Priorities People
(Warning: this post contains mostly dog and food palaver so feel free to bypass it altogether)

Lately I have been immersing myself in trying to cook new recipes. (I might have mentioned this before so I apologize if I bore the pants of some of you by blogging about cooking again.) Some of these recipes are healthy whilst others are quite the opposite but they are so sinful and delightful to eat that no one seems to really care; also, Andy and I have been going to the gym quite faithfully so it kind of cancels it out. Sort of.

This weekend was an absolute gormandize of gluttony: Friday night my manager treated the staff to a Chinese banquet at a fantastic restaurant and then I spent Saturday in the kitchen baking a Lasagna, and Apple and Toasted Walnut cake for Andy’s family. I was disappointed that the cake didn’t rise as high as it should, however drizzled with the home-made caramel sauce it went down such a treat with everyone that it didn’t really matter in the end.

Yesterday I didn’t even get out of my pj’s and spent the afternoon making a Hungarian Goulash whilst intermittently reading, chatting on line and watching tv. The only time I left the house was to take Molly for a quick walk (I didn’t even need to get dressed for the outing as I threw on Andy’s rain gear over my pj’s) however the walk wasn’t a success as I feared my little wuss was going to give herself a heart attack over the possibility that a firework just might go off. So back to the house we went, where I got out of the raingear and Molly despairingly went back to her permanent ‘safe place’ during this season of fire-works and unexpected thunder storms.

(Note: Molly’s safe place is currently squished into the side of the couch with her paws practically over her eyes. If we let her she would be in the nook under the stairs for the remainder of firework season which could quite possibly run till New Year’s Day.)

So you’d think that in the middle of all this cooking and eating I’d manage to find time to go to the gym for a desperately needed work-out, but with all the family around and in between cooking and not being able to leave the dog due to her high stress levels, only one of us was able to get to the gym this weekend and that one was Andy. And of course most of what I’ve said is just excuses because I could have got my butt out of bed yesterday morning to go to the gym but the pull of my cozy bed and a snuggle with Molly was just too irresistible. I find I have an incredible guilt complex these days in regard to leaving Molly all day while I’m out at work and I hate leaving her in the night to go out again, but I do go to the gym so long as Alex is at least home with her or Andy and I take it in turns. I just don’t think its fair on her for us to be gone all day and then out again for a few hours at night. Taking her for a quick walk in the morning and evening on work nights just doesn’t cut it.

I will be happy when her granddad gets back from his holiday and they can get back to their daily lunch time walks. (Yes I refer to my father-in-law as Molly's granddad, roll your eyes here if you please.)

I often wonder how mothers with small children can bear to go back to work and leave their babies all day when I have a hard enough time leaving my dog.