Simple Beauty

Walking ....

2012-01-27T09:39:00.002+10:00

I think birds are adorable when they walk rather than fly ...

How to Pinterest ~ for my Dad !

2012-01-26T22:04:00.000+10:00

My Dad is pretty cool. He's on facebook ... twitter ... he 'checks in' on his iPhone. And now, he's got pinterest ! He got it because my sister and I love it. But, he's a bit confused by it. I'm not surprised, I was too when I first got it. I decided to write him a little 'how to' and thought, why not stick it on my blog ... there may actually be other people who might like a bit of a how to as well !

When I first signed up, I was a bit confused as to how to get around. Clicking on your name in the top right hand corner will take you to your own pinterest page. This is where you will find your 'boards', your 'pins', and your 'likes". I have my boards sorted in alphabetical order ... you can arrange them by clicking on the 'rearrange boards' button just under your name. Once you are in there, you just drop and drag.

When you originally sign up, there will be a few boards already on your page. You can change them. Just hit the button on the board that says "EDIT". Then you can change the title, add a description if you want. I have all my boards set to only me being able to pin. Not sure why you would want others to pin but whatever. Select a category and then 'save settings". If you wand to delete the board entirely, you can do that here too.

Over on the left hand side of the screen, under your name and above your photo you'll see 'followers" and 'following'. If you click on the 'followers' that will show who is following you. If you click on 'following' that will show who you are following. (I hope you are following me !!)

If there is a button that says 'unfollow', then you are following that person. If you don't want to see their posts then push the 'unfollow' button.

If you see a 'follow' button, then you are not following them. If you want to follow, then push the 'follow' button.

You can invite friends through facebook or through email. When you click on the Invite Friends like you see above, it will take you to where you can do this. Finding friends is easy too ... just click on the Find Friends like you see above, and if you've signed in through facebook, you'll be able to find friends that way ...

Clicking on the red Pinterest word at the top of the screen will take you to this page. From here you can click 'pinners you follow' and it will show you the recent things that people you follow have pinned. You can click on 'everything' and either see everything anyone on pinterest has pinned recently or you can select specific interests from the drop down menu. There is also 'videos', 'popular' and 'gifts' ... I haven't really used them.

At first, I thought pinterest was all about re-pinning what other people had pinned. But then I discovered that I could pin stuff from websites and then ... then !!! I really loved it !! You have to install the 'pin it' button onto your toolbar first. Here's the instructions I used to install mine.

When you want to pin to pinterest from a webpage, make sure you are on the specific page you want to come back to (not the home page of the blog or website)as it will link the photo to the address in the address bar. It will bring up some photos for you to chose from. When you hover over the one you want it will give you a 'pin this' button. Click that.

Then select which of your boards you want to pin to and write a little description to remind you why you pinned it ...

One more thing. If you hover over individual 'pins', you will be given these options. Repin. Like. Or Comment. Repin will take you to the section where you chose your board and write your description. Like will put the pin in your 'likes' section. and comment ... well, it will let you leave a comment. You can also tag other pinners by using the @bonnieg73 just like on facebook.

I use the iphone app too but it's not exactly the same as the web version. You can't do as much but I like scrolling through the things the people I follow have pinned on the phone better than on the computer. I do different things on the computer and the phone ...

I think that about covers it ...

Let me know if there is anything that is still a little confusing ... and I'll do my best to answer for you.

In The Grass

2012-01-24T00:00:00.003+10:00

Pretty pretty birdies !

Sky Coaster !!

2012-01-23T06:07:00.000+10:00

Yesterday we took the kids to Wet N Wild. It was fun ! Not only did Alia go on two of the bigger slides with us, Rory and I got to do the Sky Coaster.

Normally we wouldn't do something like this because of the cost ... but yesterday they were having a sale ! For both of us to do it together was only $30 ... that's more than 1/2 off !!

It was so fun. I love stuff like this ! The scariest bit, for me, was when we were being pulled up. I just kept watching the ground below us get farther and farther away. I shut my eyes about half way up and didn't open them til we stopped up at the top ! Rory reckons the scariest bit was the freefall ... but by the time we were falling, I was already laughing my head off and screaming Woo Hoo !!

I would totally do this again ! Over and over again !

Crossing Over

2012-01-22T16:53:00.000+10:00

Crossing Over
by Ruth Irene Garrett

I am fascinated by the Amish. Always have been. Well ... ever since I was old enough to watch the movie Witness. I'm pretty sure that was the start of my fascination.

I will not lie. I love modern conveniences. I love my iPhone and my computer and my food processor. But .... there is something about living the simple life that appeals to me. Little House on the Prairie simple. Amish simple. Barn raisings ... I would love to be a part of a barn raising ! I think the appeal is the community. In Little House it's all about family. About being together around the dinner table. About reading out loud, snuggled under quilts to the light of a candle. The Amish ... big community dinners, communal farming, the whole community coming together to raise a barn. You know ?

That fascination is what lead me to pick up this book from the library.

Did I like it ? It was ok. Not a book I couldn't put down or one that I would say I enjoyed overly. But, I read it because I was interested.

This book is from the point of view of one woman. And so I take the whole thing with a grain of salt. The thing that struck me about it though was the controlling nature that she portrayed of the Amish people. She was put in 'the ban' ... excommunicated, because she married a non Amish man and moved out of the Amish community. Therefore, she could no longer be part of the lives of her family or friends. The only communication seemed to be them trying to get her to realize the error of her ways.

It's a very religious book, in the sense that a lot of it is centered on the Amish religion.

Would I recommend it ? Probably not to most people. But if you are interested in the Amish ... and in one woman's story ... then yeah, go for it.

Mice

2012-01-15T13:56:00.000+10:00

Mice by Gordon Reece

This was an easy read. Easy in the sense that it only took me a few hours to get through it. Not so easy in the subject matter. It's a murder mystery ... I like those, but for some reason this one got to me a bit. Maybe it is the conclusion that they came to at the end ... but I won't tell you what that was, just in case you read it !

The author is British but has lived in Australia for some time. I liked the familiar Australian-isms that I found within the pages of this book. I liked the way it was written and felt very quickly like I knew the characters ! I like it when I feel attached straight away.

I did find that it dragged on a bit in the middle. I think it was because the author was trying to show the emotional torment that these poor ladies were going through but I felt I had picked that up loud and clear already. It didn't drag long enough that I didn't feel like finishing the book though, as can sometimes happen.

Would I recommend this book ? Yes, but only if you like books that will tug on your heart leaving you to wonder what is right and what you would have done in the same situation. In the end, I do like books that leave me thinking ...

Books Books Books !!

2012-01-11T20:47:00.001+10:00

I got a pile of books from the library today ! I'm so excited ! I reserved a bunch a week or two ago and a few of them had come in, plus I found a few on the shelf that looked good.

One of my goals for 2012 is to make time to read. Well ... I read all the time, but mostly online these days. I miss books. Actual books with pages that turn ! So ... I'm going to make the time to read books ...

Hence the reserving from the library !

I'm starting one tonight. It's called Mice.

I plan to write some book reviews too so keep your eyes open for that.

Ok ... I'm off.

To bed.

To read !!

Nature Walk

2012-01-04T20:28:00.000+10:00

last night i went out for a little walk around the park and the moon caught my eye !
the moon ... and these beautiful yellow flowers !

i ran back inside, grabbed my camera and spent the next hour snapping shots around the park

want to see ?

ok ...

A jalapeno flower (above)

Society Garlic (above)

Lemon Thyme Flowers (above)

Rosemary Flowers (above)

Oh so pretty !!!!

Back to Work

2012-01-03T08:32:00.002+10:00

In Australia, many businesses shut down from Christmas Eve, until after New Years Day. It's getting less and though ... I remember when we first got here, the grocery store would be closed for days. This year, it was only closed Christmas Day itself and then it had some funny hours but other than that, it was pretty much business as usual for the shopper ...

Rory and I have had 10 lovely days off of work ! We didn't go anywhere far away. We didn't do anything planned. We just did what we wanted. Sometimes that was nothing. Sometimes it was a whole day in the garden. Either way, it was nice to be home. To be together. To not have to think with our work brains.

To do fun things we don't always get to do ...

One fun thing I did was make Chive Flower Vinegars ... I showed you the Garlic Chive Flower one the other day. Just a couple days ago, I made one with regular chive flowers ! Look how pretty it is ...

And look what I found when I went out to take the photo above ...

An eggplant flower !!

I love when my plants start flowering because it means that soon we will have fruit !

I can't wait to cook up our first eggplant !!

Exciting !

January 1st 2012

2012-01-01T17:22:00.000+10:00

I have a love/hate relationship with New Years Resolutions.

I love them because I love a new year. A new beginning. The semblance of a fresh start.

I love them because I'm a dreamer.

And a goal setter.

And a planner.

I hate them because they last maybe a month. Except for 1996 ... the year I resolved to not drink any form of soda pop ... and I did it !

I hate them because I soon feel like I've failed. Because I have. Failed to keep a resolution.

I think that this year I am resolving to not make resolutions. But rather to set goals. To dream and to look forward at the things I'd like to accomplish this year, and leading into the years to come.

I'll share some of them with you ... as I get them sorted in my own mind.

One that I set some time ago was to create a few more garden beds in our side yard. This week we put in the first one. And basically for free ! We had to buy the soil and the mulch but we BUILT the bed from scraps ! AND I LOVE IT !!

BEFORE

AFTER

We've planted two types of eggplant. Two types of tomato. Lebanese cucumbers. Sunflowers and lettuce.

I can't wait til harvest time !

Garlic Chive Flower Vinegar

2011-12-27T17:34:00.000+10:00

Look !
I made garlic chive flower vinegar today !
It was so easy ... go check out how I did it over at the beans blog ....

Corner View {Lonely Together}

2011-12-14T19:58:00.001+10:00

It's Wednesday night. After a few late nights and super busy days at work and trying to get ready for a few days away, my brain is too tired to come up with something for Corner View. But ... I hate not playing along so I'm going to share some more birdies with you. Head shots !

I don't know ... would it be stretching it to say they are 'lonely together' ? Maybe. But maybe not, so let's go with that !

I'm sure the rest of the Corner Viewers will come up with something amazing ! I can't wait to have a bit of time when I get back to come round and visit you all !

Corner View was created by Jane at Spain Daily and is now hosted by Francesca. Go check it out !

Feathers

2011-12-12T07:35:00.000+10:00

I really could watch birds all day long.

And through the eye of my camera ... even better.

I just love how beautiful ...

and intricate ...

and perfectly designed birds are.

I love the details.

And how they sometimes fluff their feathers out ...

Like here, when they clean themselves.

"Could I get a bit of privacy here lady ? I'm trying to have a bath !"

I just think they are amazing.

Oh, where'd he go ?

The red ! The green ! And that bit of blue !

Just stunning.

Like I said ... I could watch (photograph) them all day long !

{Youer} Corner {Than} View {You}

2011-12-07T20:37:00.002+10:00

Corner View was created by Jane at Spain Daily and is now hosted by Francesca.

Join us as we travel the world each Wednesday ...

Today's theme is...
"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You"
~a quote from Dr Seuss' Happy Birthday to You~

I love that !

this was me, this morning. 6am. not yet out of bed. bed head and all.

this was my breakfast today. well, the last of it. yes, it's sushi. in my book, any food can be breakfast food !

this is me, sitting at the computer with my to do book in open, planning the day before the kids are even out of bed.

this is me, stuck in traffic ! not moving AT ALL. pouring down rain. headed to the mall to do christmas shopping. yeah. DUMB MOVE ! i promise myself i won't leave my shopping this late, EVERY YEAR, but then every year i find myself doing it AGAIN !

this is me, happy as a lark, two hours later, headed home ! singing. a rudolf/jingle bells medley ... i love it.

yep. sushi for lunch. i'd have had it for dinner if my family wouldn't have revolted ! (since it DID have it for dinner last night) so, yeah ... sushi for me, three meals in a row ! yum yum yum.

got a bit of wrapping done. watched ellen.

pretty. i love paper. and ribbons. and giving presents.

downloading photos from the camera. birds. what else is new ?

also checking out the recipe that i WAS going to make for dinner. plans changed after i spent two hours soaking in a hot bath.

we ended up with something simpler. these tasty chicken and black bean tostada bowls. i'll post a recipe to the beans blog later tonight or tomorrow morning ! they were nice.

and this is now. writing a blog. giving you a glimpse of me.

have you ever tried to take a photo of the back of your head with an iphone ? try it. it's harder than it sounds.
soon rory, who is currently in the music room playing his guitar will join me for some television viewing and then lights out. it's been a beautifully rainy and cool summer day ... i'm ready to lay in bed and listen to the rain as i drift off into tomorrow ...
and tomorrow i'll look forward to coming round and seeing all you other corner viewers being you !

Freezer Pantry ?

2011-12-06T07:51:00.001+10:00

We recently bought a new fridge. We love our new fridge. It's the first new fridge we've ever owned ! Rory was given our old fridge a year before we got married ... It was OLD when we got it, but it served us well. We have been thinking for a few years to get a new one and finally this last month, bit the bullet and did it.

In the year leading up to this decision though, the freezer part of the fridge died. Sort of. It wasn't working properly but it also wasn't totally dead. But, I'm a member of freecycle and we were able to get a stand up freezer to use instead. Totally free. Gotta love that !

When we bought the new fridge, we decided to turn off this old freezer as well because we think it chews up the electricity and our electric bill drives us crazy. So stinkin' expensive ! So ... we are trialing it. Trailing it to see if the electric bill goes down or not and trialing to see if the new freezer is big enough without this old one too ...

Our kitchen isn't big on storage space ... or maybe we have too much to store. That is probably more true. But, I love to cook. I keep many different ingredients on hand and I have a truck load of appliances that I USE ! I don't keep ones that I don't use ....

