slow living in january 2014

A New Year and a new Slow Living Month. This year I'm aiming to join in a whole heap more often….. although I'm not sure how many of the categories I'll manage to fill. I have lots of plans for 2014 but many of them are not really 'news' worthy!! 

This year will be a year of change, learning, growing and major decisions and, I'm hoping, also a year of creativity in new and different ways.

We'll see.

So. I'm happy that Christine has decided to do another year of Slow Living and I'm very pleased to be joining in again!!


Nourish: This is the category I have the least trouble with! I love to nourish, cook and eat and food plays a major part in my daily doings! We have been enjoying fresh nutty zucchini, the first basil, new potatoes, crunchy carrots and a new variety of beetroot along with mignonette lettuce as salads most evenings.

There have also been a lot of meals with the added nutrition of a 'weed' called fat hen, and I aim to share some info about it with you soon.

On a personal level, I am feeling slim trim and fairly terrific with my Trim Healthy Mama eating plan. I've eliminated most fructose/sugar, white potatoes, white rice and white flour and I don't combine fats with carbs. It's not hard and it's also enabled me to lose that bit of a spare tyre I was gaining around my middle!!

Prepare: Why can I never find much to put in this category? Perhaps it's the time of year - I'm just getting over the Xmas break and the garden hasn't yet grown gluts of produce. We have harvested a modest amount of garlic this month. It wasn't a huge harvest but we should have enough to see us through most of the winter. I am still preparing this years budget….that's preparing, no??

Reduce I'm always reusing things for other purposes but the problem is remembering them! Let me think….the first that comes to mind is the outgrown T-shirt I used to tie up our old tax folders; there was the old towel that was cut up to make some much needed dishcloths; we used loads of magazines to make up our dream boards for 2014 (and inspired some friends to do the same!!) and I reused the old baling twine from last years tomatoes and cucumbers for this years crop. 
There are also the boards that came from an old barn we pulled down - the 'unusable' ones are now doubling as paths in the garden. 
I'm also reusing discarded dress patterns and fabric lengths and zippers from the op shop…does that count?  

Green: Hmm, so this category is once again a hard one. I don't use any home made cleaners, shampoo or washing powder. I know, I know, it's slack but honestly, I just couldn't fit in the time right now to make them. 
I try to do my bit in other ways like gardening and reusing other peoples cast offs and I"m sure there will be a season in my life where all the above will be possible!


Grow: Ahhh grow!! There's good and not so good in this one! I'm behind in the growing. The tunnel is just starting to produce cucumbers and basil but the tomatoes and eggplants are still a way off. I just haven't planted any potatoes at all -  we are eating the ones that popped up from last years crop which I'm very thankful for. The weather played a part in the delay since it was cold right up until the week before Christmas, with a light frost in the first week of December. A frost?? Yes, yes, there most definitely was.
Also, I'm struggling to find the time to dig and plant or sow amongst all the other things happening right now and feeling just a trifle overwhelmed.  
  

Create: Other than the dream boards, I've only managed a spotty dress for my youngest. She's in love with it so that makes me happy and ready to sew her another one! I'm still working on my granddaughters pink cardigan and although knitting is not my forte, it's going along well.
I'm also crocheting some face washers while we drive places, for future birthday gifts. I feel sick if I read in the car and mildly sick if I crochet but on the straight-ish highway I can manage it for a while. I dislike sitting doing nothing on roads that I've travelled a lot!!!

Discover: This is the year that I'm learning new things!!! With a large family there has never been enough time to spend doing any kind of study but now there are only 3 or 4 children at home at any one time and they are all fairly self sufficient. I was given a tiny nudge by my daughter who is doing an off campus Uni course but I've wanted to learn new skills for some time, and this year feels right!

So…. I'm learning Family Entrepreneurship, Financial Literacy and The Art of Drawing and Painting through Open2Study and have plans for a few more of their free online classes. I am finding it hard to make the time to study but I am enjoying then all immensely.

I've also been listening to a lot of motivational speakers, geared towards women and women in business, as well as self improvement. I do this early in the morning, after I've written a few pages into my exercise book of whatever comes into my mind and needs to get out!

And then there is the Amazing Year Workbook. I've used this for the second year now and I love the colours and 'hippy style' woohoo! Lots of good things to think about and write down to remind me later in the year of where I want to be heading. I'm not convinced of her other programs but I do LOVE this workbook.

Enhance: Here's another category that I've not got much to report! Once again, I'm so filled with all the busyness at home that I haven't got anything to spare for out of home! I suppose I've enhanced my daughters life by minding the Small Elf for a long weekend,while she and her partner went partying at the Forest Festival. Yes, I"m sure I enhanced her life, actually, because she was so relaxed and rejuvenated when she got back!!


Enjoy: Well, as usual for this time of year, I can say that I'm truly enjoying summer!!! The weather is not hot enough to swim, it's just a bit too hot to work in the garden but it's perfect for me!! I've been doing a lot of reading aloud to the two youngest, making many smoothies, hanging out on the trampoline in the late afternoon shade and loving our fresh salad dinners.

And thats about it from me! 

Stop by at Slow Living Essentials to see what Christine and others have been doing in January!