Special spaces - the little touches

I love making little crafts for around the home. I'm not into stitching type crafts such as embroidery or cross stitch (although I was when I was in my early 20s), but like to try out different materials and crafts.

Large wall hanging in my dining room that I made about 8yrs ago and set paua pieces on it (perhaps a bit out of date, but I still like it)

String of bright-coloured felted balls I made a few years back that I have across one of our bedroom walls

Cute glass jars with dried twiggy/branch things in them

Woven kete that my mum made me

Danielle's paper bunting in her bedroom. It's a few years old now, but still adds colour and cheer to her room.

Our small home - random thoughts and storage solutions

As mentioned in a previous post, we have a lovely small home of about 101 sq m (1087 sq ft) - not including our garage, deck, and porch. And we have no intention of moving or upsizing. It's not that it's new, modern, or in perfect condition (it's none of the above) - it just has a feel about and is in a location that I really feel quite happy and settled in.

While this would be considered a "first home", there isn't a lot of reason for us to go bigger. We have 3 small double bedrooms, two living areas (although not closed off as the house if fairly open-plan), two toilets (one shares with a shower and the other shares with a bathtub), and a decent sized laundry and kitchen. While we don't have a spare room for that "home office", or "study", or "guest bedroom", or "craft/sewing room", I figure that one day we will - two in fact! lol

I love the area we live in. It's in walking distance to a few local shops, beaches, cafes, parks, school, Keas/Cubs, and friends' houses. It's also an older, more established part of town which just gives it so much character and community. Our section is an original Kiwi 1/4 acre with loads of space for the kids to have their outdoor play, trees to climb, and plenty of space for vege and herb gardens and for keeping chickens.

And more in its favour, I have recently found out that our snug little area is tucked into a 'tsunami safe' zone (depending on the size of it I guess) despite being right near the beach.

What more could we want?

Well, for one, storage solutions have always been a bit of a challenge! Fortunately, I am a bit of a declutterer and always have been. So I don't have years of stuff still hanging around and don't tend to accumulate much stuff even when settled in a home for a while (although it still amazes me how I manage to donate a box or two every 3-4mths??). This has still meant it's been tricky finding places for basic things such as: the vacuum cleaner, the freezer, the dog's bed, kids toys, books, books, books, shoes/bags/coats, ironing board (where is that thing?), guest bedding, travel bags, craft/sewing supplies, and generally anything over and above day-to-day living items!

But over the years, and as our needs change, we have found solutions that are both practical as well as not creating an eye-sore.

The kids toys have gone through several transformations. When they were littler, we had most of their toys in a portion of the lounge as I preferred they were out with us playing rather than tucked away in their bedrooms (plus, they just much preferred to be where we were). As they've gotten older, we've been able to reallocate toys to their rooms, where now we really only have the dollshouse and boardgames in a part of the living room behind the couches where we don't have to look at them while relaxing (Nathan's Lego has just moved).

Then there's the laundry. We were able to close off one door from the hallway. On the laundry side it created a space perfect for the upright freezer with the vacuum cleaner squeezed down beside it (and a drying rack slid down the other side). Opposite that in front of the back door we have the dog's bed. I also have a small cabinet squished in there for my herbs and sewing paraphenalia. It really isn't the most practical of rooms, and things certainly need a bit of shuffling around to make it all fit.

On the other side of that laundry/hallway door I have recently hung up a door-mounted hook arrangement to hang coats and bags, and underneath that, a shelf for all our shoes (these were relocated from the messy front door arrangement).

In my hallway I had a large shelf unit with all my sewing fabrics on it - exposed to the world (where the shoe rack now is)! While it was good to have easy access to them and find what I wanted, it really bugged me that they were "all out there". So we also recently managed to get this into one half of Danielle's wardrobe (her wardrobe actually has a bunch of stuff that doesn't belong to her).



A wide hallway makes it possible to use the hallway for storage.

This scotch chest holds other crafting materials, kids crafting materials, stationery and has a few small miscellaneous junk drawers (I need to have one or two of these to store those bits and bobs until they can be reallocated).

Then there's our room. When we bought this place 9yrs ago we remodelled our wardrobe. We had several deep shelves put in up high. These store our camping sleeping bags, guest bedding, travel bags, christmas decorations, and anything else that needs a home!

So it really is a shuffling exercise, but I also think it keeps us on our toes to not accumulate and really assess just what we bring into our home. Fortunately we have a small garage to use as a temporary dumping zone before sorting (it can't stay in here too long as it's used for Simon's bikes and our tools and garden stuff etc).