So, the garage holds the extra storage, just around the corner from our kitchen. The white two door cupboard that you see in the photo below is my overflow kitchen storage. It stores the rice cooker, the breadmaker, the sandwich press, the toaster, the toaster oven, the coffee pot that Rory's parents use when they visit, the percolator, the yoghurt maker, the george foreman grill (another freecycle acquisition) and it used to store all the cans, jams, mustards, unopened snack foods, etc.

BUT NOW !!! Now look ....

All of those things are stored in the old freezer !!!! I let it dry out for a week and then I was looking at the empty shelves thinking it was a shame not to use the space and then it came to me ....

And I love it !!!! It's the perfect solution ! Plus ... I love to re-purpose things ! And I love it when the kids say "where are the Ritz crackers ?" and I say "in the freezer ! " ha ha.

Are you a re-purposer ? What have you re-purposed lately ? I'd love to know !

Edited 12 December to add this link ...

I'm heading over now to see what other people have linked up as their best post of the week !
Already I've seen a really cute post about fun fun advent calendars !

PS ... don't tease me about the number of St. Dalfour jams in there ! We only eat that jam and it's not cheap. SO I BUY IT ON SALE ! A month ago they had a crazy crazy sale and I bought 10 jars !! Rory always teases me that we are running low ....

Mt. Tambourine Fauna

2011-12-05T07:29:00.002+10:00

i love plants. especially really green ones. and ones with pretty flowers.
mt. tambourine was filled with them.

look at this interesting looking fungus

passionfruit flower (below) if you look really close you
can see the start of a tiny passionfruit in the centre of it. so cool !

jacaranda trees were still in bloom. i couldn't get the photos i really wanted
since i was standing outside a gate marked private property, dodging large piles of cow
poo with rory waiting in the car to drive up the rest of the mountain. not ideal shooting conditions !

and a thistle. a prickly weed but still beautiful in bloom ....

Up In The Trees

2011-12-04T08:00:00.040+10:00

I love the personality of the birds.

and how they hold on to the branches with their little claws.

These green headed ones were a little more timid. They didn't come down to be fed, that I saw.

"Are you taking my photo?"

This is just a tiny section of tree that was COVERED in birds ! So so pretty !

I love in the photo above how you can see the detail of the feathers ....

and this one ... again, the personality ! This might be the little one who 'chatted' with me for a bit.

**

I do often wish I had more time to just wander and enjoy creation and all of the beauty it holds.

Froggie

2011-12-03T14:11:00.000+10:00

This little guy was on my back patio the other day.

Isn't he adorable ?!

I just love frogs and I love love love how this photo turned out.

Tomorrow, more birds ...

{ Joy } Corner View

2011-11-30T08:12:00.000+10:00

Corner View was created by Jane at Spain Daily and is now hosted by Francesca.

Join us as we travel the world each Wednesday ...

Today's theme is "JOY"

If you read yesterday's post you would know that we went away for the weekend. We were in Lamington National Park up in Mt. Tambourine, staying in a super cool villa at O'Reilly's.

The drive up was gorgeous ... windy and stomach churning ... but gorgeous !

The cloud cover was incredible.

It was really cool as the clouds just rolled in right where you were standing !

There were so many 'nature' based things to do. We did a bush walk and tried to

make it to the waterfall but I was too scared (of snakes) when the path

through the tall scrub all but disappeared ! There were flowers.

Lots of pretty flowers. Trees. Lots of tall tall trees.

But my favorite part of the 'nature' on this

trip was the birds !There were

hundreds of them and

they are used

to people so they

came and sat on our

heads and even one sat on

my camera !! How cheeky, eh ?!

The kids loved holding them and feeding

them and trying to pat them. I got to feel the feathers

of a couple of them when they were sitting on one of the kids and

it was so neat. They are super soft ! I guess if I'd thought about it I could have

figured they would be soft, since feathers are soft and they are all feathers ... but I was surprised !

I have over 700 photos of the birds from the weekend ! I'm not going to share all of those, of course !

But, I will share lots over the next week or so !

Here are a few to get you started. These are of the kids feeding the birds.

joy {n}

1. a deep feeling or condition of happiness or contentment

2. something causing such a feeling; a source of happiness

3. an outward show of pleasure or delight; rejoicing

4. Brit informal success; satisfaction I went to the bank for a loan, but got no joy

1. (intr) to feel joy

2. (tr) Obsolete to make joyful; gladden

[from Old French joie, from Latin gaudium joy, from gaudēre to be glad]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged

yep .... these birds brought me joy !

Rosella

2011-11-29T07:12:00.000+10:00

We just got back from a fabulous weekend away !

I can't wait to share the photos with you !

Here is the first one ...

Do you want to

{A Different Corner} View

2011-11-23T06:11:00.000+10:00

Corner View was created by Jane at Spain Daily and is now hosted by Francesca.

Join us as we travel the world each Wednesday ...

Today's theme is "A Different Corner"

I have a number of corners on the web. Today, I want to introduce you to my cooking corner ... The Beans Blog.

I love cooking.

I love teaching other people to cook.

The Beans Blog started out as a place to share recipes between family and friends. I am not the only one who posts to it ....

850+ posts later, I love what it has become. You will find an assortment of recipes, menu plans, cooking information.
The Table of Contents is pretty comprehensive. (but for some people only works on a smart phone !)
Let me just give you a little taste of what you'll find there ...

Sushi, sushi, and more sushi !

Breakfast Burritos

Granola

Roasted Garlic and Potato Soup

Cheeseburgers ... heaps of cheeseburgers !

Salmon with an amazing pineapple salsa

Egg Salad Sandwich

Funky Lime Pizza

The ganache ... and lots of other yummy desserts !

Head over to The Beans Blog and check it out !
We're on Facebook too if you want to "LIKE" us there !!

bird

2011-11-22T16:00:00.000+10:00

my favorite christmas decoration

there are two of these

i have one, my

brother

has

the other one.

**

what is your favorite decoration ?
post it on your blog

let me know

about it

the comments

and i'll come have a look !

rain drops on roses

2011-11-22T03:00:00.002+10:00

~ the up side to getting caught in the rain at the garden store the other day ~

solar mosaic

2011-11-21T03:00:00.002+10:00

i bought two of these pretty little solar lights

they light up our little herb garden
not heaps ... just a nice blue
green glow ! i love
how pretty
they are
...
..
.

pink {smile}

2011-11-20T22:32:00.000+10:00

just a little something to make you smile. they've been making me smile all week.

a lady brought them in to me to say thanks for helping her send a fax.

isn't that sweet ?! i just wish you could smell them ...

Apps. My faves ...

2011-11-18T08:03:00.000+10:00

A friend of mine recently got an iphone and asked about my favorite apps. I thought I'd do a post here so that I have something to refer other people to when they ask, because everytime someone asks, I'm thinking through it again and then writing it all out. I figure, better to have it here all ready to go ! Because I do like apps !

I was at a picnic with two girlfriends recently and we were talking about our phones and how many photos, videos, songs, apps we have ... just because we were looking at how much memory we had left.

Anyway, they had a few apps each ... like 25 or something. I looked at mine and I had almost 200 !!! ha ha. I've culled them now, and I have 178. I don't use all of them all of the time but I use lots of them, lots of the time.

Here are my most used apps. Facebook. I love this app. I keep in touch with so many people so easily with this. Perfect for a Navy Brat who moved away from her family when she married the man of her dreams from Down Under ! Messenger ... part of facebook but better. Safari ... obviously, the internet. Viber ... free texting and calling to anywhere in the world using Wi-Fi or 3G. We used it heaps when we were in the States but kept using it once we got home. I love being able to text my parents and sister and brother and cousin and brother in law in the States ! The Beans Blog and Simple Beauty (my two blogs) for quick reference. These two aren't apps. They are just buttons I pinned to the home screen. Really useful. Pinterest ... I love this app. It's like a virtual pinboard. You pin stuff to it that you find on line and want to keep track of. And then other people can see it too ! And you can pin stuff from other peoples boards. Great great stuff on there ! You'll find me HERE if you want to follow my boards. Camera ... just the normal camera but I use it ALL.THE.TIME ! Camera+ ... what I use to edit most of the photos I take on the phone. It's my favorite. Hanging with Friends and Words with Friends ... hangman and scrabble that you can play with real friends. I LOVE THEM !! I love games but I love even better games that you can play WITH people !

2nd place ... these more that I use lots. Dropbox is in there because I want to use it on the phone. I just haven't yet. But I use it on my computer lots. Photocabine ... a cute app that does photobooth type photos. Labelbox ... oh my ! I love this app. It does the cutest little labels that you can put onto photos ! Photobucket ... if you have a photobucket account. It's online photo storage. I have used it for years with my blog. Instagram ... cool photo editing app. Diptic ... I love this one too ... it's another photo app ... but you can put your photos into little boxes ... check it out, too hard to explain. HeyTell ... sort of like walkie talkies ! I love it because sometimes my sister will send me messages of my baby nephew Charlie 'talking' ! Sometimes they are intended for her husband, which totally cracks me up ! Stumble Upon ... I don't use this one so much anymore but it's cool for browsing cool sites. Vimeo ... like YouTube. Videos and Reminders ... I haven't actually tried these ones yet. They came with the now operating system upgrade and I need to check them out. Reeder ... Google Reader. It keeps track of all the blogs you subscribe to. Instead of having to go to each individual blog to see if they have updated it, you just go into this app and it shows you all the updates. You can read them in there or click over to the actual blog. LOVE IT !

Notes ... I don't use this one as much anymore because I got a new notes app which I'll tell you about soon ! iP ... iPeriod. Keeps track of your period and sends you emails to tell you when you can expect it ! SERIOUSLY LOVE THIS APP !! Woolies, Coles, Big W ... store apps. Pretty cool. Check out store apps in your area. Budget Touch ... this is the budget program we use on our computer. I like this one for quick reference on the phone, but I never use it to update the budget. TVFIX ... the TV guide on the web. Austpost ... post office. Dirty Dozen ... I'm not even sure what that one is but I think it has to do with food and which ones have more pesticides than others. ListPro ... A list app I thought looked cool but I never really used. TripCase ... this app was so cool when we traveled ! You put in all your trip details. Flights, hotel rooms, rental cars. It keeps track of all your flights and tells you if they have been delayed ... it actually sends you notification ! LOVED THAT. I loved having all our confirmation numbers on the phone too ! And maps to the hotels and phone numbers and links to their websites ! Really neat app. FridgeBuddy ... I really wish I used this one more but I find, even though I love the concept, that I don't really have time to keep this updated. I used it more for my freezer, to keep track of what's in there. It's like a little inventory thing. You can add photos. Dates. You can set expiry dates for when you need to use stuff by.

Awesome Note !!! Shay told me about this one and I LOVE IT ! The quick memo is post it notes. Perfect for little things you need to jot down. See those tabs ? You can make your own !

Here's what I use the shopping tab for. I keep a running grocery list of things we need. I love it because when I just run into the store for milk, I'm always thinking what were those other things we needed ? And now I know ... and I can grab them, if I want to ! Another thing I use it for is the junkmail ... I take a photo of things I'm interested in looking at. I label it with the date the sale is on and then it's in there for when I happen to pop into that store and I don't have to carry the junk mail in my purse !! Once you click on that button, you can add a bunch of photos and notes. Then you just scroll through them. The last one you see there ... the one that says "good idea?" ... that is something I saw in the store when I was out that I want to ask Rory if he thinks is a good idea. I was able to take the photo right in the app ... label it. Done.

You know how I said you could make your own tabs ? Here is one I've made ... Wines We Like. I'm going to take photos of the labels of wines we like. Easy to pull back up when I'm in the bottle shop going "now, which ones are good again?"

The options really are endless with this app !! I love it ! It's not free though ...

Snapbucket. This is attached to your photobucket account but it's all about the editing in this one. Pretty cool. And easy to upload to straight from your phone.

Ant smasher. Fun. Addicting. Game. The kids love it. I love it. Smash those ants !

I have a lot of games on my phone. Mostly ones the kids play. They love Cat Physics, Doodle Buddy, iFarkle, Unblock me, Hangman, PacMan, Angry Birds, Tap Resort, All of the "Talking" ones, (like Talking Tom ...)

I love Tetris and Block Touch and Bubble Bust.

I have a Dictionary, Google Maps, The Weather, Wikipedia, XE currently exchange, AroundMe (tells you what restaurants, businesses etc are around where you are - uses GPS), YouTube, Twitter, Yahoo Messenger, Skype, Flickr, eBay, Event Cinema, Emoji Free (cool emoticons that come into your keypad for texting) Hipstamatic is a cool photo app.

Shazam is a fun music app. You just hold it up to the music that's playing and it will tell you the song title and artist ! SO COOL ! I use that one A LOT. And it keeps a history so you can go back later, when you are wanting to download songs from iTunes and you are all "what was that song I was listening to the other day and thought I might like to buy?" ! Shazam !!

I've got 7, 9 and SBS news but I rarely use them. I like to think I will use them, that's why I keep them but like I said ... it's RARE.

Ok ... I'd better go. I've got to jump in the shower and make school lunches yet ! I hope this is helpful ! I don't remember now which of these apps are free. Lots of them have both free and then you can go to paid (without the annoying ads) if you like them.

So tell me ... what are your favorite apps ??

Corner {Where Has The Time Gone} View

2011-11-16T13:02:00.001+10:00

Corner View was created by Jane at Spain Daily and is now hosted by Francesca. Join us as we travel the world each Wednesday ...

Today's theme is "Where has the time gone?"

My girl Alia just turned eight.I often wonder, with her, and with Jono where the time has gone ...

Alia is eccentric.
A girl with a style and a mindset all her own.

