Legs ahoy!

As well as helping my mum move house, I've recently been on a bit of a healthy kick and in the last two and a half months I've managed to lose 2 stone and trim up quite nicely. I've not gone on a crazy diet (I enjoy cake and in particular chocolate cheesecake far too much to do so) and have simply stuck to the old adage "eat less, move more" by taking up some dance exercise DVDs (an urban workout and some Pussy Cat Doll ones) and making an effort to walk more/for longer.

As such I've gradually started bringing out the sort of clothes I wore when I was in uni (nearly five years ago now!) mainly skirts and play suits. After Bubbah was born I kind of covered up in jeans and loose tops or tunics and leggings however now my confidence is back (although I still wear leggings with shorter things but now more for modesty rather than lack of confidence) I'm playing about with prints(!) and various lengths. So, without further ado; legs ahoy!


 

From left to right; floral maxi dress (New Look), daisy print mini skirt (Tesco), apple print play suit (H! by Henry Holland for Debenhams)

Picture this; helping nana move

We've been crazy busy recently helping my mum get ready to move in the next few weeks or so. Having been made redundant just before Christmas she had to face up to the idea, and then reality, that she would have to downsize. Fast forward several months and everything is all lined up sans moving date so, given she's downsizing from a three bed with a big garden and an extension to a one bed flat with a small strip of grass just big enough for her sandpit, we (my brother and I as well as her friends) have been helping her sort through everything.

Three skips, numerous charity shop runs and countless dump trips later and she's nearly ready. There's the few odd bits left to do of packing things to go into storage, and things to be moved into the flat. There's also been lots of memories as she's lived there nearly thirty years and it was my childhood home...

Bubble wrap for the fragile things

Or for unravelling!

Ditto for my old ELC till
(still working nearly twenty years later)

We found Raphael and Bubbah had to have him

My mum's hair band from her wedding (in 1985) which I promptly snapped up for myself

An oversized jumper Bubbah insisted on wearing before we threw it away

Keeping himself amused while we cleared out the kitchen

Stealing nana's slipper boots

Budget busting; batch cooking

Something I regularly (freezer space allowing of course) do is batch cook the families favourite meals both to keep shopping costs down and make sure we use up the surplus of tins etc languishing in the cupboard/freezer. So when my mum (who is moving house) handed over a 500g pack of mince from her freezer I combined it with one of mine and made up a mega load of bolognaise sauce, turning half of it into two lasagnes and the other half portioned up into Tuppaware and shoved in the freezer for later lasagne/cottage pie/spag bol.

Other meals I batch cook include fish pie, veg curry (recipe to come) soups, and various pasta bakes. However the possibilities are endless. Again, this depends on the space you have in your freezer and if you're happy to eat fairly similar meals for a few weeks. However it can come in handy when you know time is going to be tight in the near future; I filled an entire chest freezer with batch cooked meals in preparation before Bubbah was born and I had three weeks where dinner could simply be picked out by me or hubby and thrown in the microwave while the other held a screaming baby suffering from the dreaded colic. It also helps out when money is tight and you do have odds and ends to use up in the cupboards.

What meals do you like to batch cook?