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Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Slow Living in 2012 - Month 3

I was thinking that I didn't have much worth posting about for this months slow living, feeling like I've been a bit slack.  But when i started writing a few things down on paper that I've achieved this month, I realized I haven't been too bad !  I have to remember that just because I haven't done something incredibly amazing in most categories, doesn't mean I haven't been successful !!

So here we go for March....



Nourish: It's still iceblock weather up here, so we've been making lots of iceblocks still.  I found out how to make the best choc coated frozen fruit iceblocks this month and they have been a hit with the whole family.  I also made Fiona's chocolate beetroot cake - if you haven't tried it yet, then you're in for a treat - it is soooo yummy !! thanks Fiona !!  We had it with some homemade creme fraiche and it was the bomb ! 




Prepare: Not a lot here, made a big batch of sausage rolls to freeze for lunches, and that was about as good as it got !




Reduce: Went through the kids clothes, sent all of Marlise's too small clothes and shoes to the second hand shop and put away Ruby's old clothes for Marlise.  I was fortunate to have a friend who gave me all her kids old clothes last year so I dug out 'new - old' clothes for Ruby, and also for Marlise.  I'm pretty confident I won't have to buy any new clothes for them for this Autumn and Winter - what a blessing !




Green: Have been using homemade toothpaste all this month and loving it - will post the recipe soon. Still using everything else homemade for toiletries - can't convince my husband to go 'no poo' though !






Grow:  Went away for a week and what little I had in the garden fried in the heat.  Planning to start the garden again after Easter.  However....the kids planted pineapple tops and their watermelon pips out the back, and we just noticed a few days ago that those neglected watermelon seeds are growing !!  They have 5 big seedlings to take care of now - how exciting !  The pineapples seem to have taken too.






Create:  Loving this category this month.  Have been into making felt.  I made a little mat that turned out beautifully, so I got excited and made another mat which is a O's and X's game board for Ruby.  Made a whole lot of wet felted eggs for Easter, and some wet felted balls - I'm getting hooked on this craft. Collected some shells with the kids and made beeswax candles with the shells too.






Enhance: Taught some friends how to make wet felted eggs - does that count?  And Marlise and I attended a community run "Messy Play Day" for little kiddies.  she had so much fun...




Discover:  Borrowed some books on felting from the library and have been reading lots of wonderful blogs on felting too.  Bought this e-book about making wet felted playmats for story telling and playing, they look awesome.  Have also been reading alot about homeschooling.  I really want my girls to have a Steiner based education, and since the closest school to us is 6 hours away, I've decided to homeschool.




Enjoy:  We celebrated Marlise's 2nd birthday this month.  We had a party with just the 4 of us and it was so much fun!  While I try to keep my family well nourished, I've decided that at birthdays, they can have what they like.  Since Marlise is too young to decide, I asked Ruby to choose the menu for her sisters birthday this year...we had homemade sausage rolls and pizza, fresh fruit, chips, peanut M&M's and an orange cake with jaffa icing.  Needless to say, with all that good food on the table, Marlise only ate the M&M''s and birthday cake.  Happy Birthday my girl!

13 comments:

  1. Hi there, you sure like felting and have been very busy with it! It's something I've never tried. Your little girl looks like she had a lovely birthday. It was nice to read about your March.

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    1. Thanks Linda, and I just read your post, love your socks...you could probably knit a huge pair of socks and then felt them to make a pair of slippers! how cool would that be? I can't knit to save myself, but maybe one day I'll learn.

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  2. Hi Carole Glad you like the cake it really is so easy and sooo tasty. love the felting and the marlise looks like she has been having a lot of fun.

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    1. yes I see lots of beetroot choc cake in our house this year...:)

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  3. Oh, how I wish we could grow pinapples here. :-(

    I've thought about the no poo shampoo, but I haven't tried it yet. I do like the idea of home made cleaners and toothpaste though.

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    1. homemade is definitely best, and it's sooo satisfying to know you can make all that stuff and it's good for you!

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  4. Thanks for popping by my blog. Loved reading your post too. I am also a homeschooler and I have such fond memories of those early school years - precious times with my littlies who are now teens.

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    1. Hi Cath, yes definitley looking forward to homeschool!

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  5. Oooh! Felted eggs! This is such a coincidence because my daughter had a friend over yesterday and we had a bag of spare alpaca fibre so guess what they made?? Yup! You got it..felty Easter eggs. Although none of us really had any idea what we were doing they seemed to 'mesh' quite well..although the mat you have there intrigues me. Did you sandwich the fibre layers together between fabric to get them to felt together? It looks fabulous - I'm loving the colours!

    Well done on making such a big decision regarding your daughters schooling..this couldn't have been easy. x

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    1. I use a bubble wrap sandwich to do the felt mat. I've actually got photos to do a post on a felted mat...will get around to it soon ! I've been wanting to do the homeschool thing for a while now, but didn't have the courage to start the year off that way, but I feel more confident now after lots of reading and looking forward to it.

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  6. Hi Carole! Im glad I went and had a look at your 'no poo' post - I was a bit worried about what that was!!! You have given me food for thought as my hair is waist long and needs daily wetting and combing or it will turn into a felted Easter egg all by itself!!! I'm going to give the Bi-carb treatment a go as I go through a lot of 'poo. Go for the home schooling! And have lots of fun! - Kara

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  7. Gorgeous post Carole!
    Look at that felt mat and those gorgeous candles.
    LOVE! ღ

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