Recipe Page Updated

I know I have been really really slack updating my recipe page, but I am home taking care of Grandad this morning so I thought I would play catch up.  On the Recipe page you will now find recipes for:

Chocolate Crackles
Classic Salad Dressing
Sweet Potato Croquettes with Tangy Salsa
Lentil & Rice Pilau
Sticky Date and Toffee Pudding
Kylie’s Green Vegetable Soup
Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Some of them do not yet have photos, but they will be added next time I cook each recipe.  Enjoy!

xox

Novel

So yesterday when I did my 10 for 10 update I mentioned I had written the first sentence of my novel.  After I blogged I wrote another sentence, then another, then another.  The result?  By last night the first draft of the first chapter was done!  This morning I started chapter 2.

Now this may not seem like a lot to many.  But you need to understand I have been working on the concept for this novel for over a year.  By September last year I had the concept nutted out, the main plot, several subplots, all plotted out and planned.  The characters were written, the relationships straight in my head.  Yet I just couldn't seem to write it. 

All of a sudden it just started coming out.  The weird thing is that I have not looked at my notes since the end of last year.  In fact, they are in storage.  So right now I am winging it.  But maybe that is what I needed to do.  Get some distance from the planning stage so I was free to create.  While I am going strong I am not going to get my notes from storage.  I will write as much as I can then refer to the notes when I get stuck.  It seems to be working so far.  I know I have already changed some of the characters names and slightly changed some of the relationships, and even dropped one character.  But for now it seems to be working, and these are things I can always change back down the track.

I am feeling very motivated right now, so will go with the flow for as long as I can.  If I can write one chapter a week, the first draft will be finished by the end of the year.  Fingers crossed!

xox

EDIT TO ADD:
I forgot to say this the other day.  I heard back from the Publisher I sent my children's picture book to and they have not accepted the manuscript.  I will now put it all together again and send it to another publisher.  I have another couple in mind to send it to so I will keep going until I run out!

10 for 10 Update

Well, not too much progress has happened here....  Let's see.

10 For 10

1) Run/walk the Mothers Day Classic in May - done!
2) Ride at least 3000kms - up to nearly 900 so slowly making headway.  Of course, I should be up to 1500 by now...
3) Finish the knitted blankets - got nothing done on these this month
4) Lose 30 kilos - I have lost about 8.5 this year so it is something
5) Be in a financial position to sponsor a World Vision child - nope, not there yet
6) Send at least one childrens story to a publisher - done!
7) Run/walk the 12 km at the City-Bay in September - am thinking I may only be doing the 6km the way I am going, but we will see.
8) Start my novel - been thinking about this more and more which is something.  I have the first sentence down, does that count? ;o)
9) Go on an overnight hike (first stage of Heyson if funds permit) - scheduled for October
10) Keep in touch with my interstate friends in the old fashioned way - by writing actual letters with pen and paper. - none written this month, although I have done 1 this year, I need to do a few more to mark this off

Thanks for all the comments yesterday.  I had a better night sleep last night.  Grandad only got up once and Ross was awake so he got up to him which was nice for me.  I do believe I will get used to it, but we are hoping to get him placed in care once his assessment has been done.

Nothing else happening here.  Had another freezing ride in to work this morning.  It was 3.5 degrees when I left home.  Thankfully it wasn't raining.  :o)  I am off to the library tonight to grab some more books, as long as it isn't raining as walking through the library dripping wet is not pleasant.  Then last day of work for the week tomorrow - YAY!  Of course, Ross is working all weekend, but that's life.

Happy Thursday everyone!

xox

New Respect for Working Mothers

Don’t get me wrong, I have always had respect for working Mums, however the last month has amplified that significantly. Last night – as with most nights - I was up 3 times with Grandad. He is now having trouble getting out of bed on his own so lays on his bed and grunts until one of us gets up. I am the only one who hears him. MIL and Ross have both said to wake them up, but if I am already awake I don’t see the point in interrupting someone else’s sleep, they are exhausted as well.

This has only been going on for a month. How these women do it year after year, then still maintain full time jobs and social lives and keep a clean house amazes me. I am sure I will get more used to it as time goes on, but right know I am just tired beyond belief.

As such my exercise is suffering. Last night I got a lift home with my boss. The main reason for that is it was 10 degrees out and my clothes were still wet from the morning ride. So he dropped me off then picked me up again this morning. Which was lovely. I want to go for a run, but I am just so exhausted. And when I get home (tonight is Di’s craft night, the only time she gets out of the house all week) I have to get dinner and get Grandad organised and up, then cleaned up, and back to bed.

sigh…

Tomorrow night I am thinking of riding to the library after work which will at least give me a 15km ride. And on the weekend I will make sure I get out for a run. And hopefully a yoga class as well.

Other than that nothing is happening in my part of the world. Still reading lots which is good. And knitting a bit when I get the chance. I have sold a few of my cards as well which is exciting. For those of you on Facebook check out the fan page called ‘photo cards by kylie ann’.

