down to earth

There is no doubt about it, running a home is complicated, and when you add in a partner, children, pets, homeschooling, work, gardens and working animals it can sometimes seem like you're out of control. I have no magic wand that will fix this for everyone - I get a lot of emails asking about routines - but the intention of this post is to show that we all have a full and busy lives, to give you a few resources to research for your particular lifestyle and to, hopefully, gain some inspiration by reading how we all construct our days.

I guess the thing that makes the biggest difference is babies or young children. When you have a baby crying for a feed or a cuddle, everything stops. Toddlers need a lot of supervision and play time with mum or dad. If you have babies, toddlers or young children under school age, you'll already know that you can have a routine, but it's often changed according to what the children are doing.

Many women also fit their lives around their partner. Meals are usually structured so that everyone eats when Dad comes home and often women get up early so they can have time alone with their husband before he goes off to work. Others make time during their day to talk on the phone. This often happens when the husband works away and there are frequent short phone calls to discuss various family and household matters, as well as that special time when the wife and husband have some alone time on the phone and dad talks to the kids and makes sure they're ok and they know he misses them.

Then come the pets and working animals - they all have to be fed and tended to. Cats need cuddles, dogs need walking, dairy cows and goats need milking - often twice a day, and there are eggs to collect and chook pens to clean. And they all need to be fed and watered.

Many of us have gardens that need watering and weeding and hopefully there are vegetables and fruit to be picked each day. But that only comes if the garden has been looked after and time spent planning, sowing, planting, digging, raking, staking, composting, fertilising and mulching.

Add to these common elements things like grocery shopping, cooking, baking, preserving, sewing, crafts and hobbies, reading, talking to your children and other members of the family, friends, exercise, work outside the home, volunteer work, homeschooling, cleaning, driving children around, and all the other things that fill our lives on a day to day basis, and you can see why we sometimes feel frazzled and burnt out.

Changing your attitude to housework may help you with your routine. Instead of it being something that must be done, that you don't want to do, and will have to be done again tomorrow, think of it as making your home comfortable for your family and yourself. Housework is just one of the many things we all do in our day, think of it as fluffing your nest and making your home the one place in the world where you feel comfortable and enjoy being. Be mindful of your tasks, take breaks and we proud of what you've achieved, even if you didn't finish all you set out to do. Think also of the alternative - if you did no housework, would you enjoy living in the environment that would create. Would you like to live in a dirty house, where you had no idea where anything was? You do housework for your family and yourself to help you all live to your full potential. If you can work out a general routine that suits you, adding the special jobs as they need doing each day, you'll probably find that the organisation of it will make it easier to get through.

My tip, the thing that works for me, is to have a loose routine that is almost always the same, but every morning I make a list for myself of what I'll do that day. Yesterday my list was this:

washing
clean laundry
spray seasol on aquaponics plants
start aquaponics article
start aprons

These things were done along with my regular chores. I find that now I have time to do as I wish, making a list each day allows me to think about my day before it starts properly, I can schedule chores according to my energy level that day and I can slot in things not done on the previous day or other bits and pieces that come up.

Be mindful of what you're doing, do one thing at a time and listen to the sounds of your home. This will help you concentrate on your tasks. If you have young children at home, you will be teaching them simply by carrying out your daily tasks, be a good role model and show the positive side of homemaking. And remember, everyone's routine will be different, things don't have to be perfect, they just have to work for you and your family.

There is some interesting reading here, here, here, I am not a Flylady but I know many people have been help by reading this website.

I didn't think I would get as many routines emailed as I did. I've thought about how to fit them all in, but I'm just going to add them. I am sure there will be one that speaks to you. They're all similar, but different, and they all make interesting reading. This might take two posts, so hold on to your hats. : )

This is what I did yesterday:
4am - woke up, showered, clean teeth.
4.20 - 7am - tended blog, answer emails.
7am - feed dogs, cat and fish, one load of washing, made breakfast for Hanno and I, ate breakfast and watched the news.
7.30am - make bread and wash up.
8am - make bed and lightly clean the bathroom.
8.15 - 9.00 - hang out washing, check garden, water plants, spray plants with Seasol, tie up tomatoes, pick and eat blueberries and talk to fish.
9am computer - writing and blog, bake bread.
10am morning tea with Hanno on front verandah.
10.30 - clean laundry.
11.00 start writing aquaponics article for magazine.
12.30 lunch
1.00 start work on my swap aprons and check blog throughout the afternoon.
3.00 sweep front verandah and organise pot plants, cup of tea.
4.00 garden and pick food for dinner.
5.00 make dinner - tuna cakes, potato salad, bean salad and corn on the cob.
6.00 eat dinner, clean kitchen, talk to dogs.
7.00 bed, read for an hour or two and go to sleep.

