Slow Living 2012 - Month 2

Perhaps this email should be titled: "Falling of the bandwagon and how to climb back on" but I like the idea of rather joining in with Christine's Slow Living 2012 Diary each month. So instead of writing another post about all the things I didn't get to here is how my month went:

NOURISH:
This month we were so blessed with a free gift of many many granadillas. Eaten as is and made into granadilla butter were a highlight. I also make a batch of spelt/blueberry muffins for breakfast each week...recipe to follow in another post. Evening meals have been fresh garden salads with a little twist...Chicken Caesar Salad being the current favourite and fig, haloumi and walnut coming in second.

PREPARE:
Chillies have been pickled, tomatoes canned and eaten!

REDUCE:
No summer jammies for the kids...winter PJ's were cut off at the mid thigh and rehemmed and reused. Does horse manure count in this category? If so, I relieved my friend of some 30 bags and dug it into our soil :)

PS cleaning this area is on a to do list!

GREEN:
Vinegar continues to be used for most cleaning and drains. A friend laughed at me the other night when I told her that I shower with a bucket behind me to catch water. We also use an old pool pipe to chanel the water from the kids bath to part of the garden. This is not new this month but I thought I would share it anyway!

GROW:
All our seedlings are planted and growing. They need transplanting this weekend. Garlic was also put to bed...very excited about this one.

CREATE:
My creative space was my daughter's 13yr album. I am now the mom to three precious teens (and one almost 10yr old) and they are all delightful to me. My 3rd child is now 13 and I always give them an album showing their 13yrs of life in our family.

DISCOVER:
I discovered iTunesU this last week. Oh my! Where am I going to find the time to learn all this? I settled on two courses eventually. I also have discovered Lynn Austin as an outstanding Christian author and while never choosing to read novels over the last few years but recently I am enjoying 5-6 pages as my eyelids droop at night.

ENHANCE:
This is a hard one, I don't want to share too much but I have learnt that when others face great difficulties it is an opportunity to not preach to them, adivse, point things out (unless asked) but rather just to love them physically and practically with a meal, hug, email or whatever the Lord lays on my heart.

ENJOY:
Two things are bringing me immense enjoyment at the moment. Jamie At Home is still delighting me with his seasonal recipes like the chicken dish below.

Then my younger son and I have taken up Geocaching. For a long time I have been looking for some way to combine learning, fun, adventure, reading, writing and history and Geocaching has done it for us. He has started a little blog adding our adventures each week. Last week we did the Company Gardens in town and it was delightful with all the cultures gathering in one place, the beautiful gardens and his favorite - the squirrels who ate from his hand.

That's the wrap up for the diary...now the count down begins....London Calling 5 weeks!