8. Lose 4 stones

2lb off. Consistency is my middle name. (it's not, it's Marie. Consistency is better though, more exotic, so I'm considering deed poll)

8. Lose 4 stones

Another 2lb off this week, 10.5lb in total.

8. Lose 4 stones

2lb off this week and my first award! Woo!

22. Visit 5 different museums

Bolton Museum

It's half term, day 3. Three long days. We have a wobbly tooth so every other sentence is about the tooth fairy and when she's not talking about it she's wobbling it. Time to get out of the house! So off we went to Bolton.

First to the aquarium which has recently been made a bit more buggy friendly. It's only small but the girls enjoyed it, especially the exhibit about looking after the environment. Never has a retro crisp packet caused such excitement!


Lydia doing her best fish impression!

The upstairs to the museum. The local history exibit was closed (due to reopen tomorrow!) but we still managed to see the dinosaur, some (slightly horrific) mummies, and lots of other stuff. Best loved of all was the Noah's Ark. Lots of tantrums when it was time to move on!



It's a fabulous place and free! Much recommended by us.

7. Make a Christmas cake (part one!)

So I've started my christmas cake! I bought the fruit weeks ago but I've only just got round to acquiring some brandy (thanks MIL!) I'm following the recipe from Ruth Clemens' blog The Pink Whisk (she was a finalist on the BBC programme The Great British Bake Off)

I've been soaking it since the weekend and stiring it everyday. It's currently living in the cupboards wrapped up in cling film and a tea towel.

It smells lush!

16. Bake once a month

This month has been a quieter one, baking wise. I'm not really the kind of person who makes muffins with crushed up bran flakes, I'd rather do with out!
I got an urge to bake in saturday though, so I flicked through my new baking book and settled on lamingtons. And very good they are too (I've eaten several since weigh in!)

15. Cook 10 things from a recipe

Slimming World Lamb Dhansak (from SW magazine October 2010)



Serves 4

Fry Light
1 carrot, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
2.5cm fresh root ginger (i used my namesake, lazy ginger!)
1tbsp tandoori spice mix
397g lamb, cubed
255g cherry tomatoes
400g can green lentils inc water (I did this in the slow cooker and it was too watery.would leave the water out next time)
284ml lamb stock
salt and pepper
basmati rice
fresh corriander (i left this out. fresh corriander has no place in my house. bleugh)

Spray a large, deep frying pan with fry light and place over a medium heat. Add the onion, carrot and red pepper and cook, uncovered for 10 minutes.

Add the garlic, ginger and spice mix and cook for a further 2 minutes, stiring constantly.

Stir in the lamb, cherry tomatoes, lentils and lamb stock. Season well and bring to the boil. Cover and cook for 25 minutes until lamb is tender. Cook the rice in boiling water for 10 minutes and drain.

When the curry is ready, stir in most of the coriander and check the seasoning. Sprinkle the remaining corriander over the curry and serve with the rice (but no naan bread as a sharwoods plain naan is 16.5 syns!!)

8. Lose 4 stones

Half a pound. Half a measly pound.
I weighed at a different time of day so that'll be it won't it? It'll mean a better loss next week won't it? (the only acceptable answer is yes by the way!)

8. Lose 4 stones

2lb off this week. Treated myself to a stale cake from Greenhalghs. This town needs a Starbucks!

8. Lose 4 stones

So I've made a start on #8. I've joined Fat Fighters Slimming World.
First weigh in this week and I've lost 4lb.

16. Bake once a month

I've baked a few times this month. For the school autumn fayre I made Rocky Road, Brownies and fairy cakes (pink glitter for girls and Ben 10 for boys. Nothing like a gender stereotype cupcake topping!) People were very complementary and my tins came back empty so I presume they were ok!

I also made Victoria Sponge cupcakes which were fabulous in my head but slightly disastrous in real life (all the jam sank to the bottom) but apparently went down with Paul's colleagues!

Yesterday as a treat for no crying at swimming lessons (hey, bribery is a mum's best friend) we made smarties cookies. Biscuits are not my forte. They're kind of like unrisen cakes (there's some ingredients mentioned in the method that aren't on the list which threw me a bit) but they're edible. It could be that I'm just greedy and will eat anything though...

34. Go swimming with the children

Obviously there's no pictures. I contemplated taking a picture of us outside the pool but wasn't sure that being labeled a nutter was much better than a pervert. I may go back and recreate the moment when the pool is closed (would that make me less of a nutter or more?)

I've not been swimming for 6 years, since I was thinner. Thanks to this project I've bought a costume (two actually, thanks to the children helpfully removing the labels so I couldn't send one back) and actually been swimming. I actually had fun. Well, if I ignore the part where I couldn't find my underwear. I was panicking ever so slightly. I couldn't decide which would be worse, going without any underwear or asking at reception if anyone had handed it in. Turns out I'd stashed it in the leg of my jeans, presumably so I'd know where it was. Oh and the less said about Lydia weeing on my flip flops the better...