From Myra in Pittsburg
I get up aroung 7:15am
Get dressed
Feed my animal companions
Eat breakfast
Catch the bus/trolly to town for work
Work as a legal secretary from 8:30 to 5:00
Catch the bus/trolly home
Either prepare and eat dinner or eat if my son has it prepared
Catch up on blog/net reading
Do what needs to be done that day such as pay bills, laundry etc.
Shower
Go to bed and read about an hour
Go to sleep

From Sandra in the USA
get up with the alarm clock around 6a or so
start coffee read newspaper
feed cat
do a little housework - laundry, dishes, whatever
take shower
check out eyebrows
get dressed pick up around the house a little get packed lunch out of fridge drive to work while listening to NPR
look at the river as I walk across the bridge from the parking garage
punch in
speak to all my co workers
check my email throughout the day while doing my job as a nurse manager
punch out at the end of the workday
drive home start dinner unload dishwasher
take out trash and compost material
seat dinner with hubby
straighten up kitchen pack lunch for next day
check email, read blogs
write in blog
knit get ready for bed
read in bed a while
check clock sleep - maybe getting up once to go to bathroom
wake up and have another beautiful day

From Mary in Amarillo Texas
5:00 I wake up and have my quiet time and Bible study
6:00 shower and get dressed
6:45 make breakfast
7:00 my youngest three darlings wake up ready to eat (our 3 older children are grown and gone)
7:30 get children dressed, beds made, and bedrooms straightened
8:00 I clean the kitchen and we pick up, dust, clean bathrooms, etc.9:00 homeschool begins for our 2 kindergarteners
10:00 homeschool ends, the children are free to play while I read the newspaper and check emails
11:00 2-3 mornings a week we run any necessary errands
12:00 lunch
12:30 rest time and reading
1:30 - 3:30 Sewing time for me, outdoor play time for children
3:30 afternoon chores - sweeping patios, feeding the dog, fish, etc..
4:30 I begin preparing our evening meal
5:30 we eat a wonderful family meal together
6:00 game time, book time, riding bikes, etc.
7:00 bath time
8:00 bed time for the little ones
8:30 - 10:00 check emails, read, sew, etc.
10:30 bedtime!

From Polly in Oz
5.00 – Get up and make K’s lunch and our breakfast, wash the dishes and tidy the kitchen
6.00 – Internet to read ALS and blogs for an hour – I also boot up the computer every now and then during the day to check emails and forums.
7.00 – Wash and dress, quick clean of the bathroom and toilet, sort washing and do a load if there is a full load, make bed and tidy bedroom
8.00 – Empty collected water from kitchen sink, bathroom basin and shower onto pot plants or garden. Wash dogs’ bowls and play with the dogs for a short time. Hang washing on the line
9.00 – Sweep the floors and wash floor in kitchen area, talk to my sister on the telephone because she has a week off work and time to spare. She also has a phone plan that allows for a long conversation at a cheap price so we make the most of it while both having an early morning tea.
10.00 – Check the vegetable garden. Pick most of the lemons on my little Meyer lemon tree. Make up three jars of preserved lemons and freeze the juice from the rest of the lemons11.30 – Do some knitting
12.00 – Have some lunch and read for a while
1.00 – Get the bread maker started on the dough for a loaf. Make a kidney bean spread and a batch of biscuits for lunches
2.00 – Pay some bills on the computer, read emails and a couple of forums
3.00 – Do the ironing and some mending
4.30 – Have a cup of coffee and knit. Talk to my DIL on the telephone
5.30 – Feed the dogs. Pick some artichokes then prepare and cook them ready for pizza tomorrow night.
6-00 – Prepare ingredients for dinner while I watch some TV – interrupted by my sister again – she’s a great talker J
7-00 – Cook dinner while watching the news
7.30 – Eat dinner as soon as K is home, then do the dishes and clean the kitchen
8.30 – Get ready for bed, read for a little while, asleep by 9.00pm

