30-minute rolls, lemon bars & your go-to recipe

On my 37 things list, I put down to try 12 new main course and 12 new baking (sweet) recipes. 

Well, why this surprised me I don't know but I did most of the 12 sweet ones in about 3 months ... but the main course part didn't go that easily.

I'm always game to try something new but we mainly stick to what we know and love.

These are my lessons:

1. I really love making sweet things. I have tons pinned and I'm always seeing more. Good thing I have a filter of any recipe that takes more than 1/2 cup butter/ 1 cup sugar is out. Otherwise, anything apple, lemon or cinnamon goes :) Just look at my pinterest board.
2. my kids don't like their fruit mixed up with chicken unlike their mother (e.g. chicken with pineapple, chicken with apricots, peachy chicken, etc)
3. I really, REALLY don't like cooking in my hot kitchen in summer. Louisa, how does late August look for our cooking/ baking date? (as an aside, Louisa and I made a baking (friend) date about 6 months ago. I'm pleased to say we're such real friends that we keep getting together and not baking! But I'm still game!)
4. I only seem to pin pastas and breads.................

Anyway, about 3 weeks ago I looked at my list and realised I need to get a move on with the recipes.

Source: yourhomebasedmom.com via Marcia on Pinterest

I'd recently pinned these 30-minute rolls so I tested them on a Friday evening.

this is a serious question - how on earth do you get nice neat SMOOTH rolls like on the recipe blogs?

baked!

Mmmmmm - I'm drooling just looking at this pic

i love these angles with the nice blurry background

pulled open to see inside

it's just asking for some butter!

They were DIVINE - we all loved them and the kids even went "mmmm" while they were eating :)

This is definitely a family favourite - I made them again last weekend but they didn't look any prettier so I didn't take new pics. I really need to figure out how to make them look as good as the "control" pic.

Moving on.

I also tried to make these lemon bars with lemon curd since we don't have lemon pie filling (as the recipe called for) in South Africa but they didn't work.

They tasted fine (actually super delicious) but they were very flat. I may make them again if I decide to serve them with hot custard - yum! I actually had a thought - maybe I should try them with pineapple or apple pieces???

Source: kathewithane.com via Marcia on Pinterest

So that's another two for my list.


But over to you - please give me your no-fail winter main course recipe that's either

1) easy and can be assembled in 30 minutes or less
2) takes longer but it makes a ton of food that I can put in my freezer (these are my favourite kinds of recipes)

Bonus - is healthy and low-fat!



Do you enjoy baking bread?
How often do you consciously try new recipes?

{Friendship Friday} How do you treat friends of your friend?

When I was 26 weeks pregnant, I had the third bleed of my pregnancy and was put on a week's bed rest.

Natalie came to visit me and brought lunch. Right there two of my favourite things - connection and food :)

I remember one of the things we discussed was whether she was going to have a baby shower.

She didn't want one because she didn't want a typical baby shower with lots of stuff.

I've mentioned about a hundred times how I hate baby showers but I found myself saying, "well, you MUST. This baby must be celebrated".

She agreed and then told me some hippyish things about how she wants just a tea party with everybody sharing their wisdom for parenting.  :)

Thankfully, it ended up being the perfect blend of woo-woo feelings and practicality.

When her sister started off the proceedings, she asked us to go around the circle and share how we knew Nat.

That was my favourite part because I loved seeing how all these different aspects of her life merged into this person that was my friend.

Running friends, work friends, husband's work friends, infertility friend (me), family, clients, old school friends... it was all such a wonderful tapestry of her life.

Setting the scene in that way made for an afternoon rich with conversation among ALL 15 of us. There was at most 3 people from one area of her life and yet we were all mixing, chatting, laughing, connecting

That, however, is very, very rare.

I've found that 90% of the time, the friends of the friends don't really reach out to one another. This is at my own "events" and at socials I've gone to.

Or am I wrong? Do you have a different view?

