Good Morning Girls

This morning was the first day of the Good Morning Girls Bible Study in the book of James. I'm really looking forward to both to the study and getting to know the other girls in my group.

For those who have never heard of the Good Morning Girls, it is basically a group of women studying the Bible and then sharing what we have learned via email. The original aim is to have a group in roughly the same geographical area. My group has another Scottish girl (but living in England), an Irish girl, two Canadians and an American in it at the moment. Given that the conversation happens by email the area is not such a big deal, but I think some of the US groups meet together sometimes (not sure though!)

The Bible Study is not too time consuming at all, we are studying just a couple of verses a day, but boy do those verses contain a lot to think about in each of them!

We write out the verses for the day in our little notebooks, any observations we have about them, any applications we can make to our lives and anything to pray for.

This is my lovely notebook. 

It's equally pretty inside!

It's not too late for anyone else to join our group either. You can have a look at the reading plan here  and a brief recap about the Good Morning Girls here.

If you would like to join us then send me an email at the address in the sidebar. 

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The Great Escape - with a Lego twist (of course!)

My husband loves old war movies. He'll watch the newer ones too but thinks the old ones are by far the best.

One of his favourites is The Great Escape. In the holidays he decided it was time to introduce the boys to it, so when we were at his parents' at Hogmanay he, his dad and the boys all sat down to watch it.

The boys soon got into it, especially when the prisoners were all escaping, and James turned to his dad and said, 'I didn't think it would be this exciting!'

Today we were shopping for a birthday present for a friend of James' when they spotted this card.

(I don't know why blogger keeps flipping my image round but just tilt your head!)

A month ago it would have made no sense to them but today they thought it was hilarious!

We bought it for them to give to daddy when he comes home tomorrow.

Gaelic word of the day:

eibhinn (ay-veen) - funny

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Recipe of the Week - Fish Fingers

I've already mentioned on here how we are not big fish fans in this house.

 I never really liked fish when I was growing up (with the exception of Salmon). My mum always used to say I needed to learn to cook it because, 'One day you will need to cook fish for your husband,' but thankfully my husband isn't so keen either (not that I made a point of finding that out before I married him!) Despite this, I do buy fish from time to time because I know it is supposed to be good for us, but the boys are also not fond of fish.

However, I have found a way for us all to enjoy fish. The boys adore these Fish Fingers, which are basically my Chicken Goujons recipe, only made with white fish instead of chicken.

They are also easy enough for children to help make, in fact they don't need much help at all, just cutting the fish and making the breadcrumbs.

Here are my two eager helpers with the bowls lined up and ready to start dipping the fish. 

Because Calum can't touch the raw egg he did the first stage of coating the fish with the flour and David then dipped it into the egg and breadcrumb.

You will need:

4 fillets of white fish, cut into finger sized chunks.

4 slices wheat-free bread, whizzed in a food processor to make crumbs.

4tbsp wheat-free flour

2 eggs, beaten

~Put your breadcrumbs, eggs and flour in 3 separate bowls.

~Coat each piece of fish with flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs and place on an oiled baking tray.

~Cook in the oven at 180C for about 15 minutes until lightly golden. Don't overcook or they will dry up.

~Serve with chips, green veg and tartar sauce. Or if you are a boy, change the tartar sauce to tomato sauce!

Once again I didn't get the photo when they came out of the oven so here is Calum's plate after he had started tucking in!

Oh, and I should add, we do love smoked salmon, especially the hot smoked Salar Salmon!

Expensive tastes.

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Little Drummer Boy

Continuing with yesterday's subject of Christmas presents, though not chocolate alas.

My youngest nephew got a little drum kit as one of his presents. He loves it and so do our David and Alasdair.

Firstly I took a photo of Alasdair having a shot of it.

But then I saw that he was playing them so well that I took this little video clip of him too.

I have grand plans of getting the boys to make up a Ceilidh band when they are a little older. It looks like Alasdair is already a star performer (and I'm only half joking about the Ceilidh band!)

Gaelic word of the day:

ceol (cyol) - music

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What's a girl to do?

One of the Christmas presents that my husband and I received was this box.

On Christmas morning we opened it to find this:

(well, a very similar mix of chocolates. I took this image off the web as there weren't enough chocolates left in the box to do it justice!)

A few days later a visitor brought us this:

Another day the boys received a few of these:

The person who brought the chocolate santas for the boys was unaware that two of them are allergic to milk so what could I do but eat them for the boys?!

And then, today when we were in the supermarket the very same santas were reduced to 10p each! 

How could I refuse such a bargain?

My name is Kirsteen, and I am a choco-holic :0)

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Safari Park

Ok, it's not a real safari park, but it is real enough to our Calum.

Calum has turned into a real animal lover these last few months. He loves to watch the children's programme Deadly 60, read his wildlife books and is taking a keen interest in looking after and feeding the birds in the back garden in this harsh winter weather. He now has a common garden birds poster that he checks to try and recognise what types our little visitors are. Blackbirds, chaffinches and robins are the most commonly spotted so far.

For Christmas he really wanted a Playmobil safari Ranger Station. The other day he took these photos and said they were for me to put on the blog.

Here's the full thing, complete with watering hole.

This is the ranger with a few rescued baby animals behind the fence.

The monkeys

And round the back of the ranger station the other ranger is having a snooze in the bed on the left.

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Breaking the 'No resolutions' resolution

I'm not really one for making New Year's Resolutions.

