A Joyful Keeper

Okay, ages ago, I mean like weeks, months, maybe even years…  Tracy asked me for my Tuna Casserole recipe. Sorry Tracy to take so long… but here it is, finally!!

Tuna Casserole serves 4-6

1/2 cup shredded cheese

1 cup crushed cornflakes (or breadcrumbs)

1 x 450g can tuna in brine

4 level tbsps butter

4 level tbsps flour

2 cups milk

1 medium onion, chopped

1 cup cooked peas or corn

Melt the butter and fry the onion until soft. Add flour and blend together. Add milk, stirring consistently. Bring to the boil for 2 or 3 minutes. Stir in shredded cheese, peas/corn, flaked tuna and seasoning. Pour into a greased casserole dish, cover with cornflakes, dot with butter and bake for 20 to 30 minutes in a 200 C oven. Garnish with tomato and parsley (optional).

I usually serve this with rice.

My parents live on a classic, old fashioned, Aussie, ¼ acre block. Their house was built in the 70’s, and over time Dad has renovated it , extended it and made lots of changes. He has done a fantastic job. One of the first things he did when we moved there was put a veggie garden in. Over the years he has built up the soil and it is just so lush and fertile. It is amazing how much he manages to grow in that small plot every year.

Here in the cooler parts of Victoria, there is a bit of a tradition that we plant on or around Melbourne Cup Day (Horse races), which was a couple of weeks ago. On that weekend, and since then, Dad has put lots of seedlings and seeds in. Here are some photos:

Behind this arch and garden bench (all of which Dad built himself) is the veggie garden.

After fighting with weeds inbetween the garden beds, one year he decided to put concrete in, and that has made things a lot easier to maintain. Here are some of the beds, just planted with lettuce and tomatoes:

To water the garden, Dad has watertanks. This one is next to the stakes that are waiting for the bean seeds to pop up out of the ground:

This is the view of the garden from the back fence:

There is still plenty of garden left for lawn and flowers beyond the veggie garden:

Oh, and this is where Dad is growing his spuds (potatoes) this year:

You don’t need acreage to have a thriving vegetable garden. By the end of the growing season Mum is so sick of all the produce, LOL! Which just goes to show how good Dad’s garden is!

Last year Dad didn’t have a lot of time to get the garden ready, so he used these styrofoam boxes instead. He got them from the green grocers (they throw them out) and they are still growing so well:

Even if you just have a balcony or teeny garden, you can still grow something yourself. Put in some lettuce, cherry tomatoes and a climbing cucumber and you’ll have fresh salad for summer. It doesn’t take a lot of maintenance, or water, but every little bit that we can grow is a help. It also doesn’t have to cost a lot. You don’t need to buy expensive pots, just try the boxes. Seeds are cheaper in the long run, but not if you only grow a bit. Instead, buy a punnet. If that is still too much for your small garden, share with a friend. Last year I found that one zucchini plant was enough for our family, for example.

The main point of this post is to encourage everyone, regardless of block size, to grow a little bit this summer. It is so rewarding to be able to go out to your garden and pick some fresh veggies for dinner. And as a bonus, it tastes great!

The reason I was a bit vague three posts ago about the “trip” I was taking at the end of last week, is because I was planning on surprising my mother for her birthday. She reads this blog every now and then, and I didn’t want her to know that the kids and I were going there! It was a great surprise for her. I arranged it all with my Dad, and we managed to keep it a secret for over a week! It was her birthday on the Friday and we arrived on Thursday, stayed two nights and came home on Saturday.

We had a good drive down. It takes about 2 ½ hours to drive to their place – we’re on opposite sides of Melbourne. I haven’t driven down to Melbourne on my own since we got back from the Middle East. To start off with, I got panic attacks just thinking about it. It shows that I am doing better now, since I managed to drive down and not panic one bit! Really the trip is pretty straightforward going through the tunnels (and praying that the Burnley Tunnel doesn’t spring a leak just when we go through it!), and then down the freeway. I was still amazed at the traffic though. I am becoming quite the country mouse. I love being the only one on the road!

On Friday some of Mum’s friends came for cake and coffee, and in the afternoon the three of us girls – Mum, Elizabeth and I – went for a little drive to see a quilt shop and have a cuppa in a café. So lovely! Precious memories. More about that in another post.

In Flylady lingo, my mother is Born Organized (whereas I am Sidetracked!). Her house is always clean and tidy and she has a gift for making things so cozy! There are pictures on the wall and ornaments around the place, but no clutter. One of the biggest reasons that her house is always tidy is that she has a place for everything and everything is in its place. She is very good at getting rid of things that she doesn’t need and keeps things simple.

