I continue to have a sprinkling of emails every week asking for tips on how to start living a simpler life or how to continue once the first step has been taken. I thought it might be a helpful exercise to list some tasks and skills that might help you move towards simplicity or to remain on the path. But it's not that simple. We all live in different ways. Age, or the stage of life you're at, will determine more than anything else how you're living your life right now. For instance, those of you in your teens and early twenties will probably be living differently than those in their late twenties and early thirties who have young children. People in their late thirties and into their forties, whose children who have grown, will be different again. Those my age, will have different priorities and goals.

However, there is a a loose framework we can be guided by and that involves looking at:

You will find that when you look at all of these areas, as they relate directly to your own life, that each of them is linked to the others and the way you do one of them will impact on all the other areas.

If you're not growing your own food, the best way to go is to eat seasonally. Eating what is in season will give you the freshest and possibly the cheapest food. It is really difficult to know what is in season when you're shopping at a mainstream supermarket because most of the fruit and vegetables will look fresh, even when they're not. Often their apples will be months old and just out of storage, tomatoes and eggs might be weeks old and if you're not a gardener yourself it's difficult to tell the signs to look for. If you can, shop at local markets and ask the seller when the produce was picked. If you can't do that, and supermarkets are your only option, do some research on what is in season in your area, and also be guided by price. When it's tomato season, they're cheaper. When berries or bananas are in season, they're cheaper. In winter, when cabbages and kale thrive, they're cheaper.

If you can, buy organic produce. If you can't buy all organic, buy what you can and be happy with that.

Cook from scratch. This will cut out all sorts of preservatives, artificial colourings and flavourings. If you don't cook at all, start with two simple recipes that you know will fit well into your lifestyle. When you're comfortable with them, add two more. You don't have to do all or nothing. Small steps towards your goal will work well.

If you're still out there wandering through shops looking for things to buy, stop. Having more will not make you happier, more fulfilled or the envy of your friends. It will just use up the money you work hard for. You'd be wiser to use that money on paying off your debts.

Take control of your shopping, cut down on the times you go to the shops; if you shop weekly for groceries, go fortnightly instead. The more you're in the shops, the more you'll spend. Plan your menus, stockpile groceries and don't waste food. Cook from scratch - it is cheaper. Use your leftovers. Get rid of disposable products. Make a conscious decision not to use plastic bags or bottles. Instead of buying the numerous expensive commercial products in the cleaning aisle, buy white vinegar in bulk (at least two litres/quarts at a time), bicarb, laundry soap, borax, washing soda - also known as soda crystals, soda ash or calcium carbonate, and learn more about green cleaning. (I'll have more on this tomorrow.)

Make up a budget and stick to it. Reading a sentence like that when I was a shopper would have made me cringe. I know better now. Now I know it's just a tool that helped me get my life back. I have some posts on budgeting and using the envelope system to help me organise myself. It's really liberating to get this part of your life under control and to be able to ignore advertising, turn your back on fashionable flim flam and be your true self.

When the penny drops and you realise that everything you buy will cost the hours of your life you spent earning that money, you will be ready go to the next level and work out a plan to get out of debt as quickly as possible. Being debt free means you're not beholding to any one or any bank. When you walk away from mindless consumerism and pay that last payment on your mortgage or credit cards, it will be one of the most memorable times of your life. On that day you will become a genuine independent and you'll live better and breathe easier because of it. Being debt free means that you don't have to make life decisions based on money. You can cut down your working hours if that is what you wish to do or you can continue working to save for travel or those things that are really important to you.

This post is getting to be quite long so I'll finish the rest of the list tomorrow.

What I hope I've demonstrated here is that moving to a simpler life means you take control of your own life and move into the driver's seat. Simple living is not passive. It requires that you make decisions and act on them. You will no longer be driven by what others have but by what you want and need instead. It usually involves more work but it is work that brings many rewards and is life affirming and enriching. But if you "get" it, if you can open up the elements of your life and really examine them, if you develop routines and a daily rhythm to this life work, if you can turn you back on what you're constantly told you want and want only what you need, then you will build a life like no other.

I think one of the most important, and certainly one of my most frequently used home skills, is bread making.  It is important in that it allows us to have a good wholesome lunch most days that, with the addition of our backyard salads, or some local cheese or even a scrape of Vegemite, is food fit for the most queenly of queens.  I have had the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes book for a few months now but I've been under-whelmed by it.  It gives what look to be good recipes but it doesn't inspire me to rush out and make them.  I will get back to sour doughs soon, I do believe they have an important place in my kitchen, but until this batch of yeast runs out and I perfect a good starter, I'm sticking to my yeasted recipe.

