My Monday Morning

I had a productive morning on Monday. It felt wonderful. I had been thinking about some changes I could make to use my time more valuably .  Being a Mum, I was finding I always had just small pockets of time throughout the day. A few moments here or a half an hour there around the school routine and it felt like I wasn't fitting in some regular practices important to me.

I decided I needed to start walking regularly again and fit in ten minutes of meditation every day.  It just makes me feel so much better.  However, I was finding it hard to do it at a regular times as my daughter had different things on throughout the week, sometimes she had to be at school early, other times she had after school activities, plus life in general.  I was finding if I left it until the end of the day, mostly it wouldn't happen.  I just couldn't get into a routine. Our weeks constantly change with things like school excursions, husband away for work sometimes, you get it.  So I had to think a bit more flexibly.

I decided I needed to do the walk and meditation in the morning. There is more chance I will do it.   I thought  if I couldn't walk before she went to school, I would walk as soon as I got home from dropping her off.  I'm trying to commit to at least 3 walks a week and meditation every day. It was a great start on Monday and often just starting is the hardest part.  I'll share some of my Monday morning with you.

Walking shoes on - a good start!

I got up earlier, slipped on my walking gear, headed downstairs and started preparing lunch for my daughter.  I chatted to my husband before he went to work.   My daughter and I continued on our morning routine.  We had a delicious concoction of scrambled eggs with grated vegetables mixed through it.  We both enjoyed this nourishing breakfast.

I got my daughter off to school, popped into the shops to pick up a few groceries and got home.  Out the door for my walk I went.

Walking has always makes me feel good and it sets me up for the day.  I walked around our neighbourhood for 20 minutes, breathing in the fresh air and feeling the sun on my skin.  I love to walk and look at all the houses.  It interests me.  I might come home with an idea for our own.  Sometimes I might see their pets at the window or on the driveway.  I always say hello to fellow walkers.

My neighbourhood

But the thing I noticed the most on this particular Monday walk were the scents in the air.  Past a wattle tree I walked, I didn't see it, but that familiar smell made me breathe a bit deeper.  A few minutes later, the strong scent of a curry plant filled the air. It was planted in the front garden bed of the house I was walking past.   Again I breathed deeper to soak up that smell.  And lastly as I was on my way home, the smell of freshly cut grass wafted in the morning air.  I love that smell.  Just Breathe.

There are lots of parks around my neighbourhood

Home I went and was greeted at the window by this beautiful boy.

I came in, had big glass of water and got straight into my meditation.  I like to lie in our rumpus room, it has beautiful light in the morning.  I quietened my mind and breathed deeply.   I can't always stop the whirling thoughts very well, but if all I do is stop and breathe, it is worth it.

Next the cooking began.  I made this absolutely delicious salad.  So many components but totally worth it.  Roasted carrots with garlic, cumin, sumac and lemon juice.  I could have eaten the whole tray just like that.  Homegrown kale, stir fried with garlic and olive oil.  Roasted hazelnuts.  Brown rice and a delicious orange maple dressing.  Add some freshly chopped parsley, mix it all up and YUM.  The flavours were amazing together.

Then I baked this bread, a version of the No Knead Bread.  Raisin Bread.  The smell of that baking in the oven is to die for.   My daughter had a lovely afternoon tea waiting for her.

The clock hit twelve noon and that was my Monday morning. Productive and good for the soul. Not every day is like this in the messy chaos of life. But walking and meditating helps me to maintain some calm in the busy days.  I'll hold onto the memory of that morning, the way I felt that morning.

Guacamole

I make this often.  Lately I have been making it for my daughter for afternoon tea.  She loves it and it is so very simple.  Avocados are one of the very best foods we can eat, containing many beneficial nutrients. This guacamole is a great way to use up any avocados you may have that are slightly overripe. We use lots of raw vegetables as the dippers, it is such a great way to consume a lot of vegetables in an incredibly tasty way.   Sometimes we will eat it with some organic corn chips too. Here is my very simple version:

Guacamole

Ingredients
1 large avocado
1/2 clove fresh garlic, very finely chopped
lemon or lime juice to taste
salt and pepper and pepper to taste

Method
1. Cut the avocado in half.  Scoop out the flesh into a bowl.
2.Roughly mash with a fork.
3.Add the garlic, lemon or lime juice and salt and pepper.
4.Mix together and Enjoy!

**I like to add some fresh or dried chilli for added spice.  You could also add some very finely diced onion, coriander and tomato.  I keep it simple as that is how my daughter likes it.

**It doesn't keep very well so best eaten on the day it is made.

Many dips we buy in the supermarket are expensive, have added ingredients to preserve their shelf life and are packaged in plastic.

