Can we make .............?

Over the last few years I have gone back to basics when it comes to food. I have started making most of my own food from scratch. There are many reasons for this including wanting to know what is in my food and the enjoyment I get out of it amongst others. I was going through my pantry the other day for things to donate for various Christmas appeals and there were a few things that had actually expired because I brought them so long ago "just in case". Oops!

I have to laugh though when I mention things we need to B and he says "we'll have to make some". I think me making a lot of our food has created an expectation in him that that's how we do it. Not that I am complaining. I love that he has such a connection to his food and really understands processes on how food is made and where it comes from. I also love that his first thought is that we should make it rather than we should buy it.

I have blogged before about some of my home made goodies, including tomatoes, ice cream, lemonade and lemon butter. I have almost finished my tomatoes that I bottled in February and March. I'm glad that I have had such a good supply, however, I now know that I need to do lots more next year. I have also been assured that it ages well so if I do make more than I need in a year it will actually taste better.

So a few days ago he wanted to know about how to make butter. I have never made butter before but of course knew the theory and there is the wonderful Internet to fill in the gaps!!!

We started with some double cream:

Into the mix master:

And voila, butter (and buttermilk):

It was probably a tad too hot today to do the best job but it served the purpose of B seeing how it's made and he really enjoyed having a slice of bread with lots of our butter on it.

So above is a yoghurt maker. A few weeks ago I mentioned that we needed to get yoghurt and B replied with "we have to make some". There is a group that I am a member of on Facebook and there was a big discussion about making yoghurt about the same time. One of the members mentioned she used the Easi-Yo Yoghurt Maker. It's basically a large thermos which comes with a smaller container which fits inside and you can make yoghurt. They do sell their own brand sachets but I just do it myself with a small amount of yoghurt (which I save with each batch), milk powder and milk. Leave in the thermos overnight and you have yoghurt.

So there you have it. Some of the home made goodies we have been making in our house. We really need to get started on our Christmas baking. I can't believe I won't get started till December. I usually try to have most of it done by now.

I would love to hear about some of the home made goodies you make. Successes and failures!

RIP Hard Rubbish

I love Hard Rubbish collections!

However, I am really sad that most councils seem to have done away with them. I know they offer collections at the times you need them but I love everyone putting their stuff out at the same time and people going through to get what they want/need. I know that the streets look really bad for the week or so beforehand but to me it is the ultimate form of recycling. I have picked up quite a few things over time and have had friends collect stuff on my behalf when they know there is something in particular I need.

I have one friend who has made money selling stuff that she has found put out for hard rubbish. Another got a coffee machine that retails for quite a bit of money but spent a little on getting it repaired and it worked a treat for years.

Some of my hard rubbish treasures over the years:

Sand pit/pool

Car. In the background is a stove/washing machine/dryer which has been through a few friends but was also a hard rubbish find!

I would love to hear your thoughts on Hard Rubbish and maybe some of your great finds. Good, bad or indifferent?

More Kid's Crafts - Weaving

A couple of months ago we were at a market and there was a lady there selling hand-made woven scarves. She was also doing some weaving while we she was there and we stopped to watch. B was very interested and I thought to myself, "we could do this at home". So we have been.

We are definitely not going to end up with a scarf or anything, however, it has been a bit of fun and it's a great project that can be put down and picked up again.

I am not a weaver so I just made this up myself from material I had on hand. First I took some cardboard, cut slits at either end and wrapped wool around the cardboard.

Then using a ruler to lift up every second (or third, or fourth) bit of wool to give space to thread the wool across.



Pass some wool wound around another bit of cardboard and thread through the space created by the ruler.

Pull the wool through and continue.



This has been another lovely little craft project that we can do together and have a bit of quiet time. As I said I am no weaver so the technique is probably not great, however, I feel it has been a good introduction and learning for B.

I would love to hear your ideas for introducing kids to craft activities. We do love crafting together - as long as I don't put on my "crafting hat" that longs for things to be "just right"!!

P.S. For my previous post on sewing with kids see here

Surprise Day

Today being Thursday we often don't have things on and we sometimes do special things or do the ordinary running around shopping/jobs. I did have a haircut scheduled for today, however, I found out there was something on at Albert Park that I knew B would enjoy.

