Static

Bread rising by the wood fire, I love winter...

I’ve come to a bit of a standstill.
Too many crappy nights in the last month, kids getting sick, load after load of washing, while a clean house is an ongoing struggle. Yes, lack of sleep makes me cranky.
It all started when one of the kids got school sores (impetigo), pesky weeping sores that are contagious like nothing else. So then there were three kids with school sores...
Not much you can do other then keeping covered up, with clothes thankfully it’s winter, washing it with special soap, and washing everything. After every use: clothing, towels, pjs and sheets (when they got facial sores). Like I didn’t have enough washing!

Meanwhile David started waking up every other night at 4, 1:30, 3:30,... am, refusing to get back to sleep. Taking him to the couch so he wouldn’t wake up his siblings, huddling in a sleeping bag to keep warm. It makes for a very long day!

My knee started playing up again, so my gym/yoga sessions were if not completely out, at least very limited, hobbling through my day. Tired, sore and cranky. Not a good combination for a nice uplifting blog post.

So a lot of jobs didn’t get the attention I wanted to give them, more often then not I found myself crashing on the couch with a book. Although I love reading, I want more, but lacking the energy to do it. Kindness and knowing it will come again.
It’s been 6 weeks now, the sores are all healed and/or under control. David is... well who knows what the nights will bring. So prioritising is my mantra. We’re heading towards the end of the financial year, (30th of June), so I’ve been busy with keeping the administration for the various businesses ready to go to the accountant.

Chocolate granola, with orange zest and cloves. It’s amazing!

I let slip I was working on a chocolate granola, well, the first batch is going to the markets this week and it looks like it might be pre-sold already. Now I finally have my printer working again, I’d better hurry up with the labels!
My quilt I was hoping to work on? Uhm... It will happen, eventually. The garden? Let’s no go there, lack of rain and energy is making for a miserable harvest.
I have been doing a lot of cooking and baking, inspired by the colder days and nights, quite nice staying close to the oven on a cold day. It’s one of those things that doesn’t take a lot of my energy, something that I love and keeps us in good, and energy giving, foods. But most of all, its something I can do when the kids are awake, they love to help. Help with sewing? Bad combination, an accident waiting to happen. Help with gardening? No worries, if you don’t mind a surprise harvest. The 150mm of rain we got in the last two days has been very inspiring...

Sander, hard at work with the swimming pool deck. Slow but steady.

Very grateful for some (lots!) of lovely rain, with a sigh of relief from the land and the local fire brigade

Granola bars, looking all pretty, actually they’re just lazy bliss balls  ;-)

And the bartering I mentioned before, its been a huge hit! 

Bags and bags full of beautiful produce found its way into my kitchen, meeting so many lovely people. Cherry on the pie was this enormous box of organic ginger (bartered for a jar sauerkraut, sourdough pizza bases and a container of blondies). I’ve dried a lot of it for teas, made curry pastes, ginger liquor (amazing!), ginger & vanilla marmalade and baked anything ginger. I’m hoping to pickle some as well. Oranges, turmeric, garlic, macadamias, chilli’s and eggplants, lots of eggs  and kefir crystals. And a balance bike (traded for olive bread). Lots of stuff to play around with, to use and barter with. 

And no complaints from the kids... ;-)

I’m currently playing around with my kefir, it gave a really nice tang to our wholemeal apple pancakes this morning... And my new bannetons, making lots of beautiful breads and taking baking bread to a whole new level. 

See, life isn’t so bad, just needing to focus on all the little things... ;-)

Gramma (pumpkin) Pie

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