Enchanting

Such a lovely whimsical mobile by Ememem on etsy.

Seafood Pasta

Our dinner tonight. And a life saver on many nights. After cooking Indian food regularly, this is such a welcome change in taste and ease of preparation. It can be used with just shrimp, but the mixed seafood has a nice deep flavour and is also less expensive. I love the addition of the red chillies as it gives a nice spiciness to the dish. Here's my recipe.

INGREDIENTS
















1 bag of mixed seafood
2 tbsp Olive oil
8 Garlic cloves
2 Dried Red chillies (optional)
1 Tub of cherry tomatoes or 1 large red tomato chopped
1/3 cup chopped parsley or 2 tbsp chopped basil

METHOD














Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the chopped garlic and red chillies (if using).















When the garlic is browned, add chopped tomatoes and salt to taste. Cover and cook ten minutes on medium low till the tomatoes are mushy.














Add the defrosted seafood and cover again. Leave to simmer for another 6 minutes. Turn off the stove and add chopped basil or parsley, and freshly ground black pepper.















Enjoy!

Thank you Soulemama!

For the last 4 yrs I have headed over daily to the Soulemama blog to see what exciting stuff was happening over there. Amanda has been a huge inspiration to me as a mother, artist and a teacher. Today we are the featured sponsor on her blog and are so happy to be able to share some of our work with the other readers that have been touched in a similar way.

Let's play Bingo!

I got a vintage Bingo game from the thrift on Friday and that's become the hit of our household - the first thing I hear every morning is - "Wet's pway Bingo, Mama!" It's been really good for my little one to get good at recognising numbers.

Plate Wall

I've been lusting after a plate wall ever since I saw Lisa Congdon's gorgeous one. I didn't have the lovely large wall space like hers, and realised that I didn't have many beautiful vintage plates so decided to use what I had, and some that I had made. I'm quite pleased with the result and she likes it too!

Finnian Patrick's room is one of the most beautiful rooms I've ever seen. I'm so proud that our woodland wall graphics were used here. See the full post with many pictures here.

Portraits

Last week we all tried our hand at portraits. Here are the results.

















First one made by my son - 7 - self portrait. Second one made by my daughter - 4 - portrait of her brother. Third one made by my daughter - 4 - self portrait.

Coloring Cards

All the things we would rather be doing instead of lying in bed! Four coloring cards printed on thick white textured card using our laser printer - one sheet makes four cards. We enjoyed coloring these and writing notes on the back of them while we were ill. Available at the etsy shop.

Chappati

Since we are still not well, here are some pics from last week before the bug. One of my daughter's favourite foods is chappathi - Indian bread. Usually I have it in my freezer from the Indian store, but sometimes I run out and we have to make it from scratch. Then I wonder why I buy it frozen as it's so easy, so yummy and so much fun to make together. Each family has thier own traditional recipe, but I usually just wing it with what I have in my pantry. This time I mixed two types of flour - millet and wheat, a little salt, poured some lukewarm water on it till it formed a nice soft dough. Pinched out a small ball from the big one and rolled it out on a floured surface till flat. Cooked it on a tawa (flat iron skillet) till both sides are nicely browned, and for that magic ingredient - some butter before serving. Delicious!

Easter Birthday

I wish I had happy seventh birthday pictures but unfortunately I report from the land of high fevers and blankets as the flu has taken over our household! It has been pretty brutal so far and I'm hoping the end is in sight for all of us...

My Easter Bunny is Seven

I can't believe my baby will be seven years old this weekend. On Easter Sunday. We will be celebrating on the beach with all his friends. I will see you Monday!

Soft Books

I am in the process of testing these out and providing these as kits in the etsy shop for all the crafty mamas out there. Once I get the instructions together and am happy with the way they work I will need some volunteer testers for these, so stay tuned.

Froggie Update

So I talked to my friend who is an environmental studies professor, and she was in favour of letting them go as she said the area we lived in was pretty 'invaded' already, and euthanising two frogs was not going to make much difference. So that's what we did, and it was a big relief as I was having a hard time keeping a wild creature as a pet.

The Monster Juggles

Hot and Cold Packs

I made these packs with the scraps of fabric I had, and oh wow! I'm so surprised at how much use they are already getting! Every time we get a boo boo, which is multiple times a day sometimes, these are requested immediately. I filled them with flax seeds, and put them in the freezer for an immediate cold pack. They can be put in the microwave for 30 seconds for a hot pack. I made these myself but there are heaps of shops that sell them on etsy.

Our Exciting Visitor

Today instead of letters we found this beautiful little guy in our mailbox. Our neighbour said he is a Southern Leopard Frog - though he has suction cups which the pictures on the internet don't match. We're still looking for a better match. He stayed in a jar for a little while we named him, examined him, then we (not me) touched and held him, then let him go off to join his friends. Rocky is an amazing jumper, and feels slimy and smooth and bumpy.



















NOTE: We found that he is a Cuban Treefrog who is an invasive species to Florida and poses a major threat to local animals. He is a voracious eater and people have found that seeing one in their yard means disappearance of the smaller native Florida frogs. It is suggested that we euthanise him! So we caught him again and he is now living in our tank as our pet. Click here to read more about them.

Update: We found another Cuban Tree Frog in a tree. Now there are two in our aquarium. Will they reproduce?