This recipe is really just an adjustment of my white bread one - it's four cups of flour, bubbling yeast, warm water, sugar and salt.  You could even leave out the sugar and salt if you wished, but they do add flavour.  Rye flour contains a small amount of gluten, therefore the bread doesn't rise as much as a white loaf does.  To help with the rising, I add half a cup of unbleached white baker's flour.  It gives the loaf a bit of a spring.

RECIPE

Into your breadmaker, place 3½ cups rye flour, ½ cup unbleached white baker's flour and the salt.  When the yeast cup is frothy, add that and the rest of the water, slowly.  Turn on the machine and let it mix.  Feel the dough.  You always have to do this and you should learn what a good dough feels like.  If the dough feels too dry, or if there is still some dry flour in the bucket that hasn't mixed in, add a very small amount of water to help it mix in.  If the dough is too sticky you may need a small amount of additional flour. Feel it again and watch it mix.  The flour and water should come together well and not be sticking to the sides of the bucket.  You will notice as it kneads, the smoother the dough becomes.  What you want at the end is a smooth and elastic dough that springs back when you poke your finger in it.  BTW, this recipe is fine when made by hand as well.

When the timer tells you the dough cycle is finished, take the dough out and put it on a lightly floured clean bench. Knead it for a minute to put yourself into it and form it into the shape you like.  Rye dough is very easy to shape and it should hold itself free-form, so you don't have to use a bread tin, but you can if you want to.

 For every grain there is a seed that complements and enhances its flavour.  For rye, that seed is the caraway.  If you intend making rye bread, do yourself a favour and find some caraway seeds.  Brush the top of the dough with water and sprinkle on your seeds.  Place in a warm position to rise.  When the dough is the size you want, place it into your preheated very hot oven (as hot as your oven will go), then turn it down to about 190 - 200C / 375 - 390F.  Bake for about 20 minutes or until you smell the bread and it looks cooked.

I experimented with this flour for a week or so, starting of with half white and half rye.  The recipe above is the one we thought was the best.  However, like every recipe, I hope you experiment with it and suit it exactly to your taste.  I think recipes are just a starting point, they're there to show you how, and if you know what to look for, particularly when you're making bread, it should be quite easy for  you to adjust the recipe to suit yourself.

Happy baking everyone.

I am in a bit of a rush this morning so I'll just share some photos I took on the weekend as well as some I have taken recently but have not yet shown.  As you know we celebrated Shane's birthday at Shane and Sarndra's home on Sunday.

Sarndra is smiling brightly for me while the others are more interested in the delicious lunch they made for us.

When we finished our steak and salads, there was rich chocolate cake and lemon meringue pie to have with coffee and tea. Lemon pie recipe is here.  It was a wonderful afternoon.  The flat that Shane and Sarndra share in Brisbane reminds me of flats I shared with Hanno in our early marriage. There is furniture passed on by family members, as well as pieces from thrift shops, and not enough bench space for food preparation in the kitchen. But it's clean and tidy and there is a feeling of contentment there; they know small steps and sustainability are important and haven't gone into debt to get everything they want immediately.  They have each other, they're working hard on the rest, and they're very happy.  It makes me happy to be a part of it.

When we were ready to go home I took this photo of Shane and Kerry in the flat's cark park.  Right at the back, Shane has built a little vegetable and herb garden.  He's growing tomatoes, lettuce, strawberries and an assortment of herbs.  Naturally, the chefs have to check out the fresh produce.

Now I have some older photos taken in the past month.

First we have these two old boys who just happened to wander by late one afternoon.  I was sitting at my laptop, writing, I looked up to see two peacocks!  I think they two young brothers.  They hadn't yet grown their spectacular tail feathers, but they very beautiful nonetheless.

And this cute kookaburra was sitting on our back fence last week.  He looks young too.  That light patch on his wing is blue. He is one of the famous laughing kookaburras that sound like mad laughter when they call.  Kookaburras are in the kingfisher family.

I took this photo when my sister Tricia was staying with us last month.  She was making a beautiful quilt that, in this photo, she is piecing together - backing and wadding to the front.

And finally, we have Hanno making sandwiches with last week's rye bread.  Avocado and tomato on rye with a cup of black tea - a plain and honest lunch, but very tasty and available because of the work we both do.  I will be writing a post on making rye bread tomorrow.  I hope to see you again then.

