Ahhhh, a satisfying day...

They seem to be few and far between at the moment, but today just felt like one of those lovely home days where plenty was done, people were busy, happy and content. I felt motivated (the key here I suspect!) to cook and provide food, get into the garden*, potter around the house, get on top of the dishes, laundry and general mess.

Just after 9am, the kids and I got out into the garden (Simon works Saturday). I wanted to dig over the 2nd vege bed to prepare it for tomorrow's afternoon planting (meant to be in line with the moon). I dug it, sprinkled some seaweed fertilizer on it and tomorrow will spread it with compost to be lightly dug through.

The kids got busy bouncing on the tramp, climbing trees, collecting tomatoes, gathering cicada skins, and Nathan built another teepee and collected some water from the trough and watched the baby mozzies swimming around - I sat down with a cup of herbal tea and my book on a blanket and enjoyed the fresh air.




I cooked lunch and provided snacks all day BEFORE the kids were saying they were hungry and catching me out in a moment of feeling a need for a rest - hmmm, I think this is what I need to be a bit more prepared with. It makes my life easier in the long run if I am prepared rather than getting things in the moment when the kids are already hungry. The only foods I really have to offer them as ready-to-eat is fruit, nuts and carrot sticks with peanut butter which only cut it for so long. I suspect what happened today if I now have a few options to work with that will become my "regulars" and it's just taken a week to collect together a few easy ideas without having to put in too much mental energy into it.

This afternoon we read stories, the kids coloured and I got to read for a bit with a cup of tea, I put on to cook a chicken broth from our roast the night before, we were going to make playdough and I decided to use up some of the gluten free flours in the pantry and ended up with this strange gloop instead. Was a pleasant surprise that kept us all busy for about an hour. It was fun!



(and yes, the clean up was a challenge lol)
Danielle's picture with positioned cicada skins and kidney beans.

I had made a mental plan earlier on what I was going to make for dinner, so half the job was done lol. While cooking dinner I provided snacks to the kids who were watching a DVD of Alice in Wonderland and this bought me time until dinner was made.

I used to do all this stuff, but suspect with the changes in routine, changes in food and general blahness within myself has just meant these things have slid a bit (and perhaps those vitamins and minerals I've been taking for the past 3wks have stared to kick in too). Yay for having energy instead of wanting to sleep all day.

* Wahhhh! I went looking for my bag of seeds to get ready to sow tomorrow but can't find them! I had them a couple of weeks ago when I went through and pulled out some packets (which I have sitting on my side table - phew) but can't find the bag which usually lives outside on the porch on my seed raising table. Unfortunately (gulp), my recycling bin sits right next to it and I wonder if by mistake when I put the seed bag away whether it fell into the bin and got put out...so hope I'm wrong there. But this house is quite small and limited places for things to be put that it's looking kinda bad. I probably had several hundred $$ of seeds in there. Boo hoo.

OK, so GAPS food Days 5 and 6...

Day 5:

Breakfast: carrot sticks with peanut butter and pumpkin/vegetable soup from the freezer

Snack: apple and pear with honey, brazil nut, almond milk (oops, had illegal ingredients, but will start to make my own), dried banana (a yummy treat I found for the kids to satisfy an urge for some sweetness), 1/2 peach. Banana pancakes, apple slices with peanut butter.

Lunch: tinned salmon, tomato, fruit strap

Dinner: Roast chicken with carrots, pumpkin, onion and broccoli. Watermelon.

A bit overloaded with fruit but it was shopping day and new fruit/veg box had arrived the day before...

Day 6:

Breakfast: Banana pancakes, dried banana, 1/2 peach

Lunch: Patties made with mashed pumpkin and silverbeet, egg, LSA nut mix to thicken, chunks of chicken from last nights dinner cooked in olive oil. Watermelon.

Snack: carrot sticks with peanut butter, brazil nut, cashew nuts

Dinner: Dahl - split green peas cooked in chicken stock, tomato, courgette, spices, garlic. Meat patties - mince, onion, garlic, carrot, courgette with egg. Watermelon.