Simple Things: Homemade Almond Milk

I stopped drinking cow's milk some time ago now, long before any thoughts of a vegan diet were seriously floating around in my head. My body just started telling me, very clearly, that cow milk was not good for me. Noticeable tummy pains after I drank anything with it, and a growing icky feeling at the thought of using it. And it wasn't even the first time that had happened, I had gone off it previously but ended up drinking it again, for convenience I suppose.

So I have tried plenty of alternatives to the standard cow milk that are available. I'm not so keen on soy milk, rice milk seems to me to be water with a hint of white and almond milk was definitely the best option for me but again, watery and loaded with additives. And then when I got my hands on the My Darling Lemon Thyme cookbook, I read the recipe for almond milk and just knew I had to try making my own. But that was quite a few months ago now, and I have to admit that complacency had set in and I was stuck on supermarket almond milk. This despite having a nut milk bag and nuts in the cupboard. And a blender.

Anyway as happens with these things, necessity is what forced the change. After a big day out, a late afternoon at home, scrambling to get dinner sorted, a tired and cranky toddler, a tired and cranky me, no almond milk in the house and knowing that I would be needing the milk in the morning, that's what finally drove me to do it. And goodness me, it was so ridiculously easy I don't know what I was procrastinating about all that time. That's often how it goes, right?

It was incredibly easy - just soaking a cup of almonds in water overnight, draining it off in the morning and blending it up with another 3 cups of fresh water in the blender, then squeezing it through the nut milk bag and into a jug. Pretty easy. But the part that I love the most is how amazingly good the milk was (is). So creamy! So fulfilling! So satisfying! It made our rice porridge so incredibly smooth and creamy, and my chai tea was all kinds of good, and my sometimes evening treat of a small cacao drink is now the creamy smooth drink I was dreaming of - just no comparison any commercial nut milk. And even the added bonus of all the almond pulp for adding to our porridge and in our baking.

Of all the changes I have made over the years to increase my self reliance and reduce my reliance on supermarket chains, this is a big one for me. I've always found the homemade products to be superior to the commercial product, but the extent of the difference between homemade almond milk to commercial almond milk is just - huge. I don't know how else to say it.

I've been looking and looking for a milk this good for so long, and all that time, I just needed to devote about 10 minutes to the process and I could have done it myself. And now I know. I can't tell you how much I enjoy drinking it, it feels so decadent and now it's become my new normal. And on the cost side of things, I did crunch the numbers a little while back as I thought it would be hugely expensive using all those almonds, but I worked out that over a week, it would cost me about the same to make my own as to buy a commercial product. Plus, the bonus of spending less on buying almond meal for baking is a big factor for me, as I bake gluten free and almond meal features in pretty much everything I make.

Do I sound like I'm raving on about how good it is? I am! It is that good!

Have you ever tried making any nut milks or any other kind of milks at home? What was your experience with it? I'd love to hear.

Favourite Thing

My kiddo is very much into trains. I've been promising to take him on a train for months now; since we moved to this little city, we've driven past the train station almost every time we go in the car, just to see if there's any trains. We've pedalled past, and doubled back to wait for trains to come when we hear the signals go. We've watched on foot as trains have rumbled past the train playground. And then we finally went on a train.

It's the most wonderful thing, watching your child step out of their comfort zone and grow, become more worldly, bigger, braver. We arrived at the station and got a special ticket - special because the trains were running free and we didn't need it, but the lovely fellow in the office realised the nature of our trip and knew how special a ticket can be, for an almost three year old. A thing to have, in his hands, that he can take home and remember his train trip by. We waited on the platform with anticipation, and as the train rumbled in, people started to flock forward to get on, my beautiful kiddo hit his wall. It's one thing to watch the trains go by from a distance, another entirely get on the train. So I bundled him up, kicking and screaming, and on we got.

The tantrum lasted about 30 seconds (thankfully) and we found a seat by the window. He was cuddled up to me like a koala as we started to move off, but within 5 minutes I had been kicked off the seat and took my place next to him. And he had grown up, a little bit more, in that short space of time.

We didn't go far. Twenty minutes later we hopped off at a little town, waved goodbye to the train as it continued on its journey, and wandered into town to find a playground and some lunch. Had I been more organised I would have packed a picnic lunch for us, but I was not, and a cafe lunch has become a bit of a rare treat for us now.  So we found a sweet little place, just perfect really, and enjoyed a simple and lovely lunch together. He charmed everyone at the cafe and then we wandered our way back to the station, to wait for the homeward bound train.

And of course this time on the train, he was a seasoned traveller, taking it all in his stride, confident and comfortable, over-confident and boisterous.

Days like this remind me just how fleeting it all is, being a parent. Watching a little person grow in front of your eyes, it's so easy to miss the changes, the growing up, all the little things. When we chatted at dinner about our favourite part of the day, we both said going on the train was our favourite thing. In truth every part of the day was my favourite thing. I'll be dragging him back to do it again soon, I think.

Simple Things: A Slow Weekend

We had the slowest of slow weekends. We stayed home, and only left the house to walk the dog and play on a swing. We didn't drive anywhere, we didn't buy anything, we used what we had at home and it was so, so good. We had millet porridge for breakfast, ate our banana and date loaf that we baked for morning and afternoon teas, had dinners of homemade soup and risotto with homemade stock. We harvested the first of the potatoes and a bunch of skinny capsicums. The kiddo did much play outside, and much play inside, and I did a heap of crochet work on the blanket I'm making for him. So much that I feel like I'm back in the swing of needing to keep my hands making little squares all the time. I sat outside with my crochet and a cup of rosehip tea, on the chairs I look at so longingly, yet so rarely actually sit in.

It was the best weekend. I needed it, my kiddo needed it, my bank account thanked me for it and my car has had three days of not being touched.

It really is when you stop running around, doing stuff that needs doing, that you realise how little actually needs to be done, and how truly wonderful it is to just be.

In a word, Gentle.

Oh, the word for the year thing.

I do have a word for the year, and I have been living and breathing that word for a few weeks now. Quite a lot more weeks to go but I can feel so strongly that this is how my year feels, how I feel, how the energy around me feels, how the energy I create feels.

My word is gentle.

