I’ve just found this on Facebook.  I thank Simon Kirkman for sharing this on his wall and giving me a good old little cry right now.

It’s beautiful, so well written and so very true.

“We are sitting at lunch one day when my daughter casually mentions that she and her husband are thinking of “starting a family.” “We’re taking a survey,” she says half-joking. “Do you think I should have a baby?”

“It will change your life,” I say, carefully keeping my tone neutral.

“I know,” she says, “no more sleeping in on weekends, no more spontaneous vacations.”

But that is not what I meant at all. I look at my daughter, trying to decide what to tell her. I want her to know what she will never learn in childbirth classes.

I want to tell her that the physical wounds of child bearing will heal, but becoming a mother will leave her with an emotional wound so raw that she will forever be vulnerable.

I consider warning her that she will never again read a newspaper without asking, “What if that had been MY child?” That every plane crash, every house fire will haunt her.

That when she sees pictures of starving children, she will wonder if anything could be worse than watching your child die.

I look at her carefully manicured nails and stylish suit and think that no matter how sophisticated she is, becoming a mother will reduce her to the primitive level of a bear protecting her cub. That an urgent call of “Mom!” will cause her to drop a soufflé or her best crystal without a moments hesitation.

I feel that I should warn her that no matter how many years she has invested in her career, she will be professionally derailed by motherhood. She might arrange for childcare, but one day she will be going into an important business meeting and she will think of her
baby’s sweet smell. She will have to use every ounce of discipline to keep from running home, just to make sure her baby is all right.

I want my daughter to know that every day decisions will no longer be routine. That a five year old boy’s desire to go to the men’s room rather than the women’s at McDonald’s will become a major dilemma. That right there, in the midst of clattering trays and screaming
children, issues of independence and gender identity will be weighed against the prospect that a child molester may be lurking in that restroom.

However decisive she may be at the office, she will second-guess herself constantly as a mother.

Looking at my attractive daughter, I want to assure her that eventually she will shed the pounds of pregnancy, but she will never feel the same about herself.

That her life, now so important, will be of less value to her once she has a child. That she would give herself up in a moment to save her offspring, but will also begin to hope for more years, not to accomplish her own dreams, but to watch her child accomplish theirs.

I want her to know that a cesarean scar or shiny stretch marks will become badges of honor.

My daughter’s relationship with her husband will change, but not in the way she thinks.

I wish she could understand how much more you can love a man who is careful to powder the baby or who never hesitates to play with his child.

I think she should know that she will fall in love with him again for reasons she would now find very unromantic.

I wish my daughter could sense the bond she will feel with women throughout history who have tried to stop war, prejudice and drunk driving.

I want to describe to my daughter the exhilaration of seeing your child learn to ride a bike.

I want to capture for her the belly laugh of a baby who is touching the soft fur of a dog or cat for the first time.

I want her to taste the joy that is so real it actually hurts.

My daughter’s quizzical look makes me realize that tears have formed in my eyes. “You’ll never regret it,” I finally say. Then I reached across the table, squeezed my daughter’s hand and offered a silent prayer for her, and for me, and for all the mere mortal women who stumble their way into this most wonderful of callings.
Please share this with a Mom that you know or all of your girlfriends who may someday be Moms. May you always have in your arms the one who is in your heart.”

~Author unknown

My little meal planning spreadsheet was updated, printed and stuck to the kitchen wall.

£80 worth of shopping was about to be delivered.

And as soon as I hit ‘send’ on the Tesco order, him indoors says “You do know I’m away this week don’t you?”

GAHHHH!!!!

I forgot. He was off on a course, in Shrewsbury. £80 worth of food for just me and a few meals for Blake was such a waste. So I did what any good meal organiser would do and changed it up a bit.  Any fresh produce with a sell by date up to the weekend went in the freezer and all fresh fruit and veg was re-planned and incorporated into meals earlier in the week. I feel good knowing not too much food has been wasted (I couldn’t manage the whole 450g bag of spinach on my own so sadly some of that got whizzed in the bin) and it’s also going to give me the chance to actually rotate some freezer food and get that consumed.  I am terrible for batch cooking, freezing but then forgetting about it and never defrosting and cooking it again.

So, this week is pretty much the same with Shaun.  He is on standby which should be renamed “work hellhole prison” because we just don’t see him for the week.  If he does come home, he’s ridiculously exhausted and needs to sleep so we may as well forget Shaun off the meal plan. If he happens to make an appearance during meal times then he can have mine and I will turn to trusty Heinz and their classic baked beans or my new absolute favourite snack which is sweet potatoes, baked in the oven with a little feta cheese, tuna and basil.  OMG! It’s truly scrumptious and I happened upon it by accident last week.

This week’s meal planning edition features some previous meals including vegetable casserole which featured here, a previous frozen prawn curry and previously frozen chilli.  I’ve got haloumi left over from last week and a whole heap of sweet potatoes that I will add to the cous cous dish. It’s also a short one so I’m keeping the weekend free.

Whatever you’re up to and whatever you’re eating, have a great week.  Don’t forget to pop over to Mrs M’s blog for more Meal Planning inspiration.

Gem x

Following the success of last week’s Meal Planning Monday Post I am hereby making the biggest effort to join in every week!

Taking the original inspiration from Kate from the Five F’s Blog and her weekly meal plans was worth it.  We saved an easy £50 last week, we felt more organised and we ate well and generally healthy.

My Healthy Habits support group on Facebook (please feel free to join in here – Healthy Habits) has been a great place to see recipe ideas and feel inspired by others and their healthy endeavours.  It is a place for people to be accountable, share tips on better health and wellbeing and share experiences.