Gardening and home happenings from the past week...

Chickens: I've had to make sure I get down to the garden to put the chickens away by around 4pm lately. If we leave it any later they climb the pear tree and prepare to roost for the night. Then we spend ages encouraging them down again so they're safely inside for the night (and also it stops them squawking loudly early in the morning). I did leave one chicken up the tree one night as she wouldn't budge and it was dark already, only problem is at daybreak she flew down and then proceeded to stand at the outside of the coop calling the other two!

Seeds: I've found that some of my packets of seeds must be no good. Several varieties didn't germinate - only problem is I don't know which packets are the problem (I have several open ones of each). I will need to make sure I keep them aside next time to see which ones are the dodgy ones so I can toss them out. We had gusty winds last night, so I sent Simon outside to strap the little greenhouse to the washing line pole it's up against.

Handy little fire-starters: Our lovely Cabbage Tree drops a large amount of dead leaves. I read a while back about gathering all the leaves together and tying them up into bundles and using them as kindling/tinder to get the fire started. I used one of the bunches last night and it worked great!

Buying power: We switched to Powershop a few months ago after being cold-called on the phone. I usually don't like to receive calls like this, but I'm not particularly loyal to my power company, and I must have been in the mood to listen to their speil. It's kinda fun purchasing the specials for power in advance, and so far have partly-purchased right up to December (eek to the $300 worth of purchases I made though to get the long-term savings). We haven't really been with them long enough at this stage to see if we will be saving much money though. We are low-energy users, which means we use less than 8000kw per year, but they guarantee a savings of around $10 per month from memory. Our power bills year-round only fluctuate between $90-130 per month. Even if I factored in the cost of buying firewood for 7-8mths of use, our average year-round monthly energy bill would be around $150 which is pretty good really when I hear of some $300-$400 winter bills!

Further fire-safety: Danielle's been really bothered by the house-fire story of a few weeks back, so I've been really working on trying to reassure her. We went over the plan again, and I also removed the security latches off the kids windows so they are free opening now. The phone call to the alarm company confirmed my suspicions - the only way to check our mains-wired alarm is to test it with smoke. They suggested buying a can of smoke from a hardware shop, but I realised I'd overheated my oil till smoking point during the week so Simon used that held up under it. Yep, that set it off.

Pumpkins: I didn't intentionally grow any pumpkins over summer, but I had quite a few pop up as per usual. I had one lovely looking pumpkin that I've not seen before (and therefore no seeds in the compost to pop up). I cut it open on Sunday to make a yummy pumpkin soup for lunch. We kept all the seeds from inside so I could a/ grow some this year, and b/ save the seeds for doing an Autumn craft with the kids. I can see this will be a once off craft - even with Nathan helping me, cleaning and washing the seeds took ages lol.

Easter Weekend

Good Friday we had a bit of a slow start to the day. The kids were busy making plans on what we could do as a family and decided a nice walk and picnic lunch was just the thing. I was still a bit fuzzy headed, but thought the gentle walk, fresh air and sunshine would be just what I needed. It's was quite a lovely, mild day and the sun was out.

I had my eye out on wild weed/herb foraging spots to visit later in the year. I've seen a lot of what I'm fairly certain is mullein here, but want to come back later in the year to see it flowering to be sure it's not foxglove! I haven't got up close and personal with either of these plants yet to do a proper comparison.

Easter Satuday: The kids and I had a quiet day at home (and I decluttered their rooms). A friend and her daughter popped in late afternoon for a play (while the mums had a glass of wine!).

Easter Sunday: This kind of passed us by and I even forgot to get Easter eggs for the kids! (Although, they still had saved stashes each from a birthday party they went to a few weeks back and came home with a bit of a haul after having an egg hunt.) Simon took the kids out for a bike ride late morning and I made a yummy pupkin soup (using one of ours) for lunch. Dinner included more of the pumpkin roasted up and some of our own frozen runner beans - they were delish!

Today, Easter Monday as well as ANZAC day, Simon and the kids headed off for an ANZAC citizen's parade (I wasn't prepared as Danielle wasn't going to go, but changed her mind last minute). Nathan's Keas/Cubs group were joining in the procession to commemorate this important day in New Zealand history. We had a friend and her boys visit for relaxing lunch.

An all-round nice relaxing weekend.

Twitching fingers ... decluttering time again

This seems to just hit me from out of the blue every now and again (maybe it's been triggered from being laid-low for a few days). And when it does hit, it does so in a big way. I did a huge declutter a couple of years ago and it felt great (not that I'm really a hoarder, just things just seem to accumulate without being shifted out when they could have). I tend to trust that as we need things, that they will find their way to us, and they generally do. I've only regretted a couple of things that I've gotten rid of, and even then, it's more an inconvenience rather than a deep regret.

