just another morning here

Dashed around on Friday morning running various errands before my parents arrived for lunch. They said they’d bring soup, which they did – but it was still frozen! Of course we don’t have a microwave, so after a while getting said soup into my biggest saucepan (which, incidentally, wasn’t big enough) and deciding that it would take ages to defrost/heat it on the hob, we abandoned soup and just ate the rest of the food

Today has been almost back to normal – Steve went off racing, I’ve done loads and loads (and loads) of washing, the girls went to orchestra, Anna went to a party, and the rest of us went out to the environs of Escot on a long geocache trek. 17 in three hours!

Dashed home after realising that Steve was locked out of the house, and he took Abbie and I back up to his hillclimb for their hog roast tea (the other two preferred beans on toast at home!). Mamhead is gorgeous but we’re back there again tomorrow so I’ll take photos then.

Came back fairly quickly as the sun went down and we got cold! Anna and Josiah decided to give Steve’s birthday tent (present from his parents to save sleeping in the car at hillclimbs which are further away from home!) a test run in the garden so they’re sleeping outside tonight

Day one of the Jesse Tree – a picture of a tree stump with a shoot growing from it (Isaiah 11:1) coloured and hung on the tree by Josiah. Anna has learnt the verse; Joe and Abbie are trying to as well.

Steve went off this morning to take a few photos (worship through a lens?), I quite like a couple of them, despite not really being a fan of landscapes – generally I prefer photos with people in them, but these are quite nice … (although as we joked the other day, if his waterfall pictures could have some cheesy bible verse or other along the bottom, these seaside shots are prime candidates for the ‘footsteps‘ poem down the side … hmm, maybe this is why I don’t like landscapes ).

Meanwhile the girls went for a bike ride with friends which they really enjoyed, and Josiah opted to stay here and do something ‘special’ with me. He had wanted to play Monopoly, but then Mollie turned up and saved me from that fate, or so I thought, as he remembered about it over lunchtime so I still had to play this afternoon. It was a 3 hour long torturous game, he refused to be declared the winner (even though he was obviously thrashing me, I clearly helped him too much ), and had to play until the bitter end. Still, it was good maths practice, I suppose, he added dice faultlessly and did plenty of adding up money as well. Abbie played too, and she was fairly hot on change from all the different notes, so I was pleased! Anna was at Stagecoach, where she had a dress rehearsal for their end of term performance next week.

This evening I made Carrot & Tomato soup which half of my family refused to eat (don’t know why I bother sometimes), have done violin practice with Joe and then put all the kids to bed with books to read as despite a relatively peaceful day I still feel frazzled and in need of some space. Steve’s out playing poker with friends. I *should* be doing the ironing and writing shopping lists for tomorrow but I can’t quite summon up the energy. Or think of a title for this post, in fact.

(adapted from You Are What You Eat cookbook)

2 onions, peeled & chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled & chopped
6 carrots, trimmed, peeled & chopped
stock cube/stock
100g ground almonds

chopped fresh parsley & coriander to garnish – if using, stick the herb stalks in the main soup.

Chuck everything bar the almonds in a saucepan with about 1 litre boiling water, bring back to the boil, simmer for 30 mins. Take out herb stalks if you’ve used them before blending. Blend, then throw in the almonds. Hey presto, serve with the chopped herbs.

dead easy, just how I like it