Michelle Tant

Today I watched history as our nations favourite Prince got married to the lovely Kate Middleton. I wish them health and happiness in their marriage, they seem very sweet. I'd say that Brits in the main have been very happy to see this wedding, not least because there's the general feeling that we've had quite a bit of bad news on a world scale lately. It seems the world loves our Monarchy so it felt like a world event. Here in the UK people have been celebrating, apparently there was 5500 applications for street parties for today and our (choke) Prime Minister said to celebrate and don't worry about the red tape so presumably there were many more. We watched the wedding at home then had a BBQ with friends to celebrate. My kids dressed as Princes and a Princess, hence my picture today. Congratulations William and Kate. Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9

Today, 3 years after making the decision, I took the plunge, put my money where my mouth is and signed up to a writing course. There are a couple of reasons it took this long, one major one being I was already on a course which required me to write and I really find that writing uses lot of my creative energy and I didn't have 'enough left of me' after the essays I've been writing, to devote to creative writing. So here I am. The essays are done, I am well and truly set on that road that the course put me on and I'm happy with it. So happy in fact that I felt now was the right time to do this. I know that there is a school of thought that says if you want to write, then write. You don't need to do a course, but for me, the structure will be helpful so that is behind my reasoning for signing up... that and the fact I have no idea if I'm really any good or not at this! Another reason for going for it is that I turned 30 last year and I feel that if I ...

I couldn't quite bring myself to type 'resolutions' as I invariably disgrace myself by failing miserably. So this year I'm going to do things a little different. I have one, yes ONE proper new years resolution. * Stop biting my nails. As my mother says, "you're 30 now, its time you gave that up". The rest of my 'new years etc' are as follows. The theory being that by not having a list I can't fail. How very defeatist of me... * Find a bible reading plan that actually works for me. Not sure why I end up bombing out on this with such alarming regularity. * Finally finish my daughters bedroom. It has such marvellous pink potential. The fact that she won't be in it for a while yet is neither here nor there, its half done and as such is making ME feel half done. Annoying. * Perhaps add a bit more structure to my blog. Eg, Feeding Friday, something or other Saturday. Hmm, may need some more work but you get the general idea. More o...

When I was pregnant I had a vision in my head of our new daughters first Christmas. She would be nearly 7 months old and by that point she would have tried a few tastes of pureed vegetables and fruits, certainly enough to make up to a Christmas meal. I decided that I would puree them separately so she had a variety of tastes then for dessert perhaps some stewed apple and raisins for a festive finish. That was also other peoples expectations of her Christmas meal and in fact any of her meals, I frequently feel like I'm being watched. My Nan came out with it the other day... "isn't she a bit young for that?" when I handed her a rice cake with a slice of cheese and apple. I was at that point a bit fed up of constantly explaining our choice to allow our daughter to lead her own journey to weaning. So I just said "watch her!". So she did. And was amazed to see her happily eat the lot, barring obviously the little bits that get tucked in unexpected plac...

A friend of mine gave me a delicious recipe for gravy and it completed this meal for my family. Bear with me as I do this, I haven't written down a recipe before but I'm 'trying something new' today. Hope you enjoy this take on a mash-up of a couple of traditional British meals as much as we do! (pretty cheap to make too!) For your weaning infant, just remove the sausages from the mini toad. Only use unsalted stock for babys gravy. Mini Toads, mashed potato and red onion gravy Preheat the oven to 200'c. You'll need: for the mini toads... 12 space muffin tin 9 sausages Olive oil 4 oz plain flour 2 eggs 200ml milk for the mashed potato... potatoes as desired, I usually allow 2 per person plus one! butter for the red onion gravy... 1 red onion chopped into half rings 200 mls vegetable stock (depending on how organised I am, this is either from a cube or frozen stock from a previous meal!) Juices from cooked sausages 2 heaped ts...

I was one of the first in my group of friends to get and email address. I was 17 years old and it was early 1998. I signed up for it, had no one to email so promptly forgot about it for a year or so. I discovered chat rooms when I was around 18. It was a whole new world and I could hardly believe that I was talking to people in different countries and time zones to me and it was around then that I fell in love with the internet. I used to listen to loads of music online, using Napster before it was shut down originally. I'd stay up all night chatting to people about nothing and everything, playing online games and keeping my Neopets alive. I made some pretty stupid decisions early on in my 'net life, ones that I wouldn't dream about now, like the time I went out at 3am and met someone I'd been chatting with for a few hours, got in a car with them and went for a drive. I was so stupid. Nothing happened, I was fine, delivered safely home but Blimey. Thankfully I...

I felt inspired (thanks @BabyMakingMama )to blog about this today. You may or may not know that I have three children. Two boys and a girl, 5, 3 and 6 months respectively. With my eldest son, Jayden, I followed the traditional method of weaning onto solids religiously. I bought a couple of puree books, I recommend Annabel Karmel as her recipes taste delicious if you are going down that route incidentally, and set about introducing my son to the delights of non-mummy-milk foods. I started with baby rice which is pretty tasteless really, mixed up with breastmilk; just an introduction to new texture I suppose. Then on to a new taste every few days, eg a few days of pureed carrots, then apple, then parsnip/squashes, then apple AND carrot, then mashed potato... gradually increasing the lumpiness until FINALLY I dared to give him a piece of food to hold himself. And the fear in the room was palpable. I was literally terrified that he would choke, but he didnt and we all lived to tell the tal...

Today was probably the worst shopping experience I have ever had with my children in tow. I do tend to avoid it as it really is no fun for them, whether its food supermarket shopping or town shopping. As a child I hated it... following my mum in and out of shops on a Saturday morning was as far from my idea of fun as possible. So that's why I avoid it but of course sometimes its a necessary evil. I need to have the Christmas shopping done by the 1st December due to changing my mortgage provider I'm paying double that date then back to normal from 1st Jan. So December is going to be a bit of a squeeze. Thankfully I've been saving for Christmas but even so, it makes sense to know exactly where we'll be. I digress... So this morning I decided to take 6 month old baby Daisy and Reuben my 3 year old with me into town. I had my list. I knew what to get. I knew where to go. I had an 'in/out' extraction planned with military precision. I had snacks and drinks, hea...

I looked on BBC news website today for inspiration to blog. The two headlines this evening are the North and South Korea conflict and the Will and Kate marriage plans. One of them scares me half to death and the other gives me a warm fuzzy feeling and it didn't take a genius to work out which. One of them causes me to worry about a future tainted by nuclear arms. The other causes me to think about a young happy couple embarking on their future together. I did actually start to write about how I feel about the Korea situation but it degenerated fairly quickly into morbid speculation which to be honest is not my usual style and so is a bit indicative of my feelings on the subject. Perhaps I need to leave that where it is for the time being. I feel quite positive about the upcoming Royal nuptials. Friday 29th April 2011. Apparently the nation gets an extra bank holiday, though when I mentioned going to London that day, hubby looked at me like I'd just spontaneously gr...

A blog a day keeps the stalemate away. That's what I'm hoping anyway. Suspect that while I'm trying to capture inspiration, the best thing to do is keep writing. So what today? Saw a friends newly decorated lounge: very stylish. Took the kids to the park: freezing. Currently cooking pizza for them: unimaginative. So my accumulated adjectives for the day are stylish, freezing and unimaginative. Now use them in a sentence. Lordy. Published with Blogger-droid v1.5.9