Skip to main content

Monthly Munch: January

Several blogs I follow do some kind of regular round-up, which seems like a) a good way to find a reason to post, and b) a good way to keep family updated (and remember what's happened ourselves!).  Two good things can't be too bad, huh?  So here's the first installment of Martha's Monthly Munch.

Toby


- went from two mornings to five mornings at pre-school without even seeming to notice, and barely remembers to say goodbye before he's off to the toys.

- had his first real sick days (poor baby) with some kind of cold / ear infection.  He wasn't himself for three days, and then woke up on the fourth as if he'd never been ill (and he'd only had one spoonful of the antibiotics - magic medicine!)

- enjoys "squelch squirch" mud, and pulling crazy faces for the camera.



- asks how baby brother is doing, and when he is "popping out".

- flew a kite for the first time - and let go, necessitating a rescue mission from a neighbour's garden.  Lesson learned to tie it to something other than Toby!


- loves creating glittery sparkly pictures.


- chooses his own clothes every morning.

Bump


- is still a bump!  He is officially to term now (due date 11 February)

- has been scanned a couple of times in January to confirm he's head down and not growing too fast - both tests he passed with ease.

Thankful for:
- a date night drinking smoothies on a sofa at the Book Cafe, thanks to my lovely friend Jane who offered to babysit.

- time to get the house organised before the baby turns up!

Best new recipe:

Spinach and courgette frittata (adapted from The Recipe Scrapbook )
Easy, tasty and quick.

1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 courgette (zucchini), sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
150-200g baby spinach
4 eggs
splash of milk
1/2 tsp dried oregano
50g mature cheddar, grated

Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the onion and courgette until golden.  Add the garlic and cook for another minute, then add the spinach and cook until wilted and some of the moisture has evaporated.

Beat together the eggs and milk.  Season with salt and pepper, and stir in the oregano and half the cheese.  Pour over the vegetables and cook over a fairly gentle heat until mostly set.  Sprinkle over the rest of the cheese and finish under a hot grill (broiler) to set the top.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Three Mile an Hour God: Spiritual Formation Book 10

"The affirmed life must not become either a lazy life or a happy-ever-after, easy life. The affirmed life is not a life of the power of positive thinking. To be affirmed by God means to live with danger and promise."   Kosuke Koyama's book Three Mile an Hour God was written out of the experience of the Second World War and its aftermath in Japan. As Koyama says in his preface, it is "a collection of biblical reflections by one who is seeking the source of healing from the wounds... inflicted by the destructive power of idolatry." The title speaks of a God who moves at walking pace - three miles an hour - and even, in Jesus, comes to a "full stop" - nailed to a cross. If we try to move faster than the love of God, says Koyama, we fall into idolatry. What is the book about? Three Mile an Hour God has 45 chapters, each a separate short reflection headed by a Bible verse. Some deal specifically with Japan, considering her role in WWII, the damage inflicte

National Forest Way: Ellistown, Bagworth, Nailstone

You may well say, "Where?" I'd never heard of any of these three villages before I planned to walk through them. Back in the 1970s, it would have been possible to travel between them underground. All three had collieries producing exceptional amounts of coal (Bagworth set a Guinness World Record). Nailstone and Bagworth collieries were connected in 1967, and Ellistown was merged with the other two in 1971. All the mines are long closed now. The railway lines have been taken up, the winding wheels turned into civic sculptures, and the pit sites transformed into country parks. It was a beautiful sunny day, but we'd had a lot of rain recently. Within five minutes of leaving Ellistown, I was glad I'd worn my wellies.   The way took me alongside a quarry site and then into a collection of woods: Common Hill Wood, Workmans Wood, Battram Wood. The colours of the trees in the November sunshine were beautiful. The path was a muddy mess. At Battram village I crossed a newly

National Forest Way: Normanton le Heath to Ellistown

This 9-mile walk took me through the Queen Elizabeth Jubilee Woods and Sence Valley Forest Park, and into the heavily-quarried countryside south of Coalville (no prizes for guessing what was mined there!) I originally planned to walk from Normanton le Heath to Donington le Heath, which had a pleasing symmetry. But I decided to go a bit further, to the hamlet of Ellistown.   It was a cold morning. I'd been in shorts the previous weekend, but today there was a frost. I added a flask of coffee, a scarf and gloves to my kit, and set off. For a small village, Normanton le Heath has a surprisingly wide road. I parked there rather than using the car park for the Jubilee Woods. That meant I was at my starting point straight away. I followed a road past some rather nice houses, crossed a field, and entered the Queen Elizabeth Jubilee Woods. The NFW leaflet told me that I was on the route of the Via Devana, a Roman road from Colchester to Chester. There isn't much left of it. a mosaic,