Happy 2015!!

Hello one and all! Here’s hoping you had a wonderful festive season. I had a long break, but only from the blog. Everything else kept me on my toes. I take my hat off to helpers, domestic workers, nannies, or whatever you call them in your households. Like our relationships with other people, sometimes we don’t realise how important they are until they are gone.

 These spicy potato and chicken fingers  were a miss:(

I had to cook, clean, shop, and stretch my nerves with all the shouting at my children mostly by myself.

I cooked up a storm on Christmas Day. I never slept a wink on Christmas Eve putting the final touches to our Christmas breakfast and part of the lunch. I baked my first chocolate cake, and it showed it was my first, though it tasted delectable.  I ended up making the cake after I had prepared dough for muffins, but at the last minute could locate my muffin trays. I also roasted gammon, which I glazed with honey and Dijon mustard, and chicken whose recipe for braai mix I saw in Your Family magazine. For dessert I prepared my first cheesecake, whose recipe I also obtained from Your Family magazine. From a recipe in the same magazine, I also prepared my first tzatziki ever, and it’s basically cucumber, Greek yoghurt, garlic, lemon, honey and mint mixed together.  That publication is a lifesaver. I promise I wasn’t paid to say that.  I only slept around 3am on the 25^th.

My first chocolate cake was a hit :)

I wasn’t the only one hustling and bustling in the kitchen. In Harare, Zimbabwe and Sydney, Australia my sister and my friend, Milcah and Nyasha, respectively were also hard at work in  I don’t see any sense in splurging and pigging out like there’s no tomorrow. There are still fees and other bills to be paid. There’s life after Christmas and people should just learn to keep calm.  Most of the extravagance during the festive season has nothing to do with the fact that it’s Jesus’birthday being celebrated. I would like to inculcate a culture of being pennywise to my children. One day they will thank me for it.

their kitchens. We were comparing menus as we went. There were some hits and some misses, but in general the lunch was a success, at least I would like to think so. It was made with lots of love and was devoured with gusto by my brood. My family might have felt obliged to look happy, considering all the effort I had put. I was definitely happy because buying ingredients for the lunch costs me less than R150. I’m an impenitent cheapskate and I know how and where to look for bargains. Christmas lunches at restaurants and hotels in Swaziland weren’t going for less than R250 per head.

What my friend Nyasha prepared for Christmas lunch

A few days into the New Year and I’m full of beans and raring to go.  I have lined up a few personal big plans which I pray will come to fruition. Many of my close friends don’t believe in making resolutions, but I function better when I have my plans carefully laid out. I don’t even go shopping without a list. Even when I have to have a serious discussion with my husband, I jot down notes first. I’m also fairly good at sticking to plans I make. I have, therefore, made the following resolutions:

-          To lose 5 – 10 kgs. It can, and will be done. I have lost 20 in the past 14 months. I had gained 21 when I was pregnant with my daughter but have managed to shake them off.

-          To finish my book on Autism. Please read an excerpt from the book here.

-          Resume my handicrafts and take them more seriously. I get a lot of inspiration from Pinterest. Please visit my boards here.

My sister Milcah's Christmas breakfast

-          To read 30 books during the course of the year. I’m currently reading John Grisham’s Skipping Christmas. My friend, cousin and husband have recommended that I read The Shack, Productivity Epiphany and The Godfather. I would also like to get my hands on Anne Frank.

-          To have a stronger connection with God

-          To be an even better mom to my kids

-          I have a new-found interest, bordering on an obsession, in landscapes. So I will be taking a lot of pictures to post here, and will also write a lot. Here are some that I have take already.

That sums it all up, I guess. May 2015 be kind to all of us.

 Peace and love!