A nice quiet day just pottering

After three days of wandering round three counties, Devon, Dorset and Somerset, it's really nice to have a quiet day at home.

DH has gone back to work and the whirlwind which inevitably follows in his wake has thankfully gone with him. Sometimes I do wonder why I married a man who is never happy unless he's doing something, but 99.999% of the time I'm grateful that I married a doer not a watcher as he does get things done - even if it means you have to run along with him :o) at breakneck speed.

The house is deliciously peaceful. DD1 has gone into the town centre with her friends to spend some of her hard-earned ironing money - not to mention some of mine with the appropriation of a £20 note as she went out of the front door because "Muuuuum, (coy smile) you know my outfit for the Regional Rugby Do? Well I've seen a very nice pair of gold pumps in Peacocks that would go with it (begging grin)"

Hence the dosh and the strict instructions to check with me on price by phone text before the purchase is made. That reminds me I've not had the text yet and of course you then don't get the loyalty points on your credit card because they were paid in cash - Kids!

DS has gone with a neighbour and his son to practice cricket at the cricket nets - lovely and quiet without him shouting and singing at the football game on the PS2 (don't ask!)

DD2 is mercifully out with another neighbour's daughter playing at building dens in the playing fields behind the house.

Peace glorious peace!

So having spent the best part of the morning batch cooking to fill the freezer I'm now taking out some 'me' time to do some stitching.

I only ever work term-time and so try very hard to make big batches of various recipes to put in the freezer for during the term so I don't have to cook from scratch when I come in from work.

Today was going to be a large batch of chilli-con-carne but as luck would have it DH had picked up more beef mince than was necessary at the supermarket (I'm sure some of you american ladies are going to tell me that real chilli-con-carne is made with chunks of beef at this point but in the UK we tend to use mince - or I do at any rate:o) )

So the huge stew pot is filled with chilli and my half size one has shepherds pie bottom which to the uninitiated is a mince in gravy mixture with carrots and other root veg (it's got butternut squash in today too - well you have to get the kids to eat up their veg somehow). We lay this in the bottom of a casserole dish and then put a layer of mashed potato (creamed potato?) on top, then sometimes sprinkle the top liberally with cheese and stick under the grill to brown.

True purists would tell you that Shepherds pie is made with lamb mince and Cottage Pie is done with beef mince - mine's beef and I call it whatever springs to mind. The kids call it something unmentionable as it's not their favourite, but hey they're getting fed so what's the problem - I can't stand whinging kids! They should be jolly grateful!

Back to the stitching - I spied some lovely friendship stars on an Australian Blog earlier and thought 'AHA!' a good excuse to try out my new 'Wondercut' ruler - don't usually do triangles - not good on points, so anything to make them easy has got to be good in my book. Liked the friendship stars, was going to make nine - got bored after four! Looks like the wallhanging might well be smaller than originally planned :o)

Still revelling in being able to indulge in the stitching time and my parents are enjoying being able to indulge in some quiet, peace time after being dragged all round the South West of England for the past 3 days.

Sadly the children will return towards the end of the afternoon and DH will be back from work probably about 6.30 to 7ish so the peace will be well and truly shattered.

Right back to the sewing machine - and yes the area is still tidy - not that it will last.