having

 

I love these thoughts and sentiments.  

My baby boy turned four years old, and I am grateful that he and my husband can be enough.

I am grateful for 2013, and all that it has the potential to bring, whatever that is.   



(image found here)

Gifting

I thought I would try something a little different for extended family presents this year, and decided to pot up some bulbs from my garden.  I don't know the name of the flower, but they are huge and pink and no matter how many times I neglect them they keep appearing in my garden, so I thought I would share the joy and dug up about 7 bulbs to replant for Christmas gifts.  It was pretty easy and best of all free!  For other family members I gave jars of jam and honey from (this guy), and close family received personalised uno cards, which turned out really nice (but customer service from the company was really bad so I don't feel the need to promote it :-). 

Creating Christmas

I love Christmas.  Being the youngest in a family of six I always felt that everyone grew out of things a little earlier than I would have liked, and  I always wanted Christmas traditions to go on longer than my older siblings.  So one of the great blessings of having my own family is the chance to create our own christmas traditions and scenes.  Baby boy is old enough now to really understand and grasp all the Christmas stories and symbols, so its made this year even more special.

This is how our first week of the Christmas season went:

The first thing to come out was the Nativity scenes.  On the last Monday night in November I bought out a beautiful wooden nativity scene and we went through all the characters and how they related to christmas.  We sat as a family and talked about Mary and Joseph, and of course baby Jesus.  It was a great start to the season.   

That Friday night we put blankets on the floor, popped some popcorn, turned off the lights and watched a christmas movie. (This year we watched 'Arthur Christmas').  It was so much fun!

Then on Saturday we put up the Christmas tree and lights outside.

Did I mention that I love Christmas?

 

Spring Inspiration

(Image source)

I like to think that things in my home fit the description above.  I like the power of deciding what resides in my home, and having the power to remove 'stuff' if I want to.  I like having memories and stories connected to everyday things.  I recently replaced my newish and pristine mixing bowls with my mothers and grandmothers used and memory filled bowls.  I liked replacing the new with the old, becuase they have a story and are now part of my story - long after their owners are no longer with me.

cleaning the medicine cabinet

 (Image found here)

When spring arrives I always feel a little extra motivation to clean and organise my home.  I love the extra sunshine, the warmer weather and the hope of my favourite holidays to come.  This week I cleaned out and re-sorted my kitchen cupboards.  One of the last of the day was the cupboard which holds all our medicines.  Taking stock of our medications has been a regular occurance for me since an 'indicent' we had in our first month of marriage (...Imagine me, waking up my new husband at 2am in the morning as I had a really bad headache, there is no pain killers in the house, so I send him out to find some.  On his return I am fast asleep...thinking he didn't drive all that way for nothing he wakes me up and tells me his home with my medication).  Since then we have always had panadol in the home :-)  

So in sorting and cleaning my medicine cabinet, I check use by dates and put aside medicines we no longer need.  Disposing of them is the important thing- I always take them to the pharmacy and have them disposed of safely.  Medicines of any kind should not be put in the bin, or flushed down the toilet.  It can cause lots of problems for our waterways, and you never have to worry that someone might pick them up and take them.

This program gives more information:  http://www.returnmed.com.au/

Keeping my garden green...or not?

Six months ago we said goodbye to our three little chickens (to be honest I was suprised they were still alive, I am the laziest pet owner in history...evidence that I should never buy a pet with a life span of 3 years +).  I did love fresh eggs, and the noises they made when they were laying, but after three years I was getting a bit over cleaning up the poop, them digging up all my plants and spreading bark all over the patio.  I knew I wanted to do more gardening this year..and in our backyard the two activities just didn't seem to go together.  

So I have been spending a lot more time in the garden, and am loving this time of year where its perfect weather to just sit and weed.  Yep, I am a little addicted to weeding.  I get to sit outside with baby boy and just zone out and pull weeds.  Very therapeutic...until I realised I am losing.  The weeds are winning, and no amount of hand weeding is going to save my front yard from bindii's.  So today I sucummbed and bought some weed killer...is it sad that I felt sick pulling it off the shelf.  I hate the thought of spraying chemicals on the grass where my son and I play, but if i don't spray it I can't see how I can stop my grass being taken over by the bad guys.  UUGGHH!   Can someone please commercialise a safe and effective weed killer.  I read this book last year, and unfortunately it has fueled my weed killer guilt trip.  But still a great read :-)

My go to recipes (for this month anyway)

I am not much of a cook, and I really hate going to the effort of cooking something new and either not liking it or it just not turning out right.  So i have started a list of my 'go to' recipes for when I am asked to bring something along to an event.  These recipes have to be easy, work everytime and I have to like eating them.

For something sweet, I have been loving Chocolate and Coconut Slice.  I follow this recipe exaclty and am always pleasently suprised.  And the bonus is, I always have the ingredients in by cupboard (no fancy stuff).

My go to salad at the moment is Roast Pumpkin and Spinich
I see this salad around quite a bit but I have adapted it to my liking:
-Cut 1/2 a butternut pumpkin into 1 cm cubes, coat in olive oil and salt and roast on an oven tray for approx 25 minutes.
-Once the pumpkin is cooled you can make up the salad.
-Mix lightly in a flat salad bowl, one medium sized bag of fresh spinish leaves, 100 grams of broken up feta, roasted pumpkin and 1/2 cup of pumpkin seeds.
-Dress with olive oil and salt and pepper.