After watching the kids a few days back pushing their way past (and grumbling about) all the Lego in the lounge to get to the new little table I picked up a few weeks back, I asked Nathan if he had any other ideas on what to do about the Lego situation (it's usually just folded into a large play mat and pushed into the side of the wall unless we (I) feel like picking it completely up). He immediately suggested using a large container from his bedroom that currently holds Marble Run pieces. He said he doesn't play with it anymore (or enough) and to get rid of that and put the Lego in the bin, which can then be stored in his bedroom. I then asked if they wanted to go through all their toys and do a bit of a clear out since it's been a while. Well, the kids whooped and jumped for glee at the thought of doing that and proceeded to ask me when I was ready to get started lol.

So, while it was the addition of the little table in the corner that has caused the change in our needs, I can also recognise that we actually are due to move with the times and that the kids just are that bit older now at 6 and almost 8.

Danielle's room in particular is a bit overwhelming with bags, little bits and pieces, beads, play money and the likes. And a lot of things that don't really get played with or used (but often loaded into the little bags). I know it's going to be me in that case who needs to let go and trust that she knows what she does and doesn't want. She also seems to have more clothes than Nathan (and more than she really needs) - not because I've bought them for her, just that she gets hand-me-downs, which I am grateful for, that I then put into circulation even if they're not required.

Four hours later I emerged from their rooms. There was far less to get rid of that I expected (and mostly donatable), and realised, that what we have has been in our house for so long because a lot of what we have is just so open-ended in use and suitable for ages 2-6+ (with new things coming in as they become age appropriate - they just don't seem to have grown out of a lot of their things). Nathan still plays with his wooden train track and wooden blocks (he got the train track at age 3 and the blocks for his 1st birthday)! Neither are used in the same way they were originally, but still serve many purposes.

Still, it feels good to have gone through it all and given the dust bunnies a good chase out. We also found a few MIA items, so all good.

While we don't live in a minimalist home (and I don't strive for one as I like all my familiar and favourite bits out there to enjoy), I do like for (most) things to have a home and to be returned back there every day. We don't live in an immaculate home by far though! I have had to really think our storage systems over the years since we live in a fairly small home by modern standards with a floor space of approx. 101 sq m (1087 sq ft) with only two small storage cupboards - located in the laundry (one of them contains a few shelves for linen above the hot water cylinder). I like our small home though, and the way it is laid out really makes it seem a decent size, and allows us to use every part efficiently (not much space lost on the hallway for example, and where the hallway starts, it's wide, so can easily take a large scotch chest, coat/shoe/bag storage, and tall bookshelf without looking crowded). I think I might do another post on some of my storage solutions that we've tried out over the years (I'm also a constant rearranger!).

Easter seems to have passed us by this year...we didn't do any specific crafting, and the kids just had some chocolate eggs that we'd saved from an egg hunt a few weeks back (they came home with so many that it just made sense to put some away!) LOL.

Crafting and recuperating...

A few weeks ago the kids and I gathered a range of stones from the beach in preparation for this craft. It was a gorgeous day and the kids spent the afternoon after school playing in the stream and sand before heading home to make dinner.

I had the flu earlier this week (first week of school holidays, which was a bit of a let-down for the kids) and it really had me out of action for one of the days (I haven't had anything like it since my early 20s when I recall not being able to get out of bed/off the couch and could only doze). Fortunately the kids are pretty self-sufficient and could get themselves food and entertain themselves all day (and then did the necessary chores like feeding/putting the chickens away, lighting the fire, and putting baked potatoes on for dinner so Simon to finish cooking when he got home from work), and I already had my Tuesday's blog post on what I'd been up to all written up lol. On one of my recovery days we decided to get the stones out and give this a go (despite the fact that it was a gorgeous Autumn day outside when we'd much rather be exporing and playing ... but oh well ... at least we got to sit in the sun!).

Hot Rocks with melted wax...

Instructions found here at 5 Orange Potatoes. We only had one minor burn, but yay for the Aloe Vera plant that lives on our outdoor table that was able to be used immediately.

Fast food

I have a standard 'fast food' meal that I tend to cook once a week - and I try to keep it seasonal. We have one day where we're out of the house and not home till 5.45pm. Although Nathan's gym class isn't till late afternoon, I've been picking the kids up straight from school and do a bunch of errands or go to the library to try and use our fuel economically. I will probably start doing a crockpot soon though, now that it's getting colder.

