Ruth(playworkeatrepeat)

Hello Friday! So good to see you again, what a week indeed and I have to be honest and say that I am so glad to see the back of this one! If you’ve been reading along you’ll know that my Mum fell over and hurt herself really badly last Friday. I have been so worried for her as she’s 92 and quite frail. But thankfully she has pulled through like a champ and is now recovering at home. Thank you so much for the prayers and well wishes!! They truly meant so much. This brings me to my big favourite for this week My Mum Came Home From Hospital My mum has been living with us for about 7 years and thankfully my husband and I can tag-team when it comes to looking after her. He leaves for work at 2.30 and I get home at 4.00. So she’s not home by herself for very long. I took two days off from work, Thursday and Friday so that I could be with her. Then first thing Thursday morning I went to pick her up from the hospital. She was in very good spirits, cracking jokes and happy to be coming home. Her poor little face is pretty bruised but much better than I was expecting.  Because of COVID, the hospital is completely closed off to visitors. So I had not seen her up until the morning when I picked her up. A Much Safer Chair When the hospital rang me Wednesday afternoon to say that my Mum would be ok to come home I went and bought her a new and much safer chair than her previous one. Her old chair was the reason for her fall, and I’m super annoyed at myself for not having realised that she wasn’t safe in her old chair anymore. A Sweet Treat Steve surprised me with a cappuccino and a friand for morning tea after I got home from picking mum up at the hospital. He knows how stressed I have been and this was such a sweet gesture. New Clothes For Around The House I now have a capsule wardrobe for preschool which makes getting ready in the morning super easy. I then decided that the clothes that I was wearing around the house had seen much better days. So I bought a couple of t-shirts and shorts online from Target. They are super comfortable and the quality is great, so I’m thinking I might just get a couple more pieces. I want to look decent when I’m at home and then be able to just run out of the house without worrying about what I’m wearing. I wore my extremely comfortable shorts and T-shirt to pick up some panadol for my mum. When I stopped to take a pic the thought crossed my mind that I might look like I was wearing pyjamas!!”  Haha, certainly felt comfortable like I do in my pyjamas and then I thought “Who cares!!” Limes for Lemonade I picked up some limes from my local fruit shop and they were so cheap. Only $2.00 for a whole bag. Sometimes they cost $2.00 each!!! I squeezed them and made some lemonade. It has been so hot this week so this was a real refreshing treat! I froze the rest of the lime juice in these big ice cube trays for next time. Citrus Squeezer See this wooden citrus squeezer, it’s my favourite. It will squeeze out every last drop of juice! I used to have a plastic handheld squeezer with a bunch of attachments and it drove me nuts for years. It was just too complicated, I could never find all the pieces and there was so much washing up afterward. Ugh!! The only downside of using the small compact wooden squeezer is that it doesn’t strain any pips. But that’s ok I still prefer it over the other one that I previously owned. I actually bought this one from Funkis, the shop where I like to buy my cool clogs. Afternoon Tea I was super happy to have my lovely friend come over to my house for afternoon tea. It was so nice to chat with her and my little cat was absolutely in love with her. What’s not to love, she’s so sweet and kind!! The Dinner Ladies Is a Big Hit!! A few weeks ago I ordered some frozen meals from The Dinner Ladies. I had never tried them before but some of my work friends had recommended them. I was short on time the other day with everything that has been going on. So I went ahead and pulled out some frozen salmon cakes and quickly panfried them. Oh my goodness they were so good!! They honestly tasted homemade and I was able to serve them up with some leftover mashed potato and vegetables from the previous nights’ dinner. I have about four other meals from The Dinner Ladies in the freezer and I am excited to try these over the next few weeks. I have been really good about meal planning and have been sticking to the plan. But when life throws the unexpected, at least I know that I have a healthy and tasty backup in the freezer. Totally a lifesaver!! Peaches! These peaches in a handy container have been really great. Normally I buy the tinned ones but thought I would give these a go. I think I will just stick to these from now on as once they are opened I can just put them in the fridge. The container and lid are recyclable too so that’s a plus. Tuesday Night Cheese We enjoyed a super simple cheese plate on Tuesday night. This time instead of crackers we had some sourdough. I bought the sourdough from the fruit shop and it was really delicious. I loved that it had olives through it and olives are a big favourite!! It’s Nearly Valentines Day! Wow, that crept up fast!

