Sometimes readers ask me how I keep going and why housework isn't boring for me.  It is boring sometimes but boredom doesn't stop me from doing anything. I keep going because of the rewards I get from doing my house work - it gives me the life I want. There are a lot of things we have to take responsibility for when we're adults and one of them is creating a home that you feel comfortable in. If you don't have the drive to regularly do the work that gives you that home, push yourself.  If you keep at it you'll see the benefits and the work you do in your home will change you. It did that for me. It made me slower, more generous and thoughtful and I'm glad for that.

Cleaning up the kitchen.

When you get stuck in, you'll be surprised that it doesn't take much to make a really warm and comfy home. Nothing has to be perfect, it just has to be to the standard that makes you feel comfortable. And remember, housework never ends. So when you have enough, stop and come back to it the next day. The sky won't fall in and you'll feel better for it.

I think you'd be surprised at how much you can get done in a short time.  For instance, when I'm waiting for the kettle to boil or the toast to cook, I clear the kitchen bench. If I still have time, I wipe the bench too. If the bench is already clean but the kitchen bin is full, I empty it. If you have 15 minutes to spare, empty everything out of the fridge, wipe the shelves and put it back in. It's a good habit to get into the day before you do the grocery shopping. 

I've got a couple of meal ideas for you today. I had these two meals this week and they're ideal for one or two or five or ten. If, like me, you're living alone, the ravioli bake makes four portions, the omelette makes two. 

Ravioli Bake

This will take less than an hour to cook. You can put it all together and have it ready to cook in the fridge and just heat it up when you come home from work. It will be ready in about 20 minutes.  Just enough time to make a nice salad. 

When you freeze the leftovers, put it in a container already cut into portions but without them touching so you can remove them easily if you only want one piece. I had one on the day of cooking, the second portion the following day and I froze two portions for next week. 

Buy a bag of ravioli or make a batch of ravioli. I bought a bag because I wanted this to be a fast meal.

Make a tomato sauce. I made mine with a 400ml bottle of tomato passata that was on special that week. I fried off an onion, half a capsicum/pepper, diced two sticks of celery and added oregano and parsley from the garden.  Season with salt and pepper and cook for 20 minutes.

Add the uncooked ravioli to a small oven-proof dish and pour the tomato sauce over it. Sprinkle on some cheese if you like it. and bake in the oven at 180C until the top is golden. Mine took 20 minutes.

Spanish Omelette 

This recipe takes two eggs per serve. I used four eggs and it served me for two days.

Peel a medium potato and slice it into thickish slices. Microwave for four minutes and cool.

Use a non-stick frying pan you can put in the oven. Add a tablespoon of olive oil, sliced onions, capsicums/peppers, garlic and any vegetable you have in the fridge or backyard. I picked baby silverbeet/chard and added that after the onions and peppers were cooked.  Remove the vegetables and keep the pan on the stove.

Break the eggs into a bowl, add salt and pepper and about a quarter cup of cream.  If you want a spicy version, add some chilli flakes. Pour that into the frying pan, add the vegetables - potatoes and onion mix - making sure they're distributed well over the top of the eggs. 

Cook on the stove top on medium heat for five minutes then put the pan in a preheated oven at 180C. Cook in the oven until the top is golden and the eggs are set. 

I used a small frying pan - 150mm and I cut the omelette in two for two meals. I like this when it's cooled rather than hot from the oven.

Here is my constant companion. Gracie and I sit out on the front verandah most afternoons and watch the world go by. She's an easy dog to live with. She likes to stay by my side but does go a bit mental running around the house with a lamb fleece in her mouth.  It's her seventh birthday on Wednesday. How time flies.

Of all the simple pleasures waiting for us in our homes, my favourite is sleeping on newly washed sheets that have been dried in the sun. Last night I drifted off into a deep sleep, cuddled by warm sheets smelling of sunshine. Bliss! Sometimes these small simple pleasures are what keep you going on hard days. Having the capacity and awareness to plan your days, your budget and to keep yourself focused on your goals. Being able to sit down to a good meal cooked from scratch, or to defrost one from your stash of meals that you keep exactly for such a day. Enjoying what you have right there in your home and working to a routine and rhythm that carries you through each day without having to think what comes next. They are some of the simple pleasures I've built into my life.

I can't say I've had a busy couple of weeks. I worked steadily on decluttering, started building a flower garden on the front verandah, I cooked and cleaned and watched YouTube. I clipped Gracie and removed a large bucket full of her thick black fur. But at the end of the clipping, I got tired and so did she so I didn't get around to doing her head or legs. When I look at her legs now she's got a kind of poodle cut - smooth body with puff balls on her legs and head.  LOL. I hope to finish the job tomorrow and bring back a more balanced look. 

Here she is!  Gracie with her French poodle cut. Eek!

Like the rest of you, I've been horrified by the wild fires in America and Europe and the house fires in London. Seeing family homes and wild habitats burn is heartbreaking.  All those years of building a house and creating a home - for humans and wildlife, gone. It must be the strongest reminder to us all that we have to change the way we live or those weather extremes will become part of our "normal" world. We all have to start at home, doing what we can to stop spending, cutting down on the use of single-use plastics, saving water and energy and simplifying everything we can while we still live a good life. It can be done. 

