Doing Things Differently redux

Does everyone remember my project of last year? Doing Things Differently? The idea was that in order to shake myself out of a rut, that I promised to do something different every day for a month. Take a minute, click on the link, if you like. I had a lot of fun with it and it really transformed the month of April for me, with baking and taking the boys to different places. I did hope to make it a yearly event, but with my course finishing and exam preparation, it entirely slipped my mind last April (and May and June).

And if you've read my blog at all this past month, you'll know how much the Fluttering Butterflies household has been knocked down by the chicken pox. It's been a real strain on everyone. I need to do something shocking and different to get us all out of this sickness hole we've fallen into.

In the spirit of DTD, I have been maintaining one element that came out of last year's project... and that's been weekly baking.



I've made chocolate chip cookies and my favourite raspberry and coconut muffins. I've made apple flapjacks and brownies. I've wanted to share my baking photos and recipes for awhile now, but never got around to it. I kept thinking, I can still do a Doing Things Differently project this year, I can still do it. And with that thought in my head, I kept putting off showing you the photos. Well, folks. I have decided. That August is my month to seize this opportunity and really run with it.

I would be eternally grateful if you could join me in this. Suggest something different for me to do, comment on my DTD posts and be my cheerleader, or do something different for yourself and let me know.

My first act in the DTD project (slightly early as I will be doing this on 31 July) is to get on a train and head off for a week and live in a proper university as I attend a residential school for an OU course. I'm really nervous about this as I will be away from my boys for longer than I ever have been, and also that it will be SO new and different and I'm very afraid of the new and different normally. But instead of being afraid, I will embrace my fear! It won't be terrifying, it'll be an adventure!

I hope to update you all weekly on all the fun things that we shall be doing after I get back from residential school. I plan on teddy bear picnics and actually going to the local museums that we've never been to in four years of living in this city. I want to do the things I keep saying I'd like to do and never do, like pick my own fruit on one of those farms and take the boys places that will make them smile. I want to be less afraid and just do things without worrying about everything. But please, you make other suggestions too. What do you think?

August! It will be the best ever! Let's DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY... Who's with me?!

DTD, Day 13: Easter Trail at Virginia Water

Days like these are the reason that I started this Doing Things Differently project. We went somewhere different, we did something as a family and we had a lot of fun doing it. I really wanted to do something with Oldest for Easter this year. Last year, Littlest was born the Thursday before the Easter weekend and we were so busy with newborn chaos that we weren't able to take Oldest out for an Easter hunt like we planned. And we didn't this year either!

It rained the Saturday and the Sunday so we decided to stay indoors. But Monday rolled around bright and dry, so we took the boys (and N and our best friend, A) to Virginia Water for an 'Easter Trail.' Oldest was too young for it though, and N and A answered most of the questions that we were looking for as we walked around the lake. But it didn't matter. Oldest loved stomping his feet through mud puddles and running about in the trees. He even made a 'snow angel' as he was laying on the grass surrounded by flower petals. He had so much energy running around for most of the afternoon. And how was he rewarded? With a big bag of chocolates. Just what he needed :)

It really was a beautiful day.

DTD, Day 9: Wellington Country Park

Despite my depression post of last week, I am still taking part in this project. I'm just not pressuring myself to post my results in a timely fashion anymore and I'm not posting about every single day. Just the fun stuff. For this, Day 9, I decided to check out Wellington Country Park. I didn't know very much about it before we went. Just that they had a circus act for the children Easter weekend and that the park was somewhere on the route that I take to get to my university tutorials in Basingstoke. To step things up just a little bit, I decided to invite a friend and her daughter along. This is something I never do. I chickened out just a little bit and emailed her, but whatever. She came. It was great to catch up with her.



We arrived just as the circus show was starting. I'm sorry now that I didn't take any photos, but seating was limited and I ended up sitting away from Oldest with Littlest in my lap. Littlest was a bit restless and I had my hands full. When we got outside, he was much happier, and so was I.



There was so much to do! Apart from having a beautiful lake and well-kept grounds on which to run around, there were a load of little play areas along the path - a tractor to sit on, climbing equipment, a massive tyre, sand pits, slides, and Oldest's favourite - a train.



It really was a wonderful day. To think all of this is only a short drive from where I live.Oldest asked to come back the next day. There was face painting in the lobby as well as pottery painting. But it was the hills that he loved the most. He loved climbing them and running down the other side. It was fun to watch him giggle and trip his way down. Fun was had by all, and just maybe I'll be less afraid to give a friend a call from now on, make a day of it with us and the children. Somewhere local and outdoors. Why not?