At my baby shower, D told me afterward that my church friends didn't really engage my friend, C, in conversation and I was MORTIFIED. I cried and cried that night (hormones and overwhelm!) at the thought that she felt left out.

There have been other parties here where it's also happened.

These days I still feel a bit bad but I'm more in the space of "everyone's adult, they need to get on with it and socialise". I don't feel like I need to "make" people talk to one another even though I wil introduce everyone.

I took this pic of these friends of MY friend at her 30th two weekends ago. Don't you love the way the girl on the left is laughing? It makes me laugh just to look at this pic.

A reader (you can out yourself in the comments if you want :)) told me this happened to her at a party.

The other people (6 sets of friends and family of her friends) stuck to themselves, didn't try to make conversation with her at all even though she made some small talk with them and just left them alone.

When she told me about this, I cringed inside.

It's terrible. It's the lost art of conversation.

So there are 3 things going on here:

1. As the host, how do you create an atmosphere that gets people making conversation with one another? Should you bother?

2. I'm 100% sure I've also not tried to engage people at a party. I know I do this when there are friends I rarely see who are at the same event. I use the opportunity to catch up with those friends so maybe some people have thought this of me. I like to think I do look out for people who look alone but I'm very sure I've gotten so engaged in conversations that I've missed out on people.

3. If there are no existing friends at a social, I do reach out and talk to the person I think I'll get along with the most but again, as I've said on the blog before, if I try a bit and see no reciprocity from the other party in asking me questions too, I'll let it go. It's easier to let go now that we have kids to run around after but in the pre-kids days, it was hard, especially since I so love to connect.
 

Of course, when I've been spurned, I try and stay a reasonable time to not make my friend think I'm running away, but then leave as soon as it's comfortable to do so.

So, do you talk to and involve friends of your friends?

Or have you been the one not spoken to, and how did that make you feel?

PS I'm meeting a friend for lunch today. Remind me next week to tell you how our friendship soured a bit... and if there are topics for consideration, please share in the comments or mail me!

So this was the best wedding gift ever :)

So remember my friend who got married?

And the wedding gift we got them? Well, I ended up not going with that girl photographer because as I was about to buy it, a Groupon came through that was slightly better value for money (more pics).

It was a drama and a half though - I had to do lots of phoning around to make the guy accept the Groupon. Really long story and I won't bore you.

Anyway, they went for their shoot and here are a few pics.

cute baby toes!

Aren't they gorgeous???

She sent me the MOST beautiful email this week saying she's SO glad I thought out of the box and got them this gift because she will treasure these pics forever.

Everybody say this with me... aaaaawwwwww.


Do you like it when I give you feedback like this?

(I like it when bloggers do this so there are closed loops!)

PS one month til my babies turn 3!

Wordless Wednesday - Autumn photo walk with Connor







setting off down our street



gorgeous burst of colour

don't you like this angle?

my cute little companion

leaves, leaves, leaves

I love the colour of these branches against that blue sky

showing me something

sweetness!

ooh, and yes to the yellow leaves too

little foot

tree hugger?

lovely blur

I love his determination!

looking down the street

with my famous shoes :) I do love them unashamedly!

I love these shadows!

neighbours' flowers

I really LOVED taking a walk with Connor. Next time we need to do it as a family although I'm sure a little girl will talk too much :)

Our neighbourhood still looks very autumny even though we're officially in winter. Do you count the seasons from the 1st or the 21st/ whatever? I do from the 1st. So on 1st June, it's winter :)

What's your neighbourhood looking like at the moment?

The new nanny S

Thanks, Tasha, for reminding me that I hadn't told you a thing about the nanny situation.

my little monkeys

Basically, something happened one Sat, we spoke to the old Nanny S but I was totally uneasy about it and couldn't rest.

On the Monday after I was concerned the whole day, D and I talked this thing to death and I wrote a long email to the agent.

The next day I spoke to the agency who told me she recommends we recruit someone else. That was Tuesday.

On Wednesday morning I told Nanny S that that would be her last day. She seemed a bit surprised but later when the agent called her, she said she could see I wasn't happy with her.

