Tune for today.

Oh boy, I'd totally forgotten how stressful house buying and selling is. After losing our buyer just after Christmas, we put the house straight back on the market and were incredibly grateful that the vendors of the one we want were prepared to wait for us. It does help that their place needs so much work doing, and frankly us buying it to renovate means that they don't have to clean or tidy or install the bathroom for any more viewings!

So, after about 20 viewings and countless estate agent calls giving us the same feedback (love the house, but....don't like the road/neighbours/fact its a terrace, and several viewers who were elderly and wouldn't use the loft room - why view it in the first place then?), we finally got an offer! Far too low of course, but a couple of days of negotiating produced an acceptable figure. The Sold sign has gone back up, solicitors informed and the kids toys are once again strewn over the playroom floor.

The tale gets better too; the lady buying it intends to rent it out, and has agreed to rent it to us while we get the new property into a habitable condition, hopefully just for a month. Saves us a fortune on renting a holiday home, paying out for a removals firm and stack loads of hassle in packing all our stuff up for months.

So why am I stressed already? I've bought and sold lots of properties before, even exchanging and completing on the same day on one occasion. I know it's not all over til the fat lady sings, we understand exactly what can go wrong in the meantime. I think having been let down once already on this sale we are paranoid, even more so because this is literally our last chance to buy the family house of our dreams.

So, we will keep our fingers and toes firmly crossed, keep drinking the beer and wine (purely to settle our nerves doncha know) and try to enjoy the ups and downs of this particular fairground ride....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5a1xk61wfg

Menu Planning Monday.

Linking up with MrsM for another week of delicious goodies!

Monday - chicken thighs schnitzel-style (polenta coated and dry-fried) with slaw - The Husband made it with fennel, courgette, carrot and Savoy cabbage tonight

Tuesday - steak and lettuce wraps with sweet chilli sauce

Wednesday - home-made fish finger butties with rocket

Thursday - hoovering the fridge, probably prawns or eggs

Friday - home-made lamb and coriander burgers

Saturday - nutty turkey curry and rice

Sunday - spaghetti carbonara

I've also made a huge pot of veggie soup with a barley/pasta/bean mix in, which is a ridiculously low number for points for a hugely filling bowl at lunchtime. Another 0.5lb down this week which is 5% of my bodyweight lost this year, and less than half a stone to goal. It doesn't sound like I had a huge target, but after losing 51lbs a couple of years ago that's as far away from my ideal weight as I'm ever going to be again!

And damn, The Husband made the most awesome pizza at the weekend which I intended to blog about, but was far too busy drinking wine to take photos of the process - will add a picture of the finished result later though, with goats cheese, chorizo and rocket.

Silent Sunday.

Menu Planning Monday.

Welcome to a bright and sunny Menu Planning Monday! What a difference the weather makes, I've been trudging for miles this weekend in an effort to wear off just a few of the calories that I splurged on over the last 4 days - but was well worth it as sneaked a lovely 2.5lbs weight loss at WW this evening!

Monday - hot chicken liver and mushroom salad

Tuesday - pasta with a spinach and cream cheese sauce

Wednesday - pork steaks with asparagus and salad

Thursday - raid the fridge for me and try to go to bed before The Husband rolls in with his kebab so I don't pinch any of it;)

Friday - Bang Bang chicken

Saturday - home-made proper Italian pizza which I must blog about next week - The Husbands speciality! 

Sunday - keeping free, maybe a roast

Now pop over to MrsM's to see what everyone else is eating this week! 

Silent Sunday.

Mmm...

Just uploading some pictures, will be back later to edit the blurb!

Steak, shitake mushrooms and a cucumber salad.

This was the kids tea yesterday and I didn't pinch a single one!

Jamie's chicken laksa - far yummier than it looked!

Menu Planning Monday.

Bit of a funny week this week.

Monday - Jamie's Mexican chicken with mole sauce 

Tuesday - Lauren's chicken fried rice

Wednesday - Jamie's Asian tuna with jiggy jiggy greens

And then it all goes horribly wrong.

Thursday - Little Legs turns 4 and it's all-you-can-eat curry buffet in the pub where her party is being held. Plus 4 of our drinking buddies will be there with us. Disaster.

Friday - Mother in law is staying and offered to babysit. Planning on a full night out at the Pie and Real Ale House. You can guess what will be consumed, and in large quantities too.

Saturday - The Husband is set on making the most of our free babysitter with yet another night out. Promise that no fattening food nor alcohol will be consumed. Yeah right;)

But I can pull back the diet after that, as they are all disappearing off for a few days to stay with grandma, so Sunday and Monday will be lettuce and point-free soup. I had a good weigh-in tonight, 5lbs off in 4 weeks so am on a roll!

Now pop over and see what MrsM has planned this week...   

Big mistake - huge!

Weekends for us are about quality family time, spending time with the children and being enormously relaxed about everything. They are generally OK about staying up late, provided they aren't shattered beforehand and get a Very Early Night the day after. We often have friends over or are out or a sleepover occurs (which naturally doesn't involve going to bed on time!) plus on holiday it's lovely to eat dinner as a family as we don't tend to do that at home.

So what possessed us yesterday to let them stay up til gone 9pm? Made worse by the fact they've both been under the weather all week, so much so that Mr Moo opted to forgo his beloved swimming lesson which is unheard of. Oh, I know - we were having a lovely evening, all hanging out together! Much wine was drunk, the kids were delighted when I downloaded Gangnam Style for them and danced the dance all evening, and I was comfortable testing out my new purchase - an animal print chaise longue in the kitchen!

We paid for it today though. Despite taking them to the cinema this morning, buying sweets for that and the yummiest sausages for lunch, and making egg fried rice for their tea, they were both beyond hideous all day. Strong words were had, threats carried out, and I am very glad to see the back of them tonight. To be fair they were extremely happy to go to bed early, the yawns were much in evidence and neither of them complained about missing Dr Who.

In other news, we've had loads of viewings on the house over the last couple of weeks, and a few of them actually liked it! I've been hugely frustrated as whilst I've bought and sold lots of houses in the past, it's always been in a good market economy and things have always moved quickly. But our agent doesn't seem worried and I'm sure someone will buy it eventually - just wish that time-wasters could be filtered out before they are allowed to view! We're amazed at the number of people who have come round that either can't afford it, haven't put theirs on the market yet or want a 4 bed house when ours clearly only has 3. Oh well, c'est la vie.

I'll leave you with a pic of my newest obsession....

Menu Planning Monday.

Woo hoo, it's February! Time for some better weather, lighter meals (maybe!), spending more time outdoors - and my daughter's birthday next week! Just as well I don't like cake, as she's having 2 parties therefore 2 cakes;)

But this week we have the following planned; sorry about the continued overload of Jamie Oliver dishes but we've been thoroughly impressed with all the ones we've tried so far. I even took some photos over the last week which I'll blog another day.

Monday - Jamie's spiced chicken with asparagus, spinach and lentils

Tuesday - my turn to cook so it's spaghetti with pesto

Wednesday - Jamie's Korean fried rice with steak, mushrooms and a fried egg

Thursday - on my lonesome so whatever I can find in the fridge

Friday - curry night! Not 100% sure what we'll have but we're trying to turn Friday into a joint effort in the kitchen, open plenty of wine and beer and spend time together rather than being slobbed on the sofa in front of the telly on our 'puters! There's stewing steak in the fridge so thinking about a beef shatkora, plus The Husband bought some shitake mushrooms today so will be several side-dishes too.

Saturday - leaving free for now

Sunday - roast pork and all the trimmings 

Now off you pop to see what MrsM has planned...

Silent Sunday.