After the last few rollercoaster years of my life, where there have been big shifts, powerful shifts, big events and many changes, life has felt jolted, frantic and hectic. It's been quite the ride, but moving forward, and taking with me all that I have learned from these last few years (and letting go of so much at the same time), I'm ready to embrace gentler times in life.

Gentle with myself, gentle with my child, gentle in my home, gentle in my energy. Being in gentle places, staying away from places that are not so gentle. Being with gentle people, staying away from people who are not so gentle. After all, it is up to us to choose how we spend our time, who we spend it with, where we spend it. And how we feel.

So this is my gentle year. There are massive challenges coming my way this year, already I know this, so my need to dig deep and cultivate gentle is very real. I will be drawing from a very deep well, to bring gentle through with what is coming up. But these times, they are the transformative ones. Yin yoga is helping me amazingly already (there I go about the yin yoga again), I can see it will be a mainstay for me this year. A practice I can sink into each evening, where I can just be in my body, know the safety and security of just being, and breathe gently through this year.

Did you choose a word for the year?

Simple Things: Ditching Tinned Foods

When I first became vegetarian, quite a few years ago now, and even before actually as I rarely cooked with meat at home, I was heavily reliant on buying tins of pulses - just the basics, kidney beans, lentils, cannellini beans, chickpeas. And I'm still pretty reliant on those basics, although with a few more thrown into the mix these days, but I have managed to ditch the tins. It was something I thought about so often at the time, looking at just how many resources were used in the processing and manufacture of the food (manufacture of food, it just sounds wrong) - the waste of so much aluminium, the big factory where they would have been produced, the logistics of transporting them from factory to supermarket. It's huge.

I'm not fully there with being able to grow my own everything (not even close, lets be honest) but at the very least, I now only buy dried pulses and do the preparation of them myself. I was always put off by the part about 'soak beans overnight' when I was thinking about what to make for dinner, to eat right now. Obviously soaking beans overnight was not going to be an option, but a tin of beans was quick and convenient and that's exactly what I got by on for a long time.

It really wasn't until I started doing menu planning, when I had a little baby and was trying to establish some rhythm to my days, that I got into the habit of being able to prepare beans and pulses ahead of time. And there was some experimentation about learning how to cook them just right after the soaking, which was easy enough, but still took it's time. It's all a process though, and a few more years down the track I'm very confident now in my bean soaking and cooking process. These days I tend to just make up a batch, not too big but enough for a few meals, and pop the extras in the freezer for when I need them. So I still have the convenience of having beans ready for a quick meal when I need them, but without the tins (or the factory processing, at least not for the cooking part).

It is such a very simple change, to be able to move away from buying tinned foods to preparing from scratch with dried pulses, but the place where the change is truly made is in being organised - organised with a weekly meal plan, organised with having enough dried pulses on hand for your needs, organised with actually soaking and cooking them ahead of time. For all of it's simplicity, it took me years to actually make the change.

This is my very simple way of preparing dried pulses. Soak a quantity of pulses in a saucepan with a lid, for 8 hours or overnight (usually on the bench or in the fridge if it's hot). If I'm not organised and pushed for time I will sometimes cut that down to 6 hours instead of 8. Then simply drain the soaking water, replace it with fresh water and pop it on the stove. Bring to a boil then simmer on very low heat for an hour or so, and test when you think they might be done. You might need to top up the water if it gets a little low. Then simply put into freezer-safe containers and freeze them, or use them in cooking. Done! How easy is that? I really love the very slow cooking aspect to this as well, mine always turn out nicely when cooked very slowly.

No more tins, no more super heavy shopping bags to lug around and it's easier to get a wide selection of pulses, and often organic, when they're dried (if you have a good health or whole foods shop nearby). My last area to make the change away from tins (well two actually) is tinned tomatoes, I am still caught up in that cycle but looking to make changes, and pet food. Cat food in particular. But, a step at a time when transitioning to simpler living. Changes that take time to make are often the ones that last, and every little change helps.

Finish Something Old

I started working again on a crochet blanket that I started almost a year ago now I suppose. With yarns that I had to rush out and buy, about a year before that. It's been a slow one, that's for sure. But it felt so good to pick it up again, work out where I had left off, realise a mistake in the last piece I had been working on (probably why I stopped), undo the mistake and start going again. And now it is going again, I want to keep up the momentum and bring this blanket to life.

We're currently under a retrograde Mercury, if you're into your astrology you'll know what I'm talking about. Every three or four months, Mercury does this funny thing where it appears to be going backwards (it's never really going backwards, but from our view, it looks that way). It lasts for about three weeks. And the effect on us here on Earth, can also leave us feeling like we're going backwards - or not necessarily backwards, but going back to something, redoing, revisiting, revising. All good and helpful things really.

Mercury retrograde gets a pretty bad reputation from most sources - don't make travel plans, don't sign a contract, don't start anything new... don't don't don't! Blah. It is what it is and we can choose to use the energies to help us or we can fall into the negativity trap about it. I used to do the latter but these days I'm doing the former. Life whizzes past in a blur and any chance to go back and catch up on the things missed on the first pass is a good thing. Personally, I like contracts with a little wiggle room (or a lot!), so I'm all for signing contracts under Mercury reverse.

So why not make the most of the current astrological weather, and finish something old? Have you got any old projects sitting around waiting for 'some day'? I have more than enough, but I'll focus on my blanket project for now. It's a good way also to value what we already have, going back and seeing what we have left unfinished, rather than always rushing on to the next new thing. Simple, mindful, wonderful.

Simple Things: Baking Bread

What is wrong with this image? Don't get technical on me, I'm talking about the knife-wielding toddler. I can assure you the phone (camera) was hastily put down to correct the situation.

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I'm still very new at baking bread at home. It's one of those 'simple' things that is so easy to do but I had a real block with bringing it through. I've been doing a lot of simple, homemade stuff for a few years now but this one, I never quite got to, until recently. Partly because I wasn't really eating much bread (living mostly gluten free) and having slipped back into eating a smaller amount of bread, I suppose I found the idea of baking it myself overwhelming. 

