Slow Living in 2012 - Month 4

It's hard to believe another month has come and gone, but it's great to look back over that month and see that I have actually achieved something.  I'm participating again in Christine's SLOW LIVING month by month.  I love reading everybody else's contributions too, they are so interesting and varied - maybe I'm just nosey ! But I love to see what other people have been up to in the daily lives.

NOURISH: Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch overpackaged, overprocessed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead. Share favourite links/recipes/tips from the month here.
I make the bulk of our food from scratch, it just tastes better !  I went to a Thermomix demo the other day, I've been wanting to see this amazing machine for a very long time now.  And yes, it is wonderful - is there anything it doesn't do?  But while it makes so many things incredibly easy to prepare, as I was watching, I was thinking, "but I like to knead my own dough, and I like to prepare food - chopping and stirring etc."  For me that is part of the joy of cooking.  OK there are definitely times when I would love the convenience of being able to push a button, but for now, I like to be a bit old fashioned.  So no thermomix for me...however,  it would be nice to be able to grind my own grains, and make fresh nut butters and...and....sigh....maybe one day !  Getting better at making crackers more often than buying them too.

PREPARE: Stockpile and preserve. Freeze extra meals or excess garden/market produce. Bottle/can, dehydrate or pickle foods to enjoy when they are not in season.

I got busy and baked a few banana cakes and biscuits for the freezer.  I really need to stock up our freezer with some REAL meals though, it's looking pretty bare at the moment.

Banana cake

REDUCE: Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing. A ladder into a strawberry planter? A sheet into a dress? Share ideas and project links here, allowing others to be inspired.

Rescued an old piano keyboard that was on it's way to the tip.  Somehow we managed to fit it into the car, and now we have a piano at home and we love it !  We also found an almost new worm farm at a garage sale for only $10 - what a score !  Bought myself a $1 shirt at a garage sale too, but it looked awful on me, so I cut the sleeves and bodice off and made a skirt for Ruby.

All the kids came over to see our worms - fascinating stuff !

GREEN:  Start (or continue!) using homemade cleaners, body products and basic herbal remedies. The options are endless, the savings huge and the health benefits enormous.

Ran out of laundry detergent the other day, unexpectedly, and had to make up another batch.  It really is easy to do, so easy that I wasn't evern tempted to run down to the shops and buy some.  I love that ! 


GROW: plant/harvest. What's growing this month? What's being eaten from the garden? Herbs in a pot, sprouts on a windowsill or and entire fruit/vegetable garden -opt for what fits space and time constraints.

The kids and I got out and showed our dead stalks some TLC, and guess what ?  they are coming back to life - I was surprised to say the least !  We moved all of our potted herbs around to the back of the house to be in the sun, now that it has cooled down a bit.  Re-potted some and added fresh potting mix to others along with a good long drink. Basil, sage, parsely and rosemary have literally come back from the dead and are thriving.
And did you know that you can regrow celery?  We've planted ours and it's doing well.

CREATE: To fill a need or feed the soul. Create for ourselves or for others. Create something as simple as a handmade gift tag or something as extravagant as a fine knit shawl. Share project details and any new skills learnt here.

I can't get enough of wool and felt at lately...finished a felted toadstool house and made some felted autumn leaves. 

DISCOVER: Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests. Trawl libraries, second hand shops or local book shops to find titles that fill the need. Share titles/authors of what is being read this month.

Borrowed Rhonda Hetzels DOWN TO EARTH book from the library.  I love her book.  It has inspired me to enjoy EVEN MORE , being at home and making my house a home for my family.

ENHANCE:  Community: Possibilities include supporting local growers & producers, help out at a local school/kindergarten, barter or foodswap, joining a playgroup or forming a walking or craft group.


We have now formed an official committee, working towards opening a Steiner school here in Gladstone.  Have a look to see what we're all about at  Curtis Coast Steiner.  Together, we have also started a craft group in our local community and hope to be able to encourage and inspire eachother to develop our crafty talents !
I've also joined the local homeschool group.  Such a lovely group of people to be with.
And as a family, we  attended the ANZAC dawn service.  Can you believe it's the first one I've ever been to?  Must say I really enjoyed it, and I think we will make it a yearly event now. 



ENJOY:  Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment. Share a moment to be rememered from the month here.


April is a month of multiple birthday celebrations in our family - my two sisters, and my twin daughters.  So we all got together and celebrated with a BBQ and swim at the beach.  What an awesome day!  Later,  I made a zucchini chocolate cake for my big girls.  Can't believe they are 20 already.  Shame you missed it Tiare !

