If you're a full-time homemaker by choice or circumstance, never let anyone tell you that working in your home, cooking for your family, sewing and knitting, cleaning your nest and organising the lives of your family is not important work. Sure it can be tiring at times, all jobs are, but from where I stand, in my grandmothering years, I know that I have done my best work here at home. I'm just an ordinary woman and I don't know much, but this I know, with certainty, when you actively take control of your life and your home, when you plan and make decisions and don't leave things to chance, you will be paid back in ways you never expected. Take control, plan your work spaces, organise your family and your work and then sit back to enjoy the fruits of all that with the people you love. But don't expect it to be perfect, learn from your mistakes and celebrate your successes.  It's that simple.

This is a big topic and I've already taken up too much of your time today, so I'll continue tomorrow to talk about the financial side of homemaking. I hope you have a lovely day - enjoy your work whether it be in the home or somewhere else.

There is no doubt about it, when you start living a more simple life and decide to get rid of as many harsh chemicals as you can, you have to turn into a bit of a detective. Some of the information we seek to live simply is not openly available, we have to search for it; luckily we all have our computers to make that easier.  All the decisions you make about what you include in your life now should be examined. Don't make soap or bread because I do it, or your best friend does, if has to make sense to you in your circumstances. So, if you're trying to decide whether you should put some time aside to make your own soap, bread, cleaners, pasta, jam etc., you might want to compare it with what you're already using. You might need to read information such as the following before you can make up your mind.

People often say to me that simple living is far from simple but this is a good case in point. Have a look at the additives in many of the cleaning products and soap listed in the links above, or what you have in your cupboards right now. Then compare that with what you could be using on your skin. I know which is simple. These are the ingredients I use when making soap:

Look at the additives on any label of jam or marmalade you currently have in your pantry or fridge and compare that with my recipe, or anyone's homemade recipe for raspberry jam:

Want to compare breads? Check the label of your plastic sliced bread or even some of the more expensive speciality breads and compare that with my recipes for the bread we eat here:

There are no preservatives in what we use, we make it fresh and eat it the same day. It doesn't need to sit on a shelf for a day or a week; it doesn't need to have preservatives added.

What is in the salad dressing you use? How many gums and numbers does the ingredients list contain? Compare that with:

I could go on and on but I'm sure you understand what I'm talking about. I think it's as plain as the nose on your face - homemade from scratch will be less likely to contain preservatives, colourings and artificial flavourings, in fact whatever you make will contain only what you add. You can't be more sure of your food or personal cleaners than that. So I guess the choice is between paying someone else to make what you need and not having control over what is added, and making it yourself, which takes time and effort. Convenience versus time, effort and cost.

I cannot make everything we use here but I made the choice of what I make and what I buy after doing my research and all my detective work. We all have to make our own decisions according to the time, energy and money we have available, and if you have to buy certain products and food, I encourage you to base your decisions on what you know about the product, not habit, convenience or advertising.

There is a very good book called The Chemical Maze that contains lists and the dangers of additives in food and cosmetics. It's small enough to go into my bag when I'm shopping so I can check things I don't know before buying them. If there is an ingredient on a label I'm not familiar with, I can check it. I've had this book for many years and was just checking to see if it's still available, and yes, it is, but it also comes as a variety of apps as well. You can find the information about it here. I'm not affiliated with this book or the author at all.

There is no right or wrong way of doing this. Each of us will prefer to buy certain things already made and make others at home. Don't be pressured into making soap, or anything, at home because your friends are doing it, that's as crazy as buying a certain brand of soap because you like the advertising for it. Do your research, read labels, ask questions, know what is in what you use and eat, then make your decisions according to your knowledge, the money and time you have available and your common sense.  And if you have another way to check these things, I'd love to hear about it, please share what you know in the comments.

You often see loofahs being sold in shops; in Australia they're sold at the Chemist. People see them and know they're sponges but often they're mistaken for sea sponges. Of course there are beautiful sea sponges but loofahs are plant sponges and we grow them in our backyard.

I discovered something new about loofahs this year and last. If you don't pull out the vines when you harvest your summer crop, they'll rest over winter, then start producing flowers and loofahs again the following year. At least they do that here in the subtropics. We planted the loofahs late last year - they went in during November, flowered soon after, produced loofahs in March/April, were harvested in August and we left the vines in.  They're flowering again now on very healthy lush vines.

