Cheese-making this week...

Since I've been back from Brisbane (more about that in another post) I've been making cheese again. I've taken time to myself - now that lots of our out-of-school activities have wound down.  Also inspired by my beautiful step-mum, who finds the time to make cheese even with her busy life.  If she can do it - so can I!

First was Camembert.  I love Camembert and so do my children.  I didn't have any mould spores available so I used a sliver of mould from a commercial Camembert - and what do you know?  It worked!  It is in my cheese fridge happily sprouting a coating of white mould as it should.

The Camembert is on the top in it's own box so it doesn't contaminate anything else.  The second cheese I made was a Monterrey Jack with HiLo milk.  It is the red one on the right.  A smaller cheese because of the HiLo.  The one on the left is a Farmhouse Cheddar that I made about six months ago that we are resisting eating until at least nine months. 

Then yesterday I made a Caerphilly - that's it just out of the mold above.  It is one of Miss Blondie's favourites and quite a quick cheese to mature.  It is ready to eat in about three weeks and doesn't need waxing.  Caerphilly is a Welsh cheese - whitish, crumbly, a bit salty and very yummy.

I have just ordered some more ingredients - including a thermophilic culture for making cheeses like Parmesan.  So I hope I can keep finding the time to make cheese.  We have no weekend sports for the summer as we were all suffering from lack of home and family time.

The benefits of having older kids...

I love having older kids.  Much and all as I like babies and little ones I have to say that older kids are my favourite.  I prefer working with older kids at school and now that mine are older ( 11,13 and 16 nearly) it's fantastic.

They are joining the family as active participating members, they hold mature ( and not so mature!) conversations with us and each other.  They are pushing for and gaining (little by little) independence.

Our eldest is on the verge of picking her subjects for her last two years of high school, and next year goes on a music tour of Germany, Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic.  Our middle one starts the high school journey next year.  Our baby has only one more year of primary school before he too starts high school.

They are all crafty kids...

FJ's latest creation - a sock monkey called Chuckles

...and share with us a love of hockey, reading, super heroes and Lego.  Just the other day I listened from the other room as they gave each other quizzes on who was the biggest super hero nerd, the biggest Lord of the Rings fan, and the biggest Harry Potter nerd.  Miss Nearly 16 stretched her wings a couple of weekends ago by organising herself and going to Supernova in the city, (sort of like Comicon for us uninitiated!!) dressed as Black Widow from Marvel: Agents of Shield.

They are developing new relationships with each other as they go through different stages.  Just today FJ woke his sister up to ask her whether she would take him on the train and go to see a movie with him.  She said yes, and with no involvement from Mum (other than a lift to the station and the provision of funds) off they went.  Our middle one is off at a sleepover and movie with a friend.

When they all get home they'll all be in the kitchen baking, helping with dinner with animated conversations about who's been where, which movie was best and catching up with which dragons have been bred today on their favourite game (Dragonvale).

There are still tears and tantrums, arguments and fights.  But the focus is changing and I love it!!

What an outstanding save!!

Hockey season has started again - at least for the seniors.  Juniors don't start till May, although training is well under way.  We had club day weekend before last and the Masters grass team played a scratch match with the Men's 1 turf team.  I missed the match but got sent this awesome photo of DH at full stretch saving a goal that the goalie just couldn't get to.

He couldn't believe he'd done anything special - until he saw the photo.  They went down 2-1 in a hard fought battle, and are now ready for season proper.

Lego minifigures...

FJ has quite a collection of Lego minifigures.  Recently we decided that we would grab them all out of their sets and boxes and divide them up into bodies, heads, hats, hair, legs, accessories etc.

He loves it like this and wanted to show you some of his latest creations.  First we have my personal favourite - General.

Then Captain...

Bat Ninja...

Bonehead Cop...

Colonel Pink...

Fishman...

Irondriver...

The Not So Abominable Snowman...

Jimmy (the hero)...

Leo the Lion...

Lord Cyborg...

The Rookie...

Sensei Skull...

And last but not least, The Medic...

FJ is open to suggestions from cousins about what he should create next?

A finished UFO...

But not mine unfortunately.  Miss Blondie has been working on these characters for a year or so and today "The Flash"...

joined "Batman"...

in the fight against "Killer Croc" and "The Joker".

