Goodbye Crocodile Hunter

I guess by now you have all heard that Steve Irwin, AKA The Crocodile Hunter, died yesterday morning after being stung by a stingray. Hubby told me when he came home from work yesterday afternoon and, I fully admit, I thought he was mucking around or about to tell me some really bad-taste joke. I even doubted him so much that I went and checked on one of the news links from my home page. And then, even though I had read it myself, I still didn’t quite believe it. It’s funny (in a strange way) that the death of someone who was such a risk-taker should come as such a shock. Maybe because it was a stingray, not a crocodile or a snake or something that we were used to seeing him with.

I wasn’t a big fan of Steve Irwin but Offspring #1 had watched Wiggles Safari with “big Steve Irwin, crocodile hunter, big Steve Irwin, action man” many times and pointed him out on every Toyota ad on the tv or whenever he saw him in a magazine. Hubby and I were deciding how to, and even if we would, break the news to Offspring #1 when the 6pm news took care of that decision for us :( We simplified it as much as we could without covering it up and told #1 that Steve had been swimming with a very big dangerous fish and that the fish had become frightened and accidentally poked him in the chest with its tail. That hurt his heart and stopped it from working and then he died. Poor #1 was quite disturbed by the whole thing. He has been asking questions about death and why people had died for a couple of months and we have been answering them fairly matter-of-factly but this one sent him spinning. He wanted to know if we could still see Steve on the Wiggles DVD or if he wouldn’t be on it anymore because he was dead. So, no real concept of death just the understanding that if someone has died they aren’t there anymore. He took a long time to settle into bed and kept calling us back to ask more questions. The final time was to tell me that he couldn’t fall asleep because he kept ‘”wishing about Steve Irwin, crocodile hunter”. When I asked if he meant thinking about instead of wishing about he said “No Mum, I know what thinking about means. I keep wishing about him.” I asked him what he meant and he said “I keep wishing that he didn’t die.” It’s really hard as a Mummy to watch him struggle to understand this and the selfish part of me is glad that he gets to “practise” dealing with the death of someone he knew and loved from afar before he has to deal with it in his real life. He seemed more settled this morning although he still asked a few questions – the most notable being: “Is Steve Irwin still dead?” Yes buddy, he is.

No question today. Just sympathy for Steve Irwin’s family and those who loved him.

An Unplanned Dinner

Pasta Salad















2 cups curly pasta, cooked and drained
1 cup each of broccoli florets, diced carrots, de-seeded and finely diced tomatoes, de-seeded and finely chopped cucumber too
¼ cup sliced spring onions Left these out because I didn't have any in the fridge
about ½ cup of your favourite creamy salad dressing I used Taylors Avacado and Garlic Dressing, just enough to coat the pasta and salad stuff

I also added a handful of grated cheddar because I felt like it

Toss pasta and vegetables in a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and toss lightly. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

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Yu-u-um! This is a pasta salad that I cobbled together from a few different recipes and fine-tuned until it was perfect. I must admit that I don't exactly measure the ingredients, near enough is good enough in this one. The time crept forward tonight and I didn't realise quite how late it had become and I still hadn't organised dinner so... Pasta salad it was. Tonight we topped it off with crumbed lamb chops, just regular bread crumbs today as I used up all the cornflakes in last weeks Honey Joy madness. I think this must be Offspring #1's second favourite meal (tuna and pasta AKA Tuna Mornay is the hands down winner) pasta and salad and "meat with a handle" - what more could a hungry, growing 4-year-old boy want? This pasta salad is so yummy - it's creamy and chewy, crunchy and smooth all at the same time. Luckily there's enough left for my lunch. Offspring #2 got to eat mummy-pre-prepared mixed vegetables from the freezer - she flatly refuses to eat tinned, canned or commercially prepared food, even desserts - and some of the pasta minus the dressing and goodies and then had a great time chowing down on Daddy's chop bone. I think we have a real meat-eater there.

Question Of The Day: What is your hands-down-guaranteed-to-please-the-whole-family dinner?

PS - Not sure what's going on here. I have tried to edit several times to fix the layout of this post but nothing is working so... apologies and hopefully I'll have it worked out tomorrow.

PPS - I think I have it fixed now, fingers crossed!

Happy Father's Day

What a lovely day. We did nothing much, enjoyed some time together as a family, ate lots of party leftovers and just had a really nice day. We had planned a bacon-and-egg breakfast extravaganza but common sense took hold and suggested that perhaps after all the party food yesterday plain old Weetbix and a piece of toast, if you were still hungry, might be a better idea! Offspring #1 was not overly impressed and suggested many alternatives ranging from "just eggs" to "just bacon" and "maybe pancakes?" but we were not to be moved (also, we just couldn't be bothered doing yet more dishes) so Weetbix it was. Hubby loved his presents - a homemade photo frame with a gorgeous pic of the kids made by Offspring #1 with a little help from Mum, some fishing gear that he had written down and somewhat forcefully demanded LOL and an outdoor weather station (fancy name for a thermometer and rain gauge!) that I saw some time ago when I was stuck for ideas. Offspring #1 also had the obligatory kindy present - another photo but this time with hearts glued all over it and the whole thing laminated (damn, why didn't I think of laminating???). Here's a pic of the weather station against our very fancy back fence. Yes, the dirt really is that red!

