Once again on a Monday I am multitasking, I am currently making bread, washing clothes, writing my blog and trying to eat breakfast. Unfortunately the dishes won't do themselves and we don't have a dishwasher, also the floors also won't sweep themselves nor the beds get made alone.

We have been away for a lot of the weekend at a work Christmas party which was an overnighter. We had a lot of fun and our number one and only son spent lots of time watching the large plasma TV in his room, watching the TV from his bath and enjoying the all you can eat buffet that night and for breakfast the next morning. He wishes his stomach was bigger to fit in more of the yummy food.

However, I am now playing catch up as no work clothes got washed or any other clothes, no bread got made for lunches so I am doing it now. In saying that though, that is really how we have organised our life. I do most of the housework and gardening, grocery shopping and other running around so we can spend time together as a family do the things we want to do. Next weekend will busy too the same as we have a BMX carnival all weekend.

It came up in conversation once, with a dad whose wife had recently gone back to work full time and one of the things he hated doing on a weekend was the grocery shopping. It took up a good half a day of the weekend (by the time they got there, shopped, went home and put everything away) and he couldn't plan anything else. If she had to shop so did he, as they were both working, unfortunately so did the kids and I don't think they liked it much either. I know our number one and only son hates shopping and trys to get out of it during school holidays, but I have decided that occasionally I can have company in misery so he has to come too. So we are lucky in that we don't have to spend time on the weekend doing things like that and can instead go kyaking or BMXing without feeling guilty.


We have started painting the house, wow, what a difference that makes. I have always hated the dirty yellow colour the house was when we bought it, and it has taken all this time to do something about it. It looks so clean now, so while we are in the process of doing this we are also sorting out stuff to get rid of, and just a general tidy up that you only do every now and again. Things like throwing out the solar lights in the garden that no longer work, putting the gardening stuff into the shed where it belongs instead of in the outdoor area, and binning the old fish tank that no longer worked but thought we might use it for something (not sure what but something).


It feels good to have a declutter, it gives you more space when you thought you needed more cupboards, it makes things clean and everything looks great. There is also less places for cockroaches (which are coming out a bit now with the warm weather and I have had to put down baits), spiders, mice (which we get from time to time) and other crawlies, however as a twelve year old, our number one and only son will just say yeah yeah and continue on his merry way with stuff all over his room. Oh well, such is life.

Best get on now, washing to hang, bread to knead, floors to sweep, dishes to do, walls to paint, busy busy busy and when these things are done, then I can go out and do exciting things on the weekend (and they are exciting because we don't do them every day). I guess that is why everything else seems ordinary :)

We Got Our Electricity Bill

We got our electricity bill the other day and as usual I am not happy about it, I always think we could use less electricity than we do. In saying that, we have been told that we are using around 33% less electricity than others in our area, it is apparently the new thing to let us know, so we feel better I guess. So that means that other people use way more than us and I would really hate to have their bill.

We try to be very conscious about our usage, turning off appliances when we are done (we used to know people who had the TV on from about 6am to about 11pm every day), turn off lights and fans when we go out of rooms, have solar hot water (which works way better now the tree out the front is gone) all those sorts of things. My partner in crime and life thinks we live in the dark and that I am obsessed sometimes, I just think it is worth it, and he doesn't complain when the bills are lower :) It is no problem and we still do all the things we want, we just turn them off when we are finished. So what are all the other people out in the world doing to have higher electricity bills than us?


I take the environment pretty seriously, we reuse, recycle and the other r word that eludes me right now. We try not to use chemicals, buy natural products or make them, have a vegetable garden and fruit trees, cook from scratch and don't buy processed food (mostly), have short showers (except for the 12 year old of the house, despite having no less than three timers in the shower). We are not always good but we try.