And that was that.

The very next day we were supposed to go on holiday to Sabie.

Instead of a lovely peaceful morning getting ready, I had 4 ladies here and it was Interview Central.

I interviewed and then sent them to have a little chat to D (so he could get a feel for them) but I liked 3 out of the 4 ladies.

Eventually we were done with all 4 and we set off on holiday at about 11:20, if I remember correctly.

I asked D what he thought and he liked the lady I didn't and one other.

OY!

Good thing I took notes.

We discussed this thing for about two hours (in excruciating detail), prayed about it and then after about 30 mins, I said I want to offer the position to the first lady.

I'll tell you why - she reminded me the most of V, but a more organised version :)

I've said before that V had her faults as we all do but she is gentle, patient and LOVED those kids like anything.

Anyway, so I sent the agent a text with salary, etc, she phoned S and sent me a text back to say she'd accepted and would be there on the 2nd May. The first is a public holiday here.

And that was that. Easy.

hand-me-down sandals from a friend - I LOVE THEM

Everything about Nanny S has been easy.

She's patient, kind, very organised (I tell her things once and it's done right forever after that) and so punctual she's here at 7:20 every morning (her start time is 7:30).

Best of all, she's a lot more forthcoming than V so she'll speak to me if there is anything she's not sure about or wants to clear up with me.

We trained on the fly because she was immediately here in the thick of it, but I did ask her to come in specially on a Saturday so I could train her properly.

In the meantime, we just both did the best we could and through all this, the kids were troopers.

She has quite a difficult name but I'm one of those people who doesn't believe in making her use a Western name to suit me; I really feel one's name is special so we've all tried and tried, and I think we've finally got it.

Funny thing is the kids got it first :)

One thing I really like is her demeanor - she's a very sweet person but she's not afraid to speak her mind.

My blog friend from last weekend met her - do you agree?

We've had a slight bit of conflict which she handled beautifully.

I made some lemon bars for my blog friend's visit. They were a huge flop visually but they tasted good. Anyway, I put the best 4 in a container on the cupboard.

I told S and Nester that they could have the scones and when I got home, my lemon bars were gone and of course, I freaked a bit.

I sent them both a text to say where are my lemon bars and she texted back to say, sorry, they only realised afterwards that those weren't the scones.

The next morning she came to me and apologised nicely. I said it really wasn't about the lemon bars; I just like to know if things go wrong in the house because I don't want to have to ask.

She understood and she's been asking me if she's unclear about anything since then.

I used that Saturday to really talk about my philosophy about educating my kids while they're at home (which is way too long to go into here) and I see she's made a schedule about what she wants to do with them each day so that's great.

And there we have it.

D and I have the utmost peace about this and the kids are happy. They don't cry in the mornings like they used to with the first nanny S.

They've even started saying things like, "Mummy, S doesn't do it like that" as if I'm doing it wrong so yesterday I said, "Kendra, this is the way I cut apples. Deal with it" LOL

So, any questions???

And no, we still don't know what we'll do with them next year. And yes, I know I have HUGE control issues.

PS please pray for me tomorrow at 10 am :) I will be having a difficult conversation with my boss about this big task. I just can't go on like this - headaches from stress every day, etc. BTW, if you think I'm a wuss, you would be right :) I can't take stress for long periods of time and it's been over a month now.

{Create} Kids' craft stick puzzles... but not with kids!

I'm a huge fan of having my kids play with different things to foster some creativity and just for fun, really.

Of course the internet can be a huge distraction as far as this is concerned but I've learnt my limits and to only pin things that are actually within my skill level and that won't cost too much.

So when I saw these kids' craft stick puzzles, I downloaded the file and printed them out.

Very easy but needed a teensy bit more patience than I normally have.

