Spaghetti and Meatballs

Ok, here is one recipe I HAVE to post, because I have lost my recipe book that has it, and I've also misplaced the copy my mum gave me, so I'm going to write it from HER page that she saved. It truly is THE best spaghetti and meatballs I've ever had, and my kids lap them up, and always ask for more meatballs! Tasty!!!!!

Ingredients (serves 4):

Sauce:

1/4 cup olive oil

1 small brown onion, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 tbsp tomato paste

400g can diced or crushed tomatoes

2 cups beef stock

300g dried spaghetti pasta

Parmesan cheese, finely grated, and small basil leaves, to serve (optional)

Meatballs:

500g premium beef mince

1 small brown onion, grated

1 carrot, peeled and finely grated

1/4 cup flat-leaf (continental) parsley, finely chopped

3/4 cup fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs

125g feta cheese, finely crumbled

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/4 cup plain flour

1) Make meatballs:

Combine mince, onion, carrot, parsley, breadcrumbs, feta, egg and salt and pepper in bowl. Mix well. Using clean hands, roll heaped tablespoons of mixture into balls. Roll formed balls in the plain flour to coat well.

2)

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a non-stick frypan over medium-high heat. Cook meatballs, in batches, for 2 minutes, or until browned. Transfer to a plate. Wash and dry frying pan.

3)

Add remaining oil to pan and heat over medium heat. Add onion and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes or until onion is soft. Add tomato paste. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

4)

Add tomatoes and stock to pan. Bring to the boil. Reduce head to medium-low. Simmer for 15 minutes or until sauce thickens slightly. Add meatballs to pan. Spoon over sauce to coat. Cover. Cook for 15 minutes or until meatballs are cooked through.

5)

Meanwhile, cook spaghetti in a large saucepan of boiling salted water, following packet directions, until tender. Drain. Arrange spaghetti in warm serving bowls. Spoon over meatballs and sauce. Top with parmesan and basil leaves (optional).

ENJOY!!! Wonderful served with hot crusty garlic bread. Any leftovers can be used to make yummy meatball subs!

Let me know if you try this, and its a great way to get one or two veggies into the kids without them knowing (although I don't have too much problem with my kids eating veggies!). I PROMISE that you won't regret making it. Fiddly making the meatballs, but totally worth the effort!!

New layouts :)

Ok, I found out I can post the layouts with the new kit!! So here they are! They are made with a kit called "Happy" by MellowButterfly (aka Michelle Batton), which will be available at the end of the week at www.mellowbutterfly.com. It was really fun to work with, and I love the patterned papers!

This layout I called "Happiness is". It's a picture I took of my mum and dad on my dad's 70th :) I love how it turned out!

And this one I titled (obviously!) "Sand Pit Fun".... its of my Booster girl playing in the sandpit :) Love that alpha! It's called "Tag! You're it!" also by MellowButterfly!

That's it for now! A short and sweet post! Love ya's!!

Where does the weekend go??

Seriously, it feels like it was only JUST friday afternoon, and here we are at 9.32pm on sunday night! Back to the school routine for another 5 days!

Not a great deal going on. Sophie had a dose of conjunctivitis which she kindly shared with Becky and I. Ughhh.. and I'm taking the drops very sparingly because they seem to upset my tummy :( Yes, I know.. eyedrops upsetting my tummy? Well I have found that they travel through my sinuses and run down the back of my throat (gag!) and they end up in my tummy and I get bad pains all day :( So today has been tummy pains and a headache that just wouldn't go away! Fun fun!

What else... oh... we're HOPING to be able to buy tickets to see Pink!!! Tickets go on sale this friday (31st), so we may not have the money this fortnight (BOO-HOO).. I tell ya, if I had the tendencies, she'd be the one I'd switch sides for.. hahaha.. *cough*... She's touring in June of next year, and if her tickets are around the same price as last years, then they are a very decent price! But its still having that $$ there to actually buy the tickets. Darnit LOL I've heard her concerts are really REALLY worth seeing. And of course, Keith has the hots for her big time, so he'd LOVE to see her in concert. He has his laptop desktop background with Pink pictures.. he changes the picture every few days HAHAHA... But yeah, we'll see how the almighty $$ goes and go from there. Hopefully she'll announce more concert dates like she did last year.

Hayden is still awake.. might be for another hour or two because, despite our best efforts to stop it happening, he fell asleep on the lounge at 3pm and slept until 4.30pm. Ughh.. always on a school night. Friday night and saturday night he went to bed around 8-9pm.. normal time! But yeah, not tonight. And tonight I am actually tired enough to go to bed right now! Always the way LMAO

I have some more layouts done. Two are done with a new kit from the designer I'm CT for (Mellow Butterfly aka Michelle Batton). But I'm still not sure if I can post previews and the layouts yet :) As soon as I know, they'll be going up here! It's a really cute kit, and was really easy and fun to use!

