Mermaid cups

The party prep is a forever thing for me, considering there are 6 parties between mine and my best friends kids - and seven this year now she's added another one to her bunch. Her daughter Isabel is having a mermaid party next month and earlier this week, I got busy with plain white paper cups, some watercolour paints and a sponge.

This is the easiest method on the planet. All it takes is a sponge and very watery paint, dip the sponge and swipe it around the base of the cup, leaving a gorgeous wavy coloured spot. They take all of 10 seconds each and dry really quickly, making it well worth the effort to get custom coloured cups for any party. Cups? Check!

 

Primary scriptures

I am so excited. After waiting over a year for this, part 2 of the Primary Scriptures set has finally arrived! Produced by some amazing people in the US, this new child friendly Book of Mormon set was released in line with Come Follow Me in 2020, but being that the 2nd book was taking so long, they moved ahead with part 3 first, to make sure it was released in time for people to use as they studied Come Follow Me. 

As it has with so many other things, the covid-19 pandemic delays interfered with production and printing amongst other things and it was delayed again and again until it finally arrived in the US at the beginning of this year and was imported to Australia by an LDS store in QLD earlier this month. My friend and I were very very excited as the two of us have been waiting to complete our collection this entire time and they are finally here! I can't wait to get the kids reading them! ❤

Earrings on sale

Friends don't let friends pay full price. I appreciate other friends who live by the same motto and send bargains through to me so I can enjoy them too. Todays excellent buy was a half price storewide sale from a local(ish) earring maker. I got some adorable stuff and it was so cheap, seven items for $45! I grabbed a pair of coffee cup earrings for my adorable neighbour who finishes her last teaching prac next week, some rainbow glittery studs for her daughter as a (very) belated birthday present and some apples for the kids teachers as part of their end of year gift. I'm well chuffed!

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Updated to add: look what arrived - really quickly (Lol for once as the store was in WA) and all of it was as cute as the pictures! Definitely a store to save for future reference... @buzzybluebird on Instagram.

Flute lessons

This girl started flute lessons this term at school and she is doing so well! She came home with her rental flute from school (awesome that she doesn't have to use mine, so we can both play together and I can help her along) and has learned so much already. She had me show her the notes and how to play and she has already managed to not only learn all of the notes, but how to play some songs! Their teacher is well impressed with her and I am too! Go Maddie!

The best part so far has been snapping this photo. We were gifted a lecturn/ music stand/ many use stand from a friend at church who cracked a joke about how high it was and that it might be a few years before she would be able to use it. Not to be outdone, Maddie simply stacked some of the bar stools on top of each other to prop herself up to the right height and went straight back to playing. She is loving it so far, so let's hope it goes well! 

Spaghetti Casserole

This is one of the greatest meals of my childhood - Spaghetti Casserole. My mum used to make it all the time when I was a kid and it is so delicious! I make it often as an adult and without fail, if I make it for someone as a drop off meal or they have it at our house, they want the recipe. I always thought it was an old family recipe that Grandma Goodlet used to make, but mum recently corrected me, she tore it out of a Women's Weekly magazine when she was younger. Baha. Still an absolute winner no matter where it came from! I posted a picture on my instagram story when I made it a few weeks ago and my cousin messaged and was like, oh my gosh I remember that! That stuff was the best. Yes it is.

Spaghetti Casserole

250g spaghetti (half a standard pack)
250g beef mince
3-4 rashers short cut bacon
1 large onion
170g tin tomato paste
2 cups water
Grated cheese to taste

Cook pasta according to packet directions, rinse when cooked and set aside
Dice onion and fry until brown, add diced bacon and fry off, then add mince and do the same.
When all the above are nicely cooked, add the tomato paste and 2 cups water. Allow to simmer until well combined and slightly thickened (only thickens a little!)

Assemble with half spaghetti, half meat mixture, then a layer of grated cheese, then repeat.
Bake at 160°C (fan forced) for 30 mins, then allow to stand for 10-15 mins before serving. This allows it to settle, or it just falls apart when you try to serve it.

We bought a house!

Sooooo... we bought a house! After back and forth and round about for weeks with the seller and the settlement agents, the settlement for our new home finally went through today! I still feel crazy anxious, especially when I think about the sheer amount of work there is to do, the amount of tradies we will have to get through and the cost of it all! But, we are so, so thrilled. We are literally ready to make a start on the Kendall dream house! So exciting. I can't wait to show off everything as it's done. 

A hoe-down with the RS

Our ward Relief Society did something a little different for their activity this weekend and pulled off a really fun Hoe-Down last night. They decorated so cute and totally on point (with a little help from the shed's at my parents farm) and it looked amazing! Rustic stuff all over the place, with hay bales and old quilts etc, even a rusty old gate and a butter churn. Loved it!

The evening was headed up by one of the ladies in our ward, who lead everyone in some boot scooting, which was so fun to watch! I am the least coordinated person on the planet, but actually had a decent excuse this time around, as I had hurt my foot the day before.

Outfit on point though right? At least if I couldn't participate I looked the part! I decided to deviate from the original flannelette and denim combo and go for gingham with cowboy boots. Nailed it.

I brought Madeline along with me and she had a ball dancing with her friend Emma. The two of them got the dances down really quickly and had so much fun.

They love hanging out together. Emma and her family just moved here recently and the girls have become firm friends and love being around each other. There's always lots of laughs involved.

We also played a game called robbing the nest (I think?) where you have to collect balls into a hoop. I was the guardian of ours and basically just laid over the hoop. People tried and failed to get the balls from under me, so our group ended up winning! 

Dinner was good old Sloppy Joes which were actually not bad at all...

and Pumpkin Pies from our kitchen by request for dessert. 

