To the mom who lost her job

Losing a job you enjoyed is hard enough without the pressure of having to try to find a replacement as a mom during a pandemic.  

Whether you were retrenched (made redundant) or felt a push to resign, job loss is an emotional, financial and career hit that takes time and effort to recover from. And you are not alone...

How can we stop climate change & what will we tell our kids?

We recently celebrated Earth Day, but what did we achieve by posting cute 'Happy Earth Day' messages online? 

In 2019, the UN scientists* warned that we have 11 years left to prevent irreversible climate change damage. So now we only have 9 years and, as a parent, this terrifies me. 

Finding a rhythm for 2021

I quit making resolutions probably about the same time I had a baby. Life becomes rather unpredictable when you have kids and I was done with setting lofty goals that made me feel inadequate rather than empowered.

Over the last few years, I sometimes come up with a word or a phrase for the year that relates to some areas of my life I would like to improve. Last year, my phrase for the year was ‘lighten up.’ It encompassed the ideals of living more joyfully by streamlining mundane tasks, spending more time investing in friendships, having more fun and yes, rather predictably, losing a little weight. And then COVID-19 hit us.  

It was hard to lighten up in 2020 and, since I still feel like I’m learning how to do this, I didn’t want to come up with a phrase or word for the year. But it came to me regardless – rhythm.

Peanut butter oat cookies with shredded carrot - Lockdown baking

Here is my favourite peanut butter cookie recipe. It includes shredded carrots and somehow my four-year-old loves them. 

I'm saving the recipe here it so that, should I have a dithery day, I can find it here. Reader, you might like it too. Who knows, maybe this blog will still be here, floating around on the Interwebs when I'm long gone and my son wants to bake his mom's peanut butter cookies for his loved ones. Maybe he'll make them even better. 

This peanut butter cookie is my little family's favourite. The inspiration came from another Monique, of the famed Ambitious Kitchen blog, and her delicious peanut butter cookie recipe. I made lots of changes, but these are the most important ones: 

• There's 1/2 cup less peanut butter (it's cheaper and the cookies contain less fat that way)
• The addition of over 1 cup more oats (I get more cookies out of a batch). 
• The addition of shredded carrot - It adds moisture and ups the healthy nutritional and fibre content (plus it's a great way to sneak veg into your family's diet). 
• There's no need for baking powder (I found you don't really need it for this chewy cookie). 

Ingredients 

• 2 - 2,5 cups of oats 
• 1- 2 grated carrot 
• 1/2 cup of peanut butter 
• 2/3 cups of sugar (I use white sugar but brown is good too) 
• 2 large eggs 
• Optional: a teaspoon of vanilla essence 

Mix all the ingredients together (by hand or in a processor) and bake at 180C for 10 - 12 minutes. Enjoy! 

P.S. You might like to try Wheat-free oat chocolate muffins

What can we learn from lockdown? 7 Lockdown life lessons

 Lockdown hasn’t been easy, and COVID-19 is scary, but being stuck at home has had some benefits...

This virus has freaked me out ever since I learnt about it, and we've been taking precautions – like avoiding crowded spaces - since February. So, when lockdown started on 26 March, I felt oddly relieved. Finally, the virus was been taken seriously. 

The relief didn’t last long though -  this pandemic is an emotional rollercoaster. Some of the lockdown regulations have sucked – like being deprived of wide, open natural spaces - and I worry about how social isolation and pandemic fears could all affect my child’s mental health. However, I'm grateful to be able to stay safe at home and for what lockdown has taught me...

Wheat-free chocolate cupcakes

Here’s a surprisingly delicious wheat-free chocolate cupcake recipe (despite being egg- and dairy-free).  

I’m not much of a cook (I don't enjoy it), but I go through phases of baking. There was a year - I think it was 2014 - that I refer to as 'the year of baking.' I was baking bread, biscuits and making up cake recipes. It was lovely. I had no gluten issues back then. 