Interest rates are dropping!! WOOT!! So far they have dropped a total of just over 1.25% and are expected to drop a further 1-2% over the next few months.. I cant begin to explain how much easier it will be! With the current drops (total of just over 1%), our repayments have dropped $60 a fortnight so far.. so with a further 1-2%.. wow!! It's not a HUGE difference, but when you are struggling, every cent makes a difference! I just wish they would start dropping the price of fuel! And groceries! LOL But now I think I'm just wishful thinking ;)

But that's about it for now. Not a heck of a lot happening. I'll update again when I find out when I can post these new layouts :D Ciao for now!!

The Birthday Girl!

Ok, here are the promised pictures of the Boosters 4th birthday! Lots of photos so hold on tight, and enjoy the show :D

Birthday Eve

Well, technically, it is now my little Becka Bleweeze's 4th birthday, but I haven't gone to bed yet, so its still not until she wakes up hehehe

So, here is the last look at my girl before she is no longer 3!!

I really can't believe she is 4 already! It honestly only seems like a few months ago that she was this tiny itty-bitty baby in my arms, all fresh and new. Wow. The year after next, she starts school. NO WAY!! I can't really believe it. But how different our lives have been since she entered out world. Such a livewire, with a spunky personality and with beautiful manners to boot. She can't make me any more prouder than I already am to be her mum. Love you Becka Bleweeze! I will add birthday pics tomorrow or the day after :)

AND, in other birthday news, my dad turned 70 on October 14th! What a fantastic milestone. In 2001, he suffered from very bad peritonitis and was lucky to have lived through that. Then at the beginning of January 2007, he suffered two strokes within a 3 day time frame. That was devistating to all of us, and we are so so lucky that he made it through that as well! We love you dad, and we are sure lucky to have you as our dad :) XOXO

CHRISTMAS!!! It's only 10 weeks away (as the lovely announcer at Big W kindly reminded me of when I was doing birthday shopping for B). OMG! I love christmas, but I hate the leadup. The panic, the stress... oh lord lol I'm fairly sure christmas will be ok this year (thanks to a very generous government!!), but by the time I'm able to do the shopping, I know most things will be almost impossible to find :( I hate that. I swear every year that I am going to start doing the christmas shopping in June-July, but do I ever do it? No.. my biggest fear of shopping that early is that my kids taste in toys will change. You know how it goes. One minute it may be Dora, the next its Fifi and the Flowertots.. and then lo and behold, it changes yet again! So yeah, it does make it harder to start early, but by golly, I'm going to definitely try next year. I hate the stress of it all!

But anyway, I guess I better head to bed and get some kind of sleep before the birthday girl rushes in at sparrows fart and wakes me up with excited yells about it being her birthday LOL God love her, I can't wait :) Tomorrow morning is cake baking and gift wrapping (no, I still have not got the wrapping paper!!), and then a little later will be decorating the cake!

So I will update tomorrow or tuesday with lots of piccies :D Ciao!

Lotsa happenings!

Lachie got his school picture back yesterday!! Here's my handsome boy

Aint he just the cutest darn thing? Can't believe he's 10 already... they surely do grow too fast!

And tomorrow, I'm getting Becky and Hayden haircuts! So be on the lookout for pictures of them with their new hairdo's! Warning.. Becky is getting a much shorter cut. She is adamant! It will probably be a cute little just-above-the-shoulders cut! I'm terrified of doing it, but I think she needs a good cut. She's only really had trims since she was born, so she's got alot of dry baby hair there, and when you wash her hair.. it looks like straw!

Sophie won a lollipop in school today LOL In drama they had to do a fashion parade with whatever costumes were in the drama wardrobe, so she dressed up as a grumpy old man. The deputy principal was a guest judge at the "fashion parade", and Sophie got honourable mention from her over her performance! I wish I had video'd her telling me about it LOL She did this little old man action of waving a closed fist near her head and it looked hilarious! I really need to get some pictures of that girl!

Oh, and while I remember.

Rebecca wants her hair cut. She wants it just like daddy.. I don't think so hunny.. even though you say you want to look like a boy. Not in this lifetime LOL

Just a few beautiful pics of my kids to share

And you'll probably see them on layouts eventually. But I can't help but share them. I can't seem to get Sophie to let me take her pic, so I will try and get some of her soon and post those.

Venting ahead...just to warn you all.

I need to get all this out, so bare with me. It was bound to all just rise to the surface, it was just a matter of when.

