Morning tea police

Zucchini bread, zucchini bread, have ye any nuts?
My zucchini bread has no nuts!
I am very cross that our homemade zucchini and carrot bread was sent home with two mouthfuls
taken out of it. I guess that the 2 table spoons of cocoa must have outwayed the two CUPS of
zucchini and carrot that were in there.
Kinder snoops keep your nose out of my girls' morning tea!
There was nothing to put any other kid at risk in the cake, I'm not an idiot.!
Plus, I am pretty sure E explained there was vege in the cake and I don't think They
listened...I'm getting the feeling that E might not be listened to a bit...I know she has
been trying to explain that she knows a bit of French for a few weeks now...But the teacher
keeps telling her to not to talk.
E does talk a lot, so I guess the teacher might not know the difference of chit chat and
when she really has something to say.

Anyway....here is the recipe

Turn the oven on to about 180 degrees (350 degrees if you live north)
You'll need 2 loaf tins, or 1 loaf tin and a muffin tray
And a big mixing bowl

3 eggs
2 cups of sugar, or less it works just as well with 1 cup, or even honey.
1 cup of oil, I use rice bran oil, it works with any oil.
3 teas vanilla
2 cups of grated fruit or vege, carrot, zucchini,apple, beetroot, banana, blueberries...
3 cups of plain flour. You can substitute 1 cup for self raising,whole meal,almond meal,oats or muesli.
1/4 teas baking powder
2 teas baking soda
1 teas salt
3 teas cinnamon
(2 tablespoons of cocoa)

Beat eggs until fluffy.
Add sugar, oil, and vanilla.
Blend well. Sift all the dry ingredients and combine well with a spoon.
Pour the mix into the loaf tin, about 2/3 of the tin is about right, and the rest into a
muffin tray. ( that's what I do)

Put in the oven for about 1 hour, check the muffins after 20 mins.
It's ready when you pop in a skewer and it comes out clean.
Leave in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.
If you can't wait slice, spread with butter and stuff your face.

playgrounding...........

Playgrounds....
So at the end of my tether I go to a playground with the kids.
I do not play at playgrounds...I take the kids there to play.
So, I stand and watch and make sure all is well. Then sit down and watch every one else...Mums mainly, clambering around in the play equipment, following kids down slides...not kids, tiny toddlers. Standing around holding lattes yapping, yapping about kids, house extenstions, kids clothes sales....blah
First, if your kid can hardly walk, don't let them be all over the play equipment...they will bump their head. Put them in the sandpit.
While you and your friend are woven into the play equipment, it is pretty funny to hear you say.." gee, it's getting really crowded in this playground", well, perhaps if all the adults got the hell out of there and watched at a distance the kids would have more room to play!
The end.

The week ends...I wonder whether being in a semi isolated situation like I'm in, can make you more opinionated and beligerant? I've been trying to be all nice and civilised up until a few posts ago. I think I'm just a bit fed up with having to deal with folk who are not my folk...just because you have kids, doesn't automatically make you compatible. I did seem to make friends a bit with a girl from the market, and you wouldn't believe, she basically told me what she was doing now with her 'making' was pretty much my idea that I went to the market with...painted crockery...so, um, I'm not the person she should be telling, because now I think she's pretty thick. First for telling me, and second for not thinking up her own thing....gawd

Hovering parenting......

Just a little observation that's getting on my nerves.

Could all the hovering mums that do not give their kids any space or freedom in the playground all take about ten steps back!

In my opinion, kids, lets say, 3 year olds, could all do with the freedom play how they like. As a mum, I don't always like what I see or hear coming out of my childs mouth, or other kids directed towards my child. But that is how life is! Children work things out for themselves if they're given half a chance. If you're always standing there censoring what comes out of your kids mouth, and shielding them from other childrens' comments and whatever, you're not doing them any favours.  I'm not saying kids should be left in a 'Lord of the flies' situation.

What I'm really mad about is the two situations I was confronted by this last week. The first one was in Ikea....In the kids section, E was playing with the toys, I was just behind a shelf looking at stuff, when I came back to see what she was doing I hear from  a mother "that's not a very nice way to play". Well, fair enough. I don't know what she was doing. I figured Else didn't   want to share what she was playing with...I don't know. So I swooped in and saw the other little girl was a about to cry, and insisted that E said she was sorry, and maybe it would be better if she just let the girl play. ALL I COULD DO! Well, the look on the other mother was absolutely icicles, I was mortified!! Nothing would have put this right. I felt like this mother was just thinking I'm a disgrace because I wasn't standing in my little girls shadow, I won't do it. She doesn't need me right behind her every second. The other time was at Ocean grove play ground, great fun but, all the mothers were hovering, I don't. I let find her own way, make her own friends and do her own imagining with out me even in earshot. I of course can see her. Again, some little incident. Taking turns or something, and mothers are looking at me to intervene. So dutifully, I do, but still it's not right. So, what do all these mothers want from me? Do I have to stand there just like they do, Is that the main part of parenting? My kids are at my side every waking hour, I figure they are entitled to want to run free, ahhhhh