Fridays Fabulous Five 26 February

Another week and here are my favorite finds on the web.  Not that I get much time to browse the web but just sometimes some things stick and are worth pinning or bookmarking.

• Since I don't have a stove and need to provide my son with home made baking I thought that Sunday I would make this.  I am sure a whole bunch of 12 and 13 year old boys who are out camping will enjoy the Caramello Slice

image from Bake Play Smile blog (see recipe for link)

•  Here is nice little reminder about how to parent in the digital age.  If found this article on mashable.

•  What about a quick tutorial on taking great candid photos.

•  There is nothing like a little colour in your vege garden.  So my son, the vege gardener in my house, decided a little companion planting was necessary to keep the bugs out.  He read all about it here on the Tuis web site

• Finally.  If your children are into playing sport then the Proactive Coach is a site you should not look past.  I love everything that is written and it really makes me think hard about me and my role as a parent of children who participate. 

Roll on the weekend.

Preparing to move.

So moving a house takes a lot more planning than I ever thought.  So the first lesson I learnt in this phase was think of how much time it will take to do things and double it.  That will minimize any further stress being added to your life. 

So moving a house 30km to you site goes something like this.

1.Here is another look at the house in its original site.  The owners of the site had to clear everything from the site so the house could be moved off.  The garage out the side had to be demolished carefully before any work could be done because of the asbestos in it.  Thankfully we did not have to do any of this as it was in the contract clearly laid out.

2.  A builder comes inside and prepares the house for cutting.  I don't have any photos of this phase but you can see in this shot the vertical cut line between the top and bottom story along with the large brick chimney demolished.

Inside because the house is going to be cut right down middle on both top and bottom story, doors and door frames need removing, a couple of windows need removing. and inside the house needs bracing.

Inside lounge and dining room.  Yes they are mirrored tiles on the wall.

Garage gone.

This is a much more invasive process than I thought it would be but there was no turning back.  Not that we wanted to anyway.  After two weeks of work the house was ready for the next phase. 

Next blog post will be the move.

Wordless Wednesday 24 February

Just as I go walking down the road I see so many wild flowers and even unripe blackberries,  I decided they were worth photographing.  I know my phone was not the best camera I have but nonetheless it was all I had while out on my 6km walk.

So now I am guessing I dont need a flower garden I just need to go on walks around my neighbourhood.

I am linking this post to My Little Drummer Boys.

The story so far.

This time last year we decided to sell the house we owned and buy something that better suited to our needs especially growing children and one disabled son.

Now those needs were a little long term but really revolved around my able bodied children having a quiet place to study and a space for time out from living with a disabled sibling.  Then there were things like spaces that would not easily get broken and made our life easier such as an easy to clean toilet, an easily accessible place to store medication and medical supplies etc etc.

The only way we seem to be able to afford this was to buy an older house and move it to a place that was suitable to us. 

So that is where our story began.

We found this lovely 1959 house just waiting to be moved off site and to a new home.  Hmmmmm...we had no idea that once we decided to take this house just what a journey it would be.  A journey that we really are only a small part of the way through.

Phase one was to wait for spring to arrive.  Logically you can not move a house you have cut into four bits when the weather is terrible.  Of course there were all those decisions regarding changes we wanted to make to we could submit it to council for planning permission.  Now that was very tricky especially since we had not lived in the house and only visited it twice.

After much work were given the large package to deliver to council.  Yes there I am with all that important paper work.  Without it nothing can happen.  The house cant go on the truck, it cant be put on the land and we wont be able to move it off its original site.

After much stress and running around the paper work came through and phase two began.  The moving of the house.

We had already learnt some lessons.

• allow lots of time to council to work through the paper work.
• banks don't want to deal with old houses that are about to be moved so creative planning is required.
• patience is a virtue in may ways and this phase certainly reinforced that.
• Remember your husband (yes I love his heaps) is your partner in this and is after the same end goal.

Phase two will follow Thursday so drop on back.

Monday Menu 22 February

Another week checked off and we are into full swing as far as the school year goes.  Here is my favourite meal for the week.  Stacked with zucchini, tomato and chorizo and a distinct chilli flavour everyone in my house loved it.  I know the photo is not perfect but I could not help but post it here.

Here is my menu for the week.  A lot of eating in the car for us as DH is away and we are busy rushing around.

Monday  Cold meat, new potatoes and green garden salad.

Tuesday  spaghetti bolognese

Wednesday  naked beef burgers with beetroot and carrot salad and homemade chips  

Thursday  mince and cheese kumara top pies with green garden vegetable.

Friday   fish fillets with baked potato and vege

Saturday  spanish meatballs with salad

Sunday   Leftovers

I am linking this to Im an Organising Junkie

Monday Menu 15 February

Another week done and I am now fully into my menu planning even if sometimes I come off menu because the school year threw at me something unexpected. 

Here is a photo of my favourite salad I took for lunch last week.  Grapes, tomato onion and a little cheese with a vinaigrette dressing.  Just what I felt like after a morning in the classroom. 

So here is my menu for this week.

Monday   Spaghetti Bolognaise

Tuesday  sphagetti, zucchini with chorizo and herb crumbs

Wednesday   Quesadilla

Thursday    lentil, spiced beef and roast capsicum burritos  not quite my recipe as I could find mine on the web. 

Friday   fish and chips   Ok an easy homemade meal with some salad on the side.

Saturday   Roasted lamb with boiled potato and salad.

