Making More In My Kitchen

 With the kids home because of school holidays, its very important to have the cupboards full with baking. It stops the temptation to buy things we don't need, and makes great bribes (I mean encouragement hee hee) to behave and be helpful. Yes even the teen boys :)

I started with making Afghan biscuits, don't need a lot of ingredients for these. A great use for our walnuts :)

Next Gingerbread Men, DS8 helped with the icing. Next time will make car ones. As DS8 does like his Gingerbread cookies :)

Then I made Feijoa Jelly. This is my first time, and I was please to see it's as easy as making Crab Apple Jelly. A great use of fruit that kids weren't eating (the small sized feijoas, that a teaspoon don't fit). Now I know they will eat on pikelets and scones (with some fresh whipped cream YUM!)

Look at those beautiful Autumn colours. Feijoa and Crab Apple Jellies make a pretty stain glass window for my kitchen :)

Now I can focus on catching up on washing (got behind after boys came back from camp), and cleaning. Need my lounge back :)

Was lost with the kids returing to school

It sure has gotten busy at our little house with the kids going back to school. And now I have one of them home for homeschooling.
So DS14 and DS13 are both at high school, catching the bus helps with our petrol costs. At the same time giving them some Independence.
DD11 is back at primary school going into her senior years. She is doing well and making new friends.
DS7 (soon to be 8yrs) is now been home schooled. Gone are the stresses he was having at school. DS7 has Aspergers and needs some extra time and attention. But was not given the support he needed to fit in at school. He better at home, and we are spending some days building the routine we both need to get into.
But I'm still going with the $100 Food Shop :)

Week Four $100 Food Shop

Was able to keep to the $100 last week. I was under until thought why not stock up on on canned chopped tomatoes. At .73c each they are worth it and are great to add to casseroles or making pasta sauce. So we now have 9 cans at the bottom of our pantry. Then I saw baked beans also at a good price of .85c each these are great to stretch mince out or a quick meal on toast. So we now have 9 cans of them too.
This week I aim to get cans of chickpeas to build up our pantry stockpile.

Week Four $100 Food Shop

Menu Plan
Breakfast: cereal or toast
Lunch: leftovers, sandwiches or fritters and chips
Snacks: Chocolate cake, cookies
Tuesday: Chicken Buns
Wednesday: Mince dish (with rice, baked beans, chopped tomatoes and veggies)
Thursday: Salmon and kale quiche
Friday: Corned Beef with mashed potato and mustard sauce
Saturday: Cold Corn beef with salad
Sunday: Homemade Hamburgers
Monday: Beef or Chicken Stir fry (uses up veggies)

Shopping List
Kids cereal (whatever is on sale)
Muesli (bulk up with rolled oats)
White sugar
Plain Flour
Icing sugar (if our food processor was better would make it ourselves)
Pasta (good to have on hand)
Mayo (used for the chicken buns, DH would make some but is doing more at work while his workmate has his holiday, so comes home tired)
Fruit - apricots are on sale
Milk
Cream
Cheese
Cocoa
Buy bulk canned chickpeas

Christmas Is Coming

And it's going to be a very simple, old fashion Christmas for us.
With one thing after another happening in the past few weeks, have left us with very little to spend this Christmas.
But no worries, we will make it into a trip back in time to a simpler meaningful Christmas.
Reading this article helped make this choice for this year.
How has Christmas in New Zealand changed in 150 years?
So for us it means family time, picnic lunch (might be inside picnic, depends on the weather)
And presents will be either homemade or low cost. Talking with DH we decide that this year for us and the kids we are going to put our names in a hat and choose one. That is the person we are getting a gift for. Hopefully teaching the kids about the gift of giving.
The kids have been helping me with the Christmas cards, and soon will help with the Christmas baking.
And you know what it's making me excited about Christmas.

Looking forward to making popcorn and watching "It's a Wonderful Life!"with my family :)

Time For Our Christmas Boxes

Today brought the Christmas Boxes out of storage.

We have 3 boxes that have traveled with us for over 10 years.