Loofahs are a member of the vine family of cucurbits, such as pumpkins, squash and zucchini. If you want to grow them, you'll need a warm climate, a large study trellis and about 110 days of warm-hot growing days. They grow well from seeds harvested the previous year so when you pick your loofahs, choose your best ones to collect seeds from.

Loofahs are pollinated by bees but you often see ants on the flowers and vines. They're attracted to the plants and don't usually cause any harm. Plant into rich soil, water in with seaweed tea but don't over-fertilise with nitrogen. A sprinkling of sulphate of potash when planting and another sprinkling when the first flowers appear will keep them producing flowers and fruit. They need to be kept fairly well watered but once the loofahs have grown, you don't want a lot of rain because that will start mould growing in them. The young shoots are suitable for stir frying and the young fruit can be cooked like zucchini but they become hard and fibrous quickly and are then unsuitable for eating but great for washing yourself.

When the flowers turn into fruit and grow, wait until they go brown and start drying out. They can dry out completely on the vine but if you have a prolonged period of rain forecast it's best to pick them brown and not completely dry and leave them in a sheltered position to dry out completely.  When the skin is dry and brittle, you can crack them open, shake the seeds out, remove all the outer skin and soak them in a bucket of water to which you've added about quarter a cup of peroxide or a tablespoon of bleach. That will clean them up nicely and kill of any mould spores they might be hiding.

So these are the loofahs we picked in August. They'd been on the vine far too long so some of them were full of mould and had to be thrown on the compost.  The rest are fine and will keep us in loofahs for the year.

This is a Friday photo feature that anyone with a blog can join. To take part, post a photo on your own blog, write a short caption explaining it, and link it back to here from your blog by saying you're part of "On my mind". Please write a new post, don't link to an older one. When you've done that, come back here and add a comment below, with a link to your blog.

Today I'll be thinking about finding some cheap fresh fruit that I can use in my preserving class next week. I used those above earlier this year to make nectarine jam. Later today I'll do a blanket reply to everyone who wrote about my gmail account, and write to Google complaining that my account was hacked. If someone can get into my gmail, they could potentially gain access to my blog as well!  Tomorrow I hope to reply to a few of the hundred emails I owe. I get so many emails, I never have the time to answer all of them. If you're waiting for one and don't get it by tomorrow, I apologise for not replying.

And an update on my last week's On my mind, the little blue Sacred Kingfisher that slammed into my window last week survived. I've seen him again this week swooping through the garden looking for lizards. He's as good as gold.

Thank you for visiting this week and for the wonderful comments many of you left. I hope you have a beautiful weekend.

My gmail account was hacked today. I have about 100 emails and messages so far from people who received a bogus email supposedly from my email address. In fact the email comes from Turkey. Please be assured I have no virus on my computer - I have a Mac, they rarely pick up viruses. I've changed my password but I would imagine that the hacker has my address book. There are over a 1000 email addresses in there.  

I apologise if you're received one of these emails.  Don't reply to the email, just delete it. 

I have written quite a bit in the past about how homemaking and housework are looked down on by some and sometimes seen as a less than acceptable way to spend time. We have gone from valuing the homemaker and children being raised by a mother working at home while the father was bringing in a wage, to several decades of working couples and children in day care. Let me add that I'm not judging here, I value all people who work to give their family and themselves a good life. I believe the work we do helps makes us who we are but it isn't only paid work that forms character and builds self confidence, working in your home does that too. There is no right or wrong way to work - the vast majority of us are just doing what we have to do to reach our goals, whatever they may be.

I think this has been coming quietly for a while, but now there seems to be a distinct change in the air with people going back to basics, eating local and organic when they can and trying to cut out the chemicals, additives, preservatives and colourings in their lives. Thrift has made a come back and it looks like homemaking and housework are the next in line. Finally it's okay again to be a stay at home parent, or to enjoy spending weekends as a homemaker when the rest of the week has been spent in the corporate world. And both men and women are enjoying this freedom to be homebodies. Home is cool again.

