slow living december 2014

Aah, sweet, sweet December, why do I have such ambiguous feelings of thee? Is it the rush to get things done? Is it that I turn another year older each time you cycle round? Maybe its the family, festival and food that rush by at lightening speed? Or perhaps that you are the very last month of the year and I'm always keen for the new one to start? Its certainly a love-hate relationship that we share and while Im delighted that you are a part of the never ending cycle, I'm also always very glad when you've moved on and all the new beginnings can begin!

I'm joining in with Linda at Greenhaven for her monthly Slow Living posts again. There doesn't seem to be much to tell about December although I know for sure that it was packed with busy happenings and was certainly not a 'slow' month!  

Nourish - In some ways we have been nourished well and yet in others I feel our nourishment in December leaves something to be desired! The raspberries have produced abundantly for the first time and we have eaten a lot  but the strawberries not so well - I'm wondering if they need moving and new ones planted *note to self, check this out*. 

Of course last month culminated in the usual end of year food fest and while we enjoyed vegetarian lasagna and Greek salad for our festive meal, the amounts of sweets and sugary items made me cringe (yes, yes, I know I made too many biscuits but its tradition!!) 

Prepare - The end of the year always sends me scrambling to make my new planner in time for a fresh new start on January 1st. This year I've made my own again - a bigger one than last years and with a bit of colour because I do like 'pretty'. I'm feeling quite prepared with my handy dandy day planner and will do a more detailed post shortly. 

Reduce - we have a new craze at our place…….downhill mountain biking! Every day the boys head out into the paddock and practise jumps - over and over again! Somedays they even drive to a local bush track and actually practise the real thing too! And this new craze has necessitated some new equipment which has in turn necessitated some lateral (and green) thinking. Fortunately the tip is close and the tip man is very friendly, so they've brought home an old wooden bed frame for this jump you see above, as well as numerous other off casts such as pallets and metal frames. 

Green - so this month wasn't really a very green month. We used too much wrapping paper, ate too much food in packaging and used up too much fuel driving here and there for Christmas activities. I realise this category is meant to be for our successes but I'm keeping it real here as well, and from my point of view all of the above are just the nature of the Christmas season. I do my best but I also refuse to do more than I am comfortable with or less of what makes my family happy. After all, there are 11 other months of the year when I aim to tread lightly on this beautiful Earth we live on and overall I'm happy with my achievements in the 'green' area. 

Grow - The food in the poly tunnel is growing well, really well. Its truly so gratifying to venture in there and enjoy the warm pungent smell of tomato bushes and moist soil and I often make a quick trip out there just for a deep sniff! The first tomatoes were just turning red for Christmas and we've had a couple of cucumbers but its this month of January that everything is really taking off. 

Outside in the garden there are the first potatoes to be grubbed out and fresh juicy garlic to add to salads. Onions that were planted in winter have graced the table; lettuce, parsley and the last spinach have been enjoyed. 

Create - I didn't have much time to do a great deal of painting or collaging other than the painting for my secret person gift, but I did however sew up a little fabric pouch for a Sweet Pouch Swap I took part in. And there needs to be a card too, right? 

Discover - December was the month I discovered that there is a Visual Arts course at the TAFE college. Quite by accident too. I overheard someone speaking of it in an art shop and I raced home to look it up online. I rang up, booked an interview and was accepted all in the space of three days!!! Now I'm feeling apprehensive and unsure if I can manage everything at home, let alone study as well. 

Enhance - nothing to report in this one. Well…….maybe I should have let a child fill this category out as I'm sure they feel rather enhanced at this time of year!

Enjoy - So much to enjoy this month - first up there was my Fairy's ballet concert which made this mama very proud of my sweet baby girl. Then there were some lovely friends visiting for a week, along with my birthday which was celebrated over three! days due to various reasons. Not that I minded ;) Christmas came next and all the food and lazy days and friends and children that come with it. Yes, yes, there was much to be enjoyed in December! 