When asked by the kids "what's for dinner?", my reply is "the pasta tomatoey dish". Always received with a "Yum!".

A large tin (or 2 small) tins of tomatoes (or fresh if in season)

1 large onion

2 cloves of garlic

Fresh seasonal vegetables - grated courgette, finely chopped silverbeet/spinach/chard, broccoli pieces, capsicum, etc

About 1 T of fresh herbs (I usually use oregano, parsley and thyme and some dried basil)

A packet of GF pasta

It's as simple as sauteeing up the onion and garlic, adding in the tomatoes, veges, herbs, season with a bit of sugar (brings out the flavour of the tomatoes) and salt if desired. Meanwhile cook up the pasta and toss it into the tomato sauce when done. That's about 15-20mins all up.

Special spaces in my home - calm spaces

We all need quiet, calming spaces in our homes. For some it's bedrooms, or outside under a tree, or snuggled up on the couch, or even sprawled out on the floor. This is my favourite at the moment as winter creeps closer and closer. 

 I recently added the green chair beside the fire (was previously in our bedroom).

It's been used frequently and really creates a more cosy area here.




 This little area I set up for the kids. I often see Danielle sitting over here just chilling out and having a little rock (my very cool chair that came off Freecycle). Other kids that come to play have a sit and a little play with the drum.





 I've not really been into ornamental plants. However, my poor old deck is really a very neglected space. It's just not in the flow of how we live and is quite exposed to the weather and loses the sun early. It is a large elevated space outside our lounge though (that overlooks the back garden) and just looks barren and lifeless - so I decided to add a few hardy plants to liven it up.

What I've been up to over the past week...

Lighting fires: I've rediscovered the upside-down fire. I first heard about these last winter and had great success with them. You basically build the fire the opposite of what we typically think. So, instead of building a teepee style fire with paper on the bottom, then kindling, then a few larger chunks directed up into a point, you layer your items the opposite. Start with large pieces of wood layered across the bottom of the fire (tightely nestled together all paralell). Then lay a few sheets of newspaper flat across that (or torn into strips). Then layer some kindling across. Then more paper. The instructions suggest using firestarters at this point. I don't use fire starters though, and have found if I put my kindling on top lightly layers with scrunched up paper it works just as well.

The idea is that the fire starts at the top and drops hot embers down in the lower layers that then proceed to light up (providing you can keep the top on fire long enough which is why I suppose they suggest firestarters). The real benefit kicks in when the bottom layer catches fire. It seems to burn nice and long and hot and actually takes much longer for it to burn through, so you are not having to keep an eye on your fire when you first light it. It will go for a few hours before you need to top it up.

Here's a pretty good link on how to do it (aside from all the manly man talk).

Garden: My lupin seeds have all sprouted (I hope they don't look too enticing to the chickens).

Laundry: We've had a few wet days and it's meant that the drying racks need to come out. I really try and avoid putting the racks up in the house during winter to avoid adding moisture to our home. But, sometimes it just can't be avoided (as it is I only do one load of washing evey 2 days).

Walking to school: We've managed to walk to school, on average, 4 days a week. It takes us about 15mins with me walking at a fast pace, and the kids on their scooters. It's great exercise for me since it's my only exercise aside from gardening. I really hope to keep that up when the weather takes a turn, but we'll see. As it is, I only use about a 1/3 a tank of petrol a fortnight (and that's in my itty bitty little car).

Technology: I have finally stepped (just a baby step) into the 2000s as far as technology goes. My mum got me a basic iPod for my birthday. I'm not really one to listen to music all the time, nor one to race out and get the newest and latest in technology. I much prefer the sounds of nature around me when I'm out gardening, and my own headspace when at home. I do like music, just don't seem to crave it as others do, but I have been really wanting to listen to quite a few podcasts over the years and finally, now I can! It never appealed to me to sit at the computer and listen to them since I'm not really into needlework crafts that require me to sit, so I never really had the opportunity before. I have several Susun Weed discussions on CD that I want to listen to, and have now found that she does podcasts too. So, I can now do that while doing housework, or even on my walk home from school on my own. Oh, and I have loaded all my music CDs onto it as well, for a bit of light relief between interviews. :)

DVD watching: The kids went to stay at my parents on Saturday night and Simon and I went out for a meal for my birthday. We grabbed some DVDs on the way home, to settle for a night in front of the fire, with the rain pattering down outside.

Oops, heartburn hit me. So, out came the fennel seeds for a cup of soothing tea.

Spending time with special people...