All you need are the following:

• 12 craft sticks per puzzle - I happen to have a whole big, beautiful cupboard full of crafty goodness so of course I have different coloured craft sticks :) (CNA otherwise if you're blessed to live near Westpack, they have them too. Also, I'm going to Westpack on Saturday!!!)
• glue (she used rubber cement whatever that might be? Maybe similar to No nails?) - I used my favourite Bostik craft glue from... you guessed it.... CNA)
• laminated download - I have a laminator otherwise you can get any office supply store like a Postnet to do yours. The printing area at my work also does them for staff at a very small fee. She used contact paper
• Scissors



always create with a cup of tea - I promise you it all goes better :)



So I had the "bright" idea to do this craft WITH the kids.

Let me just tell you. Don't do it.

I had a few moments where I was shrieking at them not to touch the glue, etc. and that did NOT tie into my word of the year, create, so I didn't create meaningful memories for me, let alone them.

Okay, moving along.



here's what one looks like from the front

 

and from the top

How I did them

• Cut out the laminated sticks
• Paste a strip of glue on the sticks - it really doesn't matter if you mess because glue mostly dries clear and it's for the kids, not a Pinterest competition!
• Adhere the laminated portion and set aside to dry (I gave it a whole day)

 

built by D because I have zero patience for building puzzles




here are the other three - I must confess I was a bit traumatised after the first one so I waited a day before doing the monkey... on green sticks, of course :)



you've got to have a nice, pretty pic afterwards, right? Cute bucket from Clicks - R20 each and at the time I bought mine, 3 for the price of 2



So do you like doing puzzles?

Will you do these for your kids?

PS I imagine you could attach them to magnets too and use on your fridge, if you're so inclined.

Pottering, putzing, faffing around

Look at his expression. This is exactly how I feel about doing laundry :)

Today was SUCH a lovely day.

My favourite kind - pottering around the house.

Do you know I only got into fresh clothes at 3pm? Yes!

Kendra and I stayed home from church because she's a little under the weather and I took the opportunity to organise up a storm. Maybe because i posted about organising toys on the organising blog on Friday but I dove into them again.

Chucked out some "treasures", re-categorised and labelled some more containers.

Also Kendra got a bigger bed for her "children". I think there are an assortment of about 5 - 6 animals (her children) sleeping in the new bed (organising crate with the front off, mattress is a couch cushion and the blanket is a towelling diaper/ nappy).

Poor Thursday :)

Oh, some of you asked the last time if I have issues with dolls.

Well, I don't... but I'm not a girly girl and I was never a girl with dolls, etc. so it's the last thing I think to buy. 

And nobody's ever bought one for her either (she usually gets her girly fix from birthday and Christmas gifts, and I keep things all gender neutral :)). Although my one friend said she'll buy Kendra a baby doll :) I think she'll be in girl heaven. 

As I was organising I thought of some things to add to the list - I keep this mental list of things so if the family ask for ideas for birthday presents, I can actually tell them real things.

Speaking of which, my kids are now into presents.  A few weeks ago, they loved their mother's day presents D gave them in real gift wrap :)

I love this pic. Look what you get when you get on the ground :)

Today I wanted to give them some jumbo pencil crayons I bought at Clicks (R20 for 6) with a sketch pad (cars for Connor and butterflies for Kendra) so I wrapped them up pretty as if for other kids (I blush - I do nicer gift wrap for other people instead of my own kids!!!).

We actually have TONS (too much) of arts and crafts stuff. I love this kind of thing so I clearly keep buying too much for them. 

I handed Kendra's present to her immediately when she came back to the study and she squealed appropriately (MandyE, she's learning from me!). 

When Connor came home from church, I gave his present to him and he was all "thank you Mummy for my lovely present". Yes, I melted. 

I was clever this time - I also use washi tape as labels so I labelled each pencil crayon with a big K or C so there will be NO fighting!

Anyway, the 10 minutes spent labelling and wrapping the gifts = totally worth it for those moments of happiness.

this is how it typically looks on my desk

I also had some lovely 1:1 time with Connor. He didn't want to sleep so D brought him to our bedroom so he didn't disturb Kendra. This boy LOVES getting his head and neck stroked. The other morning I wasn't even aware I was playing with the nape of his neck and when he went away, he said to me with such heart, "thank you, Mummy, for playing with my neck" LOL

Anyway, so I said, "do you want me to play with your neck?" "Yes," he said and before 5 minutes had elapsed, he was out like a light. I left him on my chest for about 20 minutes til D came to move him. Bliss!