And so, with a rush and a lot of fun, December is over once again. In fact another year is over once again. Life seems to be rushing by faster and faster as I get older and I find myself wishing I could hang on to the little things that make up our days for longer. Fortunately, we have such an easy way of documenting those little things via blogging or Instagram or any number of other computer based programs. And of course, thats what I'm hoping to achieve by using this space to air a few thoughts and share a few events. As always, thanks so much for stopping by.

slow living november 2014

Well hello friends!! Its been a while since my last Slow Living post! In fact it had been a while since my last post although I've rectified that now by posting several times in recent weeks. I have turned a corner in life and I feel fantastic, motivated and inspired!!! Whether that will keep me busily posting here or whether I'll be swept off into new horizons and ideas remains to be seen, but right now Im delighted to be sharing our days once again!
So, whats been happening here on our little bit of land? To borrow a phrase from one of my favourite movies* …."Read on"………!

Nourish -  We ate the last of the broccoli and I've now pulled the remaining plants out due to the beginning of cabbage moth season (my children take offence at finding a fat, green, well cooked grub on their dinner plate!), ditto the cabbage. We had an awesome crop of what I think may have been English spinach, which provided us with many a hearty pie and we have begun to enjoy some of the garlic that is almost ready to pull. There have also been parsley, coriander and a few onions gracing our meals.
I am still following the Trim Healthy Mama plan and am pleased to say it has worked excellently on a minor health issue I'd been battling……. as well as losing a bit of….. ahem, belly, which was a bonus!


Prepare - Hmm, preparing for xmas maybe? No not really because that comes in December. Mostly we have been preparing the poly tunnel and veg garden for planting. We have a large garden and it takes quite a while to get around to forking it all over and pulling all weeds but I think its finally done. There is really not anything much in the garden to prepare - at this time of year all there is gets eaten quite quickly 'au natural'!

Reduce - I know I've mentioned the great little op shop we have here but have I told you that they often have free books? (and other things but I'm mainly interested in the books!). They are usually older books, sometimes with nice covers, sometimes with nice thick pages of interesting graphics and occasionally with something worth reading. I like to repurpose and I like books and papery stuff, so I can never resist bringing home the best ones but really, how many old books does one need? So I thought I'd turn them into journals for painting or writing in and try my luck with an Etsy store. Of course, its not luck and after having a little read about how to boost sales and make interesting listings, I've realised that there is a whole big Etsy world out there and people take this very seriously indeed! Never mind, I love to play around with paper and cutting mats, not to mention making good use of interesting old books, and if I don't sell them I can always gift them!


Green - No, once again I haven't got anything to write about in this category. I still use bought washing powder (although I buy in bulk and it lasts me a looong time) and I've never tried making soap although I'm always a bit envious of those that do manage it. Bicarb soda for personal deodorant is as good as it gets here, I'm afraid! I hope I make up for my lack by doing a lot of repurposing….??

Grow - Oh, but on the growing front is where its all happening: potatoes are shooting up in wild abandon in a new patch of ground; tomato, cucumber, capsicum, and eggplants are reaching for the sun in their tropical paradise inside the poly tunnel; onions, lettuce, parsley and poppies are vying for space and for glory….and the poppies win! I love the garden at this time of year, with so much promise and all the possibilities - shall we plant this here? what about this veg? look whats popped up today? Its always a delight to watch the progress of seedlings planted with a wish and a prayer (and a good soaking)!

Create - If you've been reading here in the past few weeks you will have seen a few things I've created this last month! Here are a few more of the many art journal pages I've been creating. This is a newly re-discovered passion - years ago, before babies, I did quite a lot of drawing and sketching and of course there have also been arty happenings during my years of home educating, with nature journals and lessons in art appreciation. This, however, is now purely for enjoyment - my own - and while to others it may look like a quick sketch and a scribble, it lightens my heart and feeds my creative self.