She knows what she wants and I dare say, where she is going.

This morning on the way to school she showed me her Secret Diary.

Totally cracked me up ! I asked if I could take some photos so I could share it with you.

I'll translate ... My Secret Diary

One time Layla's brother's face got drawn on with a white board marker.

I once fell off a roof.

My best friends are Beaky (our cat), Layla, Anna, Emily, Lara, Lucy, Bonnie and Paris. BFF.

My cat loves me and I love her too. She is fun with me.

I love bus trips only if I don't puke.

11-11-11

2011-11-13T09:24:00.000+10:00

I totally wanted to get a photo like this but I didn't. I was too busy at work. But then I got on facebook and saw that my Mom had gotten one ! How cool is it ?! 11-11-11 Remembrance Day here in Australia. Veterans Day in America.

My Dad wrote a Veterans Day post that you all should read ! He is a veteran himself .... in fact, I come from a long line of veterans.

My Dad's Dad.

My Mom's Dad.

My Dad.

My Mom and Dad.

My Uncle Phil .. who built the monument below ...

A reminder to all of us that FREEDOM is NOT FREE.

It has been paid for with lives ...

We remember.

Lest we forget.

Corner View {Home Sweet Home}

2011-11-09T21:15:00.001+10:00

Corner View this week is "home sweet home" ... I'm excited to see what everyone does for this one since it was my choice this week !! I love seeing the place people call home.

I uploaded a whole bunch of photos to photobucket this afternoon and then came back now to put them into this post and photobucket has totally wigged out. I can't access anything. I'm ready for bed and uploading them through blogger is taking AGES !! So ... here is the ONE photo that uploaded in the last ten minutes !! ha ha. I'll see if photobucket has come back in the morning and if so, I'll finish the post then !! If not, enjoy this photo. The paintings were done by my Grandma. They sit on our piano and I LOVE them !!! Just part of our home sweet home ....

Ok ... more soon !!!! (i hope ....)

and .... we're back in business ! photobucket is back up ! here are some more 'home sweet home' images ...

(this last shot is our ever growing Thankful Tree)

**

That's it for me ... I've got to rush off now but I'll be round to visit the rest of your Corner Viewers this evening !!

Corner {DREAM} View

2011-11-02T17:31:00.000+10:00

Corner View this week is 'DREAM' ... I love dreams. I have lots of them. Not the kind when you are sleeping. I sometimes have those too but they are usually weird. No, I'm talking about the kind of dreams where you get a thought in your head or a niggle in your heart about something that would be really neat to see happen or to be a part of. Some dreams are totally unattainable and that's ok. Like, I always wanted my family to be like the Von Trapp Family Singers ... and though we sang in church as a family a time or two, there were never any turned over boats, tree climbing in curtain 'play clothes' or nazi's involved. I'm ok with that though. I'm pretty ok with the fact that I'll never be an acrobat in the circus too but it's fun to think about ...

Other dreams I have are to travel the world. Starting with Greece and working my way through the rest of it. I'd love to work along side a chef (or multiple chefs) one day and learn from them. I have a dream, one day, to write a book. Or maybe a couple books. I'm thinking of making this one more of a goal than a dream.

But today, I want to share with you a dream that will come true in just a couple of months ... you see, I love our little garden. When you walk out my back door, this is what you find ...

We have two little raised garden beds full of stuff. Some greens ...

Like the rocket, rainbow chard, silverbeet (not pictured) and dwarf kale you see above. The grasshoppers love them too, as you can see.

We've got leeks growing. I'm super excited about these ! I also planted some spring onion seeds last week ...

We have 6 different chili plants, lots of herbs ... thyme, lemon thyme, pizza thyme, rosemary, oregano, flat leaf parsley, italian parsley, sage, tarragon, lemongrass, marjoram, chives, garlic chives, greek basil, sweet basil, thai basil and boxwood basil. Not to mention the coriander that is now self sowing ! In our rock pathway ! I love it !

and so do the bees !

We do pretty well with the space we have but one thing that bugs me is that the only veggies we really grow is the greens, which I'd like to grow more of too ! And this one sad looking tomato plant ...

So ... what's the dream bit ? Well ... I want to put in some more gardens ! But, if you look at the first photo you will see that there really isn't much room for more ! However ... let me show you the side of our house and tell you about my dream, that is finally becoming a plan !

This is the side of our house, leading to the back patio. A very unused space. But not for long. I've already pruned the magnolia tree, you can just see the stumps that were too big for my handsaw and are waiting for a chainsaw to come home from work with Rory to finish it off. Then, basically from where the hose is we are going to dig up the grass, level it off a bit, lay weed mat and put in three raised garden beds and fill 'em up with veggies !!! I'm so excited !!! We will probably do a little path way to the back with rocks and the same pavers that were used out there.

We will still have a front yard with grass and shade and bird feeders ! And we're even talking about putting a little bench of there ! Ooooh .... I can't wait for this dream to come true !!

What are your dreams ? I'll be popping round to visit with you other Corner View people to find out !

Christmas Already ?

2011-10-30T07:41:00.001+10:00

so, here's the deal. our tree is up. we put it up last night.

normally, i wait til after thanksgiving to put it up but that is clear at the end of november and it has always bugged me to wait that long because by the first of the year i'm full into cleaning and sorting and gearing up for a new year so i need my tree to be down. i always wish we had been able to enjoy it longer in the lead up to christmas but, i never put it up before thanksgiving because that is what we did in my home when i was a kid.

but, i have these friends here who decorate really early. the talk started a couple of weeks ago. out came the boxes the other night and up went one of their trees and a few lights. i kept feeling like i wanted to put mine up but couldn't because it wasn't thanksgiving yet !

but then i got to thinkin'. i live in a country where christmas is in the middle of the summer. a country where you don't cook a turkey and sit in front of a fire, but rather, take a bucket of prawns down to the beach and try to stay cool. a country where thanksgiving isn't even a holiday ! i know, i know ... we still celebrate it with friends who are american or who just love celebrating being thankful, but still ...

and then i got to thinkin' even further that my parents, from whom the don't put your tree up til after thanksgiving thing started, don't even put up a tree at all anymore !!!

so really, nothing about christmas is how it 'should' be for me anyway so why NOT put our tree up now and enjoy it for a couple of months ?? the conclusion i've come to is this ... while i'm in this country ... celebrating christmas in SUMMERTIME, i will feel free to put our tree up WHENEVER ! if ever we live in AMERICA again, i will revert back to the old tradition of after thanksgiving ...

maybe.

{Exotic} Corner View

2011-10-26T20:00:00.001+10:00

Corner View this week is 'exotic' ... there is LOTS of exotic here in Australia but I want to share this photo with you because I took it today and I just love it.

I was having a picnic with friends today and this little guy landed on my camera bag. He sat there, like a foot away, if that, while I got my phone, pointed it at him and snapped a shot.

Seriously, how COOL is that !?

**

PS ... this bird is called a Butcherbird.

Sunday

2011-10-23T21:29:00.000+10:00

The first bit of Christmas hit our house last night.
I have been wanting to put some fairy lights up around the window

that my computer sits in front of.

Yesterday, I found some that had tiny little lights

and sparkly snowflakes !

Perfect !

This afternoon I got to spend many hours in our garden.

I weeded, pruned herbs and flowers, planted zucchini, spring onions and echinacea , thinned the leeks,

transplanted a chili, watered the gardens and then moved a few things around on the patio!

Like this bird feeder.

It was out back on the patio but the birds

fling the seeds around when they eat and we had

plants growing all up through the

patio tiles as a result !

I've moved it out to the front now.

It's in a much better spot !

Plus, I'll be able to watch the birds from my desk !!

I also hung this bird cage that I got at Target the other day.

I'm always on the lookout for fun candle holders.

I love this one.

Especially at night.

And especially especially with the outside fairy lights lit up too !!

Fairy Lights

2011-10-20T20:22:00.000+10:00

Aren't they pretty ?

A friend got them for her birthday last week and they were so pretty I just had to snap a shot !

Corner View {whatever}

2011-10-19T18:01:00.000+10:00

Corner View this week is 'whatever' ... I guess that means we can share whatever we like ! I was thinking and thinking about what I would do and I've decided a little blog tour might be in order ! I've had a bit of a break (4 months!) from blogging. Well, from this Simple Beauty blog anyway. I've kept up The Beans Blog which is my cooking blog ....

So, here you go ... a little bit of what you will find on my blog ...

My first post on August 30th 2006 said this ... "For a long time now, I've been wanting to start a blog. I have a few friends who have them and I think it is a great way to keep up with what is happening with them ! Now, being that I write my weekly email, I thought I would do my blog a little different. I may post photos of us with newsy bits but for the most part I want this to be a tribute to loved ones. ( there are many so it will keep me going for ages !! ) I've wanted to write about the people that are important to me for ages but just never could find the right platform to do it from. I'm hoping this one will work"

I had no idea what blogging was about ! I didn't know that OTHER PEOPLE would read my blog ! Strangers ! Strangers, who in some cases, have become friends. And, in some cases, strangers who are strange !! I got a fairly disturbing comment in 2008 that lead me to an even more disturbing website having to do with children ... Since I had heaps of photos of my children on my blog, I immediately made it private. But, then I was removed from the blogging community !! So, I started this blog and made the decision to not put pictures of my children's faces on it. This has given me more peace of mind and also let me stay part of the blog community I so enjoy !

What do I write about ? Well ... the things that I love ...

I love my husband, our story and our children. I love routine, and breaks in routine. And I love my life. I love my job. I love being intentional about what I do. I love planning and organizing. I love creating systems. I love re-organizing and creating new systems. It's an ever changing cycle that I love ! I love to use things we already have on hand to organize.

I love simplicity. How I wish I could live even more simply than we do. I talk about our journey. Doing the dishes together as a family ... and then about a new system that works even better ! I talk about changes we've made to live more simply, about balance, budgeting, more budgeting, and about scheduling 'slow times' into our days ! I talk about being thankful, our thankful tree and how it started, making time, and a couple (embarrassing) video logs on my 'brain book' !

I talk about freecycle, knitting, and defrosting your freezer. I talk about buying our first house and how much we love being home, being crafty, and cherry margaritas ! I share excellent quotes from my parents.

Exercise and fitness. I talk about my journey with both.

I love playing games, as does my family. Here I teach you how to play the dice game, and ask some questions about Mah-Jongg. And recommend good games for families to play together.

I love to cook. And to eat. And cook with the kids. I blog a little bit about food on this blog, but all the recipes are over on my cooking blog ... you all know it, right ? The Beans Blog. You can follow along on Facebook ... just hit the "LIKE" button and then all those yummy things we cook will show up in your news feed !!

I'm a menu planner. I talk about that, and about online grocery shopping.

I love photography and playing with my camera so I post a lot of photos. I love my garden. And the birds. And the bees. And the frogs. And the dragon flies !! And all the little things that can be found outside ! Even the spiders and the cheeky grasshoppers. Being in Australia, this includes kangaroos !! And many beautiful flowers. Beaches ! Trees ! Strawberry Picking ! Picnics ! Mountains to climb ! The SKY !! Ah ... it's really just endless beauty !

I love to read so I share some thoughts on reading. My children love to read too, even out loud to each other ! I talk about where to store all those library books too ... so they don't get lost !

I enjoy painting and share a few of the painting I have done ... Uncle Phil and Jono, Jardin de Fleurs, and Mundo de los Recuerdos.

I talk a lot about parenting and childhood. About our children having chores, about encouraging their abilities, and how they make their beds. About our journey of how we taught the children to eat what we eat, without complaining ! Fun lunch time surprises, mud loving boy moments, adventures, and playing in the rain. And our home management station and how it helps, and adding to it. Also the funny things I find the kids doing.

I talk about choosing to forgive, and about the freedom it brings, and life being what we make it. I talk about choosing to slow down, forgetting how old I am (!!) and making changes.

I recently got to share at a ladies conference ... I shared my international life story. I talked about what we want our family life to look like, and about the importance of family traditions. I went into some things that may keep us from cooking regularly and shared some possible solutions. I talked about getting organized and a few tips. And I finished up with some stuff from the Bible that has helped me along the way.

And there you have it ... Simple Beauty, in a nutshell, all the things I love !

I hope you stay and have a look around ! And if you leave me a comment, I'll pop over to your blog and return the favor ! :)

See you soon ... I'm off to check out 'whatever' in other corners of this big amazing world !

iSunflower

2011-10-17T06:11:00.000+10:00

I am having so much fun with these sunflowers !

I think they are almost ready to harvest ! I can't wait for that time to come !

In the meantime though, the bees are still enjoying them ...

Burger Favorites

2011-10-14T17:16:00.001+10:00

It's Friday ! You know what that means ?! Time to share some of my favorites ! So far we've done Crock Pot Favorites and Freezer Favorites. This week ... BURGER FAVORITES ! Do you make burgers at home ? Oh ... you should ! It's not hard ... I have a great burger meat recipe for you ! You are going to love it !!

We found this website a while back called The Cheese and Burger Society. It is an amazing site. No recipes, just ingredient ideas. So ... what I'm linking here is based on that, but with recipes we have found or made up (but using The Cheese and Burger Society names)

PS ... make sure that when you go to The Cheese and Burger Society site you have your speakers on ! The narrator is HILARIOUS ! It's worth visiting just to hear his descriptions of the burgers !

The Boss

The Camelot

The Havana and The Aunt Millie

Eggplant Burger
(not a Cheese and Burger society one)

Meat for Burgers
The burger pictured here is our absolute favorite and it is a
cross between the Bohemian and the Pioneers ! YUM YUM YUM !!!

**

These are all linked to recipes on my food blog ... aka The Beans Blog ...

Corner View {October}

2011-10-12T16:11:00.000+10:00

Corner View this week is 'October' ...

