A New era

These last weeks I've been running around organizing a babyshower for my sis-in-law (it was great fun we had a high tea sil had a great time and was extremely delighted), preparing for the arrival of my parents (next weekend) and inlisting our sons in new schools. The eldest will be finished with elementery school in June and will be attending grammer school as of next schoolyear. The mere thought of it makes my stomach act "rollercoastery" my baby will go to school all alone on his bike and he will not need me anymore (I know that is dramatic but it is how I feel!)
I still remember the first day of kindergarden his hand squeezing my sweaty palms, we enter the school gates and he let's go of my hand and runs off to play on the swings and I stand there lost wondering how I will survive walking out of the schoolgates and attending work as if I did not just dropped my son off with total strangers. I can assure you that that was one of the longest days in my life, I wanted the schoolday to end so I could pick him up from school and pretend I never left him. When I picked him up he was full of stories and was extremely exited about the whole first-day-of-school experience, I was exausted from worries of what might have gone wrong. Now that we are entering a new fase I feel the same, sweaty palms, "rollercoastery" stomach and an uneasy feeling scared of what lies ahead. My son on the other hand is exited and totally ready for this new fase.

As if having to send my eldest off to grammer school wasn't enough I also have send my baby ehum pre-schooler to elementary school in April of this year.We found a new school for him because we weren't really satisfied with my eldest his school, the tour from the new school was wonderful, they have swimminglessons, musiclessons, a daycare where the lil ones can rest if school is a bit too much, artlessons and the school has separated grades 0 to 3 from grades 4 to 8 so the little ones won't feel quite as small.

When my youngest was born I promised myself that once he would go to elementary school I would start taking classes at the university, I feel extremely unprepared because I still don't know what study I would like to do! 4 years passed so quickly it feels like yesterday that he was born prematurely needing to be fed every hour even at nighttime. The time flies when raising babies, all the worries about teething, solid foods, first steps, vaccinations, pottytraining and bedtime rituals seem like a triviality compared to the new worries about sex-ed, playing truant,drugs and peer pressure. I trust that the Lord will guide our family in this new era, but like every mother in nature I am appropriately apprehensive about sending my babies into the a new world on their own.

II Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us the Spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

Blessings,
Chayil

Pickled cucumber and red onions

1 cucumber
1 red onion
1 Scotch Bonnet (make a small batch without this for the kids!)
100 ml water
100 ml vinegar (white)
A few grains of Chinese sugar (this is like a sweetener be careful it is very sweet and needs to be added grain by grain to be able to control the sweetness You may substitute with 2 tablespoons of sugar)
1 tsp whole dried allspice berries
5 cloves
pinch of salt
pinch of black pepper
optional pinch of ajinomoto *

Cut cucumber lengthwise de-seed and cut in slices about 1,5 inch thick, cut red onion in rings, cut pepper in half de-seed. Put water and vinegar in a bowl and add sugar, dried allspice berries, cloves, adjinomoto, salt, black pepper stir well and add cucumber and red onion. Make day before so all the flavors have infused.

I keep empty pickle jars and wash them well with hot water and vinegar and use this to store. This can be kept for quite some time just make sure that you only use a CLEAN PLASTIC spoon or fork to take them out of the jar or it will "curdle"!

*Ajinomoto is a Japanese brand name for MSG, monosodium glutamate, a flavor enhancer. Ac'cent is the primary U.S. brand name, and the Chinese version is called ve-tsin. Please be careful using this too much can cause heart failure if you are cooking for elderly or children under the age of 5 who have never had this in their diet DO NOT USE!!

Lazy red kidney beans stew

Okay this is one of my favorite lazy day recipes it is made with canned red kidney beans but pls feel free to pre-boil dry beans and use those!

1 large can red kidney beans drained and rinsed
1 onion
2 bay leaves
2 cloves of garlic minced
2 tomatoes deseeded and chopped
1 pack of vegan "ground meat" about 180 to 200 grams (I use the kind made with mushrooms but the one made of soy will do just fine)
2 tablespoons of ketchup
black pepper (1/2 teaspoon)
1tb spoon of brown sugar (or to taste)
1 tb spoon of aromat (or to taste)
1 Scotch Bonnet
2 tablespoons of evoo
Warm water
Add oil to the pot and heat, fry onions and garlic, add "minced meat" and fry for 4 minutes,add drained beans and bayleaves and fry for 3 more minutes, add tomatoes, brown sugar, black pepper, ketchup, stir well and add warm water just enough to cover, season with aromat, put on low heat and add WHOLE 1 Scotch Bonnet, let simmer for 15 minutes.

