A ¼ Teaspoon of Bicarbonate Soda and a dash of Kayce

We have had another quiet week in the big city of Broxbourne this week, but that is largely due to the bank and Quinn having plans for the weekend

We are also very pleased and excited that Wayne has had his contract extended till July 2009 so that we can continue our grand adventure

Friday was an interesting day as I have now got a job and can’t start until a background check has been done on me as I am working with children. I am feeling somewhat frustrated .. so was pleased… thrilled even to get a call from Wayne asking me to come to Hailey Hall for the day. At Hailey Hall the last day of school means fun and games for both staff and students, and I was there to capture these moments on camera for them.

It was a great day with Wayne’s photography club very excited about the competition for the most interesting photo, and these young men were inspirational. They saw beauty and design in places I would never have thought to look. They also had to share resources as some of the cameras were not operational, but honestly they were great about the whole experience.

The teachers worked so hard to give the boys a great day with golf, basketball, football Wii, Xbox and the day ended in a Teachers V Students Football (soccer) match. This was a fiercely fought battle with some casualties…. my husband included (Wayne dove for the ball and when he realised he might miss it, he chose to make the ultimate sacrifice and head the ball, which was a great idea … until he landed…. one torn muscle over his rib cage and a nasty headache later… he is on the mend)

Saturday dawned as a beautiful day with the temp around 22 and the sun was glorious. We had some nasty business to attend to, as the bank we opened an account with when we arrived has been a royal pain in the behind and we went shopping for a new bank. One that will take money out of our account as we spend it .. not wait three weeks … and when we transfer money don’t keep it in a account for a week to earn interest for themselves before sending it on the account we want to pay…. sorry needed to vent there…

We had planned to, maybe, go to Ipswich for the day but Quinn had planned to spend the day in Hoddesdon with some friends (read Kayce here). While we are thrilled that he has settled so well it can make planning a little difficult, because we don’t want to go without the boys as they want to see the sights as much as we do. So we thought we would find out what the boys had planned and decide from there …. Our week read below

Monday: Brock to Ryan’s_ Quinn to Kayce Wayne and Meg to drive
Tuesday: Brock Movies with friends (this has now been postponed till Wednesday) Wayne and Meg to drive
Wednesday: Brock to Movie with friends Wayne and Meg to drive
Thursday: Quinn is spending the day with Kayce Wayne and Meg to drive
Friday: Meg and Wayne picking friend up from friends to spend day with us
Saturday: Meg and Wayne to take friend to Heathrow
Sunday: Unpacking our personal effects from Australia that are hopefully to be dropped off this week, getting ready for school tomorrow

So as you can see we are going to find it difficult to go anywhere this week …… but please if you can see a slot we missed let us know ..

We have been having what they call typical bank holiday weather today, very wet windy and cold, so Brock decided to make jam drops without any help. Off he went.. he did a great job and apart from a nasty jam burn all was peaceful in the kitchen. I had the honour of tasting the first, shall we say, ‘interesting’ looking biscuit and while somewhat concerned as to why the jam looked liked it had forcefully been asked to leave the biscuit I bravely pressed on….. I took an unlady-like large bite as Brock looked proudly on and I smiled and told him they were good. As I walked from the kitchen to the lounge a strange fizzy sour bitter taste filled my mouth…… Brock had mistakenly put 2 tablespoons of Bicarb soda in the mixture instead of ½ a teaspoon of baking powder … Quinn and Brock both sampled the biscuits and the decision was made that perhaps the biscuits were better landfill than food and the second tray of biscuits were forcefully removed from the oven… but it got me thinking about recipes and how they are a comfort to me… I have used this recipe since I started cooking as a teenager. It’s one my mama cooked for me when I was little and over the years I have learnt what works and what doesn’t and I have not needed to write these changes down because until now it was always me that did the cooking. Now my babies are nearly grown and I am in the position where I am not only teaching them to cook, I am passing down comfort and tradition and I am grateful to my mama to be able to do that for them.