Finally Earning Their Keep

It doesn't seem like that long ago that we began our chicken rearing family project.  We thought it would be an interesting experience to adopt 5 little chicks and let the kiddos experience raising them.  

This is where we started.  We adopted 5 tiny week old chicks of all different breeds.  Going in we didn't know if they were going to be males or females (you can't keep roosters in our shire).  We prepared the little people that some of them may have to find a new home.  

The kiddos were wonderful with them.  Helping change their food and water, picking them up daily so they would get use to us.  Tilly picked her favourite very quickly and soon gave her the name "Pretty".  

 It would be at least 8 weeks before we new the gender of our little ones, but low and behold, they all ended up being hens.  (Too bad we didn't buy a lottery ticket that day ;)

They have changed so much and thankfully moved from a crate in our play room out to their designated area in the backyard.  They look so different than the little balls of fluff we adopted a few months ago.  

I find it so peaceful and relaxing watching them over their fence as they peck and scratch around.  We still haven't had our chicken naming party so Pretty is the only one with a name.  We must remedy that soon.  The black one in the picture is the most docile and will follow you around when you are in their pen.  

 The white one below is Pretty and still is Tilly's favourite.  Up until now we have been feeding and caring for them with no fruits to our labour but they peace they bring in watching them.  I love taking our scraps out to the wall and watching them cluck and run over as I toss them down to them.

 It was all work and no reward, that is until the other day. . .  When we discovered our first EGG!!!!! The kids were so excited they each had to have a hold of it.  Since that first day we have had at least 1 if not 2 eggs every day.  It's such a wonderful treat to walk down and find these little treasures in their box.  It gives me such a warm fuzzy feeling eating something where we know exactly where it comes from.  

There were moments when having the chooks has been a pain, like when I was cleaning all the dust out of our spare room when they finally moved out, yet it has been such a great experience for the little people to see them grow and change.  They have loved getting to see where our eggs come from and helping to collect them.  

Any recommendations for chicken names?  

This this week we will put all the names in a box and draw to see how gets named what. 

Windy Walks

One of our favourite things to do as a family is to drive down and take a walk along the coast.  It is absolutely beautiful.  You are surrounded by God's gorgeous creation, beautiful ocean, multiple coffee shops to stop at, playgrounds for the kiddos, and usually a nice breeze. 

Some days the breeze can be a little stronger than normal.

Tilly sporting the windblown look.

Here is Nate mesmerised by the big waves coming in.  We are convinced Nate is going to be a daredevil.  We walked into a bookstore the other day and he went right up to the surfing and skateboarding section and didn't want to leave.  

Nate fixated on the waves.

These are those special, yet simple, moments that mean so much to our family. Sometimes it's easy to let things like this slip in the busyness of life.  We schedule in as much as we possibly can with work, sports, kids commitments, and helping others that days can go by without sitting down and having a proper conversation together.  It can become easy to not take the time to just be together enjoying each others company without other distractions.

It's so good for the little people, and big people too, to get outside, get some of that good ole' Vitamin D that so many people are now deficient in, and let their hair down.  How often do we just sit, or walk around, and just absorb the beauty and majesty of this world God created.

Trying not to get blown away.  

The kids love the ocean, watching the waves crash in, spotting surfers, and being on the lookout for animals.  

Now you know where she gets the crazy hair.

Outings like this leave me feeling refreshed.  I don't know whether it's the nice salty air or just spending those precious moments with my favourite people but it bring my focus back to what's important and gives me that peaceful easy feeling :)

In case her hair isn't hard enough to comb out. 

 It is a great way for the whole family to get out, get some fresh air, and enjoy some exercise.  We try to make it a point to have physical activity together as a family on most days, even if it's just a walk around the neighbourhood.  

Not everyone is blessed to have such an amazing ocean so close by, but there is always some beautiful to see if you just get out there to see it.  Go have so quality time with your people, you won't regret it.

What sorts of things do you and yours like doing together?  

Quiet Time

Who doesn't need a quiet hour or two in the afternoon to get things done?

