Wholemeal Banana Berry Muffins

As the school holidays come to an end, it's time to make snacks for Spawn's lunches! I'm not sure how these will go being frozen, but they're yummy enough that they should be okay either way!

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups wholemeal flour
2 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn baking soda
1/2 cup self-raising flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tspn ground cinnamon
1 tspn vanilla extract
1 egg
1 cup blueberry yoghurt
1/2 cup milk (or just use 1 3/4 cups blueberry yoghurt - I used what I have as this polar blast is intense and I'm NOT leaving the house lol)
1 cup mashed ripe banana  (2 approx)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup frozen blueberries

METHOD:
Preheat oven to 190 degrees and put patty cases in muffin tin.
Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl, then make a well and add all other ingredients, except blueberries. Stir until combined, but do not overwork.
You can either gently fold through blueberries now, or place them on top once mix is in cases. I did half and half - I love the smushy berries on top!
Fill the cases 2/3, then put into preheated oven for 20 minutes. Makes between 12-18 muffins, depending on how generous you are.

If freezing, do not do so until they have cooled completely. Otherwise they may go soggy and bleh.

Enjoy!

- L. x

Taco Soup.

This is a take on some American thing. I made it a little healthier, as well as tastier! It's basically nachos with beefed up taco filling. So good!

INGREDIENTS:
500g beef mince
1 brown onion, diced
Olive oil
1 sachet taco seasoning
400g tin diced tomatoes
400g tin four bean mix
1 tin sweet corn kernels
Passata - err, about a cup?
Plain corn chips
Sour cream
Grated cheese

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat, then add onion and cook until softened. Add mince and cook until browned, then add all other ingredients and stir to combine. Add enough passata until you have desired consistency. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
To serve, put soup into bowl and top with grated cheese and sour cream, with corn chips on the side for dipping.

Enjoy!

L. x

The End is Nigh.

Oh, my gosh.

These holidays have been a blast! However, I am more than ready for Spawn to return to school! His need to defy everything I ask him to do has my hair turning greyer than ever before.... So tragic. I am officially at the stage where I will be dying my hair for the rest of my life. :(

Recap of the holiday activities we have partaken:
- zoo. This was fun, until Spawn decided to meltdown and run around making himself trip - what is with that??? I need to bring this up with the paed at our next appointment. It does my head in to no end!
- craft activities. These have been my saviour, without a doubt! I stocked up on a bunch of Naplan style math workbooks, and bribe Spawn to behave in order to get one. *snickers* Bribery is an amazing tool.
- baking. Didn't do as much of this as I thought we would, but Spawn did enjoy making a strawberry cake, then making a strawberry puree to put on top. Neighbours were very appreciative of our efforts!
- Sovereign Hill. This was our last day out for the holidays (apart from the trip to the shopping centre the following day, which resulted in disaster [details to come!]) and a lot of fun! I hadn't been to Sovereign Hill in a REALLY long time and it was amazing how little it had changed, yet how different it looks from an adult's perspective. Spawn had fun doing the mine tours and panning for gold, and now has a new obsession with all things gold related. Love the obsessive mentality of his mind. He truly is incapable of doing anything by halves! He also met a little girl and his impulsive nature meant he had no problem straight up asking her for her number! (she would have been around 4) This little girl then came up and casually put her arm around him. It was so adorable! I love the innocence of kids. So pure and untainted. :)

During the holidays, I have tried implementing new techniques to prevent angry outbursts from the little devil spawn, however few methods seem to work. I know that you have to give things time to sink in, but when you're trying to calm an aggressive child down and he gets significantly worse - well, this does not call for a fun time. I feel like all we're doing in going in circles, with no sane way out. The calm bottle however, is an AMAZING thing. It actually works, if I get Spawn to play with it before his temper fully kicks in. Loving it immensely!