There is a classic car show on in Melbourne this weekend. It would cost me $20 to go (with B free). Not being really into cars myself and with a busy weekend ahead of us I thought "oh well" and didn't think we'd do it. However, I discovered that they were doing a parade of the cars from Albert Park Lake to the Exhibition Buildings today which was free so I thought I can't miss it! I was going to just go into the city and line up somewhere along the route but realised that you could see them all at Pit Lane at Albert Park for 2 hours before they started.

Pink Cadillac - the favourite for the boy obsessed with pink!

I have always told B what we are doing each day from a very young age. One because I think it's good for him to know what is happening and also being only the 2 of us it's nice to talk things through (even when he couldn't talk back). However, I decided that I would make today a "surprise" day and not tell him what was happening. I thought it would be good to make it into a special day and by him not knowing it would create this sense of excitement about the day.

Model T fruit & vegetable delivery truck - another popular one

We had a lovely day (apart from being a little under dressed). He got to walk amongst all the cars, see them arrive and take their spots. He was even offered a seat on a motorbike and in one of the cars but declined (he's getting a bit nervous about that sort of thing at the moment). I had packed our lunch and we put down the picnic blanket near where all the cars would be leaving so we had a prime viewing spot to enjoy our lunch and see them leave.

Aston Martin - James Bond eat your heart out!

He's already talking about our next surprise day. I think it will become a regular thing but not too regular so as not to lessen the meaning. It was great to spend the day doing something that he really loves even though it's not my thing. And best of all it didn't cost us anything except for petrol and parking!

3 Wheeled Car - it had it's wheels counted a few times!!

Garage Sale

Last weekend I had a garage sale. I had a lot of things that I needed to get rid of and there was too much to put on ebay/gumtree or to just donate to the op shop. So I decided to try and sell some with a garage sale. I had a friend who brought some things over too so we were able to combine our things.

Unfortunately I didn't sell as much as I had hoped, however, I did make some money from it. But most importantly it was a great opportunity to declutter and really go through my things. I have been trying to declutter for a while but it often seems to be too big a job. You also don't notice little bits when there is a lot to go. By having a date set for the garage sale it gave me a deadline for going through my things. I certainly didn't go through everything but I went through lots.

The best thing was that most of the stuff that didn't sell didn't then re-enter the house after the sale finished. We immediately loaded up a car which went straight to the op shop. Another load of kids toys went into my car to give to a friend who works in domestic violence for their clients. A few things did come back into the house but they are things that I will list on ebay/gumtree, etc to sell.

All set up and ready to go!

On the whole it was a worthwhile experience in that it was a good way to clear out a lot of unwanted things and to give me some impetus to keep going. It is an experience that I will not repeat, however, as I will not have that much stuff again that needs to be gotten rid of!

A New Direction

I am excited, nervous and a whole bunch of other things about my life next year. It has been a really amazing couple of weeks in terms of an idea popping into my head, realising that the idea was God's, praying about it and having others pray for me (thanks), talking it over with people to confirm that it was doable.

Just to give a bit of background. I returned to work when B was only 5 months old. It broke my heart to do so but I didn't feel like there was much other option at the time. I took comfort from the fact that he was an easygoing baby and it was only for 2 days a week. It has been difficult but we have muddled along for the last 4 years.

B is now just over 4 and we have been having a lot of clashes recently. We have been butting heads, yelling at each other and he has been saying he doesn't want to go to child care/kinder and just wants to stay home with Mummy. It has been really difficult for both of us and I have been really struggling with his behaviour and my response to it.

A couple of weeks ago after a particularly bad day I was at a loss about what I could do. Then an idea popped into my head of taking next year off work. I almost immediately discounted it as I didn't think it could be done. Then I got THE voice - the one that I have heard before and I know very well. It was the voice that God uses with me when I don't listen the first time!!!!

After that, I realised that I needed to give it some serious thought and prayer. I checked out how much long service leave I have and realised it was a full year at half pay. I then crunched some numbers and worked out that financially it was doable. I sat down with a (practical) friend who confirmed that financially it would work and emotionally for B and I as well.

It was all starting to become a bit more concrete and by this time I was starting to feel a sense of peace about the decision. I spoke to the principal at school to ask if it was possible and her answer was "of course" - another affirmation that I was on the right track. Everybody that I have mentioned it to has been really supportive and thinks it's a great idea.

I know that me being a SAHM next year will not solve all of our problems but I am confident that this is the choice that is right for us and what God wants me to do. I am really looking forward to making B's kinder year a really good one and spending his last year before school together.

