THANK YOU

Thank you friends for your comments yesterday. Today I took the advise of my lovely online friend Rose and I have pretty much done whatever I've felt like doing. A bit of cooking and a bit of gardening and now I'm going to enjoy doing a tapestry that my mum gave me for my birthday last year.

Impossible Quiche - recipe from Rhonda at Down To Earth.

Bottling the last of the beetroot.

Planting out some new herbs with the more mature ones.

I AM A HOMEMAKER

I don't know how to describe how I'm feeling other than 'not quite right'. I'm healthy enough so that's a good thing but there is so much going on in my head, so many things I want to achieve and I simply don't know where to start.

I thought that doing a monthly market would make me happy. Turns out I spend way too much stressing over making products and it's beginning to affect my family. I know I'm trying to contribute to our income but when it comes down to it, I'm spending heaps on supplies (I've given up adding the dockets), using any spare time to create products, and I can't even put a decent price on them for fear of not selling enough.

I am considering leaving my 2 part time jobs at the end of the year. My job as a quilt teacher is barely existent. I usually have to cancel the class especially when only 2 students are coming. I would rather spend my time at home with my family than go to work for 3 hours and earn next to nothing for my effort.

My other job as a playgroup leader is good consistant work but I know I could use that time at home cooking, cleaning or gardening and therefore saving money.

I really feel that my job is as a homemaker, it's where I want to be. I am very lucky to have such a supportive husband who insists that I do whatever makes me happy. We don't have a lot of money, we stick to a very tight budget that has now become tighter due to Dan going to England in 2013 to play school cricket. What I do know is that even on one wage we will get him there through how we live our lives, how I budget and becoming a better, more efficient home-maker.

Sorry for the rambling, it seems I have some decisions to make.

THIS WEEK

Thanks to everyone that responded to my post about my drier. As you can see, it's now gone and I have somewhere to put my laundry basket. Now that it is gone I am reminded of the wall behind that needs plastering! I had better get onto that.

:: I spent some time potting up my tomato plants from the seed trays. There should be a bumper crop for sauce this season.

:: Toothless Sophie seems to be getting quite rich from the tooth fairy!

:: Our car has cost a lot of money this week, a new exhaust, 2 new tyres, a service and a faulty fuel gauge grrrr. Oh and 2 weeks ago, a new battery. Our car is 6 years old and this is the first time we've had to spend money on it, everything just seems to happen at once thats all.
:: It's all go with the cricket season, junior & senior cricket as well as special squad try-outs. I'm not sure where I'll be finding the time to sew for the next market.

CRICKET SEASON 2011/12

and so it begins....

We started off the competion season with Lachie being picked by his team-mates as the captain for under 12's West blue team. He was all smiles that his team wanted him as their captain. Congratulations Lachie!!!!!

Lachie opened the bowling and got the first wicket for the season. After the break he took over as wicketkeeper and caught the first catch for the season.

Dan played his first game in under 16's today.

He bowled really well and only gave away 2 runs in 3 overs, he then took a great catch. Great job Dan!!!!! Now that he's in under 16's he's the small kid again, some of these kids seriously look like giants! I don't know what they get fed but they are huge.

Dan starts off his senior C grade competition next week and Darren starts in D grade next week also.

GO WEST GAMBIER!!!!!!!!!

CHEESIMITE SCROLLS

THEY WERE DELICIOUS!!! Sorry, I don't have a recipe, I just made one up. Basically it's a yummy cob loaf bread recipe rolled out into 'snakes' after rising, smeared with vegemite and sprinkled with cheese then rolled into scrolls.

ON MY MIND

I want to get rid of my drier, ideally I would like to sell it as I can't give it to the Salvos as they don't accept electrical goods. This has been playing on my mind for ages. I know I can do without it, yet having it sitting there, I sometimes use it for convenience.

Some would say that it is a neccessity where I live, I disagree. When our last drier packed up, I had children in cloth nappies and at the time thought that way too. Now the children are older, I have other alternatives for our cold, wet climate. Of course on days when there is no rain, I use our old hills hoist in the middle of our yard where every clothesline deserves to be in an Aussie yard. When things are a little damp, I have another line under shelter that I use for things I may not need that day.

Our other option is our inside clothes horse. I love this fold away line and use it constantly. Yes, for most of the year our home can sometimes look like a chinese laundry.

So why do I use the drier? Well I guess I don't plan well enough and sometimes it's laziness. Underwear is probably the main thing I pop in there as I sometimes can't be bothered pegging it all up. When I think about it, there are so many clothes I can't put in the drier anyway, so it's time to ditch it. Has anyone else ditched the drier for another way of drying?

SUNSHINE AT LAST

bare feet

daisy chains

one very excited pug

What a lovely spring day especially after the freezing weather we've been having over the last week. Lachie came up with yet another classic during the cold spell. "Dad, I think the weather has re-wintered" LOL!!!!!

CHALLENGES OF THE SELF RELIANT

While we are down to one car and that car being a sedan, there are times when I need a little more room. My first challenge of the day was to try and fit 4 bales of lucerne hay and 2 kids into the car without hay getting spread everywhere. It was a tight fit but I did it and after a little bit of car cleaning the hay is happily under a tarp ready to be used as mulch.

Something I've been struggling with is freezer space especially now that I have given up the bottom shelf to Darren to keep his bait and ice for fishing in (he re-uses 2 litre milk containers by filling them with water to freeze.) He was using a small old fridge up in the shed and his Waeco to freeze the ice and bait. Do you know how much power that wastes!!!! So the fridge and Waeco are now turned off and we are down to one appliance. One of the main reasons for buying my canner last month was to reduce the amount of food I have to put in the freezer like my chicken stock I make. I was gifted about 6 dozen fowlers jars by a lovely lady and a lot of them are the smaller size 20 jars. They are perfect for stocks and soups as they hold about 3 cups. I used my pressure canner for the first time today to preserve my stock. So quick and easy and now they will go into the pantry. The colour is really intense, when I freeze stock the colour is nearly clear yet by pressure canning this is the colour of the stock.

Does anyone else have a pressure canner? Have you noticed a change in colour? What about flavour? I would love to hear from those who have.

Out in the patch, my tomatoes, basil and capsicums are happily growing in the hot-house.

We are picking beetroot this week and the onions and leeks are going strong.

I will leave you with a photo of Heidi. Awwww look how she likes to rest her head on her paws on her favourite toy.