For the past five years I have worked in my community at the Maleny Neighbourhood Centre. I was co-ordinator there until I left to write my book, and have returned there now to teach the skills of bread and soap making, fermenting, preserving, cooking from scratch, making laundry liquid and green cleaners and frugal living. Yesterday we had a wonderful bread making workshop where we made bread from scratch, then ate it with a cup of tea. We've also established a sewing circle and Crafternoon as well as a kitchen garden where we will soon teach how to grow organic vegetables, keep chickens and worms and to make compost. There is a lot of enthusiasm for the classes and it's made the Centre come alive with people connecting with us, their neighbours, and their own ambitions of working in their homes. There is a real interest in basic homemaking skills again. This is fundamental community development work and it's giving our people a feeling of empowerment, a sense of well being and confidence knowing that come what may, they are capable of looking themselves. It's such a priviledge for me to be part of it.

I hear stories all the time now about biscuits, cakes and bread being baked at home, mending being done, dress making and knitting. When we have our Crafternoons, some of the ladies bring along a cake to share for afternoon tea; this week's was made with black flour and wild raspberries. Many of these people are shopping at second hand shops, they're recycling and thinking about the consequences of their shopping and the packaging that comes with it. Cooking from scratch is popular again; the benefits of knowing what's in the food we eat is now more important than the convenience we used to buy. And all these actions are taking place at home; it seems to be okay again to be a homemaker and proud of it.

The good part about all this is that you don't need any special equipment, there is no must-have colour that is made exactly to your requirements. This is a change of mindset more than anything. To put it into action you just start buying ingredients instead of pre-cooked and processed foods, shop for, or grow, fresh vegetables and cook the way your grandma did. Stop buying cleaners and laundry products that look like they've been put together in a science lab. Buy ingredients - washing soda, bicarb, borax, soap and vinegar and make your own. They're effective and inexpensive. What you save can be paid off your mortgage or car loan or credit cards. Living like this will save you money, and it's not just for low income groups, it's for everyone.

Once you get yourself back into your home, whether that be on a full time basis, on the weekends or fitted around your paid work, there will be opportunities for you to express yourself, find satisfaction in the ordinary things and to build a simpler way of living. When you find your rhythm at home, you can slow down and relax more. This is a wonderful environment in which to raise children and develop yourself. Learning the skills you need to make your home the one place in the world where you feel comfortable and relaxed will also make you a different person; it did that for me. There is a lot to be said for looking after your own needs and doing it consistently with your own hands. Independence and confidence comes from that and if you have children, they will benefit from your sense of certainty and self assurance as well.

Our homes can be many things for each of us. They are where we retreat when we need to rest and recover and they're where we teach ourselves and our children the skills of living. But they're also our launching pads. Home is where we prepare ourselves to be in the outside world. So when you go to work or the kids go to school, if you're launched off on that journey having spent time in a nurturing home, you'll be the best you can be. And it all starts at home. Home, and the work done there, can be the making of us.


For those blog readers who live in other countries, the Australian Women's Weekly featured me in this month's edition. If you'd like to read the article, it's online now here.

It's strange, isn't it, how we drift through stages in our lives; how we enjoy doing something, then we go off it, and occasionally back to it again. I am drifting slowly back to ironing. Yes, it's a surprise to me too. It used to be one of the household tasks that I really didn't like and rarely did. I reorganised how we washed, hung and dried our clothes to avoid ironing. I  told myself I wasn't ironing because it saved electricity, but the truth of it was that I didn't like standing over a hot iron pressing clothes. 

I'm not a methodical ironer. I make sure the creases are out and that's about it. When I see advice to ironers about rolling up a towel to insert inside sleeves to iron them correctly, I wonder if anyone would fall for that.  Or use paper clips when ironing pleats! Life's too short. I do tend to take the washing from the line when it's still damp, or spray the clothes and roll them before I iron. That's what my mother and grandma did, so that's what I do.

I hate wasting time. Let me make it clear though, my time wasting doesn't include sitting on the front verandah staring into space, reading obscure books and websites, walking around aimlessly, drinking tea, casting 80 stitches on my needles, knitting a few rows, then unwinding it all, and re-starting. No, those activities are part of a normal week for me, they soothe my mind and remind me that I have the delicious luxury of time to do whatever I want and if my knitting is not as good as I want it to be, I can take more time with it. But sowing vegetable seeds that I leave too long before planting out or we have no use for, that, my friends, is a waste of time. 