Sunday   Leftovers

I am linking this post to I'm an Organising Junkie

Wordless Wednesday 10 February

Just sometimes the view out my front door, when the evening light is perfect, I get to breathe in the beauty of nature.



 

 I am linking this post to My Little Drummer Boys.

Managing the Stress

Just sometime in life you need to take a huge step back and look at yourself.  No one else but yourself.  When you do that the windows will open and you will see everything for what it is warts and all.

For me that moment happened 18 months ago when I took a breath and decided it was time to look after myself.  A great first step ....acknowledge where you are at and what the first step is.

So internal happiness  .....  you know happy with yourself and that started with working out (yet again) how to manage the stress in my life.  So I yet again started walking the roads.  When I finally made a habit of walking ...no excuses ....I understood that walking was not only about being fit but clearing my brain and giving me the much needed me space.   Sometimes that means walking the rural roads where I live, up and down the hills while pushing my disabled son in his buggy.  All 40 something kgs worth.

So no excuses  The benefits were far greater than I ever remembered and all this time latter I am still working at managing my stress.

Next time I will write about how I manage when I am working and cant fit my walk in.

Monday Menu 8 February

So I have made through the first week in February, the beginning of the school year and my husband being away.  So the sanity of menu planning has paid off.  Without any further delay here is my menu


First up my favourite meal from last week which was Tuesdays menu.....tomato, caramelised onion, feta and basil pie.  We had to cook it on the bbq as our lovely new over has not been installed and it worked out ok., actually better than ok it was great and I can't wait for my oven to work so it will be even better.

So on to this weeks plan

Monday   Spelt and zucchini, spaghetti with chorizo and herb crumbs.

Tuesday  spaghetti bolognese.

Wednesday  Lamb cutlets with beetroot and carrot salad

Thursday chicken and sun dried tomato pasta bake.

Friday   homemade pizza with everyones own choice of topping. (a link to pinterest for ideas)

Saturday   roasted lamb with new potato and green salad

Sunday   Leftovers

I am linking this to I'm an organising junkie

Five Fridays Finds 5 February.

Well I have been considering what my Friday post will look like going forward but I still come back to this point so I thought that since my blogging was forced into a break I would keeping going....well for this moment any way.

So my food finds for this week are.....

• I have a whole bucket of plums am going to make jam....the sugar free variety.  I really love the  plum jam recipe for the diabetic community.

image from Diabetic Connect.

•  Then there is my favourite homemade  ranch dressing  from Nancy at Skinny Kitchen

•  Cloud bread.  Accoding to the post the internet is going crazy over this recipe.  I have not tried it out but when I do I will sure let you know if it is worth being crazy about.

•  I have some left over fruit from Christmas and thought that this fruit cake recipe might just work.....well when I get my stove hooked up.

•  Finally the homemade bread.   It was lovely.  

I am so Lucky....

Well we have been living in a house under renovation.  It is a story for another post but let me say that the house we have was built in 1959 and its framework is made of rimu and native New Zealand wood.  We have a large pile of undressed rimu sitting in a pile outside.

The pile of rimu sitting outside after being removed from inside the house.

Yes the wood came from inside the internal wall of the house.  It is fulled with nailed and rough sawn.  I had this ambitious project of using the wood to help make a table studying on.  Luckily we had the top of the table (recycled from the laundry and nearly two meters long) and time on our hands.

So armed with a tool for pulling nails out of wood, a plainer, wood glue, clamps, some screws and little brackets.  Not much really....ha ha.  That was the easy part.  My husband and I have never made furniture.  So I started with the bit I knew how to do.......remove the nails from the wood that had been selected from the pile.  Then I got the measurements drew a couple of lines on the wood and there it sat for about a week with nothing happening.  But it became quickly evident we could no longer think about this project.   In our house with no tables in it at the moment, doing homework and study was an issue especially as the school year had just started.

So the next phase started.  The legs and framing for the table were plained to make them lovely and smooth and show off the all the character of the old wood.

The underside of the table looking fabulous after being glued, screwed and braced into place.

Then there is the character of the wood.  Just lovely with nail holes and these beautiful spots like we have on the leg.

The top of the table was gently sanded back and trimmed to get rid of the water damage obtained while it was the laundry bench.  Out came the wood glue and it was all glued in place, clamped and left with crossed finger to see if it would happen as we had planned.  Then while I was at work, yes that's why there are no photos, screws and little brackets were put into place.

I just love it.  It just needs varnish on it.  I will post an update when that is done.

Wordless Wednesday

So I am back.  I have missed my Wednesday photo post infact my blogging.  Just sometime life gets in the way.

Just an image from our recent summer holiday.

We had 4 boys very keen on fishing every day of our holiday.  Just got to smile at this photo as it was when the fish were not running.

I am linking this post to My Little Drummer Boys

Monday Menu 2 February

It has been a while since I have been able to blog.What with moving house and the computer completely not working I have been busy.  I will blog about it all at some other time.  Anyway the last 18 months has bought about a lot of changes and long may it last I am thinking.



Here is my menu for the week.

Monday    Stir fried garlic basil and chilli chicken with rice noodles

Tuesday    mixed tomato caramelized onion and goats cheese tart with green salad on the side

Wednesday  chicken and sun dried tomato pasta bake

Thursday    Hearty steak sandwich

Friday    Lamb cutlets with Moroccan carrot and beetroot salad.

Saturday  spinach and cheese pies with green salad

Sunday    Leftover day.  I just dont know what that will look like.

Home grown capsicum still a few weeks away from eating.

I am linking this post to I'm an Organising Junkie.