Grateful for what we have

I guess there's a lot of people who take where they live for granted. There's probably a whole lot more who never get out to see how great, what they have in their own neighbourhood is.

It annoys me to hear locals and ex residents bag our local area.  Did they even go out and experience what we have here in the Limestone Coast?

We are so lucky with the natural playgrounds we have on our doorstop, drop in some friends and it makes for a great weekend.

Boggy had no luck with the fishing on the beach. Izzy got a bit daring on her go kart. We made tracks in the sand. The kids found crabs in the rocks, and when it rained we played cards, scrabble, drew or read.

We enjoyed fresh fish from the ocean, caught from the boat in Bungalow Bay. The conditions weren't perfect, but it satisfied the older kids, who were keen to get out there and try. They caught mullet, trevally and whiting. It tasted amazing, coated in flour and fried in a shallow pan. Shared lazy bbq meals, with friends and family in our outdoor living space. How fortunate are we.

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Escaping the heat

Last Friday was the first day of autumn, it was by no means a typical autumn day.

The temperature gauge peaked at 41 degrees. It was decided the best place we could be for dinner was the beach. We packed the ute with all we needed and set of for a bbq at Southend. Our neighbours joined in, it seemed every man and his dog were there.

I couldn't think of a better place to be.

How do you escape the heat? 

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F words for February

Another month down on the 2019 calendar. Is the world spinning too fast for anyone else?

February was a bit shit. I am still there actually, when did March begin?

It started out quite well. School had gone back and the first weekend of February brought the annual Rendelsham village market,  which is always a pleasure. 

But that's when it kind of fell apart.

The sudden death of a friend. Well an old acquaintance that I should have made more of an effort with, still a shock, the same. I had been thinking for the longest time to catch up, but never did, just a wave here and there. It has cemented in me that I need to act on instinct, not to put off anything, because there is no time like the present.

My son Jake also took a slide backwards with his mental health this month, he's still in hospital, but he'll be ok. 

There's been a lot of my energy being zapped by so many lately and I haven't really been recharging myself. I did start to walk again, I did so for two weeks straight, and now in dribs and drabs, but I realise it's an important part of being well. 

I am also aware that when I am stressed and low on energy, I tend to try to ignore the world and retreat into myself. I know this isn't a good thing, and I guess that's why I have become so quiet. I need to force myself to share, to talk, to socialise, even when I feel like hiding in my shell.

I become not so good at caring for others. Everything seems too hard to deal with, but I do it and suffer later. Knowing this is happening and being aware of it, is an important start to solving the problem. 

I started the year out doing the Fat Mum Slim photo a day challenge, I even gave up that. I'd had a couple of people say how they'd enjoyed seeing my photos, so I should have found that encouraging, and I did, but it seemed like it became a little bit too hard. But I have started March afresh.

This brings me to a little announcement.

Lately I have purely sucked at being a link up host. Sucked I tell you. I am not ready to give it up though.

I like blogging, and I like all of you. So I have decided to change the day I do things and see how it goes. There is no Open Slather today and from now on there won't be another on a Monday. From now on, and I am referencing the Easybeats here, so bob your head from side to side, just like Stevie Wright, and sing along..."Monday, I'll have Friday on my mind".

Open Slather will now come to you on a Friday and will stay open for linking over the weekend. So please return on Friday and join me. I promise I will be here and sharing....something, no matter how small and non share worthy I may think it is. I will be here.


I am sharing over at Denyse Whelen's blog, who has a fab Monday link up where you can go to join in the linking fun on a Monday.

Growing broad beans this season? Here's two ways to use them.

I am well aware that broad beans are an acquired taste, and not everyone's cup of tea.

A bit like Brussels sprouts really. Both can be cooked up in the same way. If I had the choice, I'd choose broad beans, hands down.

Broad beans are easy, they are not fussy and easy as to grow.

At the start of Spring, choose a patch (a metre by a metre). Dig it over and sow some seed(about 12-16 seeds). You will soon be rewarded with loads of yummy beans.


1. Broad bean and bacon creamy pasta.

Boil up two cups of pasta shapes( I used curly macaroni here), in the last couple of minutes, add a cup of shelled broad beans. If they are large and older broad beans, you may have to peel the beans (once cooked), as the skins are usually tough and chewy.