I also recently bought (though could have made if I was smart enough) vegetable bags to reduce (there is the other r word) the amount of plastic bags we collect, and of course use reusable shopping bags (various types as I love bags), however we still manage to get plastic bags. We also rarely use plastic wrap, I have it in the house but it is just sitting on the shelf, sandwiches get put into those nude food containers (sounds rude, that is why I really like the name :) and other containers with lids. Leftovers in containers with lids, reusable drink bottles for water, all that stuff, just no plastic wrap.


I can often smell the neighbours washing powder from my house and other cleaning products, how strong must they be to smell them from here. I see people who randomly spray for weeds and kill everything else as well, then also wonder why they get a headache, I just think these things are not necessary as we have the technology and intelligence to find alternatives. Even our number one and only son complains about the strong smells of chemical cleaners, and he always says no to plastic bags and prefers homemade food (except for the occasional fish and chips).

When grocery shopping I try not to buy food that has lots of plastic, and is full of preservatives and additives. I dont always get what I want (others go without rather than buy packaged food, I am not that good, I just aspire to be) but sometimes I just buy it, so therefore I reuse plastic trays and any bags, jars and bottles, and spend a lot of time shopping. I read ingredients labels and agonise over whether I can live with the packaging and is it able to be reused or recycled (I don't like shopping very much).

I am not sure if we are to blame for climate change or not, but it doesn't matter as we shouldn't be polluting our backyards, we have to live here, and seeing I am going to live to 150 years, I want a world that isn't dead and smelly. So I do the best I can, with the information I have, and I will keep trying to get that electricity bill lower :)

Building and Painting

Busy times coming up to Christmas, this week certainly has been. We have had a school presentation night (two hours) and worth it as our number one and only son got an award. It was an academic award for Health and Physical Education and he was very proud as are we.

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Over the weekend I had to go to Bunnings to buy some paint and while there attended one of their workshops. I had never done that before but found it was well worthwhile, I made a go-cart, who knew I had it in me? They did give us lots of help and it has now been partially painted, and it was free.

I do like to learn new skills, even if I don't become very good I like to give it a go and to gain a bit of knowledge along the way. Not everything is for everyone but I find lots of things interesting and at least try, I do like the practical skills and being able to achieve and have something to show for my efforts, like a go-cart. I am thinking it will be useful to cart my gardening stuff around the yard, might have to add a back onto it though.

Talking of practical stuff, I have started painting the house, have only done one coat on a small corner but it is a start. It desperately needs doing and haven't started till now as my partner in crime and life was worried I would paint the house purple and orange or some such thing (in all fairness, I did consider purple but we may be selling this year so thought that white would be best) :)

So, off to do a Tai Chi class with my lovely ladies (and occasionally men), I never know what will come up in conversation, some things very thought provoking and some hilarious, but always interesting. Every class is different, some go well, some not so much but I always try and improve if I am not happy with the way things have gone, I don't like that feeling at all. I guess though, that those are the things that make us continually strive to improve (I do lots of striving).

As I sit here typing away I am washing the clothes, making bread and yogurt, growing sprouts and planning the rest of the day. They say you should be multiskilled and be able to do more than one thing at a time, but at least these things take care of themselves once I have them under way, I believe you should only think of, and only do one thing at a time otherwise you get flustered (hard to do in our fastpaced lifewith with everyone expecting more). I just like the non-guilty feeling I get when I stop for a cup of tea knowing stuff is going on without me :)


This is my sprouting tray, it actually has three levels. It was a Christmas gift last year from my partner in crime and life (made sure I was very specific about what I wanted so I would get it) :)

My partner in crime and life turned 42 years yesterday, luckily he didn't have to work, well not at his workplace anyway. We did take a trailer load of palm fronds and other garden material to the tip, the council had their once a year, one week only deal to take garden material to the tip for free. I am sure I remember when they didn't charge for this at all, all year, then I am sure it was for a month now we have week. If they want people to clean up for the cyclone season, I really think they need more than a week.