This dip can be made in around 5 minutes.  It is perfect to make if you are having people around, as it is low cost, delicious and healthy.  It has no artificial ingredients or preservatives.  Children love it too.  I hope you try it, I am sure you won't be disappointed.

Spreading Joy with the Gift of Food

Sharing food spreads joy, in so many different ways.  Whether you are the giver or receiver I am sure you have felt that joy in at least one small way.  I feel it all the time and it warms my heart. I share food with my family, friends and neighbours. It is a gift that is well received by everyone, no matter their age. It is a simple gift but one you cannot put a price on.  Let me tell you some stories about the joy it brings me.

Homegrown navel oranges from our neighbour

My neighbour grows an enormous variety of edible food in his backyard.  He shares it with us often.  We are always having chats over the fence about growing produce.  We are learning so much from each other. We don't have a lot to share with him yet, but last week, he gave me some beautiful homegrown navel oranges.  I am going to make one into a Whole Orange Cake and we will share some of that cake with him.  He just loves our chickens and we share eggs with him too sometimes.  Joy!  How lovely it is to live near like-minded people who truly appreciate the value of such food. Already over the year we have been here, he has gifted us with bananas, mulberries, oranges, persimmons, dragonfruit, figs, panama berries and these exquisite berries.  Native raspberries. 

Our neighbour on the other side celebrated her birthday a few weeks ago.  She is in her eighties. We made her these delicious chocolate oat biscuits, packaged them up and we all went around to give them to her on the afternoon of her birthday.  She was so happy.  As we were leaving her daughter-in-law arrived.  The next morning she told my husband she and her daughter-in-law chatted and ate the biscuits with a quite a few cups of tea.  She said, "tell Belinda that those biscuits were delicious, that was my dinner last night!"  That story made me smile inside.  I could imagine them enjoying those biscuits and catching up.  I played a part in their joy!

My family are Italian and we are big on sharing food.  If I drop into my parents' house, you can almost bet I'm coming home with something food related.  Whether Mum has picked me up a big wedge of parmesan cheese from the European deli, or Dad has caught some fish that he has fried up and it's waiting in the fridge.  Dad is Vice President of his Italian Club and when they have events, he will often come home with a big bag of Italian Crostoli  (a fried pastry dusted with icing sugar).  These are so time consuming to make and need more than one pair of hands, so we don't get to cook them very much.  I really look forward to receiving them, they connect me to my heritage.  What a delicious gift. 

A big wedge of Parmesan cheese- yum!

Even my small nieces are understanding the joy of receiving the gift of food.  They are three and five and come over for dinner every Tuesday night. Often I will send some baked treats home with them.  They love my biscuits and my Mum told me, that when she was looking after them last week, they were excited to tell her they had brought  "Aunty Belinda's biscuits to have for afternoon tea".  At this young age, they are starting to understand this pleasure.  That makes me smile too.

My friend once started up a group called the "Ladies Preserving Society". Every season we would each make a preserve.  We would then meet, taste them, chat about them, vote on our favourites, share the recipes and each take home around eight jars of different preserves.  It was a lovely way to connect with like-minded people, of all different ages and backgrounds and we came home with pretty jars of homemade preserves.   Such an enriching experience.

My winning preserve- Strawberry Chilli Sauce

Often,  I share produce with my friends or family.  Sometimes I will take a bunch of kale and herbs to friends if we a catching up, instead of bringing flowers.  They are so grateful.  We chat about ways in which to use it or cook it.  They are always interesting conversations, sometimes they lead to chats about a special family recipe or hints we can learn from each other. Those delightful exchanges are sparked because we shared some food.

Our Russian Kale and Silverbeet

Lemons, gifted from a friend

I don't think we fully understand the ripple effect of this homemade joy, of how many people it touches.   We eat that food and we think of that person, we talk about that person, we tell others about that person and we smile.  We feel their love or their kindness with every bite.  The effects are far reaching and they are so worthwhile.  Spreading joy, we can always do with more of that in our world. 

Meet Crunchie

Firstly I would like to say a huge thank you to all the readers, everyone who has left a comment and welcomed me into the world of blogging.  It is very encouraging and it is lovely to have you here.  It will be great to have you following along on our life journey.

Crunchie is our 10 month old mischievous kitten who has brought much love and laughter into our home.  He is a rescue kitten, found dumped on the side of the road with his mother and 3 siblings in a cardboard box.  It was estimated the kittens were around 4 weeks old when they were found.  He was taken to a foster carer and at 8 weeks old we brought him home.  My daughter said that was the best day of her life!  He came home in December 2016.  The first day of the school holidays.