FJ thinks they are really cool - the next request is "Robin".

Growing up so fast...

My baby is growing up too fast.  Here she is ready for a big night out as a siren for a sea themed birthday party.

The dress is actually more turquoise than it appears in the photo.  She found it in Salvos for a whole $12. Then she went through all my bead boxes and her shell collection and made all the accessories.  And, yes, she is slightly sunburnt - too much marching in the band without a hat on!!

The next party is a Disney themed one and she wants to go as the girl from Brave.  Lots of little french plaits, please Mum, to make her hair all frizzy.

Oh, and I measured FJ this morning.  Since we returned from our Christmas jaunt to Queensland, he has grown 3 cm and lost 3 kg.  Miss Blondie is resigning herself to being the short one in the family.

Growth charts - are they accurate?

I was doing some very overdue filing today and I came across my kids "Child Health Books". When they were young I was very careful to record their heights carefully on the charts in them.

I was talking to a friend the other day and we were musing over whether the charts were very accurate or not.  So I decided to have a look.

Miss 15 always hovered between the 90th and 97th percentile on the chart which predicted that at age 15 she would be about 173 cm (about 5' 7") tall - and she is!

Miss Blondie was always the shorter one of the three kids, about the 80th percentile, which predicts that she might reach my height of about 170 cm (about 5' 6").  She's about 162 cm now.

And FJ?  Scary reading.  He always hovered above the 97th percentile and still does.  His growth chart predicts that he will be 193 cm (about 6' 4") tall.  I am going to feel like a midget!!

The cheese making adventures continue

I've been inspired by my step-mum to take up cheese making.  I showed you the ricotta I made a couple of posts ago.  I can confirm it is delicious in lasagna.  I've made it again since and we're eating it on rice crackers and it is just as yummy.

My latest experiment is 30-minute mozzarella.

It made seven balls - but we ate one sliced on crackers.  Stretchy and delicious.

I'm using recipes from the e-book "Keep Calm and Make Cheese" by Gavin Webber.  I have a link to his main blog "The Greening of Gavin"on my sidebar, but he also has another blog called "Little Green Cheese" where he puts all his cheese making recipes and ideas.

Hubby has promised me a "cheese" (wine) fridge for my birthday, and the kids are getting me a cheese press.  Roll on semi-hard and hard cheeses!!

A Lego windfall

Our lovely next door neighbour, Sarah, has two boys aged nine and eleven.  The elder is into soccer and Xbox. The younger is into art and destruction.  They are both gorgeous boys, but both have grown out of Lego.  So in the middle of a massive clean-out, Sarah texted me and asked me whether FJ would like their Lego.  Of course the answer was, "Yes, please!!!!!"  So back they came with a huge crate of Lego (and other bits and bobs).

This is the box all tipped out.  The kids and I sorted the Lego from the rest, and then decided it was very grubby.  Food, sand and general dirt.  So out came my lingerie bags.  Ten bags later through a delicate cycle in the front loader and here is the Lego drying - good as new.  Not even the stickers were affected.

FJ can't wait to add it to the general Lego.  I reckon a couple of days in this heat will take care of drying it. Now I just need to find another box.  Thank you Sarah, you've made my boy very happy.

Bed linen audit...

With the hot weather we've been having I have finally managed to persuade the children to give me all their blankets and quilts to wash and store.  This has prompted me to do a long overdue audit of our bed linen.

Too many mismatched sets and a lot of sheets in dire need of disposing of.  I had moved a lot of sheets into a box a while ago, and decided to go through this as well.  I found a whole pile of queen size flat sheets that we were never ever going to use so I decided to re-purpose them.  We never use a top sheet, just a quilt in the winter, or the quilt cover in the summer.

I've found that queen flat sheets (and probably double as well) are just the right size to convert to single fitted sheets.  Here's how...

1.  Measure an existing fitted sheet for a guide.  Mine was 191 cm long, 92 cm wide and 29 cm deep.

2.  Trim your queen flat sheet to a rectangle that matches your measurements (plus hems).  I trimmed off 70 cm from the width and 6 cm from the length then hemmed both edges.

3.  Mark a 29 cm square on all four corners.

4.  Match the pins to form a triangle then sew down the line.

5.  Trim off this triangle - this forms the fitted corner.

6.  Now you add your elastic - I used 35 cm of elastic stretched over 60 cm and pinned in quarters to make stretching easy.