They were a hit and perfectly on theme!

Us girls had a great night. It might have been a small group, but it was high in spirits and a lot of fun. 

Thanks to everyone that made it happen. ❤

When everything goes wrong

I follow the most incredible account on instagram, @comefollowmedaily who just writes the most perfect posts. they are all so well thought out and truly speak to me so often. I do hope she won't mind that I have copied one here to share, as I loved it so much and I shared it with a friend who has just had "one of those weeks." This explains it all!

Post by Mary Stallings @comefollowmedaily

Artwork by @eva_timothy

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Emma Smith and a few others wanted to be baptized and they dammed up the creek to prepare for the baptism.

But when they went to hold the service, they discovered someone had destroyed it to prevent the baptisms from taking place.

That image has stuck with me all week.

Because I feel like I’ve have dams break every day recently.

Hard work that seems for not.
Good, righteous efforts that seem swept away with the current.

But here is the great news:
“The Lord loves effort.” (President Nelson)
.
Even if your efforts aren’t appreciated, it doesn’t mean they are wasted.

Even if the dam breaks, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have made it.

Success is not determined by the OUTcome, but on who you BEcome.

Not on where the results your efforts stand, but how you stand before God.

And other’s agency can never get in the way of that.

God saw that first dam built.
And He sees your efforts too.
So don’t give up.

Tomato relish

Who knew I would be the person making jars of pickled stuff in my kitchen? Not me, that's for sure. But as time goes on, I feel more inclined to increase my food storage and make things in my home for our family. I love baking and sharing what I have made - and now that my kids are obsessed with tomato relish (seriously - a standard breakfast here is toast spread with butter, tomato relish and sliced cheese. I really can't blame them either - it's delicious!) I felt like I needed to make my own. Mum has been making it for years and when her neighbour (same one that gave me the incredible vintage dresses) gave her some of her own batch recently, she decided to change to her recipe as it's amaaaaazing. So today we made tomato relish. Two triple batches in fact.

TOMATO RELISH

1360g ripe tomatoes

1 tablespoon mustard

2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

1 small tablespoon curry powder

450g white onions

1 1/2 tablespoons plain flour

450g white sugar

1 cup vinegar

salt to taste

Method:

Cut tomatoes and onions into small pieces. 

Put contents into dish, add salt to taste, mix then cover and leave overnight.

Drain in morning, add one cup of vinegar, boil for five minutes, then mix in cayenne pepper and sugar.

Mix flour, curry and mustard with a little vinegar, then add to the tomato mixture, boiling for one hour. Stir regularly to avoid mixture sticking to the base of the pot.

Bottle while hot.

This is definitely a story for generations to come. I had to cut up eight and a quarter kilograms of tomatoes, then almost three kilograms of onions last night. Poor Madeline decided to stay up and wouldn't go to bed because they didn't have school today and kept crying because the onions were so strong. Literally sitting on the couch crying from the fumes - but wouldn't go to bed. It was hilarious. She'd rather have her eyes on fire than go to bed. 

So today we made up our witches brew as dad called it, then bottled it (hot tip, put the jars in the sink in hot water first so they warm up and don't crack cause the mixture will be boiling.) ready to be eaten. Yum. 

We did really well, there was only one jar that didn't pop seal at the top

and we got 24 jars from our mix! So happy. I am sure that will take us a while to get through.

Madeline's honour certificate

I kept Madeline home for a few days from last Friday. She has had the most terrible cough - and although she has been to the Dr and he has confirmed it's croup, with all the covid going around in WA right now (and cases in our school too!) I told her she could stay home. Plus the schools have asked that anyone with "covid symptoms" remain home.

So, when the senior assembly was livestreamed on Friday, we watched it and when the honour certificates were handed out, she heard her name called and lost her crap. "Mummmmmmmm. How could you do this to me? You should have known I was going to get one. I missed out! Didn't Ms. Berman tell you?" (Side note, Ms. Berman did email me, but for some reason it didn't go through and she didn't notice until Monday.) Then she slid under the table, had a bit of a cry and then reminded me hourly until I let her go back to school today. 

Personally I don't think it's that bad, her teacher made a huge fuss over her when she came back, apologised profusely about not letting us know in advance and then presented her honour certificate in class with a flourish and took a photo with their adorable therapy dog Sasha.

"This certificate is awarded to Madeline Kendall for: making a fantastic start to Year 5. Madeline completes all tasks in a timely manner to the best of her ability. She produces work of a high standard with neatness and accuracy as a high priority. Congratulations, Madeline!"

Not bad for being the first one given this year! I am super proud of my girl! ❤

Dehydrating

I looooove dehydrated bananas. They are so flipping delicious and when we have some, I absolutely can't stop eating them. Recently, I managed to score a pile of blackening bananas and borrowed my friends dehydrator to do them. SO much deliciousness to be had.

They are so easy to make, you just have to slice them in 2 or three longways and then place them on the racks, then put them on 55 degrees for 14 or so hours. Overnight is best so you can check them in the morning to make sure they won't end up crispy. Growing up mum would make these occasionally, she had the same dehydrator and all! (From what she says they had a church welfare fair in the 90's and someone had a stall there selling them, so lots of church members have the same one.) As an adult I've been lucky enough to get some from her as well when she's managed to get her hands on enough bananas to do a batch.

Sure enough they came out excellent as usual and I was very happy to have this little batch to myself as no one else in my house seemed excited about them. More for me!

I also tried doing some pear pieces, but although the internet says they don't need to be peeled first, I very much disagree. They were not very good. I'll be trying them as entire halves, not slices and peeled next time. 

Stay tuned for more adventures with the dehydrator!