Discover - And leading on from all this art, is something I'm not really sure of yet but am excited to have discovered it anyway……. a Visual Arts course at TAFE. I found out quite by accident that there was one coming up next year and have been for two interviews which seem likely to result in being accepted. I'm VERY excited but, damn it, the logistics are creeping in and now I'm not so sure if its a good thing for the rest of the family, blah, blah blah…..!!

Enhance - I spent quite a few afternoons working away on this lovely sled and certainly hope I've enhanced our lovely ballet teachers life by doing so. Our Fairy does ballet and the annual concert this year was 'The Snow Queen' so I offered to turn Cinderellas coach (from a previous performance) into a sled fit for a queen. Of course, there was also the job of sewing sequins and sparkly fabric onto a unitard for my sweet girl who played a very menacing imp to perfection (can it be otherwise?).

Enjoy - We have the second last birthday of the year in November - our third youngest turned 17. Seventeen!!!! Oh my golly gosh!
She is a delight, I thoroughly enjoy her company and we all enjoyed her cake! And I can't believe she's already 17!!

Im joining in once again, with Slow Living Month by Month which is now collected by Linda at The Greenhaven Good Life. 

*'Pride and Predjudice' - the BBC one with that delicious Colin Firth.

slow living in april 2014

Welcome to our month of Slow Living!

If there were themes attached to each month, then this one would be all about food, family and art. There has been an abundance of all three and although it's now May, there doesn't seem to be any let up in the flow of festivities and feasts!

Nourish - This is perhaps my most beloved category! I love to nourish my family and all the extra people that pass through my life and April has been filled with lots of lovely humans to cook for! We have eaten our way through the loads of garden produce and with soup weather being here, there's been many a hearty soup on the table - leek and potato, pumpkin, minestrone and a nice red lentil one.
I've also started on a renewed sourdough adventure! Before we moved to Tasmania I baked delicious sourdough bread each week but had to leave my starter behind. The kitchen in our current cottage is so small that I've never wanted to try again but when I was given another starter recently I thought I'd try an easier less 'kneadier' way and so far its working. I think the look needs perfecting but it sure tastes yummy! 
And with a large number of healthy daikon radish growing, there has been a renewal of kimchi happening in the kitchen. I can hardly wait to eat it!!!

Prepare - More apples!! Sadly there are no more to be scrumped ( I think there are Others who are raiding 'my' wild apple trees) but we have a couple of large orchards in our area and the apples are very cheap albeit sprayed. No matter, we will eat well in the breakfast department over winter!!
I also bottled a batch of roasted tomato bolognese sauce which won't keep us going over winter but will be precious when we do eat it!

Reduce - Nothing comes to mind except the old floorboards that we bought to finish off the flooring in the The Fairy's new cubby. Now that I think of it, most of the cubby is repurposed - windows from the tip, weatherboards from house offcuts, timber from an old barn we pulled down a few years ago and the flooring. Not bad, I think, and it even looks cute!

Green - Once again, this one is a fail. I'm not making washing powder or dish detergent or even my own shampoo and I have no intention of doing so at this time. Every month I wonder what to put in this category and surely there must be something but none of the above will be it! I'm going to pay close attention to what everyone else has achieved and perhaps gain some inspiration!!

Grow - The garden is looking so good right now! Not that there is all that much to pick or even growing but it is just very tidy (thank you Helpxers!) and there is Possibility! We have planted cabbage, broccoli, english spinach, celery and parsley - quite a bit too late for a winter harvest but hopefully in Spring when the hungry gap hits, some of these delights will be ready for our bellies!
We are eating the last of the carrots, fresh young turnips straight from the garden, daikon radish and a beet called mangel wurzel although so far, I've only used the leaves in my smoothies. All the potatoes are safely stored in the shed along with an extra large bunch of coriander gone to seed. We have devoured, with some regret, the last of the zucchini and cucumbers and are waiting for the green tomatoes to ripen sufficiently to enjoy.

