It's Been Snowing

These hills outside our house this morning had snow on them. It is very fresh outside still. Other news today is that the new Vegemite is called Cheesybite.

The Good Report

I found this at Pardon my Chaos who found it at the GOOD REPORT.

I have not been able to keep up to my Thankful Thursday's lately, maybe there have been too many things going on having school holidays and trips etc. etc. We had sewerage mains put in at our new house and lots of things happening. However little things crop up that have been nice.

1. Not sure how long ago I heard it now, but at 11pm for a few nights I heard the mopoke owl again. We have even figured out which tree he lives in (pictured).

2. Last time we came back from our new house we had to slow down for a family of ducks that were crossing the road, yes, seriously. It was in the same place that the plover and her baby came out of the grass, or nearby.

3. It is dreamy and flowery outside.

4. I was able to see my daughter overseas via Facebook

5. Blogtoberfest

6. Having money for the times when we need it

7. My daughter has a mild case of chickenpox, and would have had a bad case if she didn't have her injection

8. My husband being willing to sew up my daughter's skirt, she is enjoying wearing it to school.

Frocktober

Today I thought I would talk about my sixteen year old daughter. She is currently overseas in SE Asia on a language study tour. Today will be her second day at school there and she returns before school starts next week at her school in Australia.

Yesterday by the magic of Facebook her sister called out to me that her sister had bought her three bottles of nail polish. She couldn't get the blue they had seen in a shop last shopping day when we went to the regional centre. Then she mentioned to me she had a photo of her. She was sitting with her host family who look lovely in a restaurant looking just like herself lol. The last picture I saw of her was a picture my husband took on the weekend at the airport with the group of kids that went with her. Apparently apart from a girl she has been emailing who lives in the same area as us, but an hour down the road (an hour is nothing here) a boy came up and started talking non stop about Pokemon, which my daughter is fluent in lol. She also looked like she had bought herself a new t-shirt!

I thought I would show you the dress she made recently at school. It is the first needlework classes she has had I think. Very ambitious, my Mum top stitched the zip and did the hem that was already pinned up. She was to finish it at lunchtimes but was unsure about something. She was only allowed to sew for half a year and had to wait until Year 10 to do it.

I went with her to our shop to choose the material, pattern, etc. I am not sure they sell patterns here anymore. Here is the pattern.

Flocktober

This photo was taken by my son and his girlfriend during the last week or so of September I think. It is a black swan and cygnets. He tells me it was still part of Floriade from memory.

Woktober

Today's suggested theme for Blogtoberfest is Woktober, or stirfries.

Traditional stirfries don't feature that much here, off the top of my head. I'll have to think about that though. Firstly, strips costs more than other meats. I don't buy chicken much because I am worried the antibiotics will make it possible antibiotics won't work when we need them, real or imagined. The strips are hard for me to bite into as one relieving dentist caused my overbite to be worse and but didn't give it a second thought.

So one day I found something cheap and very delicious despite original misgivings. It comes from the ABC site.

Sausage Stir Fry

You need:
500g thin sausages
1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon finely grated green ginger
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 cup sliced cauli florets
1 cup sliced broccoli florets
4 shallots, cut in 5cm lengths
1 red or green capsicum cut into strips
Stock (optional)

Method:
Fry sausages in oil until lightly brown all over, remove from pan and cut into diagonal slices. If desired, return sausages to pan to brown and crip cut sides. Remove from pan and keep covered. Fry ginger and garlic for a minute or two, stirring constantly. Add cauliflower and broccoli and stir fry until almost tender.

Recently I tried Beef & Cabbage Stir-fry. It is cheap as well as it is made from mince. The feature is the addition of those Chinese fried noodles. I first tried them in the Wombuk salad on the packet that I found on an Aussie blog, The Old Dairy. I got excited when I found a different packet of Asian ones in cakes.

I do buy pork mince a lot. One of our favourite stirfries is Pork Mince with Brussels Sprouts. I love the Chang's recipes on that site, well the pork recipes.

Family Life

I was watching Austar during the last few days and came across the ads for the new shows starting up. One was about the family unit. Not sure I like it, but it looked interesting. It is called The Family.

Since I am posting on this blog every day this month for Blogtoberfest, and the theme if desired today is clocks, I will start there today.

I woke at 3.30 this morning. I was expecting the alarm to go off at some point. My daughter and my husband were to leave home at 5.30 to be at the airport about 11 to have lunch and be in time for 12 when the others turned up. The alarm worked fine, then woke me to say goodbye. I finally woke at 9.30, the fire had already been stoked for me which is just as well, and I had one hour before I had to take our youngest daughter who is 7 to a double birthday party.

At the airport, the other early bird was a girl who lives an hour down the road from us on the way to the airport. Her parent(s) couldn't sleep and decided they may as well drive. My husband made very good time, he may be home before tea, or around 7. We have been having tea later and later, and I don't suppose it will improve with daylight saving tonight. I think they may as well have permanent daylight saving rather than keep cribbing weeks off each end, a little this year a little the next, you know. It makes it really hard where I live, sort of a slow death by tiredness. Maybe I will just have to buy an evaporative airconditioner to make summer a time to recoop from the early rising springtime. Just glad I don't have babies anymore. It used to be quite hard, don't think I would have survived the change in daylight savings then. Anyway I have forgotten what I didn't like about it particularly these days as winter has the habit of making you forget summer. I just know originally at the date it was every year it was a nice family time when it changed back, this was going back before it was first moved for Moomba.