I know last week's photo was of a bee but October in Australia means SPRING is here ! And with spring comes flowers and with flowers comes bees ! Stay with me though because these are not your normal bees ! These are Australian Native Bees ! They are much smaller than normal bees. I think they are adorable ! And I just learned that they don't sting !

They love my sunflowers !

Check out yellow pollen on the legs of the little guy below ! Super cool !!
Different to the pink pollen in last weeks photo !

Look how many of them are on this one small sunflower (above) !

Is it only me, or is anyone else fascinated by bees ?

Be Their Voice ...

2011-10-09T16:04:00.003+10:00

Remember our friend Holly ? Remember a couple of years ago I asked you all to vote for her in a contest she had entered ? And then I told you about when Rory and I went to The Fray concert and HOLLY was AMAZING as one of the opening artists ?

Well just the other night she was a part of BE THEIR VOICE: a musical evening to benefit LOVE 146 with The Fray, Churchill and Jeremy Ashida. We didn't get to go since it wasn't in AUSTRALIA ! But my cousin Pam went and she said it was GREAT !!!

Thanks to the internet though, we got to see some of it.

Here's a little taste .....

"Autumn Burns"

Want More ? Follow Holly Lovell Music on facebook ... or myspace ... or youtube ...

Freezer Favorites

2011-10-07T00:00:00.001+10:00

What are your favorite recipes that freeze well ? I'd love for you to leave me a link in the comments section so I can try them out !! Here's a few of mine ....

I freeze these in dinner size portions but also in lunch size portions so that they are easy to pull out the night before for lunch the next day !

Mom's Banana Bread

Spinach and Tofu Lasagna

Mom's Lasagna

Black Bean Chili Soup

Spring Rolls

Mangos !

BBQ Meatballs

Ellie's Meatballs

Spaghetti Bolognaise

So there you have it ... my favorite recipes that freeze well. Do share if you have some of your own ... Next Friday may be favorite pizza recipes ... or maybe favorite burger recipes ... or maybe soups ? I don't know ... any requests ?

Dandilion Sunset

2011-10-06T16:00:00.001+10:00

Cornver View {The Last Thing I Learnt}

2011-10-05T20:00:00.000+10:00

Corner View this week is 'the last thing I learnt' ...

This is an interesting one. I LOVE to learn. I am always learning !!

So I was wondering what would be the last thing I learned before I wrote this post and then this afternoon I was outside in the garden, taking photos of birds and flowers and I noticed that the pollen on this bees legs was PINK ! I've never seen that before, usually it's orange ! I started to wonder if the pollen color had to do with the color flower they were getting their pollen from and then it would make sense that they collected different colors ! Plus, they were on the coriander flowers and I'd noticed that some of them had turned pink !

I came in and googled it and sure enough ... the pollen on their legs is due to the color of the 'pollen source' ...

How cool is that ??

**

I've been absent from Corner View for a while ... I'm looking forward to seeing what the last thing everyone else learned was !

Laundry Room Shelves

2011-10-04T17:31:00.000+10:00

How do you like my new shelves ?

The two above the washer/sink ... The ones beside the washer have been there a while. We had some scrap timber in the garage that we decided would be good for shelving. I was going to paint it with some white paint we had in the garage too but it wasn't the right paint or something and the shelves just sucked it in ! I put like 5 coats on each shelf and it looked TERRIBLE ! Then I got the idea to cover it with material. I was going to go buy some but decided to look in my box of material first (I don't have lots but I couldn't remember what was in there!). I'm so glad I did, because I came across this material that I had brought home from my Grandma's place last year. It was JUST the right amount !! and I just love it ...

Armed with a staple gun borrowed from our next door neighbor, a glass of wine, a bit of help from the men folk, and the encouragement of friends who we were having a beer with, I set to work. It was super easy. Like wrapping a present, only with material instead of paper and a staple gun instead of sticky tape. I put the 'seam' at the back that would be against the wall ...

Rory got some brackets from the hardware store (our only expense with this little project) and then hung them for me the other day. I'm super excited ! I got straight in there and reorganized the linen closet that has been too full and waiting for these shelves to give it a bit of breathing room !! Want to see the results ?

I wish I had taken some before pictures but I didn't. You can just picture a linen closet that was crammed full of stuff that didn't fit properly. With the addition of these shelves I was able to move the laundry detergents etc from the old shelves and make that fully house towels now. I was able to get the spare toilet paper off the floor in my bathroom ! And the spare tissue boxes now have a home ! The yellow boxes house medicines/extra toiletries and they used to live in the linen closet. So glad to be able to get them out of there ! Oh, and the little laundry garbage can that somehow always gets knocked over but never picked back up ... TOP SHELF !!

My cleaning supplies haven't moved. I like them way up high like that ... Hot water bottles and heating packs are on the next shelf down.

Hand and hair towels (yes, the girls in this house use a 2nd towel for our hair !) on the 2nd shelf. Bath towels on the third shelf. Beach towels on the bottom shelf. So easy to access and keep neat this way !

The actual linen closet is now able to organized. I love that I'm able to have a shelf for queen sheets and pillow cases and one for single sheets and pillow cases ! Makes everything so much easier to find !! Especially for the children.

Here's the outside ... not that it was reorganized, but while I'm giving you the tour .... :)

Alia was a little confused the first morning after the new shelves were put in. She feeds the cat but she couldn't find the food. It used to live on one of the towel shelves. Now it lives under the sink ... all the cat stuff together. Perfect !

Beaky thought she might pose for a photo of her eating, seein' as I had the camera out 'n all !

This is the first house where we've had an actual laundry room. I love it !
Even more now ....

Crock Pot Favorites

2011-10-03T00:00:00.000+10:00

I just finished sharing a six part series on what I recently had opportunity to share with some ladies at a ladies retreat. In one of the posts, I mentioned crock pot recipes and asked if anyone wanted me to post them. I had a a few positive responses so here you go ...

Some of my most favorite crock pot recipes :

Greek Lamb with Spinach and Orzo

Crock Pot Chicken Salad

40 Clove Garlic Chicken

Mom's Hot Apple Cider

Crock Pot Steak Fajitas

Crock Pot Baked Potato Soup

Crock Pot Baked Potatoes

Spaghetti Bolognaise

Mexican Chicken

Home Made Sugar Free Apple Sauce

There are more crock pot recipes on my blog if you are interested.

Do you have a favorite crock pot recipe ?? Why not share a link in the comments .... ?

**

Up next ... my most favorite recipes that freeze well. This one will come on Friday.
I think I'm going to start a FAVORITES on FRIDAY post that I'll do
regularly featuring links to my favorite recipes ....

**

What I Shared With The Ladies - Part 6

2011-10-02T10:35:00.003+10:00

Continued from Part 1 ... and Part 2 ... and Part 3 ... and Part 4 ... and Part 5 ...

I'm just about ready to finish up but before I do, I want to share one thing. I had a few people read through my talk during the various stages of planning it.

My Sister In Law wondered if perhaps this should be a bit more 'spiritual' since this was a church ladies conference, after all. I talked to Rory about it, wrote to my Mom & Dad and my sister to ask their thoughts b/c I wondered if the ladies might feel the same way as she did ...

My Dad, who is a very wise man wrote me an email that made so much sense to me. I'd like to share part of what he wrote …

“I got to thinking about what it means to be spiritual, and I think a very important part of what you have to share with these women is that organizing, cooking, caring for children, and housekeeping are every bit as spiritual as preaching, prophesying, teaching, studying, or praying. This is a lesson your mom has modeled and continues to model continually. This is something our mothers and aunts and and many others have demonstrated throughout their lives, and this is something you and your sister exemplify.

Aunt Jo wrote your mom a note a few weeks ago in which she said something like "Jim may be a great scholar, but you are the heart of that home, and people love to come to your table because of what you do" I was reminded once again of something I've always known. Your mom is the heart of this home. We are a good team, yes, but without the home that she's made and the care she takes to make people feel at home and have not only a decent meal but an exceptional meal on the table, our hospitality would be greatly diminished.

You have been gifted with a propensity to do certain things and to do those things in an organized manner. You have added to this natural gifting with study, hard work and discipline over the years, and you now have something that has improved the quality of your life, your family's lives, and the lives of those around you, and now you are being given the opportunity to share this valuable information with a whole bunch of other ladies. This is a spiritual act. Let me repeat. This is a spiritual act.

Read the scriptures. Meditate on the word of God, and then live it out. Love one another. Jesus said, "If you love me, keep my commandments." Talk to people in language they can understand, the language they use every day. If we cannot explain spiritual things in everyday language, we probably need to go back to the drawing board. And the language most people need to hear is the language of love, the language of affirmation, the language of believing in them, and being there for them, the language we heard from those who have loved and affirmed and believed in us.

So, share with the women all the wonderful things you and God have co-created in you. Be a living, loving, cooking, caring, child-rearing, organizing representation of the image of God to the group you have the privilege of addressing. I can't think of anything more spiritual you could do in the situation. “

My sister Ellie agreed but thought that if there were some scriptures that have aided me along the way, I could add them without feeling like I was just adding them as an afterthought to to get some quota of Bible verses in …

So … I thought on that for a while and I came up with a couple of verses that I WOULD like to share … A few of the verses I try to live my life by.

I'm no preacher, so don't take this as some sort of sermon, take it as something that has encouraged me in my life. And maybe something that will encourage you as well ...

Phil 2:14 ~ Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure …..

I love this verse. It just reminds me how important it is for me to NOT COMPLAIN !!

Ephesians 6: 1 – 3 ~ Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise — “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

This is not something I see as the kids responsibility right now so much as mine. Yes, it's their choice to obey or disobey but this verse speaks to me about my job as a parent in teaching them to obey. If I don't teach them to obey, how will they learn ? (we all know it isn't something that comes naturally !!)

Following along with that … is Proverbs 22:6 that says “Train a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not turn from it”

Again … it's my responsibility, as a parent, to train them …

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 ~ Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

I LOVE this. How many times do people wonder what "God's will" is ?? Well ... to me this is a pretty darn good starting place. Rejoice (be delighted) ALWAYS, pray CONTINUALLY (not in a on your knees sort of way because how can we do that continually??) give THANKS in all circumstances .... how much in my life have I NOT been thankful for ?

Titus 2:4 ~ you know the passage where it talks about older women and the younger women … I like that we are all both older and younger women !! But verse four says … Then they (the older women) can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children … and goes on in verse five to say … to be self controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind and to be subject to their husbands so that no one will malign the word of God.

I love that loving our husbands and children is what we are urged to do !

And last … I almost don't add this one because I've heard so many women say “I could never be like her. I could never live up to all of that ...” You know what I'm going to say don't you ??

Proverbs 31 ~ The Wife of Noble Character

What I want to say to you is DON'T COMPARE YOURSELF TO HER. Learn from her strengths and be inspired !!!

Let me tell you my favorite bits about this passage.
Her husband has full confidence in her
she brings him GOOD, not harm
she is an eager worker
she gets up while it is still dark … I remember my MOM doing this my whole life !!
provides food for her family
and servant girls … this is interesting to me. It tells me she wasn't super woman … she didn't do it all on her own !
she is prepared
she is capable
she is resourceful
she is generous
she is confident
her husband is respected at the city gate … meaning, she probably didn't talk bad about him on facebook
she is wise, strong and dignified
she fears the Lord.

SERIOUSLY ? She is an inspiration to me !!

I'm done ! Almost …

I would love for you to think about this … what is your story ? What's your purpose ? Are you being intentional about creating the life you want for your family ? Are you passing on the things you value ?

My hope for you is that you go away inspired to be intentional. That you don't expect perfection from yourself, that you start to look for the strengths in those around you and learn as much as you can from them. That you ENJOY your life, and your husband and your children.

And your grandchildren? And your friends?

My hope is that in all things you are thankful ....

**

And that's it. That's what I shared with the ladies. I am not forgetting that I said I'd share my favorite crock pot and freezer recipes with you. They are coming ......

What I Shared With The Ladies - Part 5

2011-09-23T10:21:00.000+10:00

Continued from Part 1 ... and Part 2 ... and Part 3 ... and Part 4 ...

Getting organized …
Let me give you a few of my most basic organizational tips …

IN THE KITCHEN :

Menu planning ! This will save not only your sanity but your time and your money ! It also helps you eat more healthily. I plan a menu and shop once a week.

I plan a few different ways. One way is activity based. This is the way I plan most commonly. I write down the activities (sports, music, homegroup etc ...) that we have on each night and taking into consideration the time restraints, plan meals around the activities. For instance, Tuesday nights are CRAZY ! Because of this, we almost always have a crock pot meal that is ready when we get home from swimming, or something that we had in the freezer that we can just reheat.

Another way is a quick throw together menu. This is simple meals, mostly ones I have cooked before and know will be great. I usually throw together a menu like this when I haven't got a lot of time to plan ...

"Theme" night based. I do this when I want a bit more variety. I'll plan pasta one night, beans another, fish, sandwiches, soup, pizza and salad. You could do whatever you want, it just means you are getting lots of variety. I don't do this one very often but it serves it's purpose when I do.

Sometimes we do special diets. Like, when we over did our eating on holidays so came back and decided not to eat carbs for a few weeks. These menus are much more structured ... usually including breakfast and lunch instead of just dinner.

Having a menu means the meals are planned and the groceries are purchased and so we are going to be more successful at eating healthy (if I have planned healthy meals) foods !

Having a menu saves time and money. Like I said, I plan once a week and then never have to think about what we are going to eat ... or find time to get to the grocery store during the week. It also means we have fewer unplanned eating out times. (another big money saver !)