As my two little people are getting older they are starting to phrase out their nap times.  My youngest, Mr. Nate is still dependent on his afternoon sleep, but Tilly will often complain that she isn't tired and doesn't want to sleep.  I have been very blessed that they lined up their afternoon naps VERY early after Nathan was born, and I have worked hard to keep them on this same schedule.  It is the only time of day until they are asleep at night that we aren't together.

I was discussing this idea of how to keep up that quiet time with my wonderful sister-in-law last time we were home and she shared some great advice that she did with her family.  Every day all three kids would have quiet time.  They could sleep, read books, etc, but they all took this time each day to have some alone quiet time in their rooms to rest, or just relax.  

Another friend shared a similar idea on her blog:  livinglovinglaughingtogether where she discusses her technique of building independent play time with her little people.  You should check out her blog it is filled with great ideas!!

Both of these wonderful women discussed the idea a of having the little people have quiet independent time in their rooms as part of their daily routines.

Even though our weeks tend to be pretty busy, I try my hardest to have the kiddos home for their afternoon rest.  While Nathan usually blacks out as soon as he can (he runs on full steam all day and needs the rest), Tilly takes some coaxing.  I encourage Tilly to sleep, especially on nights where we will be out, but no matter what, she has that quiet alone time in her room.  

She had been up singing to her Tilly doll just 5 minute before I went in.  

This is wonderful for all of us.

She has time to look at books, use her imagination, learn how to play independently, have some space from her brother, and it also gives her time to rest if she feels she needs too.  She has to stay in her bed, but she is allowed to bring up different toys or books to look at.  It took a while to build up time.  She use to come out every few minutes when she wasn't sleeping trying to get up.  She has now learned to stay in her room and enjoy her quiet time.  Even if she doesn't sleep she will usually spend 1-2 hours playing away by herself.

This time in not only good for her, but it also gives me a couple of hours in the afternoon to get a few things done around here, to catch up on my emails, or to simply have a few quiet/uninterrupted moments to sit with a cup of tea.

Now it's time to start working on Nathan's independent play during other parts of the day.

Do you have any parenting tips on teaching independence?  or on keeping the naps alive?  Would love to hear them.

Big decisions. . . .

 In Australia children start "kindy" at 4 years old.  They attend 2-3 days a week, so our little girl would be beginning school this February.  One of the biggest decisions we have been prayerfully considering, basically since her birth, is what to do about schooling. We have been trying to decide whether we were going to send her to school or home school her.  We have gone back and forth, had many discussions with people who homeschool and with others who are opposed to home-schooling, we have looked at multiple curriculums, and above all have prayed a lot.

 This week we have made our decision.  We are going to take this year and home school her.  We aren't making a decision about the rest of her school career, we are going to take one year at a time and keep our minds open.  Neither Ed nor I feel like home schooling is the only way to go, there were big pluses and minuses to all our schooling options.  We have seen children grow and thrive in both public schools and at home and we have seen the opposite as well, we simply feel that this is what is right for our family right now.

I know there will be some ups and downs, it will take some time to get things rolling and organised.  We will make some mistakes, but we are really excited about this new adventure in our household.

Matilda is looking forward to all the things we are going to be learning together.  Our lives are typically crazy busy, filled with family, friends, our work with the church, and most importantly our little people.  We have made it a point to involve our kiddos in our work here, they visit with us, help us prep meals, and come along to anything that goes down with the group, and now we will work together in their learning experience.  

She is as smart as she is beautiful.

I know I will have to be disciplined and organised (2 traits that aren't always my strongest). My  heart tells me this is the right decision for our family.  Why did we decide to home school her?  It gives us a way to tailor her education for her needs and strengths, to build around her interest and work at her speed.  It enables us to bring God into all aspects of her education.

We also want to get involved in the home school community here in Perth.  We've already enrolled her in some classes so that we can meet some of these other families.  She'll be doing Art, Music, and Spanish with them.  We will also be keeping her active in sport.

If you have home schooled before or are doing it now, what tips do you have to keep things running smoothly?  Are there curriculums you have loved?

A quiet kind of day. . .

Thursdays are our typical family day.  Today we spent it in getting some much needed work done around the house.  We had heaps of cleaning and catching up to do, so while it wasn't 'fun', it was a very productive day.  

It was a nice relaxing day to just let the kiddos mellow at home (we don't typically have many days like that).  Tilly drew some impressive pics and while I helped her sound out mom she wrote it all on her own.  