And this afternoon I organised about half of the May pics. I want to do a bit more now and then tidy my desk because it's a bit messy. 

I also decided to consciously use a smaller bag for a week or two so that I stop carrying my whole life with me. I usually find my things stay that way easier if the bag is smaller.

The second photo canvas craft is also now 100% done - I do so love crossing things off my list.



sunset from my desk



This week I'm looking forward to booking my US accommodation and going to gym twice! I'm going to try and fool myself by saying "I'm competent and able to do Big Task at Work" but all prayers of the IT variety will be very welcome.

Also, I've just seen Elevate the Ordinary starts tomorrow not Wednesday like I thought. Let the games begin :) 

What are you looking forward to this week?

PS did you like the random pics? :) 
PPS that's an affiliate link for the course. I get a few bucks (to help with the US trip) if you sign up. So far I have $9,80 - woohoo! :)

Goals and my 37 things list

I had a mini goals retreat on Thursday evening to review my May goals, my 2012 goals and my 37 things list.

It's so important to stop and take stock regularly.

when I was on my photo walk with Connor a few weeks ago, I deliberately took this pic for goals-type posts :)

I also looked at a couple of other lists which I won't tell you about as it will confirm once and for all that I'm a huge nerd.:)

As usual some things are going very well, others not so much.

I counted up and it looks like at VERY best, I'll only finish 27 of the things on my 37 things list. Not bad but really not as good as I'd wanted.

Then I looked at it closer and saw I'd seriously underestimated how much work some things would be so I got happier again.E.g. My meet 5 bloggers in person is one item but it took at least 3 hours for each of those friend dates.

I've already decided that for my 38 things list, I'm going to do things a little differently.

First of all, I'll separate the big stuff out more. I also have an idea about how to do the craft stuff.

I'm going to make a list of supplies I already have that I want to focus on so that it will be easier to check on Pinterest for ideas. E.g. canvas, buttons, stamps, cards, washi tape, kids, etc.

And I want to review it monthly. Louisa does hers at the beginning of the month; I think I'll do mine on the 6th of every month like MandyE so it's exactly x months gone, y to go.

But onto May review and the June goals

Spiritual

1. Read all 31 days of my devotional. FAIL
2. Ask God for something small every day - guide a meeting, give clarity, parking places, etc. just so I can start exercising my faith again.This was super cool this month and something I'm going to continue next month. I've had such an awesome time :) One little example - the huge thing that I'm battling with at work? In a project meeting someone offered to do one part to take off the pressure from me. YESSSS! Okay, he did that about two weeks ago so I'm again pressured but it helped!

Family 

1. Have three dates with D (two dates are now on track so it's time to up our game). For one, watch a favourite DVD.We watched It's Complicated and had only one date.
2. Put 80% of savings in an investment account with the turquoise bank because I'm only motivated to save if I see almost nothing :) I've done all the research - just need to make time to phone them and do it. Done! But I put 75% because it was a nice round number :)
3. Take the kids to Adega (we have a Groupon) Yes, and they went twice!
4. Go see two pre-schools. Fail.
5. Progress on getting child 2 potty trained before it gets cold again. We're making progress but it's slow.
6. Get Nanny S trained properly - I've set aside next Sat to do this. Done. She's doing awesome. Tasha, I will do a proper post this week :)

Work

1. Do really big sub-project on Big Project at work. Well, I had a bit of a breakdown about this two Fridays ago - seriously I wanted to resign because I felt so imcompetent. I still do... and things have got to change. This is a topic for a blog post. Probably only 10% done, if that.
2. Get all copy approved. It's starting to feel as big as my business website (about 80 pages!) but I keep reminding myself it's only about 25% of that. About 80% done

