Paper Week - Day One

When thinking about a week of 'Paper', yesterday... I thought 30mins a day - no problem!
Well, it's gone 7pm and I'm yet to do my half hour *blush*
I guess that's why it's a problem!

I will get my 30minutes done before I go to bed tonight!

What will I work on?

The pile to the right of the computer - on the blue drawers... should only take 10mins?
The pile to my left, under my open diary... yes, probably another 10 minutes?
Then the remaining minutes will be about setting up some sort of paper system to help prevent this sort of madness in the future!

I will be back to report :o)
**Back - Got it 1/2 done! Blue drawers done and some setting up of systems i.e. organising the paper that needs to be kept.

I don't have a clutter problem, I have a paper problem

What is it with paper that causes it to breed so?

Personal computers creating a paperless world is obviously just a myth, or wishful thinking on part of the trees.

Once I conquer paper organisation, I will be so much better equipped to handle all else that life throws my way. Paper clutter, clutters the mind; takes up head space that could be put to much better us.

But what to do about it? Stop procrastinating I think. Maybe? *grin* Yes!!

So - and join me if you will - The week ahead is a Paper Week.
30 minutes EVERY day
More done, doesn't count towards the next day... that'd be cheating
The key here is consistency
Why not 15minutes?
Because it takes almost that to get your head in the right place to deal with the paper!!!

Menu Plan

Life goes so much more smoothly when I plan ahead!

Our dinners for the rest of this week will be:
Tuesday ~ Meatball creole and a double for a friend
Wednesday ~ Tuna Bake
Thursday ~ Spinach & Ricotta Lasagne and a double for a friend
Friday ~ Fish n Vegies
Saturday ~ Plannedovers
Sunday ~ Corned Beef n Vegies

Nathaniel's 6th Birthday Cake

I've never seen a child as excited about a birthday as Nathaniel was this year! This is his 3 eyed monster cake... to match his T shirt (that picture won't load at the moment, I'll try again later.

oh - and this is so not in order lol, his party was on October 23rd but his birthday the 13th and I'm only posting now :o)

Real Stock

Real chicken stock is the sort you do yourself... simmer for hours and get every bit of goodness into it that you can. Real chicken stock is about health first, not flavour first.

Something I found out about stock recently... when you put a bit of vinegar into the stock and let it sit for 30mins before heating, you get more goodies out of the bones! And no, you can't taste the vinegar once done!!!

I cooked the chicken stock all night and woke to the aroma drifting through the house - delish.
My stock above is cooling for freezing, the fat is starting to come to the top... tomorrow I'll start to cook with it. I got about 6 litres after reducing from about 9.

Recipe: 4 chicken frames, 3 carrots, 2 large onions, 1/4c vinegar into the large pot and fill with water. Sit for 30mins then heat to a simmer then keep heat on a super low simmer all night.
Strain (Not down the sink!! I've seen that done!!) and then continue to cook at a boil to reduce and concentrate the stock. Use as a soup, in risottos - anything you want stock for. Some like to include it in almost every meal as it aids digestion among other things!

Time flies

Wow - 3mo since I have been here!! Procrastination is my middle name lol, thought if I didn't pop in here now, it may never happen.

What am I up to? Lots!
God has blessed me with a family to cook for.... the story being that I have been greatly frustrated by the systems that are required in large churches (and most are large by my count nowadays). The systems of put your name on the list of you can cook a meal for someone that needs it. The system of if you need a meal, call us and someone on the list will do a meal for you. Yeah right - I am so stressed/ill/work out/depressed that I need a meal from someone else... I can almost guarantee it's still easier to cook my own meal!!!!
Anyway... with this I decided I would use my gift of cooking/hospitality outside the systems and prayed that God would bring the people to me that needed to be fed. And He has.
I am humbled, grateful and blessed.
It is such a joy to be able to serve God in this most basic of ways. *teary*

Home education... is such an inspiring journey!
We experienced a great home education conference in October and it was lovely to also have the opportunity to meet with like minded people there. Looking forward to another next year already!
The children have been finishing up a number of curriculum's and moving on to the next ones. They love doing this and I enjoy seeing the progress they've made.
We'll be starting memory verse lapbooks this week, inspired by a new dear friend sharing her idea on facebook and I am gradually becoming more disciplined in doing/starting the home ed day with bible and prayer - which is so important but so easy to not do!

Nathaniel asked God to live in his heart this last month - only days after I had read about keeping note of when it happens so that you can reinforce it over the years... anyone else out there not be 100% sure if you did it, did it properly and thus repeated the same thing a number of times? This shouldn't be!
Anyway, it was in the middle of a home ed lesson and he noticed the letter 't' looked like the cross that Jesus died on... the conversation went from there and I immediately wrote it down and the prayer he prayed. Such an exciting step in his faith journey.

On the home front... I get better and worse with my homemaking every week, *sigh*
I need to force myself back to flylady and get the routines in action again. I love that Pete is home and works from home but it is so hard to have the strict routines that work best for me when that same drive isn't in the other person. Not to mention that the MS makes focus so much harder. Ah well... I continue to grow.
Speaking of which... family breakfast time right about now and if I don't get up and get doing, the day will be undone!!