Lots of memories and Christmas treasures in there.

We have decorations, dvds, books, cards, craft items, music..... alot of helpful items to make this coming season fun. Always good when you have children home with school holidays.
Looking forward to going through the boxes with my children. Or should I say my 2 youngest. DS14 and DS13 (both November birthdays) are typical teens who enjoy from a distance.
I'm making plans for Christmas presents. Will be a simple homemade Christmas this year.

Preparing for Summer

Organising Craft items into boxes and up out of the way in my wardrobe.

 Hope having the craft items out of the way will help not have the children make a mess anytime. But have to ask if they can. Helps me to know when there is going to be a craft mess then have a surprise mess on the floor. The colourful boxes are the kids boxes for school reports, certificates etc.

Vac packing the winter sheets away.

 Now is the time to get summer sheets on the beds. I vac pack the winter sheets and blankets as I find they store better and save on space. Have also been making sure I have one bag to go to clothing bin or rubbish bin each day. When the bag is full out it goes. Feel like making progress with having the house more clean and organised for the coming Summer Holidays.

Had to share my little $3 find. Have it over my veggie garden. As the veggies are a blessing to us.

See how well they are growing. With some more to plant out soon. Will be moving the chicken run one more time on this veggie garden. Then they will go to our other raised garden bed, and prepare that for more plants.

 Our dear neighbour gave us lots of tomato plants I have a couple in big pots, and some waiting to go into the rest of our veggie garden. Looking at the price of tomatoes, I'm so thankful for growing our own. Same with courgettes, we can't afford to buy them in the shops.

Look how well my green courgette plant is growing. I grew this one from seed. See how big the leaves are. This one leaf is 38cm across. Some of the courgettes are going to be ready soon to pick. Can't wait :)

Better go and get another load on in the washing machine :)

Too Many Clothes

Thought it was about time to got through DD11 clothes. She has just turned 11 year old, and it's  good time to declutter. Boy was I in for a shock.

This is just a small pile of my daughters clothes.

Her drawers were packed with clothes, as well as her washing bag. And I also found more in her wardrobe. Since last years declutter my daughter clothes have multiplied. Maybe they have bred in those drawers. So the decluttering begins. With empty drawers, and a black bag for the clothing bin, the sorting began. Some were easy to sort, some needed to be washed first, and some needed my daughters opinion. But by the afternoon I have almost filled a bag ready for the clothing bin.
How freeing it is.
Now DD11 has more space in her room again.
Another thing that I'm happy about, we don't need to buy her any clothes.

I have been thinking

I'm just recovering from a very bad chest infection. I have not felt so sick in a long time. But it sure does get you thinking when you can't do anything but sit or lie still.

Firstly I'm thankful for my husband who was so helpful with the kids and housework. Even used his day off work to look after me. Then I'm thankful for our kids. DS13 cooked us dinner on Sunday (bean and sausage casserole with mash potato), also made a dessert to have afterwards (self saucing chocolate pudding). And he baked a batch of biscuits for school lunches. DS12 helped with clothes washing, DD10 did clean up jobs all over the house. DS7 did bits here and there.
Now if that would continue more while I'm getting better would be wonderful.

Secondly I'm thankful for our garden. I have really missed not being able to get outside. I'm itching to get more plants planted. But I have also spent time thinking (and researching) things to improve our garden. And now want to get these ideas done. But have been warned to take it easy as I might have a relapse. Ideas like making a planter box with trellis for one side of our garden shed. So when we look out our lounge window, instead of metal garden shed, we can see plants growing. We have all the wood and pieces for it (so it's a free project). I also want to make our own concrete pavers for our garden. Found great plans for low cost ones we can make as a family (cheaper then buying pavers). So we can make a path to the raised garden bed. I also have plans for painting the fence and raised garden bed, have strawberry plants hanging off our fence to make more space for herbs. And many more ideas.