Not only did we take palms to the tip but my partner in crime and life cut down a small tree out the front, good thing gone. Also a lesson learned for him is to wear shoes while doing these things, he never wears shoes and so he nearly trod on a snake, which turned out to be dead, and then he thought he accidently killed it, but on closer inspection it had eaten a cane toad poor thing. Don't want to eat those, they make the dog froth at the mouth.



We also took our new kayaks out, we just went to the creek up the road so took about two minutes to get there. They are great, can't wait to get a third one so we can all go out together. My shoulders are sore this morning and my right leg? Can't figure that one out, oh and my fingers too.


I have to show off my new bed cover, I try to only buy useful things (I think I do anyway) with the exception of books (my biggest weakness) but I really wanted this, it is pretty only and serves no other purpose. It is like in the good old days when we had bed covers on the top and it tucked in over the pillow. We obviously have more than one pillow under there, it does tidy it up and looks great. It has elephants on it, I love it :)

So that got me thinking (at 2am this morning, shouldn't think at that time) about something I read in a book over the weekend about having layers on the bed. Instead of having one doona, we should have a few layers of woollen blankets, that way we can regulate our temperature. If we are a bit warm can take off one layer or two or a bit cold do the reverse, rather than only having one layer and it is either on or off. We have a summer blanket and warmer blanket, and also one I crocheted and is only wide enough for one, but is lovely and warm when needed (by me).

I hadn't thought about it, but I do use the layers and having only one layer wouldn't suit me at all as sometimes I only need a light blanket, other times I need all of them (all in one night). Our number one and only son is the same, he has three blankets on his bed and regulates his temperature with his layers. It all makes perfect sense now :)

No Coffee For Me

Well, my garden is all woeful and I haven't done any knitting or crochet and I haven't finished the Christmas shopping. My hair was annoying me so I cut about six inches off it this morning, hopefully more manageable for the summer.

The rain we have had this week has been great but now the grass is growing, can't be happy can we, and I also can't start the whipper snipper. It is too hot for many things to grow at this time of year so I haven't done much in the garden but it does need a tidy up. The pigeon peas have fallen over in the rain and taken the passionfruit with it, so that needs cutting back too. However in looking around all is not lost.


Another bunch of bananas was discovered while our visitor was here, I didn't see it as it was on the other side of the plant, so far not as big as the other one but you never know, it has time (not that I know anything about the life cycle of bananas).


The lime tree seems to be flowering with a vengeance and of course the flowers smell lovely. The orange tree in a pot has three oranges on it, the only one we got last year was the best orange I had ever tasted, they don't look very flash but they are very tasty. The lemon tree, also in a pot, is looking a bit sad but has quite a few lemons, probably should fertilise them.


I missed the coffee bush flowering, well I was aware but didn't look really close, so now it has coffee beans on it. We have a lot in the freezer and we really need to process them, I have the instructions and it seems pretty straight forward, so maybe after this lot has turned red and I remember to pick them I will process them. Thing is, I am not a coffee drinker so I don't have a lot of motivation to do it, but I should just to see if I can, then my partner in crime and life can tell me if it tastes any good.


The mulberry tree is on the last of it's fruit but the barbados cherry is flowering, and the mangoes are coming along except the bats are now getting in and eating them. They need to ripen up quickly so we can pick them. Also the galangal (which is like ginger) is flowering, this is the first time I have seen it do that.


The rain is bringing out the green tree frogs and we have a couple of big ones around, however it is the babies that I love to see, they are so tiny and cute, I get quite a few in the vege garden.

Well, after having a bit of a whinge about how the garden isn't producing much, it really is when I look at. We can still go out into the garden and pick greens for a salad (sweet leaf, abika, kang kong, mushroom plant, betel leaf, spring onion, chives, gota kola) and the fruit trees are producing. So I feel better now, I like knowing I can feed the family to a degree from our garden, and soon we will be eating mangoes, bananas, passion fruit and maybe drinking coffee, well, no coffee for me :)