Doing Things Differently in the month of April

DTD, Day 7: Choc brownie muffins

For Day 7, I decided to bake. I always mean to do more baking than I do, and if it does ever happen then I always revert back to the same thing again and again. So on this day, I scoured through my recipe books and found this. Choc Brownie muffins. If you're a calorie counter or on a diet in some way, look away now. As for me, I'm glad that I'm not that girl. Apart from knowing that I am overweight, I don't pay much attention to the number. I like my desserts too much to ever really be thin.



Oldest loved my idea of muffins. He's this wonderful mix of me and N. Where I adore sweet things and N adores spicy things.



Littlest hasn't been very well these past few days. Off his food, hardly sleeping, very clingy. Luckily, we had about an hour to ourselves as Littlest had a much needed nap. Oldest likes having his mommy-time. So do I. And he's such a help around the kitchen. He told everyone that day that he made muffins with Mama.



And oh, they were delicious. Very chocolatey. The nuts were perfect in them, added that needed crunch to all that chocolate. I tell you, those muffins did not last long.



Oldest's verdict? Thumbs up. A recipe to definately keep and make for special occasions. And I will bake more. I've decided that just this minute. I've already gone through a few different cookbooks and highlighted the recipes I want to try out. I might stick to muffins for awhile though, they're just so easy to make! More to come, I promise.



Choc Brownie Muffins

2 cups or 300g self-raising flour
35g cocoa powder
75g caster sugar
60g butter, melted
95g choc bits (I used choc chips)
75g pistashios, chopped coarsely (I used walnuts)
165g Nutella
1 egg, lightly beaten
180ml milk
120g sour cream

1. Preheat oven to moderately hot. Grease 12-hole muffin pan.

2. Sift dry ingredients into large bowl, stir in remaining ingredients.

3. Divide mixture among holes of prepared pan.

4. Bake muffins in moderately hot oven about 20 minutes. Stand muffins in pan for few minutes before turning onto wire rack. Dust with sifted extra cocoa, if desired.

Doing Something Different: Days 4, 5 and 6

Hopefully I'll never get this far behind again! I've been playing catch-up in so many areas of my life. This blog, the laundry and cleaning of the house, uploading photos for family members. Once I've caught up with my blog reading, all will be well. Maybe. Well, I hope so.

Day Three - N has been trying to sort out a dinner with some friends for ages. Let me give you some perspective here. One particular couple that came to the dinner was engaged the last time we met up with them. Now, they're married and have a 7 month old baby. That's how long it's been. We really needed a night out to catch up with friends and eat some good food. We left the boys with N's mother and went to a Thai place in Reading and it was wonderful. Good company, wonderful pad thai!

Day Four - This day was wonderful. We spent the morning doing some much needed gardening for our back yard. It's really coming together out there. I'm going to love it when it's all finished and child-friendly. Then we spent the afternoon at one of Oldest' closest friend's birthday party. Fun was had by all. But I don't count the gardening as something different as N and I started doing the garden up before April, and we always go to birthday parties. So I decided to have a movie night with N. It didn't exactly go as planned.

First, there was no popcorn. Second, N fell asleep and I watched the movie on my own. Be Kind Rewind with Jack Black. It was OK. Movie night did not go exactly how I pictured it in my head, but again, I tried. It'd be nice to make it a regular thing. When the kids go to sleep, we usually watch TV programmes - when I'm not reading, studying or using the computer to update my blog! And we have so many new movies that we haven't seen yet... we need to make more time for this.



Day Five - (finally something I can take a photo of!) We went to another local park, this time California Country Park. There's a large playground here as well as a lake to walk around. We stayed mostly in the playground on the slides with a picnic blanket. We were meant to be meeting up with a large group of people for the weekly NCT coffee afternoon, but it ended up being just us and one other woman and her two children. That was OK. Oldestjust wanted to run around somewhere new and occasionally kick his football around. We got quite a few photos of him being silly but they came out blurry :( When we left, Oldest said 'can we come back here tomorrow, I had lots of fun!' That, folks, is why I'm doing this project.



Oh, what will the rest of the month have in store for us...?

Doing Something Different: Days 2 and 3

It's been a rough few days trying to work on my latest assignment for university. The time I had to write two essays, the first on the general formation of identities and the second on how race and ethnicity impact the formation of identities. I'm not feeling as confident with these two essays as my last. Wish me luck, both essays will be sent off to my tutor tonight.

Back to Doing Something Different. If you missed it, here is my account of Day One.



For day two, I really needed to stay close to home. Oldest had an Easter party at toddler group that morning which led to me rushing home to force food into his mouth for lunch before pre-school in the afternoon. It left very little time for even my rainy day activities (baking or arts and crafts) so yet again I took the easy option and went for cooking my boys a hot breakfast.

We're very much a cereal-for-breakfast family. Breakfast options are usually limited to cheerios or rice krispies. An apple or a banana. Milk or juice. Special occasions involved toast with jam. Very exciting stuff. I always mean to spend a little more time over breakfast, but it's usually a pretty stressful event, getting things prepared for the day, getting everyone dressed and washed and everything. Plus, for awhile there, Oldest was very resistant to change. I remember I spent a great deal of time making muesli on day and letting it soak through overnight to find that Oldest insisted on corn flakes and only corn flakes the next morning.