I have been planning menus for a long time now. I've been posting my menu's on my cooking blog for a few years ... as has my friend Khrista. And occasionally my cousins Pam and Jill. I love reading other people's menu plans ... I get so many great ideas. One place I visit on line to read other people's menu plans is "I'm an Organizing Junkie" ... She hosts Menu Plan Monday once a week, on (you guessed it) Mondays. Hundreds of bloggers post their menu plans there each week ...

Being organized doesn't mean that life will always be smooth ! It doesn't mean nothing will ever NOT go to plan.

The two weeks leading up to my talk are a good example. I was using every spare moment to finalize this talk and one morning Jono had no clean school shorts so we were late for school. The next morning he was sick, I sent him to school. The next morning he was still sick so he came to work with me, then Alia got upset about going to school alone. She wouldn't stop crying ! At the same time we had no hot water for two days, there was extra pressure on at work because lots of people were sick. The kids didn't want to go to their weekly Zumba and swimming sessions when I had planned those times for working on the handout for my talk. Then the day before my talk Alia wakes up with a sore ear and that same evening I broke (shattered into a bazillion pieces !) a six pack of beer on the kitchen floor !!!! …. etc etc etc

LIFE HAPPENS !!

BUT … for me, being organized means that when something doesn't go to plan, it's not the end of the world.

AROUND THE HOUSE : (including the kitchen !)

My main rule in organizing my home is ... “if it doesn't have a home, it can't live in my house.” I have two options ~find it a home or get rid of it !

The first thing I suggest doing is getting a box, going around the house and gathering up the things that don't have a home. Then find them a home or get rid of them !

You can get rid of things by having a garage sale (I like to go to them but not have them) . Selling them on ebay. Freecycle it. Give it away to a friend. Give it to the salvos (or any second hand shop) Throw it away.

Once everything has a home, it's much easier to keep your home organized and tidy … it's just a matter of putting things back in their home once you are done using them !

I've written a few organization type posts on this blog ... here there are if you are interested.
Keeping track of Library Books
My Sister's Freezer Organization
My 'brain" ... I only have ONE NOTEBOOK now but like I said ... organization means change !
Brain Book ... (the new one) ... with totally embarrassing VIDEO footage !
What to do with wrapping paper ?
What to do with kids memorabilia ? (these boxes live in the garage in this new house)
Pantry Overhaul
Our Garage (we don't have the furniture in there anymore ... just one chair, and our new car !)
Home Management ... (the kids still work off their charts but i don't clean anymore ... neither does Rory. when i started working 5 days a week, we hired a lady to come clean for us once a week. i love her ! she saves me hours of time and frustration !!)

As far as organizing your TIME … for me it's about priorities.

Make a list of what you need to accomplish | daily | weekly | in the next two hours ! Number the list by priority level and start to work your way through. This way, even if you don't get through the whole list, you know you've gotten the most important things done ....

USING YOUR MOST PRODUCTIVE HOURS:

I'm a night owl by nature. But I'm in bed by 9:30 on weeknights. And I get up early … I know that when I stay up late, I'm not as productive. Not then. And not the next day. I know, from years of experience, that I am more productive in the quiet morning hours.

I have a basic plan for my day that is routine as well as flexible.

5:00 my alarm goes off. I lay in bed and read email & facebook (i love my iPhone !) I find this wakes me up and makes it easier to get out of bed !

What happens after that varies from day to day … I'll do a load of washing | a bit of gardening | update the budget on the computer | write a blog post | plan the menu | grocery shop – online | read | play with my camera | etc ...

I enjoy the morning hours !

The rest of the day is school, work, after school activities, dinner time, relax time and then bed !

... stay tuned for part 6 and a post or two full of favorite recipes ... COMING SOON !!

Super Cool !

2011-09-22T18:50:00.002+10:00

I got the neatest comment on my blog post yesterday.

It is from a lady I have never met ...

It said this "WOW! I cannot explain to you what a blessing this blog is! I ran across it just clicking the next button on Blogger. I don't have kids, but I plan to and the previous posts and this one about traditions and cooking and family touched me so much I was tearing up! I want this! and it took me so long to figure out what I wanted. Thank you for touching a spot deep inside that I was afraid to go to. God Bless you!"

HOW COOL IS THAT ?!?!

I went over to her blog to say thanks and found that she had done a post about her journey and mentioned my post ...

SERIOUSLY, how cool is that ?!?! I love it !

So ... I still have at least one, maybe two more posts to do in my series but it's not going to happen tonight. I've been away for a few days and I am pooped ! I'm just going to sit with my husband, have a glass of wine, maybe watch some TV ... and then early to bed !

I'll see how I go in the morning. If I get up early enough, I'll get started on part 5 ... otherwise, sometime on the weekend !

What I Shared With The Ladies - Part 4

2011-09-20T10:09:00.005+10:00

Continued from Part 1 ... and Part 2 ... and Part 3 ...

Let's talk specifically about the kitchen / meal preparation for a few minutes : what holds you back ? And what my be some simple solutions ?

A few thoughts I had …

“I don't like having to cook every single night”
… this can be a tough one, especially when we are busy. One thing I try to do is double (or sometimes triple) recipes that freeze well. We eat the meal that night, I pack lunches for the next day, and then I package up one or two meals worth of the leftovers, label them and put them in the freezer. It is minimal extra effort to cook more than what you were already cooking and now you have a home cooked meal for a night that you are too busy or too tired to cook.

If you are interested in links to my favorite recipes that freeze well, leave me a comment and I'll do a post ...

“I don't know how to cook.”
The best way to learn is to do it. The library is full of cookbooks, the web is full of recipes, the tv has cooking shows that are quite informative. Do you have a friend who is a good cook ? Ask them if you can cook with them from time to time. I LOVE cooking with other people. And I learn so much when I do !

(one of my favorite beginner cookbooks)

Check out foodgawker or tastespotting as great places to find great recipes !
Or my cooking blog ... :) You are always welcome at The Beans Blog !

“I'm too busy.”
I've got two words. CROCK POT. (SLOW COOKER) Putting together ingredients the night before and then turning it on in the morning, or just getting up a few minutes early to throw it all together. The crock pot has saved me more than a few times ! AND, crock pot meals are normally large, I almost always have leftovers to freeze !

If you are interested in links to my favorite crock pot recipes, leave a comment and I'll do a post !

“I don't like being in the kitchen alone.”

Me neither ! I much prefer to cook with and talk ! Sometimes it is unavoidable. Sometimes I ask Rory if he will come chat with me. Sometimes he sits in the living room and plays guitar … that is nice too. Sometimes I put a friend on speaker phone and we cook and talk together ! Often the kids will sit at the dining room table and do homework or coloring in or create board games. They are pretty chatty during those times. Sometimes they help me in the kitchen, Alia has started helping pack lunches while I cook dinner. I love that. Sometimes it is inevitable and I have to be in the kitchen alone … if I do, I make sure I put on some great music to take my mind off it !

Another suggestion, especially if you are home during the day … do you have a friend who is in the same boat who you could cook with ? Maybe get together one morning and cook a couple of meals together that you could take home and eat a few nights that week ?

“I can't concentrate on cooking because the kids are fighting or running around all crazy.”
This happens at my house !!! I have a few solutions. One is to let them watch a movie. I used to do this more when they were younger. I saved the movie watching time for when I needed them to sit quietly for a period of time. I don't do it so much now that they are older. Now, I'll have them come sit at the dining room table with a quiet activity. Or I'll have them each spend some time playing in their own rooms. That usually works best.

“Clean up. Yuck.”
I used to cook and do the dishes. Rory really wanted me to add packing his lunch to that as well. At that point, I was still packing the kids lunches in the morning before school, but there was no way I was getting up at 4:30am to pack him a lunch before work. But I also couldn't cope with the thought of cooking, then packing all the lunches, then cleaning the kitchen ! So … we struck a bargain. And it was actually HIS IDEA ! I cook, we all (kids included) clear the table and put our own dishes into the dishwasher. I pack the lunches. Rory puts away the food, washes up the things that don't go into the dishwasher and wipes down the table. We have been doing this for a couple of years now and it is a brilliant system ! We all have home packed lunches and I'm not in the kitchen til midnight trying to do it all on my own.

Don't go home and tell your husband he has to do this ! I share this to encourage you to find a system that works for both of you !

Maybe I am the only one, but the thing I dislike is feeling rushed when I cook. I am busy all day long. Getting the kids to school, going to work, working all day, taking the kids to their after school activities, fitting in exercise … all before dinner. When it's time to start cooking, I change into comfy clothes, I often light the candle that sits on the counter over my sink, I put music on, sometimes I pour a glass of wine. I create an environment where I don't feel rushed and then I cook. Obviously, this doesn't happen every day but I try to make it happen as often as possible so that I ENJOY it. I always thinkg.... if we HAVE to do it anyway, why not make it enjoyable ?

“I cook and then no-one wants to eat what I cook.”
I try to cook things we will all like. Of course, right ? But we don't all like the same things. And sometimes, because I'm quite experimental, I cook something that is horrible. But, in 13 years of marriage, there have only been about 4 meals that were too bad to actually eat. But what about the kids ? Do all of your kids eat what you put in front of them ?

We traveled a pretty long road with getting our kids to eat. It started when Jono was two and before Alia was really eating much actual food. I was tired of cooking two meals, one for us and one for them. Mainly because the one I cooked for them was Kraft mac and cheese which has ZERO nutritional value and probably did more harm than good. I will not try to convince you that this was an easy road ... it sooo was not. They'd cry. They'd refuse to eat. They'd complain. They'd push their food around on their plates, as if it'd go away magically somehow. Meals would last way longer than they should have. Frustration levels were high. But we persisted.

1.) There are two choices at our dinner table. Eat. Or go to bed. Both of the children have chosen the latter, especially early on ! It happens very rarely now. But, it is still the rule. When the "I'm hungries" start, our answer is always the same "You can have breakfast in the morning ..." And yes, we always stick to that. And no, they don't wither away in the night.

2.) No thank you servings. My parents did this with us and we always do it with the kids when introducing a new food. It was especially helpful when we first started ! Foods that I knew the kids liked (pasta, rice, etc ... ) I'd give then a normal helping. Foods that I knew they didn't like, I'd give them a "no thank you" serving. One bite. And they HAD to eat it. The next time we had that food, I'd give them a bigger bite ... until eventually, it wasn't a problem. Some nights, they'd have a bowl of rice with one piece of curried chicken, one piece of broccoli and nothing else. But now ... they'll eat all veggies. Except mushrooms, they still have “no thank you” servings of mushrooms.

3.) Veggie snacks before dinner. I respond to their "I'm hungries" right before dinner with "You may have a carrot." I figure if they are not really hungry, they will refuse it. But if they are really hungry and want to fill their bellies with carrot ... well, I'm happy with that. Alia learned to love carrots this way !! I did it with raw cauliflower, raw brocolli, and tomatoes too.

4.) We don't always have dessert now but when we were first trying to get the kids to eat we had it as an extra incentive to finish their meals. Dessert is usually mango, or watermelon, or frozen blueberries. Sometimes we have yogurt. On occasion ice cream. However, our rule for dessert is not "You have to finish your dinner to have dessert." Our rule is "You have to finish your dinner without complaining to have dessert." Yes, we had to withhold dessert some nights. Yes, it was hard. Especially when one child got it and the other didn't. But ... it worked. We have very little complaining at our dinner table now ... even though we don't always have dessert !!

"I don't have the proper equipment"
If you were employed to do a job, you would expect to have the proper equipment. If you were a seamstress, you would expect to have a sewing machine. Or at least a needle and thread. If you were an office manager, you'd expect to have a computer, or at least a pen and paper. Not having the proper equipment in your kitchen can be a huge frustration. I cooked for years without having a good knife. The year my husband bought me a good chefs knife, cemented for me, how important it is to have a few good basics. A good knife and cutting board. A stock pot. A frying pan. These would be a few of what I consider to be basics. Investing over time in other things like ... a crock pot, a blender, a good food processor, gadgets (I LOVE GADGETS) is good too. Stocking a kitchen with equipment takes years. And is not cheap. I still don't have a mixer !! But doing it over time, saving and investing, and making good use of what you have invested in is worth it.

"I'm not as good at this as my friend Mary is ...."
Comparing ourselves to others. Don't do it. It will kill your motivation. Instead, recognize the strengths of the people around you and learn from them. If someone is good at something you aren't so good at, watch them, talk to them, ask questions, learn from them.

... stay tuned for part 5
(where I will give you some of my most basic organizational tips)

PS ... I am going away for a few days so part five will come towards the end of the week ...

What I Shared With The Ladies - Part 3

2011-09-16T05:55:00.003+10:00

Continued from Part 1 ... and Part 2 ...

I don’t want to go too much into parenting because that is a whole ‘nother talk and I’m meant to be talking about the life lived in your kitchen … but for me, this stuff is foundational to having a ‘happy kitchen life’ !

Life, and our purpose in it is multifaceted so I’ll just ask you about purpose in relation to being a wife and/or a mother because that is most linked to where I’m going in this talk !

Do you feel like you have a purpose as a wife and as a mother ?

I can’t answer the question for you but for me, very basically, I feel like my purpose as a wife is about creating a safe/comfortable home environment where my husband feels encouraged, built up and supported. Part of it too, for me, is about modeling a healthy marriage to my kids.

And parenting, again, very basically, is about me teaching my kids how to be adults. It’s walking with them through the various stages of childhood and teaching them, through words, but mostly through example, what they will need to know about life.

The time I spend in my kitchen is of great value to me. What happens in the kitchen and what comes out of the kitchen is such an important part of our family.

Having a healthy and well nourished family, in large part comes from what I do in the kitchen.

Teaching both of my children how to cook (and how to do the dishes !) is equipping them with valuable life skills, this happens in the kitchen.