I am looking forward to a bright and productive week for all of us.

Today we're in the Australian bush to see where Carole works.  With changing scenery like this most days, and mail coming in from all over the place, who could complain about going to work.

Carole writes:

This is the sorting room in our little post office.All the parcels are for me to sort into streets and which side of town they are to go to, I deliver these when I get back from the bush. The little pigeon holes are waiting to be filled with mail from the row of letters that await.Some days it is "where do I start"!! but of course there is a routine and rhythm otherwise it just does not work.The bundles of catalogues you can see are also delivered to the country households the towns people get theirs in the local paper.

The second picture is of why it is pure joy to go to work, while the roads are shocking,full of potholes and corrugations, the scenery is to die for. I go past this little waterfall each day, on my blog it shows it flooded. The road you can see is one of the better ones I drive on and yes my car is 4 wheel drive or I would not get to the farms. Lambing time and foaling time is the most joyful as we watch the little ones born and grow until we can't tell the mums from bubs anymore. The best part of my job is I can take my 89 year old Mum with me and she thrives on it all.The bumps at times make an interesting ooh and ahh time but all worth it.I am back home at lunch time and still have time to do other things."

Click here for Carole's blog.

I clearly remember that split second I became a mother.  Lying in a labour ward in Germany, in a hospital far, far away from my home, this tiny baby came into my life and changed me forever.  It is true to say that I was reborn on that day.  So now here we all are, with an ocean of water having flowed under a hundred bridges, celebrating Shane's thirtieth birthday.  I don't think I looked ahead much when I was younger but now as I look back I see a young woman who didn't have much of a clue, who stumbled along and learned from her mistakes and who hoped that everything would work out fine. It did.  I can say now with razor sharp conviction, that I couldn't be prouder of my sons.  I look at them and wonder, with the potential for so much to go wrong, how did they come to be so right.  Of course, that is a mothers love and pride talking but I'm sure all the parents here understand.

We will gather in Brisbane to celebrate with Shane and Sarndra on Sunday.  A simple lunch of homemade fresh food, with most people bringing something to contribute, lots of it gathered from backyard gardens, including Shane and Sarndra's, with all of us siting together around that symbol of hospitality and family, the kitchen table.  It's such an age old scene - a family gathered to celebrate an important milestone - sitting together, eating, drinking, talking, reconnecting and strengthening family ties.


Rituals such as this make families stronger.  They take time and thought but they are worth every ounce of effort you put into them.  Just as having a family sitting around a table for evening meals leads to a closeness that facilitates family love and communication, when children are older, the ties that bind are upheld and preserved by celebrating family rituals like birthdays, weddings, new babies and anniversaries.  Everyone can become as involved as they want to be.  They either come along and enjoy the get-together or they bring food or wine, or help set up and clean up.  All of it brings a family together for a common purpose.


Never let yourself be convinced that family celebrations don't matter.  It's easy to say we'll do something next year or we're too busy but when you do that you miss the chance to express love and caring and to show that of all the things you could be doing, this is THE most important.  That expression of love has real meaning - the face to face contact, the hugs and kisses, the helping, listening to family stories as the washing up is done and all the small things you can do in person, they are remembered and each year are built upon. 


Our celebrations are even more special now that we have two amazing women who have come into our family as our sons' partners.  We are learning their stories too, getting to know their families and are carefully piecing our families together.  This is important work, it is building a secure framework in which children will be born and will grow to continue these family traditions.  Strong family ties don't always happen naturally.  They need to be helped along and nurtured because without them we just become a group of people who happen to share the same name.  That's not good enough for me.  I want all the Mrs Hetzels and all the Mr Hetzels, and everyone we care for and love, to be seated around that big kitchen table celebrating all the good times together, because if we do that, we will be strong enough to withstand the bad times together.

I was quite overwhelmed by the response to my last post, both here in the comments and in emails.  Thank you all for your concern, love and support. I spent a lot of time thinking about this and I am now of the belief that the death of my friends is revealing to me that life must be really lived in each waking moment and to do anything less would be the greatest deprivation.  It is a valuable reminder as I move into my mid-60s and I am determined to make sure I don't waste too much time and to do my best and be my best as much as I can.  

It is not the custom in Australia to speak of our religious beliefs - it is generally a personal and private thing, and although I know there is a lot of interest in whether or not I'm a Christian, that is known to only my family and those closest to me.  As always, I honour the differing beliefs of those I know, including the many Christians here, but I will remain with my custom of not speaking of such things in public.