As I said at the start I am nervous but mainly excited about what the next year will bring.

When life gives you Lemons make...........

Last week I was lucky enough to be invited to spend a few days with a friend at her family's beach house. We had a great time and it was lovely to get away.

I also came back with a bag full of lemons from the lemon tree in the backyard. Nobody had been at the house in a while so the lemon tree was groaning under the weight of all the lemons.

I am lucky enough to have a lemon tree in my backyard but as I have mentioned before I gave the tree a really massive prune when I moved in 2 years ago and it's only just starting to produce fruit. I use lemons quite a bit in my cooking and B loves to just eat them as is! We have been lucky enough to get a lot from friends and I haven't had to buy too many.

So as I had a few extra lemons I decided that today would be a good chance to do something with them. With the help of the CWA I set about making Lemonade Cordial and Lemon Butter. Yum!!

I'm having trouble uploading photos at the moment so I can't show the photo I took of the finished products :-(

I am only new to preserving and making sauces, jams, etc but am really loving it. I'm looking forward to when my lemon tree is producing a lot more and making more of these goodies. You never know - you may get one as a Christmas gift! I'm also planning to give Preserved Lemons a go. If you have a good recipe I would love you to share!

A Week with Jamie

I have been a bit bad in blogging recently. I knew I hadn't blogged for a while but was amazed to discover my last one was in July!! Big oops!!!

Now that all the important worldwide sporting events are finished I should be able to get back into blogging more regularly, hehe!

A while ago I set myself a funny little challenge to give myself something to look forward to in my cooking for the week. While I was doing my menu plan I decided to cook pork belly on Sunday night. I have discovered a really nice recipe that I have cooked a few times by Jamie Oliver (B loves pork belly!!). Then when I was planning Monday night's dinner I wanted to use Jamie Oliver's 30 Minute Meals book. I purchased this book a while ago and was yet to cook anything from it. After this I realised that I had two nights of Jamie Oliver recipes so thought I would carry it on for the whole week.

So here is how our week panned out:

Sunday: Pork Belly with Roast Vegetables
(I did take a photo but for some reason is won't upload properly)

(Meat-Free) Monday: Cauliflower Curry

Tuesday: Pasta Putanesca

Wednesday: Leftover pasta (I work on Wednesdays so don't have time to cook when I get home)

Thursday: Beef Stew - was a bit ordinary and wouldn't cook it again

Friday: Leftover beef stew (again a work day)

Saturday: Chicken Nuggets (saw Jamie cook these on Oprah years ago and only every have these nuggets)

Well that was my week with Jamie. It started a bit by accident and I found that when I was in it that it added a bit of interest to my cooking for the week. I do enjoy cooking and trying new recipes although sometimes the whole cooking thing gets a bit boring, especially if B is going through a fussy period with his food. This was a way to add a bit of fun to the cooking for a week. I will have to try this with some of my other favourites. A good way to make sure I use my cookbooks too!! After seeing Maggie Beer recently and having purchased verjuice I think she may be my next challenge.

I would love to hear how you make life interesting when cooking - especially for kids.

Camping

Being a single parent on a very tight budget I do worry that we will not be able to take family holidays. I have been lucky as there are a few families at my church that have holiday houses that I can rent, however, we need to work around when they are available. With that in mind I have decided to embrace camping. I have not been a huge fan of camping in the past, however, my experience is limited and a long time ago. I did not camp as a child. In my late teens/early twenties I camped occasionally with friends and only have memories of being cold, wet and sleeping on the uncomfortable ground. I last camped about 15 years ago when I took a trip through the South-West United States. I took this trip as it was a good way to get to the Grand Canyon and see other more remote parts of the country easily and cheaply.

So I don't have a lot of experience with camping, however, now is the time to start. I have a lot of friends that camp and they tell me that if you are set up correctly then camping is easier than you think and a lot of fun to boot. I have been planning this for a while so have been acquiring some of the things we need along the way. One of my favourite stores, Aldi, often have camping equipment on sale. I have got a camping stretcher (which is also good when I have extra kids for sleepovers), camping plates, bowls and cutlery. Yesterday, they had down sleeping bags for $100 so I snapped one up - they were very popular and not many left by the time I got there. I have a sleeping bag for B that a friend gave us.

