April Already!

Wasn't it just Christmas?  But the weather is cooling off slightly which is nice.  I drove up to Young this morning to get a new frypan.  Yes we have frypans here in Coota but I wanted a good quality one this time.  I found a book in BigW called "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Teenagers" by Nigel Latta, the New Zealand psychologist who has done some tv shows.  So far it's pretty good, if it can shed even a bit of light on why my teens act the way they do, and what I can do to make things easier for us all it will be worth the price.  He's entertaining too, quite funny.
The Thai Chicken Patties were pretty good I thought.  I made an outstanding batch of fried rice which the kids devoured but they didn't seem overly keen on the patties.  Kim stayed and she ate all hers and some salad.  She and Em are pretty close so I've learned I'll have to get used to her and as long as she behaves herself she's welcome here.  Her mother died a few years ago which is really sad.
I'm making Fish Alaska tonight out of a low fat recipe book available here by a woman called Annette Syms, she has a series of them and there are some good recipes in them.  It's just white fish, I got frozen hoki, with a really nice white wine sauce with crab meat, shallots and parsley topped with cheese and grilled.  Josh really needs to lose weight, I thought it was puppy fat and he'd lose it but it's not happening so we have decided to really concentrate on eating low fat and getting more exercise.  We need to do something now before his health starts to suffer.  I daringly put some shallots from the garden in the fried rice, they normally don't like anything in it but egg and bacon, and he actually commented that he liked them.  Small steps.  I asked him what fruit he would actually eat and he said apples so I got some lovely red delicious apples today and will encourage him to have one when he gets home.
Phill rang me late last night very excited that two men up north have resigned.  He has in mind that they will offer him a supervisor's position up there, or at the very least a driving position.  I love it up there too and we had a very happy year when we lived there, but as we found out with Junee, you can't really go back.  Well we came back here and it's been okay, but I am just so reluctant to change schools yet again.  I would like to move out of this house, mainly because of the Crazy Landlady and the horrible neighbours but also because the house is just so small, but to move towns again?  I just don't know.
I got a weird message on my answering machine, I think it might have been my mother doing that stupid voice text thing.  Gave me the creeps and I won't be ringing her back.  I'll phone my sister later and find out what is going on.  I hope my children never feel this way about me.  She's just awful.

The compost tomatoes are out of control, they have spread almost to the back fence, I will have to clear a path so I can get to the compost bin.  Don't know if the tomatoes will ripen, some of them are going slightly red.

Our little house in the late afternoon Autumn sunshine.