Grandparents: The kids stayed at Nannie and Grampie's for the night on Saturday night. They had fun helping make dinner, had a spa, then in the morning prepared morning tea for me and Simon as we arrived back to pick them up.

Danielle was busy looking at an awesome pop-up dinosaur book that my mum has. She then wondered if she could make a pop-up book too. Nannie, who has been well-educated on unschooling over the years, didn't fob her off as I was (coffee and muffins were calling my name), and went to see what she could turn up on Google. So they made some pop up cards that seemed to satisfy Danielle's desire to recreate the pop up book. This then inspired Nathan to make his own, and upon getting home, the crafting continued ... all afternoon...

Nannie then sent through a link via email with loads of other pop-up ideas for them to work on.



Monday date-day: Now that the kids are at school, Simon and I have Monday to ourselves. I could say that we don't know what to do with ourselves, but that isn't true.

It's kind of like having a date-day once a week. Or like those weekend days before you had kids.

We potter around doing some morning chores, sort out organising things around the house that need tending to (phone call to bank, another to sort out the broken dishwasher, replacing blown bulbs, odd house maintenance jobs that just aren't important enough to spend time doing but quietly start to bug you (me hehe), garden jobs etc). Then it's close to lunchtime, so we go out for lunch (we've discovered at 2 for 1 gourmet pizza deal at the Mediterranean Food Warehouse on a Monday, or we grab something from the bakery and sit down at the beach for a chat). Being gluten free the rest of the time, it feels a real treat to actually go out for lunch without wondering what is GF or about the cost to feed all of us. Then it's home again to potter until school pick up time. One of us picks the kids up from school and walks Nathan to Keas, and then continue the walk (scooter) home with Danielle.

Although it's the start of the school holidays today (yay! have really been looking forward to having the kids home), that's been our little ritual for the past 6 wks!

Extended family: Now that the kids are at school, I've been helping out my old Nan who has Parkinson's. I've been taking her out once a week to run any errands that she has (bank, shopping, library, etc) as well as checking in with her on an as-needed basis. It's been really pleasant to hang out with her and have more indepth chats and getting to know her on a deeper level. It's quite different than when the kids are around. They are pretty good at entertainment, but it has also meant that the conversations that I had with Nan remained on a superficial level. So, that's been a nice way to fill a few hours a week.

Herbal healing - Chickweed



Not a great picture - the chickweed in my garden is only starting to come through after a
hot, dry summer. I actually had trouble finding some to take a photo.

 I had the opportunity to use chickweed a few nights ago.

Simon came off his mountain bike a few days ago and gave his knee a good whack (no external abrasions). All was well, if just a bit sore from the bang, but two days later his joint was sore, flaming red, and hot. It was obvious there was inflammation, but I was also a bit concerned there could be some sort of internal infection brewing. First up he drew around the red area (it was about 15cm long and 7-8cm wide just to the lower side of the knee), just so we could keep an eye on it. I then thought to pull out my herbal books to see if a poultice could help (it was 11pm Friday afterall, so really just a wait and see anyhow since he was otherwise fine). Susun Weed suggested a chickweed poultice as being particularly useful for sore, painful, "hot", and inflamed joints (the saponins in the chickweed has the ability to open cells and draw out infection).

So, off out to the garden we went and gathered up a large handful of chickweed (I had weeded around a patch just a few days before so knew right where to go). We laid it over the red area (just lightly crushed in my hand, and it was already wet from the rain), wrapped a cotton cloth over it and secured it on with a piece of strapping and safety pin. Susun suggests that 10mins to 3hrs is all that is required. Simon went off to bed and I said he could remove it if he woke later on (which happened to be about 2hrs later). In the morning we had a look and there wasn't a trace of redness and the swelling had gone down.

I guess it's entirely possible that this would have been the outcome without the poultice, but it was good to know that it didn't "fail" either.

Chickweed has many uses including treating inflammatory skin conditions (hives, eczema, itchiness, abrasions and wounds, boils, burns), colds and flus (dissolves and expectorates thickened membranes), stomach ulcers, inflammed bowels, sore eyes (conjunctivitis).

Edible: It can also be added to salads (the tender young bits are best), made into pesto, added to green smoothies or in place of spinach in a hot dish. It's packed with nutrients - sure makes sense to use a "weed" that seems to grow freely in most gardens without effort!

Special spaces - my herb room

I have a tiny space set aside for dealing with my herbs. I needed somewhere dry, airy, and without direct sunlight to lay out or hang my herbs to dry. I found the perfect little space in a corner of the laundry. I managed to squish an old oak set of drawers that came from my Nana into a gap beside the washing machine (the drawers themselves actually hold all my sewing bits and pieces such as threads, buttons, pin cushion, and other odd bits and pieces). I put up a wee shelf with hooks and can use the windowsill for added storage.