OK. Enough grumbling. Back to work now. :o)
xox

Drowned Rat

Yep - that's me today.  I got so wet this morning riding in to work.  As soon as I got here I stripped off and changed.  Luckily I have spare underwear at work for just this situation... LOL  Unfortunately I did not have spare socks and my socks are currently sitting right in front of the heater trying to dry while my tootsies freeze!  I was so wet I could actually wring out my trackies and my gloves to get rid of a lot of the water.

I actually don't mind riding in the rain, as long as I am not on main roads.  Of course, I prefer it on the way home so I can climb straight into a hot shower.... 

Weigh in yesterday and I gained 300g.  Not surprised as I did say that I didn't believe last weeks loss was a true loss.  And it wasn't too much to gain back.  I nearly made it to the 100kms on the bike last week.  I would have made it with spare if I had come to work on Friday.  But that's okay.  I am still on track as there is still 9 weeks and 1 day till the end of winter.

I still haven't been out for a run.  I was going to go last night but my MIL was not well so I wanted to get home asap to take over looking after Grandad.  If it is not raining tonight I will do it then.  This is when I think about a gym membership as I could use a treadmill.  But the cost just isn't worth it for the occasions I would use it.

Nothing else really going on.  I am reading another really good book about urban legends.  It traces about 60 urban legends to find the origin and to find out if they are based in fact or just completely fabricated.  It's really interesting reading.

Hope you all have a great Tuesday and manage to stay drier than me!

xox

Knitting, Beading, Cooking

Sorry I have been absent for several days.  I will try and catch up on blogs shortly.

Friday I spent yet another day sick in bed.  I am certain it is related to lack of sleep.  However we now have a baby monitor and take turns having it in our rooms so we can all hear Grandad and we can all get some nights of good sleep.

Yesterday I was feeling a lot better and went to a WEA class to learn to make a scarfe/shawl.  It was called a rainbow scarfe, but that related to the texture of the yarn rather than the colours.  However I decided to relate it to my colours as well.  It was knitted "in the long" which means rather that doing 20 stitches and 200 rows, you do 150 stitches and only 25 rows.

As well as the scarfe/shawl we learnt some beading to go on one end.  I hadn't done beading before so I found it a bit challenging.  I ended up putting it down and concentrating on the knitting.  Mind you, I didn't finish in class. But when I got home last night I finished the scarfe, and I finished the tassels which I was super proud of.  This afternoon I sat down and all of a sudden the beading clicked and I ended up finishing it.  I am really proud of the result and it is a very unique scarfe I now own.

This morning I decided it was cookie baking time.  Mum was coming over for a couple of hours and since we have to sit in the kitchen (Grandad sleeps in the lounge) I thought baking cookies while we visited would be lovely. 

I made Chocolate Sugar Cookies.  The recipe said it made 7 dozen.  It made 10 dozen!  Luckily Ross loves cookies.  They are really yummy, but I am going to experiment with the recipe before I put it up as I think it could be better.

Mum brought over a bag of green veg from her garden.  I opened the bag and stuck my nose in and the first thing I thought was  - SOUP!  So I put the leeks, silver beets and spring onions in some veggie stock with a couple of potatoes and some fresh parsley and fresh spearmint from our herb garden.  I also did up some soup grains (spit peas, barley, lentils etc).  I blended the veg mix and added some cream then put back on the stove with the grains.  The result was fantastic!  I forgot to take a pic, but I will definitely make it again so will snap a pic then.

In all I have had a good weekend.  Thankfully the anxiety from the caffeine withdrawal is pretty much over with.  That was a truly horrible feeling to have all the time.  And hopefully the tummy pains are over with as well.  Am looking forward to getting back on the bike this week and also going for a couple of runs.

xox

All Quiet on the KC Front

I haven't blogged for a few days because quite frankly there has been nothing to blog about.  Get up, shower, ride to work, work all day, ride home, fix dinner, help with Grandad, go to bed, read far too late into the night, sleep, wake up to help Grandad toilet when I hear him move, sleep, wake up to help Grandad toilet when I hear him move, sleep, wake up to help Grandad toilet when I hear him move, sleep, wake up exhausted, start all over again...

I don't recall waking up this exhausted in ages.  But I can't get to sleep until I am so far past exhausted it is ridiculous, hence the reading far too late into the night.

Hopefully tonight I can get a better sleep though.  We are borrowing a friends baby monitor so we can take turns listening out for Grandad.  The problem at the moment is that I am the only one who hears him so I have to get up to him all the time.  But we are going to use the monitor and take turns having it in our rooms so that way we can all sleep at least every 2nd night - in theory! :o)

The good thing is I have been reading lots.  It has been ages since I have really got stuck into any good books.  I am currently working my way through the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris (True Blood series is based on these).  I have the first 8 and am up to book 5.  When I finish these I will have to take a trip to the local library I think.  I am actually enjoying reading.  I don't think I have turned the computer on at home all week which is awesome.  I was getting into a rut with sitting on the computer every night.

That is really all from me.  I have my shoes here to go for a run tonight but it will depend on how exhausted I am.  Hopefully I can pound out 2kms at least, just so I have moved.

Have a great Thursday everyone!

xox