Stop! Thief!

More Handmade Christmas Cards

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Splendid Saturday Splendid Sunday

What a fabulous weekend we had. It was SO busy. We got up early on Saturday morning and went down to the river for a ski. The water was like glass.
When we got home we cleaned the boat and put it away and headed down to the gym. The boys swam while I went into the gym.
We them headed home for a breakfast of bacon, eggs and homemade bread. By this time it was actually one o'clock , so I guess it wasn't really breakfast.

We then headed out into the yard and decided to move the chook pen to create a bigger space in our 'farm' area.

Luckily the iron for the roof renovation hadn't arrived yet, so it wasn't too difficult to lift up and move around.

After working in the garden for a few hours I came in and created a birthday card for our son's friend. He was having his party at the bowling alley. I also made some yummy french onion dip and water crackers to take to a friend's house for dinner.

We had a great night out and headed home about 11.30pm


Sunday morning is latte morning. Every Sunday I am delivered my signature coffee (vanilla latte on skim) in bed. I know I know!!! I am totally spoilt!!...... what can I say.....??

After hanging around in bed reading for a while, I made everyone pancakes with chunky blueberry sauce. They were perfect! The sauce was just fresh blueberries thrown into a saucepan with a tablespoon of water and a tablespoon of sugar and simmered until they broke down and thickened up...... this will definitely be on the 'keep' list.


We did a few jobs around the house and garden and then headed out for a Sunday drive. We headed up to one of the local lighthouses and were looking out when youngest son spotted the whales frolicking just off the shore line. They were coming up and crashing down with a big splash! I don't have a zoom lens with me, so that photos I have are just flecks in a grey ocean.

It was sooooo windy up there. My hair was standing straight up!

When we got home I organised things for dinner and got everything ready to start another week. We had an early dinner, a beautiful roast. We were all exhausted and had an early night.

What a jam-packed weekend it was..... but definitely enjoyable!

Garden Update: Tears of {Onion} Joy

I will be crying tears of joy when I finally chop and cook this little baby! Actually, it is not so little. They are remarkably huge!

This is the first time that I have grown onions. I always had it in the back of my mind that onions take too long and they take up too much space. But..... the time was going to pass anyway and I don't believe they took a lot of space. They are now ready to be pulled out, tied and hung up until we need them. I will be planting more for sure! Everything else is plodding along nicely. This silverbeet is going much better since a relocation into a much wetter area.

Rows of beans are powering now that the weather is warming. So too is the sweet corn. This year we are really trying to get our succession planting worked out. We always struggle with feast or famine when it comes to our garden so this year we are determined to try and stagger the plantings and have an ongoing supply of produce.

Tucked away there is the shadow is a little pumpkin that wasn't there yesterday. They say magic doesn't exist, but how was there nothing yesterday and today there is a pumpkin ? That is a miracle in my books!

There are also some exciting chook house renovations happening to prepare the girls for a luxurious summer in their new penthouse. Stay tuned for further updates.

A question for you.... how do you plan and/or organise your succession planting so that there are no gaps in your backyard production ? I have been really encouraged by the show River Cottage and borrowed the DVD from the town library. I like the way Hugh has his seedlings starting again as soon as the last lot go into the ground. He has a great system worked out.

Do you have any fabulous system for what to plant when ? I'd love to know what you do.

Yesterday We Owned The River

When we are cruising around our beautiful river and there is no one else about I always think that the river belongs to us - that {we} own the river. Of course I know it is exactly the opposite, we don't own the river - the river owns us!

I had the camera with me yesterday so I snapped some shots of the old buildings around the banks.

There are lots of old dairy farms on this island. There is also a lot of history around the area, with the river being used as the main transportation link for freight and milk. The whole area was once a bustling hive of activity. Now days, the river winds its way through the valley with most people too busy to even stop and look.

But I look....... and dream of days gone by. Days when being 10 kilometres from town was a long way and could only justify a trip there once a week at most. Days when the river was the centre of life - providing goods from afar and fish, prawns and crabs from it's depths.