Anyway we have been enjoying going to a playgroup where bread making is the first activity of the day (such a beautiful way for the little ones to settle in) and I started to see that this was really something I could bring in to our days easily enough. It's not an everyday activity, and with not many mouths to feed, one morning of bread-making lasts us a few days. And then I feel like I need a few days to recover from the bread overload before I even think about doing it again. But we love it. And I love watching my little one playing in the garden, baking his bread, popping it in a sunny spot to rise. This is how they learn, isn't it?

The recipe I've been using the last few months is a simple one that was shared by our wonderful playgroup coordinator, so I'll share it here with you. I can assure you there is nothing complicated about this recipe and so many ways to vary it, change it up and add interesting extras for flavour and texture. I'm also eyeing off the amazing looking recipe in the My Darling Lemon Thyme cookbook, a gluten free sourdough. When I can master that, I think I might be in bread heaven. But first, the basics.

Bread

Ingredients

5 cups flour (whole wheat, spelt, white can be used or even a mix of flours, e.g. 3 cups whole wheat, 2 cups white)

1.5 tsp granulated yeast

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

2 cups warm water

1 tsp sugar (optional)

1 tsp salt (optional)

Method

Dissolve sugar (if using) into warm water and stir in yeast. Let sit for 10 minutes or until frothy bubbles appear giving off a fermenting 'beer' smell.

Sift flour/s and salt (if using), mixing together. Make a well in the middle.

Add oil to the yeast liquid and pour into well in flour, stir.

Knead well (approx. 5 minutes).

Place bread dough in a bowl covered by a warm, damp tea towel and leave to rise in a warm spot (at least 1 hour).

After the dough has doubled in size, give it a second kneading (approx. 5 minutes) and transfer to a greased bread tin or shape into rolls. 

Let it rise a second time in a warm place (a sunny spot or a pre-warmed oven with heat turned off) until doubled in size again.

Bake in preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 40 minutes.

It's pretty simple. It's a really primal thing, for me, making bread at home. The slow, mindful kneading of the dough (with a sweet little song to hold the space for little one, and big one), the smell of freshly baked bread that fills the house, the simple pleasure of eating bread baked fresh with your own hands. It makes a house a home; it makes the everyday come to life. I am most definitely keeping this practice going. And on bread day, we eat a simple soup for dinner, just so we can eat a little more bread.

Do you make your own bread? 

A Walking Meditation

a moment of mindful

I was flipping through the latest issue of Slow magazine recently and somewhere in there I saw a reference to a walking meditation. It really caught my eye, it's something I haven't done for many years now.

I learned how to do it when I put myself onto a 3-day Tibetan Buddhist meditation retreat, a long time ago now (which was an eye opener for me, as I didn't really know how to meditate before that and it was a fairly intense way to start). Anyway many of the meditation practices I learned then I kept going with, but the walking meditation I did not. I tried it a few times at home after that but I found it too awkward, trying to be in a meditative state, walking super slowly in the back yard and knowing my housemates thought I was kinda weird. So it just slid and I didn't even think of it for years. Until that  reminder in the magazine.

The way my body jumped at the thought, I knew it was time to go back to that practice, even just for a few minutes here and there. Such a soothing, gentle way to slow down, ease a racing mind, settle frazzled energies and become centred and grounded. I got up in my living room, and began walking slowly, very very slowly. Mindfully with each step, noticing my heel landing on the floor, the movement of my body as the weight was transferred, moving up onto the ball of my foot, rolling onto the toes, watching the other leg lifting from the ground, just bumping the floor as it came through, then the heel striking the floor... and on it goes. Such a simple yet profound practice.

As soon as I started, after a few settling steps and getting slower and slower with each one, I noticed the reiki energy pumping through my hands, the way it does when I get a yoga pose in the sweet spot. What that means is, it instantly got my energy flowing clearly. The chi moving well in my body. And it took about 30 seconds. After only a couple of minutes, I felt transformed from how I had been feeling before. Not that I was feeling bad, it was just a relaxed night at home, pottering around the house, making a cup of tea. But that simple few minutes, it brought me right out of my head and into my body, to a space of just being, rather than thinking this, working out that, doing doing doing.

I am so glad to be reconnected with this simple mindful practice. I noticed that even after I stopped the practice, I was suddenly more connected to my body, my movements; my awareness had shifted so quickly. I already do a daily meditation practice but there is always a case for adding more mindfulness to my day. It's not necessarily one I would schedule in on a daily basis, but having this one to fall back on when I need to stop, slow down, breathe (which is often!) is just wonderful. It's probably more of a practice I can do numerous times throughout my day, rather than setting aside a specific time for it, the way life is now.

A mindfulness practice doesn't have to involve walking (although this is such a great place to start with as you get a really good idea what it is about) - it can be anything you are doing in any moment. It can be washing the dishes, slowly, purposefully, examining each dish carefully, rinsing it slowly, placing it down mindfully. It can be when you're tapping at a keyboard, watching your fingers work their way over the keyboard, slower perhaps than you would normally do, being aware of your posture, your eyes, your neck, your back, your feet, letting go of any tense spots.

Every little moment of slowing down, of being mindful, is a step towards creating a more mindful, deliberate life. A moment of being truly present in your life. Those moments are so precious and often so few and far between for many of us. Threading them together, bringing the moments of mindfulness closer, stringing them together throughout the day. Day after day. A simple walking meditation is a very powerful tool to help bring through those moments of mindfulness, long after the practice itself is finished.

Have you ever tried a walking meditation? How do you stay mindful and present in your days?

(oh and barefoot is the way to go for a walking meditation...)

Simple Things: Homemade Lip Balm

I whipped up a new batch of lip balm last night. It's not the first time I've blogged homemade lip balm but it's been a while. It's been years now since I bought any commercial lip balm and I really couldn't bring myself to do it any more. Even when my own pots of balm have run completely dry and there's not a sliver of balm to be found, I'll put up with dry lips for a few days until I get a chance to make up a batch rather than buy a commercial product. I probably need to work on keeping my supplies up before I run out but that's for other days.