7.  Then sew the elastic to the hem (I used a zig zag stitch) stretching as you stitch.

And - voila - a fitted sheet from a queen flat sheet.  The off cut from the side can be used to make a matching pillowcase if you choose - I already had matching ones.

One down - three to go.

A busy couple of days...

I'm making the most of the school holidays this time round.  Having just got back from a three week break with family in Queensland, I feel refreshed and enthused.

I have decluttered another one of the bookshelves - this time Miss Blondie's.

I have made three batches of soap which are currently drying in the bathroom.  I'm hoping to make a couple more next week so that we're all set for at least six months.

I have made my first ever cheese - ricotta - after having received my new soft cheeses kit in the mail today. Destined for lasagna tomorrow night if I can keep the kids fingers out of till then.

And I made up two and a half bottles of tomato sauce from this recipe.  I've been meaning to give it a go for a while, but cheap tomatoes and these three bottles from Salvos kicked me into action.

The grapes in the front are home grown ones from our vines that are ripening up fast in the heat of the last few days.  Oh so sweet and delicious.

And a lovely surprise late this afternoon.  A knock on the front door turned out to be my long lost wandering husband who decided to come home a few days early from his latest motorbike trip.  This one was round the coast of Australia, from Brisbane to Perth.  Welcome home babe.

A year for organising...

I recently decided that I need to be more organised this year.  I'm sure we've all said that before - I know I have.  But we are so busy during the school year that our current system is not working.

• We miss appointments
• We lose party invites
• We are late with bill payments

I have tried a diary, the fridge, the phone, a wall planner and numerous other ways of keeping track and I have decided that the only way is to be more disciplined.  Therefore I sat down one day late last year and designed a diary that would hopefully work for us.

It is a week per double page with the dates on one side and a section for notes and bills on the other.

When we get a bill, it immediately gets written in on the day it is due (with the amount), then again under the bills section on the opposite page.  The bill then gets placed in a cardboard pocket that I have inserted at the beginning of each month.  January's pocket is pink!  I put a pocket in because when I've tried this before every time someone picks up the diary the bills fall out, get mixed up or get lost.

Any appointments or birthday parties get written in on the day and the cards get glued on to the note section so they don't get lost.  And all regular activities get written in too.  Plus school/music/sports special dates as soon as we know about them.

It's all spiral bound with a plastic cover to make it last the year.  So far the system is working - but it will only continue to do so if the WHOLE family is disciplined about using it.

We have also decided it's time to declutter, partly because the kids are getting older, partly because we intend to move in the next year, and partly because we just have too much stuff!  I started today with FJ's bookshelf.

We've kept a lot of favourites though, as the kids still like to read them sometimes, but this pile is destined for new homes.  Hopefully I'll tackle another one tomorrow!!

Long time, no see...this last year was for me!

Hi all,

I know I haven't posted in - oh, about a year, and I can't promise that will change, but I'll do my best to keep in touch a bit more.

This last year I finally decided it was time to start looking after me.  My darling husband pushed me into it by signing me up to our local gym.  Not, he said, to lose weight but because I never take any time for me. Wow!

So I started going - only occasionally, mind you.  Then I went to the doctor who decided to do a full health check.  Mammogram - all good.  Bone density - all good except my wrists (Dad always said I had pea stick wrists!).  Cholesterol - edging towards high. Glucose - fair to middling.  Hormones - no menopause - yet. Iron - low.  Vitamin D - low.   Blood pressure - normal.  All food for thought.

Then in September, after taking a holiday in Queensland, I watched a startling documentary called, "Eat, Fast and Live Longer".  It struck a real chord and I decided to give the lifestyle change it recommended a go. Fasting on Mondays and Thursdays (500 calories), normal eating the rest of the time.

So far I have lost 5 kg that I haven't managed to shift since having FJ ten years ago.  My cholesterol has dropped back into the normal to low range.  My blood pressure has dropped to the lower range.  My aches and pains are less and I'm sleeping better.

And then I did something just for me.  I'd toyed with the idea for years, never quite getting there, not sure exactly what I wanted, afraid people would disapprove.

I love it!  And it's always there to remind me that I'm important in my life too.