Living with gluten intolerance is a blessing and curse -  I can't eat cake at kids' parties, but I also can't eat cake at kids' birthday parties. But this mama has a sweet tooth. So, I’ve been tweaking some of wheat-free recipes and, before I forget, I thought I'd save them here. I still feel a little sad about the apple cinnamon oat cake I made once and can’t remember how I did it.

This is a quick and easy oat chocolate muffin recipe I tweaked from Power Hungry. 

It's wheat-, egg- and dairy-free, but the addition of coconut oil or olive oil and a little more sugar make the muffins a little less healthy but mouthwateringly good. 

How to survive lockdown in an apartment with a toddler/preschooler

Being cooped up at home for lockdown is hard, especially when you live in a small apartment with a toddler. Here’s what has been working for my family...

  

I live in a small garden apartment (54sqm/581sqft) with my husband and 3,5 year-old son.

We’re not a perfect family - we fight, our toddler throws loud tantrums, we’re anxious about the future and missing family and friends as much as anyone else. However, we’re finding ways to enjoy lockdown – as crazy as that seems.

Our lockdown process is unfolding, and we have off days, but if one thing we do helps you better navigate living in a small apartment with a family during the COVID-19 pandemic, then that’s awesome. So here goes...

How to work from home with a kid (COVID-19 Lockdown)

Goodbye childcare and hello trying to balance work with homeschooling and housework all while not being able to get out. This is going to be fun.

We’re only 2 days in and if you already feel like you’re losing your mind, here are some tips from someone who has worked from home for seven odd years, three of those with a kid – all in a small apartment.

Start your day early - If you can get up and get some work down before your kid or kids get up, it will be a big help. Even 30 minutes of uninterrupted time will make a huge difference.

Create a flexible work schedule - My husbands and sat down and tried to create a schedule because we have a 3-year-old and he doesn’t entertain himself for long. We realise that we have to be flexible around meetings.

Special time - Schedule in a special time of 10 to 20 minutes alone with each child in which they are allowed to direct the play (but it does have to be fun and safe for both of you).

Giving them this uninterrupted time (no phones allowed) makes it easier to ask them to do this...

Play alone time - Set up a game or invitation to play of some sorts that your child enjoys. Ask your child to play alone for as long as they can or until you call them.

I was told by a parenting expert that a 3-year-old should be able to alone for 45-minutes. Um, what?! My jaw dropped when I was told this because my extroverted child doesn’t seem to like alone time. 

We are working on it by using a reward system. If he plays by himself for more than 20 minutes, he moves up his reward chart. Once he reaches the goal, he gets a toy that I bought long before lockdown. So far, the longest he has played alone is 27 minutes (with playdough and dinosaurs)

This gives you and your partner time to knuckle down and work.

Quiet time - My kid naps occasionally, but we do insist on 20-30-minutes of quiet time. During this time he lies on his bed and looks at books. Thankfully he loves books and the now very overdue library books we took out are gems.

Hopefully, that gives you something to work with for now. 

P.S. you might enjoy reading Into the wild - before lockdown

Into the wild - before lockdown

We don't know what freedom is until it's taken away. 

This was our walk on Tuesday. We're usually avoid hiking because of crime and having a toddler, but we braved it because we wanted to keep physical distance from other people. On that little hike, I said, "After lockdown, we have to do this often, and invite friends so we can walk together." If it weren't for the loaming house arrest, we wouldn't have done this, we would have stuck to the safe and the known, the less wild.

But things are going to get wild. Without us around who knows how the plant and animal life in parks, forests and beaches will flourish.

And thanks to an extreme reduction in road traffic, we are going to benefit from massively reduced air pollution levels (please let someone be studying this). Mother nature is reclaiming herself. She's having a spa day for 21 days. She deserves it. We deserve it. It's the least we can do.

#gratitudeduringlockdown #lockdownsouthafrica #gratitudejournal