While the pasta is cooking, fry off the bacon. Add the garlic and stir, add the cream and simmer for a few minutes until the cream starts to thicken. At this point add salt and pepper.

Add the pasta to the cream mixture, stir through and serve with a sprinkling of Parmesan cheese, if liked. One of my girls loves the stuff and won't eat pasta without it. 

2. Broad bean and bacon fry up.

This is one of my favourite broad bean side dishes, as it takes no time and is ready in a flash, and Oh. So. Tasty.

Slice a small onion, a few rashers of bacon and cook them on a medium heat until the onion is soft.
Add two cups of cooked broad beans and stir until combined and the beans have warmed through.

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Croc Family Robinson(O'Brien)

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I know it's the middle of winter, but my post today is about Crocs, amongst other things, or the knock offs our family are currently wearing.

hubby's fave footwear and the chilluns

My hubby loves his Crocs. I can't remember what happened to his last pair, probably a blow out of some sort, but he went looking for new ones and found them at Rivers, on sale no less, at five dollars a pair. He bought two and has one stashed away for when the other ones die and go to shoe heaven, namely the red bin, or in his case occasionally the yellow recycling bin, because sometimes, god love him,  he doesn't get the yellow bin concept.

In his absolute Croc loving bargain buying excitement, he decided the whole family needed a pair of the fantastic creation that is the Croc. He channelled his inner Oprah, and we all got a pair.

My son even has a pair, and I kinda cringe when he happily wears them out and about, with socks no less! His choice. He has Aspergers, and if he's happy and comfortable, I am happy.

Now they come in awesomely handy when I want the girls to throw on something in a hurry. Awesome, and they love their rubbery, spongy footwear.

Mine live at the back door. I think they rock for feeding the chooks, or ducking out into the garden to cut some herbs or to gather lettuce. But when he declares we should all wear them on our impending Queensland holiday, I am pushing the 'No way Jose' button. These babies, even though he picked a pretty cool colour, are NOT venturing past the letter box sunshine! Whereas, he wears them everywhere, and if we were church going people, he'd probably wear them there too!

my lovely department store yard shoes ;)

Sharing this post with Denyse for #lifethisweek

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Must watch TV

This topic would be debatable amongst different people. We all have our preferences and faves. 

Must watch shows on the telly at the moment for me, all happen when the kids go to bed, are supposed to be in bed and trying to go to sleep. So of course, my fave shows are rarely watched without interruption.

It is no surprise I get sucked into late night movies, that I can watch in peace, as the kids are well and truly asleep by then.

We don't have pay TV, Netflix or  anything like that, so I am not up to date with all the popular shows that everyone is or should be watching. I don't have a clue usually, what people with these services are talking about!

Here's a list of my favourite shows I am watching and loving, on free to air telly at the moment. 

Img source

1. I'm a celebrity....get me out of here!

I got sucked in, hook line and sinker in the last series of this show. This year is no different.
I love the light hearted banter of the hosts, Chris Brown (hubba bubba) and funny lady Julia Morris.
I enjoy watching the celebrity's stories emerge, and getting to know them better. This season, Steve Price is one of the celebrities braving the jungle. His interviews featuring other celebrities are inspiring and so interesting to listen to. We get to see a different side to them.
The celebrities test themselves in physical and mental challenges, including the tucker trials that have them eating all sorts of disgusting foods to earn food rewards, not to mention getting way too up close and personal with an array of creepy, crawly critters. 
It makes me realise that even as celebrities, they have real lives, fears and phobias. They appear more real, and I love to watch!

img source

2. GoggleBox

The producers of this show deserve a medal, for total genius. Oh that's right, they won a Silver Logie for Best Factual Program last year. 
Not only it is factual, but absolutely bloody funny. This is my dose of happy pills every week. Like most reality shows, I always wonder, what the hell am I going to watch, when another season finishes.
This current season involves eleven different families or friends, enjoying programs in their own homes, and we see thier reactions to those programs. From current news, to movies and the latest reality tv shows. Highly entertaining.

