Show your girl just how much you appreciate her!

Let's face it, as the relationship moves on, day after day, month after month, year after year, things get a little mundane and repetitious.

It takes some effort to keep the flames burning. But really, it doesn't take THAT much effort. Here's a few small things that have gone a long way making Supergirls Mum feel loved.

1. Buy her flowers.
Can it get any simpler? Really, it's a no brainer. Girls LOVE it. Probably ALL girls. And it doesn't have to be an expensive bunch of the most beautiful roses you have ever seen. Find out what her favorite flower actually is, you'll score extra points.

2. Lock the doors and windows.
SM is paranoid about this, not sure why as we live in a particularly safe street in our neighbourhood, but anyway, this is something she does. Get up off your lazy ass and do it for her. SM was actually shocked the first few times I did it, but think about it, it gives her a real sense of security and gives her the feeling that her protection is important to you. And it should be, shouldn't it?

3. PUT THE TOILET SEAT DOWN!
Please men, stop this stupid argument. It's not hard, and you really don't appreciate the respect you will gain from doing this simple thing. In our house, the lid is always closed. Let's face it. It looks nicer.

4. Organise a few date nights.
This is hard if you have little ones, but make the effort, organise a baby sitter and spend some couple time outside the house. Can be as simple or elaborate as you like. You might be surprised just how much she enjoys a milkshake by the lake, feeding the ducks or maybe just laying on a quilt staring at the stars

5. Make one of those date nights spontaneous.

6. Leave little notes for her around the house.
This has become a real thing in our house of late, and I gotta tell you. SHE LOVES IT!
This will be the subject of a later blog, but anyway, she loves finding my notes for her. Sometimes I leave more than one, and if I drop hints, she gets excited when she cant find them all. It's become like a little treasure hunt for her.

Some Cool At-Home Date Night Ideas To Make Your Spouse Feel Special

Supergirl is the youngest of four darling children, and we have a very busy household, with basketball 4 nights a week, dancing twice, and football up to 4 times a week including game day on Sunday! And I know of many families FAR more busy than that!

Well, it’s pretty obvious that such busy schedules in our lives means there’s not a lot of time to keep the romance rocking! And more often than not, the budget is exhausted from all of these activities. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a lovely romantic evening at home!

Here’s a few simple ideas to try to keep the spark in your relationship!

Hint: You might want to convince your children to organize a sleepover at a friends house, or in Supergirl’s case – a night with Nanny and Pa.

1.      Dinner in front of the fireplace.
Spread out a rug, gather some of her favorite treats and pop the cork on her favorite bottle of red, and snuggle up for a night of chit chat and cuddles.

2.    Movie Night!
Grab a movie or two.
Cook some delicious popcorn and snuggle on the sofa. Make sure it’s one of her favorite movies, or one that you know she has put off watching because she knows “it’s not your thing!” – Remember guys, you are spoiling her tonight.

3.   Play a board game – and add a naughty twist!
We’ve all played strip poker before, but just about any game can be spiced up with a little adult fun!
How about a nice game of Chutes and Ladders (also known as Snakes and Ladders). Quite simply all you need is a Sharpie! Just take the sharpie and fill in a few of the squares with some fun foreplay ideas. I would suggest maybe 3-4 each? A couple of mild ones and a couple of WILD ones to really get things going. Decide whether you are going to play multiple rounds or maybe you will only be able to handle one round!

What about Jenga? Similarly just take your Sharpie and write some foreplay ideas or maybe some saucy questions you and your darling need to answer. You’ll be surprised what your spouse will tell you once the ice is broken!

Ultimately, try to spoil your girl.... and talk! Guys, you will be surprised how much of a turn on it is for your woman to have a stimulating conversation.

Enjoy your evenings!

Best Burgers Ever!

These have become a family favorite of late.

It all started a few months ago, as the good weather approached and Supergirl's mum wanted to get the BBQ going. Our local supermarket sells good value rissoles which we have used before but in reality they aren't the greatest, and the most recent batches seemed VERY salty. So it was put to me to come up with a homemade burger.

Now I have had a crack a few times in the past and always with only a sliver of success. I have always had trouble finding a mixture that didn't fall apart on the hotplate.

Anyway, with the internet at my beck and call, I went searching for a good solid base to build on.

After a few trials and tweaks I came up with something I am happy with and so is everyone else!

Ingredients.

1kg Beef Mince 

      (also known as ground beef in other parts of the world)

1 med-large brown onion 

      (have used 2 smaller ones but 1 medium is about right)

1 egg 

      (I have used 2 before and was happy with the results)

1 cup bread crumbs 

      (you can choose whether you use fresh or packet. I have used both and again

       I'm happy with the results of both)

1 large pinch of Nutmeg.