As I write this my daughter is going on her first international flight. I hope the warmer temperatures help her cold and that the jetlag (if you get it for a shorter flight) doesn't make her feel awful with the cold. My husband has a 5 1/2 hour drive home, but I think it only took 5 hours to get there. The last bit is the hardest with the real danger of roos on the road. Joolz said one day they are no match for cars, which is true. But, I was in a doctors surgery once and there was a very shook up guy who had had a recent prang with a roo, and he was talking about it with the others there. At the time the roos tended to eat grass right next to the road as there was a drought on.

I have a bullbar just in case, though I am quite careful. I remember years ago that the fan? in our car went through the battery, not sure what we hit. Apparently that doesn't happen with the newer cars. That was what I was concerned about. The plastic over my lights has been broken on one side, I should really see if I can get a replacement.

Anyway, my husband is stopping off at my Mum's for a break. Mum has all these clothes that other people in the family can't use anymore, like shirts which may come in handy when my son leaves to go to his brothers. He wants to find work there for the summer. I'm not even sure he has a button up shirt. I need to go to the regional centre 1 1/2 hours away to get him something nice to wear to his high school graduation this year. He has already graduated VCE, he is repeating English (unit 3 or 4 well both something to do with a sequence), but still doing a full load since there is no 10% penalty anymore. He will pick up a 6th subject. He is repeating chemistry, methods and specialist, this time doing specalist by correspondence. I think this is great as there is low contact hours at the uni he wishes to get into.

He is picking up biology. Mid year exams he got an A for Chemisty and a B- I think for Biology. So it is worth thinking about if someone is in a similar situation with a bright child who hasn't done as well as you would have liked first time.

So while we are waiting for time to tick down my 12 year old is doing cupcake experiments, rather proper patty cakes, for a school project. While her sister was at the party we walked to the shop to get some ingredients, then she bought eggs, as I haven't had a fruit order for ages. I had a very exact menu plan, I got some extra money I am supposed to be saving, but it has gone on last minute things for the trip, well not all of it. Also, airport parking. Hopefully it didn't cost the whole $49.

Blogtoberfest Introduction Late Day 1

I am visiting the Blogtoberfest participants, will have to stop after Alissa for the night as it is going to be an very early morning tomorrow. I have all those blogs to look forward to visiting tomorrow while babysitting my seven and twelve year old daughters, I guess I can't include my eighteen year old son for fear of offense.

In the style of Alissa's introduction, her photo was very Australian and lovely.

I'm 45, we live in North East Victoria. This is our town. We have no idea we are sitting under that mountain. It is shocking really. We took this photo nearly 2 weeks ago for my other daughter now 16 to take to her host family in Malaysia. There is so much snow around at the moment, I saw it yesterday. Where is spring? My tulips are finishing, maybe they need water or had a hot day, or maybe they are really finishing.

Blogtoberfest ~ Day 2

I copied this excerpt to explain to my readers or friends what Blogtoberfest is. It is from Bellsknits.

Blogtoberfest involves the rather daunting task of blogging daily for the month of October and anyone can sign up. It's run by Cathie over at Tinnie Girl. She wrote about it here and here.

By signing up for Blogtoberfest you agree to:

• spend a fair whack of each day in October writing blog posts
• spend all of October worrying that you won't have anything to post about
• spend all of October worrying that your posts aren't interesting enough
• spend all of October scouting around for material for daily blog posts.

Or to frame it more positively you agree to:

• really give yourself permission to spend time on daily blog posts
• sink your teeth into posting stuff you never thought you'd write about
• come up with ways to keep yourself interested and motivated - after that the interest by other people is just a flow on effect
• find yourself looking with fresh eyes at the world as each moment of each day may contain an image or a conversation or an idea that can be shaped into a blog post.

I like the page where they give suggestions of what to write each day. (Today is Rocktober (music) ). TinnieGirl lives in my State, so maybe by checking out the other posters you will learn more about Victoria and the life here. Mind you I live so far away from Melbourne I may not count lol. They look to be a crafty bunch, so if you like craft check a few out!

Speaking of craft. Last night I was treated to an episode of Kirstie's Homemade Home. It is fantastic. It is about a beautiful English house that hadn't been lived in for a decade or so. Kirstie is the other half of Kirstie & Phil on the Lifestyle channel here, who find properties for people in the UK. Last night it was the kitchen. She learnt how to blow glass, revisit sewing, and make pottery, and by the end, after going shopping at the markets etc. had a lovely kitchen finished.

The show has a beautiful knitted sign of the program.

Am I a crafter? No, and this isn't my main blog. I shouldn't say that, I love crochet, was taught to sew, can knit, but I am not doing it at the present time. But this blog is about writing, and needs a few extra posts, so here we are. I'm sorry I missed day 1. May do a catch up post. I wasn't really home anyway. I am guessing everyone is now winding down, waiting for school to start again on Monday.