The kitchen in my home, both as a child and now, is a hub of activity. Coming into the kitchen and seeing Mom cooking and Dad leaning on the counter, listening to them talk about their days, is one of my most cherished childhood memories. Or me, sitting up on the counter as a teenager, talking to Mom while she cooked. Or me and my sister and cousins, when we go home now and become part of ‘team kitchen’ where we all prepare meals for large crowds. Larger crowds that we have to feed in the backyard because we don't all fit around the dining room table !

This act of cooking a meal and then sitting around the table as a family as many nights a week as possible is so valuable to me. It forces us to slow down & to spend time together. We talk, laugh, sometimes cry & share the sad things.

There have been periods of time in our life (like when Masterchef is on) that we eat in front of the tv. We enjoy watching Masterchef and we made the decision to do it for that short period of time but I usually feel relieved when the season is over. I missed knowing what happened in the kids days, who was mean to them, who was nice, what they enjoyed about their days, what they hated, what such and so was wearing, why hoosie what got in trouble, what they learned, what they are thankful for ......

The dinner time interactions just don't happen as well when we are all looking at a tv instead of at each other.

When I think about the things that I value and want to build into my children, I can see that many of them were things that my parents built into us. I can also see many things that their parents built into them.

Things that are built in not because we tell our children they SHOULD but because we DO them.

Simple things like staying at the table until everyone was done eating. I remember when we’d visit my Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma liked to savour her meal, and we would gobble ours down like we hadn’t just eaten in days. But we had to stay at the table til she finished. She used to tease us when she had corn on the cob by eating one row at a time, and if we complained, she threatened to eat one kernel at a time ! She never followed through, or maybe we learned not to complain.

Because of my parents (and I dare say, because of theirs before them) ... we have we have a built in love of books, love of music, love of board games, card games & mahjong. My children have these too ...

We have a lot of family traditions. Before I share some of them with you, I want to tell you a story that I heard while preparing for this talk. The 'cutting the end off of a roast story." Have you heard it ? It goes like this ...

A little girl was watching her Mom cook a roast and noticed that her Mom cooked off the end of it and threw it away. She said "Mom, why do you always throw away the end of the roast?" Her Mom answered, "I'm not really sure, my Mom always did it so I always do. Why don't you ring Grandma and find out." So, the little girl rang her Grandma and asked "Grandma, why do you always cut the end off of the roast and throw it away ?" The Grandma answered the same as the Mom ... "I'm not really sure, my Mom always did it so I always do. Why don't you ring Great Grandma and find out." So, the little girl rang her Great Grandma and asked her "Why do you always cut off the end of the roast and throw it away ?" The Grandma chuckled and said "Oh, honey ... I did that because the roast never fit into my pan ..."

I'm not really into tradition for the sake of tradition.

Wat I want to pass on is the story behind it. It's this passing down of special things from one generation to the next that gives a sense of belonging, of being part of something bigger than just the here and now.

Did you family have traditions ? Do you carry them on ? Do you know the stories behind them ?

Advent calendars were tradition in my home growing up, when I had kids, my Mom started sending them to us … one year she sent this letter. Every year when they arrive, I read the letter to the kids and then hang up the calendars. Can I read it to you ?

A little story for my Grandchildren … Once upon a time there were three little girls who lived in a nice warm house on a nice cozy street. They loved holidays but they loved Christmas best. Christmas is clear at the end of December and it would have been very hard for them to wait, except for a special present that they got at the beginning of December every year. An envelope would come from a far away place called Germany, and inside it would be a special calendar that had doors to be opened every day. The picture on it was different every year, but there were always doors, with little numbers on them. A funny thing about this calendar was that it didn't have a door for every day of the month, it stopped, of all times, on Christmas Eve ! Every year when the calendar came, the girls' mother would hang it in the living room window, just at the bottom of the stairs. Then .... every morning, just after breakfast the girls would gather with their mother and, each in her turn, one would hunt for the little number of the day it was and, with excitement, ... open the door to see the picture inside. They would ooh and aah about the clever thing the door had revealed and would know that Christmas was one day closer. The best day of all was Christmas Eve, when there would be an extra special big door and inside they would find a picture of the baby Jesus, and would know that the next morning would be Christmas ! Well, the oldest of those little girls was your Nanny. The envelope was sent to us by Aunt Hester, my Grandmother's sister, who was a school teacher on an Army base in Germany. It was a custom that was part of the German Christmas tradition. I never knew another family who had such a special calendar in their house, it was something only our family had. Since it was so special, your Sabba and I always tried to find such a calendar, called an advent calendar, for our children to greet Christmas with, and that is why I have sent them to you, as well. Have fun waiting for Christmas, and know that you are the third generation of our family to have such a special treat. I love you very much, Nanny "

While we're talking about Christmas, here are a few traditions carried on from my childhood. We always had a tree decorating afternoon. Mom opened the big box of decorations and handed them to us one by one to put on the tree. I loved this. And NOW ... I love being the Mom who gets to hand the decorations to her kids !!

We always got to open one present on Christmas Eve. I don't remember a Christmas where I didn't wake up to the smell of hot apple cider that had been cooking in the crock pot all night long.

Mom always blasted the Hallelujah chorus on holiday mornings ! We got to open our stockings before our parents woke up and then we waited til after breakfast to open presents one by one.

My Grandparents grew up in India. One year, after they were all grown and living in America, my grandfathers mother, in 1949, at a Thanksgiving dinner made the 6 siblings promise to get together every year . They have honored their promise. Every year since then, the siblings and their families have gotten together. We spend a weekend together, eating, laughing, swimming, hugging, laughing, eating, laughing, crying ... did I mention laughing ?! There are 4 generations now and there were 80 of us together this year.

(my generation ... the third generation, this year ...)

We've lost a few of the 1st generation recently ... there are only 2 left. Every year that one of them is missing is difficult. We lost Aunt Thelma between the last reunion and the one this year. One of her daughters wrote this prayer and sent it to us just before the reunion. Her son read it as a prayer while we were all together ... I want to share it with you because to me it shows how deeply the passing on of values can run in a family ...

Thank you for the family that has come before us and that grows forward. The ones that gave us our roots and that are defining our future. Each are SO rich in values, talents, love and connection. We are blessed and eternally grateful. Help us be mindful of this blessing - so we may nurture, treasure and grow it forward. The stories, experiences and love that have brought us to today are the foundations and bridge of even greater abundance, love and joy tomorrow. Through birth, marriage and friendship our circle of family and love keeps growing and we welcome, honor and cherish this expansion of the Alley Family. Though our constellation changes, our core remains sound. Those before us emulated and taught us:

curiosity and adventure
love and respect
service to others
and gratitude.

Help us to honor these gifts and experience their fullness in our lives every day. And as we go forward, let us draw from that strength of family roots and values to make us stronger, better and more loving to shape tomorrow into an even better world for all.

This is the heritage passed onto us by my great grandmother !!

Lots of our traditions have food involved.

We have lots of family food traditions. Like pizza movie night. We do make your own pizza, rent a movie and watch it with the kids.

When I was a kid, we used to do fun and easy dinners when my Dad wasn’t home. Sometimes we would even have banana splits for dinner !!

Chocolate cake was always served on babies first birthdays because my Grandpa declared you could be part of our family if you didn't like chocolate cake !

We always got to, and my kids get to, chose their birthday dinner.

Whenever people came over we would introduce them to fun and sometimes exotic meals. Mom used to make a big pot of Moroccan cous cous with chicken and veggies in it. She’d put it in a huge bowl in the middle of the table and everyone would eat out of it at the same time.

Thanksgiving dinner was always at my grandma's sister's house and grandma always made cranberry fluff !

Don't be discouraged if you didn't grow up with traditions … because traditions can start with you !

My best friend grew up in a family with no traditions, but she and her husband have started thier own. One that I love is that they buy a special Christmas ornaments for each of their kids each year. What a collection of Christmas ornaments (and memories) they will have !

Another friend started one with her husband & son. Everyone who comes over at Christmas time get to put an ornament on their tree. I asked her why they started this ... her answer "we like traditions, it's a fun thing to do w/friends. We love christmas & it gets everyone in the christmas mood !"

One that we started in our family is the Thankful tree ...

A couple of years ago I wanted to experiment with not eating processed foods. We got rid of everything with additives, preservatives, or any sort of white flour or sugar in it. It was pretty hard. We made it from January until May, then my Grandma died and I went back to America by myself for 10 days. When I got back I had lost the momentum and a bit of motivation. We stopped doing it so strictly. But, back to January, when we started … I wanted to help the kids keep perspective. I didn’t want them to think of all of the things they weren’t able to have anymore. I wanted them to think of everything they were thankful for instead. On January 1st, we started our thankful tree. It is growing on one of the walls between the kitchen and dining room. Each night, at dinner, we would each write on a piece of paper, one thing we were thankful for and put it on the wall ... it is still growing !

I'm working my way towards the actual organizational part of this talk, but if we just get organized for the sake of being organized, all we will be is organized. Being organized is great. Having a reason to be organized, is even better .....

.... part 4 coming soon !

What I Shared With The Ladies - Part 2

2011-09-15T07:42:00.004+10:00

Continued from Part 1 ...

I struggled a bit when we moved to Australia. I was a new wife and in a culture I thought would be like mine but wasn’t. I found it hard to make friendships that went beyond the surface, which was a new experience for me. My family and therefore my ‘home’ were not here, they were still in Colorado. I was pretty lonely.

I’m not sure when it happened, probably because it happened gradually, but I realized that I had to make ‘home’ be where Rory and I were ... I had to start the journey my parents, and their parents before them had walked. I had to create the environment I wanted to live in, the environment I wanted my children to grow up in. I started becoming more intentional about creating it ... and things started to change. Certainly not overnight ... in fact, it’s still changing !!

Before we go any further, I want you to think about a couple of things ...

I actually had the ladies think about this and then come up and share at the retreat. It was great. I loved hearing their thoughts, in fact, I kind of wished I could just stop talking and listen to them all morning !! ha ha.

So ... I'd love to open up a discussion with you all too. I'd love to chat in the comments ... if you want to as well, go ahead and think about these questions and give me some of your thoughts !! I'd love to hear them !!

What do you want your family life to look like ? What kind of environment do you want for yourself and your husband ? What do you want your kids to remember about growing up ? How can you build these things into your family ? Maybe you’ll need to think about these a bit more later. They are the sorts of questions I ask myself. They are the sorts of things I use to keep my perspective right. Am I moving forward ? Does our family life reflect what we value ? What can I do to change the direction we are moving, if it doesn't ?

It is my opinion that life is meant to be enjoyed. Not in the sense that we deny anything that isn’t enjoyable. There is sadness in life. We walk through those times too, and we probably don’t enjoy them. I’m not talking about those times. I’m talking about the everyday. The day in and the day out. The life that can become mundane, if we let it. This almost happened to me ....

Jono had started school and Alia was about three. We had been living here for about a year and I had many surface friendships, but still longed for something deeper. I had Mum’s at the school who I chatted with outside the classroom but that was it. People at church who I said ‘good morning’ to but again, that was it. Though I tried to grow the relationships, everyone was too busy.

The kids and I had been away in America seeing my family, we’d spent six weeks there without Rory since he wasn't able to get time off from work. I spent a lot of time thinking about my life, and talking to my best friend about how I could change this circumstance I was unhappy with. We decided that I was too isolated at home, that I needed to somehow be involved with people in their “busy-ness”. I decided I was going to get involved in some things outside of my home. I joined the music team at church, I took a painting class that one of the school Mum’s was offering, and I asked if there was something I could do to help out at the place where I currently work ...

Let me give you a brief overview of the place ... just because I love it.

It started about 20 years ago out of someone’s home. Just a couple of families with a desire to do something different. Something that would be effective in reaching people not just on a Sunday but every day. The end result 20 years later, is a community centre open to everyone, and staffed by people who want to see lives changed. We run a swim school for over 300 kids all year long, we have a cafe where people enjoy coffee and great food and conversation, we have a gym with hundreds of members, we have squash courts that are booked out most of the time, we run futsal, netball, and badminton competitions every week, we have a small creche and care for children so Mum’s and Dad’s can work out, do a fitness class or just have a break for an hour or two, we have a skatepark full of young skaters, we facilitate (is this the right word?) a computer club, gymbaroo, a soccer club, special olympics basketball, kindermusic, the armed forces recruiters !! among other things.

It is a place full of people !!

There are ladies groups, a book club, prayer groups, business men’s groups, parenting courses, a seniors group, a playgroup, a youth group, a friday night program for kids, lifegroups and missions courses all happening regularly. And ... we meet as a church three times on Sunday, in the stadium.

This is where I asked if I could help out. As my strengths are in organization and administration, I started out volunteering a couple of hours a week in gym administration. Alia came with me. We’d set her up a blanket and she’d bring some fun toys and coloring in and she would play beside me while I worked. When I started doing a full day (well ... 9 - 2:30) she would bring her pillow and have a little snooze and after that we’d put a movie on for her to get her through that last hour or two. After a while I started doing two days a week. Alia would go up to the creche for a couple of hours in the morning to play with the other kids and then she’d come down and play in my office. After a couple of years, she started school and I settled in to working three days a week ... just during school hours. I enjoyed seeing the same people every day and the friendships that were forming. I enjoyed the work ... I love paperwork ! I enjoyed being part of something I think is important.

And then about 18 months ago, the lady who did all of the administration outside of the gym stuff I was doing decided it was time to move on. I was offered her job. I was not willing to work outside of school hours but decided I could probably do five days a week. And I did, until a couple of weeks ago. I have a great team working with me and now I have been able to cut back to four days a week ...

I can’t say I haven’t enjoyed working five days a week, because I love my job, but I was feeling like I needed some more time at home.

One of the things I tell people about organization, and I think it’s true of life, is that it’s a process. It’s continually changing. You can’t expect to organize your pantry, or your home, or your life one time and then that’s it forever, because things change.

