Getting the Herb garden in order

My poor garden was a little neglected whilst I was pregnant (being sick all day, every day) and afterwards, when I was caring for a new little person.

One of the things I was missing was my fresh herbs.

And one of the more sillier things I did was plant paw paw trees in this garden, which completely took it over.

I cut back the passionfruit vine, removed the paw paw trees and went herb shopping.  The shopping was the fun part!

A $15 hose from Aldi meant I didn't have to find time to water the garden every day.

 I came across this 'memory herb'.  A few sprigs each day is supposed to assist with your memory.  I definitely need that!

72 Hour Kit Challenge week 1

The first step is to start drinking juice, and collecting the containers.

I have washed and dried these bottles.  I have one per family member, and one extra to practice on.  They won't be for water storage, they'll be to store food in.

A friend showed me a very clever way of cutting a section at the top of the container and putting the stored food in there, then sealing it back up.  Brilliant.  More on that later.

You probably want to cut off the plastic ring just under the lid because we won't be needing those.

72 HOUR KIT CHALLENGE

I have given myself a new challenge, and you're welcome to join me on the journey whenever you wish.

Following the crazy flood I had at my place not long ago, it made me realise how underprepared I was.  What if I had to leave my home in a hurry?  What would I take?  If I had something that was ready just to grab and go, would that make things easier?

Why a 72 hour kit?

Because it usually takes at least 72 hours (3 days) for help to come after an emergency from the Government, depending on the emergency.

Hmmm...relying on the Government to help me out?  I think I prefer to be as self reliant as I can.  No offence to our Government ;D

Anyways, there's lot of info out there about why a 72 hour kit is a great idea, but this is my process in putting one together, step by step.

I'm going to keep it as simple as I can - after all, I do have a 9 month old and very little time to spare.

My life just got a little crazier!

I'm sure your life is crazy too.  But I welcomed a new baby into our family 3 weeks ago.  I think I've lost my mind!

There is a ten year age gap between this gorgeous baby and my other daughter.  It has been very helpful to have two older helpers  however goodness knows how I'm going to cope when they go back to school.

I was really hungry yesterday, and thought I'd make some choc chip cookies to grab whenever I needed a quick snack.  The cookies didn't happen - I had a baby that wanted to feed and feed and feed.

So I started on the cookies at 7am this morning. By 11am this is what happened:-

I shared some cookies with my two older kids and a kid's friend who was visiting, and I burnt some.  Hahahah there goes my perfect mum image ;D  Just keeping it real folks!  4 hours has to be my record as the longest time to bake a batch of cookies.  One batch!  I may have made about 18 cookies, but some didn't hover around waiting for their photo moment.

But the baby is asleep :D

I thought about vacuuming my lounge room but there really isn't any point when two older girls are leaving a trail of destruction after themselves.  I'll procrastinate the vacuuming for another day.  I did throw on 2 loads of laundry and hung one out, then did some washing up in the kitchen before the girls got creative and made more washing up.  That means they're not hungry any more though, right? ;D

Okay, so I know this lounge room might look tidy to some.  There is still Lego on that floor and ANY Lego on the floor is painful to step on!

Anyone got any burnt cookie or Lego walking on stories they want to share?

Decluttering books and CD's

Our floors are being sanded and polished in a few weeks, and during that time, we will be living upstairs in the separate granny flat.  It means EVERYTHING downstairs has to be moved either to upstairs or outside under cover.  What an interesting few weeks that will be!

I thought I would get a head start, and decluttered these CDs.  I got rid of a handful of them (only my ones, not Phil's), and dusted every single one of them.

 The pile of CDs to be dusted and sorted

 Back onto this black shelf went the CDs.  This shelf was on top of my sewing table, but I moved it to let in more light.

 The children helped me lug all my son's books upstairs, then I dragged the white bookshelf up too.  This bookshelf came with the house, and it has come in handy.  It is fairly solid, and I believe it was used as a tv unit as well (hence the holes in it).

 A big pile of books to sort out.

All the books and CDs looking neat and tidy :D

Mild Renovating - The Kitchen Floor

The lino in my kitchen that Phil installed many, many years ago was only supposed to be temporary.  It was from his parent's kitchen floor that they took up before putting tiles of a similar colour down.  The aim was to see if we liked it, and if we wanted to purchase something similar.  I did...but for unknown reasons, this lino stayed on my floor for YEARS.

Today we ordered some more lino for the floor.  I'm excited!!!

 I had to tape the lino for safety reasons.  I did not want to fall flat on my face with something hot in my hands tripping up over lino.

 I started ripping up the top layer of lino.  Oh, that's why we put a top layer down ;D

 It's very...um...busy, isn't it!

Yup, this was the old lino.    I don't even want to know what is under it!

The new lino looks like stone, and is a light brown and cream tile.  We wanted a thick industrial style lino that would put up with lots of wear in a kitchen area.  It's amazing what they have been able to do with linoleum these days.  So many types to choose from!

Kids Cooking - Chocolate Brownies in the Thermomix

My daughter really wanted to whip up a batch of brownies because she had found a recipe in one of her 'Princess Cooking' books.  I thought she might like to have a go at using my Thermomix.

 Measuring ingredients carefully.  I hadn't converted the recipe so we were still using 'cups'.

Measuring flour before we level off with a knife.

 Into the Thermomix it goes.

Smoothing out the brownies before baking them in the oven.

Sorry, no after photos.  They were the slightly crunchy on the outside type, and were devoured 10 mins after coming out of the oven.