Sports Mojo, Peloton, Work Lunches, Getting back into it all

I'm not sure how much it's come through on the bloggo but I've been on an exercise slump.  Since I got back from France in Feb I have totally lost my movement mojo.  I was kind of "holding on" in December and January as well, I remember a night of listening to a Peloton meditation trying not to lose my exercise week streak.  

Well, the week streak is long lost, and in March I felt just BLAH:

I mean, I went out and did stuff and had fun, but I could not motivate myself to exercise.  I did exactly 3 things on Peloton that month.

I also started to realize how tired I was... as in, when I would try to lift weights my arms would scream NOOO THIS IS NOT RIGHT STOP IT NOW which was also kind of new for me.  So I took all of this "hmm" and made an appointment with my GP because I thought I might be low in B12 again.  

The good news was that my tests were all normal, except Ferritin, which I guess is part of Iron?  So I started taking some easy iron, which I hate because I think it makes me bloated among other gastrointestinal effects, but I am feeling better in other ways and suddenly I've got my a bit of my sport mojo back.

I've started enjoying my friend gym time more (I have two gym buddies and workout with each once a week), and I've been riding the Peloton and enjoying it again.  I'm definitely not as strong as I was last year when I did the half marathon, but I'm not as tired as I was when I wrote this post about being tired.

Also, I was a bit blog-spired by Kae who posted a workout! When I am not super tired I am usually up for any kind of workout and hers looked hard.  So I gave it a go! It was hard, I did about 75%, with lighter weights, and swapped out some of the exercises.  Squat thrusters with Bulgarian Split Squats was hard... lunges after was impossible.  It was fun to try something different and remember how much I enjoy random workout things.

Also, do you know what the most random workout thing (in my mind) is right now?  Hyrox.  That stuff is so crazy and also... I'm a little intrigued:

100 wall balls would probably take me an hour but hey, I paid for that hour!

Or maybe I just need to enter that half ironman I've always dreamed of.  except for the road riding on open roads with cars.   Also, in no way do I have time for (or maybe in no way can I prioritize) training for a half ironman now.

I'm not entering anything after a week of solid exercise, but I am happy to be feeling better about moving around and doing stuff.

Also, possibly because I am feeling better, I am also eating better.  I have packed myself my work meals for a few days and it means I come down and eat things that I like rather than whatever random bread thing is in the fridge or bread box.  I prep my meals while I do kid school snack

My two favourite work meals are

• Yogurt and Seed bowl (much fruit, chia, hemp, and flax seed, yogurt, and cacao nibs because yum.)
• Salad (ie box of stuff with some veg) with all the things (ie anything leftover, yesterday it had roast potatoes and salmon and also normal salad.  Bread with the salad.
  

Todays foods.

I am fairly sure I could eat the same two meals every day, or even the same 3 meals every day.  Also, I don't want to look overly healthy here, I also snack and eat chocolate and other things.  

I basically eat most of my food during work because dinner and breakfast can be chaotic with 4 young kids such that it's better that I don't expect to feed myself during these meals - I try very hard not to show up hungry to dinner.  This is a habit I would like to drop someday soon because eating a meal when hungry is nice, and eating food to prevent hunger at mealtimes is... less nice.

Anyways, I am hoping this sports and decent food mojo continues because being tired and feeling blah was super lame.  

Also, Ezra has got the Peloton bug!

He did a 2 mile ride on Tuesday after school.  In his school uniform.  It was cute.

What's your favourite work lunch?  Do you like random sports or no sports or one sport?

7 Food Things on a Friday

I've started tracking food, which is weird for me because I am generally awful at tracking what I eat.  It turns out the magic is in using excel (or google sheets) because I just love a color coded sheet.  I don't track my food particularly well (as in, calories, or portion sizes, or macros, or what "some sandwich and snacky bits" even means)

This Week

Last Week

7 things I have learned from tracking my food for a few weeks:

I love cakes and biscuits and I don't care.  A cup of tea and a biscuit is a great note on my time log

I have to remember to eat fruit.  But also, I eat much better in a day if I eat fruit.  I don't naturally reach for fruit when I'm hungry but I should.

My ideal eating pattern would be morning coffee, 10am meal (like, spaghetti bolognaise or chili or an actual meal), 3pm meal, 6pm snack.  This is not a normal or socially acceptable way to eat, but I bet it would work well for my energy levels.

When I forget to eat breakfast by 11am everything goes downhill.  On Thursday I started work early and only had coffee, I was in calls from 9am to 11am and then went straight to a school meeting.  I had a banana on the way but when I finished the meeting I was so hungry that I didn't want to wait for the babies to finish lunch so I could eat (the babies get upset if I'm around right before nap, so it's easier to stay away).  So Andy and I went to a cafe for lunch, which was nice and delicious but also I missed a Peloton workout I had scheduled with a friend.  If I had eaten food at 10am I would have been able to think better at 12 and probably do my workout then get my lunch at 1.

Meals with lots of vegetables make me feel better and able to go through life better.  Meals that are made of cheese and bread are my go-to but I would like to be better about having a fridge of tasty veggie options rather than scavenging food.  

If I do exercise I want to eat more nutritious food.  If I eat more nutritious food I want to exercise more.  If I am hungry I don't want to exercise at all.

Blue cheese gives me weird dreams.  I still eat cheese before bed.

Have you ever tracked your food? Did you learn anything?  Do you get cheese dreams?

Sunday Update: Reading, Sports, Sleep, Food Plan

We had a week of sun this week which ended with rain and now I'm totally into FALL.  I'm ready! There are 100 days left in the year today! I am wearing my light sweaters! I put throw blankets out downstairs.  I will soon do a smelly candle inventory and redistribute.  I should probably swap my duvet to the 9.5 tog one and the downstairs curtains to the heavy ones.  I love fall.

Also, I started work this week! On Tuesday! I cannot believe I get to go back to work again on Monday.  At 5pm  on Thursday I wasn't totally exhausted.  I was excited to come downstairs and see my lovely kids having a lovely time with the Nanny.  I've done big kids bedtimes with less "I can't do this, your turn Andy" endings.   I keep thinking how lucky I am that I get to go back to work on Monday *and* they even pay me to be there. I get paid to be less tired.  People are happy to see me.  I can go to the toilet whenever I want.  It's just... good.  