There are so many good things about making your own (if you're a lip balm addict). For starters, you know exactly what goes into your balm, and that usually means no nasty chemicals (I have seen recipes around that suggest putting some favourite lipstick in for a colour tint, but to my mind that just introduces chemicals which are what we're trying to avoid). Then there's the cost difference, which is huge. I produce five small pots of balm for a couple of dollars, max. I don't even know what a lip balm costs these days, last I saw they were around the $4 mark for a tube. So for five of them, that's roughly $20. I mean, it's probably not going to break the bank but still, paying a lot more for a lot more chemicals is not a win in my book. Then there's the packaging side of things. Making balm at home, you can use pots and lids that you just wash and re-use - no waste. Buying commercial usually means buying plastic that ends up in landfill somewhere. All good reasons to do it yourself!

There's millions of lip balm recipes online but this time around I used my recipe that I adapted from one in the book Down To Earth by Rhonda Hetzel. The only sticking point for me with this one is the use of beeswax and honey - and I say that as I'm tending towards vegan living these days, and well - bees. This time around I just went with it as I was desperate for lip balm and I had all my ingredients on hand, but perhaps next time I will look for some non-animal-source ingredients. Which is one of the important things that helps make the shift from buying commercial to making your own with lots of things, having the ingredients on hand. It's so easy to just keep doing what you do, keeping the status quo and promising 'next time' to yourself (as I have done here). Having the ingredients you need within easy reach just means there's no excuses. And from there it's literally a 5 minute job to whip up a batch of lip balm. Anyway I'll share this simple recipe as a starting point, it does make a lovely balm (don't ever be tempted to use coconut oil in lip balm - I thought it would be great but no, it's not so great in warm weather).

Simple Homemade Lip Balm (makes 5 small pots like those pictured)

3 Tbs beeswax
3 Tbs Sweet Almond oil
1 Tbs honey
2 drops lavender essential oil (optional, or whatever you like that you're comfortable with)

Melt the beeswax in a small saucepan over very low heat. When it's melted, remove from heat and stir in Sweet Almond oil, honey and lavender oil. Pour into clean pots and pop on lids. Allow some time for it to cool and set, and that's it. Super easy!

There's something so completely rewarding in making your own products, whatever they may be, rather than buying them. And each little product that you make feels like only one small thing, and it probably is, but over time and as you make more and more of your own needs at home, you start to rely less and less on companies and manufacturing, and more and more on yourself. And that is always a wonderful thing.

Gratitude.

My biggest intention for 2016 is to get back to simple living, after feeling like I've let go of so much of what I had intentionally created in previous years. Part of the learning experience, I suppose. I have to say that, now living in a small city, I struggle to pull back the 'simple' as I feel the rush, the bustle and the busy so intensely. So that is part of my work, now, being in a place that doesn't necessarily feel mindful, simple or slow, yet being able to bring those aspects back into my own life. Living in the country definitely, in my experience, makes it easier to live simply. And I am yearning to go back, but the journey really begins on the inside, so I will be taking steps every day to get back to my simple, mindful, sustainable life - all the things I started writing this blog for back at the start.

I bought myself a special little journal book, to become my gratitude journal. I suppose I feel like I've been drifting along in my life the past year, lost my way somewhat, and it's time to get serious about doing the things I want to be doing in this life, one journal entry at a time. In truth, I probably haven't 'lost' my way so much as found my way, just a bit differently than before. All the small changes along the way - this little thing and that little thing - the little changes we can make, once they become the new 'norm', can result in a big change in how we live. And I guess that's what this journal is helping me do, on a daily basis, little by little and step by step. Starting now.

Being in a state of gratitude for what we already have is such a wonderful place for bringing in even more things to feel grateful for. By being grateful for what we have, it suddenly starts to become 'enough' and sometimes even more than enough. The more we practice being grateful, the more we have to feel grateful for. It all comes down to energy - what we focus our energy on is what we 'vibrate' at (since everything is energy), and since like attracts like, we draw in and are drawn to, other energy that vibrates like us. So in being grateful, we draw in more situations, circumstances, opportunities and people that we can feel grateful for. Being very mindful of what we are giving our attention, our energy to, is so important in creating the life we want.

My daily gratitude journal writing is in two parts - the first is what I'm feeling grateful for, and the second is what I'm dreaming about - the things I want to bring into my life and my experience. The two combined are a powerful way of bringing dreams and intentions to reality. It all comes down to that focusing of energy, being in a state of gratitude for what we have and focusing in on what we want. I actually started writing in my gratitude journal a few days ago now and I'm loving the experience. I've committed myself to writing in it daily for the year (and hopefully for many years) and of course there will be days and phases where I don't feel like doing it, where life is too busy, I'm too tired or any other excuse the ego can possibly come up with. But my intention is that it happens daily, because it is important.

And one of the things that I've been dreaming about lately is knitting, which I knew how to do when I was a kid. Starting back down that path, dreaming of knitted little jumpers and knitted big cardigans. And lavenders, I'm forever dreaming of lavenders.

Do you keep a gratitude journal? What are you dreaming of in 2016?

The Rhythm of Now

I have written a few times about rhythm on this blog, and it's probably something I could always write about. Rhythm, for me, is so fundamentally important, especially for developing a sense of security and safety in a small child. The things that we do, day in and day out, the flow of activities, the sequence of events. The times we come together, and the times we are in our own space.

I cannot overemphasise how important keeping the rhythm is for a small child, and my own experience, what with dealing with family upheaval during this year, is the the rhythm saved us. It saved me and my little boy. Because at the end of the day, stuff happens in life, some we call good, some we call bad, but the rhythm still goes on. The meals must be eaten. Sleep must still happen. Outside play and work, inside play and work. The tea trays that mama makes and the little boy eats from. It all still happens, and the simple act of doing the things you do every day, day in and day out, is just grounding. For children and adults alike it is grounding, but it is so important in developing that sense of safety and security in the small child.

So now that it's just the two of us, our daily rhythm looks a little different. For starters, we are removed from the flow of the 'working world'. There is no rush to be out the door, no packing up and leaving for the day. We are in our home, and our day happens fully in our home. I actually love that aspect so much, as there is a deep, deep well of resistance within me to the way the standard working world is set up. And this is how I intend for our rhythm to stay. There will come a time for schooling for my little boy, but again, my intention is that it will happen in the home - there will be no push to be out the door and away from the home for the best part of the day.

