Enjoying the Great Outdoors

Things have been fairly quiet on the "simple and meaningful life" however going camping over the weekend is certainly all about simple living.  Bike tracks, paddles in the river and camp fires all contribute to slowing down and enjoying life.  Well, with 4 families and lots of kids it's never slowing down but you feel as if you can slow down because there is no ironing, washing and shopping to be done unless it's for more ice at reception.  There is however cooking, feeding and supervising one activity after the next, but you get my drift.  I've posted more pictures on my other blog "Our Everyday Life in Pictures" here.

Camping is so good for kids and even though it's a lot of work getting the gear ready and packed into the car, set up when you get there and packing up on the way back and then sorting it out when you get home.....it is just so good for kids and I love it too.  Here's a few pics of our adventures this weekend.

Slow Living Essentials - July & August 2013

Connecting up with Christine at Slow Living Essentials to write about our "Slow Living" for the month of July & August.  You can see previous months of May and June  here.

NOURISH: Make and bake as much as possible from scratch.

Rhonda's biscuits are now a regular in our household.  We made these tortilla's which were a great hit with the kids.  Also we made Butterscotch Sticky Date Muffins from Emma's recipe at She Sows Seeds.

PREPARE: Stockpile and preserve

I continue to make spaghetti bolognese in the slow cooker having a meal that night and freezing two more meals.  We have made and frozen Anzac Biscuits, Apple and Oat Muffins and Apricot Chicken.

REDUCE:  Cut down on household waste by re-using, re-purposing and repairing.
I have started a little pile of things to go to the charity shops however am still working through this process.  I really need to set some time out to put other stuff on ebay.  Once the photos are taken it's just a matter of putting them on.  I like to put them on a Friday for 10 days as it covers two weekends when you get a lot of buyers.

GREEN:  Up our lives.  Start (or continue!) using homemade cleaners.

I have made up an orange cleaner from a recipe that I posted here about.  I haven't used it yet just need to put it into a bottle and add equal amounts of water and give it a go.

GROW :  Plant/Harvest.

The veggie garden needs a good replant now however these are a few things we have harvested lately.

CREATE: To fill a need or feed the soul.

I attended a one day photography workshop with Tim Coulsen which was very inspiring.  

I made myself a Terrarium as posted about here.

DISCOVER:  Feed the mind by reading relevant articles to current interests.

I have borrowed from the Library some River Cottage Cookbooks.  I have also purchased myself some "Wholefood Cook Books".

ENHANCE:  Community:

We participated in a 5km Fun Run to support Spina Bifida Foundation as seen in this post.

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.

A friends birthday with a special table set up in the park for lunch and the kids all played football on the grass.

Football Trophy and Presentation afternoon.

To iron or not to iron

There are lots of theories on ironing like, I hate ironing, the ironing pile keeps getting bigger, I don't iron, why bother ironing etc it's just going to get crushed anyway.  I've always been an iron-er, however I've been an "iron as you go kinda girl".  Iron the clothes you are going to wear that day in the morning.  Years ago I lived with a flatmate and he used to iron all his clothes on Sunday night while watching 60 minutes.  Lately I find myself ironing all the school uniforms while watching Landline at midday on a Sunday.

I have friends who don't iron kids clothes and friends who don't even iron school uniforms.  I also have friends who iron everything as well.  Everyone does what works best for their family and for me I'm happy for the kids to put an un-ironed t-shirt on to wear around the house however, if we are going out then it's an ironed one.  I just think it looks a whole lot smarter like I care about my kids and how they present themselves in public or visiting friends and relatives.

All school unforms, t-shirts etc. go straight onto an Ikea clothes hanger and onto the line and they dry like that.

Then there's the age old question about ironing pillow slips and tea towels. Before I had kids I ironed pillow slips as I hated the crushed pillowslips on the bed.  As for tea towels, they are the easiest things to iron because they are flat and have no pleats, sleeves, pockets or waistbands....tea towels are therapeutic to iron.  Have I used tea towels that haven't been ironed before, I most certainly have however there is something about getting a cleaned ironed tea towel out of the cupboard that makes me happy rather than a crushed one.  This is purely a personal choice and I don't mind if other people don't iron tea towels however when I did a post on "Finding Happiness" this is in fact one of the things that makes me happy.  A clean pile of ironed tea towels.  It's a simple thing but this little ritual makes me happy.

Apple & Oat Muffins

Last week Sienna and I made Apple and Oat Muffins from a recipe I found on "City Hippy Farm Girl" Blog.  It was great because we had all the ingredients on hand and just got to making them for afternoon tea.  There was one slight problem in that I read the recipe and cooking with a small child they want to help so I thought I would get her to measure all the ingredients in a bowl and then that would be ready to mix with the creamed butter and sugar.  Well, that was until we had the butter in the bowl and realized all the raw sugar was already mixed in with all the oats and flour (oops...).

Sienna kindly informed me that I should read the recipe before I start which made me laugh because I did.  As this was the first time I was making them I kept that bowl of ingredients to the side and we measured it all up again minus the sugar which was now in with the butter being whipped up.  I didn't want the recipe to have double the sugar so for now I've got the mix in a container wondering how to best use it up.  They have been great for the school lunch boxes.

Breakfast

My kids have always been big breakfast eaters and it's something that I'm thrilled about.  I remember James and Sienna back in the kindy days he would have 5 or 6 weetbix and she would have at least 3 bowls of cereal.  Fast forward to winter 2013 and I have got them onto eating Uncle Toby's Oats for breakfast.  James was hooked from the first bowl however Sienna didn't like it at all.  He ate it for a few weeks and then Sienna had another try of it with brown sugar and golden syrup and she was hooked.  Now she has 2 or 3 bowls of it for breakfast.  I've also shown them how to make it in the microwave by themselves and given them all the safety tips about making sure no one is behind you when lifting the bowl out of the microwave over to the bench.  I've also taught them both how to make toast themselves which doesn't seem like a huge deal however because I was always in the kitchen and it was a hot appliance they had to wait for toast until I was out of bed however they need to learn these little skills of independence as they get older.

Sienna is the first one awake in the mornings between 5.30 and 5.45 am and she gets stuck into making the oats for breakfast.  Yes, it's still dark at that time however, I just had to take a photo of her the other morning happily eating her oats.  We ran out of oats last week and one morning at 5.30 am came into my room and lay on top of me and proclaimed "Mum, I can't survive without my oats" and it made me laugh.  It wasn't "good morning" or "I love you Mum" but in a desperate funny voice "Mum, I c-a-n'-t survive without my oats".  Seriously it was so funny and not what I expected her to say first thing to me.  

  

Exploring the Creek

This afternoon I took the kids down to the local creek for an hour or so to get out of the house.  They skimmed stones, knocked about with big sticks and got wet while I took photos so it was a win-win for everyone.

DIY Chinese Checkers and Quandongs

Yesterday I popped over to the "Out Back' blog and Tania had a picture of Quandongs which reminded me of James spending time with his Pop in Melbourne making a Chinese Checker Board game using Quandongs as the balls.

While Pop and James were busy with the woodwork, Sienna decided to work out her abs.....if you can see her in the middle of the storage shed.