Reading

I just finished Summer Romance.  It's only the second book I finished this month.  I have given up on Olga Dies Dreaming.  So far this year I'm at 37 books.  I think Summer Romance officially ends my summer reading and now I'm into fall.  Fall is life improvement reading and advetnure fantasy.  

The following are on my fall list:

• Uptime by Laura Mae Martin
• You Only Die Once by Jodi Wellman
• The Plan by Kendra Adachi
• Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robin & Joe Dominguez

Fiction on my fall list:

• Trust by Hernan Diaz
• Spitting Gold by Carmella Lowkis
• The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley
• Starter Villain by Jon Scalzi

I read some fantastic books this summer.  But I will pick Sandwich was the best book of the summer for me.  You can see my full booklist here, I started adding star ratings but I realized I enjoyed so many books!

Sports

Monday: Long walk in the woods with babies in baby carriers.

Tuesday: 1.5 mile bike ride to my friend's house, 4.5 mile run/jog up local hill.  Then a train run down with head torches which was super fun! I like trail running at night with head torches.  1.5 mile bike ride home.

Thursday: Leg day at the gym with gym buddy.  I love leg day! I am so imbalanced.  My split squats are a nightmare.  I've decided I need to work on my split squats more.

Saturday: 3 mile bike ride to dinner with andy and then 3 mile bike ride home.

Since I still don't have access to my office I have decided to take it easy on my workout schedule.  We have set up the baby room, and the former baby room is being painted this week, and then Andy can move into that office, and then I can have floorspace in my office again, and then I plan to do more workout videos as a break from my workday.

Sleep

I'm averaging 7.25 hours of sleep.  On Sunday, after my mountain biking, I went to sleep at 8pm and slept till 6am.  I've been pretty good about going to sleep by 9.  

Food Plan

Why not incorporate a food plan here??

Monday: Jacket Potatoes with Tuna Salad, Cheese and Beans and Broccoli

Tuesday: Slow Cooker pinto beans and rice
Wednesday: Blue Cheese Burgers and chips and Broccoli

Thursday: Mystery Pasta Dish (whatever I feel like making)

Friday: Sushi (out!) and Toad in the Hole for the kids (Sausage baked in batter)

 This week is an exciting week because Lilah *finally* starts school nursery (like pre-k?).  I'm really not into the slow start school.  Isaac has been in for 3 weeks already.  However, check out this uniform situation.  Sometimes I am still surprised at how british my kids are.

Happy Fall y'all!

"What is life like with 3 kids under 5?" - the google search that gave me no answers to a question I didn't need to ask.

Before we went for a 3rd kid I spent a lot of time googling "What is life like with 3 under 5?" and reading stories and blogs.  Most people seemed to be stay at home moms, or worked part time.  Most were also writing when their youngest was 2+ years old.  Every article or blog generally commented on craziness and chaos.  I distinctly remember one blogger writing "someone is always awake"

I'm not going to write some "What it's actually like!" post because if you want that experience just come stay at my house for a day or two.  

But I often think of the "someone is always awake" post.  Now that the twins are 9 months old, someone is definitely not always awake.  In fact, between 7:30pm and 5:30am, everyone under the age of 6 is generally asleep. From 10pm to 5am everyone is generally asleep.  The good thing is I don't get to choose a slightly later bedtime for myself and catch up on the other side (like I did when I was younger).  I just get to play around with how much sleep I actually need.  I'm thinking that in consecutive sleep I need just north of 7 hours.  I don't really need 8 hours.  I do very poorly on less than 6 hours.

As much as the phrase "someone is always awake" stuck with me, I think what I mostly observe is "someone is always preparing food, eating food, or cleaning up food"

From waking up at 5 to cleaning up dinner at 7pm there are around 5-6 kid meal and snack times.  The high chairs need wiping 5-6 times.  The floor needs sweeping.  The babies can crawl now, which means if we don't clean directly after meals they will try and snack on their own floor-based off-casts.  They have mats under their high chairs which we shake outside sometimes, but the seagulls know the sound of mat shaking and it's an actual feeding frenzy.  When we ate outside you could see the birds gathering on the garage roof.. watching.

Once a seagull started pecking at the dining room door after breakfast, I guess asking me to hurry up and clean?

On days where I have all 4 kids (which I still maintain is impossible, and I mostly do not even attempt) I realized it's easier if I make them all a packed lunch.  I am a person who packs lunches for at home.

FYI, I still LOVE our Planet Box Lunch boxes, as does everyone else I meet.

Earlier this week I took Isaac and the babies out with my dad.  We decided to go to a family friendly art gallery and cafe.  There was no parking.  With twins, parking is necessary.  I drove to the museum instead.  The museum was fun.  The museum cafe was terrible.  We visited a second cafe.  The second cafe did not have any high chairs.  We drove past a third cafe, which didn't have any parking, but did have high chairs.  We finally went to the cafe which had parking and high chairs, the same cafe we ate lunch at on Tuesday.  

Even when not packing and thinking about lunches I seem to spend my time thinking about cafes that have parking and high chairs.  Also, they have to have enough high chairs.  There's. a lovely family run italian cafe near us with two high chairs.  There's an awkward look when I walk in with twins and spot a baby in one of the high chairs. 

One high chair, for the purpose of cafe lunches with twins, is no high chairs.

It's 6:30am.  It's breakfast time.  What's breakfast like with four kids 5 and under?  Chaos.

Nora (top) and Audrey (bottom) enjoying some pasta

Twin things and feeding a big family

Today I took Nora and Audrey on a big adventure to the baby optometrist (the optometrist was not a baby herself, but she instead specialised in babies).  The visit was really interesting - Nora's eyes hadn't focused properly by 6 months but were apparently normal today, which was assessed using a series of cards and then some fancy camera with dots and sounds.  One of the tests (which Nora was too young for) was holding a magic eye card and seeing if she would point to or reach for any of the shapes.  Instead she put the card in her mouth.   