But I thought I'd persevere and went with French toast. Very simple and easy to make. I'd heard suggestions of cutting the bread into shapes with cookie cutters beforehand but I couldn't find my cookie cutters that morning. Oldest and Littlest adored them. Seeing Oldest finish his in record time and ask for me just made me feel incredibly guilty that I hadn't made it before. We're turning the French toast/hot breakfast into a weekly routine. It has to be done.



Day Three was a bit of a disaster. I had good intentions. I decided to take the boys to a local softplay area called Monkey Mates. I thought it would be especially good seeing as how Littlest has taken to climbing onto the sofa on his own. Oldest has been on a few occasions, but not in the last year. He loves slides and Monkey Mates claim to fame is having this tremendous big slide in the middle of their climbing frames. We've only ever been on the weekend when N was with us, so I was a bit nervous looking after the both of them. Oh boy. Things were not good.

Oldest enjoyed himself at first, but kept rushing off to climb different bits and I was left behind with Littlest trying to keep him happy and keep an eye on Oldest at the same time. First thing that was terrible, was that the place was filled with childminders all grouped together gossiping while the kids they were meant to be watching were running wild. I'm all for a good chat with friends but not at the expense of any kids getting knocked over or allowing MY child to push or throw balls at the younger children. I was not happy with that.



The second thing that made the day not the greatest was that somehow Oldest has managed to acquire a fear of heights. When did that happen? With Littlest to look after, I couldn't take the time to coax Oldest into doing the things he was afraid of. He wouldn't go near the larger slides. Poor child. Littlest enjoyed himself climbing around, but everything was a bit too advanced for him. He didn't like being kept in the babyish area and wanted to explore other areas and I just couldn't let him with the wild children on the loose and things were just a bit too high.

Oldest and Littlest both enjoyed parts of the morning, as did I. I'm not sure but I'll make a return trip to Monkey Mates soon. I did think it would be fun but can't win them all.

REVIEW: Looking For Alaska by John Green (plus my first giveaway)

“But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane.”

Looking For Alaska is a wonderful read. Honestly, I'd like to go back and read it again even though it's been a week since I finished it. It's one of those books. It started off a bit slow, but then it got to a certain point in the book and I thought 'even though not much is happening, I love these characters and the relationships that they have with each other' and realised that I wouldn't put this book down before finishing it for anything. I thought that John Green is clearly still in touch with how a teenage boy acts, feels and thinks. About sex and friends, loneliness, loyalty, love, life.

It's the story of Miles who apart from memorising the last words of famous people, leads a boring, friendless life in Florida, so he convinces his parents to send him to a boarding school in Alabama in order for Miles to seek the 'Great Perhaps.'

Once there, his roommate ironically nicknames him 'Pudge' and he falls into a set of friends. His roommate and about-to-be-best-friend, 'The Colonel,' the troubled, intelligent, beautiful and sassy Alaska Young, Takumi, Lara. From them he learns about friendship, love, loss, grief.

I adored Miles as a character and the insights into his brain was a highlight for me in reading this book. Also the dialogue between Pudge and The Colonel is quite fun as well as believeable. My favourite parts was all the information about the famous last words, I think it was a great quirk. Thankfully John Green puts in an afterword and discusses it in a little more detail. I'm intrigued.

The story is split into two parts, Before and After. The first half begins a little slowly with all of the introductions. The move to school, the mischief that Pudge and his friends get into with the smoking, the drinking and the pranks they pull. Pudge finds himself drawn to Alaska (as do most of the characters) and her impulsiveness, but she's moody and unpredictable.

Some may find the drinking and the references to sex a little much, but I didn't. Everything seemed really authentic. I've never been to Alabama, I've never been to boarding school, but I found myself relating to all of these characters and the experiences that they go through.

I don't want to spoil the major event that 'Before' leads up to. I'll just say that 'After' deals with some tougher issues. Forgiveness, understanding. Identity and belief systems. Friendship.

This is definately one to read. I've been thinking lately that my life is horribly boring. That nothing new happens, so I've decided to go in search for the 'Great Perhaps' in my own way. That is, Doing Something Different. I love that I'm still inspired by books, by the reading that I'm able to do. I want to pass that on.

I've come across so many wonderful (better) reviews of Looking For Alaska that I feel like a lot of you have already read this book (well done to you!) but if you haven't, and you live in the UK, then here is your chance. I'm giving away my gently used copy of this book. Just leave me a comment with an email address between now and the 10th of April. If there's more than one person interested (please god, let there be more than one person interested), I'll use random.org to pick a winner.