You can see that cruising up the river, turning off the motor and drifting in the silence for a while, taking in the sounds of the birds, the lapping of the water on the bank, the friendly dolphins.... would make anyone realise after a while that {we} don't own the river, the {river} owns us!

Garden Update: Compost Bin Changeover

The time had arrived to empty the compost bin. We have a pretty plain compost bin. I won it in a radio trivia competition. That was about ten years ago and it still seems to be going strong.

I don't know whether we do it the 'right' way or not, but for years we have been using the same system with great success. We simply fill the bin with scraps from the kitchen, the garden and the some paper and try to keep the balance right between wet and dry materials.

The bin is made of two halves that are wired together in the middle on both sides. When the bin is full I simply undo the wire twists and am left with a perfect pile. You can see in the picture above that the material on the top hasn't broken down yet but as you look down the pile - it is perfect.

By this stage the girls get a whiff of what is happening and they start hanging around - begging to be let into the garden area.

I then move the compost to a new location (this time it is right next to where it was) and wire it back together. I sit the bin up on a couple of bricks and put some twigs in the bottom for air circulation. I then lift the top centimetres off the old pile and put it back in the bottom of the compost bin in the new location.

We then fenced off a small area and let the girls come in and have a good dig through everything for a couple of hours before we scraped it all up and put it on the garden. The girls went absolutely mad! They scratched and pecked and jumped on bugs. It really was a joy to watch!

We also cleaned out the chook house and added the manure to the compost.

It is amazing to think that we put the soil compost on the garden and grow things and then mulch up the plants and put them in the compost which in turn becomes the dirt that we grow things in again. It is a complete circle....... the circle of {life} !

A Vision Splendid Coaching + SPECIAL OFFER

The last couple of weeks I have been coaching a guinea pig........

Let me rephrase that...... {LOL}

What I have actually been doing is working with a lady to assist her in turning her family life around. I have been saying for years that my mantra is 'to empower women and bless my family with the fruits'. I have been rattling it off for so long that sometimes I have to stop and remind myself what it means.

It means that I find my joy in helping others and I want to be able to give the benefits obtained from that process to my family, whether they be financial or emotional.

I really {feel} that as a purpose in my life. When I look back through my working life..... as a school teacher .... I empowered others by teaching them to be passionate about learning. As a lawyer I took great pride in empowered people by guiding them through extremely complex situations and providing reassurance and guidance.

Over the last few weeks helping this lady I have really enjoyed empowering her. I used to think that I wasn't 'qualified' sufficiently to help others with home and family management tasks because I wasn't perfect at it myself. Then I remembered someone asking me once whether the coach of Australian champion swimmer Ian Thorpe was actually a faster swimmer than Ian was. Of course not! But.... there is something wonderful that he brings to the partnership.

As this lady has made changes week by week in her family life I have felt so proud for her! Her excitement and motivation has charged me up to make more improvements in my own life. The motivation seems to work both ways.

If you are wondering what we have been working on, it is the same steps as in my E-Book ( available at left).

We started with the financial aspect of family life. I always start here. Not because it is the most important part of life, but because it is the part that will bring you down the quickest.

In looking at finances we started with a yearly overview of all her bills, how much they are and when they arrive. We then looked at a plan for paying them and having money available as they arrive. We then looked at a weekly budget and drew up a realistic cash budget that allows for freedom as well as control.

Next we moved onto home management and started looking at aspects such a menu planning, shopping and planning and how she will manage this in her average week. We brainstormed meal ideas and went through cupboards working out what meals she could make with the ingredients she currently has.

After that we started looking together at an overall management plan for the house. When and how will she clean the home? What tasks will she do when? Who will help with different jobs? What will the kids be responsible for ?

We are still working on this aspect of home management. We have children the same age so it has been really great talking about the problems that we encounter and brainstorming strategies to work out the issues.

I am looking for more 'guinea pigs'. If you would be interested in working through a similar program week by week please send an email ( address at left) notifying me of your interest and I will forward further details.

AS A SPECIAL OFFER I have created a 50% discount on the Vision Splendid E-Book for the next TWO WEEKS ONLY. That means that the 64 page booklet is available for only $6.00 AUD ( about $5.12 US ) The original price will revert on 21st October at midnight.