I know a lot of people use the start of a new year to kick start their diet, for instance. Whilst I admire their determination to do something about something they may be unhappy about, I'm not convinced that slap bang in the middle of the long, cold and dark winter is the best time to give up the great comfort of food! In my opinion anyway.

While we are on the subject, I've never been one for diets either. I am thankful to have been brought up knowing that healthy, home-cooked meals are the best for you and that everything in moderation will do you no harm, like yesterday's Brownies :0)

Anyway, I'm moving off track here.

I don't want to paint myself as something of a saint, far from it, but I don't really have any vices I should be giving up in the New Year. I do, however have a couple of things I want to start doing, and now would seem as good a time as any to start!

Firstly, is the 90 day Bible challenge. I came across this on a blog the other day. It has just begun so won't take too much catching up. Basically it is a Bible reading plan that will enable you to read through the whole Bible in 90 days. I'd love it if  anyone else was up for the challenge too. If so, follow the link.

Secondly, and here is where I imagine everyone to be saying, 'Is she crazy? She has four boys to look after, a house to keep (and try and sell!) and a husband working away!'. I'm not crazy and yes I am busy, but this is just for fun. If it gets more than that I will simply stop. Through a friend I found out about the free language learning website Busuu. I signed up for beginners Italian and improvers French. I'd like to be able to do more than just book into a hotel, speak about the weather and introduce myself in French. I chose Italian because my friend who told me of Busuu is Italian. I've given myself 2-3 hours a week to look at the languages. I'm looking forward to it!

I will, of course, keep you all posted as to how both resolutions are going. Whether, like so many other people's resolutions, they end up on the scrapheap by the spring time remains to be seen! 

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Recipe of the Week - Chocolate & Banana Brownies

Let's start the year as we mean to go on, shall we? 

With chocolate.

Apologies to anyone who might be trying to quit the habit as a New Year's resolution!

Blackening bananas often tend to end up in a Banana Muffin mixture but this recipe is an indulgent way to use them up. The bananas keep the brownie really soft and gooey in the middle, and I like to think that it also makes these a bit healthier than they might actually look. After all, it must count towards some of your 5-a-day, right?

I made the mistake of not taking the photo as soon as they were out of the oven, so half of them are gone!

You will need:

6oz dairy free margarine

10oz light brown sugar (white sugar will be fine too if you don't have any brown)

6oz dark chocolate

3 eggs, beaten

2 ripe bananas, mashed

4oz Doves Farm Wheat Free Self Raising Flour

1 tbsp cocoa powder

1 tsp baking powder

~Put the margarine, sugar and chocolate in a pan. Heat gently, stirring until melted then remove the pan from the heat.

~ Stir in the eggs and bananas and mix well.

~Add the flour, cocoa and baking powder and mix well again.

~Pour into a square brownie tin lined with greaseproof paper and bake at 180c for about 30 minutes.

~Cool in the tin and then cut into squares.

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W.I.P. Wednesday - Christmas Crochet Projects

Time now to reveal all those Work In Progresses that I was wanting to share throughout December but couldn't because some of them were gifts, and some of the gift recipients read my blog!

Remember Alasdair's cute little Owl hat? Straight after I had made that I made a different one for David. I just didn't get a chance to photograph it properly before now (and it still isn't photographed properly because that boy just doesn't sit still!)

If he had sat still long enough you would be able to tell that it is a Raccoon hat.

Then, after making these two hats I was on a bit of a roll and made a third type for my youngest nephew's birthday. He turned three on Christmas day, see a couple of posts below. 

Here he is in his froggy hat.

Next in line for an earflap hat was my husband's sister, who loves the outdoors.

Back in November I showed the colour of wool I was using for one of my mum's presents.

I was making a neckwarmer with a corsage brooch to hold it closed. My granny has been admiring it so much that I have promised to make her one for her birthday, which is at the end of this month.

OK, everyone still with me? Just a couple more things.

I made this hot-water bottle cover for my brother's wife. 

Lastly, and most certainly not leastly, my TOP SECRET project for the boys. 

With all the other projects I was working on, I didn't get the full set of Star Wars figures made, but I did make them one each and the rest can be added on at leisure.

I wrapped them up individually and made them from Alasdair to each of his older brothers.

Darth is still waiting for me to buy some felt for a cape!

Gaelic word of the day:

deiseil (jay-shall) - finished

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Looking back and looking forwards

All good things must come to an end, and so yesterday we took down the Christmas tree and decorations. Much as I love Christmas, I don't mind taking the decorations down either. By the time the New Year celebrations are over, the Christmas cards are starting to look too cluttered to me and I love how much bigger the living room looks once the tree is down. 

I let the boys keep their new toys around the living room while the Christmas stuff is around, but once it all goes away then it's time to find new homes for the new toys, which we did yesterday as well. Now I'm feeling very satisfied with my de-cluttered house :0)

2010 started with our littlest man just learning to sit up.........

..........and ended with him finding his feet 

Our oldest is the same age as this century so the beginning of 2010 saw him turn 10. 

Easter 2010 was spent visiting friends in Northern Ireland, where we visited all the touristy sites, including the Giant's Causeway.

In the summer Alasdair turned 1

In the summer I took the plunge and started up my blog. My very first post is here.

The rest of our year has been documented on here but highlights include our summer holidays at my parents' and my new found love of crochet.

There was also the run of birthdays. Mine, Calum's and David's. 

I think that should be enough background reading!

What better way to end a review of my blog-year than with a selection of photos of cakes?

(and yummy berries!)

Here's hoping that 2011 will be equally yummy!

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