Anyway back to our rhythm. We eat earlier now. Dinner is around 5pm, which means my little one can be in bed somewhere between 6-6:30pm. Which gives me time to finish off the day's chores, sit in meditation, and carve out a little time to do something for me. We rise around the 6am mark too, so I know my boy is getting his 12 hours of sleep most nights. An early start suits me; I have always enjoyed the quiet of the early morning, watching the day take form as the sun rises. With the shorter days and heading into winter, we spend a little more time indoors than in the warmer months, but really, not that much. There are jobs to be done outside, animals to be cared for, sandpits to be played in, and gardens to be created (one day I'll even get around to planting things again!). There are dishes to be washed, clothes to be washed, floors to be cleaned. Firewood to be collected, kindling to be gathered. Eggs to be searched for, feed bowls to be filled. Water troughs to be topped up, hay to be thrown about.  There is a lot to be done, every single day.

And some days we hop up to the main street, for a trip to the post office or the bakery. Sometimes the butcher, for eggs mostly when ours aren't quite meeting our needs, and sometimes for a chicken for stock. I still call myself vegetarian, but I do make chicken stock for us. It is confronting and not a job I really want to do but one that I feel is necessary all the same. We spend much, much less time doing big grocery shops, as our needs are so much simpler. We will eat the same batch of soup for days in a row, and if we run out of something, unless it is essential (which as it turns out, is a very small number of things), then we just go without until the next time we go into the big town. And even in doing this, I have ridded myself of a few 'favourite things' that I always had to have. Some things are not compromised; the coffee machine does its' job day in and day out, another element to the rhythm of our days.

This rhythm is good. It is busy, it is a lot of work and it doesn't leave me as much time to write on this blog as I used to have. And that in itself is probably a healthy thing for me. The essentials are taken care of, always. Anything that happens over and above that, is just a bonus. And I wouldn't change a thing - I haven't changed a thing. I am just embracing the strong, strong rhythm that we live every day now.

Midweek Musings: Living Media-Free

We live pretty much media-free here in this little house, my boy and I. We have no TV, we rarely listen to the radio, we buy newspapers during the cooler months to get the fire going, and that's about it. That is it.

Of course we have the internet and I have my phone, so obviously there is a source of media there. But that source is of my choosing, and I choose very wisely. I don't go to any online news sites. If something happens, I hear about it generally through other bloggers or social media sites. I'm choosy about what I follow. And the only advertising I'm ever subjected to is that which I see on blogs. And on the blogs I read, I'm ok with that, as I know the blogger is selective about who they work with.

And do you know what? It's blissful. It really, truly is blissful. We are not bombarded with the over-the-top, hyped out beast that is everyday media. We are not subject to hearing the negative, emotive rubbish our politicians throw about. We don't sit through news bulletins that seem to thrive on drama and negativity. And we are not subject to the manipulation of information by the few, to control the many. We just don't bother with it. I don't bother with it. In my world, it might as well not exist. And it's blissful, it really truly is.

To be honest, we wouldn't have time to watch TV even if we had one. We wouldn't make time. My little boy is growing up without a television to stare mindlessly into. He is instead growing up with a laptop to - stare mindlessly into? I don't know what effect the technology we have today is going to have on our little ones. I sometimes let him watch Xavier Rudd's music channel on You Tube, and he's watched some Clinton Anderson horse training DVD's with me. And that is all.

Short but sweet today. It's really very simple. We don't do mainstream media.

How To Live A Simple Country Life

I was having a look at where a lot of my traffic here on the blog comes from, and I'm always intrigued at the words used in a google search that finds my blog. Sometimes I google them too, just to see what else comes up, and where my blog sits amongst that. But this one, 'how to live a simple country life', kinda stuck out for me. And so I thought I'd share my completely blunt and honest answers to the question. Take it as seriously or not as you please. And obviously everyone's circumstances are different, and there is sometimes a lack of work available in the country, but to offset that, the cost of living is much cheaper too.

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How To Live A Simple Country Life.

1. You need to actually move to the country. You need to stop googling about it, stop reading blogs about it, stop number crunching about it, find yourself a cheap little place in a country town somewhere and start living it.

2. Once you get there, start growing your own food, as much as you can. But be realistic about how much you can actually grow, especially when starting out. Be kind to yourself if your ideals of bountiful harvests of home grown produce don't quite turn out like that, at least for a few years.

3. Get rid of your commercial cleaners. Keep a few must have things, then start making your own cleaners. It's amazing what you can do with a bit of velvet soap, bicarb soda and vinegar. And be kind to yourself once again when realise that you can't actually do it all, and worse, you realise that you don't want to do it all (so you choose a good eco option).

4. Make your food from scratch. Just like getting your vegetable garden established, it takes time to become accustomed to dealing with more food coming from your own garden. It takes longer. There is more generally more work involved. It tastes amazing. It is worth the extra effort. Wean yourself off prepackaged foods as much as you can. It's a process and it will take time.

5. Get involved in the community. Shop local as much as you can, if there are shops available. Make use of community facilities. Go along to community events, be involved in community events. It can be daunting at first moving to a small community where faces are familiar when you're used to being anonymous in a crowd of people. That's why being involved in the community is so important.

6. Realise at some point that you were completely mad to think that you wanted to move to the country, and think seriously about moving back to the city.

7. Slow down and start to enjoy the pace of country life. Stop to talk to locals in the street. Listen to a story from the lady at the post office, drive a bit slower, say hello to the man who delivers the gas bottles. It's addictive, once you developing a liking for a slower pace of life.

8. Get chickens. Chickens are amazing. They need a secure place to rest at night, and a decent sized chook run if you aren't letting them free-range. Watch them and be entertained. They can be messy if they get into your garden. Marvel at how good your frittata's taste using eggs from your own hens.

9. Write a blog about it!

Basically, if you're thinking about moving to the country, there comes a point where you either decide that you will do it, or you won't. I'm not saying don't do your homework about it. It's a big decision, a life changing decision. It seems there a lot of people living in cities wondering about changing it all up for a simple country life. It can totally be done, but like anything you think will make your life better - it looks glittery from the outside and may not sparkle quite how you think it should. But it sparkes, alright.