1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan Cheese.

1-2 tsp of Dried Chili Flakes - go with your own taste. Hot or mild, it's up to you.

1 tsp Dijon Mustard. I tend to use a heaped teaspoon.

Method.

Start by finely dicing the onion. And when I say finely dice - FINELY DICE. I personally hate big chunks of onion in my burgers. Hate it. Of course you could use one of the many settings on your food processor, but that takes all the fun out of it. Get your knife skills happening. 

Then you basically just mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl. Give it a good, thorough going over. Yes you have to get your hands in there, so if you are one of those people who hates getting itty bitty bits of food under your fingernails, get someone else to do it.

At the next stage, I tend to be a bit OCD. 

It's time to make the burgers. Any one can do this. Just evenly divide the mixture and flatten into patties. Now with this mixture I can get a dozen evenly sized patties. But they tend to be small. Now the original recipe I based this on, said to divide into four. Can you believe it? FOUR. That's huge. Lately I have been doing 10 for this batch. And as for the OCD bit - that comes from the fact I weigh the total mixture and then divide by the number of burgers I want, and make sure each patty is within 1-2 grams. Yep. 1-2 grams. I like them all to be even. 

Once you have made your burgers, you need to put them in the refrigerator for at least a 1/2 hour. Normally when I make these, I make them in the afternoon and leave them until the evening. They work fine this way.

Come cooking time, I get the BBQ fired up and get the hotplate up to temperature. While I cook the burgers I also throw some bacon on as well, along with some eggs.

Supergirl's Mum gets the rest ready. Great, fresh hamburger buns or lovely fresh rolls from our favorite bakery. Lettuce (various sorts with some actual taste and texture for Supergirl's mum and I, iceberg for the children), huge slices of tomato, our favorite tasty cheese, beetroot if it's in the fridge, red onion. The grown ups love to use a fruit chutney as a condiment, where the children have tomato or bbq sauce. As you can see from the picture, we sometimes serve this with some oven fries and lately some garlic aioli has featured on the plate.

Hope you all try these some time. They get the stamp of approval in our house from everyone even Supergirl, and she is a fussy eater!

Diversity?

Just sitting here watching crap on TV. Australia summer TV is deplorable at the best of times. but new years day?

Anyways, came across an old episode The New Adventures of Old Christine. Now I don't mind this show. it has a few laughs, and being a big Seinfeld fan, I've had a bit of a "thing" for Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Well this particular episode was the first episode of the 2nd season and happened to be the introduction of Blair Underwood as a semi regular cast member as Christine's youngest son's teacher. Now Blair would generally be considered an attractive man, and this of course was highlighted by the mums staring open mouthed at him. 

What struck me as odd was a comment made by one of the mothers.

"Wow. I never knew diversity could be so attractive"

Wow - I never knew bigotry could be so sugar coated.

I'm sure the scriptwriters weren't trying to be - but come on!

Maybe I'm reading too much into it. Am I? I just heard it and it slapped me as a crude cheap line. First it smacked of finding someone attractive DESPITE their race/colour/etc... and secondly, to me it raised the whole we have to employ someone of a particular race.

I have worked in a number of large organisations and one of them in particular was a very global organisation so I was constantly working with people of all races/colour/religions and honestly you just didn't think about it. It's just not an issue. The best (hopefully) person was chosen for the job and that's all that mattered. I am aware that there are political pressures to employ people of a particular group as they tend to be under-represented, but still in this sitcom the line still seemed wrong.

Am I over-reacting? Please let me know.

Your child wants a tattoo.

I have a couple of tattoos. The first I got when I was around 19. My oldest is 20, next is 17, nearly 18. At the moment neither seems inclined to get a tattoo. but what if they do?

I'm completely fine with that.

That's right. I am okay with the thought of my children getting tattoos. I suppose it seems obvious given that I have my own.

I wont lie to them. I'll tell them how much it hurts, how it's PERMANENT. I'll encourage them to really think about what they are getting. Facial tattoos can be a huge deterrent as they seek long term employment. 

I'll also be counselling against getting the name of a loved one. Tattoos are very permanent - relationships less so.

My sister also has numerous tattoos, and when she was younger she seemed to have her head on her shoulders correctly as the tattoos she got were all able to be hidden, meaning it did not affect her employment opportunities. Important as she ended up working for Disney and they had a strict policy regarding visible tattoos.

Supergirl is only 3 now, so have quite a few years before that conversation happens.

Chill out people and hope you have a wonderful 2013