The hamster wheel of life

Yes, that's my reason for not posting for almost a week. B-U-S-Y!

We started up with schooling on Monday which means from 8 - 2.30 my focus is on my munchkins and academics. We have always homeschooled and besides for the shaping of our children's character's and educating them, it was my second chance at a living education.

Afternoons are taken up with sports. Our eldest teaches horse riding twice a week, does ball room and Tae Bo. Our elder son does rock climbing, team swimming (4x a week) and mountain biking and ballroom dance. Our second daughter does piano, art and Tae Bo. Then little guy does tennis, swimming and specializes in PLAY!

All this makes for busy days.



Winter though reminds me that we need to rest our bodies and minds too, just like the earth we grow our food in. Vegetables growth slows down dramatically, as we should too. Perhaps I am working against the natural flow of the seasons?

One of the things that these busy days imposes is a need for better planning and organization especially when I object to the "convenience" food mentality and insist on cooking my meals from scratch.

The great thing is that winter meals - reall comfort food - can be done in advance and then the oven turned on in between fetching one child and dropping off another.
So apologies to those in the sweltering Northern Hemisphere, but the next few days I am going to share our favorite winter foods.

The first one is Boston Beans and Artisan Bread. I make my Boston Beans in my slow cooker, even though it takes much longer. It is better this way as I can set everything up in the morning and the lovely smokey smell wafts through the house all day reminding us of the yummy supper that is being prepared.



Artisan Bread is now the responsibility of our younger daughter. She makes a batch of dough on the weekend and this gives us about 4 loaves during the week. She shapes and pops it into the oven about45 mins before we need it. With some butter and the beans its a delicious no stress dinner.