Time To Evaluate

It has been 9 months since I threw in my job as a solicitor and started living a more simple and deliberate life. Today I was re-reading the entry from June last year that I wrote regarding the decision.

I guess this means it is time to put my money ( or lack of it) where my mouth is and commence the experiment. Can a thoroughly modern mum live freely in a modern world. Can she produce food? Can she cook from scratch? Can she knit socks(gulp!)? Can she raise chooks for eggs? Can she learn to sew properly (gulp!) and........ can she still afford to buy the occasional vanilla latte on skim milk that has become her signature coffee ?
I believe that my user name "BusyWoman" is about to become an extremely accurate assessment of the days to come. I look forward to it with a sick sense of excitement. I hope you will stick around for the journey.

Time for an evaluation.......

I haven't been blogging as much lately about the usual topics because it seems that I have those things under control and blogging about them again seems somewhat repetitive. I haven't even been reading many simple living blogs because I have found them to be following the same themes all the time. Is there only so much one can write about the topic before there is nothing new to say and day in day out it is just the same ? I hope not!! I am always looking for a new challenge.

You see, in June last year I was worried about whether or not we could produce our own food, whereas today I am in the habit of going and grabbing things out of the garden as required, especially things like herbs and shallots which are generally an after thought on the shopping list. The thing we need to improve on is succession or staggering the planting so we don't have thousands of vegies harvest then nothing for the next two months.

Cooking From Scratch..... another thing that we have under control. It seems so natural now to bake bread, make pasta or try new things like the challah loaf.

Chooks...... another normal part of the day now to get up and feed them and talk to them and in return they fill the fridge to overflowing with their beautiful eggs. We certainly need to give away or sell some more because one fell out when I opened the fridge door yesterday! lol

On the knitting front..... well........ my excuse is that knitting is a winter thing and I don't sit down long enough in the summer months to be able to do it! ( are you convinced?) Ask me again in the winter months how I am going.

Even our house seems to be slowly falling in to line. I like a clean crisp and clutter free environment, it's just that it usually only stays that way for about 35 minutes! Over the months we have thrown out more and more "stuff" which makes things a lot easier to keep clean. Once I started doing yoga I became very conscious of our living environment. It's hard to relax and do yoga poses with a clear mind when you are staring at a basket of ironing! lol I believe that your home environment has a HUGE impact on your mental well being. It is much easier to relax and feel at peace in an uncluttered space.

There are still a couple of projects I want to do in this department. Tackling the filing cabinet is one of these jobs. time to clean out some old paperwork and revamp the file headings. Can you out your hand on any piece of paper or financial record in less than thirty seconds or do you have to go digging? My aim is to be the thirty second girl!

So.... with the food gardening, cooking, home management and even the cash budget under control is time now to move towards looking after myself personally. Time to work on regaining my personal health and becoming more active and fit. I don't mean a " lose 30kg in 3 weeks" type of thing, I mean adopting a more healthy approach to eating, drinking and exercise for no other reason than to feel great! That includes looking after my skin, hair, nails etc and doing the best with my god given self, in a way that still reflects my values for an old fashioned approach ( meaning I won't be getting botox injections for a wrinkle free face lol! )

I have been really inspired recently by Libby ( www.libby.withnall.com ) who blogs in her fitness section with tremendous honesty about her weight loss journey. I love the way she shares her ups and downs, good days and bad days. She gives me so much motivation !

So, my question to you all is this........ If you're reading this blog you obviously have an interest in simple living. How would you rate your health? Do you nurture your body the way you nurture your garden? Do you feel healthy and happy and energised? Are there changes you would like to make about the way you look after yourself ?

Are you interested in following a journey to health, the simple, frugal way ? No group programmes, no personal trainers, no membership fees and no hype? I wonder if it can be done. let me know if you would like to join me on the journey.

Garden Update

There hasn't been much to report in the garden since Christmas. We battled with extreme temperatures and then a long period of daily heavy rain and floods.

With the addition of some extra soil and lots of compost things have bounced back to life again. We have capsicum,cucumbers, beetroot, beans, tomatoes, basil, coriander, shallots, radishes, corn, broccoli, spinach, strawberries and butternut pumpkins.

Our most successful crop of tomatoes are doing well - in an old recycling tub.

We have had to fence off the area with a makeshift fence to keep the chickens out. While they are pretty good with established plants, they do like to scratch around the new seedlings. We are not complaining about them too much however, because they are making a valued contribution to our local eating campaign!

The area up the back has affectionately been christened ...'the farm'. Just goes to show that even very very small scale farms can produce a lot of food for a family. The good thing is that there is a lot more room to add more and more plants for the autumn season.

Snaps of Daily Life... from Yoga to Falafel.

::been doing lots of this and feeling fabulous for it ::

::nothing like a sun salute to wake you up and energize you for the day::

:: been hanging out here. So early that there is no one else on the river. Number one son says 'we own the river', but I think the river owns us ::



::determined not to let falafel get the better of me ~ thatnks for the helpful feedback, I feel success is close at hand::

A Cry For Falafel Help

After our third falafel disaster I am putting out the word for some falafel help. We have tried two different recipes and we are ending up with a soggy mess. So I am calling for your help. We need some falafel training.