I hope you're well and safe.  Covid is a big problem again in Australia so I've been staying at home and wearing a mask when I go out.  Take care.  xx

Things are going well here. I'm slowly working through a few projects, sorting through things I no longer need or want and each day I look back on what I've done to help create a future so different to the one I thought I'd live. It's amazing how many things I had here that just sat in a drawer or cupboard, had no purpose and just took up space. What I'm doing now should have been done years ago. Every day I declutter, the happier and more satisfied I feel.

My goal is to keep the comfortable and functional feel of my home without stripping it bare or throwing out things I'll need in the future. I brought a little trolley inside and when I fill it, I leave it for 24 hours before the items are placed in the rubbish bin, the recycle bin or given to someone I know. So far this is working well and I've retrieved only two things from the trolley and kept them.  I'll never have a minimalistic home, I love my home but I want to rid myself of things that weigh me down: old clothes, books and the appliances and items that helped me do the work I once did. I'm still living simply but I'm no longer making bread because I've found an excellent ancient grains loaf at my local bakery that serves me well. It takes about 10 days to eat one loaf. I no longer make my soap but I'm still making laundry liquid. I no longer preserve as much in jars as I did in the past but I'm still making bread and butter cucumbers, tomato relish, chilli jam, and a variety of fruit cordials. So my Fowlers preserving equipment is gone but I still have a good range of jars and bottles.

I want to use everything in my home. I don't want to keep too many things that aren't functional. To help with that aim, I've moved most of my "good dinner set" from the dresser to the drawer under the stove. The Villeroy and Boch Petite Fleur set that Hanno gave me for my 50th birthday is now used every day.  I did reverse the trend though because I bought a new kettle. My old one had been very dodgy for months. Some days it would work, some days I wouldn't. It went to the bin early last week when I had visitors and it wouldn't turn on to make coffee. 😡 I replaced it with an on-stove old fashioned kettle.

It may not look it but I've decluttered the kitchen too. Lots of glasses, plates, mugs, a slow cooker, bread machine, pots and pans have been recycled. This kitchen is 25 years old, we ripped out the old kitchen when we came here. I designed this kitchen and we got a local cabinet maker to make and install it.  It's seen thousands of meals produced and it's still a great place to work.

This is the first drawer under the stove - easy to reach when cooking. 

I'm also concentrating on building safety into my new life. As I'll be alone a lot of the time, I decided to buy an Apple watch (second hand) which will help me if I fall. The watch can detect hard falls and when it does will it will either ask: "Did you fall?" or show it on the watch screen and if you choose or say "yes", the watch will dial 000 for an ambulance to come and help you. If you don't reply after a fall, it will dial 000 immediately. The other day I was cleaning some mats on the back verandah and I was dropping a mat on its side to remove dirt and my watch asked if I'd fallen. I must have been holding the mat edge as it hit the cement. But all I had to do was say "no" and everything continued on as normal.

We also have these motion sensor night lights, Hanno bought them about 18 months ago. They're great if you wake up to go to the toilet and don't want to turn on a bright light. They're battery operated and you position them around the house in places you walk at night. We have one in the bedroom so when someone starts moving in the middle of the night, it turns itself on. It's a very soft light not like an overhead light. They're also helpful when visitors stay overnight and don't know where the lights are if they go to the toilet in the middle of the night. As soon as they open the bedroom door, the light comes on. We have them in the bathrooms and all along the corridors. You can buy them at Bunnings, Etsy and Amazon. Batteries last a long time. In the 18 months we've had ours, I've replaced the batteries once.

For those of you who ask about Gracie, here she is sitting on her new outdoor bed. She went through a stage of wandering around looking for Hanno but now she just follows me everywhere.  When I sit on the front verandah having tea, reading or listening to the radio, she's always with me. We're having a very cold winter this year so I gave her this little sponge mattress to sit on. Usually she lays on it but here's an unusual sight - Gracie sitting down.  She usually stands or lays down with her legs pushed out the back. She is such a cute and tender soul. I don't know what I'd do without her now.

I've been gardening this week too. I've planted lettuce, radishes, pansies, yarrow and penstemons, moved my Welsh onions and some roses and pulled out a lot of oregano that was taking over the herb garden.  Today I'll be adding more manure and organic fertiliser, watering and filling my new garden waste bin with clippings piled high by Tricia when she was here. It's a bit odd going into July without our big vegetable garden, it's was a big part of our lives for years, but it feels right to be keeping a small number of plants and growing all the herbs I eat.

The main thing is that I feel okay and optimistic. I want to keep working at maintaining my simply life. I never want to be sitting at the computer or watching TV all day.  What a waste! I want to live, not just watch others live. It's important for me to connect to you via my blog because it keeps me writing and provides the best record of my life as it is now. Blogs will become more frequent but I won't return to daily blog posts or the Weekend Reading list.  Instead, I'll write when I have something to say and drop in interesting links if and when I find them.  Like these:

• ‘Disturbing’: weedkiller ingredient tied to cancer found in 80% of US urine samples
• Not just what it says on the tin: the best recipes for canned fruit
• Honey trap: is there a downside to the boom in beekeeping?

I hope you have a wonderful weekend. ♥️