Back home again

I've been looking forward to today ... Thursday is the first day of the week when I'm home all day. Being at work since Monday has working away from my home, socialising and being in the midst of many people and all that busyness out of my system. Today, and the next few days, I will concentrate on my family and my home and getting my house in order. Yes, friends, I'll be fluffing my nest again.

I want to do some sewing today. I have a few bags of fabric to go through, given to me by daughter-in-law Cathy. What I don't need, I'll give to our sewing circle. I want to work on my pin cushion swap today and hopefully get that finished and ready to send. That sewing room needs to be tidied too. It always amazes me how quickly a sewing room can look like a cyclone has whipped through it, when only the most gentle and calm chores are done in there.

Hanno is taking the Centre's mini bus into Brisbane this morning to pick up our Foodbank stores. The Foodbank supplies food and groceries to charities for a very small amount of money. We buy a lot of the Centre's staples at our local IGA and when we supplement that with what we get from the Foodbank we are able to make up a good parcel of food for people who need it.

I won't bake bread today but there are plenty of other chores to keep me busy. The floors need sweeping and washing, the kitchen looks like it needs a good going over and the front verandah is covered with leaves. A basket of apples is waiting to be turned into a pie and I have several lemons to be squeezed and frozen. There are a couple of loads of washing to be done and hung out to dry.

If I have time later I'll plant some lettuce and beetroot seedlings. It will do me good to get into the garden again. It's always the sweetest of pleasures to be out there on these cool days of late Winter, and when I look around me at the lushness of a garden that provides so much of our food, I know I'm really at home, and this is where I belong.

Rosie is still sick. She is good for a day or so and then is unwell again. We've had her to the vet twice but I'm not sure he knows what he's doing. Tomorrow I hope to take her to a specialist terrier vet in a township about 30 kms away. I thank you all for the thoughtful wishes you are sending us for Rosie's recovery. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure she will survive this. She's lost more weight - she's lost more than a third of her weight now, and she's still not really interested in eating. I hope the new vet will make some progress with her.

For the ladies who asked about the washing soda, here are photos of my supplies. I have two brands of washing soda here - Prepact and Lectric.

Washing soda is Sodium Carbonate, nothing else. So if you look on the back of your package, find the ingredients list and if it says sodium carbonate, you have the right product, no matter what it is called. It generally comes as a white powder but it is also sold in crystal form.

Good luck with your hunt. Here is the Cedel Lectric website for more information.

And finally I want to welcome back an old friend. Jewels returned her wonderful blog to blogland yesterday and it's a real pleasure to see her again. Welcome back, friend, your new home is absolutely beautiful! If you don't know Jewels, her blog, Eyes of Wonder, is on my side bar. Do yourself a favour and visit.