Sorry for all of you non-UK readers, I'll have an international giveaway another time, promise.

Doing Things Differently, Day One

Today is the first day of my month long project to Do Things Differently. I wanted to ease myself into the project, so I've stayed a little within my comfort zone for today. I took the boys to Dinton Pastures, a local park that features lakes, rivers, woodland and ducks and things. There's a few different nature trails you can choose and I let Oldest take control, both of the direction we were headed in as well as setting the pace. We stopped when he wanted, we moved on when he decided. It was really nice to slow down, take things as they come and not be so impatient to get somewhere or finish something.



It really is a beautiful park to go to and wander around in. I've been meaning to take the boys during the week for ages. I have this daydream in my head of the three of us (and if I'm honest, a dog) strolling around the lake first thing in the morning. It would be so lovely to wake up to the views at Dinton Pastures. This little daydream of mine is why I've included a trip to Dinton Pastures in my project. I'm really hoping that our trips to Dinton become a more regular feature into our routine.



Oldest isn't 100% better following a stomach bug over the weekend, so I also thought some fresh air would do him good. He seemed happy enough to run around a bit. We didn't see many ducks or swans like we normally see, but Oldest enjoyed picking up twigs and stones and he filled up Littlest' pushchair basket with them.



I was surprised that there weren't as many people there when we went. It was a beautiful day, perfect for taking a nice leisurely walk around the lake. Everyone we saw smiled and said 'good morning' to us. Oldest wouldn't say anything until after the people had passed us and then shout 'That was a big dog, wasn't it, Mommy?' and I heard more than a few people laugh. I asked Oldest if he'd like a dog sometime, and he said yes, he would. What colour dog would you like? RED, he says. After I told him it might be difficult to find him a red dog he said, 'that's OK, Mommy, I'd also like a black dog' That might be an easier wish to grant, my child...



Part of the reason that I'm doing this project is to be more present when I'm spending time with Oldest and Littlest. And I found myself loving this peaceful conversation that I had with Oldest. He is such a fun little boy to be around. He's seemed to have gotten over his camera-shy phase and now he's into this wonderful playful stage with taking photographs. He's always winking or sticking out his tongue, throwing his arms out wide, or something just SILLY.


He's just fantastic. It was a great morning. We're off to a good start. Without this challenge, I might not have left the house, Oldest might have watched cartoons, I might have tried to finish more housework instead of spend time with the boys, Oldest and I would never have had the conversation about the red dog and I wouldn't have been able to hear Oldest call the park 'Dinton Passengers' And that would have been a shame.

Doing Things Differently

You've all seen that film, Groundhog Day, right? Where Bill Murray is stuck in some small little town reliving the same day over and over again. And his first few days he spends punching people and robbing a bank and killing himself. And then he starts making friends and learning new things and he can play the piano and ice sculpt and he saves people's lives and then he ends up with Andie McDowell? Well, I feel a bit like early-Bill-Murray in Groundhog Day.

I'm stuck in a rut. I wake up everyday and I feel like I'm doing the same things over and over again. Maybe that's the same for you? Do you ever get tired of doing the same things, thinking the same things? I do. I get up, and I cook and I clean and I entertain my boys. I pick up the same toys and put them away, I read the same books to Oldest, I sweep the same bits of food off the floor under Littlest' high chair. I take the same trip to and from Oldest' pre-school. On Tuesdays I go to toddler group in the morning, Friday afternoons Oldest goes shopping with N. When Oldest is at pre-school and Littlest is asleep, I either use the computer or read my book and think about all the things that I should be doing or all the things that I could have done that morning but didn't do.

Things will change, because I'm going to doing things differently. I've made a promise to myself that for the month of April, at least, I will do something different every single day. It's not going to be life-changing or anything, they'll all be quite minor things. I really want to focus on going to new places, on learning new things, doing fun and interactive things with my boys and being less afraid. I've already made a list of proposed new things to do, and I'll do these things and then I'll blog about them.

Maybe you want to join me in this? Or maybe your thing will be to just sit back and watch or be my cheerleader and leave lots of encouraging messages. Whatever, I'm just happy that I'll be doing this. I don't think by the end of April I'll be able to ice sculpt or play the piano, and I certainly won't end up with the girl, but maybe I'll end up having an adventure, maybe the boys will have an amazing month and I'll be out of this rut and I'll have impressed you all with astounding knowledge of ... something. Who knows? I'm going to find out. Are you with me?

Day one (Dinton Pastures)
Days two and three (French toast, Monkey Mates)
Days four, five and six (Dinner with Friends, Movie Night and California Country Park)
Day seven (Choc brownie muffins)
Day nine (Wellington Country Park)
Day thirteen (Easter Trail at Virginia Water)
York, Part One
York, Part Two

Also, a book that partially inspired the project - Looking For Alaska by John Green and
A bump in the road