It's me, laughing she said.

 I personally love her dad's hair, guess this is a bit what it looks like before he gets a haircut.

Nate added the green mouth. 

 Nate ended up changing baby Snow Whites nappy for her.  This it might be a bit big.

I love getting to see the kids play around with their dad.  So blessed to have such a great partner.  Tilly refers to it as "ruffle housing"  it's pretty cute, but can get pretty violent.

We ended our night with some homemade pizza and a nice walk. . . it's great to have some chill out days every now and again.  

What's your favourite thing to do on a quiet day at home?   

I say tomato they say . . . .

I was thinking as I was scanning my last post, that it might seem strange that here we are eating nice fresh salads.   We are cooking anything we can on the BBQ outside, so as not to heat up the kitchen, while most of my family and friends that are probably reading this are in the throws of winter.  In winter I want something warm and comforting, something filling and hearty, you won't find that here for a while, not until June or July.  But it's no wonder my New Years diets never worked before relocating to the southern hemisphere.


It is not winter here, it is summer and it's HOT!!!  When it's hot I don't typically want to think about warm food.  I want something light, something fresh.


Bask in the glory of our delicious summer tomatoes..

We have been harvesting fresh tomatoes out or little side garden since just before Christmas.  Tomatoes are the perfect summer food for me, I eat several almost every day.  I like them roasted, in salads, chopped up with a little salt and pepper, in a sandwich with some quality mayo, diced in an omelette, a current favourite is layered on a rice cake with avocado and smoked salamon.

While I will eat a tomato almost any ole way, one of my favourites, when I can muster up the energy to make it, is in a tomato basil pie.

Even though this is not currently on the diet, it is one of my favourite recipes from my mother-in-law, and for some reason taste even better when you know it's made from things you grew yourself like the tomatoes and basil.  

My crust isn't nearly as pretty as my MIL she has a gift, but around here looks are secondary to being incredibly flaky, nothing compares to homemade piecrust delicious.  

You take said pie crust, that let's be honest, I could eat all by itself with no filling, then throw in some home-grown Roma tomatoes.

The before

 Top with a mixture of mayo, mozzarella, parmesan, and fresh chopped basil.

Bake and waa laa . . . .

The after

 Mouth-watering goodness.  It's the perfect summer dinner right out of the garden.  The kiddos loved this and asked for more.  It's not even that terrible for the diet unless you are like me and eat half the pie :).

I actually think I was drooling as I took this picture.

Tomato-Basil Pie

1 recipe of your favorite pie crust, or frozen prepared pie crust for one 9  inch (25 cm) pie

4 to 6 medium-sized ripe tomatoes, sliced 1/4 inch (5 mm) thick

1/4 cup (60 ml) roughly chopped basil leaves  I use more, I love me some basil 

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 cup (375 ml) mayonnaise

1  cup shredded cheese

1/2 shredded Parmesan 

Bake the pie crust empty in a 350F (180C) oven for 10 minutes, then allow  to cool. Put approximately 1/4 c cheese in the bottom of the pie.  Layers tomatoes over it. Repeat until the pie is filled to about 1/2 inch (1 cm) to 1/4 inch (5 mm) of the rim. Mix the mayonnaise, basil, shredded cheese and parmesian  together and spoon over the tomatoes, spreading it evenly over the contents of the pie. Bake in a 350F (180C) oven for 30 minutes. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. 

Serves 4 to 6.

The recipe has made it's round on a few blogs I follow and I couldn't help but share it here as well.  Make it, it's delicious, you won't regret it, I promise!!

How do you like your tomato, any great recipes you have up your sleeves?

Lite and Easy

Just ignore the blackened veggies there was a fire, a BIG fire, but they still tasted good.

If you have been reading my blog this year you know we are trying to kickstart our year with healthy eating habits.    It's meals like that make eating low carb easy.  The problem I typically have when we try to eat low carb is that I get bored of the same meals.  I can't ever figure out what to make and how to mix it up.  So I began a quest for healthy low carb meals that still were filling and full of yummy goodness.

Well thanks to Jamie Oliver's 15 minute meals I came across this simple quick meal packed with flavour.  

