I'm a bit behind posting this weeks wrap up. Better late than never. This week has been difficult on the motherhood front and I had hubby home with me on Monday and Tuesday this week. Little J.D is the apple of my eye but he sure does know how to push my buttons! I feel like I have no hair left from pulling it out in sheer frustration! Any mother's out there give me an AMEN?

We're in the stages of teaching discipline and learning to do what mummy and daddy says the.first.time! Not the hundredth - "Don't go in there", "Don't touch that", "Get that out of your mouth", "I said no", "No J.D", "Don't feed the dog", "Don't drop your food", "No you can't have more Mulberries"... and they go on and on! I feel sorry for the poor little guy constantly hearing these commands. I have decided to buy a few parenting books to read to help with the disciplining department. I have felt totally out of my depth this week trying to teach my child the rights and wrongs in the best way possible. I honestly thought I had a handle on motherhood and I think I say this every time he reaches a different stage. I feel like I'm thrown in the deep end and struggle my way to figure out what I need to do in certain situations. I doubt this feeling will never end with each new stage that we embark on as parents. On top of this we are losing valuable nap times as he slowly needs less and less time to rest and more time to play - more time to wear mummy out!

J.D has take a few steps these past few days and I think my little boy is on the way to walking very very soon. This does my head in a little because I want him to stay a baby a bit longer. I don't want my baby to grow up and become a toddling little boy. Where has the last 13 months gone? Could I possible be a mum to a toddler? Argh... I imagine walking will bring a whole new set of things to deal with - some good, some not so good. I think I will go out and buy myself a new pair of running shoes because when this boy get going he won't be walking, he'll be running!

Since I have been feeling a little low on the energy front hubby and I took a mini break on Monday night out to Lake Cressbrook. It's about a 45 minute drive from where we live and was the perfect distance to trial run our new pop top caravan that we purchased recently. We left the little guy with his grandparents for the night to give us a little break and to trial run the van to see what improvements we will need to make to get it child proof. It was just what we both needed. Since it was after the long weekend we nearly had the whole place to ourselves. I think there was two other campers in the entire camp ground. It was quiet, peaceful, tranquil and totally relaxing. Perfect for a mini break and recharge. We didn't do a lot other than sleep, eat, go for a bit of a bush walk around the lake and enjoy a camp fire at night. I whipped up some damper which we baked on a steel plate in the shape of fritters. Topped off with a slather of butter and a drizzle of golden syrup it made a nice finish with a cup of tea. There were lots of kangaroos around the campsite and since we nearly had the whole place to our selves they were quite curious and came very close to our site. There was a family of 3 lazing under a tree about 2 meters from our van for most of the morning, nibbling on grass and living the life lazing in the shade.

To handle the stress of tough week and strong willed child (whom I dearly love) I hid in the kitchen a fair bit this week to unwind and lose myself in cooking (during precious nap times)! Cooking is a creative outlet for me and I find joy in using fresh ingredients to create something special, nutritious and with a little bit of ingenuity a cracking dish. Coming out of the kitchen this week was some vibrant looking dishes. I made this really nice side dish from leeks, silverbeet and cooked in a coconut, Madras curry sauce. I served it alongside some marinated Tandoori chicken, which I cooked on the BBQ.

I then whipped up some fiery looking Harissa Paste from my new favourite cookbook - Jerusalem . I've talked about this before and I can't get enough of the food and recipes which are hidden in the pages of this book. Flavoursome, simple, middle eastern cuisine! Something to pep up the mundane weeknight meal. You can find the recipe for the Harissa Paste here. The paste was only part of a recipe from the book - it was to go with a braised egg dish which we enjoyed as a vegetarian night meal. Hubby really enjoyed it and so did I. It was a nice change to the mundance quiche dishes we seem to always fall back on for our vegetarian night options.

I have also been experimenting with making some honey, oat bread rolls using my easy baked bread recipe using a few added extra ingredients. I think I will need to make it once more before sharing the recipe to make sure I have the ratio of ingredients right for the perfect roll. They were a little dense this first time round so I will see what I can do to rectify that!

In other news we have 99% finished the laundry, which we have been working on for nearly 6 months now. Renovating is a lot harder with little people around that is for sure. I picked up a few little pieces to finish the room off. I am in love with my "&" sign. I will show the full finished photos hopefully very soon once I get these hung!

Anyway on that note I will leave you there. I hope you all had a fantastic weekend and are rested and rejuvenated for the week ahead!

Follow me on instagram if you want to see what I get up to during the week!