Thirdly I had been doing a part time job to bring in extra cash. But with the tax and time it's not worth the stress. So I'm quiting it to have my time again for my family and home. And I'm excited because it took to much from me, and I'm looking forward it getting it back. It means I can do a real spring clean of this home. And a real organise of our small space. I have an office space I need to create (I have the space but it a mess at the moment). I have to make an area for kids and DH bags to hang. And I need to get my bedroom back to a bedroom not my office at the moment.

And to make it clear why I need an office space. It's a space for home management. Where bills can be sorted, menus planned, school items that are needed where I can see. A place for my to do list, to buy list, to call. But most importantly a place where I can have time out in the house. I need a space that is mine and our dinning table to be a dinning table again.

But now I better head off to bed and try and get some sleep.

New Chickens and The Trouble with Momma Hen

Our new chickens Caramel, Milkshake and Babe

 When we have had extra eggs, with have shared them with others. And they have been very popular. So we were asked if we could have more hens. We are aloud a total of 6 hens before we have to get a permit for more. So only 2 more hens we were aloud. But then we have had some trouble with Momma hen (will tell more soon). And the opportunity came up for 3 Brown Shaver Chicks, with their food provided we just had to provide a home. We jumped at the chance :) It will be awhile before they lay any eggs, but they have settled in well. And they are not that small, but they do love to be held by the children.

Shadow is hanging out with the chicks. They are getting on well.

Momma Hen is in Shadows cage, and here is her story.

Momma has been a good hen for us for awhile. But lately her mood has changed. She has become more grumpy with the other chickens. Not letting any come near her. She is not laying any eggs, but will spend long periods on the nest. And we have had her escape twice into other people's properties.Not good when some of our neighbours have dogs. The cage is near the others, but not close enough to have her peck the others. And what a change with the others. They are looking better and easier to look after. They happily let the children and me pick them up. They are eating and laying well. So we are thinking what to do with Momma Hen?
Right now we are happy to have 2 small flocks :)

Fixed My Camera

After a search on ideas to fix my camera, all it took was some lemon juice and a cotton bud. So we are back in photo action :)

DS12 made us Pavlova with our eggs. Yummy desert, and great school holiday activity.

It's cold here, very cold. A frosty morning photo.

School holidays is almost over, and then I will have to do a walk through my garden (with it's highs and lows).

Yay Children on the Mend

Hopefully tomorrow they will be well enough to go to school. I'm hoping no one else gets sick for a while, I need to catch up with myself. Thankfully we have a beautiful garden to go into and relax in for little breaks from the children. Soon I will share a garden blessing with you.
But this was a little update for now.

Sick Kids can be so Expensive

Yep blown the budget with medicine, ice cream and jelly. DS12, DD10, and DS6 have been having a very difficult time with the chicken pox.
We have tried honey, baking soda, oats as cheap alternatives but they have not helped the same as the more costly Pinetarsol, and Calamine Lotion. We have been going through a bottle a day of them both since the poor three started getting the pox. Also have Zyrtec tablets which is helping too, and Panadol, eye drops and all the goodies of lemonade, ice cream and jelly.
But "This to shall pass"
And when it does I will be back on board saving us money to have our budget looking better again.

One thing we have 6 eggs from our dear 'Momma' hen now and I haven't had the heart or time to bake while looking after our dear children. Maybe dinner tonight will be eggs :) scrabbled eggs would be perfect for all of us.

Would rather be in the garden

But stuck inside with kids and a baby. Outside the sun is shining, wonderful after days with rain. The birds are singing, and weeds are growing (I so want to deal with those weeds). But at least I can tend to our seedling growing inside. And when I'm busy feeding baby, I can keep an eye on DS11 who is baking a cake.

Our seedlings growing. We don't have a green house yet, so our bedroom window has to do.

Cute little Butternut Squash seedling.

Homemade plastic house for our Sugar Baby Watermelon seeds. Hope they grow.

DS11 baking a cake in our little kitchen. Can't wait to try it.

Today we are going to eat cake. Didn't DS11 do well.

I did sneak out and picked a strawberry for my morning tea. Sun kissed sweet strawberry.