Create - Art!!! Oh, I have rediscovered my love of drawing, painting, collaging and everything arty and the whole family have been having so much fun Making Art!! I am squeezing in just a tiny bit each day between all else that I do but somedays there are several of us either at the table painting or in front of the fire with paint and paper! Even the Small Elf has discovered paint and often pretties up a new colourful journal page for me. 

Discover - This one is an extension of the previous Create category…. I've discovered lots of YouTube tutorials and new websites of art techniques. Mostly I am art journaling because I like the mixed media aspect of it…. I've always loved fabric but my second great love is paper - books, pretty wrapping paper, unusual cards, unique tickets, everyday ephemera - all those things which, along with some glue, paint and crayons make colourful pages and delightful memories.  

Enhance - I was recently asked by a friend if I would help with their saffron harvest and although I was paid for my time, I know it helped them during their busy harvest season. I'll post more about the saffron shortly - its very interesting. We also had a young Helpxer here who must have enjoyed his stay because he was so sad to leave us after 3 weeks and we felt sad to see him go!

Enjoy - Stuy and I went out to see a band!!! First time in…. um…. a long time! And it was so good that we went again the next day with the children! If you get a chance, go see The Perch Creek Family Jug Band, they are such great entertainers. We grooved along to their funky music about 10 years ago at the Bangalow Markets in northern New South Wales and loved them then, so when they came to Tasmania last month it was for old times sake that we went.

Remember last month I mentioned that I chose a word for each month? Well, for April I chose Peace….. and an interesting thing happened. It wasn't peaceful here at all, in fact its been so full of so many different personalities and people but somehow in the midst of all the chaos I did manage to find Peace. Purely on an inner level which is not what I had expected or thought to find with all the external busyness, so I'm pleasantly surprised and quite happy to have that inner calm happening!

Thanks for stopping by to visit. Please pop over to Christine's and have a peek at all the other wonderful bloggers that join in with Slow Living! 

slow living in march 2014

This month it's been all about food. Well, mostly about food. 

Because it's that time of year when I'm starting to think about Extra Food for the coming cold months. 

Welcome to my Slow Living March edition!!

Nourish - Food. Yes, we have been eating rather a lot of delicious food courtesy of our garden. Lots of Briam, cucumber salads, stuffed baked zucchini and pesto, pesto, pesto!!! After the late start to our summer, we have finally gotten a wonderful harvest of every good thing! I've been mostly cooking with our own garden produce and enjoying every minute of it…..well, perhaps not with all those cucumbers but certainly with the basil!

Prepare - and that leads me on to telling you about the pesto! I have made about 3 kilos of pesto, stored in small glass jars and popped into the freezer to be taken out in the cold wintery months. We are looking forward to some summer freshness on pasta and sandwiches but we haven't neglected to eat lots of it now, either! When we had the two lovely French Helpxers here, they bottled up a couple of batches of scrumped apples which we are already eating……. fortunately we are also already starting to bottle some more! 

Oh and just to make you all a bit more envious - there was another large bowl of strawberries processed and frozen for winter vitamin C needs (oh, the yummy smoothies to come)! 

  

Reduce - you know, I can't think of anything I've 'reduced' this month…. other than perhaps my waistline with this no sugar, low carb lifestyle! 

Green - and this one, again, has nothing. I'm going to spend my winter months meditating on this and hopefully come up with some way to remedy this over sight! 

Grow - ah, but this category always has a lot to offer! There have been harvests of the aforementioned basil, cucumbers and zucchini as well as carrots, potatoes, beetroot, spinach, capsicum, tomatoes and eggplants. Along with enough eggs from the lovely hens, we have homegrown feasts almost very night as well as loads to give away! 

On the growing front, I've been sowing carrots, beets, mangel-wurzel (some sort of beet) coriander, perpetual spinach and daikon. I'm running late with planting cabbage seedlings though, and hope to get it done this week. All in all, the garden is the place to be at the moment. 

