Let's take stock.

It is mid term and we have three glorious days off school. OK I normally have these three days off but there is something nice about not having to get me and the little people dressed and along that road to school, either a leisurely walk or a quick march depending on the time. Our little girl is thrilled at having the days off......maybe a little too thrilled actually. I'm kind of concerned that she already has an adolescent approach to education.

Anyway, anyway... I got thinking that as this is halfway thru the school year and our kids have had mid-session reviews I should give my targets a bit of a reviewing.

Avoid the shops..................... for me that has not been hard. I have made some good purchases of late and actually enjoy a browse thru the clutter in a calm sort of way while the shopping centre has me actively concentrating on my breathing. We failed on a jacket for Mike, saw one in Tesco's (not exactly high end shopping admittedly) and had it bought and worn before we remembered our target. Kids clothes, grandma is still kitting out the kids. Osh kosh b'gosh! Charity shops do not stock kids clothes. Where do they all go?

Clean the house chemical free. This is not a tough one. My spray bottle of water and soap is my absolute favourite. And I clean tougher stuff with bicarb either sprinkled directly or mixed with soap and water. Hey... if you have not considered it then do. Honestly saves you a fortune and it keeps those chemicals out of your house and your lungs. This target has kind of sent me in to another one of reducing the chemicals in products we are using on us. Check out www.froogrecipes.com for some more stuff that Beth is working on.
(Note to Self - maybe not the smartest to blog about the shampoo reduction thing. Wiser to do it when folks are none the wiser and do not then start conversations with "which hair day is this?" !!)

Our diet................. . We love our local farm. It is not organic but the food miles don't even reach a mile! Everything tastes so good. Sadly it is only open six months of the year. We love Nancy too and the cows. It is quite the outing for us. We went up last week, me and the littler boy. Phew it stank. They had just spread the manure, and chicken manure at that. Now anytime the littler boy smells something bad he says with great certainty "I can smell Nancy's farm."
We are eating very little processed food. (Does Bailley's count as processed?). The littler boy's diet is still not full of obvious fruit and veg but we are seeing very small steps of progress and a lot less fighting and gagging. And take it from me, that is GOOD!!!!!

Our allotment project has taken a bit of a hit with the weather but we are still committed to it. we took a trip down a few weekends ago and the little people were highly entertained by their father's Tigger impersonations to cut off a couple of high tree branches snagged in the telephone wires. We had forgotten to put two pairs of socks on the little people tho so only got an hour of clearing done. We need the temperature to go up a little as you would need a pneumatic drill to break the ground up now.

And Christmas, well that has been well chronicled but we will be seriously on the look out for package reduced Easter Eggs!