oh that's right...

...I have a blog!  Life has been so busy, and we had lousy internet that I haven't bothered much with going online.  But, as of today, we now have unlimited internet!  We realized that we were going to stay put in a solid home for at least a little while, so we signed up for ADSL rather than using our mobile modem and phones as wi-fi hotspots which just didn't give us enough data.  We found a company that had a 3 month contract rather than the usual 24-month that everyone else seems to want over here.  We like that as we don't know how long we'll be here.  Sure, this place is nice, but we're not attached to it and the idea of a new adventure is always interesting!

So what have we been doing?  Well, I went into hibernation mode for about 6 weeks as I was getting everything together for the kids homeschool reports.  I came through the other side of that with a new approach to the way we've been doing things.  One that has better time management and focus and still plenty of room for flexibility.

The cooler weather always inspires me to do more in the kitchen.  It helps that this kitchen is really easy to move in, and is open to the rest of the living areas.  I've been making our own mayonnaise (takes less than a minute!), ketchup (tastes just like the Heinz brand that the family likes), pasta, tortillas, soups, peanut butter, custard, juices, etc.  I already make our own cleaning products, room sprays, shampoo and conditioner. Next up are laundry detergent, (as soon as I can find some borax - it used to be on the shelves at the grocery store but I can't find it lately), toothpaste / powder, ginger beer, and finding a bread recipe that everyone likes and that works well in the solar oven.  Speaking of which, we want to do more solar cooking using the three different cookers we have and start recording what we are doing to post on another site that I'm working on.  I also want to get more of a vege garden going in the small space that we have.  I can't dig up the gardens that are here, so I need something portable.  The containers we have used in the past haven't been successful, so I'm going to research other options.

After a trip to the Farmer's Market

Home-made Ketchup

honey roasted cashews (very popular here!)

Mr 8...Nicholas

Sami on her way to volunteer work

AJ and friend

What else?.... Sam and AJ have been spending more time at the youth center near here, enjoying hanging out with their friends there.  Nicholas likes having time just with Mum or Dad when they are out, or catching up with some of his friends.

Life is good...busy, simple, and rich.  Sometimes I feel so deeply blessed, like the enormity of how grateful I am just overwhelms me, but in a really good way.  I feel like I step outside of myself for a moment, to take the equivalent of a photo but with feelings - just recording that moment into my Spirit.   Feeling Infinite Love!