Staying on track

Every now and then I have to take note of staying on track especially after taking a holiday which was a real treat as its the first one we have been on in 10 years.
When I talk about staying on track its all about
cooking from scratch
menu planning {which I have one going at the moment and its 20 day menu plan that's how long groceries have to last except for milk}
baking goodies instead of buying them
coloring my own hair instead of $110.00 a month its now $10.00 a month
taking my meals to work
growing what I can {trying}
never ever using clothes dryer
keeping chooks for eggs { not getting many at the moment}
Making my own laundry liquid and cleaning products
Making my own soap
Getting solar power
Turning off at the switch
A lot of clothing is bought secondhand also I buy clothing and sell on ebay

This includes getting all the family on board as well

I still have a lot I want to do like change my electric hot water to gas solar boosted.
Get water tanks
make cheese
make bread more often {Im a little lazy there}
When budget allows to swap some appliances for better energy rated appliances.

The small changes that I have made already allowed us that holiday we had and it really recharged my batteries.

Tonights tea and also the next night for work is this absolutely delicious curried cauliflower soup
So for a couple of dollars this will do a few meals as Im on nightshift the next two nights and the kids are staying with their Dad
Here is the recipe
                                                    Curried cauliflower soup
1 tblsp olive oil
1 medium onion chopped
garlic clove crushed
1/3 cup sharwoods korma curry paste
1.5 kg cauli trimmed and chopped
3 cups chick stock
400 ml lite coconut milk
parsley to serve
salt to taste
 Method
fry onion and garlic in oil until brown
add curry paste until aromatic
Add cauli, stock ,coconut milk, bring to boil ,simmer until cauli is tender
Blend with stick blender
salt
serve with parsley and naan bread if you like

Typical Sunday

Sunday morning usual a stack of pancakes, as everyone arises they help themselves.

While the house is quiet I enjoy a cup of tea and a browse of my favourite blogs

Puss comes in for his morning biscuits and they must be freshly poured.

When everyone is up we take a drive to Smythesdale to Dads house and take him lunch here is a quick snap of his latest collection ... comic books

 After feeling guilty about my bare garden on the way home I stopped at the local nursery and bought some plants and planted carrots

 bok choy

 snowpeas

 I couldn't resist this rose

and a blueberry bush which I havnt had much luck with in the past

 Can I help you plant Mum

Attentive eyes watching me plant

 Sunday nights roast chicken dinner

Thats Sunday

Its the weekend

Its the weekend and we shall forage around where ever we please.

I think this little girl is divine, just a ball of fluff.

My girls on their way out to watch their Dad play in his band.

One of my next projects is to spring clean this before spring perhaps, ugh its a nightmare in there.

Winter in my vege garden is quite poor at the moment, Im just getting the gardening mojo back now after my holiday, I don't know how people become self sufficient I really need to learn so much more about gardening. In this garden I have broad beans and more broad beans and have just planted some lettuces. I did have onions I have no idea where they disappeared to I think the cats may have dug them up.

This vege garden just has broccoli growing  not that its a great photo and they are only small.
There is a few bok choy plants in there.

Rhubarb is still going , the kids love it.

This bed is full of garlic from last years cloves, not that its a great picture either.
I have 3 more vege beds with nothing in them so I really should get cracking.
Im getting there slowly, finally finished trimming the rest of the lavender bushes today.
I will trim another couple of bushes tomorrow.
I decluttered one storage area today and pulled out quite a few things for the garage sale.
Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend x

Friday on my mind

                            Friday

Friday morning is opp shop morning , this morning was terrible 6 opp shops and nothing not one single solitary thing boo hoo, oh well these are the breaks sometimes you find heaps and sometimes you find nothing, today was one of those days.

This is the vintage dress I found yesterday along with the vintage material I just love the bright bold prints although everyone doesn't have my taste as when I bought it home my eldest daughter Teneale said ugh that is revolting lol. I looked and said look at the beautiful colours nope it was still disgusting to her , oh well some vintage buyer will love this .
After the opp shops disaster I got the front lawn mowed and a lavender bush pruned a couple of weeds pulled { I will slowly get there.}
Tyler and I cleaned out the dvd cupboard, a step closer to decluttering whole house every drawer every cupboard I have decided once its all done and garage sale is over Im treating myself to level 2 reiki course.
Menu planning is still ongoing tonight was home made pizzas and they were delish not even time for a photo.
Tommorow night is easy since I will have extras staying in the house it will be easy spaghetti I cant go wrong there.
My menu planning has meals written down for 2 weeks but I can swap nights around if I like.

 I really don't like tv much so I stay busy after tea, tonight was using up the last of my loganberries from my garden and making a batch of jam and using those black bananas for banana bread that we will have toasted tomorrow. Which reminds me I have frozen bananas in the freezer so with the spaghetti we will be having banana smoothies .