Lachie. It all stems back to my poor little troubled boy. And his poor troubled mum and dad. I'm trying my best to do everything to get him on the right track with his Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Auditory Processing Disorder. And just awaiting an appointment for his evaluation by the educational psychologist. It's a battle every.single.day to get him to do the things he needs to do. Brushing his teeth, putting clean socks on (yes, he would wear the same pair for a month if we didn't badger him about it). Trying to encourage him to answer in a way that WE understand what he means.

So it comes down to feeling alone. I know there are many parents out there having the same issues. But I truly do feel all alone. While Keith listens to everything I tell him about Lachie's appointments, he never goes to any of them, and he never researches anything about ADHD or APD. Now with the possibility of Dyslexia on top of it, it really does at times feel like one huge burden on my shoulders alone.

I'm tired of people thinking that he is just a spoilt little kid who gets his own way. I'm tired of the way people talk to him like he's a pain in the ass. I'm tired of defending my boy when he is such a wonderful sweet loving child. No, he doesn't like to share. What 10yo boy does. But he loves his family, he loves his siblings with all his heart. I sit here sometimes and cry, wondering how he must perceive life with everyone looking down on him so often. Yes, I am at fault too. I never denied that at all. I do yell at him too often. I really try hard not to. Sometimes its just the way it goes. The frustration is something I just can't describe. It's like this. You have a team. Everyone is supposed to input on that team. But you are the one being loaded up with all of the assignments and homework, and you have to come up with all the answers and compute it all in your head, while the rest of the team sits back and watches you do their share of the work. I understand that Keith works. But honestly, his appointments are only every 6 months, with the rare appointment in between. How hard could it be to take one day off every 6 months and share in this. Take some of the load off my shoulders.

I just need a break. I was just talking to my sister Sue on MSN and I said that to her. And that prompted this post. Because I really feel like I am about to break down in a big way. But I can't. Lachie needs at least one person working with him. And that is me. His mum. His rock. His constant in life that will ALWAYS be there for him. Such a handsome little boy, but oh so troubled.

Today I had to speak to his teacher about his doc apt over the holiday and hand in the assignment he was given extra time to do. I told her how we had even tried bribing to get him to do his work/assignments, and how it had only worked one or two times. She then said "Well, I don't know if I would think he has a genuine attention disorder then, because if he could finish it with a bribe, then he CAN do it." This is the same teacher who ALL year has told me that something just isn't right, that its not normal for a child his age to have such a lack of attention and concentration. And now all of a sudden she thinks that he doesn't have the problem? I'm lost. The one person who seemed to understand me and be on my side now seems like she is backtracking and saying something different now.

I worry about his schooling. I worry how he is going to function in adult life. I hope his communication opens up and enables him long lasting friendships and relationships. That he doesn't feel like he is a failure all his life. And the only way for that to happen is for other people to listen, cooperate and most of all, UNDERSTAND! I am getting quite upset at the fact that when I need to talk about it, its like an annoyance. I know that nobody (as far as I know) that reads my blog feels that way, but there are people in my every day life that just seem to want to brush it under the carpet or make other excuses for it. That is just how I feel. Maybe its just because I'm feeling so alone on it. How do I get through this without losing my mind? How do I get my boy to do the things he needs to do without repeating myself 50 times in a 5 minute time frame.

I feel so boxed in at home. I've lost all motivation to do educational things with my two little ones. I should be reading to them, drawing with them (which i do, just not often enough). I should be building blocks with them and playing dollies and cars and all the things that little people like to do. But just can't find the imagination in me to do it. And that makes me feel like a failure.

Keith and I haven't had time to ourselves since his work Christmas party almost 1 year ago. No one seems to want to mind the kids just for a few hours just so Keith and I can go catch a movie or go out to dinner. It makes me sad. He works his butt off bringing in the money, I work my butt off raising the kids and keeping house.. one night is all I'd want, every couple of months, just so Keith and I can keep in touch with who we are. Yes, we are parents, but we are also lost in that as well. We don't have time for each other and it really does reflect on how we treat each other and the kids. The only person who ever offered, and always said yes if I asked, bless her beautiful heart, is my sister Sue. And I thank her for the times she was able to do that for us. I really do.

I don't know where else I am going with this, but I had to get a lot out, and I hope I didn't repeat myself too much with things. My shoulders don't feel so weighed down, my heart doesn't feel so heavy now that I have written it down and got it out. I needed that. And if you got this far, THANK YOU, you are a true friend and I love you for it xoxo.

Long time, no blog!

It's been nearly a MONTH since I last blogged.. eeek.. but here I am, with the promise I made to myself still (mostly) intact of blogging regularly!

So, what's the go in the Barlow/Druery household? We've had a busy-ish month. Nothing amazingly exciting. Doctor appointments for the kids, school holidays and scrapping.

