I have never ever posted a recipe on this little blog.

It’s something I thought I wouldn’t do but this simple one is an Ivy favourite.

Good for when the girl won’t eat anything (like this week).

So here it is;

inspired by Squiggle Mum’s post, we made these on Monday.

Mix all of the dry ingredients in together and then make a well.

Add slightly whisked eggs, milk, lemon juice and apple sauce.

Mix into a batter.

Heat fry pan to a medium heat - the apple sauce seems to make the mixture stickier so the lower heat seems to help with this.

Cook pancakes as normal

Serve with (lactose free) yoghurt.

Enjoy!

“Mere colour, unspoiled by meaning and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways”. - Oscar Wilde

This week’s theme at I heart faces is ‘blue’.

How many people out there have never been to Ikea?

Please tell me that I am not the only one.

So, I’ve never been, er, I mean

I had never been

until Thursday, that is.

We made the trek down to Sydney where we met up with some family members to make up our Ikea party.

Thanks to all of our friends on Twitter we had lots of tips and pointers to make our day a good one.

It was suggested that we take bibs and a bucket to catch all the drool.

I couldn’t find a bucket

but there were lots of bibs.

They caught the bucket loads of drool that the bucket might have

had I bought one.

We all tried Swedish meatballs and were amused by the tray trollies, which were perfect for our large group

and purchased Swedish food, including 1kg of Swedish chocolate.

We sauntered through the displays and picked out our favourite furniture.

We enjoyed every single minute of our Ikea exerience.

By the end, we were just plumb tuckered out.

We all had a wonderful afternoon

and I am in love.

When’s the next trip?

Marriage.

David and I have been in it together for sixteen years today.

This year has seen alot of our friends’ partnerships end in separation and divorce.

Some are still struggling, trying to work things through, as the gap in differences get wider.

Our marriage isn’t perfect.

It has felt the stretch of strain over the last five years, over the last two, more so.

At the end of the day we are often both so tired that talk and relationship building are the furthest from our minds.

His worries are often so different from mine.

We are most definitely different people than we were, as fresh faced young adults walking down the isle, full of hope and love for each other.

There are problems and issues that come up.

There are words that are said.

It’s life, I guess.

It’s marriage,

the continuing evolving relationship of two people.

It’s a work in progress.

Love him, I do, though and when all is said and done, I really enjoy being around him.

I know that I can tell him my worst secrets and my biggest fears and he is there for me every day, giving me his heart in the only way he knows how to; wholly and fully.

I know that we can laugh insanely (and often inappropriately) at the most horrible of events and that his dry sense of humour helps to ease the pain of things that we never thought, in our wildest dreams, we would experience.

I know that when things get really tough we work like a well oiled machine.

We’ve always been good at that.

We’ve always been a great team.

When all the frustrations of  daily life are laid to rest at the end of the day,

when everything is quiet,

when it’s just the two of us, 

there is no place that I would rather be than in his arms.