Right across from it I cleared a shelf in my linen cupboard for further storage. It's a great space as it opens directly from my kitchen, with its useful benches and other utensils easily at hand.



 Shelf space for glass jars, dried herbs (this photo was taken before summer, and that shelf is now full of jars of dried herbs that I gathered), vodka for tinctures, paper bags for storing herbs that aren't good in jars, and a muslin cloth that I use when foraging or for laying my herbs on to dry (and also useful for straining when I made Cleavers Lemonade). Check out the cute detailed wooden boxes that came from an old Singer sewing machine table.

Gluten free lunches

Considering my blog gets a lot of traffic from those seeking information about the GAPS diet, I thought I'd do a foodie post about something that affects us everyday. But first, just to explain why we did the GAPS diet ... I had Nathan on the GAPS diet 2.5yrs ago when I aimed to heal his suspected leaky gut (perhaps as a consequence of having damage from eating gluten prior to his coeliac diagnosis). We had ended up in hospital with his kidneys not working (of unknown causes - so frustrating to have no answers to that one except a name of the condition based on a bunch of symptoms rather than a known cause - idiopathic is the name they give to that kind of situation) and it was a time that I decided to reassess if I could be doing all that I could health-wise

The GAPS diet includes eating entirely fresh prepared foods due to the nature of the restrictions - no grains of any description, no starch (ie potatoes), no dairy (just for a limited time), and no sugar. The reason for the diet was one of those long-shot kind of things that could really only do good, and although not directly related to kidney function, I wanted to take a deeper look at his immune function and the way that he processed his food. (As an update on the Nephrotic Syndrome - he's been all good. Had one relapse a year ago (successfully and quickly treated) and fine since then. Here's to a further 4yrs of no relapses and he can then be considered to have outgrown that unfortunate childhood illness.)

Back to the nature of this post. Nathan has Coeliacs disease and was diagnosed when he was 2.5yrs old, which means that he needs to be on a 100% GF diet for the rest of his life. The good news is that this is the "cure" to the disease, so it's not a big deal in the big scheme of things (just frustrating at times), and we are fortunate that he doesn't suffer any life threatening repercussions if he were to consume something containing gluten (just a big tummy ache and negative consequences in the long-term if done repeatedly) - although we've not stuffed up on a big-scale as far as I'm aware, and certainly not even a trace for a long time.

So, I thought I'd now do a post on what I cook/prepare for lunches and snacks.

Since starting school, our lunches in particular have changed quite dramatically. Firstly, I have discovered that making GF lunches is much easier and cheaper than what I expected. This is the first time ever that he has been "allowed" to eat gluten free bread every day. I used to ration it because it's sooooo expensive and since I was feeding 3 of us at home for lunch, I wasn't about to make several meals, so we all ate GF lunches. But a cooked lunch I did still make to avoid the sandwich trap - hence the cost and the headache!

I don't find GF bread to be very nice at being sandwich bread (tends to be hard and dry even when fresh). However, with school lunches, I initially thought I'd give him 2 x slices of bread as a part of his lunch until I figured out what to do. But it's actually working out quite well. And he's not fussy about the bread - he likes it even.

Here's what his lunch-bag contains every day:

~ I make the bread into toasted mousetraps (GF marmite-alternative with grated cheese and then grilled) and he eats them cold.

~ Half a homemade GF muffin

~ Container of homemade popcorn

~ A few dehydrated apple slices

~ A piece of fruit (feijoas, apple, pear or banana depending on season)

~ A small GF biscuit that I buy

Weekend lunches include:

~ Baked beans (one that doesn't contain wheat)

~ Rice noodle omelette

~ Vegetable fritatta

~ Corn fritters

~ Sandwiches using corn thins and filled with salad/eggs etc

~ Homemade pizza with sauce, bacon and cheese

~ GF scones or fresh made bread

Snacks include:

~ Fruit

~ Carrot sticks

~ Corn thins with peanut butter

~ Popcorn

Dinner:

Well, these are fairly straightforward if you're cooking from scratch. We basically eat the same as what we used to with just a few modifications. GF pasta instead of wheat pasta, rice noodles instead of any other sort of noodles/spaghetti, no packet/jar sauces (although there is a growing range of products that just happen to have no gluten in them - not specifically marketed or priced as GF, just the manufacturers must realise they will tap a larger part of the market if they replace wheat thickeners with corn thickeners), plain corn chips for nachos rather than flavoured, tamari sauce instead of soy sauce, etc.