From Niki in Ottawa Canada
Wake up 6:30 ishcoffee
computer time
laundry going
cooking and baking for the day
kitchen clean up
house cleaning, different areas on different days on good days a little walk
lunch
rest
check computer
by now it is mid to late afternoon
I usually read, or do some handwork
any last minute supper prep
supper with family
clean kitchen with family
TV books movies games computer time something like that for the evening
bed by 10 - 10:30

From Jessica Chapman in the USA
6am- Get up/Get dressed
6.30- Make coffee/and lunches/and breakfast
6.40- Get baby up, dressed and breakfast
6.45- Leave House
6.45-7.15- Drive to work
7.15-8.30- Office Hours In Classroom/Planning Time
8.30-9.30- First Class Period- Teach 6th Grade
9.30-10.30- Second Class Period- Teach 7th Grade
10.30-11.30- Third Class Period- Teach 8th Grade, First Rotation
11.30-12.00-Teach Fifth Period Reading Class, Round one.
12.00-12.30-Lunch Break
12.30-1.00-Teach Fifth Period Reading Class, Round two.
1.00-2.00-Sixth Class Period- Teach 8th Grade, Second Rotation
2.00-3.00- Meetings, Administrative work, Work in classroom.
3.00-3.30-Drive to son's daycare, pick him up
3.30-4.00-Errands, Drive home
4.00-4.15-Afternoon Snack and Tea
4.15-5.00-Hang out with Camden :)
5.00-6.00-Cook Dinner
6.00-6.30-Eat dinner
6.30-6.45 - Clean up from dinner, Give baby a bath (husband and I switch off one for the other).
6.45-7.00-Story time, Dancing time with baby
7.00-Baby goes to bed
7.00-8.00- Computer time, my bath time.
8.00-10.00- My "me" time-- TV, Crafts, Whatever I want to do!
10.00-Bedtime

There are many more to follow. I'll post them after breakfast, I can smell toast cooking. : )

This photo is completely off today's topic, it's a small view of our front garden. It's spring here so we have all sorts of flowers growing. Incorporating beauty into your life is an important part of living simply. But just so you know I've not gone completely flower crazy in the front garden, those leaves poking into the top right hand corner are avocado leaves and planted next to the avocado are rosellas (a type of hibiscus that we'll use the flowers of to make jam, tea and cordial) and radishes.

SELF DISCOVERY AND REINVENTION
As we mature we all have a certain view of ourselves and the life we live. Now that you’ve decided to change how you live, reassess your personal view of yourself. Look critically at your values and what you think is important to you and your family. Don’t be afraid to reinvent certain parts of your life. Your aspirations might have changed a lot over the last few years and things you’ve always known to be true about yourself and others may have changed.

If you’re in your twenties and don’t yet have a rigid idea of being a particular type of person, you’ll be starting with a clean slate. You are in the ideal position of having your entire adult life ahead and, therefore, would, theoretically, be in a position to gain the most from living simply. What you decide for yourself now could set you up for an interesting life that will not be burdened with credit card payments and the waste that many of us work through during our younger years. You are in the box seat, make the most of it.

But no matter what stage of life you're at, living simply will improve your life. There are many benefits to be discovered in living at a gentler pace and they are there no matter what age you are right now.

If you’ve thought in the past that your success meant living in a big house, driving an expensive car and living the high life, you should reassess that. Your new version of success may include learning about gardening, cooking or preserving. It may be to raise thoughtful children who love the simple life. Your new successes may be in paying off your mortgage years early and living debt-free, or learning how to live well on less.

You might start organising your time to better suit your new life so that you can include some volunteering or community work, you might enlarge your vegetable garden and grow a wider variety of fruit and vegetables to share with family and neighbours. You might learn a new language or teach your grandchildren to read. Whatever your interpretation of success is now, incorporate it into your life with enthusiasm and throw out old negative ideas.

And please be brave in your new life. If you now have different views to those close to you - your family and friends - tell them. Don't lock them out of your new life, try to bring them with you by explaining why you've changed and what you hope your life will become. They may not understand the need for change, they may even try to convince you not to change, but respect yourself and your new life enough to be proud of it.

CHANGING YOUR ATTITUDE
Although this might be one of the most difficult things to do, changing your attitude will help you adjust to your new life and in the long run, will give you real satisfaction. If you want to live simply because you’re not happy living the way you are now and you know things need to change, then a change of attitude will help you slide more easily into your new life. Attitude adjustment will facilitate many of the changes you’re about to make.

