Should We All Be More Frugal ?

Recently I have been thinking more and more about the instability of our lifestyles and the way that we are set up as a modern society to live.

If you tune in to television or magazine advertising they will have you believe that everything is wonderful. It has never been better! 'Live for today', you hear them say....'go ahead, your deserve it'.......'you only live once'....... Pay tomorrow.... interest free...

I look around and see a very different story. I see people wondering why 'everyone else' seems to have it so easy when they are doing it tough. I see people who just completely block their financial circumstances and live from credit card to credit card and keep refinancing their blues away.

I have really started to sit up and take notice because I see more and more people whose lives have been turned around by such a simple event that pulls the rug out from underneath them.

I have seen friends go through a separation and divorce, the death of a spouse who was way too young, a job loss for the only income earner in the family, serious illness which turns a family upside down and people wiped out through once in 150 year floods.

We all subconsciously believe that it will 'never happen to us', but I am sure people who have been through a change like this have thought exactly that.

Do you think it is prudent to tighten our belts in the name of securing a solid emergency fund ? How many of us could truly survive for six months if our current income source dried up ? If your income stopped tomorrow, how prepared would you feel ?

As you know, I am always using 'times gone by' as a reference point when it comes to being frugal, living green or living more simply. Perhaps because of the instability of the times, people from older generations always put money from good times away for times when they may not be as good. They stood by the traditional wisdom of saving for a rainy day.

Are our times today any more stable today than what they were back then ? Does easy credit disguise society's true position ? I am not sure, I can only judge it by what I see, hear and read around the community and in the blogosphere.

Why suspicion is.....yes.

RIP : My Father :

 20 May 1940 :  9 July 2011 
 aged 71 years 

Capturing The Life That Was

Last week I purchased an external hard drive to make a double back up of my digital photo collection. Gee it was easy! I had lots of photos ( I mean LOTS) on CDs all carefully labelled and categorised and I even had proof sheets printed of what was on each disk.

It was so easy to just whip them into iphoto ( I am a Mac girl) and there they all are - in chronological order and able to be sorted in keyword categories at the click of a mouse!

I skim through all the photos they really reveal just how much I have a love affair with days gone by. There are so many photos capturing aspects of a life that was.

I am always intrigued by the lifestyle that people led in the past. The days of hard work and little reward, an instilled work ethic that is rare to come by these days, a complete life of self sacrifice to others with no chance of any recognition.

My Grandmother told me once that the girls of today just don't have the stamina to be able to do all the things they did.....and I would have to agree!

Although, I have been quoted as saying that I could do without electricity and running water, grow my food and still get by quite okay ......as long as I had wi-fi and a solar powered lap top to blog about it! LOL

Look at this tired old truck - can't you see the expression on his face ? Years of hard work can be seen across his brow!

I don't have to walk four miles to school barefoot in the snow. I haven't birthed 13 children all 9 months apart and I will never have to fight for women to get the vote..... but I really do think that there are some traditions and principles that we should not let go of in our modern world.

We should not shy away from hard work. We should only eat our fill. We should show respect to our elders. We should live within our means and we  should raise our children with values that we want to see reflected in our society.

......and then we should blog about it to share the message !

An Adoption Story

Look who has been taking up my time lately! 

This is the latest addition to our family. He is a puppy adoption from the RSPCA. He was completely unplanned! 

Our neighbour looks after puppies for the RSPCA until they find homes.....( or worse if they don't find homes). Our boys are often at her house playing with the puppies. 

A couple of weeks ago they asked me if they could bring a dog over to our house to play. I reluctantly agreed and told them to lock up the chooks ( imagining they were bringing some sort of Alsatian)

Can you imagine what I felt when they brought this little guy in ? I went from " a dog is a lot of responsibility and I'm not sure you're ready"  to  "oh, we have to keep  him?" in about a space of ten seconds.

The RSPCA get lots of puppies. This little guy was dumped at the pound. We had to wait 14 days until ownership passed to the RSPCA and then they desexed him, microchipped him and gave him health checks and immunisations. 

He hasn't been mistreated and has a lovely little personality. They think he may have been an unwanted Christmas present. :>(

He is an excellent companion. The boys have really taken on the responsibility of looking after him and I just adore him. We are putting lots of time into training him. He has brought us so much joy! 

He is very happy with us - he has even started his naughty puppy behaviour lately where he will grab a sock and run with it, hoping to be chased !

The only problem the poor fellow has is that the chooks are mean to him !

If you are looking for a companion animal, make sure you check out the RSPCA. They really do run a wonderful programme and by taking a puppy you are leaving a space so that the life of the next puppy can be saved.

Summer Fun

Soon I have to try and convince these boys that they have to wear shoes again.

I have to try and convince them to have a shower and brush their hair....

 ....and wear shirts....

 ....and go to bed at a decent hour....

after living the life of Huckleberry Finn for the last six weeks I wonder how they will adapt back into the life of school shoes, books and bells !

New Year Readiness

I refused to start 2011. It came around far too quickly and I just told it that it had arrived too early and that it would have to wait at the front door until I was ready to open it up and let the new year flow on in.

So now, a couple of weeks into the year I am finally ready to get going again. I think the problem I have each year is that our annual holiday is just too damn good. I become so relaxed that it is too difficult to come back to reality!

Perhaps a little too much of this....

 and this.....

 and this.......

Anyway, nothing like a little bit of this to get me back into my baking and making.....

Speaking of making....
After such a successful year of teaching paper crafting last year I have taken the plunge to throw myself 'out there' some more and have a store at the local Paper Arts Festival for the next three days.
Here is a taste....

You can find out more at my paper crafting site  Splendid Stamping

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 ?