Although we've been producing food in our backyard for the 14 years we've lived here, and in our old home before that, it's only in the last five or six years that I felt compelled to do it. I do it for a reason now, before it was a hobby and a way to eat fresh organic food without having to spend an arm and a leg to buy it. Now I believe we should use the land we live on, make it productive, remove ourselves from the passive food experience provided by  supermarkets and actively play a part in producing food for the table. That keeps us skilled and independent. We want to look after ourselves and do it for as long as possible.

So, we have a set group of vegetables we eat here and now that our family is growing, when they visit us or we visit them, we share the produce with them. Who knows, we may add a few new vegetables or new varieties in the coming seasons, but right now, we set and happy with what we grow. 

This is the potting box Hanno made for me last year. It comes in very handy when I'm potting a large number of seedlings - I don't waste potting mix and I have plenty of space to work in. You can see the long thin pots used to plant the tomato seedlings.  Below is the container of heirlooms planted up and set out in the morning sun.

One of our main crops is tomatoes. We have well and truly weaned ourselves off hybrid seeds and seedlings and grow only heirlooms or open pollinated seeds. My tomato of choice is the Brandywine. I love all the beefsteak tomatoes, but Brandywines are my favourite. We have a very heathy crop of tomatoes already producing in the garden and about 3 weeks ago I sowed a sprinkling of mixed heirloom tomatoes in a recycled plastic strawberry punnet, as our followup crop. They germinated and started growing well, and were ready for transplanting. I've found we get the best successes if we plant on the seedlings a couple of times - each time into a bigger container, before planting them in the garden. So yesterday, I did just that. To leave them any longer would have stressed them and the entire exercise would have been a waste of time.


These three photos are all of the same garden bed. The photo above was taken on 20 September, the photo below was taken yesterday, 13 days later, on 3 October.

I like to choose long pots so the roots can travel deep down. I use good quality potting mix that drains well and water in with seaweed tea and a weak worm tea. The seedlings will take a couple of days to recover from the transplant, then they'll grow strongly, with just a bit of water every second day.  In about three weeks, I'll pot them on again, this time giving them a drink of sulphate of pot ash and another weak worm tea. When the plants start forming flowers, they'll be planted in the garden.  When they're planted out, I bury the stem up to the first set of leaves - doing this will allows tomatoes to develop more roots and will therefore be stronger and produce more fruit.

I've put all the pots in a container so they don't fall over. The container is a recycled plastic vegetable crisper bin from an old fridge that Hanno drilled plenty of holes in it to let any excess water drain away. All the teas I add, and the sulphate of potash, are organic. I don't see the point of putting harsh chemicals and manufactured fertilisers on home grown plants. You might as well buy your produce at the shop. Try to grow organically. It will give you beautiful food that is healthy, you will know what you're eating and you'll keep your land alive and productive. If you use mulches like straw, lucerne, old grass clippings, shredded paper and compost, you'll be enriching the soil as you go - and that is the best way to produce food.

There are 23 mixed heirloom tomatoes growing out there now. I have no idea what they'll turn out to be but there are three potato leaf varieties so one of them may be a brandywine. We could also have yellow, orange, green or black tomatoes, as well as reds and pinks.  It's a real surprise packet.  Hanno will choose those he wants to plant out and I'll take the rest of them up to the Centre to be part of the kitchen garden we're starting there.

The photo above is the St Pierre tomato on the day it was planted in the pot - 23 September. Below is the same tomato ten days later, 3 October. 

Tomatoes are one of the plants we can all grow. They'll even grow in a large pot, hessian bag or a bag of potting soil that has drainage holes in it.  I have potted a French heirloom called St Pierre in a large terracotta pot and it's doubled in size in two weeks. The St Pierre is a medium sized beefsteak variety with "superior flavour".  I'm looking forward to trying it. If you're in a flat or apartment and want to grow something, try one tomato. If you live alone, or are a couple, one good tomato plant will keep you in tomatoes for a couple of months.