Create - The biggest creation last month was The Quilt. I spent a solid week and a half, cutting, sewing and quilting before heading off to Melbourne with it for a wedding. They loved it! 

I also created a lovely party frock for my Fairy (don't you just love that word - frock - for me, it conjures up images of elegant ladies from the 50's) as well as a bunch of little zippered pouches as gifts for some lovely friends who watered the garden and fed the animals while we were gone. 

  

Discover - I managed to fit in another Open2study course last month - The Art of Drawing and Painting. I liked it but didn't get time to do any of the practical stuff which is a pity as the lecturer showed us some really novel painting ideas. Doing these classes is doubly exciting because mostly there are one or two of my children watching and learning along with me.

  

Enhance - March went by in such a blur of garden and sewing that I'm pretty sure I didn't do any enhancing! Unless you count prettying up the newly weds bedroom with a lovely quilt? I just can't remember anything else and haven't noted it down on my 'slow living list' that I keep, which helps me write this post each month!! 

Enjoy - I mentioned that we had our first Helpx helpers here in March and it was certainly an enjoyable experience - the two lovely French girls, weeded, picked up pine cones and bottled apples, among other things and we had many a good laugh trying to speak each others languages. We now have a young German bloke here which is much better language-wise! 

The other most enjoyable event was our Autumn Equinox celebration. I love a good feast with family and friends!!

March passed in a blur - so busy and full! Every month I pick a word I'd like to think on and practice for that month and interestingly enough, my March word was 'Abundance'. There was certainly an abundance of garden produce but there were also loads of other nicely abundant activities in my life in March - lots of family coming and going; a few days away with much loved but seldom seen friends; getting to know new people from overseas; lots of creative at therapy! I must admit I was hoping for an abundance of the monetary kind but am satisfied none the less! It was certainly a busy and productive month.

Now I'm ready to enjoy April. My word for April is 'Peace'!

Please stop by and visit Christine for her update on Slow Living and then have a peek at what others have been doing too. It's always inspiring to see how they are striving to live their simple and meaningful life!

slow living in february 2014

Here we are again! Another month has flown by and lots of things have been happening to keep us all well occupied! The garden has been taking up much of my time, Stuy has spent most of the month building and the children have been helping us both as well as getting back into their home schooling. 

Welcome to another month of Slow Living at our place!  

Nourish: This month has seen us superbly nourished from the garden. Copious quantities of cucumbers, zucchini, beets and carrots as well as more modest amounts of potatoes, eggplant, basil and a few beans. Most nights we have a combination of three or four of these veggies, usually with eggs in some form! 

There have been a few cakes, both of the sugary variety - made and usually devoured by The Dj who is a whizz at cake making from scratch - and of the fructose free, low carb sort. I'm still very happy with my eating plan and am so used to not eating sugary cakes or chocolate, that it doesn't faze me if others are munching away beside me! I will even say that I feel stronger and wiser within myself for having kicked the habit!! 

Prepare: I'd love to be able to say that I've made lots of bottles of bread and butter cucumbers or some other sort of cucumber pickle but sadly my family is not a pickle sort of bunch. So no chance of preparing on that front! I have frozen some strawberries but not many…. they tend to get eaten fresh from the plants! 

This month is not really a preparing month, I think. February always seems like the time to take a breath and just be in the moment, after busy December and 'getting over Christmas' January! The next few months will be the preparing for winter months with basil pesto to whizz up, apples to bottle and potatoes to store. 

Reduce: This month there's been a bit of repurposing happening here. A couple of years ago we found an old cot at the tip which we used then as a trellis, although it's since fallen apart and been stored as single dowels. Now that the eggplant is loaded with fruit, on a precarious lean and in danger of falling over completely, we have used the dowel bits to hold it up in a proper fashion. Which is all very good because the cot is now in it's third reincarnation! 

There were the too-small cotton stockings we cut down to make a pair of leg warmers for The Fairy to wear to ballet. As well as a request from her for another batch of Secret Kid Club badges, which were made from an old pair of Stuy's work pants. 