This week is a bit disjointed for us in the Ray house.  Shaun is on 24 hour call for 4 of the days this week (and then all next week too) so he might be home, but he most probably won’t be. I’ll probably make a bank of butties each day that he can take with him to keep him going.

I also found last week that I ordered too much salad stuff.  Well, I ordered too much for the plan anyway as it was all out of date by the time I came to use it.  This week I have only ordered one lot of salad and I will pick some fresh stuff up from the farm shop mid week.

Some links to recipes on the meal plan this week:

Aubergine Melts

Haloumi Cous Cous

Falafel Burgers

What will you be eating this week?

Gem x

PS – Don’t forget to head over to At Home with Mrs M to see the other meal plans and get some inspiration for your own meals this week.

Who knows! The sunshine is out, we’ve been gardening all day and life feels pretty good right now.  Funny how sunshine does that to us isn’t it?

Yesterday evening Blake and I went to B&Q to buy some flowers to plant in the garden.  Amongst the petunias and sweet pea plants he spotted some peppers and tomato plants and was sooo excited, squealing with joy!  So seeing as everything was on 3 for 2, we got those, a chilli pepper plant and we have planted some sugarsnap peas on the recommendation of my green fingered friend Lou (cheers Lou!).  Now all we need to do is give them some TLC and hope that they grow.  I am sure Blake will remind me to water and feed the plants. After all, his gardening obsession has been going on for a while now.

All good gardening sessions must come to an end though, and what better way than a good old water fight between Blake and the lawn sprinkler.  Hilarious.

Long may the warm days and light evenings continue!

Every Monday morning, whilst sat waiting for my train I would get the familiar *ping* on my phone to say I had new mail. It would usually be Kate from the Five F’s Blog with her post joining in on the Meal Planning Monday task as originally set and outlined by At Home with Mrs M.

Being a Monday morning I would read these posts with interest and admiration – it’s Monday! How on earth can they all be so organised!!!??

A few times I have gone away and planned a few meals for the week on paper, usually referencing the BBC Good Food website and it has been lovely to have some structure and forward planning for the week.

Last week I started another little support group on Facebook.  This one is called Healthy Habits (please feel free to join in here – Healthy Habits) and it is just a place for people to be accountable, share tips on better health and wellbeing and share experiences.

I set it up because I was getting so fed up of being in a spiral of eating unhealthy food, which if I am honest I don’t actually like very much, but it’s just convenient. Life has been pretty stressful this last month and I haven’t been looking after myself. It’s the age old scenario of feeling tired and stressed, so you eat on the go or grab the nearest thing, or give in and get a takeaway which in turn leaves you lethargic and feeling miserable. The stress and tiredness starts again in a cycle and it just feels horrible. Well, I’ve broken free from it all at last and had a little word with myself. After all, only ME puts food in my mouth and only ME decided whether I exercise. I know these two elements are the key to life flowing a little better, for everyone in my family, so it is time to sort it out. Plus, I found some more lumps in my breast recently and just thought it was stupid how I’ve not been looking after my health at all, especially given how frightened I was 3 months ago.

Yesterday I spent an hour making a meal planning spreadsheet! Yes, a spreadsheet! What a loser I am but I am excited about it. I have emailed it to Shaun so whichever one of us is home first, we can get cracking with the dinner. The recipes are hyperlinked (uber geek!) and we are all colour coded.

Here are a few links to some of the recipes on there:

Prawn & Rice one pot

Pea & Mint Soup

Spicy Root & Lentil Casserole

Sausages with Oregano and Mushrooms (I have ordered quorn sausages for this so I can join in too).

As soon as I had drawn up the meal plan, I went online and ordered all the groceries for the week from Tesco and arranged for them to be delivered this evening.  The whole process took me an hour yesterday morning and as we were all lazing about enjoying our Sunday it didn’t feel like a chore or task.

Hopefully this meal plan will give us focus for the week and our lethargy and stress will feel a little easier to manage.

Have a great week – whatever you’re eating and don’t forget to check out more meal plans over at http://www.athomewithmrsm.blogspot.com

Gem x

He stinks, he’s hyperactive, he’s ruined my garden but I love him.

My furry boy Bailey, all content and dreamy.

It’s a dog’s life.

We need a swear box in chez Ray!

Something I’ve wanted to write about and rave about since I received it a few weeks ago – my customised silver necklace from Amy at iLove – available to order through her Facebook page.

£34.50, beautifully presented and sent super quick.  Amy actually sent this on a gorgeous silk and leather necklace which I sometimes swap with the white gold necklace of mine.

I’d seen something similar (but not as nice) on Notonthehighstreet but it was three times the price. I decided £34.50 was an OK figure for a little present to myself and I’ve not had the necklace off since I bought it. It’s beautiful and it means so much.

Thank you Amy! You talented, creative lady! Please visit and like the official iLove Jewellery Facebook page

It was an amazing, emotional and long day.  It took Alex and his support team of riders just over 6 hours on the road to travel the 30 mile journey.  Poor Alex was shattered at the end but his Mum, Dad and sister Chloe were all so so proud of him as he crossed the finish line:

On the way back we put some short clips of the footage taken throughout the day into a video and I will edit together a longer version for the family over the weekend.  Here’s our little trailer for it:

There’s still time to donate to Alex’s cause at http://www.justgiving.com/wheelchair-for-alex

Thanks for your support!

PS – I know this is supposed to be photo a day and not photo(s) a day but I couldn’t resist including this one of Alex’s Dad Nigel and family pet dog Bobby anticipating Alex’s finish on the shore at Blackpool.  Love this photo.