On the topic of sanity; I officially lost mine yesterday. We went to the shopping centre to buy groceries and a new board game to play over the quiet weekend to come, and Spawn went ballistic, trying to destroy things in the centre!!! Not so much embarrassing, as I find myself being able to ignore most of the stares, but definitely depressing. Am so grateful that my mum was in the area and able to take him for the day - it worries me what could have happened if he had stayed with me. :/
Chocolate swirled brioche and red wine definitely helped me a little though. I found my sanity at the bottom of the bottle - yay. :)

I find myself a little scared at the prospect of Spawn returning to school. I'm getting to the point where I want to drop him off, then turn my phone off and not worry about anything until I pick him up at 3:30. All the phone calls and face-to-face conversations are so taxing! I am so grateful that Spawn's teachers are understanding and try to keep him in line, but him being sent home really doesn't help our situation. He comes home so ANGRY - at me mostly - that I dread it. 100%, no doubt about it. Don't want it to happen!!

Ah well. If I were a believer of God, I would be SO upset at the idea of him believing I am worthy of such a child. Just once, I'd love for something to happen in my life that wasn't so... demanding? Painful? Intense? Hard?
Just give me easy, please? Just ONE thing. I don't ask for much, do i?

Peace out.

- L. x

School Holidays.

'school holiday' - adjective. a phenomenon that occurs four times a year once a person has children of school age. Known for sending many a parent to the crazy house, or to consume excessive amounts of alcohol. **BEWARE**

I may or may not be entering this winter holiday period with a little trepidation. Originally, I planned to drive to the Alpine region for a few days, and make day trips to the smaller mountains. But then my mother called and mentioned sale flights, so I ended up purchasing things to go with our Christmas holiday and now need to budget like a pro in order to have enough cash to have a little fun at Christmas time. YAY! At least the flights are paid for - thanks parentals! ;)

I've been raiding the Big W 'drop zone' frequently over the past month, hunting down cheap bargains to use as a kind of lucky dip for these holidays. Every couple of days, Spawn will pull something out of the bag before bed, and that will determine what we do the next day. There are craft activities, baking recipes, workbooks, toys, and then bigger 'outing' type things such as zoo membership cards, museum passes, train rides, and Sovereign Hill. We're going to have a fun time, lol.

Still, I'm scared. Perks of having a rambunctious child of Satan, I suppose. Love his guts, but he can be a little intense at times. Much like those Snickers ads - he gets a little ragey when he doesn't get his way, lol.

As an aside, have you seen Fowl Language Comics on Facebook?? Best ever. 

I feel this particular image is appropriate for today, considering the U.S. has legalised gay marriage across the nation! Now, if only we could convince Barack Obama to come to Australia once he has finished his term as President of the United States, then we could have someone guiding Parliament to make great choices for Australia that DO NOT screw over the people!
Hooray Obama! Here's hoping the next US President is on the same scale of awesome as you, and that Australia's next Prime Minister is learning a thing or two from what you've achieved!

Peace out.

- L. xx
(the Tony Abbott despiser.)

Kinky Linky.

Do you ever accumulate so many links across your electronic devices, that you realise, "oh my gosh, I really need to put these all together so I can decide what to do with them!"???
Yeah, me either.

Nothing to see here; these are just recipes I've found and tried and need to tweak to taste. Sick of having so many tabs open on my phone, lol.
Feel free to copy them, if they're you're thing. ;)

Meatballs.
http://www.food.com/recipe/authentic-italian-meatballs-92095

Brownie heaven!! (The sickly sweet mint brownies that have potential)
http://www.domesticsluttery.com/2013/04/baking-for-beginners-after-dinner-mint.html?m=1

Banana bread.
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/3118/banana+bread

Lemon panna cotta & Madeleines.
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/756638/lemon-panna-cotta-with-blackberries-and-honey-made

Monkey bread
http://www.marthastewart.com/353261/monkey-bread

Vegetable carbonara
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/35451/spaghetti+carbonara+with+zucchini+and+yellow+squash

ASD diet recommendation (some useful tips)
http://www.myaspergerschild.com/2009/07/gluten-free-casein-free-gfcf-diet-for.html?m=1

Oh, my gosh. Did you really make it this far?? Okay, well peace out!

- L. x

It's Official.

I really am Crazy.....

Well, it's midnight, damn right, we're wound up too tight.
I've got a fist full of whiskey, the bottle just bit me.
Ohhh, that shit makes me batshit crazy.
We've got no fear, no doubt, all-in, balls out.