Hi friends! Hooray for the weekend!! Yes indeed, I am super excited that this week Friday has come around pretty fast. I’ve been back at work for one full week and honestly, it almost feels like I never had a break. Christmas, New year, and the long Summer holiday all seem like a distant memory now! Staggered Start at Preschool The kids who have returned for another year of preschool, started this first week back after the break. But we do a staggered start for the new kids. This means that only a handful of the newbies came to preschool this week and we won’t have full classes till about week four. This is probably my favourite week during term one because it’s so calm! After this week it’s pretty full-on. We’ll be getting to know the new children, teaching them the routine of the day, and settling the ones that are struggling because they miss their mums. Every year we have a few sad children but thankfully they do settle. We just have to keep reminding ourselves that when they are holding onto the gate crying! Fun Classroom Set-Ups I really love setting up the classroom and making the learning areas as inviting as possible. This week we had a café. The kids made coffees and hot chocolates We had “sponge cakes” on the menu As well as macaroons made out of salt dough Along with cupcakes made from paper mache Last year we had a bakery in the home corner. So I made most of the props then. It’s surprising how well they lasted. Except for this year when one of our new students got a little carried away and pulled the sponge cakes apart. But we won’t talk about that 😉. Never mind, they are easily fixed. Sensory Play I left work about forty minutes early on Monday so that I could pop into the shops to buy some things for preschool. To celebrate Lunar New Year, the kids make red packets and fill them with a gold chocolate coin. So luckily I found some gold chocolate coins at the sweet shop. They are hard to find in the shops once Christmas is over. I also picked up some gold items for the Lunar New Year-inspired sensory tubs. All I did was dye some rice a nice bright red using edicol dye. Edicol dye is a non-toxic vegetable dye that comes in a powder form and you don’t need very much to get some very vibrant results. We use it all the time at preschool to make paints for the children to use. We also dye things like rice and pasta for sensory play. Edicol Dye comes in small tubs and you have to be careful to not spill it or drop it. It would take years to clean up because once it gets wet it stains like crazy. The kids really enjoyed playing with this activity and I was happy with how the tubs turned out. Korean BBQ We ordered Korean BBQ takeaway for the first time on Tuesday night. Well, it was the first time for Steve and I but Sam has eaten it before with his friends. He was the reason that we decided to try it as he had raved about it so much. It was delicious and I think that it’s always fun trying something new. Next time I might skip chomping on the chilies though!! Big mistake!! A Favourite Dessert We don’t usually eat dessert, but we did on Tuesday night after we had Korean BBQ. I had a Sarah Lee apple Danish in the freezer. So I heated that up and we ate it with vanilla ice cream. Yummy, I love ice cream served with anything that has apples. After dinner, we caught up on an episode of FBI Most Wanted. It’s our favourite crime show at the moment. A Funny Mistake For school, Sam accidentally packed his toiletries bag that he takes on school camps instead of his pencil case. They are both very similar in size and colour! He said all his classmates and his teacher had a good laugh when he pulled out shampoo and toothpaste instead of pens and pencils! I was laughing hard when he was telling me all about it too! Fall Apart Roasted Pork Leg Thursday night we had fish, chips, and salad for dinner. But I also made a delicious fall apart roasted pork leg. This means that I won’t have to worry about cooking on Friday night. I’ll serve the pork on bread rolls with coleslaw. This is a huge favourite in my house.   I guess that’s about it for this week’s Friday favourites. Thank you so much for stopping by, hope you all have a wonderful and relaxing weekend.   Linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s post  

