monthly 9 - january 2015

A new title for a new year - the name has been changed for a while but I'm just implementing it now! When Christine started this challenge she called it Slow Living Monthly Challenge or something like that and as I joined in each month I began thinking that there was no slowness about it! Each month seemed to be filled with gardening, cooking, busyness,  creating, repurposing and busyness…..anything but slowness! Although Christine meant the title in a different way, it always seemed to me that my life is indeed filled with so many 'busy' bits that there are  really hardly any 'slow' parts and all I was chronicling each month was the busyness - when I should have been sharing about the relaxing!!
So, I was really pleased when she changed the name to Monthly 9 - it makes me feel like its okay to write about the stuff that got done not the sssslllooowww bits that were just to be savoured from the verandah with a glass of wine or a cup of tea!
Anyway, enough thinking, lets begin….

Nourish - this month its all about garden food. If its growing out there, then thats what we eat! Capsicum, cucumbers, tomatoes as well as pasta with pesto, strawberries with cream (no one complains about that!) and potato salad.

Prepare - well, I can't say theres been much of that this month. January has been reasonably lazy and holidayish and not much thought has gone into any preparation at all! Usually I make a large batch of plum jam using roadside fruit (from a very loaded tree not far from here…) but this year I've still got quite a few jars from the previous batch we cooked up last January and as I was feeling a tad uninspired, I didn't bother.

Reduce - the only thing I can think of that I've reduced in January is the amount of old second hand books that get thrown out if no one buys them from the op shop. I've been picking up a few beauties and creating some very nice journals from them along with old children's workbooks. They do make such cute journals!

Green - once again, nothing to report. I've always thought I was a nice 'shade of green' in my day to day life but I'm beginning to think I'm a fraud!!

Grow - now on the other hand, this category is always fairly well covered! We finally harvested and stored all the garlic (maybe I could have put that in the Prepare category?) we ate blackcurrants, dug up the onions, harvested and enjoyed the first of the potato crop, picked bucketfuls of strawberries, have eaten so many cucumbers that we are already sick of them and have swooned over the sunripened and very luscious tomatoes! Yes, its that lovely prolific time of the year again and oh how I love it!

Create - this one too, is well covered! I am still painting and drawing my way through my various journals and have joined in with a few online classes and challenges. A very generous friend gifted me her no longer used set of pastels and I've had a lovely time practising with this new to me medium. I think I've taken on more arty challenges than I have time for but I blame that on my disappointment at not going to TAFE to do the Visual Arts course I had planned on. Due to some changes in our business, Stuy now has to work outside of our home and so I no longer have him here to spend time with the last two of our homeschooled children. I was bitterly disappointed but have accepted that it just wasn't the right timing…sigh…. And so I must practice when ever I can at home, with the help of tutorials and online classes.

Discover - I have been listening to a lot of podcasts in January. Lots of inspirational women speaking to women about womens business. And art business. And just business. I've discovered a whole lot of interesting information since my lovely man gifted me with a new phone for my birthday in December. There are just so many awesome and inspiring women covering subjects from self love to creating calm homes and all things between!

Enhance - I'm sure I had something to put in here, but I just can't remember now….I should have written it down immediately!

Enjoy - there were quite a few outings and picnics in January - spot of fishing, a laze around on the rugs and a beautiful sunny day - combined, they make for a perfect memory!

I'm running quite late with this Monthly round up this time but I am very busy cooking, cleaning, planting, weeding painting, ahem……
Do stop by and visit all the other interesting blogs that join in with Linda at Greenhaven for this great end of month look at our achievements!