If you've never eaten homegrown tomatoes, or heirlooms, be prepared for a delightful surprise. They're unlike anything you'll get at the supermarket and they may just lure you further into the wonderful world of home produced food.  There is nothing better for lunch than a sandwich made with your own baked bread, home grown tomatoes, a bit of vinegar, salt and pepper and maybe a soft boiled egg on the side. Add to that a cup of black tea or a fresh fruit juice and you have a lunch before you fit for the Queen.

Every year at this time I bring in some of my orchids. Most of the year they sit on a shelf in our bush house being supported to new growth by humidity and frequent waterings. They love it there but I am the only person who sees them. So it will come as no surprise to you to know that when they burst into flower, the terracotta container is cleaned, a suitable saucer found and they come inside and sit on the kitchen bench. Visitors say how beautiful they are and they are talked about and admired. They last about four weeks, then, as the flowers start dropping, I take them back to the bush house where they sit for another year to wait for the next orchid season.

Seasons also give us different tastes at certain times of the year. Yesterday morning I was outside watering the fruit trees and noticed the grape and passionfruit vines starting to put on new leaves. Soon there will be grapes and passionfruit, along with bananas and salad and Mediterranean vegetables like eggplant, capsicums/peppers, cucumbers, chillies and corn - all fruit and vegetables that only grow here in their season. Eating according to the  season is wise; most produce is cheaper and fresher in season, and the taste is at its finest.

We have seasons in our lives too. As we grow and mature, there are times when we're really busy, when we're ambitious and work hard for every success, when we have children to raise, when we are the important role models for our children and when we can rest a bit more and enjoy what we've achieved.

Don't rush your seasons. Enjoy what they offer, really take in each smell and taste, watch the changing world around you and enjoy the falling leaves and the rain as much as the sunshine. While your children are growing, make the most of it. This is when you get to build strong bonds with them, to spend time with them, to show your love as much as talking about it, and to guide them towards being the kind of person you hope they'll become. Build for now and for the future. Don't rush it. Complexity takes its own time.

You may be in one of the busy seasons, or in a difficult one, but be assured it will not last forever. We all have seasons that have use-by dates on them, the trick is to make the most of every one of them. Whatever you do now, however tough it is, it will build your life and be part of your future. Because even though you rarely think of these things when you're young, what you do today, is an investment in what will come later. And that can be full and enriched or empty and lonely, or any measure of those in between. You will reap what you sow.

But don't forget to enjoy the raspberries and orchids and asparagus and two year olds and 16 year olds, in their season, along the way. They don't last long.

There are so many inspirational and motivating posts around - all these innovative ideas and new ways of doing old things. It really helps keep me on track and to remain focused on our values and common goals. I don't always have the time to look around the blog world but when I do, from now on, I'll take a note of those posts that I think are particularly outstanding and share them with you on the weekends; either Saturday or Sunday, depending on when I can do it.

I expect Nita @ Throwback at Trapper Creek will make a regular appearance in these lists because she regularly writes strong valuable posts. This week's post and video on growing potatoes is a good example of her intelligent down-to-earth principles.

pigeon pair is teaching a lesson in perseverance and fishbone knitting. I've never seen this stitch before but I think it will be perfect for a cowl.

One flew over is my favourite new (to me) blog. Looking at her knitting, crochet and sewing reinforces for me the value of using good quality materials in our home crafts. Kate's Douceur just took my breath away. I am definitely making that for myself soon.

Amanda Brooke's blog has been mentioned many times here as I think she is an amazing woman, mother and business owner. Amanda has written a wonderful post on making a simple prefold nappy/diaper using a flannel pillowcase. Amanda's pillowcases came from the thrift shop for 75 cents. I am teaching a Frugal Parenting workshop a the Centre soon and this tutorial will be in my list of online sites that new and expectant parents should visit.

And just so the fellas don't feel left out, at The Year of Mud, they're installing terracotta floor tiles (with pictures). If you've ever had dreams of building your own earth-friendly home from scratch, read through the back posts because I'm sure you'll be amazed and inspired.

This is a Friday photo feature that anyone with a blog can join. To take part, post a photo on your own blog, write a short caption explaining it, and link it back to here from your blog by saying you're part of "On my mind". Please write a new post, don't link to an older one. When you've done that, come back here and add a comment below, with a link to your blog.