Some of the reasons why I'm happy we moved.

These school holidays have involved a lot of driving; to the movies, to shopping, to museums and galleries, and friends houses.  All of these have been enjoyable but the driving can become tiring. Because of this I'm often asked if the move was worth it.  While our new home is a large part of it, here are just some of the reasons why I'm happy that we moved.

Being able to build a campfire in your backyard

Toasting marsmallows with friends

Spending all day outside building your own shelter

Athletics day in a beautiful setting

Being inspired to knit together

Having enough room to grow large luscious vegetables like this purple cauliflower.

Building Begins!!!!

 

 Well the earthworks anyway.  There was a great rejoicing as the builder started to clear the site and peg it out with the surveyor.  So I could stand in what will be my lounge room and admire the view.







Digging the foundation for the granny flat

Most exciting was watching them excavate for the girls teenage bunker under their future bedrooms.  I could spend hours in the winter sun watching men work.

Garden therapy

After a couple of stressful weeks of birthday parties and what seems like endless rain it was time to tackle the triffid like weeds in the vege garden.  It is only just starting to feel a little cooler here in Queensland so all the rain (and some neglect) has meant that a multitude of weeds have taken over.  However, it is important not to undersetimate the cathartic nature of pulling out a truly big weed!  The added bonus of clearing away the unwanted green material was the discovery of a bounty of eggplants and our first green bean harvest for the year.

So after a cleansing morning it was time for a hearty vegetable soup made with the freshly picked beans, eggplant and basil.  Stirred with my beautiful new spatula created by the talented Rebecca of Purely Decorative.

Now I'm looking forward to filling the cleared space with my winter veges!

Waiting

While I wait for the house to begin construction I am busy trawling auction houses, antique stores and ofcourse ebay to find all the pieces that I have wanted for ages but haven't had the room for.  My most recent purchase of a silky oak Wertheim piano is making me very happy, not just because Emily has started playing again and I am tinkering away but it only cost me $50!!!  It is sad that noone else wanted this lovely old piano which is still working beautifully.  I hope we can give it a loving home where it will be played often.

Now I just need to find a kitchen dresser that doesn't need to be picked up from somewhere in regional Victoria.

First Step

Well its now March and Stefano still hasn't finished drawing the house plans but he has sketches stuck all over the windows

Can you spot the difference?

He has also built a scale model of the part of the land where the house will sit, along with the shell of the house and grannyflat plus garage.  I particularly like Isabel's contribution of the trees.

Now that Uni has started for Stef  I'm going to have to become cranky project manager to ensure the plans get done before any assignments are due! He has promised me that we will be in by Christmas, but I seem to have heard that somewhere before.

Welcome to the Country

Isabel and Barney

  The latest addition to the extra curricular activities.
How can you say no to a girl on a horse?

Gess & Pokey

Keeping it Simple

Girls rummaging for strawberries in the garden

Well, school holidays are almost over and our goal to simplify our lives is about to be tested for the first time.
Thnakfully there is a school bus route to take the oldest 2 to high school and Isabel's new primary school is quite close but the requests for after school and weekend activites continues to grow.

I've never been the type of parent who seeks to organise activities for my children every day as I believe in the need for down time and creative time to amuse yourself and just enjoy the outdoors. However days just seem to fill up with sport, music lessons, self defence etc.

So now that we live further away I am determined that we are not going to spend every afternoon driving to one activity after another.  To this end I asked the children and Stefano to write out their wish lists of actvities and to rank them in order of preference.  Isabel listed only 3 but Emily has 6 and Gessica 10!!  The art of fitting in as many of these as our budget and sanity allows (and without the need for driving every day) around Stefano returning to University 1 day per week and playing oldies soccer should qualify me for any logistics job in a large company or defence force.

Clearly the art of living simply is also the art of efficient organising.  Improving this skill should come in very handy when I have to start my daily chores on the land. See very funny article on the last page of Organic Gardener Jan/Feb 2012.