Smoked Paprika Chicken

-Take a couple chicken breast and slice in half, so that it still looks the same, just thin

-Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cover with smoked paprika

-cover with baking paper and bash the spices in

Cook chicken on the grill or sauté for 3-4 minutes each side.  

Grilled veggies with Peri-naise Sauce on top

Cut up lebanese eggplant, baby zucchini, onion, squash, and anything else that is good grilled.  Toss in olive oil and sprinkle salt.  

Cook til done.  

Peri-naise

Mix a couple of TBSP of mayo or aioli  with a couple TBSP of sour cream and peri peri sauce.  

Mix up a salad:

My favourite right now is spinach mix with julienne beet, carrots, and zucchini, with fresh tomatoes and danish feta.  

It looks pretty all separated but taste really GREAT mixed all up together.  

Go eat something healthy.  

What are some of your favourite healthy recipes?  

Expanding my horizons

I have wanted to venture forth into preparing some Asian cuisine.  We are blessed to live in an area that has an amazing selection of Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Malaysian, and a variety of other places to eat.  Places that offer authentic cuisine prepared by people actually from the countries.

While I do enjoying dining out at these different places, the foodie in me really wanted to try it myself.

Friday night was the night.  We invited a few friends over for the culinary experience (one is an apprentice chef--always good to know one of these).

This is Ayden the apprentice chef, he's got some pretty impressive chopping skills.

It was so great, and so much fun working together and then getting to enjoy the fruits of our labor, a great alternative to our typical dinner parties.

We chopped together.

Each created different sushi rolls. 

 Ok you can tell we are a novices.  

Ayden fried up the the prawn cakes while we were rolling up the sushi.

There that looks a bit more professional right?  

I did plate up this one, go me!

After we had our fill of entree's they taught me how to make Katsu chicken, and chopped Asian salad with chilli dressing.  These are a few things that will be on rotation at our house from now on.  

The plating up was all Ayden's doing, I am hopeless at that.  

I loved getting to work with other people who love trying new things as much as I do!  

On the menu:
Sushi --prawn, smoked salmon, raw King George whiting

Prawn cakes

Katsu Chicken with Asian salad including a chilli dressing
(if you want any recipes just let me know)




It was a great night of working together (well us helping Ayden how we could).  Have you ever hosted a cook together dinner party, if so what kind?

Adapting to survive

Living in Australia I've had to adapt my cooking a bit.  There are just some things that you can't find here.  I try to find substitutes, or even bring my favorite things back with us when we make our trips home, but somethings wouldn't exactly make the 30+ hour flight and still be edible.

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Breakfast sausage patties are one of those things for me.  A yummy cooked breakfast ranks up there as my favorite meal of the day.  I admit I can be fussy, I'm not really a cereal kind of girl, I would rather a cooked breakfast or nothing at all. I have been known to slum it every once in a while with a bowl of cereal but it's just not my thing.

 My staple breakfast is two eggs and a piece of toast, but seeing as we are trying to cut the carbs around here I have been making omelets loaded with veggies instead.

While I am a fan of the omelet, especially ones decked out with cheese and sauted capsicum and onion, a good sausage patty with some fresh tomatoes and feta cheese make a Wonderful summer brekky.


You can't find breakfast patties here, at least not anywhere I have looked, much to my chagrin.  My wonderful sister encouraged me to not sit idly by, wishing for what I don't have, but to venture forth and make my own. Duh, why hadn't I thought of that?  Since this glorious revelation  I have tried a few recipes and really like this one.


Breakfast sausage

 Ingredients:
2 lbs of ground pork(I try to use free range)
1 tablespoon of sage
2 teaspoons of marjoram
2 teaspoons of thyme
2 teaspoons of red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of black pepper

Doesn't look too appetising now, but will soon produce yummy goodness.

Method:
1. Mix all ingredients together.
2. Form into patties and fry approximately six minutes on each side.
Keeps in the refrigerator for a week. or do what I do and freeze them in baggies of 4 and just thaw when you feel the desire hit you.

Even though our pork mince is leaner here which makes them a bit drier, this still puts up a pretty tasty breakfast.

What's your favorite breakfast?  Do you eat something different ever day or you a slave to morning routine and go with the same ole same ole like me?