Green: As usual, I don't have anything for this category and find myself thinking that I really must find something or change something, so I have a 'green' entry too!!  

Grow: Oh lots! I mentioned above what was coming inside and onto our dinner plates but there is so much more happening outside! The poly tunnel is going wild!! Cucumbers and even a stray pumpkin plant are crawling up trellises and along paths, tomatoes are springing up everywhere and in between all that is the basil, creating a spicy scent that mingles so well with the humid smell of warm, moist earth. Even on our 'hot' days, I love to go into the tropical humidity and potter amongst the lush growth. I have been taking pics and will share all that fecundity with you soon! 

In the rest of the garden, theres also lots happening. Coriander gone to seed looks beautiful as do the starry flowers on all the potato plants. Lettuce seedlings, more zucchini plants, frothy carrot tops with big juicy carrots beneath, blood red beetroot and red tipped perpetual spinach all make for a stunning display.
I think I mentioned last month that our strawberries hadn't produced much….. boy, was I wrong! In the last two weeks we have picked copious quantities of tasty red goodness and enjoyed every mouthful. They must be having a big second flush now that the weather has warmed up properly. 

We have also been digging over more beds for some autumn planting and I've just sown seeds of mangel-wurzel, more carrots and beets.

I'm loving the garden at the moment although it does give me much to do!

Create: Yes, well, there is a funny story with my creating this month. Six months ago daughter Nina, mentioned that she'd like to try dyeing fabric with yellow dock plants (a prolific 'weed' in our garden). I've wanted to have a go ever since and finally a few weeks ago, I just did it! But as usual, I tend to jump in without preparing things, so after a search for a suitable pot and a quick trip to the local chemist for some mordant, I threw in some bits of cotton fabric. Sadly, what came out was not the lovely yellow I'd thought would result, but just a yucky sort of coffee stain brown. To say I was  bit disappointed is an understatement! 

I'm still knitting away on the hot pink cardigan for The Elf as well as the odd crocheted dishcloth. 

Also, the last few weeks I've been beavering away on a very special gift for a beautiful couple. Ssh, more on that next month!!

Discover: I finished my Open2study courses a couple of weeks ago and have just started another, this time a nice creative one - The Art of Drawing and Painting. I am so excited about having the time to fit these in to my days right now especially after I printed out my earlier certificates of achievement!! I haven't studied anything for so long that it was quite a milestone! 

I haven't been reading much though but hope to work my way through a book that was gifted to me recently, Uriels Machine - The Ancient Origins of Science. So far (chapter one) so good! 

Enhance: With the abundance of cucumbers and zucchini, I have been able to pass bags of them on to friends and one of the local food places in town. Both were grateful and have put them to good use…. which makes me feel like a fairy godmother!!!  

I had a good laugh with a lovely older gentleman when he stopped me in the mall to ask where the newsagent was. After trying to explain, I said I'd take him there and jokingly assured him that I wasn't in the habit of picking up and wandering off with strange men!! I think it made his day! 

Enjoy: This month we have all been glued to the WInter Olympic games for two whole weeks! No, we don't have a connected TV but there is an aerial on the roof and once every two years we plug it in for the olympics.
Oh, the tension!
And the adrenalin!
Of course, there are a lot of Austrians in those snow sports, so for me its double the fun because I get to cheer for two countries but it's also double the adrenalin watching them barrel down the slopes or speed around the ice rink. I was sorry when it ended though because do I LOVE the winter olympics. A lot.

And after all that "slow" living haha, I did manage to spend a bit of time with my new issue of the British Country Living magazine. I adore the British edition with all the old, old homes and quirky buildings and always snap up any older editions that I find at markets and op shops.

How's that for our busy slow month?

I'm off to stop by all the folks that joined in with Christine for her Slow Living monthly link-up.
Perhaps you like to take a look too? 

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!