A thundering good day

The first day of January was a bit wild: thunder, lightning and a hailstorm.

I went out into the storm to check on the pony, but he was OK, standing with his back to the weather. When the thunder crashed, he flinched a bit, but he wasn't panicking so I went back in again quick-sharp! :D

Although I did stop to pick up a few hailstones to show the children up close. They were quite big balls, though I've seen bigger (f'narr).

I'm determined to cook more from scratch, get our finances straight and be more active this year. I'm not calling them resolutions, however, as those are just things you fail to do :D. I cooked a rather nice hotpot for tea, which S helped me with, and the children actually ate some of it.

Much of my problem with cooking is that I have, in the past, spent ages making food, only for them to turn their noses up. Cooking and preparing for an hour only to scrape it all into the bin doesn't make you want to repeat the effort, after a while. I suppose an alternative would be to make them sit there until they ate it, but I'm anxious about making food an issue. It's a traditional battleground in parenting, as it's one of the first ways a child can challenge the adult and assert some independence.

I'm quite happy about how it worked out, and I intend to start cooking in bulk in order to freeze some for quick meals during the week. We have a chest freezer in mum's garage that we can store the excess in. With any luck it should mean spending less on shopping, which will go some way to helping us balance income against outgoings.

I live in hope, anyway. :D