What do you think it takes to live a simple country life? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

The Simple Things

We had our local market in town the Sunday just gone. I love our local market the most of all, it has such a down to earth feel about it. Hardly surprising really, that sums up our town quite well. It's a place where you can usually find real, homegrown produce for sale, by people who are only looking for spare change (or so it seems, given how low the prices are). I remember coming here back in about February this year, and a fellow was just handing out big bunches of grapes to everyone walking past. It's that kind of market. 

We pedalled home with a little stash of goodies: parsnips, peas, radishes, broccoli, leeks, a bunch of plants and a dozen local free range eggs (since our girls are both sitting on eggs and not laying eggs). We have been eating peas for days, they just seem to keep going and going. I love homegrown peas, and yet it's probably my biggest disappointment in my own vegie gardening endeavours. I managed a few measly little pods earlier this year, but I would love nothing more than to have a bountiful harvest of peas in our garden. 

So for now we're enjoying these. William is loving opening up the pods and getting the peas out, which he then chews and spits out. He's learning. But he loves them - if he see's them, he must have them, in that way that toddlers must have things. And I'm plotting and planning about how I might successfully grow peas in our garden next year. Any tips on how to grow peas? It can't be that hard. But I am reminded that the small and simple things truly are the important things. Shelling peas into a bowl has brought smiles to our faces this week.

What's bringing a smile to your face right now?

Snippets of Here

Some snaps taken during our afternoon outside adventures. You know, for a very long time, I considered changing the name of this blog, as I felt it no longer represented where I was in life. And now, I find myself living in a place where the name is more fitting than ever. Anyway. I think you will be able to see from these images that we definitely have our work cut out for us, here in this place.

This little old house needs a good wash and a tidy up. We're in the process of doing so many things, sometimes it feels like we're getting absolutely nowhere. But we are, just very slowly. We pulled up a couple of terribly overgrown bushes growing near the white posts here, but with chickens roaming around every day (we still need to build a permanent enclosed chook run), their favourite place to have a dust bath is right where we pulled up bushes. Hello, dust and dirt kicked up, repeatedly. I've given up trying to sweep it, for now. Note the giant mound of plant, also in need of some chopping, and the great big olive tree behind William. That one stays.

Honeysuckle flowers blooming. Pretty bright blooms, but the bush itself may have limited days left… We shall see. At the very least it will get a hefty chop back. There is too much vegetation growing close to the house, one of our many jobs is to clear it all out so the place can breathe a bit.

The orchid. Currently there are five varieties of apple tree growing here. We'll plant more fruit trees, but it won't be until next season now. It will be good to watch it over the growing season and see how it all comes together. To the right is an old cubby house, but it's a bit too rustic for our liking and will be pulled down.

The vegie garden area. Completely overgrown, but there are four vegie garden beds buried here, with reasonable soil in them too. Also the wood pile in the old water tank and some rustic compost bays alongside. And a drum. There are a bunch of old drums about the place (three to be exact). The paddock sits beyond the tree line here; the trees sort of make up a rough house block.

Just some open space. Not quite sure what this might end up being/doing, and I actually quite like just having open space just for the sake of it.

William checking for eggs. This boy amazes me with how he has taken to looking after the chickens. His chickens, really. He collects the eggs every day, and carefully carries them inside so we can put them in the fridge. In the afternoon, he always remembers to get the chook bucket full of scraps (uneaten toddler food, mostly). He fills up the nesting box with straw, and attempts to fill their water. And feeds them handful after handful of layer pellets. Then chases them around with arms outstretched, trying to catch them. So sweet to watch it all unfold.

Snippets of here. So much work to be done, but we knew that when we decided to take it on. It's a nice place to be. We've been here for four weeks now but it feels a bit like we've always been here.

Planning Slow and Simple Days

I don't know about you, but for me, slow and simple doesn't seem to come naturally as much as I'd like it to. At least, not when I feel like there's a million things to do and I just want to get in and do them. Slow and simple can wait until everything is done, and then I can stop and slow down. Right?

After being in our new home for a few weeks, we're starting to feel a bit more settled. But there is still so much sorting and unpacking and washing and cleaning to be done, on top of the usual washing and cooking and eating and playing and snuggling and general stuff that makes up life at home with a toddler. And my little toddler is going through a bit of a clingy phase, no doubt due to a few factors - some serious teething being one of them - and coming to terms with being in a new house. New places and spaces, new routines, and perhaps mourning the loss of old, well known places and routines. The initial excitement has worn off and as nice as the new reality is, there is an element of missing the old and the familiar.

I can tell you it is a bit draining on the mama. Being home all day, looking at all the things needing to be done, making meals in a half-unpacked kitchen, seeing the dishes pile up and not being able to get in to clean up (one of my most hated things - dishes piling up in the kitchen). And knowing that I need to just leave it all and sit with my little one, cuddle, nurse, read books, whatever it is, just being there with him. So for this week I have consciously planned to be able to do just that. I have made sure that the priority for each day is very simple - apart from eating and sleeping, the activities are mostly cuddles and chooks (taking care of the chooks is William's job, he has taken the task on of his own accord). And if anything else actually gets done, all the better. But I'm not planning for it.

It helps. It is making all the difference in the world. And the main difference is in my head, apparently. Nothing much outwardly has changed, but the inner landscape for me has changed. Instead of finishing breakfast and feeling like 'right, lets get on with it', it has become something more like 'ok, lets go read a book on the couch'. A little shift in priority; rather than the cleaning and sorting being the priority, spending time with my little one is the priority. And in doing this, I have noticed that after a while, the clingy eases, he settles into his own play a little more, and I'm left with some more space to actually do this little job or that. With so much more ease and grace than if I try to push forward to just do.

It has only happened this way because I planned for it to be so. I wrote it down, in my brand new pretty paper notebook. I look at it every day. I know what we're eating for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I know what foods we will be snacking on. I know that there is more than enough time in the days for the things that absolutely must happen. And I'm slowly learning that less really, truly is more, in all ways. And I'm so glad for making this choice, because for a little while there, I was really struggling with this whole thing. A struggling mama is not nice for anyone. A little planning, to do less rather than more, has made all the difference in the world in our little home.

Midweek Musings: The Gifts You Feel You Should Keep

A truly perfect gift - little jonquils from the garden, stems removed, given so beautifully by my little boy. 

