My blog is due for a facelift....

I'll be fiddling with backgrounds and templates for while, so you may see things looking a bit odd here and there.

There's too many choices out there....

Things are fermenting in my kitchen

My kitchen is an interesting place of late as there are quite a few living things in it.

Other than myself of course.

I received a sourdough culture from a friend in exchange for some of my excess kefir grains, and I now keep two starters going; one is rye, the other spelt.

Read about the benefits of sourdough here.

A batch of kefir is always fermenting on top of the fridge.

Kefir is something I've mentioned briefly before and now I make and consume it every day. If you're after some kefir grains for yourself, check out this international list of people willing to share their excess grains. Mine were sent over by a lovely lady in Geelong.

A batch of homemade granola with soaked oats, or muesli as we know it, is drying in my dehydrator after being soaked/fermented overnight. Soaking the oats and flour with some whey (I get mine from kefir) has the same effect as the sourdough process, it breaks down the phytic acid and makes some of the nutrients more accessible.

The dough for lavash crackers (I'll link the recipe when I remember where it came from) that I make with kefir instead of milk or water sat on the bench for 24 hours to do it's work. The kefir produces the same results as using whey. It's now in the fridge awaiting rolling out.......which is a bit of a job so it will sit there for at least another day or two.

And I picked these up at the market today, some cress and radish seeds for growing sprouts

Except that I'm running out of surfaces in the kitchen to keep all these 'pets'.

All this is in the pursuit of good health and a whole foods diet. It keeps me on my toes sorting all this out but I realise people......women mostly no doubt......would have kept many of these balls in the air in times gone by. And that's without the benefit of washing machines and dishwashers and labour saving kitchen gadgets.

All of which I value highly and DO NOT want to give up. There's only so much going back in time I'm willing to do :)

Have read through the Weston A. Price Foundation website and see if you can add in a few new health giving foods to your diet this week.

Here they are

This was the weather, accompanied by thunder, lightening and a black-out....

And here are my little streakers enjoying the conditions.....as only kids can.
Or maybe I should have been out there too.....

Too many things going on right now....

I've been working a few evenings this week with kidlets in tow, which keeps us all a tad tired and the kids just a wee bit grumpy the next day.

Add to that Master H starting 4 year old Kinder this week (yes, I was one of those mums that had to stay the WHOLE first session) plus the usual gymnastics and swimming lessons, and the weather being hot and humid which is a bit unusual for Melbourne, oh and both boys are now sleeping in one bedroom (yes, my 22 month old was still in his cot in our room until Sunday just gone) and you have a sleep deprived mum trying to keep up with house, hubby and kids and being veeeeeery thankful for the bulk cooking I did with a friend on the weekend that part filled the freezer with ready to go meals.

Phew.

And not much blogging happening.

Although the kids did get to let off some steam this afternoon when the storm hit, because like any responsible mum I let them run outside nekkid at the height of it carrying long metal sticks.

Er, right.

I have some photos of that (they lived through it in case you're wondering) but seeing as I am blogging at work at 11.30pm at night and don't have access to my camera, the visual evidence that the kids are still alive will have to wait....

Another hot day...

The only thing to do on a hot day is sit in a bucket of water with an icypole.

Then squint for the photo because you put your sunglasses in the bucket.

Then poop in the bucket.

Then watch while mum tips the whole poopy mess into the toilet.

And flushes it.

Including the sunglasses.

Whoops.

I love market day

The real milk....

The fruit...

And vegies...

And more fruit...

Now, if I had a decent vegie garden, a few fruit trees, the odd vine and a cow, I could produce all this from our back yard. Well, with the cow's help of course.

But a fabulous farmer's market has to be the next best thing, right?

Right!

House hunting ho hum

A house we're interested in is taking offers tomorrow night. The house was under-quoted for the area (you get to know these things after house hunting in the same area for over a year) and it's going to go where we're not prepared to. So, we've decided to look at acreage a little further out. Not all that much further out, only about 10 minutes. But SQUEEEEEEEEEEE, I'm so excited! Except, that means we're probably going to be in this little house for a least another year and quite possibly longer. Boo. Today was fairly trying to say the least.

But YAY!

Another busy week

We've had a house guest for nearly a week much to the boy's delight, my sis-in-law has no kids of her own and is endlessly patient with my two. Despite the fact that she spent the week sleeping on the top bunk and being woken up early (by her standards, hehehe) by enthusiastically loud small children.

And, she spent a large amount of time with Master 4 putting together her Christmas gift to him, which is an Ant Mine.

Yes, it is sitting on what passes for my sewing table, the dining table and general crafting and crap-gathering table.
I'm finding the whole idea a bit icky, especially as the little buggers kept escaping through the breathing holes. Eewww, I really dislike ants inside!

Master 4 has also been creating his latest masterpiece...

A train, in case that's not immediately obvious. The poor kid is suffering a bit of a creative materials dearth, as most foods that come in boxes I no longer buy. Those boxes he used are from a bygone era, haha.

And Master 1 is having a current obsession with saws. The cutting wood kind. Not only does he want to use them, he enjoys using the word too. With many different inflections.

Saw. Saw? Saw! Saaaaawwwww!!!

In fact, I am ready to delete the word saw from the English lexicon.
Oh and he signs it too, just to make sure I know exactly what he's talking about.


One thing I am itching to do soon is a bit more fun baking, maybe some cupcakes? Problem is, I'm suffering a little bit of guilt now knowing exactly how not-good-for-you cupcakes in general are. Well I did know already, but now I know exactly and given the health issues of my extended family on one side, I'm trying to keep us on a very good path, food wise.

It's a bit of a balancing act, hey?