Then to the computer to blog my 12 year old daughter India has decided she would like to start a blog also here is the link to her blog
http://wallflower18.blogspot.com.au/

Just another day

                             Just another day

Just a average day for me rise at 5.30 am start work at 7 am make lollies for 7 hours { a dayshift day]
then home feed the pets, dogs, cats, guinea pigs, rabbits , chooks.
Oops I forgot I squeezed in and opp shop , on my way home from work considering I havnt been to one in 2 weeks aaaaagh.
I found 2 vintage dresses and some awesome vintage material

Then it was of to pick up the kids from school, my son is now on school holidays yay, and India has one more day to go.
Then outside to trim the grape bush and mow the back lawn , the front lawn can wait until tomorrow, this is the first time I have mowed since before summer has the hot summer killed all the lawn and it has looked awful, its just coming back now but quite untidy.

 A couple of vege beds in the making using scrap materials.

 Lawn all mowed

Garden in progress, like most things in my yard  they all seem to be works in progress, they are mostly layered no dig remains of guinea pig cages and chook pen and some horse poo.

While I was busy outside slaving away pushing the lawn mower my camera has quite a few shots of children taking photos in their latest fad "onesy`s" as they are called

Clucker tucker that Im growing for the chooks

 The pact I made is that everyone is to help out and that's exactly what we did tonight. Tea is on and its chicken souvlakis, the two girls had to chop and grate salads and Tyler did the dishes whilst I cooked the chicken and put them together

Now everyone can relax for the rest of the night ,,,, thank goodness as Im buggered xx

Time

                                Time

Ok the holiday is over now, its time to get back to reality and I have sooooo much to do.
Im full up with the flu at the moment and the jobs around the house a looking very daunting.
I have decided to do things in small steps as looking at my gardens there is so much weeding , trimming and mowing to be done, let alone my decluttering of the house ugh.
Before I went on holidays I was sure I wanted to move now Im pondering on the thought after Lynda commented make sure your in a good space when you decide to sell.
As there has been quite a few changes in my household since my daughter moved back home I think I need to address that before I make any big decisions about moving
.
Step 1 is to do a little outside each day so its not such a big job, today I trimmed two rose bushes and pulled out a couple of weeds { just a few hundred to go ugh}.
Not to bad since I started back at work today and I have the flu.

Step 2 is to clean up one small space each day even if its only one drawer. Things are starting to pile up for my garage sale, I cant wait as the room Im piling them up in looks hideous and I want to turn that room into my reiki and relaxation room.

At the moment there is stuff everywhere and this picture is just one corner.
What doesn't sell will be sent to the opp shop.

Step 3 Is to get back into spending less money so menu planning and getting the kids on board is going to be a task, these things about living simply are the way I want to live but when the kids get to a certain age it is a mind boggling trying to win them over as Im finding with my daughter she seems to be following the trends with what the other kids are doing and getting and wanting. Drives me a little crazy but slowly getting some good ideas across to her about creating her own look and making her own clothes look a bit different , just the other day she bleached some cut of shorts with splatters they looked great we picked the shorts up from the opp shop they cost $3.00 and we seen something similar in a chain store for $40.00 so she was pretty impressed.

Over at
http://hettiebrown.blogspot.com.au/
she had some great ideas on her blog today and I think I will be calling a family meeting once a I have my notes all written down how we can all work better as a family and help out .
There must be balance and just not the one person doing everything all the time.

This front garden is at its worst at the moment with so many weeds and plants needing to be cut back, but one step at a time.

 I would even like to have some time for a new craft project "feather hair extensions"

I know they look yuck but tomorrow I will be making banana bread after work along with chicken souvlakis for tea.
Menu planning for the school holidays will be all planned out tonight for the next two weeks including what I would like to bake.

Home sweet home

                    Home sweet Home

Finally we arrived home this evening, what an awesome week we have had but I must say its good to be home, we arrived a bit to late to go outside and check on the menagerie but were greeted by a few.
The house is in one piece, I was a bit concerned about my 26 year old daughter looking after everything but she did a pretty good job although she slept in every bed, she did make them but didn't make them like me so it was noticeable as soon as I walked in the bedroom lol.
I was going to blog while I was away but was to tired by the end of the day.
I did manage to read Rhonda`s blog
http://down---to---earth.blogspot.com.au/
this is the blog that started it all for me.
I have included a couple of photos from my holiday from my favourite place of the trip which was crystal castle at Mullumbimby this place is just beautiful.

Now its back into the swing of things posting parcels from a back log of ebay sales, then back to decluttering the house and work boo hoo.
Oh there is one thing I didn't do while I was away is I didn't go to an opp shop , not one single one I seen them but I didn't go in,