3. This is Us

I almost didn't start watching this show. When I say that, I didn't even watch the first screening. Lucky for me they encored the first episode, and I was then hooked into the interweaving story of the Pearson family. The way the plot unfolded was amazing.
The story alternates between present day and the past to tell the characters stories. A story which revolves around the present day of siblings Kevin, Kate and Randall.
I am still hooked after four episodes, and I usually don't watch a lot of series drama.


When there is nothing much to watch any other time, I like to watch the Food Network on SBS channel 33. I don't get into the American shows on there much though, the food just doesn't appeal to me as much as other cultures.

I do enjoy watching The Project in the evening, and in the morning I am usually watching Sunrise, although I do get annoyed at the sensationalised news report at times. Any other time the telly is off, or the kids are watching ABC4kids on channel 22.

What are you watching?!

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I've no time to scratch my arse (but due to my awesomeness I actually do)

Excuse me while I spray the site for crickets, because it's been a bit quiet round here to the past week and a bit. I gave myself a week off Open Slather, and online socialising generally. Quite frankly today, I am real life socialled out, and on the brink of mental exhaustion.

So I got a new lens for christmas. Yesterday husband had a poke (whinge and a jibe, about me putting the old lens back on), because I hadn't used the bloody thing to it's full advantage in the last week.

I was all like, HELLO, I haven't had time to scratch my arse these 'holidays', to even think about it.

Fair enough we went to the beach on new years eve, which was a fab family get together, but did I want to get it out and spend most of my time behind a lens? HELL NO!

I took a couple of photos with my phone and got on with the business of digging for cockles (which totally ruined my newly self-pedicured nails. As if I care!), drinking a couple of wines and eating all the cheese. Plus a lamely cooked hamburger. At least I didn't have to cook it! I know when to keep my sarcastic mouth shut and give kind advice (:D) In the big picture, that has to be a strength, right?! 

Lets get back to 'holidays'. Yes that's right, 'holidays'. 

Like when people say they are on holidays, it means they get a break from their main source of stress, a break from thier work load.

I don't know about you, but my main source of stress, my main source of work load, has to do with-

1. A husband, who likes to sleep in on 'holidays'. He also likes to unload a lot of whinging about just about any subject you could think about. On me. 

I don't care. 

Stressful.

2. Kids, who say "Mum", way too much, when Dad is standing right there, or sleeping in. 

Stressful.

3. A son who has Aspergers, who shits me to tears some days. Worry. 

Stressful.

4. A household, who demands cleaning, washing, cooking, gardening, gathering, general bullshittering.

Stressful.

I need a holiday, away from all these things.

Likelyhood. ZERO!

Thank god someone invented wine, and food. Lots of food.

And wheelbarrows, because I am going to need one to carry my sorry arse after this 'holiday' season.

By the ways, HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I have good feelings for 2017. I am actually a big fact optimist you know, and proud of it.

The first thing I did when the clock ticked over into our new year, was spill half my creme de monthe cocktail all over my shoe as a firecracker went off. Scared the beejeesus out of me! Can't be all that bad, starting the year off with a cocktail and firecrackers! I am used to being in bed way before the clock hits midnight on new years eve.

I have been out of sorts today, due to the fact I did not get to bed until 1am, not drunk, I actually drove us all home. I woke at 8am and rose half an hour later with Izzy. 

Please forgive me now for the whining, but husband got up a 11:30 for a shower (to save face), only because someone pulled up in the driveway (Loser. I'm such a bitch). It was just my Mum. 

On the upside, I got to spend more time with my neice yesterday, before she jets off with her new husband to Japan for the next couple of years. An adventure of a lifetime. I sat for a while and watched their wedding photos slide by before my tired eyes. They were gorgeous images which brought back beautiful memories from their October wedding, which just seemed like yesterday. Because October was just yesterday, wasn't it!

And now it's a new year. 

Our christmas tree came down yesterday. In my mood I felt it didn't need to be there anymore. The magic was over, and the reality of normal life had set back in.

The holiday house renting business is in full swing, and off there today to do some cleaning for new tenants tomorrow. 

What was the first thing that happened to you as the new year ticked over? I hope it was as boring as snoring, I would be jealous in fact.


So do you have a word for 2017? I haven't quite worked mine out yet, I know it's going to be something selfish....and I am totally OK with that.