3 of my beautiful girls...

And I thought I'd finished todays post with this beautiful poem from here. 

slow down mummy, there is no need to rush,

slow down mummy, what is all the fuss?

slow down mummy, make yourself a cup tea.

slow down mummy, come spend some time with me.

slow down mummy, let’s pull boots on for a walk,

let’s kick at piles of leaves, and smile and laugh and talk.

slow down mummy, you look ever so tired,

come sit and snuggle under the duvet, and rest with me a while.

slow down mummy, those dirty dishes can wait,

slow down mummy, let’s have some fun - bake a cake!

slow down mummy, I know you work a lot,

but sometimes mummy, it’s nice when you just stop.

sit with us a minute,

and listen to our day,

spend a cherished moment,

because our childhood won’t stay!

-R. Knight

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!

Slow Living in 2012 - Month 2

Keeping track of what I did this past month...and what a fun month it's been !!

Sour dough crackers

Nourish: This month I have experimented with a few new things in the kitchen.  Sourdough has been on top of the list.  Made a successful starter, followed by a loaf of delicious sourdough bread...then I got a wee bit excited...and made sourdough crepes, sourdough choc chip cookies, sourdough crackers, sourdough english muffins...yum yum !!  Also bought some quinoa to try, and after quinoa porridge for breakfast and quinoa tabouli with dinner, I'm hooked.  I think this will definitely become a staple in our home. Made lots of delicious icecream using our stash of mango and passionfruit from the freezer, and some lacto fermented mayonnaise which the kids prefer to eat by the spoonful... hmmmmmmmmmm.

Prepare: Carrot muffins and chocolate muffins frozen for school lunches.  Chocolate, yes I know, maybe not the healthiest, but homemade is always a better option right?  Froze lots of passionfruit pulp.

Reduce:  Called in at an op shop (on the way to Lincraft to buy some more embroidery thread), and guess what?  I found a big bag of embroidery threads in a variety of colours for $2.  I won't need to buy thread for a very long time.  
  I didn't realize how many sheets of A4 paper come into the house and get thrown out ! So now I keep them all, as long as they are blank on the back, and cut them either in half or quarters for kids to draw on, and for note paper for me.  Have also been keeping all envelopes that come in the post - not so many these days, but if I carefully slit the tops open, they can be reused for stashing scrap paper or small sewing patterns, or to be donated to school.  And as luck would have it, this month in my daughters class room, they have a post office corner.

Green: Made my second batch of laundry liquid.  Can't believe how much money I'm saving with that stuff.  Also made a fresh batch of citrus cleaner which leaves my bench tops smelling so lovely and clean.  I have made a few lotion bars - they are lovely to use.  And for the first time, I had a go at making some sunscreen and an insect repellent and both work, so I'm pretty happy about that.  Now I'm trialing my first batch of homemade toothpaste, so far so good.

Grow: Not doing so much here....I let my basil go to seed and now there are seedlings popping up all over the place.

Create:  Skirts for the girls, a cute little felt hen and chicks,, a couple of baby dolls and felt starfish.  Also some flower girl bendy dolls....I've been in a bit of a crafty mood !

Discover:  I've started reading Nutrition and Physical Degeneration  by Weston A. Price - really interesting.  Sally Fallons Nourishing Traditions Book is just permanently lying around somewhere begging to be opened any chance I get, such a wealth of information in there.  And the other book - yes another food book, I found The Free Range Cook by Annabel Langbein, full of wonderful recipes, I might just have to buy it someday. 

And speaking of discoveries, I saw this on the way to school this morning, anyone know what kind of a nest it might be?  The width of it would be about the same as my hand length, and it is sitting on the ground attached to the base of a tree.

 Enhance:   A few weeks ago I found, completely by chance a Steiner inspired playgroup in my local area. They had been running for only 2 weeks when I found them so I'm pretty happy about that - great to be with like minded people!  I've offered to make the bread dough for the kids each week - they love to 'make' bread. 

Enjoy:  I have really enjoyed the few days of rain we've had recently to break the humidity, and cool the earth for just a little while.  I've also enjoyed seeing how excited Ruby is to be at school, she loves learning new things, and is surprising me with how quickly she is picking things up.  Love talking to my big girls on skype - thank goodness for modern technology ! (sometimes !!)

slow living in 2012...