Oh, we've been de-cluttering again. More on that another time, but needless to say, moving into a smaller house has forced us to get rid of even more stuff. And we thought we had already got rid of the excess. I guess now we're going through it all with a fine tooth comb and the reality (the very beautiful reality) of limited storage space for 'stuff'.

So I come to my topic. Gifts you feel you should keep. You know the ones, wedding gifts, birthday gifts, Christmas gifts. The things that are not quite right, are just not you, the ones you never even liked at all, ever. There is something about the gift that leaves us feeling that we should keep it, regardless of whether or not we like it, use it, want it, need it.

I think part of it is not wanting to hurt the feelings of the person who gave us the gift in the first place. And that is totally valid, no-one wants to go around hurting other people's feelings (not in these parts anyway). But is that enough of a reason to hang on to something that you otherwise would not keep? 

This is the murky waters of serious de-cluttering. In the current box of items to be donated to the op shop sits a waterford crystal bowl, a wedding gift from a grandmother. I don't think we have ever used it. Maybe once when we needed an extra salad bowl? The thing is, it's too good to use. The other thing is, we don't like it. Not the shape, not the style, not the size. It's just not right for us. My husband almost got rid of it once before, but decided against it after I pointed out how much those things cost. He googled it to confirm, and the bowl stayed. 

And now it is destined for the op shop. We have to be ruthless in this business, you know. I guess we could sell it, but I think we just don't want the hassle. Photographing it, setting up an ad online, getting weird text messages about it, having it sit around awkwardly in the house throughout the whole process. Blah. Straight to the op shop for this bowl. Someone somewhere will no doubt find it, love it and have the bargain of the year. But to us, it's value is pretty much nil.

And the pink t-shirt. The one my mum gave me for Christmas a few years ago. The one that was always a bit too small (maybe I'll fit into it one day?), a bit too bright ('but you love pink'), that might be ok to wear running (on the two occasions per year that I actually run, and it's still too small..). Finally, finally I have given up hanging on to it and sent it off to the op shop as well. And the reason I've held on to it for so long? Well, I didn't want to hurt my mother's feelings. To reject a gift from someone, is in a sense, rejecting the person. Only it isn't. It's just a thing, after all.

At our son's first birthday, there was quite a mountain of gifts from extended family. Some small and thoughtful, some large and extravagant and entirely not appropriate. Some were directly against our requests. I can tell you that a bunch of them ended up at the op shop, unopened from their packaging, the very next day. That was quite easy, in comparison. 

I think we could be considered harsh sometimes, but really, we appreciate the thought and effort behind gifts. We do, but we are just not into material stuff. And so finally, we are starting to get past the emotional holds that these things have over us, and just let them go.

How about you? Do you find it hard when you receive a gift that isn't quite right for you? Do you feel the need to keep it anyway?

Midweek Musings… On Houses and Property

Thoughts about houses and property and the property market in general are never that far from my mind to be honest. I have always loved to peruse the real estate section of any paper, and my husband who loves to do the same. So we certainly have our thoughts and discussions and opinions on lots of things property-related.

An ancient mulberry tree in the paddock at our new home. It still fruits, apparently.

We have just moved into what you could call our dream home. It is about 76 years young, has approximately 20 million little holes to be filled (literally, you could see daylight through some of them), has a few floorboards that need replacing in places, has an outside laundry, has a room that needs re-doing due to termite damage (the original bathroom, that we will convert to an inside laundry), has repainting to be done throughout the entire house (some as a matter of need, some because we aren't into the colour scheme in place). It has beautifully narrow doorways into the older rooms - doorways were so narrow 70-odd years ago, why are they so much wider now? It has uneven floors, uneven doorways, uneven bench tops. And to us, it is just perfect. 

I wrote this post a little while ago about what I wanted in a simple home. Looking back, I can tick a lot of the boxes for the home I described. Not all, but most. That was always going to be the case with a wish list. This little house, it is both spacious and small at the same time. We have consolidated and decluttered our possessions so much already, and now we realise we need to do even more. And I think that is wonderful. We will truly keep in our home only those things we need, or love, or need and love. And it is a home with character. Clearly not everyone's cup of tea, as it's been sitting empty for the better part of a year. And I guess it's not much to look at from the outside. Just an old white weatherboard, in need of a wash and some TLC.

Thing is though, one of the things we wanted but never really believed we could get, was a couple of acres within the boundary of a small town. Rural, but still with a community. Some land, but still walking distance to the main road and a few shops. Walking distance to the monthly market. And it only recently dawned on us, that that is precisely what we have got. We never thought we would be able to get it, not because it doesn't exist, but because it doesn't exist at a price we could afford to pay. And yet somehow this little property sat and just waited for us to find it. It almost sold, it fell through, and then it sat, and sat, and sat. We had briefly looked at it online, but originally dismissed it as it only had two bedrooms, (we wanted three). But compromise gets made somewhere, and for us it was there. And I truly believe that this little house was just for us.

And the price we paid for our humble little place? Being fully open here on the blog, we paid (or more correctly, the bank helped us to pay) $160,000. For a little old house, with character and charm and in need of a few repairs (but with good solid bones), on three acres of land, within a nice small town in Central Victoria. A nice town, close enough to Bendigo and with NBN access. A town that we have visited regularly for a few years now, but had never really considered calling home, but a town that I am thrilled to be in, and to raise a family in. And I look at what we have, at this space to share together as a family, for our little one to grow, and learn and explore. And I wonder why - why why why? Why do people flock to overcrowded cities, with ridiculously high property prices - really, really ridiculously high property prices? Why do people lock themselves into huge mortgages that require two incomes just to make ends meet? And to be squeezed in like sardines to boot? Don't get me wrong, I think city living is actually a pretty sustainable way to live, when you can home a lot of people in apartments utilising upward space, and really negate the need for a car when all amenities are close by. I think that is a really good option. The part I don't get so much is the suburban sprawl, particularly the new estate builds. Where the house takes up almost the entire block, with barely any space for a garden at all. Where houses are just big, bigger, biggest. We drive past such houses being built and I wonder how on earth they are going to heat the place. And really, it's not about the money. Sure, you can have all the money in the world to heat a massive house, but just because you can, does that mean you should?