Apparently her eyes are fine, so hopefully I can capture better photos than this from now on:

After the appointment I thought it would be nice to get a coffee and people watch with the twins.  The first coffee shop I walked past had a queue and was too small to fit the double pram in.  So I walked to the second coffee shop, where I saw another family using one of the two high chairs already.  With only one high chair left for the twins I had to pass and instead got in the car.

I figured maybe we could stop at M&S and get something nice for lunch.  The twins have only ever been to a big Sainsbury's before because I know they have at least one twin shopping trolly.  So before going to M&S I called to ask if they had shopping trolleys for twins, and unfortunately they only had trolleys for single kids.  

So I drove home, coffee and shop-less.

Twins at Sainsburys

Twins is an interesting view of a world I didn't know existed.  I own a Mountain Buggy twin pram, which is the narrowest of the twin prams and is the same size as a standard wheelchair.  I find it interesting when people say "on can you fit in there?" or even one person who said "Those things are huge! sort of a menace!"... do people say these things to wheelchair users?  I assume no one is surprised when a wheelchair can fit through a door?  Or maybe they are surprised? or maybe wheelchairs can't fit through all doors?   

Anyways, I take up a lot of space with twins.  And we take up a lot of food with our giant family.

For example, our grocery shop this week (delivered on Sunday) included 3kg (6.6lb) of carrots (which cost £2.10/$2.70).  I just used the last carrot for our dinner tonight.  

We eat about 2 kg (4.5lbs) of potatoes a week.

We have already eaten 4 cans of chickpeas this week (making our own hummus and having a falafel dinner). 

We eat approx 3 dozen eggs every week.  This morning we had scrambled eggs for breakfast (10 eggs, 2 each for the kids/adults and 1 each for the babies).  

Yesterday we had crumpets and yogurt for breakfast, and a pack of 8 no longer feeds the whole family, so instead I had to get 2 packs of 8... although we do have some leftover.

We eat a 550g (1.2lb) block of cheese every week... more if we have Macaroni and cheese.

We eat at least 12 apples a week.

We order 3x 4pints of milk a week (about a gallon and a half?)

We eat 2kg (4.5lbs) of bananas every week

I've started having a standard shop of most of the above delivered weekly, and then we add specifics for our weekly meals.  But still... this is so much food.  And sometimes we need to get a few more pieces from our local shop to supplement our big order.  Our weekly shop is currently about £125-£150 a week.

(we don't have a pantry so food is split between open kitchen shelves and a cabinet unit in the dining room.  I try to only stock 4 types of cans - Black Beans, Chickpeas, Baked Beans and Chopped Tomatoes.  Right now I have a can of tomato soup for the kids and white beans for the babies, as well as my last can of pumpkin.)

We don't really eat out much (never for dinner, very occasional lunch or cafe) so I don't think our spending is unreasonably high, since a pizza dinner would probably be £50.  We make almost everything from scratch or mostly from scratch.  

This week's meal plan:
Sunday - Veggie Burgers and Roast Potatoes and Carrots
Monday - Veggie slow cooker spaghetti bolognaise
Tuesday - Falafel wraps with hummus and tomato and cucumber
Wednesday - Jacket Potatoes, Roast Carrots, Beans and Tuna salad
Thursday - broccoli soup and bread
Friday - Macaroni and Cheese

Do you think your family eats a lot of food?  Do you have any questions about twin life or big-family-lots-of-small-kids-life? 

Sunday Randomness - Hair, Running, Sleep, Food.

On Friday I decided it was time to cut Lilah's hair.  I set up mommy hair salon in the kitchen.  It included the following hair cut menu:

Lilah picked curly hair.  I cut it exactly as I planned to (slightly shorter than it was)

We are not a big TV family.  We watch half an hour sometimes before dinner, and sometimes a little more if we are watching a film in parts.  Although I have a tablet the kids have never seen me use it and I've told them that our tablet doesn't do TV.  I have a kindle which Lilah has tried and failed to play music on (somehow she did factory reset it once??)  I debated letting lilah watch TV while I cut her hair since daytime TV is a general no... but I decided there is no reward for cutting a kids hair while they flail about.  I put on Bluey and she sat SO STILL and I was able to actually measure and cut and it turned out pretty OK (I mean, it looks basically the same, but it way easier to comb).  Next time I do Isaac hair I will definitely be using tactical TV.

[Also, If I cut both kids hair, and Andy's hair, then I can *definitely* spend more money on my hair.  I'm also wondering whether my hair cuts (at £35) or colours (at £80 - but I've only done this once as I'm trying to grow out my natural colour now) should be going under a different budget category.  It currently sits in Rachel Hobbies... but is having decent hair a hobby or a requirement?  I do enjoy some parts of the hair cut, but if Andy could make my hair look as good as the hair dresser then I would be happy to not spend the money.  Things to ponder.]

Saturday was a rough morning.  We are trying to get Audrey to sleep longer and I'm trying to drop the 5am feed.  on Friday she did great.  On Saturday she decided she did not want to drop or shorten the 5am feed and she let the whole house know.  Everyone was awake from 5am onwards.  And I had foolishly tried to go back to sleep after she woke me at 4:30, which meant that when I was awake again at 5:30 I was extra annoyed.  My mantra is "there is no sleep past 4:30" because at 4:30 or 5:00am it's so easy (especially on a Saturday!) to think "if only I could have another hour of sleep!"... but realising there isn't another hour to be had takes that decision away.

I don't look at the sky at 9:30pm and ask for another hour of light.  I can't look at the clock at 5am and ask for another hour of sleep.

Also, there are always earlier bedtimes! There have been a slew of bedtime related posts recently on the internets which I am very much interested in.  Apparently 9pm is not the terribly early adult bedtime I thought it was.  For some reason I've always felt 10pm is a good solid adult bedtime.  But maybe 8-9 is the way forward.  Maybe evening social activities are not a thing of the late thirties and early 40s era of lots of young babies.

