Cleaning Conundrum

Is it just me or do I seem to be going round in circles? 

How do you stop your cleaning schedule from becoming monotonous and boring? 

I have a 2 yr old. She creates mess. Lots of mess. My house will never be sparkly clean until she is about 20 or something haha. I clean one mess then turn around and she's making another. 

I've decided that the telephone was a bad invention because in years gone by people would clean their houses all the time because they'd never know when someone would be dropping by so you'd have no choice but to keep everything shiny, nowadays though we know when someone is popping by so some people don't clean their houses all shiny shiny because it's their space and they'll do it when they want. Phones made people lazy I reckon. Me included. I tidy, mainly because Ava needs somewhere to plays and because I need space to walk. I'm not a perfect mother and an even less perfect housewife but I just hate the going round in circles clearing the same mess. 

My mum was here over the holidays and was telling me what she used to do to keep our house tidy when we were kids so I'm going to follow two pieces of her advice. Yes, that's right mother. You heard me correct. At night before bed I'm going to either set the dishwasher off or fill it with things used from the day and I'm going to set the washer off with one light and one dark wash. Let's see how I go. 

Post Holiday Judgement Day

So I went to Slimming World today. First weigh in since the holidays so I knew it was going to be a big one! I gained 9lbs in 2 weeks. But that's done, over with, time to put the past behind me. I'm hoping to be back on track by the beginning of February. First there is my birthday to get out of the way though! 

Slimming World Cooking Tips! 

Cauliflower rice, mushy pea gravy & swede - cooked without peeling!! 

Cauliflower Rice 

Chop cauliflower into chunks and put into food processor, or, grate with grater. 

Put in microwaveable bowl and cover with cling film. 

Set the timer for 7 minutes then take out. Voila. Finished. Serve instead of rice. 

Always put in more cauliflower than you think you might need as it shrinks when cooked. 

OR 

You could buy the pre packed whizzed cauliflower rice from places like Asda and Sainsburys. You can usually find them on the fresh veg isle or the microwaveable rice area. 

Mushy Pea Gravy

Empty mushy peas into blender. 

Fill empty tin with water and add to blender. 

Add 4 oxo to the blender then give it a good WHIZZ. 

Place in a pan and heat until slightly bubbling. Voila 

Turnip/Swede cooked without peeling!! 

Put into the microwave for 10 minutes. 

Turn it over and put on for another 15 minutes. 

It SHOULD be cooked and you'll know because when you take it out of the microwave it'll feel squishy on the inside. If it's not completely finished put it in for another 5 minutes. 

Take it out and chop the top off, the scoop out with a spoon and ENJOY.  

Now don't mind me whilst I go find some new recipes for my amazing Actifryer! 

Organisation of Me

So I don't seem to be writing as much as I wanted to and I think it's because I like to be organised, with my paperwork at least. I was thinking about how I could incorporate the things that make me into me into my blog and I've come up with an idea.

Wednesday's and Saturday's will be about Slimming World, whether it is about my weigh in or a new recipe, or idea that I've found from going to group, maybe even the food I've been eating to keep up with Slimming World, it'll be posted on these days.

Sunday will obviously be a Church and gospel related day, for me it is important to really keep Christ in my life and most of the week it is hard to do that. However, this is what Sunday's are specifically designed for so that's what I'll keep a focus on,

Monday and Thursday I'll post about mummy stuff, house stuff, organisational stuff, mainly because I'm always trying to find new crafty things to do with Ava or new ideas to keep her entertained WHILST trying to keep my house tidy... doesn't always work though! But I shall try my best :D

This will leave Tuesdays and Fridays as my crochet project days! I am always doing something. Maybe even some times these things might merge on some days if I am doing something that I want you all to see but for now this is how my week will go!

Today is crochet day! I'm doing a temperature blanket for this year! Or rather two, because if I do one it'll be about 3.5m long! So I'm doing a nice lap blanket. Temperature blankets are apparently a really massive thing in America and I'm only just cottoning on to them now. But basically you take a colour of wool to a corresponding temperature and crochet a row in that colour. For now I have chosen a light blue for my 1 - 6 degrees CELSIUS, not Fahrenheit and I have 3 light blue stripes. My white will indicate a new month and days with an important birthday on them with have a sparkly stripe incorporated! I cannot wait to see what the finished product will look like! I'll take some photos and post them later!

I'm also working on a scarf for my Niece, late birthday present, but it is the 'daisy' or star stitch in a funky rainbow colour wool! I shall post pictures later on of the scarf and the temperature blanket idea. I need to work out my other colours first though!

Crazy Dazy Christmas

Rushing here and there today. Seeing all my siblings!! I've missed them all so much. I've also lost 2st 7.5lbs since I last saw two of them and I haven't seen my mum since I lost most of my weight either so it should be a good feel good boosting day with my weightloss. I know tomorrow I'm going to go off the rails. But hey, that's Christmas right!?

I have four things that really help me be who I am. They are: church; being a mother and wife, slimming world and crochet. I'm a crochet crazy person. 

We've not had much money for Christmas so I've been making everything. Fingers crossed people like what I've made! :) I'll post photos and links etc to what I've made but after Christmas. Don't want to be spooling surprises! 

Merry Christmas everyone! 

The New Year

Quotes I've found online that will hopefully sum up how I want 2016 to go. Maybe I'll look back on these at the end of 2016 and be able to say I stuck to them the best I could. 

Hopefully I am getting there already with this one. 

I think I might print this one off. 

This is going to be a hard one to do but that's because there are so many of these negatives that I feel I do right now. So my prayer is to change all the negatives into positives and hopefully I'll figure out a way to do that. 

Early Resolutions

My New Years Resolution is to write in my blog daily. Then I realised why should I wait until the New Year to start why I really should be doing now!? The answer is: I don't need to. 

My mum wrote a quote on her blog today (I'll get the link later) and so what I'm going to do is find a quote that is going to sum up my goal for 2016. Be it spiritual, mental, emotional, physical or all the above. 

Why put off til tomorrow what you can do today? 

Hiatus in Ideas

Sorry I've not been keep you updated I've been making Christmas presents and I can't post those on here as I know my mum reads my blog!! 

Totally off tangent of house building and more on the line of Slimming World for me these past couple of weeks :D I've being doing great so far! But more on that another day. 

My doll house living room will be red. For some reason even though all other furniture in the dolls house is pink when I went to buy the living room furniture of the same brand they were red. Kinda odd but it means it gives me a good base for my living room colours! Not that I've decided what they are yet! 

I'll keep you posted x