In any case, I am grateful to be just here. I am grateful for the opportunities this little place provides for us, to make a beautiful home, to grow much food, to hopefully get some equine friends to keep the grass down, and to build our family life. I am so happy, just to be here. We have all the time to do what needs doing, and in the mean time, we're busy building family memories to share. And it didn't cost us an arm and a leg, or the earth for that matter.

The Pull of the Season

It is winter. The trees are mostly bare, the days are becoming grey and heavy, and the air is - well, not as cold as it should be. A little agapanthus flowers in my garden, the scent of wattle is heavy in the air. The seasons are strange right now.

Afternoon sun at the change in season, autumn gives way to winter.

For some years now, I have been shifting closer to living in tune with the season. It is not easy, when we live in a society that no longer relies on the seasons. Vegetables are grown all year round under lights and with hydroponic set-ups, street lights make the night into day, the work day is relentless as the economy must still grow (apparently, so we have been told).

But the earth is still the same. Humans are still creatures of the earth, and there is still the rhythm of the season, the beat of something more primal. Winter is a time of dormancy, of going within. Of spending less energy, of keeping warm, of sleeping longer with the longer hours of darkness. Spring signals the time of emergence, of coming to life again after the winter hibernation. Summer is expansive, the energy is high and productivity is too. The gardens bloom and provide much abundance. Autumn is a time for softening, easing off. Slowing the pace, in readiness for the coming cold. And for beauty in ageing. 

And yet our modern world seems so out of touch with the true nature of the seasons. Foods are no longer seasonal. I can walk into my local supermarket and buy tomatoes, if I want to. The shorter day is nowhere reflected in an adjustment to the typical working hours expected of employees, and shops remain open after dark, catering for people still out and about, when in earlier times, they would have been tucked up at home as the sun went down. 

I am stepping further and further towards living in tune with the season. My body has always known what to do. It wants more rest in winter, yet I have fought against it. It wants to keep me warm with a little extra weight for the colder months, yet I have always fought against it. It wants to go for walks outside, rugged up against the cold in warm clothes. I have forced it into much harder exercise, in much lighter clothes, and now pay the price with cold lodged in my bones. My body wants to  slow down, be warm, be nourished, and now I am going to let it.

I want for my son to know the seasons. I want him to grow up to appreciate the beauty of every season, and to experience and truly live, the changes in the season. Not the cricket season or the footy season. No. The true nature of the world around him. Of the leaves on the trees as they change colour and fall. And the vegetables we grow in the garden over summer, then go all year without, until we can grow them once again. I want him to know the joy of a warm home in winter, filled with the smells of hearty, earthy soups cooking on the stove. I want him to know the delight in a ripe, homegrown tomato in summer, and how that cannot be replaced by a tomato grown artificially, out of season. I want him to know that it is ok to slow down, to do less, sleep more, over winter. And he will only know these things because that is what we live.

Do you feel the pull of the seasons?

Dreaming of Smaller

We've finally reached a decisive point in our little part of the world, that we're going to move again, and soon. You know when you um and ah about a decision for so long, then finally something happens that gives a clear way forward? That. 

We have thought and thought on this house that we live in, and looked into buying it and staying put right here. But it just didn't seem to be coming together for us - it seemed to be against the flow. Still though, the option remained on the table, and we were almost back at the point of well, perhaps we should just push forward and buy, and the universe handed us a decisive 'NO'. And so we listened. And now we are house hunting!

Anyway, with all of our decluttering and heading down the path of minimalist living (in so far as you can with a young child, dogs, cats, chooks and bikes), I have realised a few things about the place I want to call home. And I realise that I am once again left of centre here in middle Australia. Here is a little list of the things I would really love in our future home.

* A simple bathroom.

Simple, simple, simple. Basic. I don't want fancy tiles, I don't want stone this or stone that, I don't want fancy bits that require lots of cleaning or where mould can build up. I don't want a huge space. I do want the toilet in a separate room and I do want there to be a bath. But simple and basic and small is fine with me.

* One main room for living.

Ideally with a kitchen at one end, room for a solid kitchen table where memories will be created and wonderful meals shared. At the other end, some lounge chairs, a bookshelf or two (for our much-reduced collection of books), somewhere to stash my yarns and some toys. Room for little beds for animals to sleep in.

* A small main bedroom.

Small. The bigger the room, the more tempted we are to fill it with stuff, the more stuff we have, the messier the room becomes. When I have nowhere to throw clothes in a hurry (like onto a chair, or a cot, or whatever else fills the space), I am forced to put clothes away. And I like that. And really, I want room for our double sized bed and not much else, save for little side drawers and a smallish closet.

* Two little bedrooms.

For our little one, and hopefully one day another little one.

* A main wood heater. 

I know they're not the most environmentally friendly heating around, but what is? Gas isn't. Split system certainly isn't. Wood heating creates the nicest warmth, and we have to work for our heat by collecting and splitting our wood (we have 'designated' wood collecting areas in the part of the world).

* And the rest...

Lots and lots and lots of natural light, north facing windows in the living area, good thermal mass, insulated floors and walls, timber floors. Space in the garden to grow some trees, vegies, keep a couple of chooks and have room for a little person to run around and get very dirty.

Small, simple, basic. Just a place to call home, small and easy to clean, easy to keep an eye on a toddler while I'm in the kitchen. Oh, and I guess I would love a little nook to sit with macbook and write, and somewhere where I can create and not have to pack everything away all the time… but I won't be greedy. Small and simple really is key here. Am I asking too much?

I was reading a copy of Better Homes and Gardens magazine recently (Mum kept if for me as it came with bonus cake icing bits, a piping bag and stuff, score!). Anyway I don't really read stuff like this, but I've been a little intrigued, mainly with looking at the 'how' rather than the 'what' (this graphic design course I'm doing is responsible for that..). But I did note with interest an advertising feature for completely over-the-top bathrooms, great stone monolith types, all very stylish and everything, but really. Is this what your average home needs? Is this what people aspire to? Is this why there is so much debt? Is this what keeps our economy 'strong'? Spending money on unnecessary things, things that take up so much space, things that may be stylish now, but in 10 years will be outdated? Blah. 

Left of centre, once again. Give me small and simple and plain any day.

How about you? What does your dream home look like? Or are you living in it?