Not So Splendid

 We are building a deck off the back of the house at the moment. Everything around here is far from a splendid vision, that is for sure.

The deck will act as an outdoor kitchen and living area for the summer so we can cook and eat outside.

It was just our luck that once the driveway was pulled up and the footings dug we had so much rain that the back yard turned into a swimming pool.

 The boys thought it was great fun and played in the rain and mud. I have given up trying to keep the inside of the house tidy and will just do a final cleanse and carpet clean once all signs of mud and building material have vanished.

It is our year to host Christmas for our family this year so we are thrilled that it will be outdoors alfresco dining.

I am so excited to be able to have a summer outdoor kitchen and can't wait to christen it with a great meal, good friends and lovely wine.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

Nothing more relaxing than a day out in Forster wandering around, window shopping,

Having slow coffee while reading the Sunday papers

Then having a cafe lunch

and stopping to smell the salt in the breeze.

A day of rest is good for renewal of the soul. That's why I'm Easy. Easy like Sunday morning.

I'm On A Diet - A Mental Diet

Did I mention that I am on a diet ? 

A diet from pictures of air-brushed women, faking perfectionism. 

A diet from advertising that makes me feel lacking, vulnerable and unsafe then shows me a product to 'fix' that feeling. 

A diet from news stories that make me subconsciously prepare for when I will experience a kidnapping, tsunami, economic destruction, coma, civil war, locust plague, divorce, workplace harassment or breast cancer. 

As with my commitment to real food I will commit to real life. I will practice gratitude instead of feelings of imperfection, shame and unworthiness.

I will rejoice in my imperfections. i have missed out on too much fun already to waste time on trying got be perfect.

For more on imperfection visit Brene Brown  and watch the video on imperfection. 

Garden Update

 Considering that we were away on and off for almost three whole months, our garden is going quite well.

 Broad beans are starting to burst out. Not a single one has made it inside - they are all eaten raw in the garden.

 Even though the chooks jumped the fence when we were away and dug up the potato plants there have still been enough for me to go and scratch around and pull out enough any time we need some for a meal. We had them slow roasted last week when we had friends visit and they were beautiful!

 The strawberries have started to go mad. I am so glad there was enough rain while we were away to keep the garden functioning.

There are also tomatoes, corn, climbing beans, celery and lots of herbs coming along. Hopefully I will have some great photos to share soon.

Sustainable House: Taronga Zoo

 When we were in Sydney we visited Taronga Zoo. They had a sustainable house that you could wander through and study all the elements.

 It was fantastic and I wished that my house was exactly like it. It wasn't a large house, but it was very functional. As you wandered through you came across signs and reminders about sustainable principles.

 There were also ideas that you could incorporate into your own home.

Basically, it had a well planned, functional kitchen with great systems for recycling and composting as well as using glass for storage, energy efficient appliances and green cleaning supplies.

A long hallway held wall mounted bikes, depicting the family's transport choices and hooks for their jumpers instead of using heating. Decorations such as picture frames and mirrors were made from natural recycled materials.

 Outside there was a rainwater tank, composting loo and then a pathway leading to a well planned out garden that also housed pets for the children.

 Once I got over the "i want to live here, now" factor I realised that anybody can 'work their home' to make it a more functional, sustainable place.

It is just a matter of slowly making changes that you feel are achievable. No one is asking us to jump straight into cloth re-useable toilet paper ( as I see on some blogs!) we are just making steady changes that hold great benefits for us all.

It's great for:
 - our families - we do projects together and involve our children.
- our budgets - 'green' living is so much cheaper!
- our health- gardening gives us exercise and great fresh produce to eat
- our community - nothing builds community like trading some freshly laid eggs for a jar of pickles over the back fence.
- our spirit slowing down and living intentionally brings a certain peace tot he soul.
- our planet - great environmental change starts in our own backyard.

Totally Spoilt

The end of September marked my 38th birthday and I had a very special day with a gift...

A new jigsaw...

A new water bottle...

A very 'special' card

I was also taken to Forster for the day where we walked along the sea wall, watched the dolphins play and then had a lovely lunch.

Could I be anymore grateful for the beautiful family that I have ?

Free Range Kids: Special interview with Lenore Skenazy

Did you catch the 7.30 Report interview with Lenore Skenazy last night ? She is the author of a book titled 'Free-range Kids'. If you missed it, take the time to watch the whole interview with Kerry O'Brien ( who I am secretly in love with and devastated that he is leaving soon!) 

Do you think that it is strange that this topic has become SO CONTROVERSIAL ? 

I congratulate Lenore for being brave enough to take on the topic of 'helicopter parenting' and the issue of 'blame'. I LOVE her position that you can't go to the park and play because it is too dangerous, yet it is okay to let them sit on the lounge and watch television, become obese and develop poor habits and health issues that stay with them for life.