Attempt number one - mixture two soft and fell apart when I tried to turn them. They also absorbed a lot of oil.

Attempt number two - mixture looked okay - had the consistency of a rissole when laid out neatly on the plate but fell apart and went soggy during the cooking process.

Attempt number three - hubby tried a different recipe. First batch disintegrated. Second batch stayed together (with the addition of some plain flour to bind them) but the outside was crunchy and the inside soggy.

So.... a plea for help from all you fantastic falafel makers out there.

What is your recipe? What oil do you use? Do you use canned or dried/soaked chick peas? Do you deep fry or cook more like a pancake? Do you hold the spoon in your left hand or right hand ? lol

I really want to get this right. The recipe I have tastes really yummy and I would love to have something that I can serve up on a plate, as opposed to drinking it through a straw.

thanks in advance.

A Flash of Inspiration

Sitting in the library last week I was reading through some magazines. The 'special' magazines that you can't borrow. You have to sit there, in the quiet air conditioned comfort and read them. Pure luxury.

I came across an article in a Yoga magazine. It was the story of a man who was stressed to the eyeballs and suffered a nervous breakdown. With encouragement from his wife he enrolled in a yoga class to learn to breath and relax.

He had a list of things that he believes reduce stress and create energy in our lives. The list was so wonderful that I had to pull out a little notebook and scribble it down.

The things I liked from the list were as follows:

Cultivate......

- moderation

-balance

-poise

- calmness

- composure

- equanimity

- honesty

- discipline

- non-violence

- joy

- integrity

- fairness

- simplicity

- gratitude

- patience

- generosity

* Monitor your sensory input - it impacts on you mentally and emotionally. Turn off noise, turn on music that is calming, soothing and uplifting.

*get outside and soak up the benefits of fresh air, nature, sunsets, breezes

*practice yoga and meditation

* set goals for health and life

* know yourself - consider your strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes and character traits before agreeing to do anything.

* increase your joy - do things that bring you enjoyment because it increases your serotonin levels.

*Cultivate gratitude - compared to others in this world we live a life full of abundance

* Use incense and aromatherapy to stimulate the senses

* Balance is the key: have interests in many areas - sport, leisure, family, community. Take up hobbies and external interests that prevent dwelling on the self.

Just Try Your Very Best

When you take on a more simple, sustainable life you come to rely on your own personal skills.

Some skills like cooking and gardening you may not possess but you slowly develop and practice. You slowly get better at planning meals, balancing a budget, providing in home entertainment.

Sometimes you surprise yourself and are quite happy to add a new found skill to your bag of tricks.

My bag of tricks is missing one noticeable skill area. Sewing. I would love nothing more than to be posting photos of my home made clothing, quilts and other beautiful handmade items. Some people can't boil an egg, I can't sew a straight line.

Okay, maybe that is a slight exaggeration, but you can feel my emotion. I have made various things throughout my life, shorts, pyjamas, curtains, bags and aprons, but I have never progressed.- maybe it is a mental block.

But...... my sons MAKE me sew.

They won't allow me to say no. After all 'there's no such word as can't in this house'. I beg them to understand... I just can't sew. But they set me up at the machine and say "just try your very best".

Who on earth taught them such empowering phrases ?

How dare they use them against me!

So... after another day of being stuck inside with two of every animal waiting for the dove to come back with an olive branch which tells me the flood is over, I made a..... penguin. Thank goodness he LOVES it.

Those of you who know me well are laughing now.... I can hear it......

Challah Baking Success....

In keeping with my ' if a woman could make it on a fire 1000 years ago, surely I can do it' approach to cooking of late I decided to try Challah, a traditional Jewish bread. I am not Jewish, although after cutting this loaf and spreading it with real butter....we are considering conversion. lol.

Ingredients
1 cup lukewarm water
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons honey
4 1/2 cups bread flour ( I use Lighthouse brand Bread and Pizza Flour)
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast
sesame seeds
Egg wash:
2 egg whites

Mix the water, honey, oil, eggs and egg yolks in a bowl and whisk well. Then pour in half the flour, salt and yeast. Stir well until smooth and leave for 15 minutes. Then slowly add the rest of the flour half a cup at a time, mixing in well. Turn out and knead for 10 minutes. Put in an oiled bowl and wait for about 90 minutes until it doubles in size.

Then divide evenly ( about 375 grams each) and roll out into three ropes. Braid into a long twist tucking both ends under. Glaze with whisked egg white and cover and wait until dough rises further. Then glaze again and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Bake at about 200 degrees for 20 minutes.

We ate it fresh, with real butter. We also drizzled olive oil over some slices, spread them with crushed garlic and italian herbs and pan fried them for a lovely toasty texture. we then topped it with home made tabbouleh.

A recipe definitely worth trying.

SHALOM.