By now you probably realise that buying more and bigger things, upgrading to the latest version and being the first with the latest is like being on a never-ending treadmill. If you listen to those voices that tell you to consume, you’ll never be good enough or have enough; it will never end. It will take a conscious effort to get off that cycle of consumption and to be content with who you are and what you have. Change your idea of what success is and what will make you happy. What you see as success will always be just slightly out of reach if it is defined for you by magazines, TV, advertising or people you know.

Success isn’t being surrounded by expensive possessions; genuine achievement has a much more complex character. Success is feeling comfortable in your own skin, being satisfied by what you’ve accomplished, living according to your values and having the confidence to show the type of person you are. Real success is never defined by possessions, no matter how many times you hear that on TV, or from your relatives or friends.

Carrying on with our theme of not wasting food, today I want to talk about auditing your stockpile. We did our monthly shopping yesterday so I did mine then. It's a good habit to get into if you're stockpiling. Remember that when you spend your hard earned money on anything, it should be looked after so it gives you value for your money. Your stockpile is included in that; it needs to be looked after properly.

You should rotate your stock, just like they do in the supermarkets. When you buy new food from the supermarket, always place it at the back of your current stock. Just move everything forward and place your new items at the back. And always take from the front when you use something. That way you should keep your stock rotating and good for eating.

When you audit your stockpile, also check all your produce in packets. Make sure you have no pantry moths or weevils crawling around. If you find anything like that, empty your stockpile cupboard, vacuum the shelves to pick up any tiny eggs, then wipe your shelves over with a terry cloth dipped in hot water and eucalyptus or tea tree oil. Don't make your solution too strong because you don't want the smell to get into your food. You just want to deter the bugs. If possible, keep all your dry goods in air tight containers. If you have an infestation of pantry moths or some other bugs, you'll lose a lot of what you're storing, so protect as much of it as you can. If you don't have storage jars, it's a good idea to buy one every time you do your shopping. If you have enough money buy a large one, if you don't have so much left over, buy a smaller one.

I store all my dried goods like rice, pasta, all my flours, seeds, nuts, couscous and lentils in their packets in a freezer that is full of my stockpiled dried goods. The temperature is turned down to the lowest setting. In my humid climate this keeps our food safe from any sort of bug. If the power goes off, it doesn't matter as there is no perishable food in the freezer. The cost of running it over a full year is very low.

When you're auditing your stockpile, check all your preserved goods too. Make sure there is no mould growing in the jars and that the lids are firmly attached. Line them up again so that you use the oldest first.

Stockpiling groceries is the best way I know of to lower your food bill. It will also help you survive an emergency - both a national emergency and a personal emergency. But remember, it's worth a lot of money and must be looked after. If you do an audit every three months, as well as when you add new stock to your cupboard, you'll reap all the benefits of your stockpile.

The beautiful quilt pictured above is one my sister, Tricia, is working on. She usually gives her quilts away but this one will be kept and used in her new home when she moves next year. I love this quilt. It's called a scrappy quilt because scraps of fabric leftover from other projects, and old pieces of fabric that previously had other functions, have been used in the making of it. You might not be able to see it clearly (click on the photos to enlarge them) but it is constructed of a small table cloth, some old doilies, strips of fabric, blocks of embroidery, pillow cases, rick rack and old buttons. It's far from complete, but I love it.

Tricia has used the colour red to tie the whole quilt together but within that colour scheme, she has used what she loves and what appealed to her, and, importantly, her leftovers. We have very similar taste so I adore this quilt and when I suggested a few things when it was laid out on the bed here, she liked what I suggested and they will be included in the quilt.

I am showing you Tricia's quilt because it illustrates very nicely that the leftovers we all have - all those things like old clothes, buttons, pillow cases, doilies, rick rack from other projects, half completed embroidery squares and ribbons - all have a place in our lives if we think creatively about them. We can create beauty and function from what many would consider "waste".

So it's not just the food leftovers we have to be careful with. As Kim said in her comment, she doesn't waste much at all because she grows her own food and she sees first-hand how much time and work goes into the production of it. I think that's a really good way of looking at what we might once have thought of as waste products. If you think about the production of a pillow slip, for instance, from that cotton growing on the bush, the people who pick it and those who sell it, to the processing plant where it is cleaned and woven into fabric, the man who transports those rolls of fabric to the factory where it is cut and sewn by women, just like you and I, before it goes on to a wholesaler who sells it to a retailer where you buy it - that, my friends, is quite a story, even before the product is used for the first time.