So, although my wee fella's suffered a few medical conditions in his short life, he's actually very healthy and robust when his kidney's are functioning as they should and he doesn't eat any gluten!

PS: Gosh, what a long rambly post!

What I've been up to this week...

~ I've put up a seed tray - as per lunar gardening (thanks for the reminder Linda!) I have put in leafy greens: silverbeet, spinach, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, leeks, cabbages, and parsley.

~ I have a little plastic greenhouse that hasn't yet been used. I had it on my front porch waiting for autumn, but with the revamping of that area, I needed to find it another little spot. I tried it on my deck, but have several problems. It only gets morning sun, it's more exposed to the weather over winter, and there is no water on hand (and I don't go out there regularly enough - so am likely to fall into the trap of "out of sight, out of mind" and kill all my seedlings off). So, I thought that the next best place is in my front/herb garden area next to my washing line. It gets great sun from lunchtime onwards and is fairly protected from wind and rain. Also, I can anchor it to my clothesline if needed (and is in my daily sights for tending to it!). All very permaculture gardening of me applying my zone theory hehe (it's now been placed in zone 1).

~ We've been collecting up the fallen feijoas everyday. Yum!

~ Watering the lupin seeds and strawberries since the weather's been really dry.

~ The kids and I finally have Kiwisaver accounts. I never got around to it when it first came out 3 years ago, and recently started thinking about it again. However, in our favour, with the international financial crisis the funds are not worth much more than what we'll be entering at now (the government will still give a kick-start of $1000, but this may be discontinued soon, so get in quick if you have been wanting to get yourselves set up).

~ Our dishwasher has been broken for about 6mths and we just hadn't got around to getting a tradesperson in to have a look at it. I was put off with the potential increasing costs of a dishwasher needing new parts but with no guarantee of it going (even though it was only 4 years old)! So, we bit the bullet and did have it assessed on Monday. Very sad, but it wouldn't go with the the most likely replacement part (fortunately no cost on the part as the guy agreed to take it away with him). So we now need to decide whether to replace it or just suck it up and keep on handwashing (I'm impressed with our zen approach to it though, and neither of us have been stressing over doing the dishes 2-3 x a day).

~ I've painted my little shelf unit ready for the garden shed, and also the little table in our lounge that the kids have been using for drawing at.

~ I found an awesome old footstool for my lounge at one of the local thrift shops. I've been wanting something for ages, but didn't want to buy one. I did briefly entertain the thought of making a poof/footstool, but flagged it as too hard to source a nice heavy filler. I felt a big guilty asking if I could buy it, when it also appeared that it may be used as a chair in the shop. And yes, soon after the woman there agreed to sell it (very willingly), did another volunteer arrive and started muttering about losing the chair. Oops! :)



~ Sadly, there was a fatal house fire 2 nights ago in our town. Nathan had heard about it at school (it involved a mum and two kids) and was concerned about our home. So, the kids and I set to re-discussing our escape plan and went about checking our smoke alarms. I discovered that I wasn't sure how to test our alarm that is connected up to the mains power (the alarm works, but not sure yet how to test the smoke detector part). So after a few unsuccessful tries, I located our other stand alone unit and put a fresh battery in and we were good to go until we sort the other one out (on the list of phone calls to make today).

~ Oh, and it's my birthday tomorrow. Can't even claim to be mid-30s anymore, definitely late (very late) 30s.

I've been sewing!

Over the last month or so I've been getting stuck into some sewing projects that I've been wanting to do (or rather, waiting for the inspiration or idea to hit me!) I have a pretty big stash of fabric that has been stacked up in my hallway on a shelf. So, pretty much in my face saying "what do you want to make?" every time I walk past it!

The shelf has now been relocated to inside Danielle's wardrobe, but still easy to access.

A dress for Danielle. Made from a fleecy cotton fabric I picked up from the Sallies shop for $1 a few years back. I lined it with a green t-shirt that didn't really work for me and scrappy leftovers for the pockets.

A merino dress for me. I bought this fabric for $10 from a local merino factory shop a few years back. I made the pattern up using an existing dress I have (and got the idea from a friend who'd already made several).

A tunic top for Danielle using a large size top I found at the Hospice shop. I worked to keep the cross over neck line and waist band.

I have a few overnight trips coming up soon and really wanted to make a funky bag to take my stuff away in (I only have one of those generic black overnight bags). This is a piece of heavy-weight (upholstery?) cotton fabric I bought for cheap a few years back. Very pleased to have a suitable project for it (I also have a piece the same in turquoise). I scoured the net for ideas that were simple enough and didn't require a zip.