Please keep Sharon and her family in your thoughts and prayers. Sharon is still in intensive care, she now has a collapsed lung as well, so it's important that we send her our love and support.

While all this is going on, Hanno, the constant in my life, continues to work towards our combined well being by producing delicious organic food for our table.  He dug up another bucket full of potatoes and I got a few photos for you of how he prepares the garden bed for the next crop.

And finally, but by no means least, today is my beautiful son Shane's 30th birthday.  I'll talk to him on the phone later today but we'll see him and his wife Sarndra at their home on Sunday where we'll celebrate this milestone with his brothers and the rest of the family. Shane has requested that I bring his favourites - lemon meringue pie and chocolate cake, so I'll be baking them on Saturday for Sunday's party.  Happy birthday Shane!  ♥ ♥ ♥

Please be warned that this is a dark and reflective post.  If you're feeling a bit sad yourself, you might want to skip this one.

Life has not been all that good lately.  While I have so much to be thankful for there have been things that have made me very sad and I have been questioning my mortality and how I fit into the overall scheme.  Bernadette's death was devastating and while it was expected, it shocked me and has made me go over the many conversations we had just prior to her death.  Tomorrow I will go to the funeral of another good friend.  Jack died in an horrific accident last week, the last person you would expect to died so suddenly, he was like a rock and a friend to many of the homeless people I deal with at my voluntary job.  In fact, that is how we met.  He was leading the St Vincent de Paul charity and we met because we had the same clients and could help each other.  Jack will have a police honour guard at his funeral.  He was a police inspector before his retirement.  I was talking to Jack last week, teasing him about how he didn't need a holiday, then two days later he died. 

It's so sudden.  We really don't know.  I know that's a cliché and I have thought about this before, but this time, it's really hit home, that me or anyone I love might not be here next week.  And what really amazes me is that life goes on just as before like nothing has happened!  I tell you it's been a real wake up for me.  I'm generally laid back but I have this feeling now that stays with me, I guess it's insecurity or uncertainty.  Whatever it is I don't like it, it wakes me in the middle of the night and in the silence of my bedroom, my mind races through a million scenarios; I sleep in stages and wake up exhausted.

The one thing that seems to help is to feel the permanence of my home.  With Hanno here working beside me, I feel steady, secure and safe but outside, well, when I'm out I feel that maybe I won't get home again.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not having panic attacks and I'm not fearful of dying, I feel uncertain and I'm questioning everything.  Nothing is predictable, in fact it's the opposite. I think I'm sailing on smooth seas, but I know now that's untrue.

I guess the transitory nature of life has been revealed to me close up and personal.  I want to get back to a feeling of security.  I don't want to deny the nature of life - I do know the only certainty we have is that we'll die, but I want to be comfortable with that knowledge again.  Like I was before.  Maybe this has hit me because I am getting older.  I can see things I never saw before, I no longer feel like that bullet-proof larrikin I was when I was 30 years younger.  I knew then, with unfailing certainty, that I could tempt fate, be reckless and walk on a razor's edge and that I would come out on the other side just as sure as sunrise.  Yep, I knew that then, but now I know different things.  Now I am lost in uncertainty.  Time has caught up with me.  

Tick tock.

Okay, so what do I know for sure.  I know Hanno, he is a constant.  Tick.  I am sure of the love of my family and friends. Tick. I know I love my home, it nurtures me and makes me strong enough for all that I do. Tick.  I love the work of my home, it validates who I am. Tick. I know that when I knit it connects me to all my ancestors, washing up does that too; gardening reconnects me to all that is natural in this world.  That warms my heart and helps me know that those activities, while seeming simple have power and significance. I know my home, and all the work we do here,  while helping us live the life we have chosen, also make us the people we are. We are guided by daily activities but we are shaped by them too. Tick.

Writing this has made me realise this is a stage of life.  Just as feeling immortal when you're 20 and thinking you can do anything in your 30, this is a stage I am going through to prepare me for what will come later.  It's preparing me for death.  Now, I don't think I will die soon (but I could), I'm very healthy, and I certainly want to live until I'm 90 or so.  We have longevity in our family so I hope that is my destiny.  But what this is doing is preparing me.  Life would not prepare us all in certain stages and desert us in others. So just as we are given that bravado when we're 30 so we develop the confidence to be our true selves and really live every day, this fear is sent to indicate mortality, to slow us down and make us think of probabilities. Eureka! I love being the age I am.  I still feel young and only know my age when I see myself in a mirror or I cannot walk up stairs like I used to.  But maybe the loss of physical strength is replaced by something like wisdom.