Circumstances change.

Life changes.

Change is funny. I don’t mind it too much if I roll with it, it’s when I resist it that I find it a bit more difficult to navigate.

I think I can pretty confidently say that whether we are a stay at home Mum or a Mum who also works outside of her home, we are busy. We are consumed by people and tasks that need us. Especially when we have little ones. How many of us have cooked dinner with a baby on our hip and a toddler hanging off a leg ? How many of us have gotten out of the shower with shampoo still in our hair to see why the baby who was meant to be napping is screaming, only to have them drop back off to sleep just as we are rounding the corner into their room ? How many of us with little ones can remember the last time we went to the toilet by ourselves ?!

If we haven’t got a sense of purpose we can very quickly grow tired of it ! If we don't see the value in what we are doing, we may end up not wanting to do it at all ...

... stay tuned ! part 3 coming soon !

What I Shared With The Ladies - Part 1

2011-09-14T15:40:00.005+10:00

Recently I was given the amazing opportunity to share at a ladies retreat. Not normally excited about speaking in front of people, and by not normally excited I mean terrified and avoid it at all costs, I felt like this was something I would like to have a go at doing. I was excited about the subject matter and really felt like I had something to share. I posted on facebook yesterday to see if anyone would be interested in reading what I shared ... I got a lot of positive responses so I'm going to share ! It was a two hour talk so I will spread it over a few posts ...

Originally, I was asked to share about organizing your kitchen. Giving it a new look. I was not really sure how to do that without individual kitchens to organize. So I wrote back to the organizer of the retreat and told her I'd be willing to talk about the life that is lived in the kitchen as a wife and mother …. That's what we're going to talk about today.

We're going to look at …. Purpose. Perspective. Some Practicalities. A couple of Pitfalls. And I'll give you some tips for Planning.

No matter your stage in life, whether you are a wife, ex wife, mother of growing or already grown children, grandmother, or if you have no kids, or are still single … whatever your situation, I hope you are able to take something, some principle or idea from what I share today that will be useful to you in your stage in life ...

I'm going to share MY STORY with you, not so that you will go away feeling like you need to be like me or do things like me but because my story is what I have to share.

We all have unique stories, and different lives. I love that. I can't live your story and you can't live mine, but we can learn from each other ...

In 1972 my parents, who had both lived in the American state of Ohio for their entire lives, ran away and got married. They ran pretty far. Dad had enlisted in the Navy and their first duty station was Spain. That was in March.

I was born 13 months later.

When I was about 18 months old, my parents met some people from Youth With A Mission (YWAM) who introduced them to Jesus. Their lives (and mine) were changed forever.

We lived in a YWAM community houses for years to come so I was always surrounded by people of different nationalities and cultures.

When I was four, our little family, I had a little brother by this stage, moved to Italy where my parents started a YWAM community house where we lived.

Three years later, when it was time to move again, Dad was asked if he would consider leaving the Navy and take on a full time leadership role with YWAM. He and Mom prayed about it and really felt like he should stay in the Navy.

I started school in Italy, but not long into the 1st grade it was time to move again.

Our little family of five (I had a two year old sister now too) packed up again and this time we moved to Maryland, which is in America. What a strange time in our lives that was.

We lived in a house with just the 5 of us, everyone I knew spoke English, my brother and I got in trouble for peeing in the neighbors bushes ... a totally acceptable thing for children (and adults) to do in Europe !

We went to a restaurant for my birthday when I was about 7 years old and I ordered the ‘spaghetti vongale’ which my parents had to translate to the waiters - it’s spaghetti with clams. When they brought it to me I informed them that they had forgotten the vongale ! They hadn’t ... they just didn’t come in the shells like in Italy.

It didn’t take us long to adjust to this new life, it never did. People often ask me if I felt uprooted or insecure moving so often.

My answer is NEVER.

My parents knew the secret. Our ‘home’ was never a certain building or town that we lived in. Our ‘home’ was always each other and the rich family traditions my parents either carried on or started. Those things kept a ‘sameness’ and a stability about our lives.

So, I’m in grade four now. I have another sister. That’s four of us. Three girls and one boy. It’s time to move again. This time we moved back to Spain. Back to the beautiful beaches, amazingly laid back people, and an entire country that closes down in the middle of the day for a nap !

(I am the grumpy one in the front ....)

Fast forward a bit. I’ve finished grade 6 and we move to Canada. This was probably our hardest move because Dad was an exchange officer which meant we weren’t on a Navy base with a bunch of other Navy kids who were used to moving all the time. We were dropped into a school were everyone had been friends since birth ! It was an adventure, especially since by this age we should have been fluent in French. We had to go to a tutor instead of french class because we were totally lost ! It was also a really cool time in our lives where we got to go to parties at the embassy. One year we were part of a group who sang “oh Canada” at the Canadian Prime Ministers Canada Day party.

And we got to go to George Bush’s birthday party and meet him, when he was still Vice President to Ronald Reagan.

We only stayed in Canada for two years and were thrilled when we got to move back to Spain for a third tour of duty. This is pretty unusual.

I was in grade 9 now and much more independent. We didn’t live on the base this time so I had lots of Spanish friends.

My life pretty much consisted of school, the pool (where I was on the swim team and had an after school and weekend job as lifeguard), the beach and the night clubs. Six months before I was to graduate from high school, we moved again. This time to Japan.

We looked at options to keep me in Spain til I graduated but none of them worked out. I’m glad. Japan is where I met my husband ! (you can read more of OUR STORY if you like)

(us ... in Russia)

I’d been there a few years already. I’d graduated from highschool. I’d gone off to Hawaii and done a DTS (a short term school with YWAM where you learn about God and relationships and then go off on an outreach to ‘practice’ what you’ve learned ... I went to Bulgaria) Back in Japan, wondering what to do, not studying because my goal in life had always been to grow up, get married and have babies. I joined Kings Kids ... another YWAM thing.

One Kings Kids trip took me to Russia on a boat ... this is the trip that started it all for me and Rory. About a year later, I had to move to Colorado and we had a long distance relationship that lasted four years before we got married and moved to Australia.

In January I will have been in this country 14 years ! Our time here has not been in one place. We spent a couple of months in Toowong, then moved to Ipswich. Our son Jono was born while we lived in Ipswich. He will be 10 in November ! I think we were in Ipswich about 3 years and then Rory’s job (he’s an engineer ... he builds bridges) took us to Bundy, where our daughter Alia was born. She will be 8 in just a couple of weeks. Three years in Bundy, then we headed west. We lived in the tiny town of Cloncurry for about 14 months. About 10 months into it, we took a little vacation to our favorite place. While we were here, we visited some friends from Colorado and went to church with them. We walked into their ‘church’ and immediately knew we needed to move and become a part of what was happening there. A couple of months later Rory was offered a job out of the blue, location OUR FAVORITE PLACE !

We accepted and here we are 5 years later ....

... Stay tuned for Part 2

day {i-have-no-idea} 365

2011-05-17T11:14:00.003+10:00

well, i have no idea what day it is in my 365 project !

i find i'm having trouble keeping up with posting a photo a day !
not to mention that most of the photos i'm taking are being taken with my iPhone !
which is great, but it kind of defeats the purpose of this whole project
which was to use my camera and learn more about it

so ... for now, i'm going to put this little 365 project on hold

in other news ... i ran 8 minutes straight ... not once, but twice, yesterday !!

can you believe it ?

five weeks ago i couldn't have run across the park, let alone around it, and now multiple times !

crazy !!

tomorrow i am supposed to run 20 minutes straight

i find this a little daunting

but, i'm going to give it my best shot !!

i'll let you know how i do.

**

ps ... rory's camelia's are blooming in the backyard

the photo above is one of them

gorgeous, eh ?

**

day 121 {pCam} 365

2011-05-03T17:02:00.002+10:00

Pink Camelia, Our Garden
The first one to bloom this season ...

day 120 {up} 365

2011-05-02T23:59:00.004+10:00

i went out photographing with a friend on the weekend
i plan, over the next few days to share some of those shots with you

this first one is of the most interesting leaves
and the only real light in the rainforest that day
up above our heads
way up

day 115 {biblioteca} 365 & WFMW

2011-04-27T19:39:00.004+10:00

we are frequent borrowers at our local library, the librarian teases us about it ...
if there were frequent flyer miles for library books checked out, we'd be world travelers !
we like to get on our computer at home, reserve books and then once a week we pick them up
from the library van that parks not far from the kids school ... it's wonderfully convenient !!

because we have so many borrowed books, we needed a dedicated shelf for them
this one in our living room is perfect

the bottom shelf is home to all of our library books
here's what it looks like after today's visit

i hang a bag off the side of the shelf
this is where books go when we're finished, ready to be taken back

here's alia's section of the shelf
she loves that she can read now ... and she does lots of it

and jono's
he is a voracious reader

rory's books are all audio these days
perfect for his hour long (each way!) commute to work

and mine ...
mostly cookbooks, a bit of photography and creativity
true stories and a bit of jodi picoult

and with that ... i'm off to read

**

It's been a while since I've posted a Works For Me Wednesday but I thought this might be a helpful little hint for some. I know I used to be frustrated with lost library books ... not anymore ! The books have a home, and I know where they are ! AND ... when the kids (or we) finish a book, it goes into the return bag ... easy ... I just grab the full bag on a Wednesday morning, throw it in the back of the car, all ready for that afternoon's trip to the library.

Check out other things that WORK for other people ... you might find something helpful !

day 114 {pasta} 365

2011-04-26T23:59:00.002+10:00

'twas delicious

recipe coming soon to the beans blog

follow us on facebook to see when

day 113 {aFrog} 365

2011-04-25T13:30:00.001+10:00

alia with yesterday's frog

day 112 {jFrog} 365

2011-04-24T23:59:00.001+10:00

excitement in the garden this morning

jono and the frog

day 111 {hammock} 365

2011-04-23T23:59:00.001+10:00

on a day like today ... i could happily spend it all in the hammock !

day 110 {watching} 365

2011-04-22T23:59:00.000+10:00

day 109 {me} 365

2011-04-21T23:59:00.001+10:00

after my run

day 107 {puddle} 365

2011-04-19T06:32:00.000+10:00

day 106 {fog} 365

2011-04-17T08:34:00.003+10:00

i've missed a couple of days posting

i'm ok with that

sometimes life is so full that i don't have time to get to the computer

i'm ok with that too

***

i took this photo on my iphone on friday after my run

i think i might live in the most beautiful place in the world

i'm definitely ok with that !

day 103 {run} 365

2011-04-14T06:18:00.000+10:00

So ... yesterday I posted a photo of my iPhone and called the post FB40.

I'm starting a new fitness regime. This one is going to work.

I've started many but find them all incredibly hard to stick

to, mainly because of life/family commitments. So ...

when my friend Khrista told me about this thing

she was doing on her iPhone, I thought I'd

check it out ...

I was a pretty normal kid. (that's me in the 44)

Very active. I played t-ball. Then softball.
I swam competitively for years.
My first official job (after babysitter and paper girl, of course) was as a lifeguard.
I played on the varsity volleyball team as well.
I loved it all ...

In the photo above, I'm the one at the front of the bike.
You hardly ever caught me in a dress. That little one is my adorable sister Ellie !

I wore dresses more when I got older ...
Here I am in my black Feria dress. The was the day of Vendemia.
The first pressing of the grapes of the year festival ...
Obviously when we were living in Spain.

And then there's this dress. Not that I wore it out ...
I only wore this because Ellie and I were pretending to be models ... We did that a lot.
I wonder if I was trying to be a flight attendant ?

Another 'modeling' session. Only this one was in public !
ha ha. I've never claimed to not be a dork ...

By the time of this photo, I was still fairly fit.
I didn't play any organized sport that I can remember but I
played lots of basketball with the guys that I lived with, lots and lots.

Wedding day ... still fit. Because I was still active.

But, then we moved to Australia and I got a job ...

And after a few years, I got pregnant.

And I piled on the weight. And then I had a C-section.

And then I got pregnant again. And had another C-section.

And though I tried to be active, it just never seemed to be enough. I think in a way, I finally just gave up. It was too hard. I don't just sit around doing nothing, but maybe Rory was right all those years ago ... cleaning house and walking to work don't actually count as exercise.

Anyway ... I've never felt unfit ... until recently.

This photo was taken ... well, in 2007 if I judge by the date stamp ! ha ha ... I think it is me at my most unfit. Or maybe I'm more unfit now, but I don't think so because I'm more active now than I was then ...

Anyway ... I have a free membership to a gym thanks to my job. But, I find it very difficult to use. One ... I hate gyms ! I look around and see people (who work hard !) who are super fit and rather than than inspire me, it depresses me. Two ... it's hard to find the time to get in there !

I love to swim, but finding the time is my issue. Our work schedules just don't allow time for me to do it on my own and if I want to take the kids I have to do it at 5.30am, which I have done but it's not ideal !

I love doing Zumba but coming home and cooking dinner for my family to eat while I'm out, especially when I've been out all day already ... is such a struggle ! Plus ... if I miss a week or two, I'm doomed !

Maybe these are all excuses, but whatever ... they are legit excuses that keep me from getting fit !! So ... this app C25K seemed like a lifesaver ! (click on the link to see what it's all about) I'm only in the first week but I love it !! I'm no runner, but I'm able to do this and I know I can work up to being a runner. And at one stage in high school, I used to run with my Dad. And I loved it ...

Plus, I don't need a gym. Or a pool. Or an instructor. I just need my iPhone and my feet and a bit of space to run. Luckily, I live in a perfect place for that ! Of course, I'm still running on my back patio in my pajamas (I had to make sure I could do it before I tried in public !) but Friday I will put on proper clothes and venture out to the park across the street ...

