Bread making and cleaning

We had a busy day yesterday and I am in danger of making you think, if you do not know me, that I am some kind of domestic genius or indeed domestic obsessive.

I discovered a recipe book entitled "Baking" on a shelf in my Mums caravan and borrowed it. This may be increased to "stole it". In it I found this great recipe for soda bread. All ordinary ingredients, no yeast or waiting or bread maker. Are you impressed? I was, at the risk of sounding really sad. The littler boy helped too I have to confess before I take all the credit.

He and I spent a chunk of the morning cleaning. A necessity. I love the fact that as I am using no chemicals he can get involved. He took on the job of the vinegar rinse in the bathroom. I did the soap/bicarb and he rinsed.................and rinsed ..........and rinsed. He just loved that spray and the result is a bathroom that smells a little like the local chippie!! (Minus the deep fried smell!) Still the bathroom is clean, the asthma is not triggered and all for a few pence. You cannot beat it.

The little girl and the littler boy also decided to get involved with the clean up after dinner. Quite right too since it is 95% their mess. My favourite discovery on this cleaning journey is my spray bottle with water and two squooshes of dish washing liquid (ASDA's eco is great!). It cleans all my surfaces fab and the kids fight over having a turn. Wish you could have seem them at (and on!) the dining room table spraying and shooting their cloths up and down. One shiny table, two happy kids and one less job for me.

Back to the bread................................. . It looked fab and the first slice tasted fab as did these chunks.

This large chunk of uncooked dough in the middle was less appealing. Ah the joys of different oven temperatures! Next time I hope it may be impressive all the way thru. Actually that was kind of what I had been discussing with some folks last night but that is another story!

Charity Shops and kids

I have no idea whether the charity shops in St Andrews are any good or not and I did go into them, three of them in actual fact. My kids and shops are a challenge. My kids and charity shops go together like ......... well you can think of a combination. First problem is that they seem to be full of glass and ornaments and on shelves everywhere so I hover anxiously watching little people dart around. I do not want to buy glass and ornaments and I do NOT want to buy broken glass and ornaments. Way too much stress there. And the "I want..." "I need" monster seems to take over quickly. The little girl and I spotted a cute Tigger Fleece (If you know her soooooo approp) and she is desperate to try it on. Well it is huge. "No worries, Mummy, just put it back and get me a smaller size!". Mmm, doesn't quite work like that. We bought the huge fleece and at a couple of pounds and at least three years of growing in it, it is a huge bargain.

I'm still processing Christmas. I am realising it is deciding about what is important and narrowing to that rather than trying to do everything and feeling that it did not quite live up to expectations. In fact i am walking a path just now where I am having to take stock of the other 51 non-Christmas weeks and am realising that while I like to do everything and then fit something into the nonexistent space that is left, that it is time to narrow. There is actually a call to become maladjusted to my normal living. This process may hurt a bit.

On the bicarb front................... please do not use the baking kind. It will work just fine but really expensive. Buy in bulk either online or Tesco does a box in the eco cleaning section but please do not be tempted to throw that in the cake mix................. .

Generosity

I am surrounded by lots of really generous folks.

Today is a typical example. I went to visit a friend and her kids, with my little people, for lunch. We were having a good laugh about cracking e-bay and getting some good bargains thru spelling blips. (Intelligent Auction) Anyway I ask her to look at bread makers...... sooooo want one and before I know it I am leaving with hers which has been filling up a space in her garage and a bag of clothes for the littler boy. (Now, if the husband of the friend who may be slightly more attached to it, wants the bread maker back then of course, please take it, no worries.)
I also have a slow cooker, kind of happened the same way, with my sister in law. Please tho do not thinking I am running around blagging stuff!!

My motivation for doing this, our motivation as Mike and I are in this together, this whole challenge, is not to scrimp and save money so that we can pay the bills better and maybe one of these days start some kind of saving plan. No, it is about making far better use of what we have so that we can be in a place to give and share. Whether that be with friends and family or actually be able to make choices which may allow folks in other places to make choices because they are getting a fair price for goods I have bought, for example.

And as I look at Christmas I want to keep generosity at the heart of it. I see ultimate giving in the true Christmas message. So the challenge will be to lose the unnecessary spending, packaging, pressure, but keep the giving and the sharing and celebrate, celebrate, celebrate.

And tomorrow me and the little people are off to the caravan with Granny. Loads of fun but it will be cold. St Andrew's is going to be on the list of things to do and places to go and I have been thinking today that charity shops in St Andrews just could be really worth the look.

Yeah for bicarb!