Quoting lyrics that mention batshit somehow felt appropriate. Possibly because I'm of the strong belief that I may just be BATSHIT CRAZY.

So I have received Spawn's official diagnoses. It reads more like a shopping list of 'how to make parent's go crazy' LOL. The diagnoses include Autism Spectrum Disorder (high-functioning), ADHD, ODD, anxiety and Motor Dyspraxia (DCD). We're currently trialing Ritalin to see if it helps Spawn behave more appropriately in school and so far, so good! Originally, I was never into medicating... I always thought there was some 'magical' way to manage a child's behaviour that didn't involve drugging them. But Ritalin is some kind of wonder drug. The paediatrician told me that it is one of the most studied drugs in the world and doesn't so much 'drug' a child, as it enhances things. Like glasses, except for the brain, not the eyes. Whatever; it's all super confusing and I'm basing decisions on what I feel is the best option for Spawn. It's early days, but so far I'm of the belief that I definitely made the right choice!

As you can imagine, getting a diagnoses as big as the one we got, is scary. Terrifying. Somehow I made it through the appointment without breaking down! I think I was kind of numb? I knew some of it was coming - namely the ASD and ADHD. The rest was a bit of a shock. I didn't even know what 'motor dyspraxia' was, and am still mildly confused about it.

The actual diagnoses don't scare me too much, though. They're just labels, really. It's knowing that one day, Spawn is going to have to deal with these labels. Possibly get discriminated against. Maybe get picked on... Nobody wants their child to endure things like that. Well, nobody in their right mind.

At least now I can rattle off the labels and have people understand what I've been dealing with for the past....well, 5.5 years, really. No wonder my sanity is dissipating so rapidly! Here's hoping that now we have gone through this mammoth process, we can now implement strategies to help Spawn reach his full potential without too much stress. And understand his complex little mind a whole lot more!

Well, that's me for now. I have to go embrace my domesticated side and clean this mess before I pick Spawn up from school in a couple of hours (yay, half days.). Can't believe another term is almost finished!!! Crazy.

Peace out.

- L. x

Oh, Hello.

If a female ferret goes into heat and does not mate, she dies.

How's that for a morbidly curious opening?!

Things are interesting around here at the moment. I turned down a job at a prestigious law firm in Melbourne to play 'good mum' to Spawn. It's not his fault though; I have to admit that turning it down was partly out of fear. I have no doubt that I could have found a way to manage Spawn's crazy school hours and everything else so that I COULD work - I just didn't really want to. I don't want to spend 2.5 hours a day (which equates to AT LEAST 12.5 hours a week, just quietly) commuting to work. Even if I would be doing amazing work that I love, that commuting would kill me. Spawn would be exhausted and no doubt grumpy after having such long days, and I would more than likely spend my weekends wanting to do nothing more than sleep. Never mind the therapy sessions I'd have to find the time to take Spawn to! Jeepers.

So yeah. That happened. Now I feel crap. Nothing worse than realising a dream needs to be postponed until certain circumstances change.

Enough gloom, for now!

Spawn has the big paediatrician appointment tomorrow. I've come to accept it! I have spent the past couple of weeks doing a LOT of research on medications associated with ADHD, along with other management methods. Hopefully the good Doctor is impressed with my research skills! :)
If we come to the conclusion that Spawn may be better off with medication, I can accept that. If we decide on an alternate method, I'm good with that too! I'm just ready to regain a little sanity, after several years of chaos!

As for the ASD aspect of things... I'm ready for that to go to the next level, should the Doctor feel it necessary. I have moments where I think to myself, "I don't see enough ASD traits in Spawn for a diagnosis..." Then there are days where it is super obvious that he could be on the spectrum, albeit on the super high functioning end. It's the behavioural diagnoses that make me happy; everything else is merely details. Details that may help us get funding, but nothing that really changes anything.

So this was a great ramble, wasn't it?! I forgot how good it feels to just write everything down and get it all out of my system! So relieving, like that first pee in the morning...

Peace out.

- L. x