Food for thought

I am a Titus 2:4-5 Woman. I am sober, I love my husband, I love my children, I am discreet, I am chaste, I am a keeper of the home, good, obedient to my own husband, that the word of God be not blasphemed. How about you?

.

What a week!

It's been quite a successful and 'blessing filled' week...

Sunday was Girls and Boys Brigade Parade Service at church
Here's Melinda almost ready to go.


We then had a lovely new friend and her children back for lunch... it's extra nice when you find 'easy to get along with' people!

We have gotten much bookwork done with home ed... slowly starting to catch up! Our new maths curriculum arrived - we're moving from 'Easy Learn Maths' to 'Math-U-See'... I'll explain 'why' in another post. In a week or two we will begin the new work. I need to unpack some tools to use with it first - they're in a box around here somewhere!!

I'm pretty impressed with Melinda's writing (8yo) (we're not moving to cursive for a few years yet) I will admit I do push the 'neat' thing in our house. Adults with barely legible printing & writing drive me NUTS!!

(in the picture, the ants are carrying a pen - I had thought it was an airplane!)

Wednesday we had some of our favourite people drop by - my friend Marion and their 7 children - it's so wonderful to open the back door and see the yard dotted with children happily playing together. They live a couple of hours away so it's something that can take some planning! We'll be headed their way in the next week-ish (If she lets me!!)

Thursday I had an old/new friend stop by and we got chatting about kids, behaviour, parenting etc... again so nice to chat with people who have God in their lives!

...and then Today!

This morning we were once again productive with bookwork and so had a free afternoon. The children and I drove out to Sassafras in The Dandenongs to find old fashioned FUDGE... we found it!

We also found this

Nathaniel does a lovely girl - don't you think?

.

Once A Month Cooking - Not Me!

If I had a bunch of 'kitchen hands' I might be able to pull it off... but while I only have 2... who have small hands and are still in training ... I don't think I'll ever truly attempt it!
Have you ever tried it? Cooking everything for a month in one day?

I can see the benefits but I can't convince myself to pay the immediate cost... so many dishes, so much thinking, tired feet, sore back... and not to mention how crusty my hands would be at the end of it!!


On the other hand... I'm not a cook it every night kind of person. I think I grew up with this for the most part. Meat and 3 veg kind of has to be done like that, don't you think?



While sitting here typing, I have a huge pot of spaghetti sauce simmering away on the stove... at least enough for 4 meals (I'd say 5 however we have guests for lunch tomorrow so that's where the extra is going)... though the pot is big enough that I could have doubled it again and had enough for 10 meals - maybe next time?

I sometimes like to cook a couple of different dishes at the same time. Spag sauce is good for this (though not happening tonight) because once it's on the stove it just needs to simmer for a couple of hours with little attention. It's a good time to look ahead at the menu plan and see what can be prepared ahead with next to no change in the outcome of the meal.

Some things l like to make ahead and leave in the fridge for later in the week...
~Zucchini slice (pick up hot chips on the way home one night and it goes well with the zucchini slice and a quick salad)
~Broccoli and/or cauliflower cheese bake
~Tuna pasta bake (freezes well too - some have told me that freezing pasta doesn't work for them... but I never have an issue... I'll explain what I do to freeze pasta dishes in another post)
~Taco mince
~Soups: zucchini; chicken, corn and noodle; beef & barley
~Rice for fried rice
~Mashed potato... spread it into a casserole dish and drag a fork over the top to make it look pretty. Sprinkle some cheese over the top when baking to heat and it's all good!
~Sausages... cooked ahead can save some time on a busy evening. Easily heated in a casserole dish in the oven or in the fry pan with a lid.

As a general rule, I like to get dinner happening soon after breakfast - if it's not already done. It means that even when the day gets crazy that dinner is taken care of :o)


.

A Nation Transformed Through Prayer

Please friends, take the time to watch this
N xx

Life in Photos

The lemon tree - after a severe pruning (about 1/3 gone!)
Hoping it will help the lemons grow to a decent size now

An hour at home alone got the calendar organised. The most fun bit was blocking out a week for a family holiday to Phillip Island in October :o)

Sprung! Timothy and water LOL - or rather anything that can make a mess. This time though he was actually being helpful!
oh, and Nj - his head at the bottom... anything to get in a photo, he took a dive across the floor to get in it!!


Timothy 'helping' to open Melinda's birthday gifts.. 'I wreck it, I wreck it', he said as he helped (he'd been told to not 'wreck it' when he'd tried unwrapping it earlier)


In awe of the new baby in the house

Out the window!

When I googled for pictures that fit 'out the window' this one came up - and a whole bunch of 'huh?' ones that just don't fit the phrase at all! Where did the phrase come from anyway?

So!... I have come to realise over this last week of attempting to get back into some sort of routine, that all of life has 'gone out the window' with all our moving dramas. NOTHING is working well.
This means I am starting from scratch. Sigh.
So start from scratch I will.

Next week Pete is taking the kids to visit Grandma down at the beach for 2 days. I was going to be unpacking. Thinking it through I have come to the conclusion that I am better off doing some serious planning/organising etc for this time

Mostly school stuff
Followed by daily jobs/routines
Followed by food/meal management

Note to self: The printer is showing low on black ink... I'd better buy the replacement before I am without car otherwise I can guarantee it will run out on the first page printed on the first morning they are away

What I'd like to know is
-Do you have routines/schedules and if so, how well do you stick to them?-How often do you take the time to review and shake them up?
-If you don't, are you getting as much done as you'd like to/could?

I feel like I am wanting this


but starting with this

.

My Laundry

I was working in my laundry for the first time today and I must say...
although rather odd... I do love it!

Can you see it? It's on the right hand side of the house (but not the garage and workshop which is the separate building)
This is the view from about 2m in front of the back fence.

This is taken from just in front of my laundry - loving the huge yard and the kids are too!

This next one is taken from the same spot and is to the right of the above photograph.
The path on the right of the above photo is the same as the path on the left in the photo below

and here's a close up of my laundry *grin*

That's right... it's outside LOL and what a view I have! Was pretty nice to be able to pull the towels out of the machine, spin around and hang them up

.