 I found a large authentic leather plaited button in my button stash that was perfect for the closure.

A pinboard for Danielle's birthday. She'd been asking me for a board for several months, so I decided to make a colourful one to match her bedroom. I used ink and stamps to put the flower prints on, and bought a range of ribbons and flowers to embellish it with.

Special (outdoor) spaces in my home

I just wanted to share a couple of our outdoor areas that I really like. These are on our front porch where our door is.


My pumpkins hardening off (and looking pretty) before storing. Simon made this
bench seat from some macrocarpa sleepers a few years back. The large lidded wicker basket is
full of foraged pine cones for fire starters.



Over winter the sun sweeps around low and hits in over our small porch - and the house shelters the area from the cold southerly winds. Until recently, the end of the porch (where the table and chairs are) was cluttered with a couple of storage cabinets/shelves, a large bin of shoes/gumboots, outdoor broom, kids bikes and scooters, and gardening items. That's a lot of stuff in that little space!

So, we moved ALL of that stuff down into the garage (much to Simon's disgust), as it will eventually be relegated to my garden shed (maybe this will help the process along...?). Then I found this wee table/chair set to help us utilise this wonderful sunny patch and can't bear to clutter it up again!
I can't wait to get the garden shed set up and even have interior design plans too LOL, it's not going to be a yucky chuck-it-in-and-forget-about-it kind of place. It needs to be functional and appealing and organised!

Autumn garden to-do list - Sunday update

Today was a very productive day with us all out in the garden!

~ Weed a couple of garden beds (ones which will be slighted shaded over the depths of winter), lightly turning the top layer of soil (don't want to do too much so I don't damage the structure of the soil at this time of year) and sprinkle on handfuls of Blue Lupin seeds so I can grow a winter cover crop, and then rake the soil over. This will be the first year I have done this, but have been meaning to since I learned about them when I did my Organic Hort Course 3-4yrs ago. - check. We ended up with 3 beds of blue lupin, and the remaining 3 are relegated for winter plantings.
~ Add compost to the beds. - check (we got a trailer-load and liberally dumped it on and turned it in. We haven't bought a trailer load for the lower gardens before, so they were due for a big boost. Usually I just add it from a bag or from our compost bins).
~ Put up some seed trays (or buy the seedlings): lettuce, spring onions, peas, carrots, spinach, silverbeet. Onion seedlings are already in. - tomorrow's job
~ Bulbs and sweet pea seeds need to go in. - check
~ Clean out the chicken coop and sprinkle all the poo on the garden bed I've set aside for my garlic - check
(these beds will also get a good dose of fish meal, woodfire ash and compost). check
~ Replant calendula and borage seedlings that self-sowed (and put extras on freecycle for others to come and take away). - check
~ Add carbon back to the soil - dig in carbon by-products such as corn stalks, brocollis, peas and beans. Also mulch with straw (great if it comes out of the chicken coop with food scraps and chicken poo mixed in) and dry material from around our property. - check.
~ Replant the strawberries and any new runners into well composted beds. - check

The upper kitchen/herb garden still has an abundance of silverbeet growing for our use (I notice that the chickens are self-feeding off the plants down here). The tomato plants and courgettes were finally pulled out. And the last of the beans were harvested before being pulled up.


Before (with 2 cleared beds from during the week)

 



A fresh start.

We harvested some pears, apples and rhubarb to make a yummy fruit crumble for dessert!

Garden Shed Preparation

Simon's been working here and there on preparing the foundation for the shed over summer - still has a little work to go, but it's getting there. We're now just waiting for the shed (currently at my parents' house) to be dismantled and brought around.

A few days back I visited our local Junk Shop at the dump. I'm not sure how long it's been there, but I've only recently heard of it. I was wanting to gather together some bits and pieces to deck out the shed with. I found this wee shelf unit (I plan to paint this with one of our leftover "greens" from our interior colours), a few pots/storage containers, a little native plant picture, a plaster hanging, and a fold down table that just had to come home with me (now set up in the kids end of the lounge with a table cloth on it).

The glass jars I got so I can make some lanterns with the kids some time.

All up I paid $9.

It can be dangerous business visiting 2nd hand shops though - it's a fine line between getting things for cheap (and often quirky that I couldn't just "buy" in a shop) and to suddenly start cluttering up the house with stuff that's not really wanted/needed even if things only cost a few cents or dollars. Argh!

I wonder if my chickens will become shed-climbers instead of tree-climbers?