Hubby spent lots of time playing with the kids and he and Offspring #1 had a mega PlayStation Challenge (#1's phrasing, not mine LOL). We read the papers - a rare luxury these days, ate leftovers, rang Poppy and Grandpa and, after much lolling about, decided to go for a drive and take some photos (a treat to share another day). Add in several loads of washing and that was our day done. One final pic: my family, still in their pj's, after the Grand Present Opening. Offspring #2 loved ripping all the paper up but couldn't work out how to get it off the presents, luckily big brother was right there to lend a hand.

Question of the day: When was the last time you enjoyed a lazy Sunday?

Aaahhh.. and now we relax

Offspring #2 had her birthday party today. She turns one on Wednesday so we just had a little party lunch and she even managed to stay awake for the whole thing. She slept for two and a half hours afterwards though! As usual, I overcatered in the biggest way. We had 14 coming and I made enough to feed at least 3 times that. I know that party leftovers are yummy and a treat for dinner the night of the party but I think we'll be eating these for the next three days. At least I don't have to worry about Father's Day lunch tomorrow and by dinner time I think we'll all be wanting some vegetables. I was so pleased with how the birthday cake turned out, it was very simple but I was proud of it.

Hmmm, now that I'm looking at the photo I can see the bottom of the 1 is a bit crooked but hey, numbers have never been my thing! I could try to console myself by saying that I take rotten photos and it must be the angle but I think we all know the truth here. When Offspring #1 turned one he had the same thing in blue but I sweated buckets over it and in the end made Hubby do the cutting in case I messed it up. Do you think I should have done that again? LOL Regardless, everyone enjoyed it - it's the only thing with no leftovers - and I even let the birthday girl have a piece. I am relaxing my parenting standards - there is no way that Offspring #1 was allowed to have a cake with all that sugar and icing and rubbish in it at his first birthday LOL. Okay, I admit that we cut the icing off today's piece but she liked the cake part. I'm relaxing not becoming comatose!

Here we are just before singing Happy Birthday. Daddy though that combing her hair into a mowhawk would be good for the photos - and since her hair does this naturally he knew how hard I had worked to get it to sit flat. To say I was unimpressed would be an understatement but short of dunking the child's head under the tap that hair wasn't moving so I gave up.

Well, dishes are done, house is tidied, and the floor is swept so I'm heading off to bed. The morning comes way too soon sometimes and this has been a busy day.

Question of the day: What's the craziest, hardest or just plain stupidest birthday cake you have tried to make?

By Popular Request

Okay so one person asked for it, but with my limited audience that merits the 'popular request' tag so... here is the perfect Honey Joy recipe. It has been handed down from generation to generation ( although it's probably on the back of the cornflakes packet) so treat it with care, treasure it, enjoy the end product BUT don't make them too often or they just won't be special anymore!

Honey Joys

3oz butter
3oz sugar
1 Tablespoon honey
3 cups cornflakes
1 Tablespoon coconut

Combine cornflakes and coconut in a large bowl. Put butter, sugar and honey in a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Boil 8 minutes then add to the conflakes/coconut. Mix thoroughly, but be careful not to crush the cornflakes too much. Spoon into paper cup cake holders. If you are being really fancy you can decorate with coloured sprinkles (or for those in Australia who have, by some bizarre feat managed to never taste honey joys, sprinkle with 100's and 1000's) .

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Big thankyous to those who left comments, you made me feel not quite so alone - except the self-proclaimed Protea King. You know who you are and you also know that you spoke to Hubby far longer than I spoke to your beautiful wife on the phone this evening!

Speaking of which, we had a lovely chat with the former Across-The-Roads tonight. It was so great to chat with them and catch up on their news. Offspring #1 loved talking to their kids who he used to see at least once every single day. He talks about them constantly and it makes me so sad that by making this move we took him away from R and J, especially J who is roughly the same age and adored by Offspring #1. On days that Offspring # 1 is not travelling so well all I hear is "I miss J, when can we see him again" and I'm afraid that telling him we'll see them all at Christmas doesn't do much to ease the pain for him or the guilt for me. It's all very well telling myself he's 4 and he'll get over it but a Mummy's guilt is a powerful force. It really doesn't help that in the list of The Top 5 Things I Miss the very same people are high on the list.

People in this town just aren't neighbourly like they are/were at home. We lived in a quiet street, with slightly-larger-than-average blocks on the outskirts of the metro area and all waved to the neighbours, said hi as they wandered past the front gate and chatted with them over the fence. The Across-The-Roads and the Next-Doors were the same age as us and our kids all fitted in together age-wise. It was great to be able to pass a kid over the fence for half and hour, or yell out that the kettle was boiling and did anyone want coffee, or run across and borrow whatever you needed. These people were such an important part of our everyday life and that interaction is what I miss so much. Our new neighbours are... interesting. On one side are a young couple with a couple of kids, lots of yelling and a number of late night Friday drinks with friends. Unfortunately their entertaining area is right next to our front door and sometimes it sounds like they are about to come through the door. Meanwhile, across the road are a very young couple with even more yelling, a baby, several car wrecks littering the yard and, as of this week a lounge suite, in their carport. They seem to prefer sitting in the carport to using their lounge-room or even the back patio. Of course, I realise this is not helped by living on an average sized suburban block for the first time in several years. But I have to say, as much as I miss neighbourly interaction, I don't think I'll be inviting any of this lot in for a cuppa anytime soon.

Question of the day: Are your friendly with your neighbours? Do you want to be?