The day we brought him home

He was named Crunchie after the chocolate bar, by his foster carer.  My daughter and husband said it suited him, so the name stuck.  Our previous cat was named Oreo, are you seeing the theme?

We haven't had a kitten for our long time and I forgot how much work they could be.  The first week my husband slept downstairs with him at night so he didn't feel lonely.  It was like having a new baby!  He constantly wanted to play and if anything moved he was pouncing on it, even if you accidently moved your toes while watching TV.  When we wanted to rest he ALWAYS wanted to play. He needed feeding around 4 times a day.  But I must say he was litter box trained so thankfully there were no problems there. However there were screens to be climbed especially if he saw a moth or gecko, curtains to hang off and paper to chew up.  Lucky he was cute!

Even now, we are always laughing at something he is doing.  He may not be the most handsome looking cat, but he is full of character.  My daughter just loves him, and told me the other day, she couldn't imagine her life without him.  He sleeps on her bed every night and when my husband goes to bed, he puts him in the laundry.  When he gets let out in the morning, he gets fed, then runs straight up to see my daughter (often waking her by walking all over her and sniffing her face).  He is very aware of our routines.

Best buddies from the beginning

Crunchie is always around  when I go about my daily tasks.  If I open a cupboard, he is in it.  If I run upstairs to grab something, he runs after me (and always beats me, I didnt know it was a race!) When I am cooking, he is at my feet or supervising at the breakfast bar and when we are relaxing, he is always around.  He even sits on the bathmat and waits while we are showering, lately opening the shower door!

He is like no other cat I have ever had.  He is very comfortable around children, he has an easy going nature and the vets always comment on how placid he is when he visits.  He can be carried around and he doesn't mind a tummy rub or playing dress ups!

I have always had cats growing up and love their presence in my life.  There is a feeling of comfort they provide by just being there.

But Crunchie's short life hasn't always been smooth sailing.  And I''ll write about that in another post.

Our New (Old) House

We have been living in our home for one year this month.  I'm not one to move around a lot, so this house hopefully will be our last for many years to come.  We thought long and hard about moving and it took a year of looking around until we found the right house for our family. 

Our New (Old) House

Previously we were living on a small block of land, in a brand new house that we built with the help of my parents, Designer - Mum, Builder - Dad.  It was a great house with a huge amount of storage, a big kitchen with lots of bench space and two ovens. Everything in it was sparkling and new.

Kitchen in our previous house (this photo was taken when it went up for sale- it certainly didn't always look like this!)

Our kitchen now

But as the years went on, our daughter grew and with the life we wanted to create becoming more apparent, we realised that this house wasn't suiting us.  It barely had a backyard, the layout of the house didn't allow for entertaining a big extended family, we were close to a main road and we had our chooks on the spare block of land next door (which was owned by my parents, but we knew that we weren't going to be able to use that land forever).

Backyard in our previous house

Don't get me wrong, we had 6 years living in that house and we were very grateful to have the chance to build.  It certainly was an "experience", especially when your father is the builder.  And it was wonderful to live in a brand new brick house.  We made the most of it and grew vegetables in the small area we had allocated for vegetable beds, we bought our chooks and built a chook pen for them and we lived our simple life values as much as we could in the space we had.  As Rhonda from Down to Earth often writes about,  'bloom where you are planted'. That quote really stuck with me and I tried to live by that.

Our space for growing vegetables in our previous house

Some of the space in our new yard where we will build vegetable beds and a chook run. It gets lots of sun.

But deep down, I always knew that new didn't necessarily make you feel content.  Lots of stars aligned for us last year and we found the home we were looking for.  For me there is so much to love about this house.  But it is vastly different to our last house.  It is just over 30 years old, a solid brick home, in original condition. It has been maintained beautifully and is in such good condition, considering its age.  It has only had one owner, in a wonderful street and has a sizeable backyard with lots of visiting wildlife.  There is room for our chooks, we have friendly neighbours and the layout of the house is so wonderful for entertaining. It has beautiful windows looking out to the backyard, a lovely outdoor area and the list goes on!  Sure, we will have to update parts in the coming years.  But we have been able to move in and live comfortably and cosily without having to change a thing.  It just feels right.

View from my kitchen window now - I love I can see the chooks going about their day.

Entertaining area in our new house

Over the coming months and years, we will slowly be making some changes, which I will record on this blog.  Our first is to put in some permanent vegetable patches with a linked in chook run.  My husband and I have talked about it for a few months now.  Hopefully we will begin that project soon. 

Some people thought we were mad to leave a brand new house.  But we couldn't be happier.