Use 127 for bicarb.
Bung a whole pile of it in the washing machine and run it on the hot cycle. It gets rid of the nasty smell that had been creeping into our washing. We thought that maybe our machine was having mechanical issues of some sort or there was water trapped and lying stagnant. However a read through a time to be greener book gave us two heads up (Thanks Waterstones for a fly read.). The first was that liquid detergent is a bit of a con...............use a lot less than is stated as the residue gets into the clothes and lies in the machine and second was the one about flushing out the whole system with the bicarb. And it worked!
Unplug the Christmas Machine has arrived. Will get back to you!

Apples!

For some reason the local council saw fit to plant an apple tree in a grassy area next to the main road travelling into town from our village. We could see the apples growing and ripening each time we went past. Three weekends ago Mike suddenly stopped the care, ran across the grass and came back with a handful of apples. "Great" said I and an apple cobbler quickly found its way to our table. Two weekends ago he stopped and was all for me running across the grass. "Not on your life" was my reply and he ran across the grass and came back with another handful of apples. I couldn't quite decide what my problem was. I have no problems picking brambles so what is my deal? I kind of worked out that I felt like they did not belong to us so it was a bit mortifying nicking apples at the side of the main road. Am I mad or what?
This weekend I was driving and the car stopped at the same place. With no kids in the back seat we both jumped out, ran down the grass and came back with handfuls and pocketfuls of apples. No cobbler for us this time. We now have four jars of very tasty apple butter!!
Maybe I can be a scavenger of the land after all. Maybe not mushrooms tho. Heard some real bad stories about them recently. Mike is really into this in a big way. He keeps talking about rose hip jam and dandelions in the salad. Thinking he needs a good book from somewhere quick.
Maybe avoid any dinner invites here for a while!!

Charity Shops

The little people went to spend some time hanging out with one of their wee cousins. Lots of fun was had and we took the time to go and explore our local charity shops. There are four at the bottom of the High Street in Dunfermline. I guess I did not really know what to expect and actually I was quite surprised on two accounts. First is that it will not be difficult to avoid the stores and keep me clothed, and Mike too, I think. Secondly, where in the world are all the children's clothes? Hardly a rack in each store for little people. I am going to have to give this some serious thinking!
A couple of the stores were really well organised and full of clothes, toys and "stuff" to be explored. And explore we did. I kept having to remind myself that jsut because things were less expensive that I did not need to be buying.The other two shops did feel like you wanted to give everything a really good scrub and a bit of serious organising was required. I picked up a pair of work out trousers and a shirt for work and spent just seven pounds. Both were from Next and were in excellent condition. I also picked up a couple of games which I am putting aside for Christmas.
I am giving some serious thought to Christmas presents. How to keep the spending in check? How to be generous? If I pick up stuff in the charity shops do I need to add a note to that effect inside the presents?

Recycling

We recycled big time today, me and the littler boy. He loves going and shoving all those milk cartons into the big bin. He will need to grow a bit to take on the glass and the cans. Last time we went the wasps were out in force and it was a dangerous activity! A friend suggested recently that we should be dumping all our glass at the bottom of the ocean and allowing nature to take its course. I am so into recycling that I do not really get into the debate about the cost of recycling and if there is a better way. Maybe I need to be a little more informed in my path to maladjustment.
We start a two week school holiday today. Really feel like we need it. Our little girl has just finished her first term at school. I would love to say that she had taken to it like a duck to water but sadly no. She has been a little "maladjusted" to the whole process but a few stressful incidents for us all and an hour of me in a meeting with both the headteacher and the depute head has hopefully set her (and us!) back on track.
I ordered "Unplug the Christmas Machine" last night. I am eagerly awaiting it's arrival. Had to order a new copy as all the second hand ones were coming from the US. I just could not wait that long. Here's to some time to read and dare I say relax over the next fortnight!! Maybe even check out some of the charity shops I keep mentioning.

Good honest work.

We spent y'day afternoon at our "allotment" otherwise know as Aunty Vony's back garden. Turned into a bit of a party with Doug and Susan and the nephew showing up to lend a hand, or toshow us how to do it as was often claimed!! And Von coming home from work to a garden full added to the event. The sun shown and we actually got a patch of soil dug over altho the roots from a nearby tree took a bit of dealing with. We just need to work out if we are too late to plant. There is bound to be something hardy I would have thought.
Today was kind of different. I spent yet another day at work doing battle with, cajoling, remonstrating, encouraging, admonishing, a couple of children who have had choices made for them, and have made choices themselves, that have resulted in maladjustment but not the kind I am striving for.
Would have been easier digging!

What am I getting for Christmas?

That was the question I was asked y'day by my little girl. "Well sweetheart, we are learning to be maladjusted and there is so much in Christmas we need to be maladjusted to" did not quite seem to be the right answer but I better start working on one and soon because the adverts on TV and the displays in the stores (and I am only really in grocery stores these days.) are out to destroy any notion that we do not need a pile of new stuff.
I am off to try and find that book "Unplugging the Christmas machine" but only if I can find it already read.