
:: Best picture of the week ::
Very slow start this week. My legs were aching!
I couldn't face taking Ruby to pre-school on Monday - the hill I live on was too much to contemplate and driving felt beyond me (AND very lazy as its only a matter of minutes away)
Lots of sitting on the sofa and not doing very much for a couple of days.

:: Marbulous ::
But when a new set of marbulous arrived to supplement the existing, I made this.
Unsupervised about 20 minutes later George had karate chopped it into bits.

:: At nana's (my nana's!) ::
We've been to Nana's - that's my nana's, their grand nana's - where the children spend all their time eating biscuits! Within seconds of walking through the door you are guaranteed to hear Ruby say, 'nana, I think I'm a bit hungry' - woe betide if nana ever runs short on biscuits. Do nanas ever run short on biscuits?!

:: After a heavy biscuit session ::
When we got back, George had fallen asleep in the car, Gwyn carried him into the lounge, took off his shoes, put them in the cupboard under the stairs and came back to this.

:: All too much ::
I couldn't bear to wake him so he slept while we had dinner and instead we all had a very late night!

:: Cornflour GOO ::
Today there was no preschool and we made cornflour goo (2 parts cornflour to 1 part water) I'd forgotten just how satisfying this stuff is! Ruby was entertained for about an hour. When you apply pressure to it, it's solid, when you hold it up and let gravity do it's job it's liquid. The science bit is here.

:: Cornflour 2 ::
If you were feeling particularly reckless you could always add food colouring. Today, I wanted to keep it simple as we had just been potato printing already and there was paint everywhere.

:: Perfect potatoes ::
Up until last week it had never occurred to me to use cookie cutters to get the perfect potato print shape. I must be daft. Only because there was a text request for a cookie cutter from one of my friends that helps organise the toddler group did the possibility even come to light. I've always muddled through with a knife, trying and failing to make shapes, all very unsatisfactory. But a cookie cutter in the potato and then the knife? Perfect potatoes. Doh!

:: Raw chocolate brownies ::
And where did all my energy come from today? I'll place good money on my green smoothie, some raw pasta and these, raw chocolate brownies, the recipe for which can be found here.
Over the last year or so I've been amassing a random collection of 'new to my kitchen' ingredients and equipment, new recipe books and I've added some new 'raw' blogs to my feed. It slowly starts to creep in as you realise eating more fresh inventive food is not only really exciting but gives you loads more energy and makes you feel better.
In a happy coincidence (serendipity?) there was a lone bag of detox your world cacao powder at my local health shop and I remembered a recipe on Polly's blog that I've been wanting to try out. I am guilty of a bit of an addiction to Galaxy chocolate. Hands up, every night I have a bar. Or a big bar. Easily. But I'm thinking more and more along the lines of curbing this, particularly as it's starting to feel like I'm having it for the sake of it and I'm starting to notice the taste is beginning to feel artificial (I know!!!! Worrying!!!) Cacao is an amazing superfood because there are over 25,200 anti-oxidants per spoonful (Anti-oxidants are molecules capable of interacting with free radicals which can damage vital molecules in our cells. They slow the aging process and strengthen the immune system.) You would be hard pressed to find anything with as many anti-oxidants per spoon. There is more information here.

:: George and his brownie ::
George and I couldn't get enough of this dark, rich, dense chocolatey concoction. Actually, that's a bit of a lie, it is so rich I had to stop. George could have happily munched a ton of the stuff so convinced he was that it was chocolate (he is completely addicted to the stuff and frequently asks for it on waking)
This, however was Ruby's reaction:

:: Not happy ::
She hated it, in the same way that George hated the cornflour goo. So hard to please them both at the same time!!
I felt like I'd had a coffee after mine. A bit buzzy, which is quite a strange sensation for me, I probably have a coffee now about once every six months and I get so clumsy and a little bit disorientated I resolve never to have it again. I managed to smash a bowl and stick the high speed blender on full of water without the lid on today....skills.

:: Flowerbed ::
Anyway, for the first time in quite a few weeks I've had enough motivation and energy to try and sort the garden out a bit. This mysterious grass that smells of spring onions has surfaced in every available bit of soil in my flowerbed and I've been really worried it'll be choking my bulbs. Not worried enough to do anything about it until now, but today was the day.

:: Answers on a postcard ::
I don't know what it is (I don't really know anything about gardening!) but the roots are shallow mostly and abundant.
In the end I managed to clear it a little...

... and now hopefully my crocuses and tulips will be a bit more noticeable when they flower.

In any case now it's dry I intend to spend a little time in the garden everyday clearing and beautifying, it was very calming and satisfying today. And the children loved being out there for the first time in months I think.

Have a great weekend!
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