Hi friends it’s great to be back here for this week’s Friday favourites. As usual, I am excited to be linking up with Andrea and Erika for today’s post. I know that I say this on repeat but I seriously can’t believe how quickly the week has sped by. And someone please tell me how January is nearly all over! Back To Work Today was my first day back at work, I know it’s so weird to start back on a Friday! And this is going to make me all confused. But anyway, that’s the way the school calendar worked out this year. It was a pupil free day so we spent most of the day rearranging the furniture in the classrooms. We switched things around until we were happy with the way everything looked. We also have a pupil free day on Monday so we can keep prepping and rearranging. It was great to see all the staff again. While going back to work isn’t really a favourite, it was nice to see everyone and I am excited to see the kids when they start back next Tuesday. On a very positive note, it is probably the shortest working week that I have ever had!! But First, A Visit To Ikea On Monday I enjoyed a trip to Ikea with my lovely friend and work colleague. This time we were joined by her sweet daughter and we had a lovely time browsing very casually and taking our time. We stopped off for something to eat and drink and we chose to sit by the big windows. The Ikea in Tempe is not far from the airport and we saw a couple of planes come in for a landing. I thought that this was very exciting. They were only small planes this time. In the past, I have seen huge jumbo jets. Now that is really impressive! I’m not a fan of flying at all but I love to see the planes landing, safely from my seat inside Ikea. I hadn’t had any breakfast that day and I was really craving an egg. So I got this shrimp sandwich, it had some yummy mayonnaise and dill with slices of boiled egg. Very delicious! I had been tossing up between getting this or a ham and cheese croissant. The shrimp and egg won! I also had this fruit smoothie which was really refreshing and tasted great. Must be something new as I have never seen this in the Ikea restaurant before. I thought that I would only be getting two things that I needed from Ikea. But I ended up with about twenty-two things in my trolley instead and so did my friend. Here are a couple of things that I bought. This life-changing charging pad And a container for my dishwasher pods I didn’t have a container for the pods and I just stored them in their original packaging. It made my drawer look bulky and messy. Now with this container, everything fits in really neatly. All part of my cleaning, organising and decluttering mission these school holidays. Cheese Platter, Wine And A Movie Tuesday evening Steve and I enjoyed a small cheese platter and a glass of wine while we watched a movie. It had been ages since we had done this and it was a lovely and relaxing night. Mid Week Lunch With My Family My son and his lovely fiancee came over for lunch on Wednesday. It was Australia Day so they were both off work as it was a public holiday. I made a fall apart roast leg of lamb with potatoes and salad. I also made some fresh hummus to go with it all. My family love hummus as a dip and they love it with lamb as a condiment too. I have a really easy hummus recipe that you can find here. My recipe uses olive oil rather than canola oil, so it’s much better for you and it tastes great too! We all enjoyed a really fun time together and after lunch, we watched “Encanto”. My boys are all grown up but they still love a good Disney movie. The music was great. It’s very much like the music that I grew up with! The Dinner Ladies I was really excited to get my delivery from The Dinner Ladies. To make my life easier this year I have decided to try and have some ready-made meals in the freezer for those super busy nights. I always aim to cook dinner from scratch for my family. I don’t like to order takeaway very much, as I prefer to leave that as more of a treat. A friend of mine was telling me about how she had ordered from The Dinner Ladies and she was really impressed with the quality and the flavour. When I looked on their website I was really impressed too. The two friends who started The Dinner Ladies are a couple of mums who saw that there was a real need to supply good quality meals for busy families. They started out small and now their business has grown much bigger. They make fresh meals and deliver them frozen because they avoid using nasty preservatives. Sounds good to me! It’s nice to know that I will have some dinners ready to go on those crazy busy nights. Capsule Work Wardrobe I finally got around to putting my capsule work wardrobe together. It will make getting ready in the mornings so much faster. It’s nothing terribly exciting, just a few T-shirts, a couple of shorts, skirts and jeans. I have stuck to a neutral colour palette so that I can mix and match my outfits easily. Last year I seemed to wear the same two outfits over and over. I would wash my work clothes, fold them and put them back in the cupboard. Then in the morning, I would reach for the same things over and over. A little preschooler even