We won't accept caged eggs, but we readily accept caged children ! We fight for free range eggs, but are quite happy to raise 'battery hen' children.

Think back to your own childhood. Were you roaming the streets on your bicycle without a helmet ? Off playing down the street knowing that it would be okay as long as you were home in time for tea ?

Do you remember lots of kids, at some stage, having a broken arm, or skin off from 'stacking' their bike ? Eggs on their heads where they were running around the house and crashed into each other ?

Do you remember when kids were 'dirty' ? They were literally covered in dirt because they were building bike jumps, dig outs, cubby houses or burying treasure maps ?

How does the way you raise your children to compare to your own childhood ?

Think about times back even further. Was my Grandmother hovering over her children to make sure they played nice, didn't get their feelings hurt or (god forbid!) scuff their knee on some grass and get a graze ?

It seems crazy when we compare.

Are you a helicopter parent, a lawnmower parent (the parent that smooths out all obstacles) or a free range parent. I think I am in the middle ground, but with my boys now 9 and 12 I think I can swing a little more free range now that the Lenore has done such a great job of putting language on the issue.

Let's get some dialogue happening, people. Where do you sit on the free range parenting scale ?

Mapping Out The Vision - A Spring Re-Vamp

Today is the first day of the school holidays and I feel that I finally have a chance to step back and examine this splendid life. As I have mentioned briefly, a number of different family events have meant that we have been running here and there since June.

During the last few months we have spent a lot of time on the road, living out of suitcases with friends and family or staying in hotel rooms. Whilst I love the place we stay in Sydney and love the meals, it is just so nice to come home.

Even though we have now been home for about 4 weeks, those busy weeks have seen lots of activity. Both boys were away at different times on school camps and they have had various sporting finals and events, parent teacher interviews and social functions.

During the past few months I also managed to take on some work. Luckily it is work that I can do in my own time, meaning that I have the school holidays off and can work from anywhere, provided I have an internet connection.

So with all that busyness finally finished, I am so excited by the opportunity to stop, breath and re-group.

The first thing we did was to get back into our garden, which was sadly neglected while we were away. Luckily we had a fair bit of rain which meant that things were 'wild' rather than 'dead'. It is time to undertake our spring planting regime which I love because there is so much potential and life in this season.

I am working on a new schedule which will enable me to carry out some paid work but still keep my family life in balance. At the forefront of my mind at the moment is re-vamping the following aspects:

- meal planning: slow change of meals to reflect the warmer weather and the availability of different seasonal produce.

- new budget: I have noticed a drop in fuel prices and a rise in grocery prices. This along with changes in the activities that we do means a new cash budget is required.

- new household routines: as we change from winter to summer we have different household routines, particularly with the jobs that need to be done outside. The boys are also older and are ready to add to their job lists.

- papercrafting: handmade cards and stationery are becoming increasingly popular and I am teaching more and more classes. I need to schedule my classes well in advance and have creative time for working on my new designs.

- health: re-vamping my activity schedule to reflect the warmer weather and to get back on track ( after way too many restaurant meals!!!)

- re-establish our sustainable living principles: Being away has meant that we often had to 'default' to choices that I would normally avoid. Time to re-examine the steps we take as a family to live a more natural, sustainable life.

And finally.............time to be .................slow.

Don't you just love spring. It is a time for a fresh start!

Panning for Gold

When we were away we took the opportunity to go panning for gold at Nundle. Even though it was the middle of winter in an area that often gets snow, it was really quite a beautiful day.

As I sat there, the children off doing their own panning and happily exploring all the river had to offer, I suddenly realised that I had found treasure !

No, it wasn't a gold nugget sitting in the bottom of my pan, it was uninterrupted time, seated in nature where I could hear nothing but the babbling noises of the creek.

It was delightful and the time spent there was worth it's weight in gold!

New Handmade Cards

It is so lovely to be back home again. I have been away so much over the last three months. Now, I am home to stay, for a while at least.

I took the opportunity to make some cards today. As you know, this is my therapy!

I am teaching classes based on these designs. You can check out more details on my Splendid Stamping site.

Light Show Treat

This is the result of a light show that our nine year old put on for us the other night. I couldn't believe the amazing effects !
He simply dressed himself in black and taped a glow stick to a few parts of his body.
Then he played some music and danced for us while we all sat in the darkness and watched. It was totally hypnotic!
Because the shutter was open on the camera for so long, the result was almost like melted glass.

He has asked me to tell you all " It's not always easy practicing to get this right." LOL ! Looks to me like he got it just right!

{So Sunday} Banana Pancakes

I almost forgot to save you some!

Have you ever tried homemade pancakes with banana and a drizzle of local honey ?

Have you ever eaten them, sitting in the sun on a winter day, when the sky is so blue that you are sure Spring is already here ?

Have you ever felt so...so...so.....Sunday ?