Imagine that you use it for a year but it is ripped and you can't use it as a pillowslip anymore. In days gone by you might have thrown that pillow slip away to rot in landfill, now you stop to consider its future. Now you give it a new life, sure it can't be used as a pillow slip, but the fabric is still good so it can be made into something else. You might use it now as a cleaning cloth, to patch something else, as a baby doll blanket or for any number of things. Or, you might use it to create something of beauty that will be functional and help you carry out your rolls of homemaker, nurturer and family accountant, something like a scrappy quilt. My next project, after my kitchen curtains, will be exactly that.

I want to challenge you to think creatively about your damaged possessions. Think carefully before you throw anything "away". "Away" doesn't make it disappear, it moves your problem somewhere else. Take responsibility for what you buy and use everything until it can't be used any more. Even then, all natural products can be composted in your own backyard. So if that pure wool cardigan is going to be felted and made into a bag, or you're going to rewind the wool for another project, remove the buttons first and start your own button tin. If your old dress is going to be part of your scrappy quilt, remove the zipper or buttons, so they can be reused. Stop thinking that what you own only has one use - fabric is fabric, no matter what it's been made into and a button will continue to function whether it's used to fasten a blouse or as decoration on a hand bag.

Think creatively about everything in your home, get the full value of everything you own and that will help you get the full measure of every day you live.

This is just a quick picture of my ginger beer plant that has started fermenting - it's the fourth day today. It smell delicious, even if it looks pretty ghastly right now. LOL If you've never made ginger beer before and the weather is starting to warm up where you live, this makes a lovely drink on a hot summer day.

If you're wondering why I have a jug with a strainer and a jar on top, I'm making quark cheese.

It's a sad and cruel fact that in a world where 9 million people die of hunger or malnutrition each year, the amount of food being wasted in Western countries increases most years. In the UK 20 billion pounds worth of food is wasted each year, in the USA it's between 30 and 40%, and in Australia it's 25% wasted. We are increasingly disconnected for the source of our food and in many cases people don't even know where their food comes from. They don't connect milk and cheese with cows, or eggs with chickens.

I used to waste a lot of food. I'd go to the supermarket and stock up because I didn't want to go back to shop again before I had to. I bought food "just in case we needed it". When we didn't eat it, it was thrown out. That is a shameful confession and one I did not want to make. But I have created the food wastage problem just as much as many of you have.

But I stopped wasting food. Have you?

When I was growing up, my mother never wasted food. It was a homemaker's duty to have a nice collection of recipes for leftovers. Most home cooks took pride in what they could produce from little bits of this and that. I remember bubble and squeak being made from leftover vegetables and turned into what Americans call hash browns; I remember corned beef fritters being made from the corn beef cooked and served the day before; I remember shepherd's pie or lamb curry being made with the remains of a roast leg of lamb. We loved all these meals, they where all served, not as "leftovers" but as another meal produced from the large number of recipes my mother knew. Leftover cooking was common. It was just another skill of a busy housewife who worked hard to feed her family within the confines of a meagre budget. Nothing was thrown out, nothing was wasted.

When I stopped wasting food, I made sure I only bought what I knew we'd eat - no more food "just in case". I reorganised my fridge to make sure the foods that I had been wasting were at the front of the fridge and in full view. I regularly scheduled food made from leftovers into my menu plans. When my boys were living here, if we had roast meat, or something that wouldn't be eaten in one meal, I'd always make a curry or pie with the leftovers the next day. I scanned the fridge and my vegetable boxes every two or three days to see what had to be used that day. Now we organise our food differently because we grow a lot of it and there is little waste. If I have bread left at the end of the day, it's either frozen for toast, made into breadcrumbs and frozen or given to the chooks.

I always keep an eye on use by dates too. If milk is getting close to its date, I make a custard or rice pudding. Cheese almost on its date can be added to homemade pizza. Vegetables, even small amounts can be made into soup or stock and frozen, or made into a vegetable curry for that night's dinner. The key to this is monitoring your food to make sure it's used before it spoils.

We've become a lazy mob and this is reflected in the way we waste food. I know that if my grandma or my mother had seen some of the food I've thrown out, they would have told me to wake up to myself. I'm glad I did wake up to this big problem because it's easy to fix, it saves us money, saves the planet from being choked with landfill and methane and it's the right things for all of us to be doing.

Have you checked your fridge lately?