So ... FB40, my goal, is to be Fit by 40 ! I just had my 38th birthday and I've read all the stuff that says the older you get, the harder it is to lose weight and get fit. So ... I've given myself two years and I've started working hard. I hope it doesn't take two years but if it does, that's a whole lot less than it took me to get to this place !

My photo for today is from after my run this morning ...

Phew ... that was a long 'un ! (the post, not the run)

day 102 {FB40} 365

2011-04-12T18:10:00.002+10:00

day 101 {shine} 365

2011-04-11T19:37:00.002+10:00

the view out my bedroom door as i was coming in from exercising this morning

day 100 {chook} 365

2011-04-10T22:00:00.003+10:00

we heard chicken sort of noises coming from outside our dining room window

rory wondered if the neighbor over our back fence had gotten chickens

turns out she has ... and this little fella wandered into our front

yard and spent the afternoon chatting with us and

watching rory clean the patio. he (she?)

was a cute little thing. kind of

makes me want to

get chooks

day 99 {streusel} 365

2011-04-09T23:59:00.002+10:00

~ Fruits of the Forest Streusel ~

day 98 {salt} 365

2011-04-08T23:59:00.000+10:00

i love having little pots of salt on my counter top

i have been keeping my eye out for more as i keep a few varieties of salt

i found this one the other day

and i just love it

it's like a mini le creuset

super cute

day 97 {green} 365

2011-04-07T23:59:00.000+10:00

i was trying to take a photo that showed the different sizes of the peppers on this bush

but my camera decided to focus on something different

at least it is green ?

day 96 {thirty8} 365

2011-04-06T23:59:00.003+10:00

if you follow along on facebook, you would have seen some of these photos already

wednesday the 6th was my actual birthday but because i live on a different continent to so many

family and friends, i often end up having a birthday week ... thanks to time differences

not that i mind. seriously. it's fun !

birthday week, day one started with a friend buying me a mug of hot chocolate

here's birthday week, day two ... card, cafe, chocolate con leche ... at work.

my actual birthday ...

i get to work and find this !

so much fun !

and then, while i'm there, i get a phone call from my best friend Shay

and then a facetime from my sister and her boys

and then a video arrives from Shay and her family ... signing and singing happy birthday to me

that made me cry

half way through the morning, my lovely friend Jodie poked her head into my office

(i love it when she does that)

she came bearing delicious treats ...

for lunch, the girls in my department and i hit the local sushi joint

i probably don't need to tell you that sushi is my ALL TIME favorite food

i could live on it.

three meals a day, every day, til the end of my days

if only i could afford it

after lunch, i didn't go back to work

i wandered the mall a bit, i NEVER get to do that

i went to a kitchen shop

i LOVE to do that

i went to a little lolly shop to get a Dr Pepper ( this lolly shop is the only place you can get it ! )

and while i was there, i discovered that they had (ALL NEW) candy corn

yum

i love them

when it was time to get the kids, my friend toni greeted me with a present from smiggle

i could spend a fortune in that shop

i LOVE stationary

we got totally drenched walking into the school

happy birthday to me !

and then on the walk back to the car, she and her youngest boy cam treated me to a couple

renditions of happy birthday

once we got home, i'm sitting outside, watching the kids play ...

catching up on the 123 (yep, i counted) facebook birthday greetings (!!),

when my neighbors came over with birthday cocktails

we had a lovely time chatting !

knowing that i didn't need to get dinner started because rory was coming home

to cook burgers, when offered a 2nd cocktail, i thought 'why not?'

then rory gets home and says

'would you be totally disappointed if i told you i've made a reservation for us at a restaurant ?'

ummmm ... let me think about this for a minute ?!

i still don't have to cook ?

i get to go out ?

yeah ... i'm good !

so ... the kids gave me their presents ...

we are saving to go to the states so i told rory not to buy me presents

and i told the kids too

they got quite creative, making me cards and coupons and a poster

i love their little (big!) hearts !!

here's Alia's coupons ... the yellow that you can't see on the new iPhone game ...

that says "out of my own money"

i said, 'wow, really?'

and she says 'yeah ! daddy says they only cost $1'

ha ha !

free shoulder massage ... my favorite of jono's coupons !

that is me in the picture ... and his hands.

jono drew this poster

i love it

and on the back ...

i love the bit about the giant mutated sun flower.

and then just this morning, rory was looking at the photos my dad posted of me

on his blog

and he noticed this one, it's me on my 7th birthday

(the year that my birthday fell on Easter Sunday)

and look at the poster hanging on the wall behind me ...

do you see it ?

the giant mutated sunflower ?!?!

hilarious !

this is getting pretty long but i'm just getting to the good bit !

rory got a phone call just as we were getting ready to go out, from our friend craig

he said 'we've got a present for bonnie,

would you guys swing by and pick it up on your way to dinner ?'

up until that phone call, i had NO IDEA anything suspicious might be happening

after that ... i wondered if all wasn't as it appeared !

but ... i had NO IDEA of the amazing surprise that lay in wait for me

weeks of planning, international conversations, importing of food

so ... we get to C & J's place to 'pick up the present'

and the house is all decorated

and something smells incredible ... (and very familiar)

and then there were shouts of surprise and the faces of other friends i love

rory hands me an envelope and says

'this is my present to you'

inside the envelope is this menu .........

the foods of my childhood !

and VONGOLE !

(my requested birthday dinner every year since we had lived in Italy !)

now ... this is no easy feat ... because in my little girls mind, the vongole (clams)

HAVE TO BE IN THEIR SHELL

well ... you can't get that here ...

in fact, you can't get clams here at all, unless they are in a can

so Rory IMPORTED them from New Zealand

can you believe that ?!

the food was amazing.

APPARENTLY, they had been cooking all afternoon ... I thought Rory was 'working late' !

Here's the Patatas Alioli and the Champinones Al Ajillo con pan, of course.

And then came the never ending supply of Gambas Al Ajillo ... OH YUM !!

Master Chefs in action ...

Amazing team work ...

And here's the Traditional Vongole ... with homemade fettucine ...

And the Vongole like my Mom used to make, only with a spicy Casa de Ross twist.

Do you know one thing I loved about this night ?

There were so many things I loved ... but here's just one.

I loved that I was the only known clam lover of the bunch but they still cooked this for me !

And (almost) everyone tried the clams ! Some even liked them !

All of these dishes were new to everyone besides me and Rory, and everyone tried them !

And again ... liked (and even loved) them !

I love the adventurous nature of this group of friends !

And I love that they love to celebrate life.

**

Mom ... Rory insisted that I take this photo for you ....

**

Empty shells !!

Cheesecake.

When we were little, it was tradition in our house that all birthday cakes had to be chocolate.

So ... we have gazillions of birthday pictures of us COVERED IN CHOCOLATE !

BUT, once we were old enough to request our own birthday cake preference ... mine was

ALWAYS cheesecake (with cherries on top) !

My sweet friend Donna recently learned this about me and though she had never made one

before, she baked me the most wonderful birthday cheesecake ! with berries ! oh my !

and Jodie made cupcakes

that I have yet to try

but some came home with us and I will be having one for breakfast !

I was crowned 'birthday queen' and actually wore my 'crown' for a good hour.

Not the mask though ... it was way too hot for that !

Spoiled ? Yeah ... I can't disagree.

I have an amazing, thoughtful, selfless husband,

kind, encouraging and giving children,

enthusiastic, creative and (SNEAKY!!) friends,

an extended family like none other,

friends all over the world (thanks to the Navy and now facebook !) that i love

AND

to top it all off ....

my very own website !!

I cannot wait for you all to see it !

Well ... you can sort of see it here but I've crossed off it's name (which you are going to LOVE)

because I don't want you to go there just yet.

I'll let you know when you can !

Craig and I are going to play with it a bit more first ...

by the way, Craig ... who is a music lover, not a web guru, designed this !

Look out world !

**

All in all ... this has been my best, most favorite birthday ever.

Thanks to everyone who was a part of it !

~ bon ~

day 95 {eve} 365

2011-04-05T23:59:00.001+10:00

tomorrow is my birthday

today is birthday eve

hooray !!

day 94 {hold on} 365

2011-04-04T19:54:00.001+10:00

day 93 {poppers} 365

2011-04-03T19:17:00.001+10:00

pizza poppers

yum

yum yum

day 92 {decadence} 365

2011-04-02T23:59:00.000+10:00

you lookin' to have a party in your mouth ?

go immediately to Evil Shenanigans and try these !

day 91 {weekend} 365

2011-04-01T20:03:00.003+10:00

this is the first weekend in a long time that we will be hanging around home

i have a list a mile long of things i WANT to do

~not things i HAVE to do ~
things i want to do

there is a big
difference

i'm looking forward to it !!

day 90 {flower girl} 365

2011-03-31T19:19:00.002+10:00

we had some time to kill at the school today

my girl spent part of it sketching flowers out of this garden

in other news:

i had a beautiful butterfly lined up in my camera lens

i pushed the button but it wouldn't take

NO MEMORY STICK !!

grrrrrr

i was at work, the memory stick was at home

so ...

it's an iPhone photo today !

day 89 {droplets} 365

2011-03-30T07:28:00.000+10:00

my day off

2011-03-29T10:40:00.004+10:00

i asked for and was kindly granted a day off from work today

after the usual morning routine, and then dropping the kids to school

i made a pot of tea, lit some candles and planted myself on the couch to read my book

i am up now to hang a load of laundry and then go back to the couch

normal photo a day posting will resume tomorrow !

hope you haven't missed me too much !

xo

Week off !

2011-03-24T07:01:00.001+10:00

Dear blog world,

I have a chest infection, am in the busiest week of my work year, and have my brother in law visiting from the USA. I am going to take a week off from posting photos ! See you Wednesday next week !!

Bonnie

day 80 {branches} 365

2011-03-21T20:17:00.000+10:00

day 79 {soft} 365

2011-03-20T17:32:00.000+10:00

day 78 {chive} 365

2011-03-19T23:59:00.000+10:00

day 77 {nutrition} 365

2011-03-18T06:39:00.002+10:00

i love teaching my kids by doing

we cook, we clean, we play, we read, we talk, we create, we explore, we adventure

our new project is writing a book on nutrition

it's just for us, just for fun, except that we are learning

each morning, we will draw a piece of food

we will research ~ on the net for now ~ but soon with books from the library

the nutritional value of each food and write that on our page

we will also think of ways we can incorporate each food into our diet

the kids are so gung ho about it, they want to do much more than one page a day

i think that is great and will try to facilitate that as much as possible

after all, my goal was to teach them about nutrition and get

them excited about it. looks like it's working already !

i love that.

day 76 {white} 365

2011-03-16T19:30:00.001+10:00

the flowers on our hedge

day 75 {fire} 365

2011-03-16T19:20:00.002+10:00

the sky around here often looks like it is on fire

day 74 {tiny purple} 365

2011-03-14T20:08:00.001+10:00

day 73 {open} 365

2011-03-13T17:48:00.003+10:00

just have to post more than one photo today !

found this little fella in the garden when i was watering this afternoon
so cute !

i don't know what he was doing but he kept puffing himself up

and then sucking it all in and rubbing himself with his little feet
maybe he was cleaning himself ?

or maybe he was trying to scare me away ?
he kept opening his mouth too ...

day 72 {drop} 365

2011-03-12T23:59:00.000+10:00

day 71 {yellow} 365

2011-03-11T23:59:00.000+10:00

day 70 {tongue} 365

2011-03-10T20:40:00.000+10:00

day 69 {wood} 365 & Corner View

2011-03-09T19:16:00.003+10:00

Corner View this week is 'wood'.
This wooden box belonged to my Grandma, as did all the little treasures inside.
I love to look at it closed, and I love even more to open it and look at all the little bits and pieces.

day 68 {beauty} 365

2011-03-08T18:48:00.001+10:00

(taken with my iPhone ... edited with instagram for iPhone)

yesterday at the beach

day 67 {rainbow} 365

2011-03-07T20:52:00.002+10:00

day 66 {chive} 365

2011-03-06T19:22:00.001+10:00

my chives are flowering like mad

so

i picked some of the flowers and brought them inside

and

they make my kitchen smile !!

day 65 {drip} 365

2011-03-05T23:59:00.001+10:00

it was absolutely hosing down earlier

so i got out my tripod and messed
with camera settings and had
just gotten them right to
catch some cool rain
drop shots and
just like that
the rain
stops
!!!

day 64 {inventive} 365

2011-03-04T21:00:00.001+10:00

i felt inventive tonight

so i made this

carbonara

pizza

!!

day 63 {show biz} 365

2011-03-03T23:59:00.002+10:00

i was not able to post last night ~ i had a film shoot for a promo we are doing at work

i didn't get home til after yesterday was over ! here's me and one of my two

co-stars. that's belinda on the left and me on the right ... this photo

breaks all of the rules ! i didn't even take it !! ha ha. bel took

it on her phone, airbrushed it, facebooked it, i grabbed

it from there and well ... here we are !!

day 62 {wild} & Corner View

2011-03-02T07:27:00.002+10:00

Seriously ... how wild is this thing ?

I'm not sure which end it the head and which end is the tail ...

**

Corner View this week is ... 'on my kitchen counter'

Let me show you a couple of things that have been on my kitchen counter recently,
if you would like to see more you can visit my cooking blog or
my cooking blog's facebook page and become a friend !!

Buffalo Boneless Chicken Pizza

Parmesan Crusted Zucchini Sticks

Nachos

Lahori Chicken

The Pioneer

The Ganache

Ok ... I'm hungry now ! Off to eat breakfast ...

day 61 {eyes} 365

2011-03-01T23:59:00.005+10:00

remember my dragon fly from the other day ?

this is the same one ... from the same shoot ... obviously, from a different angle