I have sorted out quite a few things by writing about them.  I hope these thoughts are not too personal to share with you; it is not my intention to alarm anyone.  I guess this is a very selfish post, one, maybe, that would have been better written in a more private space.  But now it's here and I'm not moving it.  Hopefully it will help others going through something similar who, like me, think they're losing it.  I'm pretty sure that by tomorrow as I get ready for Jack's funeral, I'll have hidden these feelings again and deal with the remnants of them in my dark and silent bedroom, or I'll talk it out with Hanno over morning tea on the verandah.  Or maybe I just need time - that general panacea of getting up in the morning and living through each day to reveal again the incredible beauty of it all.  Could time be the answer?  Is it that simple?

I'm happy to tell you that although Sharon is not out of the woods yet, she's showing some signs of improvement.  She's still in ICU, with all the bits and pieces attached to her, but it looks like she turned the corner.  Her family was overwhelmed at the outpouring of support and love for Sharon here on the blog.  You might have noticed that Sarah, her daughter, left us a note of thanks in with the comments.  Sharon's husband, Claude, sent a couple of emails yesterday to keep me up to date with her progress and to thank you all for your prayers and good wishes.  Please keep Sharon and her family in your thoughts during this period of recovery. 

Hanno and I kept ourselves busy during the past few days.  I never understand when retirees say they're bored and there's nothing to do.  We took a little trip in the car down to Ipswich, a city close to our State capital, last week.  I have to tell you that road from Brisbane to Ipswich is very scary.  It's narrow, curvy and has a lot of B double trucks speeding along.  I was pleased we came home along the back road with little traffic and a lot of beautiful scenery.  I sat there with my knitting as we ambled along, just gazing at the passing parade. Life moves slowly along the back roads, it's more to my pace. We passed through a little town called Toogoolawah on that backroad.  It's typical of small Australian country towns now in that it had a pub, a grocery store, newsagent, garage and a few antique shops and not much else.  But they did have an old movie theatre and in the great Australian style of Saturday night pictures, which we all used to call it, they showed The Prince of Persia and Marmaduke this Saturday night just gone.  The Prince of Persia could easily have been an old film from the 1940s, starring Victor Mature or Van Johnson, but it was a new film, with people I'd never heard of.  I'm sure everyone enjoyed it though - a treat for the whole family at the end of the week.

We always look for road side stalls to buy those vegetables and fruit that we don't grow ourselves.  Hanno found a little stall with reasonable pumpkins, and although their sign advertised Granny Smith apples for $2.99, he said they weren't worth buying.  That turned out to be good for us because when he went to the farmers market yesterday, he found a fairly local grower with superb Delicious, Pink Lady and Granny Smith apples and they were $1.99/kilo.  And, all picked in the last week.  We shared a very big Delicious apple, one bigger than any I have seen for years.  Hanno said the farmer told him he grows for Woolworths (a big grocery chain here) and they were too big for them.  They all have to be a regulation size, so these beauties were rejected.  I shouldn't complain, because we benefited from their short sightedness, but it's insane to pick fruit for size and not for flavour and freshness.

When we came home, we closed the gate and settled back in together here, in our home, growing, sewing, making, relaxing, knitting and living the good life.  I did some sweet baking to keep us going for our morning teas over the next week and last night I cooked curried prawns and rice for our dinner.

Yesterday afternoon I made a fleece coat for Alice.  I had some old fleece given to me by my DIL Cathy.  She had a throw-out a year or so ago and asked if I wanted to look through it.  I found a number of pieces that I've used for fund-raising aprons and bits and pieces here, and now Alice has a coat.  Now that she's old, she's not covered by hair as much as she was in the past and she's lost weight in the past year.  I'm sure she'll like wearing her coat at night while she sleeps.  I used a doubled over piece of fleece, cut the fabric after I drew the pattern with tailor's chalk, and used old cotton tapes to keep it on her.  It's simple but it looks like it keeps her warm, and I think I heard her whisper that she likes the stars.

It will be another busy and productive week for us here. Hanno found some good rye flour at the shop last week so I'll be making rye bread today.  Hopefully I'll have photos for you tomorrow. We have a lemon tree full of fruit waiting to be picked and juiced and Hanno has some seedlings to plant out.  I am hoping to do a couple of hours knitting today as I want to finish Hanno's jumper off before it's too late this year to wear it.  I've almost finished the front and just have the two sleeves to go.  I hope you have an interesting and productive week too.  If you have time, let me know what you're up to.