Triple Whammy!

A day out to the seaside on a lovely, sunny bank holiday meant I could cross three things off my list!

24. Paddle in the sea



80. Build a sandcastle



98. Visit a place I haven't been since childhood



I also managed to get a family photo (by getting Paul to balance the camera on a wooden post whilst I shouted "Don't knock it off!" "If you drop it in the sand I'll cry!" and other helpful things.)

13. Have 10 family photographs taken

11. Go on 10 dates

I can't help but think I was being slightly ambitious when I thought up my list. 10 dates? 8 months in and I've only managed 1! We, I mean we.

Anyway, yesterday was our anniversary. We've been married 6 years now. Here we are, the happy couple. We scrub up ok don't we? Shame that was the last time I actually scrubbed up at all!



So, my mum looked after the children while we went to the cinema. It was the first time I'd been to the cinema to see an adult film (hey, not that kind of adult film!) in more than five years. When we got there I realised why. How expensive? £7.50 each for the film, £7.40 for a hotdog and a coke. Mental. But I enjoyed it, and I even laughed at Adam Sandler.

35. Throw away 10 things from each room

I've had a bit of a clearout of Lydia's wardrobe. I was supposed to be looking for stuff to eBay but I got distracted by the 5 years of birthday and christmas cards that were in there. I decided to keep just the 1st birthday ones and then the ones from mummy and daddy for the other birthdays. The amount I'd saved was starting to get ridiculous. I also binned the shoe boxes I'd been inexplicably been keeping. I have no idea how it all fitted in as I seem to have thrown lots away but created no extra space!
Hopefully my clutter mission will continue at the weekend!

16. Bake once a month

It's only the 6th of the month and I've already baked twice!

Brownies: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1223/bestever-brownies?pager.offset=120
They really are the best ever! I put turkish delight in mine (I seem to have a fetish, I made (slightly disastrous) TD cupcakes last week too) They were fantastic. I'm rubbish at brownies. I made some a few weeks ago that were like chocolate cake that wasn't quite cooked through, urgh. Have I mentioned how good these were? Delicious!

Fairy Cakes: I intended taking some of the brownies to work but I ate them all instead. So yesterday I knocked up a quick batch of buns. Well, it was supposed to be quick but I was a bit mithered and was trying to simultaneously make tea. Result = 1 egg smashed all over the floor and one tray or slightly over cooked chips! Still, the cakes went down ok. I might even do it again for them!

22. Visit 5 different museums

We paid a visit to the grandly titled Museum of Museums today. The reality isn't quite as grand! Situated in an old warehouse at the Trafford Centre, it comprises lots of exibits from other museums including an exibit about the FA cup from The National Football museum, some vintage cars, a couple of trams and buses, some cool vintage ice cream vans and some war memorabilia.

We enjoyed it (Charlotte possibly less than the rest of us, she spent a lot of the time saying "I go home Now!") and Paul got to harp on a bit about Bolton Wanderers and the White Horse cup final (first football game at wembley, estimated 300,000 fans, Bolton won 1-0 blah blah blah. I do listen sometimes!)

It's not fully open at the moment so entrance is free (normally £6 for adults and £4 for children, personally I doubt it's worth that, unless they get a lot more stuff, but I'm a bit tight now I have to pay for 4 people!)

http://www.museumofmuseums.org.uk/

16. Bake once a month

July's bake isn't really a bake at all (I have made other things, pistachio cupcakes, but I didn't take any nice photos!) Lydia and I made Rocky Road for her to give to her teacher as a present. Yummy and very easy, even for a 5 year old!

83. Listen to 10 artists I've never heard of

4/10 Eliza Doolittle.

It's quite possible that everyone else has heard of her and are wondering if I've been living on the moon. I don't get much chance to listen to the radio at home and I used to keep up to date with new stuff at work but now we're not allowed a radio *weep*
Anyway, I read something in a gossip column about Eliza Doolittle (it was the daily mail but keep that to yourselves ok) so I looked her up on We7.com (I've ditched spotify, we7 is much better). It turns out I quite like her. Maybe new music isn't all noise.

Quick catch up

16. Bake once a month
I baked fairycakes for my sister's birthday. This month I'm going to try and bake something other than cupcakes!

20. Go to the theatre
I took Lydia to the Octagon in Bolton to see a fabulous adaptation of Whatever Next!
We both loved it (me a little bit more than her possibly!)


75. Grow and eat our own strawberries
I've planted a little strawberry plant in a pot at the back, fingers crossed we get some fruit from it!