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from little things big things grow

Sorry about the unannounced blog absence. We've had a kind of hectic month. But there's something very wonderful to come out of it all. Yup, I'm three and a half months pregnant!

I have been wanting to make this post for such a long time, but have had a terrible fear of jinxing it all. Even now, it feels like a huge step to be writing about it. This pregnancy has been such a long time coming. Plus, I'm a terrible liar, so I ended up saying nothing at all. So, since I last posted, I've been experiencing the 'joys' of morning sickness and dealing with the overwhelming tiredness of first trimester (whoa! I forgot how exhausting it is to make a baby). Then there's been the ongoing house renovations - almost finished, I'm glad to say. And we moved back & forth between home and Mum's to escape the chaos a couple of times. Then, because of Murphy's Law, this, of course hasn't been the most straight forward of pregnancies: there's been lots of unexplained bleeding (so incredibly nerve-wracking - especially after having a miscarriage last year), midnight calls to my doctor, periods of bed-rest and more ultrasounds than any one baby should have to deal with.

But... the upshoot is that everything seems fine. Baby looks healthy and is kicking away. I couldn't be happier to finally be in this place. And, as you can see above, at 14 weeks I already have the girth of 20+ weeks of baby. But that's more than fine. :)

fridge is the new oven

I love baking. Audrey and I usually bake something every week, and it's a weekday activity we've both been missing while we've been without a kitchen. Because of the weather, we need as many rainy day activities as we can get our hands on at the moment. Stupidly (why did I not forsee us climbing up the walls, mid-winter in our house turned building site?!), I packed away all of the recipe & cooking books for the duration of the renovation, so I can't even unearth some of those great ye-olde slice recipes that only require refrigeration. So when Audrey suggested that we make these little chocolate-coconut balls, we donned our raincoats and immediately made for the supermarket for the ingredients. Actually, she called them "meatballs", but I knew were she was coming from!

We made them from memory - something like:
125 grams of crushed, sweet biscuits
Half a tin of sweetened condensed milk
Quarter of a cup of dessicated coconut
2 tablespoons of cocoa
Mix all ingredients together. Roll into little balls, coat in extra coconut and refrigerate. Easy peasy. I should add that I usually don't like dessicated coconut, but these lack something without it. Also, I'm sure there are far superior recipes about, including such delicacies as cherries and rum, but this basic version works for preschoolers and weary parents alike.

When we have an oven again - please let it be soon - I'm planning to try (among others) the apple pancakes from the new Donna Hay Kids magazine, this recipe for Yoghurt Cake with Lemon, this chocolate pudding, and Suse's Sourdough Bread. Yum.