But back to Saturday.  Because everyone was in a terrible state we all stayed home, the babies went down for a nap early, and I decided to go to Parkrun - a free local 5K.  This is my first 5k since having the twins, and part of my goal of doing 4 5k races this year.  It went way better than expected, mainly because I ran right behind two runners who had a perfect 11:45 pace which kept me from going out too fast and then walking.  I didn't walk.  I actually felt good the whole way, and picked up the pace for the last quarter of a mile.

I came in at 35 minutes, which is basically the same time I had on my last Parkrun (early March 2023... right before I found out I was pregnant).  It's also the same time I had when I did a Parkrun 3 months postpartum with Isaac.  At least I'm consistant?

It's been a while since I've stuck a meal plan on here.  So why not?

Sunday: Fish Pie
Monday: Chicken & Mushroom Risotto
Tuesday: Tray bake (Aubergine? Chickpeas? Onion? Mushroom? I should have got tofu)
Wednesday: Toad in the hole
Thursday: Jacket Potatoes and Tuna or Beans
Friday: Macaroni and Cheese

This is a very aspirational meal plan, and I highly doubt we will actually make all these things.  Often one night becomes leftovers or something else easy.  The later in the week meals (Jacket Potatoes and mac and cheese) can always be moved into the future.

Also, although it's June, its raining and 65 degrees.  I bet you can tell it's not warm from that menu.   

What are you eating this week?  Is it raining where you are?  If you do a budget, where do you allocate your haircare?

Being Influenced from around the Internet - Podcasts and Blogs

Here is a quick roundup of recent things that all seem to have been influenced by podcasts and blogs.

I got my hair cut and dyed and I that is a BIG Rachel thing off my list.  I've decided I want to go back to my natural-ish colour and then let my hair go grey naturally.  I'm excited! If I hate it I can always dye it again later.  I think it was the Girl Next Door podcast which made me think about aging and how it's odd that we talk about "grey haired old ladies" when most women actually go grey in their 30s or 40s.  So why is Grey hair only OK in your 60s or 70s?  I'm all for hair dying but I am loving the grey haired 30 and 40 year olds that I see and the more I can help normalize what is normal (going grey) the easier it will be for anyone else who doesn't want to dye hair forever or have to make the "big decision" to go grey.  

I signed up for the Modern Mrs Darcy Patreon  so I could get the Summer Reading Guide.  Now I just need to find a colour printer so I can print it off because it looks SO COOL.  I flipped through it super quickly (on my phone - total demerit there) and reserved a few of the books at my library hoping to avoid the flood.  25 library hold a month on Libby isn't enough for me so I had to drop a few off my already on hold list.  I am not going to read Outlive by Peter Atilla soon.  And I have had The Lincoln Highway on there for ages too.  Those both went off the holds and onto the TBR list.

I made this chickpea salad from NoraCooks which I think was on Birchie's blog? And Jen?  Or elsewhere.. but anyways it's SO GOOD. My husband tried it and he said "this seems like an American approximation of a coronation chicken salad.  Which is true - coronation chicken is a super gross (IMHO) British salad made from mayonaise and curry powder and chicken.  But somehow switch to yogurt and chickpeas and it is yum. The only problem is the gastrointestinal issues surrounding my consumption of chickpeas and cashews... but the babies don't seem to mind. 

I really enjoyed this podcast on Grocery Shopping from About Progress.  My grocery bill is HUGE right now and although it's not really a problem I thought there were some interesting ideas in this one.  Mostly the idea of shopping every other week, and of doing a two week meal plan.  I feel like we are *always* planning meals and maybe doing it for two weeks at a time would make it feel less like we were *always* planning?  There are some things (milk and fruit) that we would need more often but how much of my grocery shop is random bits because I am putting an order in?  Although saying that... I didn't buy any cookies during last week's delivery and I have regretted it every afternoon.  I did buy courgettes with the intention of making courgette brownies, but I still just have two courgettes and no brownies.

And finally, I was influenced by... me!  I took a trip down memory lane of this blog and found a post about Gym Day which I wrote in 2012.  My gym buddy Geraint and I are still good friends but we have not been gym buddies for a while due to the sheer quantity of children and pregnancies I've had in the last 6 years (4 children, 3 pregnancies).  Anyways, I sent him the blog post and we were reminiscing about gym and then I realized I *could* made it work!  So on Thursday I went to the gym with him and we did an arms set.  It was great.  While I have been busy having kids he has been busy getting strong and now he lifts weights so heavy I couldn't even load his rack for him.  

And while this isn't influenced at all, I really love taking photos of babies and making it look like they have hair.  Is that a tic tok trend?  Here is Audrey the baby hair model:

What's your best tip from the internet or podcast sphere recently?

Routines that are working now

Here are a few routines that are currently working for us with our four kids ages 5 and under:

Laundry We make a lot of laundry.  I used to always wash and put away in the same day.  That's currently impossible. Every morning I start a load of laundry around breakfast.  It gets put in the drier midday.  It comes out in the afternoon or evening and sits in a basket in the hall until the next morning, when it gets put away during morning baby nap.  Baby clothes get put away just after baby nap.  Every other day we do 2 loads of laundry, which means I need to make sure the second load is in the drier by 5pm so it will be dry after dinner and before bedtime.

I have sort of given up on kids putting away their own laundry for now.  I do try and make Isaac take school uniform from the clean laundry pile rather than his drawers in the morning.  Yesterday he said "It's ok,  I would rather take it from the drawer" to which I replied "oh no, you'll take it from this pile".  

I love the verbalised notion of "It's OK, I'll just make your life harder" which I have only ever heard at home from children and at work from business executives.

Dishwasher We are now a twice a day dishwasher running family.  Breakfast and lunch dishes are put in and we run the dishwasher at around 1:30.  Emptying the dishwasher is part of dinner prep, and then we load it up again after dinner and run it.  Now that the babies are eating food too we are fully filling it twice.  Also, EVERYTHING (except wood) goes in the dishwasher. I don't usually rinse things before putting them in the dishwasher.  I know some people basically wash dishes first, but isn't that what the dishwasher is for? I scrape food into the compost but otherwise if something comes out with food on it (which happens rarely, and mostly with peanut butter knives and spoons) then I give it a quick rinse and put it back in.  