Anyone who knows me well enough, knows that I love to cook from scratch.  I love to try strange things( like fermenting foods) that will provide my family with good health.  I love to make my own skin care products.  I love to use natural things to clean my home, and myself.  I love to make handmade toys for my children.  I love to pick fresh herbs from my garden. I love to tick one more thing off the list that I don't have to buy at a supermarket.  I love that I can choose to make my home as chemical free as I can.  I love to be somewhat self sufficient,  and I love the challenge of being able to make things rather than buy them.  All of these things help me to enjoy my version of living simply, and if you haven't already guessed, I love it like that !

Christine, over at a blog called Slow Living Essentials has come up with a brilliant idea.  She has created an outline for a monthly blog diary based around 9 slow living categories.   I've decided to join in with her, and hopefully many others, and will post a monthly diary based on my goals and achievments for each one.
Here's a list of the 9 categories below, but for a full explanation, head over to her blog. 

SLOW LIVING - Month by Month 2012NOURISH: Make and bake as much as possible from scratch. Ditch overpackaged, overprocessed convenience foods and opt for 'real' food instead. Share favourite links/recipes/tips from the month here.

PREPARE: Stockpile and preserve. Freeze extra meals or excess garden/market produce. Bottle/can, dehydrate or pickle foods to enjoy when they are not in season. Aim to reduce dependancy on store bought items especially those known to contain BPA and other suspect additives. Stocking up on dry goods when prices are low counts too.

REDUCE: Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing. A ladder into a strawberry planter? A sheet into a dress? Share ideas and project links here, allowing others to be inspired.

GREEN: up our lives. Start (or continue!) using homemade cleaners, body products and basic herbal remedies. The options are endless, the savings huge and the health benefits enormous.

GROW: plant/harvest. What's growing this month? What's being eaten from the garden? Herbs in a pot, sprouts on a windowsill or and entire fruit/vegetable garden -opt for what fits space and time constraints. Don't have a backyard? Ask a friendly neighbour or relative for a small patch of theirs in return for some home grown produce, they may surprise you!

CREATE: to fill a need or feed the soul. Create for ourselves or for others. Create something as simple as a handmade gift tag or something as extravagant as a fine knit shawl. Share project details and any new skills learnt here.

DISCOVER: Feed the mind by reading texts relevant to current interests. Trawl libraries, second hand shops or local book shops to find titles that fill the need. Share titles/authors of what is being read this month.

ENHANCE: community: Possibilities include supporting local growers & producers, help out at a local school/kindergarten, barter or foodswap, joining a playgroup or forming a walking or craft group. Car pooling where possible and biking/walking instead of driving. Even start up a blog if you haven't already - online communities count too! Or maybe just help out someone trying to cross the street! The rewards for your time are often returned tenfold.

ENJOY: Life! Embrace moments with friends and family. Marking the seasons, celebrations and new arrivals are all cause for enjoyment. Share a moment to be remembered from the month here.

Carole's slow living - Month 1 (January)

NOURISH: We've had a great start to the year with our decision to prepare and eat more 'real' food.  My favourite salad was this blackbean, sweet corn and capsicum salad, made using dried black beans from the storage cupboard.  Made kefir cheese and loved it, need to get creative and use more of it.  Continuing to make milk and water kefir, so glad the kids love it.  Need to make time to freeze some home baking for school lunches.  Make sure there are always enough left overs from dinner for my husbands lunch the next day.  Must make a sour dough starter.

PREPARE:  Mango chutney, frozen mango slices, fish stock, chicken stock and beef stock for the freezer.  Went through our emergency pack, time to rotate some of the food , and need to add digital copies of important documents.

REDUCE:  Cut up an old towel to use as baby wipe cloths.  Cut the legs of my husbands old work pants and made them into work shorts. 

GREEN:  Have a nice fresh batch of olive oil body lotion, coconut oil face moisturizer
                 and  deodorant in the bathroom.  Would like to find a good toothpaste recipe that we will use.

GROW:  thyme, basil, chives, parsley, sage, stevia, ginger, turmeric.

CREATE:  the kids love their new felt toys - a horse and an elephant.

DISCOVER:  From the library, "Bills Everyday Asian" by Bill Granger - BEST Asian cookbook ever! 

ENHANCE: COMMUNITY:  Walking with my daughter to school and home again every day, and  keeping my blog active.

ENJOY: LIFE: Australia Day - first time Ruby  watched fireworks and wasn't scared...and the first time Marlise has seen fireworks, EVER!  and they both loved it.