Business

1. Get book Kindle-ised YESSSS
2. Set up website YES
3. Get my VA to make individual PDFs of all the forms in the book and load them on a members-only page YES
4. Start advertising to my list YES - wow, first time in yonks all these are crossed off

Friends

1. Lunch with R and family
2. Lunch/ early supper with friends K & they couldn't make it for any of the times we could :(
3. Supper with my friend A
4. Early supper with Louisa We had lunch instead
5. My friend, R's 30th.
6. Good, quality time with dear friend J

Health and fitness

1. Go to gym with Connor 4 times Only managed two times
2. Work out at new gym 4 times Huge fail. I went once.
3. Lose 2 kg (stretch goal 3 kg) Another huge fail - I think I gained 0.6 kg
4. Get 7 - 7.5 hours of sleep daily (this is going to be hard... but I'll have to work on not taking so many pics so I can stop playing til midnight) Did well for the month except the 5 days prior to my book launching

Personal

1. Book flights
2. Make a spreadsheet with ALL my financial stuff - RA's, preservation fund, work provident fund, unit trusts, etc. this was so empowering seeing all my finances in one place. I thoroughly recommend it
   
3. Read 5 books, two of them non-fiction.  This month's NF books are Confidence: now is your time and One Person Multiple Careers. Read my 5 books but I still haven't finished the slash book
4. Do 4 random acts of kindness, one of them - send pics to Nanny V
5. Mini goals retreat

Creating

1. Declutter inspiration folder. I'm finding myself reading about creating more than actually creating and that has got to stop!
2. April month in review page in mini scrapbook I'm so up to date with this I even did May already :)
3. Have FUN with Superhero photo. Finish WELL. Keep playing. Really, really fun. The next one starts on Wed. BTW I still suck at the timer pics. Tried again on Friday. I think I'll stick to my silly self-portraits.
4. Finish my canvas craft that's half done... craft fail
5. Do a craft with buttons! yes
6. Print enlargements and do canvas photos for babies' bedroom - yes!
7. Print Sabie pics for scrapbook
8. Stretch goal - start blogging UK trip from 4 years ago. didn't start

And that's 81% :)

 

For June

Spiritual

1. Read my Bible at least 5 out of every 7 days.
   
2. Ask God for something small every da.

Family 

1. Have three dates with D
2. Go see two pre-schools. 
3. Send out invites and plan the babies' third birthday party.
4. Get child 2 potty trained?
5. Book my mother's flights
   

Work

1. Either finish this big looming thing that's giving me headaches and stressing me out, or make a plan (i don't know what but something's got to give)
   
2. Get remainder of copy approved. 
3. Be brave enough to have a really honest conversation at my performance appraisal.

Business

1. Keep promoting book
2. 3 blogs per week
3. 1 newsletter every week
4. Decide on next book for Kindle (I have TONS TONS TONS of stuff written over the last 9 years and I want to put something together for cheap, like $3.99)

Friends

1. Lunch here with J & P
2. Lunch with either K&B or L&C or both
3. Early supper with Louisa
4. Lunch with my new work friend

Health and fitness

1. Go to gym with Connor 4 times
   
2. Work out at gym during the week 8 times and stop making excuses that it's cold.
   
3. Lose 2 kg (stretch goal 3 kg) and go to Weigh-Less the remaining 4 times
   
4. Get 7 - 7.5 hours of sleep daily despite the next photo course starting
   

Personal

1. Book accommodation in Charlotte and New York
2. Loosely finalise meet-ups with blog friends ( I now have one more person confirmed :)
3. Do my budget
4. Read 5 books, two of them non-fiction.  This month's NF books are One Person Multiple Careers and an organising book. I have about 8 unread... Fiction I want to read are my Dorothy Koomson and 2 print books (I need to up the ante to get rid of all these things on my bookshelf)
   
5. Do 4 random acts of kindness

Creating

1. Try 3 new main course dishes
2. Bake cinnamon rolls
3. Finish party packs (sadly, I'm already half way done :) yet the invites aren't even out yet!)
4. Organise May photos
5. Do 10 blogs on babies blog
   
6. Have FUN with Elevate the Ordinary.
   
7. Do canvas craft for Father's Day
8. Blog England leg of 2008 UK trip

Have you set goals/ intentions for June? Link up your posts in the comments. 