Do you wash dishes before putting them in the dishwasher? Do people who rinse dishes first think it's gross not to rinse dishes?  Can wood go in a dishwasher?

Meal Plans We are making meals plans again, which we hold loosely and move around the week if needed.  For instance this week's plan is:

• Pizza (with sweetcorn and broccoli on the side)
• Beans on Toast & scrambled egg
• Carbonara
• Chicken Gyros 
• Tacos
• Pea Fritters & Roast Veg

We semi assign these to days (Pizza is tonight) but if we need to swap around on the day then we can.  Also, whoever makes dinner also sets the table and makes Audrey's bedtime bottle.  The other parent watches all the kids from 5-5:30pm.  Dinners have to be made in 30 minutes or less.  Tray bakes are a total winner here

Schedule Our days have a pattern.  The babies have a pattern.  I wish they had a schedule, but they don't really.  Here is the rough schedule/pattern:

6:30 kids up
6:45 Breakfast
8:30 kids out the door (if going to school/nursery)
9:30 nurse babies
11:30 Lunch
1:30 nurse babies
2:30 snack
4:00 nurse babies
5:30 family dinner
6:00 kid bedtime
6:30 baby bedtime
7:00 tidy house
7:45 Free time for fun and adventure
8:30 my bedtime

I feel like I spend my whole day feeding people or preparing food.  It turns out, I *do* spend my whole day feeding people or preparing food!

Evening Tidy In the evenings we load the dishwasher, clear of the kitchen counters, clear the dining table, sweep the floor.  Hoover if we have time.  Pick up the lounge.  Put everything that belongs upstairs on the stairs.  Start the dishwasher.  And that's it.  The stairs have stuff on them.  The hall has shoes all over.  However... a clean kitchen, dining room, and lounge is enough.  In the morning, I am not really awake till coffee and coffee is in the kitchen, so I don't tend to notice the messy stairs or hall.  I notice the clean kitchen, and that's a boost for me.

Groceries/FLOM On Thursdays we do our Family Logistics meeting (which I will write about again!) but we have split this so that we plan meals around lunch time, and then do the rest of the logistics and future planning in the evenings.  I book a grocery delivery every Friday.  I can add everything from the meal plan to the grocery delivery in the afternoon.  You know when I 100% don't want to meal plan?  In the evenings after spending ALL DAY feeding people.  When we make the meal plan at lunch (Andy and I do it together since he works from home on Fridays) it doesn't seem like such a chore.  

Oh dear, It's 6:45am now, time for me to start feeding people.

Dinner prep, meals, the value of time and the value of food.

I started a line a day journal in 2021 (actually my first post was December 31st 2020, because I am sometimes a rebel).  It's interesting for noticing trends.  For instance - it appears that I don't like March 13th.  in 2021 I complained about Lilah's bad sleep (it was terrible!!) and then 2022 Lilah didn't have a second nap for the first time and in 2023 I wasn't sure about work and in 2024... well it was fine.  It was cold, it was rainy, I spent basically all day making dinner and watching two babies and doing 2 loads of laundry.

I'm still keeping my time log but sometimes I feel I am writing "baby, feed baby, laundry, tidy, dinner prep, sleep" on repeat.  I know I should probably aspire to more than tidying and dinner prep... but here we are.  

What I realised about dinner prep is that I value cooking and eating good food.  I haven't been cooking recently because we have been in twin survival mode.  At the same time, I haven't been feeling great about what we do eat.  On Tuesday I made a try of fish fingers, fishcakes, broccoli and carrot then stuck it in the oven and served it with steamed rice.  We've had this a lot recently, mostly without the broccoli and carrots.  That type of food is fine and serves a need, but I am tired of eating it.  I want food made from real food.  Not machine food.

It takes time to make real food. I'm not cooking fancy, but vegetables take time to prepare.  Yesterday I made burrito bowls for dinner (because kids hate eating anything mixed together, so this was an assemble at the table dinner).  Over the course of the day I made pinto beans, roast sweet potato, quinoa, corn, cheese, avocado.

Chopping sweet potatoes took 15 minutes.  Chopping veg for slow cooker pinto beans took another 15 minutes.  Making Quinoa was super easy but I still had to look up a recipe and measure the quinoa and water.  Grating cheese takes time. Chopping avocado takes a minute. Defrosting corn and putting it in a bowl was another minute.  Setting the table, putting out enough serving spoons, making sure the kids have water cups.  Nothing takes no time at all... and then I have to set the table too.  I probably spent upwards of 1 hour on food prep throughout the day.  Split across 4 naps.  

The dinner was good, although I ate it cold because the babies woke up for their dinner at exactly dinner time.

[6:18am Interlude - I can hear my kiddos coughing in bed upstairs.  How come little kids don't realise they will cough way less if the just BLOW THEIR NOSES!]

I do love the philosophy of "don't spend all day cooking and meal prepping and tidying" but I am also aware that our recent meals have not been in accordance with my values. I value good home made food for me and my family.  Unfortunately food/cooking time comes from other time... and I don't have a lot of leisure time.  So if I'm going to value nutritious home-made food, I'm going to value it enough to use my valuable time cooking it.

Thursday Thoughts

I always find it funny when people say "Thank God It's Friday" At work because I don't usually feel that way.  On Friday I usually feel like I wish I had gotten a little more done or was a little more focused.  Or I feel thankful for having some down time to get a little more done and be a little more focused.  But I definitely feel a "Thank God It's Thursday" vibe right now.  I have one more day of work before the weekend.  

I have fun plans this weekend, mostly play dates and being as social as possible.  On Saturday we have THREE social engagements.  On Sunday we have just one social engagement, which is good because the kids are both fairly shattered from the new school/nursery schedule.  

This morning I saw my breath for the first time this season - Autumn is here.  Maybe this weekend I can get the candles out and put up the autumn tea towels and work on the cosying of the house.  Fall is my favourite season.  