We will start with Lachie's latest appointments. He saw his paediatrician two weeks ago, and he had mentioned at the previous appointment a month earlier that he was concerned about Lachie's growth (or lack of) and wanted me to bring in his baby book with his growth records in it. Luckily I still have it, and took that in. He said that while he wouldn't expect Lachie to be tall (I am only 5' 2" and Keith is an average 5' 9"), he is still quite small for his age and ordered a blood test to rule out thyroid or celiac issues. He also wanted an xray to check his bone maturity to see if there was an issue there. So back to the paediatrician yesterday (Talk about bleeding us dry moneywise! But what can you do??). All of his blood tests came back perfect, so nothing to worry about there. The bone maturity xray came back in his favour!! He is 10 years old, with the bone age of a 9 year old! So he actually has wonderful bone maturity, and that is also a GOOD thing, because it will give him extra time to grow! Dr Brown said that he will probably hit puberty a little later than most boys, but that is where the extra growth will come into play. So, he's not going to be a giant, but he should grow to a good average height! I mean, his height doesn't bother us one little bit. But in "general", it will make it easier for him in the long run, without the teasing about how little he is. I'm just waiting for that big spurt he's going to have soon. I just know he'll shoot up :) So then I also mentioned a concern I have had after doing some reading up about his ADHD and Auditory Processing Disorder and finding that a common link to these two disorders is Dyslexia! And then after reading up about that, ALOT of the symptoms are so him its not funny. His paediatrician can't diagnose dyslexia. He has to be evaluated by an Educational Psychologist. It's going to be expensive to get done, but there is no price on my childs wellbeing and education! If getting a positive diagnosis on dyslexia gets him where he needs to be, I don't care what we have to spend to get him there. They often say a mothers gut instinct never fails.. and I believe it. I suspected the ADHD well before he was diagnosed officially with it. It was just waiting to get all the testing done and being referred to the paediatrician. He's on a new medication, which I'm not sure is working for him. We're going to give it another month and if it is showing no overly positive signs of working, then we will trial another medication. There is one rare side effect of the next medication that I'm not keen on at all. It IS rare, but can happen (obviously), and that is negative, dark thoughts. His paediatrician has said that if we do try him on this med, and he shows ANY sign of negative thoughts, he is to be stopped on it immediately. This doctor is wonderful and really takes the time to listen and talk things through.

I have to help Lachie get his school project finished in time for school on monday. He has to do a project on an Australian Bushranger, and has total free creative license to do what he wants with the project! He has decided he wants to do a Bushranger Boardgame, and have spaces that say things like "Caught robbing a bank in "so and so".. move back 3 spaces" and "Evaded police.. move forward 2 spaces". In the middle will be a stack of "Fact Cards", and when someone lands on a fact card spot, they get to pick up a card and learn an interesting fact on the bushranger. HOPEFULLY it will turn out the way we have it in our minds. It's just working out how to decorate the board and put it all together to look awesome. And I need to put some crackers up Lachie's bum to get him motivated to help!

In scrappy news, I'm now a part of Mellow Butterfly's CT (Michelle Batton)! I'm only very new, and it is a little daunting, because everyone else seems to know each other quite well. I'm sure I'll get to know them well over time, but darn sometimes my shyness gets in the way!

SO I can now reveal one of the layouts I have done using Mellow Butterfly products! I have one more, but that one has to wait until tomorrow :)

This layout was made with Michelle Batton's portion of the Autumn Harvest Collab (Part 2) available exclusively at FaithSisters.com .. it also consists of elements from Autumn Whisper by Pineapple Plantation Designs.

I have also done a few more personal layouts as well.

This is probably one of my absolute favourites at the moment. Its of my youngest daughter at 7 months old. The kit used is "Happy" by Ziggle Designs at Scrap Orchard. It was alot of fun to work with! The template is by Designs By Sine, also at Scrap Orchard :)

This is ANOTHER of my all time favourites at the moment. It was a template challenge done at Scrap Orchard (where else?? LOL) and the template is again by Designs by Sine. The kit I used for this layout was "Boy oh Boy".. a collab kit by Polka Dot Plum and Matahati Designs, found (AGAIN!!).. at Scrap Orchard. The journalling tab is a blog freebie from Lindsay Jane Designs.

Again, using "Boy oh Boy", is this layout of my youngest, who decided that sitting on the dog would be a fun thing to do.. Jaffa had other thoughts on that idea, and promptly tipped him off her back LOL He wasn't hurt, and if you looked at the layout closer, you can actually see he is laughing! The wordart is from Elegant Wordart by Bethany.

So there you go, I think that has me all caught up at the moment. I will be back tomorrow to show off my other layout with Mellow Butterfly products!