If you're not into setting goals, tell me... what are three things you're most proud of doing in May?

{Friendship Friday} Have you ever disappointed a friend?

Two things happened recently that I want to tell you about.

1. A few weeks ago I had a lunch date with my one friend.

It was adjacent to a meeting which I knew but then forgot about.

Also we have a rule with the New Boss that we can't check ipads and cell phones in the meeting. I agree because it is disrespectful (do you agree?) but the problem is we NEVER finish meetings on time. Ever.

And that's why I used to check my iPad.

Anyway, you can guess what happened.

The meeting ran late, I didn't even realise because it was interesting at that point, and when it was wrapping up, I happened to glance at my watch, see that it was 1:17 and I flipped open my iPad.

There was a message from Reception. "Marcia, your friend N was here for you but since we couldn't get hold of you, she eventually left".

I FLEW out of the meeting room punching her number into my phone.

She was lovely (as always) and very gracious and didn't appear to be cross. But she was nearly home again and understandably didn't really want to come all the way back to our offices.

(Gosh, I'm again gettting a headache just thinking about this!)

I felt terrible. Terrible.

I know what a drama it is for her to arrange for the au pair to come babysit her boys so she can visit me and I stood her up.

I actually blocked this whole business out of my mind for a few days and she even told me to just let it go because it was emotionally draining me. True.

We've since had our replacement lunch date and things felt genuinely fine with us so all is well.

Also, since then, I'm super-sensitive to the timing thing and respectful or not, I'm checking my iPad to see if there are other meetings!!!

(My boss said sorry for running over... especially since she could see how mortified I was!)

these two have discovered my camera. They told me they want cameras for their birthday. On the one hand this thrills me but 3 paparazzi? :)

2. Last weekend a blog friend came to stay over at our place.

You know how crazy my life's been working full-time, coming home and doing supper and kids, and then some more work on the book til midnight every night.

On the Thursday before I was still working til all hours to get the book ready for its Friday launch (do you have your copy yet? :)).

But that was okay because I thought I'd have at least 1 - 1.5 hours to ready the place for my friend's arrival on the Friday after I got home from work.

And then D had the bumper bashing and my transport arrangements were all stuffed up.

Bottom line, all 3 of us arrived home just after 7.

No nicely-laid-out towels, no nice welcome note, no nice supper, no computer moved to my bedroom, and a very frazzled Marcia because we were late for the nanny and the kids' bedtime routine (reading, prayers, etc).

I try but I'm not a go with the flow person when there are too many things that need flowing :)

And that's kind of how the whole weekend went.

I felt scattered the whole time, like no-one was getting the right amount of me - not my friend, not D, not me and certainly not my kids.

I had some other plans too which would have been fine if D had his car but because we're sharing transport, I was doing everything as if on speed to get back home so he could go shopping, etc. UGH.

And my friend mentioned some food she doesn't eat which I don't even remember her saying and of course, the stuff I get? Yes, what she doesn't eat. OY!

On Sunday after I woke from my lovely nap with the kids, I remembered at least two things my friend and I were going to do (craft stuff, etc) and I honestly forgot about them. Everything slipped my mind and I felt terrible. How could I just forget things?

I considered just ignoring all this stuff but that's not really my style so I told my friend on Monday about some (most) of this stuff.

And we are good again too. The good thing about all this stuff was that she was just as I'd imagined if a little quieter when with others :) and we just settled right into being real life friends instead of only blog friends.

But really, this curveball stuff needs to stop.

So, over to you.

Have you ever disappointed a friend?

How do you deal with it? Is it easy for you to let go or do you feel terrible like I do til you "have it out"?