This week the meal plan was far too aspirational and I spent too much time cooking during work hours.  In order to pick up Isaac by 5 and have dinner ready by 5:30 I had to leave work every day at 4:30... which is fine but not ideal.  Andy has been going back into the office which is great for him but I think we need to get better at weekend food prep.  We also need to get better at not running out of food on a Thursday.  I'm starting to worry that we will need to shop for groceries more than once a week soon... the fridge was STUFFED on Saturday after delivery and now it's mostly empty again.  We're down to 6 eggs after ordering a tray of 30 on Saturday.  

The aspirational meal plan was:

Saturday: Thai Green Curry

Sunday: Afternoon Tea (too full for dinner)

Monday: Veg burgers & chips & Kale

Tuesday: Pad Thai (from a kit)

Wednesday: Meatballs & Spagetti and Salad

Thursday: Eggs and Waffles

Friday: Tacos

The only thing I really had to make was meatballs... but I still feel like I spent way too much time this week prepping and cooking food.  None of these meals took more than 30 minutes to prepare, but that's still 2 hours of my week (Mon-Thurs) which is a lot of food time.

I think we need to get better at cooking things that can be doubled and then putting cooked meals in the freezer... but also isn't that basically just for lasagnes and enchiladas?  And also... we don't have a huge amount of freezer space.  

Maybe this meal planning rut is because of the change of season and it's time for a change of menu. I think I need to make a list of winter foods... time for roast dinners!

Weekend Update - that went fast

It was a too fast weekend.

I woke up Friday not feeling well because a certain two year old had decided not to do sleeping at 2 or 3 am and I foolishly put her in bed with us which meant no one slept and I was very grumpy.  I tried to push through at work but was too tired/pregnant/annoyed and eventually took a half day of sick leave so I could take a  nap... which is unfortunate because I have too much work to do and could really have used a work day.

I had friends coming over for afternoon tea at 2:30 which thankfully my mom and Andy prepped most of.  Then at 2:30 I realized I had told them 3:30, so we sat around for half an hour.

On, and on Friday the Drier arrived!

Tea went well, we hand cheese and chutney sandwiches as well as cucumber sandwiches, plus scones & clotted cream & jam, and a Victoria sponge cake.  And a fruit salad.

Friends left around 5 and then more friends came from Bristol for a sleepover and dinner at 7.  I am sort of obsessed with these salmon burgers right now and it made a really easy dinner for everyone:

After dinner the kids all went to bed (In the same room!) and adults had a fire pit.  It was vaguely threatening to rain, which is perfect for a fire pit.  

On Saturday we went to the bike park with all 3 kids.  Lilah is getting more and more rad.  Isaac is on a pedal bike.  Our friend's 4 year old borrowed one of Isaac's bikes and got on super well with the pump track.  

We all did afternoon playing in the house, followed by dinner Pizza.  And our friends helped us hook up the new tumble drier - it's a heat pump drier an doesn't use a vent. 

on Sunday Andy went biking with his dad buddies while our friend (with two almost the same age kids) came for a play date.  Play dates are so much easier with 2 and 4 year olds.  Especially 4 year olds. They played upstairs while we were able to actually hang out and chat.

In the afternoon I had another afternoon tea with some friends from my first baby class before Isaac was born.  One of them is having her second baby in a few weeks and we are all very excited.  She is also the cutest pregnant person.  I had more finger sandwiches and scones and patisserie and this is probably why I am going to get pregnancy diabetes this time but oh man are afternoon teas delicious.

I made Shwarma with Tahini-yogurt sauce for dinner which went down a treat.

We also washed AND DRIED two loads of laundry.  We have washed all the baby clothes and they are now in the baby room washed.  We own a lot of 0-3 size which is great except for the fact these babies are probably going to come out at 5-6 pounds and not 8 pounds like my other two which means we are scavenging for tiny baby size.   A job for this week is to put away the baby clothes and make the baby room look (a bit) more sane.

Food Plan this week:
Monday: Leftover Shwarma
Tuesday: Falafel Wraps
Wednesday: Scrambled Eggs or Leftovers
Thursday: Slow Cooker Chili
Friday: Choritzo Pasta Bake
Saturday: Chicken & Aubergine Parmesan

Summertime! And the Living's... Warmer

 It is well and truly summer now (despite summer officially starting on 21st June).  We got our garden summer ready with the addition of kids picnic table, adult table, bench, and climbing frame!

The climbing frame arrived in 4 boxes of pieces, which I would have given up on immediately.  However, Andy got to work:

The fun thing about kids helping with projects is that they don't really know what's being built.  Once I was building a rolling cart from IKEA and Isaac was sure it was bunk beds EVEN WHEN IT WAS DONE.  He was concerned as to how he would fit into the rolling cart which he thought was bunk beds because it was so much smaller than him.  Good worry, kid.

They started to get the idea around here:

And was a total trooper building the whole thing, which probably took 10-15 hours including concreting it down and figuring out where in the garden it goes.  Now it's got a home in the back, and the kids have had free reign

Unfortunately I don't have many more photos because it is HOT (ie, above 75.  I live in Wales after all) and the kids take off their clothes all the time.  We pretty much have a clothes-less garden now.  Except for the amount of clothes in the garden, which is a lot.

Today it is meant to be 84 degrees, which is really really hot for Wales/me.  We will be blowing up the paddling pool and running the sprinkler.  It is fun living somewhere that is both hot and not in a drought. 

I haven't posted a food plan for a while and this week was a good one:

Sunday: Quinoa Enchilada Slow Cooker

Monday: Salmon & Potatoes & Veg

Tuesday: Oven Baked Chicken Gyros

Wednesday: Risotto (because we must use up this tiny portion of risotto rice!)

Thursday: Leftovers

This weekend we are going to try camping with the kids.  Fingers cross for no rain....

Do you spend time in your garden (yard)?  What is your favorite thing about your home's outdoor space?

Tuesday - Meals Plans and Toddler Time

How is it already February 7th?  This month feels like it's rushing by, which is probably good (because Feb, yuck!) but also... I'm enjoying this Feb.  We are having sunny cold weather, but it's warming up to 8c/47f.   Normal February is Wales is basically a rainbowless version of the great flood. 

My dad arrived on Saturday and this morning we all visited toddler Gymnastics.  Toddler Gymnastics is the best - a full gymnastics gym taken over by toddlers.  Isaac and Lilah both loved the foam pit.  Isaac also liked the balance beam.  