Practice Random Acts of Kindness

When we were in Sydney we were walking along in Darling Harbour when the boys found an SD card on the ground. A few weeks later when we got home, we decided that we would make it our quest to look through the photos and try and locate the owner. I had heard of someone loosing a camera once and some kind stranger viewed the photos and tracked down the owner. We knew it would be a difficult job, but thought it would be such a triumph if we could track the owner of this SD card down.


We looked all through the photos as a family, gathering clues about our mystery people - who, realistically could have lived anywhere in the world. We were so excited when we realised they were more than likely Australian. That narrowed it down to about 22 million people!

Although we could work out where they went on their holidays ( and what costumers they wore to a Halloween party! lol) We couldn't work out any way of contacting them.

Just when we were about to give up, I remembered seeing a photo of some school children and was able to zoom right in on the badge of the school uniform. We then googled the name of the school and sent the school an email with a couple of pictures attached asking them if they recognised the family.

You can imagine our delight when we were contacted by the school and the family to say the card was theirs! They lived all the way over in Western Australia.

Our boys were delighted and we thought it was hilarious that we could actually do this. Although I guess it was a little invasive for the owner, I am sure they are extremely grateful to get all their precious photos back.

The joy you get from performing an act of random kindness is fabulous....... why not give it a try sometime, you never know when the favour might be returned to you!

There's No Place Like Home

Phew! Boy is it lovely to be home.

We have been away ( with only a few days home between trips) since June. It has been a combination of reasons that have drawn us away from our home base.

Firstly, a family member's illness saw us drop everything and head away for a week. Everything worked out okay and shortly after that we headed to Sydney for what was meant to be a holiday anyway. We came home for a few days and then headed back over the mountains to see family again and make sure that everything was still going okay.

The day that we arrived home we got word that our family member was heading to Sydney for treatment and we dropped everything and raced down there to be with them. That meant another ten days away.

Basically we missed the whole of July. It went whizzing by.

All in all, it hasn't been too bad. We certainly made the best of a bad situation. Because the boys were missing school I made it my duty to give them as many educational experiences as possible. Over the next few days I will post some of the photos from the various places we visited and the things that we learned.

Here is a pic of some broad beans I snapped when we visited Taronga Zoo. They had a brilliant 'eco house' display which consisted of a house, garden and farm setup. It gave me lots of ideas and made me want to rush home to get started.

When we returned home the garden was in a pretty good state. Luckily there had been lots and lots of rain. The only damage was from the visiting king parrots that have been helping themselves to the juicy pea pods.

Living in hotels and living out of suitcases soon loses its appeal. I was surprised how adaptive my children really are. It seems that they can cope anywhere as long as we are together.

I Thought I Saw Ol' Man Winter

I thought I saw Ol' Man Winter arrive on the train last week. Just a glimpse of him, in amongst the people on the platform hurrying about their business. I thought I recognised his hat, pulled down tightly over his head with his scarf wrapped high up around his ears.

I thought I saw him carrying his big suitcases, packed with everything that winter brings - the rain, the wind, the cold, the nights that steal away the afternoons before you have time to notice.

But.... it seems I was mistaken. Day two of winter and he still hasn't arrived. His train is now two days late. I am sure it will be here any day soon and he will step onto the platform with one hand on his hat, his scarf blowing in the icy wind.

In anticipation of his arrival I have prepared the house with extra blankets, socks and jumpers and have dusted off my number one tool of defence.... the slow cooker.


...... and although it is only 3.07 in the afternoon, that damn smell drifting through the house is enough to make me rip the lid off and gorge myself on it now!!!!!

Who invented these damn things anyway.....................?

Re-Using Success.

I still have a lot of plastic in my cupboards.

I have been making a real effort to re-purpose a lot of it because I don't think there is any sense in just throwing it all into landfill. It defeats the purpose.

Slowly but surely I have been changing over some of the storage containers in my cooking cupboard, a cupboard I have above my main prep area so I can just reach up and grab everything I need.
The large glass jars are from buying coffee in bulk and the smaller jars are from local oysters. They have a plastic lid unfortunately, but I still like to re-use them.

I have labeled the jars very simply with a permanent texta.

I enjoy opening the cupboard and looking at all the cooking supplies. I can see at a glance what needs to be topped up, often from a bigger supply in the pantry. I especially enjoy decanting the farmer's market honey into my little pour bottle which makes it easier to manage and easier to pour out a little for a cup of tea or to add to a recipe. I also like having my spices in bigger containers because I use so much of them.

But most of all I love the fact that the containers are NUDE. There are no brand names, no bold colours and no in your face slogans. It makes me feel all 'Little House on the Prairie -ish' LOL or maybe even a bit 'Waltons-ish' - knowing I can send John Boy to the store for a pound of sugar any time soon!

- Gotta love a spoon full of madness each and every day.