties, and an incredibly loud irritating keyboard with loads of buttons and pre-programmed rhythms & tunes.

They have every kind of toy imaginable organised into categories so the children can browse the musical instruments section, the ‘home and living’ section, games & puzzles, story tapes, cd-roms to use on the computer, baby and toddler toys etc.

They have a big notice up advertising the fact that they are able to loan single, double and triple buggies, high-chairs, baby bouncers, stair gates and so on.

Next to the til they have a lovely selection of arts and crafts materials to buy at very cheap prices (eg. £1.20 for a 10 x pack of 2007 blank calendars for the children to decorate, tissue paper, pva glue, paints, coloured card and so on).

I’m not sure if this kind of scheme is available elsewhere but would encourage families of young children to investigate as they are a brilliant way of keeping kids entertained with little expenditure and doesn’t add to the huge piles of plastic clobber kids these days seem to accumulate so quickly.

NB: On the back of the leaflet I picked up from the toy library it says to contact the UK Children’s Information Service (www.earlyyearsandchildcare.org.uk) to find out where your local one is located.

On our way to pick up some Freecycled jam jars today the kids and I happened across a beautiful playground today with great wooden structures, fresh bark chippings to fall onto and a great view of the nearby hills. It was a nice tidy clean playground so when a crisp packet blew towards me without thinking I just picked it up and popped it in the bin as I went past.

When we lived in London I was used to picking up the litter from the pavement outside our house.

If everyone in the UK picked up just one piece of rubbish from the streets/land each day we’d have a much tidier country with minimal effort.

A simple swap to make life easy when bunging the ingredients in the breadmaker last thing at night especially when doing it after a nice bath and in fresh clean pyjamas when the last thing you want to do is get sticky ingredients all over you…

Although the recipe calls for tablespoonfuls of butter instead use vegetable oil.

The bread comes out exactly the same and veg oil is so much easier to measure by pouring from the bottle instead of scooping and having to stick fingers in to get it out (and as my friend pointed out to me the vegetable oil is less likely to get used up by hungry tooast eaters without the chief breadmaker knowing).

Until recently I was always the one cursing under my breath each time I parked at the supermarket and yet again FORGOT to make sure I had brought a 1 pound coin with me for the trolley deposit. Acres of trolleys waiting for me to put my two little children in and do my weekly shop and only a tenner on me. Grrrr and double grrrr!

Hoorah for Morrisons because they have had the sense to produce a nifty low-tech keyring which has a pound coin shaped token clipped onto it. I always have my keys on me so I now always have a pound coin sized token for the trolley which is miles better than dragging the kids into the store to buy one small item to get some change.

I paid £1 for it but they sell them on eBay for far less (and they don’t advertise a supermarket unlike my Morrisons one). I recommend getting some for all your stressed supermarket shopping chums

http://search.ebay.co.uk/trolley-token_W0QQfrppZ50QQfsopZ1QQmaxrecordsreturnedZ300QQpqryZtrolleyQ20token

We had to be quick as we had to get back home to look after my son as Bealers was due to visit Tewkesbury at 1pm to pick up a free sofa we had been given using the local Freecycle network.

I was telling my three year old about our new sofa but I was distracted and feeling more than a bit cross by the people I could see bunging plastic washing up bowls and plate-stands into the refuse container instead of taking them to the local charity shops (there are three in our town just one minute’s walk from the dump). I tsk-tsk’d about this and mentioned something out loud to my daughter as am teaching her green values but was interupted by her exclaiming ‘Look Mummy that man is putting a lovely blue sofa into the rubbish dump’. And so he was, cushion by cushion and then the main powder blue chesterfield settee itself got heaved from his car and over the side of the vast refuse container clearly labelled ‘Landfill’.

Now all those who know me will confirm that I’m pretty emotional at the very best of times but this ignorant act really made me furious and for a couple of reasons.

1. Since downshifting to a more rural life at the begining of the summer we have been very grateful to receive a number of unwanted furniture for NOUGHT pence using the local Freecycle networks. We are being careful with our money since I quit my City salary and we are now living on Darren’s salary only so our being frugal by taking possesion of a couple of unwanted wooden chests of drawers, mahogany bookcases, a beautiful big desk, space duvet cover sets and outdoor toys for the kiddies has meant a great deal to us. To stand and watch someone throw what looked to me like a pretty handsome piece of furniture into the industrial sized bin was to deny it to all those needy folks who would love to have it in their houses.
2. How can anyone put such a huge item into a refuse dump without thinking of what will happen to it next? It isn’t going to magic itself away despite it undoubtedly being replaced with something swankier in the house it used to reside. The sofa will sit in a festering hole somewhere on this planet and at some point in the future we, our children or our grandchildren will bitterly regret that their is no more space available for rubbish and we probably won’t be allowed to burn it either.

Normally I would have ignored my great British reserve and would have gone over to have a word with the guy who was about to lob it in if only to spread the word about Freecycle’s principles and how so many people would have willingly come to his house to collect the sofa without him having to lug it to his car. This time I didn’t - I don’t know why. I had my little kid with me (and she needed the loo)