Monster

Things I didn't know this time last week:

• Sweeney likes coleslaw;


• I can feel more tired than I did at the end of last year;


• Sweeney is mysteriously familiar with KFC and its range of products;


• You should lightly oil the pan that you're baking your pie in;


• Eta lite mayonnaise is actually rather acceptable.

Okay, it's not much of a list. It's been a slow week. Or maybe I've forgotten a bunch of stuff I picked up on along the way.

I've identified the main culprits of food that just sits forever in the kitchen and goes nowhere until rubbish day. The ones at the top of the list right now are the jar of wholegrain oats that were deemed unpalatable as porridge, and the last four bananas. Every week, it's four bananas that defy No Food Left Behind. I caught on that you can freeze them, and I do that, but I'm old school enough that it still gives me the greatest pleasure to use them straight from the bowl on the bench.

Yesterday, the planets aligned and I turned out a batch of banana-oat biscuits. The name says it all, really. I chopped up some almonds and threw them in with some raisins and they turned out okay. The recipe calls for 2tsp of sugar, but I didn't put any in. I reckon next time I make them, which will be tonight, I'll put in more banana. We've got some gosh-darned ripe ones here that could do with being converted into something more appetising.

In other news, I picked this up for Sweeney for Christmas. Mo Willems is just lovely. Sweeney's got some others of his, and Harper has, too. The ideas in Leonardo the Terrible Monster are really quite big and hard for little, little kids, but Sweeney's getting the hang of more difficult/complex feelings and behaviours now. That sounds deep, doesn't it, but what I mean is that there are decisions to be made about how you act towards people, you can choose to be at odds with the world, or you can enjoy being in amongst it.

You can be mean or you can be kind. You can be grumpy or you can be chirpy.

At least, that's how I read it.