But of course the major piece of equipment that we have been missing was a tent. A friend posted on Facebook about "Catch of the Day" during the week. They had Coleman 6 person tents for $60!! I had been planning to look for a tent in the next few months but when I saw this I thought I couldn't pass it up as it was a bargain and made by a reputable company. Well, it has arrived!!!

Front View

It is quite big, however, we will be having stretchers in there (my back would not enable me to sleep on the ground) and I also wanted a tent where there was plenty of room to just be in the tent comfortably during wet weather, etc. I think it will do just fine. It will also be big enough for us to have friends with us too in the future.

Back View

Of course the big test was if I could assemble it myself with some "help" from a 4 year old! I am pleased to say that YES, I CAN!!!!!! I put it up in the carport yesterday successfully. The instructions say that it is able to be assembled in 15 minutes (not the first time though). Now for someone that has limited experience with putting up tents I was expecting it to take quite a while but am pleased to say that it took me 33 minutes. For the first time I think that was quite impressive.

Inside View

As I mentioned we have quite a few friends that camp so initially we will go camping with them as it will be a while until I am fully equipped and also it will make it a lot more enjoyable than just the 2 of us. All my camping friends - let me know if we can join you on your adventures!!!

I would love to hear your tips for camping. What equipment do you think is essential? Do you have any tips to camping with kids? As a novice I am open to any and all advice.

Now if only I can get it back into it's carry bag!!!!

Handmade gifts

I love to give a handmade gift! To me, it says that I really have thought about what to give. I have always had intentions of doing handmade gifts but then let time get away from me and end up just giving a brought one. Now that B is around the number of gifts I need to give has increased. I am really making a conscious effort to be a bit more intentional and thoughtful with gift giving. Also, with handmade gifts I already have a lot of the necessary supplies already on hand so it is also a way to save money.

For the people who work with him regularly (child care staff, swimming teacher, etc) I have over the last few years made either gingerbread or shortbread and packaged them on a plate or in a cup as a small token at Christmas.

This was the gingerbread we made last Christmas

Valentine's Day heart shortbread for his friends.

 We have had a few birthday parties for B's friends lately. As they were for girls whose mother's are a bit crafty I thought that they could get their own sewing kit so that they could learn to sew like B (see this post). I made some bags to keep all their things together. Inside the bags I put some hessian, needles and a selection of wool. They have been very well received with one of the girls getting so into it that her parents had a hard time getting her to stop and go to bed!!

He loves using my stamps to make cards for his friends at Christmas and on their birthdays. However, with my creating of gifts this year B also got into the spirit of it too and made a car for one of his friends!

In addition to home made gifts I have also started to give "experiences" for presents. I got the inspiration from friends who have done that for my Christmas gift in previous years. This included a day at Werribee Zoo this year. So for one of my friend's son who turned 10 B and I took him to the National Sports Museum for the day. Being one of 3 boys they have plenty of toys (including a huge amount of Lego!) and really don't need any more "stuff". So instead I thought we could do something he would enjoy. It was a great day and was really appreciated. For his brother's birthday next month I am taking him to Geelong for a football game. He (and B) both barrack for Geelong so it should be a good day.

I'd love to hear of any suggestions that you have for handmade gifts that you have given to give me extra ideas!

Winter Veggie Progress Report

I haven't posted lately about my vegetable patch. Unfortunately I don't get a huge harvest over winter as my beds do not quite get enough sun during the winter months. Being in a rental property I can't alter the backyard too much (or chop down trees) and already the garden beds take up a bit of space and I don't want to take too much of the backyard away from B's use.

With all of that in mind I have planted some veggies in containers this year to try and get a little more sun and a bit more success over winter.

Here are my potatoes which have self-sown from last years crop. The gift that keeps on giving!!

I have used the tyres from the birthday party to help build the potatoes up to get a bigger and better crop.

Close up of potatoes

Home grown garlic - can't wait!

Broad beans

Broccoli

Silverbeet - one of my favourite crops. It just keeps giving!

My lemon tree is now starting to provide some fruit after my hard pruning last year. I'm so glad as I use quite a lot of lemons in my cooking.

I have also got some leads on community gardens to try and maybe get a plot so I can grow some more produce off-site.

I also really love that when it rains B doesn't complain he just says "our veggies will grow now". It is one of those moments as a parent that you realise you are doing your job! We had a lovely day today out in the garden weeding, rearranging and planting some more seeds.



Birthday Party Success - Planning Pays Off!