Me, I am winding down, just finished packing my daughter's suitcase for her scholarship to Malaysia for 8 days.

Today is her birthday! She didn't get a present, as her brother also won something fairly recently, a phone. He gave it to her, so with the money we usually spend on her present we spent on a game for him. I have bought her some new clothes from Target to take on her trip. However, lots of great clothes my mind found by op-shopping over a period of weeks, and she also bought some new underwear for her. After all her shopping, she didn't send any money for her either.

Today we had afternoon tea with cake, chips etc.

My daughter is learning a song, it basically means My Heart is Happy although I don't have Money

What Decade Are You?

You Are the 1950s

You are a conventional, traditional, and responsible person. You try to live a good life. You appreciate the simpler days of the 1950s, when hard work and family were valued. You believe in doing your best, even if you aren't rewarded right away. Being a moral person is its own reward. You don't like to rock the boat too much. You like your life as it is and aren't looking to change it.

What Decade Are You?

Blogthings: Discover the Parts of Your Personality that Have Been Hiding

Winter slipping away?

The writing assignment at A thousand words...and then some is:

What does Fall hold for you? Or is it called Autumn in your part of the world?
Are you sorry to see summer go, or are you, like me, excited to welcome Fall?

Winter doesn't slip away like summer, I wonder what word you would use instead? Fall is called autumn in Australia, but that is not until March. We are 26 days into spring and winter has a firm grip even though we are into bluebell season. All the trees have leaves, but they are very small at this stage.

Our spring flowers include these wattles, which are very nice at the moment. Because I live in the bush, we have eucalypts and these wattles and a purple ground cover. In autumn nothing really changes in the bush as you can imagine.

The temperatures are still on the verge of freezing point at night.

We had our little American styled fall in the form of a thing my daughter did a couple of weeks ago during her gymnastics concert. She was dressed with yucky teeth, and a brown black costume with bat wings I suppose they were. Another girl was dressed as a pumpkin to go with the theme. I adore the look of the American pumpkin candy, but I don't care for the taste so much. That is a shame as the bags of Halloween candy my husband brought back from the States and Canada? years ago was lovely.

Am I sorry to see winter go? And what does spring hold for me.

All the plum blossoms are gone, those white trees by the roadside where I live. I have been looking at the thickets of them, actually proper plums gone wild, and think of the now leaved trees and the plums that will be there by the roadside to harvest next summer. I have a particular tree in mind.

We have October and November to go. In October my daughter is going to Malaysia where there are no seasons, she hopes to share pictures of our snow covered mountains with them. It will be her birthday the day before she leaves. November is when our son finishes his exams. He then hopes to go and live in the city with his brother. So this is a big event for my spring, and the exam period as well.

We hope to go to the zoo when we pick our daughter up from the airport. So as far as spring goes, I don't feel like it is coming. We have let the wood heater go out twice, but lit it again. When the air inside does warm up we are going to continue painting the ceiling of our bedroom at our new house.

We are taking advantage of the lingering cool to shift some plants that need shifting. I think the answer to my spring is that we hope to paint and spring clean. I don't mind that it isn't going faster towards the warmer weather because of the memory of the horrible bushfires in Kinglake and Flowerdale last year. I hope to see the area when I visit the zoo. It is very cold there in winter, and I'm sure those people will be glad for the warmer weather, yet not so glad as well.

The girls have started talking about togs and swimmers. At the moment we have no water restrictions as the dam here is full. Maybe they will get a go in a pool in the backyard before the water restrictions come back again.

Excited to welcome spring? No too much happening, but in some ways it will be good to finally do the things we plan for and start getting used to the changes. I need the time to prepare as well.

Cheap Mince other than Beef

I had the opportunity to shop at Coles at the regional centre again. I have tried three Coles, this one was very pleasant. They had every mince (or hamburger/sausage) cheap as long as it wasn't beef. They also had a half-price goldfish bowl, my daughter was very happy. Now to catch a fish from our pond.

Thursday ~ Bacon & Cauliflower Soup with Parmesan Crisps (uses bacon bones)
Friday ~ Pot Stickers or Pork & Ginger Dumplings
Saturday ~ Broccoli & Bacon Pasta
Sunday ~ Tuna & Mushroom Spaghetti
Monday ~ Tuna Pilau
Tuesday ~ Left-over Rigatoni Bolognaise below
Wednesday ~ Stir-fried Lamb, Vegetables & Noodles
Thursday ~ Szechuan Lamb Rissoles with Asian Greens (when the 3 kids aren't home)
Friday ~ Chorizo & Vegetable Soup
Saturday ~ Pork Mince & Cabbage Stir-fry
Sunday ~ Pork Mince Stroganoff
Monday ~ Italian Sausages & Beans
Tuesday ~ Rigatoni Bolognaise made with pork sausages & veal mince
Wednesday ~ Mustard Sausages, Potatoes & Beans & Tomato Sauce (when the 3 kids aren't not home)