Since my dad is visiting we have a slightly better than average meal plan for the week.

Sunday: Roast chicken dinner with potatoes, carrots, parsnips and broccoli

Monday: Jacket Potatoes with chopped chicken salad (FYI Trader Joe's Pickle Seasoning is the secret ingredient to every salad.)

Tuesday: Chicken Tacos!

Wednesday: Vegetarian Lasagne from cook (premade food delivery)

Thursday: Chicken Shwarma with tahini yogurt sauce

Friday: Indian from cook

Saturday: family bring and share (or potluck, as we call it in The States [and Canada too?])

I should probably make something British like bubble and squeak or toad in the hole or faggots and gravy (fyi, I have never eaten this as it sounds awful).  

Actually, toad in the hole is delicious.  I should make toad in the hole.

In other news, I've had some quick wins on my February list with the purchase of a new crock pot (6.5 liters, because the family is too hungry) and hand mixer (which arrived today and now I want to make a cake).  I also found some crumpets shaped like hearts on super discount at M&S which will make a great Valentines day breakfast from the freezer. 

Happy Halloween

I love halloween.

This guy also loves halloween.

I had a parenting fail when we got to nursery and he was inconsolably sobbing because he wanted a scary cat costume.  I did not realize he wanted a scary cat costume so he was wearing his halloween shirt.  We also don't have a scary cat costume.  He had mentioned it a few times but I had not realized it was that important to him.

It was the first time I had to drop a sobbing clinging child off at nursery. I know I am very lucky to have avoided it for over three years.  At pick up he seemed to have had a great day (as always) so no harm was done (hopefully, maybe?)

We stopped at Morrisons on the way home for pizza.  Kid pizza (the teeny tiny pizzas) are now £0.79! So we opted for small pizzas for Isaac and Lilah to share, which were twice the size but still £0.99.  Andy and I got a spicy veggie pizza which was £4.50 and risotto rice for tomorrow which was £2.20.  The cost of food is ridiculous at the moment and we probably should start being more strategic with our meal plans.  Our house is full of food, why am I buying risotto rice?

Isaac had a great time handing out candy to trick-or-treaters and looking at our pumpkins.  Ghost was out in full force! And all our halloween lights.  Unfortunately the little one had a temp in nursery and came home early, which meant canceling our evening halloween dinner with our friends, but the kids still had fun eating pizza and handing out candy.

Tomorrow is November! I have signed up for NaBloPoMo - National Blog Posting Month - so I'm aiming for an actual post a day for a month! Wish me luck?

One Little Adventure - Fermented Food Date Night (Tranquility by Tuesday Inspired)

 I am very exited for this book:

Laura Vanderkam is an excellent writer on productivity and life organizing.  Although the book isn't out yet, there is a sneak preview of the 9 time management rules for tranquility.  I was actually already doing a few of them, but it's definitely made me a bit more thoughtful about my own priorities and scheduling.

Rule 6 is "One big adventure, one little adventure".  I realized we were good on weekend adventures, but Andy and I hadn't really been scheduling many little adventures.  Sure, we had some date nights, and intended to do adult dinner after kid dinner, but most of the time when we both found ourselves home in the evening we chatted, played on the internet, read and went to bed.  

I know the value in scheduling, I'm currently writing from my weekly writing friend date night.  She's writing a book, I'm writing a blog, and we meet every Thursday (or as many as possible) to write together.

I also have my one work/social night once a week, and an alternate week run & wine club with my neighbor.  Andy has a MTB evening and a work evening.  We do our planning meeting on Friday.  I still felt like there were some evenings of tired at home time that could be better repurposed for fun.

I trailed our little adventure on Wednesday - we were both home after kid bedtime and house tidying so we decided to make Kimchee and Sauerkraut.  Recently we took an amazing course with the Crafty Pickle and had a ferment rotation going, but eventually slowed down and hadn't made anything for a while.  I even had a fridge full of cabbage and carrots and ginger and almost going-off bits which needed fermenting.  

8:00pm: it was go time:

And by 9:30:

Yay! My kimchee on the outside, Andy's sauerkraut in the middle.  He went for red cabbage.

And to end the night, like any good date night, Andy had to plater his finger back together after garlic chopping incident (I wasn't involved, except to say "do you need stitches?" and "do you need to go to A&E" and "If you do go to A&E you should probably drive an hour to Abergavenny because I think their minor injuries unit will see you faster than our local flagship A&E")

I am very excited to add a weekly 90 minute date night to our schedule.  Kimchee was ambitious, but next week perhaps we'll do cake baking for Isaac's birthday.  And we might get into a TV show!  Or, when we have childcare, go to the pub.  Or maybe play a board game?  

Tranquility by Tuesday comes out next week so I have another week to think of more ideas...

Shopping, Cost of Living, and Food Plans

Today was busy.  7am at the grocery store for a shop that cost £120.  That is an insane amount to spend on groceries.  I could save money if I went back to splitting my shopping - I used to get mad when Andy bought passata at Morrisons because it's so much cheaper at Lidl.  I do need to schedule a Lidl shop, because the passata is so much cheaper, but right now I can barely make to 1 shop.

Waitrose started charging up to £5 for delivery.  We were never Waitrose shoppers pre-pandemic, but because of the free delivery we started shopping there.  The dried goods cost the same as anywhere, but the fruit and veg is noticeably more expensive.

I do remind myself that I'm incredibly lucky that the insane cost of food is more of an administrative/emotional annoyance to me than anything else.  I am also aware that our groceries are more expensive because we buy so many ingredients rather than prepared food - a box of biscuits was still only £1 but my tomatoes were £1.70.

This Week's Food Plan:

Saturday: Indian Takeaway

Sunday: Roast Veg and Salmon (R)

Monday: Falafel Mezze (A)

Tuesday: Vegetarian Tacos (R)

Wednesday: Leek & Potato Soup (A)

Thursday: Roast Mediterranean Veg & Pasta (R)

Friday: Pizza 

I need to up my slow-cooker game.  Will start trolling the internet for slow cooker recipes.  We usually eat more beans, but last week's menu was very bean-heavy.

