Love, bubs and life on our little farm

I love cooking with my girls on the weekend. And today we still found time amongst the groceries, voting, dentist trips, mowing, craft projects, horse training and BBQs to cook a delicious cake for our dessert

We made a rosewater chocolate coconut cake. The base recipe is here and I used rosewater essence instead of coconut essence. Oh and we had to have bright green buttercream instead of chocolate buttercream... of course! I definitely recommend it - quick and easy, even with a Miss Almost-Two and Miss Almost-Four helping out.


We are smack bang in the middle of the craziness that is school term-work deadlines-house projects-horse competing but god I love it. I just love the buzz of not having a spare moment, of running on adrenaline and always planning and organising. Just the way I roll. Life is never dull and full of so much fun and surprises. And even better, wine tastes so much better on a Friday evening, I sleep wonderfully and I always manage to lose weight just from burning off calories from sheer exhaustion.

I am still adapting to being a school mum though - I have fridays off and I do drop Elka off and pick her up in "normal" school hours. But I stand out - the other mums all know each other from the daily school run (I see no one at 7.15am or 5.20pm on the other days so there is no one to meet) although to be honest, I don't have the inclination to hang around the classroom making small talk with mums that have all the time in the world on my one precious day off filled with errands and plans, or collar the teacher for literally hours discussing how to expand my child's phonics learning outside the classroom. They send home notes and expect you to cook/make/provide god knows what on two days notice. Not easy when you work late/travel interstate or just have no spare time that doesn't involve sacrificing your five meager hours of sleep. Elka is the only child in her class that hasn't got some elaborate "life story" document made yet for their display. I got photos printed the other day, so I am on my way. I guess I will get there....

I stressed and agonised today over making an Easter Bonnet for Elka's Easter parade. The note specifically asks you to make the bonnet. Damn, I had planned to cheat and buy something from the dress up section. I loathe craft and I just don't do creativity if it involves paper or glue and 3D structures like a hat made from a flat sheet of cardboard. I wont lie, I came close to just shoving the cardboard in the cupboard and sulking, but I persevered and despite Bronte managing to eat a paper mache egg on the sly, we all had fun and a bonnet was made. Everyone is banned from touching it as I have fears it won't last until Wednesday and I couldn't bare to have to do it again..

But I did it. There is hope for me yet!