Did you know that there are only 3 months until Christmas?
Every year I swear that I am going to get have everything organised early but so far I never have. I am out doing last minute shopping with every other silly person and staying up until past midnight wrapping presents on Christmas Eve. Well not this year, I have promised myself a stress free Christmas this year and with a little bit of planning that’s exactly what I am going to have.
My kids start school holidays next week so one activity that we will be doing is to make Christmas Wish Books, these are simply an exercise book which each child can decorate and start pasting in pictures of things that they would like for Christmas. I have been saving the toy catalogues for the last couple of weeks, so we should have plenty of pictures to get us started.
After school goes back my aim is to try and buy each child 1 present from their book each week until I am done. I am also going to spend 15 minutes or so each week to wrap up and label any presents that I have purchased so that I don’t have the horrible task of wrapping everything at midnight on Christmas Eve.
Have you started planning for Christmas?, what sorts of things have you done or are planning to do?, I’d love your ideas
Finally after a year I have recorded another podcast. You can listen right here in your browser by clicking the play button above or you can find all of A juggling Mum Podcast episodes at iTunes.
Below are all of the links I spoke of in the podcast:
It’s the Menu Plan Monday – Family Favourites Edition this week. So I have included a couple of our families favourites as well as a couple of recipes that we haven’t tried before
Heat oil in a large, non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add onion, capsicum and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 3 to 4 minutes or until tender. Increase heat to medium-high. Add mince. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until browned.
Add tomato paste, 1/4 cup cold water and beans. Stir to combine. Simmer for 3 to 4 minutes or until mixture has thickened slightly.
Preheat oven to 200°C. Lightly grease a 6cm-deep, 20cm (base) springform pan. Place pan on a baking tray. Place 1 tortilla in base of pan. Spoon one-third of the mince mixture over tortilla. Repeat layers twice with remaining tortillas and mince mixture, finishing with a tortilla. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until top is golden. Cut into wedges. Serve with sour cream and guacamole.
Last weekend I mentioned that Caitie had a bug well it seems that Caitie likes to share because it has now been passed around our family Riley came down with it on Tuesday, Sophie and I got it on Thursday and Chloe got it yesterday. We are now just waiting to see if Rob and Clare get it. I hope not because it is my Grandmothers birthday today and we are having lunch with her n the rest of my family tomorrow, so I really don’t want to miss it because of sick kids.
Thankfully it has been a relatively easy tummy bug, in that only Caitie and Riley were vomiting and most of the time they managed to get it in the bucket, there was only the one rug incident. Sophie, Chloe and I only felt nauseous and very very sleepy. I haven’t slept so much in 10 years. Sophie and I spent most of Thursday curled up in bed, it would have been lovely if we hadn’t been feeling like crap
Today I am feeling much better and the sun is shining bright, so I have decided to strip all the beds and wash everything. I think I might even give that rug another scrubbing!
Heat oil in a large non-stick saucepan over a medium-high heat. Add onion. Cook for 3 minutes or until soft. Add mince. Cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, for 5 minutes or until browned.
Add curry paste, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Stir well. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes or until liquid has evaporated.
Stir in celery and cabbage. Cook, uncovered, stirring, for 5 to 7 minutes or until cabbage just wilts. Serve with rice.
Fab Five on Friday is a regular feature here on A Juggling Mum. Each Friday I am going to list five blogs. These will include my favourite blogs, blogs I have been reading lately or new blogs I have found. It’s my way of spreading a little link love around
I’d love for you to join me. All you have to do is write a post on your blog listing 5 blogs you’d like to give some love to and then come back here and link it using Mr Linky.
I promise to come and visit everyone that joins in.
My Fab Five for this week are five new blogs that I have just subscribed to, they are all Aussie bloggers with large families:
