It's a familiar story, Thing One ate all the cereal, The Dude is starving (very loudly) and can't find his shoes and Thing Two is nose deep in a book.  You can't send them to school hungry, The last of the bread is now butties for lunch and they can hardly eat a yogurt en route to school, unless you want a manky spoon in your pocket on the way home.  Or can they?

Petits Filous are now available in pouches! Hoorah! (No really, this is a hoorah moment!)

Softly Softly time sneaks past us

The apron strings are flapping manically like cage birds and there's a dull thud in my heart.   I'm clock watching again.  Trying to imagine that what I cannot see.   I hope you're okay.  I hope you're having fun.   I hope you're happy. Yet in that pocket of my heart that has your name upon it.... I hope you're missing me too. Not  overwhelmingly,  just a little bit. In the background.

The Preschooler is no longer a preschooler.  Last week was his first week in reception yet it was just mornings.  Today it starts for real.  Today The Dude is there all day.

I knew it was coming.  It even makes a little sense now that Moomin is here. It alleviates some of the guilt born of having a demanding newborn to attend to, knowing that you're occupied rather than sat wanting.  Wanting me. I'm not ready though.

You'd think with him being my third it would be easier yet with each child your youngest stays younger longer.

It only seems like yesterday when I'd cuddle you to sleep in my bed and you'd cuddle me awake in the morning.  Even when debilitated with this last pregnancy my little cuddle monster.... You were here. Cuddling me.

One day you won't ask for cuddles anymore.  One day you won't want them anymore.

Nothing reminds you of how powerless you are against the passing of time than having a child enter full time education.  It becomes even more obvious when you bring a new baby into your family.  You realise how far we've all come.  You realise how fast the time passed.

So I'm sat here missing you whilst cradling your newborn sister to the breast knowing that one day she'll be starting school too.  I'm determined to cherish every minute.  I don't care for houswork it can wait.   I have one last baby.  Time is ticking.  I'm filling the time with cuddles.

Thing One has started his last year of primary,  Thing Two has started her first year of primary and you my darling your first year of infants.   Where has the time gone? With Moomins birth so recent I still vividly remember you all being born.  Being newborns then toddlers then preschoolers.

Tick.

Tock.

As soon as you're born it's like someone presses fast forward.  You end up battling between the futile task of trying to freeze it or  at least slow it whilst at the same time trying to cherish it.

Under four hours now and you'll be home.

Squishy nappies have reappeared in my laundry, I can remember all three of you wearing nappies and they're now all replaced with uniforms.

You're still as much my baby as Moomin is though.  So are Things One & Two. You'll always be my babies.

Fairy are currently running an #OhSoSoft campaign encouraging us to make the most of the precious preschool years and the oh-so-soft cuddles they bring.


You're never really too old for cuddles though.  Not really.  They'll always be a time when words are unnecessary and not enough.  When only an oh-so-soft cuddle from mum will do.  Yet whilst your babies are babies and cuddles are in abundance, embrace the moments, the chaos, the mess, the noise but most of all the oh so soft cuddles.

You'd better believe it that as soon as you get home from school today, there's no escape.  This cuddle will tell you I love you,  I missed you,  I'm proud of you and that you're home.


Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post yet all words and opinions expressed are my own

A #MorrisonsMum post: The i'm cheaper experience

Thanks to Morrisons and Britmums I was chosen to be a part of the  #MorrisonsMum / #MorrisonsDad project to help promote their recent 'I'm Cheaper'campaign,  permanent price drops on thousands of every day items.  Rather than increase their savers range, they've decided to make higher quality products cheaper, so you get better for essentially less.  In their own words, they're 'cutting prices, not corners'.  It isn't just Morrisons own lines either, you'll find thousands of popular every day branded items.

Our brief?  To descend upon our local Morrisons store and do some shopping using vouchers they kindly provided us with to experience the price drops and resultant food over the bank holiday weekend.  We actually chose the second closest as our usual branch is quite small and we wanted to visit the cafe too.

Seeing as The Preschooler had been poorly previously in the week, we decided to fortify him first with a hearty dinner in the Morrisons Cafe.  Yum!

We're no stranger to Morrisons, as our own local supermarket happens to be a Morrisons, however in the past we've only really used it for bare basics having to venture further afield to be able to feed our family on our small weekly budget.  However, despite our familiarity we were greeted at every turn with price drops.  There was no need to look for them, I went in armed with a list to make three meals (Thai Curry, Creamy Chicken Pasta and wholemeal calzones) over the weekend yet found often when I reached for something, it was cheaper!  This is where the the penny drops, it really is buying your usual items and getting them cheaper.  It really is everyday items you probably buy anyway.  Often you'll find in supermarkets that the items on offer are those that you don't actually need and wouldn't ordinarily buy which although make a nice treat, it's a bit of backwards economics as you end up buying them in addition to your usual items.  Brilliant for the supermarkets yet not so good for our purses.

This meant there was room for the odd extra that wasn't needed nor on the list such as the bargain £2.49 Ben & Jerry's ice cream.  Shush, I'm pregnant.  It's medicinal.  Oh and some cheeky king prawns.....

So what did we eat chez Tiaras & Prozac this weekend?

Firstly The Husband and I had a delicious Thai curry which although I have a picture of the ingredients, there's no picture of the finished article....I was hungry.  It didn't hang around long enough to be photographed!  It's unusual to ever get any meal that all of The Family will eat together so The Spawn had an old favourate, sausages and garlic bread.  Morrisons cheesy garlic pizza breads have been a firm favourate of ours for years and they're nearly always on offer so a bargain to boot.  Yet i'll admit to being pleasantly surprised at finding the sausages cheaper too.

If you look here, you'll see The Preschooler making some Jammie Dodgems with the #ImCheaper jam we bought.  He's only just turned four, so be kind.  He's an excellent baker.

Another night I made is a Creamy Chicken dish adapted from one of the recipes found on Morrisons own site with their basic range garlic baguettes, which again are firm favourates of ours.  They're cheap as chips  (only 30p each!)yet tasty too.

To make our version we used:

Serves four 

* 300g pasta (We used Farfalle instead of spaghetti) - £0.95p for 500g.
* 200g smoked middle bacon snipped into pieces (the recipe says 100g, what can I say though? we love bacon) - £2.18 for 240g #ImCheaper
* 200g cooked chicken-  £2.00
* 1 crumbled Stock Cube (From store cupboard)
* 300ml reduced fat creme fraiche - £0.90 #Imcheaper
* 1 tbs wholegrain mustard (From store cupboard)
* Garlic & mixed herbs (From cupboard)

* x3 Garlic baguettes @ 30p each.

Total cost : £6.93
Cost per person: £1.73

Surely that's a bargain in anyone's book?

It's super easy to make:

- Cook the pasta as specified on the pack.
- Dry fry the bacon then add the chicken (we used Morrisons Savers cooked pieces) with a crumbled stock cube and 4tbs water.
- Combine the Mustard, garlic, herbs and  Creme Fraiche then add to the meat.
- Stir in the cooked pasta
- Serve!

The Baguettes easily cook in the oven whilst the pasta cooks on the hob.  A quick and easy meal.

Last night we made our own wholemeal Calzones using my favourate quick pizza dough recipe.  These are an absolute favourate with all of us, the bonus is The Spawn make theirs themselves, we find that if you involve them in the making process they enjoy eating it even more.  We're huge meat eaters (Sorry Babe) so we had a mix of chicken, pepperoni, salami and ham.

I really do urge you to go to your local Morrisons and see how much of your usual shopping you can get for cheaper.  As soon as you enter you're presented with a mass selection of fresh fruits and vegetables, many of these, you've guessed it, are included in the 'I'm Cheaper' price drops too and the price drops just continue around each subsequent department you walk through.

***I received Morrisons gift vouchers to purchase the food however all opinions expressed and experiences described remain my own.


This post is part of the #MorrisonsMums promotion, why not visit the Britmums linky and see how some of the other mums got on and find some more tasty recipes!

A #MorrisonsMum Post: Baking with The Preschooler (Post 1)

One of our favourate recipes to bake at home is Jammie Dodgers.  They're cheap to make, easy, fun and best of all they're yummy.

I promised The Preschooler we could bake this week, the only ingredient we'd run out of was Jam.  Not a problem whilst doing our #MorrisonsMum shop, we picked some up and as a bonus it fell under their new #imcheaper price.  It means you can afford to get a better quality product for less without having to drop down in quality a little to the basic range.

I'll now pass you over to The Preschooler's more than capable expert hands to show you how to make this culinary delight....

1.
 (First you have to add all the ingrediants; flour (& bicarbnate of soda), sugar, butter, egg and golden syrup)

2.

(The we Mix mix mix)

3.

(Now we roll it out.)

4.

(Then we cut the shapes out, don't forget the holes!)

5.

(Get a grown up to put them in the oven)

6.

(Finally put the jam or chocolate spread on!)

The recipe we use is the Jammie Dodgers recipe from the Morrisons website.

To make these you will need:

* Plain Flour
* Caster Sugar
* Bicarbonate Soda
* Golden Syrup
* Egg (#ImCheaper !)
* Jam* (#ImCheaper !)
* Icing sugar (#ImCheaper !)

* You can also substitute the jam for lemon curd or chocolate spread.

Here's some I made earlier:

** Disclaimer: This post is part of the Morrisons & Britmums #MorrisonsMum campaign.  To take part we were provided with gift vouchers to spend in Morrisons.