Serve with rice, fried plantain and pickled cucumbers

If your family consists of large eaters make twice the amount! This is just right for my family of 4 (12 and 3 y.o.)

Homemade vegan pasta/pizza saus

• 3 tablespoons of evoo
• 2 zucchini's (in cubes)
• 1 onion chopped
• 5 cloves of garlic (crushed)
• 4 cans of tomato cubes
• 10 tablespoons of dried mixed Italian herbs (you can choose to buy fresh herbs I don't because the wilt before I can finish them)
• 1 tablespoons of brown sugar (you can add a bit more to taste)
• Aromat to taste (1,5 tablespoon)

This sauce I use as a basis for homemade pizza's or as pastasaus. this is enough for serving a family of 4 twice so half of it can go in the freezer.
Heat 2 tablespoons of evoo, add onions until "glassy" add garlic, dried Italian herbs and 1 tablespoon of evoo. On medium heat keep stirring until your kitchen smells like the herbs, add zucchini stir, lower heat put lid on and leave to simmer until zucchini is a little softer (not too soft!) add tomato cubes stir and add brown sugar and aromat to taste. Let simmer for about 10 minutes to allow all the flavors to infuse. Use staff mixer or blender to make into a smooth sauce or leave as is if your family likes chunks.
This is in no way a traditional italian recipe it is more like "pasta a la Chayil" :-D this recipe is to familytaste I try to use as little salt and sugar as possible so possibly you will need to add more to your family taste.
I don't know if aromat is available in America but I am sure there are simalar mixes available maybe from Goya?

Blogger craft club re-usable grocery bag

Last week I was much to tired to sew anything. This week I tried to make my very first tutorial for my dutch budgetting website. It had to be something simple, inexpensive and of good use. I decided on a re-usable grocery bag. I don't like grocery bags with short handles I love one that I can carry on my shoulder instead of killing my fingers.

This is the end result: I have to say I am quite proud of it :-D

Happy crafting everyone I am going to spend some time with my dh it's his b-day today!

Playing catch up

My house is a mess! I have been doing a little damage control here and there but this home needs lots and lots of TLC to get her back to normal living standards! One of my biggest weaknesses is not knowing how to cope with keeping the home while I am ill, another issue is what things to tackle first after a period of obliged bedrest.

I need to strengthen a bit more before venturing back into the real world on my own, so I had to cancel todays sewinglesson.

Lil man is @ the daycare till 13:00 and I decided that this would give me plenty of time to slowly conquer the worse space of my home. The family learn/craft/language closet.

I took some pics to show you'll what I was dealing with and to share the end result.

The before and after shot ;-) I am not a good photographer and have no idea why the doors look slanted LOL

I know what your thinking! Why did I let it get this messy, but I was just to sick to even care that the kids and dh took stuff out and just threw them back in! And yes we love boardgames this is only 1/3 of our collection the kids have more on their bookshelves. Now I need to find just a lil more energy to mop up the icky's that came out of that closet and to remove paint that is still left around the house from my quick painting action about 11 months ago (blush) I remove about 4 to 6 of those stains weekly lol I will be still removing when I get bitten by another paintbug that makes me do it all over again.

The top shelve is remnant of what did not fit on the bookshelves around the house and I just can't let them go yet.

My eldest son his teacher is coming over for tea tomorrow so I sorted some boardgames that we either don't enjoy anymore or have double to give to him for school.

I am dead tired now so I am going to take some painkillers and take a lil nap before the kids come home.

Blessings,

Chayil

Blogger craft club

Just a quick upload of my first Blogger Craft Club project. Lil man took the pic so it looks a bit odd LOL Will try to post new pics later this week :-)

ETA: Thanks ladies! I think these are called madras check in english, in my homeland these fabrics are used for pangi's (decorated fabric wrapped around the waist) and anisa's (headwraps). My mom send quite a few of these fabrics and I decided to use them to make day to day items so everytime I see one I think of home.

Examples of pangi's

Lady decorating a pangi by hand

Source