Here's a snapshot of our food plan from earlier in the month.  Remember when I used to make side dishes?  That was a long time ago:

Chucks Chicken and Burgers - Pop Up Restaurant in Cardiff - Review

Last week some friends and I ventured to the newest restaurant in Cardiff: Chucks Chicken and Burgers.

Chucks is a pop-up restaurant - it's opened in the old dairy building in Pontcanna and will only be around for 3 weeks.  They have some incredible support behind them - Milgis do the mixed drinks, Beer is from Pipes and Tiny Rebel,  Desert is from Joes ice cream.  Fresh artisan rolls from Fabrice the French Baker in Hereford.  Cig Lodor provides all the meat, straight from the farm in Pembrokeshire.

Local meat, local bread, local companies all working together. This pretty much sounded like my dream food experience.

On arrival we found our friends enjoying their Milgis cocktails in a makeshift bar area.  Brewer half went to the bar to pick out a pint, I was so excited to try some more lovely Tiny Rebel beers but unfortunately they were sold out of all of them.  Instead I had a Pipes Helles Lager, which was very tasty and perfectly matched to the burger I was about to enjoy!

The only problem with the ambiance was the very loud music blasting from the very large speakers, but maybe that's just a sign of me being old.  I'm not sure though, because I snapped this picture and it seamed that no one wanted to sit near the speakers.  

We all ordered burgers - I had the Royal with Cheese because nothing beats a cheeseburger!  All the burgers were £8+ and it was an extra £2 for fries. 

There were a number of sides on offer, including fried pickles, but since I've already had the best fried pickles ever  (Penguin Diner in South Carolina!)  I decided not to order them here.

40 minutes later our burgers arrived. Presentation was excellent:

Unfortunately this is where the meal went sad... the burger just didn't stand by itself.  Somehow all the amazing ingredients, all the amazing talent, all the inspiration and all the design and produced something that tasted... average. 

The overwhelming taste from the burger was veg - which is great because I love veg, but with this quality of meat I should have been drowning in tasty beef.  The meat wasn't overcooked, it was very pink, but I still couldn't taste anything special.  I could barely taste the burger at all.  Brewer half thought it had a "twang of processed meat", I just thought it was unremarkable.

In contrast, my favourite burger from America is from 5 Guys:

Messy, meaty, hand made burgers.  No fuss, just mess.  Taste!

Unfortunately my friends were all pretty unhappy with their burgers as well.  The hungriest in our group got what could only be described as a "smattering" of fries - we counted 16 fries.  For £2 he was (understandably) displeased.

Onion rings didn't hold up any better unfortunately, the breaded outside was mushy and greasy - I'm not sure if they spent too long in the frier?

I've never been more sad to not like a place.  The idea is great, the backing is amazing, the collaboration is brilliant.  Cardiff NEEDS more creative food outlets and I really hope some other fabulous options come through.  Chucks, unfortunately, does not live up to it's potential.  But I'm still thrilled to see

these type of restaurants coming into Cardiff and I'm excited to go support the next one.  

I would recommend going to Chucks to see and support Cardiff's local food scene.  Go for the beer, the ambiance, the quirk!  Go to support the local butchers and the creative use of a unique space.  Just don't necessarily go for the burgers. 

Chucks Chicken and Burgers

The Old Dairy

200 Kings Road

Pontcanna

Cardiff

The Divine Things In Life - Yoga and Divine Mint and Dark Chocolate

Today was a rest day, sort of.  I haven't been to Yoga forever and decided to give it a go. Even though all I wanted to do at 6pm was lie in bed and/or watch TV I dragged myself into ridiculous yoga clothes and headed down to Daves Gym for Yoga with Tori.

I figured once I was dressed like a person who was going to do Yoga I would feel more like a person who was going to do yoga.  It kind of worked.  BTW, the Yoga Pants there are from Old Navy, the number 1 clothes store that I miss from America.

Yoga with Tori was, as always, amazing.  Tonight we did loads of stretches for shoulders and quads and hamstrings.  It's like she knew I've been cycling and tailored the class to me!

After Yoga I came home and cooked myself an oven-dinner, as my hobs are currently not working.  Tonights oven dinner was rather two-toned:

Piri-piri chicken, grilled pepper, and tomato with balsamic vinegar.  It tasted like a healthy dinner, so I had to top it off with something else....

Brewer half is away with work at the moment, so I ate all the rest of our fancy chocolate.  This one was especially good!  Divine Chocolate do some fantastic chocolates, this Mint and Dark Chocolate combo is stunning - I love mint and I love dark chocolate.  We bought this one from Spice of Life last week, so it's good going we didn't eat it all on day 1!

In other news, I'm debating whether to enter the Caerphilly 10k this weekend.  Weather is looking rubbish but running in the rain is better than cycling in the rain!!

Dark Chocolate and swimming: an update on my weekend.

I had a week off exercise.  It was fun.  I went to Scotland with work and I did work and I did not exercise at all.  I tried to eat healthy but I also ate a whole bar of dark chocolate because Asda sold me what I thought was a bar of 70% dark chocolate but was actually 70% cocoa solids and 30% crunchy bits of sugar and it tasted amazing.  In A bad way.  I like my chocolate dark... so dark.

How dark?  This dark:

On Sunday I overslept the Ajax ride so went to swim practice with Cardiff Tri instead.  Apparently my plan of not swimming for 6 months while everyone else swims loads for 6 months did not make me any better of a swimmer.  I was the slowest person in the slowest group.  I'm pretty sure a dude with 1 arm lapped me 3 times. 

I might by my parents this shirt, if I can find the right gendered one:

It was interesting because usually I kind of like all the exercise I do, but I really did not like the swimming at all.  However I now want to swim more, which is possibly a strange reaction.

In douch-y swimming news, I need to learn how to breathe bilaterally, before my clicky shoulders fall off entirely.

Did you know swimming was super complicated?  Look at this picture.  This is complicated:

And today I went track cycling again.  I did not crash.  I did not get a PB.  I cycled for 20 miles in a circle.  It was pretty fun.