Well the Birthday Party has been and gone for another year. And it was a huge success!

With all the planning I did prior to the event it went quite smoothly (see previous post). Quite a bit of the food was prepared beforehand and what I had to do at the last minute was quite simple. I am very lucky to have some wonderful friends who take care of the kitchen on the day so it frees me up to organise the kids games and activities. As part of my planning I drew up a chart of which food to put on the kids and adults tables. Unfortunately there was something I forgot to put on the chart and I forgot about it during the party so it didn't get served! We then had it for dinner that night. I think it is really important and welcoming to have lots of food for everyone so I tend to go a bit overboard.

Firstly the cake. I love making and decorating B's birthday cakes myself. I definiately wing it in terms of my cake decorating skills. So if you have any experience in cake decorating don't cringe too much at my skills!! As the theme of the party was a sport party we had to go for a sport themed cake too. The cake was an orange poppyseed cake which turned out quite well considering how long I had to cook it due the to shape of the tin. B chose a soccer cake and placed all the soccer players on the cake himself. I am quite happy with how it looked:

With it being a sport party I organised lots of races and games for the kids and then an obstacle course in the backyard for them to have a freeplay. Being winter in Melbourne it was a bit stressful during the week as to how the weather would be on the day, however, there was no rain and the sun was out for most of the day. Praise God! I did warn all the parents the day before though that there was a good chance that the kids could get wet and dirty as the backyard was a bit muddy from the rain during the week. I did this so they could bring a change of clothes just in case they were needed. Unfortunately it was a bit stressful for one of the girls who got very nervous about the party. Luckily she had a great time and now says that she likes sports parties!

Here are some of the races:

Egg and spoon race. I got plastic balls and put blue tak on the spoon to keep them attached. We had done a practise run before the party and B could only get 1 or 2 steps before the ball fell off so I figured it would be a lot more fun for the kids if they didn't have to worry too much. Of course, the older kids and adults who had a race didn't get that advantage!

Relay race. I got these rods a few weeks ago in my free stuff at Spotlight (see previous post). There were enough for the kids to take one home in their party bags.

Bean bags. We used these for a balancing game where the kids had to balance the bags on different parts of their body - head, shoulder, hand, foot, etc. Then we did a bean bag toss into the hula hoops. I made the bean bags myself. I took 2 squares of fabric, overlocked 3 edges, filled with beans and overlocked the final edge. These also went home in the party bags.

For the obstacle course/free play I had these set up:

This basketball hoop was actually B's birthday present from me.

This is a toy I got from my Toy Library. They are just separate pieces which click together for a balancing beam.

These tyres were set up in a meandering course for the kids to climb over and just generally muck around on.

The hula hoops to throw the bean bags in or just play around in.

A tarp with holes cut out of it to throw balls through and climb through. Unfortunately the tape I used didn't stick very well so I ended up having to pull it off. Oops!!

Everybody having a great time!

I feel really good about being on top of the planning this year. There was quite a bit of work in the weeks leading up to the party but it was worth it for the enjoyment the B and all the other kids got out of it. I was also lucky in that B was able to help with quite a bit of the preparation so that I did not have to resort to parking him in front of the TV to get everything done!

Craft for kids

I have mentioned before that I love my craft. I haven't done as much as I would like since B has come along. I do make arm and leg wraps for children with disabilities so that has been a large part of the sewing/crafting over the last couple of years.

I am very keen to pass on my love of craft to B. He absolutely adores the messy stuff. We don't do much painting in winter as he makes so much mess that in summer I just put him outside with an easel and let him go for it. I then use the paintings as wrapping paper. We both think the messier the better!!

Recently we have started some sewing. He loves to "help" when I use the sewing machine but I thought some hand sewing would be a good skill for him to learn. So over the last few weeks we have been working on this:

The process is quite simple. I cut a piece of hessian with and drew a simple picture on it - of course B had to have a car! He uses a knitting needle and tapestry wool and has done quite well. It has taken a number of sessions as his attention span for this is quite short and he makes mistakes which are okay or easily rectified. I have had quite a bit of input to help him complete it but I would expect that this will decrease as his skills improve.

So this is our finished product.

I had the ends of the wool on the side with the drawing so that when you turn it over you get a clear picture without the original drawing.

This is a perfect way to craft together during cold and wet winter days like today. Another activity I will try soon is finger knitting.

I would love to hear of your favourite craft activities with your kids.