My future Edward Hopper and René Magritte

After struggling with the idea of managing my twins boys with paint, I finally was able to get the boys painting! I may have cried a wee bit :)

My goodness. I was amazed. They LOVED IT! Really LOVED IT! Hendrik was so upset when the session was over. LOVE IT! Seriously, they took to it like a fish to water... 

We used a homemade milk-based paint that I found here.

Basically, it's sweetened condensed milk and food colouring. That's it, easy as. As the boys still put everything in their mouths, it was important to be an 'edible' recipe. Henk wasn't into it. Willem didn't mind the taste. But it was rather tasty ;) After using it though, I think I need to make a version that doesn't take 4 days to dry! And it's so sticky! But mission accomplished. The boys are painting. I'm a happy happy mum.

Happy Friday!

Enjoy the weekend! 

xoxo

Persimmon Bundt Cake (and an almost Beetroot Gnocchi.)

The last few weeks have been a bit crazy.
Crazy running and jumping boys.
Me with food poisoning. Bad enough to send me to the doctor finally...
J working multiple weekend nights in a row.
We all need a break.

On top of trying to stay on top of life, I've been trying new recipes here and there... One still needing a bit of work is Beetroot Gnocchi, or rather I have a boatload of leftover roast veggie-gnocchi. They were ok. But just ok. I'm still working on those. I'll get there damn it!

But this one was a winner! We had a few persimmon kicking around in the fridge recently and while I was thinking of a way to use them as a chutney or something, I ended busting out the old bundt cake mould. I hadn't used it in ages and they always make some pretty cakes. I need to start using them more often. 

So this treat was first found here.

I made it minus the currants, which I just forgot (that happens a lot lately, they were sitting on the bench and all! Ugh.) and minus the nuts as you never know who might have a nut allergy these days. 

It's a pretty basic recipe really. Very similar to a pumpkin cake which is always a happy treat for me!

xoxo

Some new adventures...

The Potty. Well, potties. I can't believe how eager they are to use them. We're only starting out and I'm not putting any pressure on them right now. But both of the boys are telling me when they need to poo and potty, so I thought we'd give it a go! Not too bad so far. They are more into washing their hands after and singing songs while sitting there... Pretty damn funny! 

And yes. New ouchies. *sigh* This we had to put a plaster on Willem's toe from a really bad scrape. And later in the morning, Henk's forehead decided to meet the edge of the coffee table. Within ten minutes of cuddles and drinks of water, we was back to bouncing on the couch and reading books. 

Ugh. 

This is what being a mum of boys is all about huh? 

x

*ps

Sorry for the icky iPhone pics. :P 

A plastic-free life...

Is it possible?

It's something that I would love to achieve. Last week I realised how much our recycling had gone down. We recently started getting raw milk which is delivered in a 10L bucket that gets sent back to the farm every week. And we keep our milk in big glass 2.2L jugs in the fridge.

So that and getting the boys off formula recently (yaaayaayyyyy!) has cut down our fortnightly plastic/metal/paper recycling to one bag instead of two! That's pretty massive really.

But the question I have at the moment, plastic bags... The ones we do get from the shop are strictly used for rubbish. It seems sort of pointless to have my green bags with me everywhere if I'm still going to need a couple plastic shopping bags anyway! It's a stupid cycle that we need to break. It's the fact of the matter that they are STILL going into landfills. Frustrating!

We compost, we recycle, we try and avoid excess packaging, so that's all working. But we still have rubbish.

Then, I saw this image again recently and I started to wonder...

Yes, she is amazing. Always an idol, but the bin. A newspaper liner? This is what got me thinking. We don't need plastic bags at all... But what's the best way to go about this? Using newspaper and those pesky junk mail flyers to line a bin? A washable cotton liner? Or just go without all together?

What are your thoughts? How can we see an end to it?

X

 

When toddlers go bad...

Yeah. It's been one of those weeks.

On and off eating.
Clingy.
"Up!"
Nappy rash.
Not napping.
"Up!"
Full on napping. Talking like 2+ hours.
Tantrums.
More not eating.
Cranky.
Cranky.
"Up!"
Cranky.
"Up!"

Teething? Possibly. I hope so.
Growing pains? How can you tell?

Any ideas?
xx