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a diamond in the rough

The past week has been  rough one. Izzy came home from the weekend away with her Dad with gastro last Sunday and had Monday off school.

I was feeling better with my flu, the cough is still hanging around though.

Thursday I spent a wonderful day on a kindy excursion to Mount Gambier with Summer. It was also my 44th birthday. Like magic, or a diamond amongst the rough, it was most definitely the bestest day of my week. I realise now that Karma must have been smiling at me.

I stopped on the way home to shoot one of my favourite scenes on the drive back home from the Mount, just past the 'Welcome to the Wattle Range Council' sign. It is a picturesque welcome and one I have driven past too many times thinking I should have stopped to take a photo.

Friday I came down with Izzys gastro, it knocked me for six. It was only a 24 hour deal, but I felt like death. I barely moved off the couch, it's a good thing Summer is good at entertaining herself.

Sunday was a good day. I got out in the garden, planting and using some of the stuff I bought with my Bunnings voucher on Thursday, finally.

I am so looking forward to a healthier week, as long as no one else, or me, comes down with anything else! Touch wood!

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Seedy Porridge

Did I mention I was on a bit of a health kick? Well having a good crack anyway.

I've been using loads more fresh produce and less of the processed, unrecognisable as food, stuff.

Breakfast most mornings is fruit, yoghurt, or porridge. Occasionally I will cook an egg, but mostly I don't have the time. Porridge is quick.

This is how I've been having it, with lots of seeds and honey to sweeten it up.

You could add sultanas, or fresh fruit on top like strawberries or banana.

The food combining way of eating, that I'm currently doing, doesn't allow fruit to be eaten together with other foods. I eat fruit before a meal and not during or after. It goes on the principle that fruit digests quicker than other food, so should be eaten separately.

Also proteins and carbs aren't mixed together as a rule, so I use water to make the porridge. By all means use milk if you want to. Just cook the porridge according to the direction on the oats packet.

Don't ask me how it works. Sometimes it sounds like mumbo-jumbo, all I know is I feel better and I lost a bit of weight. Can't argue with that.

Porridge with seeds and honey

1/3 cup of quick oats
1 cup water

Bring to the boil, then simmer for 2 minutes. 

Take the porridge off the heat and stir through -

1 tablespoon of pepitas(pumpkin seeds)
1 teaspoon sunflowers seeds
1/2 teaspoon sesame seeds
1 Tablespoon of LSA(a ground mixture of linseeds, sunflower seeds and almond)

Drizzle with some honey. Sit and eat.

What do you usually eat for breakfast?

Do you like porridge? How do you have yours?

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Making the most #openslather

The weather has turned to shorter, cooler, Autumn days. Luckily we are still copping the odd nice warm day. When I say nice and warm, I mean around thirty degrees, but it's been pretty humid too.

When the sun is out, it has quite a bite to it. 

Our local swimming lake is still full. It is about this time of year they start to drain the water out. It sits empty for the rest of the year until November when the hotter days return.

In the afternoon on a warm day last week I took the girls down for a paddle. A paddle is all they had, the water is cold. They played in the sand, chased seagulls and had a go on the play equipment.The sun kept them warm. 

There was not another soul in sight, except for the gulls, the cockies and the odd magpie. I wondered if I was the only mother nuts enough to have her kids down there for a paddle. I wondered what was wrong with other mums that they didn't take their kids down there, to squeeze the life out of the good days we are having and that they won't last.

Maybe I know only too well, that crappy feeling of having cabin fevered kids taking me for drives up the wall, that on the good days I get them out in the outdoors when I have the opportunity. I know that in a few short months, along with every other mum, I'll be tearing my hair out, wishing the rain would go away and the sun would come out so we can get outside, and not be inside!

In Victoria this week is Nature play week, a government initiative to get kids outdoors.

Most other states have a Nature play website to get kids out in nature and outdoors. Check out this list, 51 things to do before you're 12. These could well apply to any adult too, if you're up for a challenge or looking to relive your childhood!

The weather is supposed to around 30 today and tomorrow. If we're not home in the afternoon, we'll probably be having a play at the lake ;)

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Open Slather 

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