Leisure time...

Like most homeschool moms, I do not have much leisure time during the school term. My days are long and full. Teaching my the children takes up the majority of the day, from around 8a.m. until 1 or 2 depending on the day.

Then it's time for food preparation and on most days this accounts for a couple of hours. I love cooking, so it is never a bind, but it does take time.

During term time there are sports for the children too. Ballroom dance, swimming, gym, art, tennis...and then our walks in the early morning.

Somewhere around 8 pm at night I collapse onto the couch beside Superman and try to watch a bit of TV with him. We enjoy the History Channel, some cooking and travel programs and the odd movie.

But in the time that I can count as "my own" I like to read. I am not a big fan of novels but there are 3 authors I love: Maeve Binchy, Francine Rivers and John Grisham. These I call my holiday reading.

This year I have read some other books that are relevent to this blog in that they teach me something new about a green lifestyle or about furthering my homesteading goals are:

Animal Vegetable Miracle by Babara Kingsolver

Radical Homemakers by Shannon Hayes

Living the Good Life (again!!) by Linda Cockburn

Cookbooks are also reading material for me...sometimes hard to read in bed at night when you look at all those delicious recipes and you are all tucked up in your jammies and cannot go and whip up something in the kitchen. This year I enjoyed these two books:

Jane's Delicious Kitchen

Healthy Appetite Gordon Ramsey

On my wishlist is Jamie At Home

I also found two really old ebooks that I am dipping into here and there...I will tell you in a moment how I happened on to them...but they are:

Eliza Acton Victorian Cookbook

The Family Save All from 1861!

In my minimal leisure time I have 3 blogs I read regularly, a couple more that I check out once a week.

My buddy moved away 2 years ago to a farm with over 100 Appaloosa horses and I love hearing what she is up to. She has also started another budget busting blog which promises to be full of tidbits!

I love Rhonda Jeans blog for inspiration and then my friend Nadene's for homeschooling inspiration.

Now, about those Victorian ebooks...I need to say with a warning, what follows is addictive! On the Down to Earth forum (my one forum I belong to!) there was mention of a YouTube series called the Victorian Farm. This is a reality TV show where a group of 3 people live as the Victorian farmers did for 1 year. I have learnt so much and is just a wonderful way to pass 10 minutes. There are however 36 episodes, so pace yourself. Here is the first:



Well that's it for today. Yesterday was the last day of school so we are on holiday for 5 weeks. There is a long to do list to get through but also lots of fun planned.