In her kitchen, she only has the few things that they use regularly. Her meals are everyday recipes, not the modern ones that call for a hundred and one exotic ingredients. That keeps her pantry simple as well. Both of my parents are diabetic, so Mum does no baking, which also keeps her kitchen simple.

I asked her for some tips (which led to a big discussion since we are such opposites in our homes!) and her main thing was this: Put things back where they belong!!! ~sigh~ But first you have to have a spot for them….! I’m working on it, I’m working on it….!

While Mum and I are different in many ways, one thing we have in common is our love of reading. They say that it is important for children to see their parents reading. I saw Mum reading often, and she bought us many books when we were growing up. We still often share the books we read and now my own children are reading the books she bought me so many years ago.

It is always lovely to visit my mother. We chat so much, and enjoy each other’s company. She is one of my best friends.

Yesterday dh and Daniel fixed our internet connection. One of the cables under the house had come apart, (probably due to a cat fight in the middle of the night!) so they both crawled under there and got it going again. It was really weird because I was able to get mail, but when I wanted to go on the net, it wouldn’t let me on for long - I just managed to post the last entry and it died. Anyway, it’s going well now, and that is the main thing.

I have a lot of catching up to do. I won’t do it all in one post, but will try to get it written up bit by bit. I have been planting lots in my garden, so when I write my first update for the latest challenge I joined, Back to Basics, I’ll have plenty to say. I’ve also got some sewing news, and cooking, and homeschooling … and … and… and….. oh dear. I’ll have to get busy writing, won’t I?! And visiting everyone’s blog to say “hi” again. And yes, do my kitchen tag by Mama Hen (I haven’t forgotten!). Tempting to do it all now, but I have to get back to school….

In anycase, I am back, finally!

I’ve been back since Saturday, but the internet has been playing up. I am typing this quickly in the hope that I can get it posted before it dies again! LOL! I can get email, but have trouble getting/staying on the web. Strange. Hubby blames it on windows, of course. Hopefully he will be able to fix it soon. Until then…. I’m gardening, homeschooling, homemaking and staying away from the computer!

Yesterday we took the Mama Chook and her chicks and adopted ducklings for a field trip down to the dam. The mode of transportation wasn’t appreciated - babies in a bucket and Mama under my arm. However, once they got there they had a ball. Mama Chook stayed close to the bank scratching with her three chicks while the ducklings enjoyed splashing in the water.

They look like they are having fun, don’t they?! You can see their biological mothers and father in the background. Someone wondered the other day what they would think of the ducklings. I told them I didn’t think they paid much attention to them. When the little ones joined them on the dam with their Mama Chook nearby, however, they seemed very interested. Opal, their biological dad, thought he’d pull one of their tails….

Meanwhile, the biological mothers were fishing….. Bottoms up ladies!

It wasn’t just a field trip for the ducklings, but also for us. It was fun (and ~gasp~ educational) to watch the differences between the chicks and the ducklings. The chicks went to the water to drink and then pecked around with their mum. The ducklings all stayed in the shallow water, chased a few mossies on the water, and made sure they stayed within running distance to their adoptive mother hen.

We ended the field trip by trying a different type of transport back home. We all used our two legs - some of us waddled (I think I might have too!).

Now, see? You don’t have to drive to go on a field trip! There are lots of things to discover in your own backyard. Charlotte Mason encouraged nature walks daily, whether you lived in the country or in the city.

This weekend the boys are going camping with dh and us girls are staying home to have a girly weekend. I am not going to touch the computer! I am going to give my daughter my full attention! Actually, we are planning to sew some clothes for her, do some quilting, and other such girly things. For us it is a long weekend since it is Melbourne Cup (horse races, public holiday) and then we are planning another little trip the following week, so now that I think about it, I won’t be back online for more than a week. Probably good for me to have a internet break!

Till next time, and don’t forget to go on a field trip in your own backyard or neighborhood - you never know what you will see!

Dare I admit that it is 10 am and I am still sitting in bed, with a lovely cup of tea, enjoying the cool breeze that is coming in through the bedroom window? Well, I am. After all, I have to be honest on this blog! Let you see the “real me”, etc, etc! The real me today is still oh so tired, so I am resting today. I rested most of yesterday, except then I decided the kitchen really did need cleaning, and dh’s lunch did need making, and the steak did need to go in the crockpot…. by the time I was in bed it was close to midnight and all my bones ached. So much for taking it easy. But I will, I will! This week I will!!!! (Really Mama Hen, I will!) (Talking about Mama Hen, she tagged me with a fun kitchen tag, so I will join in that later this week.)

So, thinking about the week ahead, if it is anything like the past weeks, it will go by way too quickly! I am still puzzling about where this entire year has gone. Even the children have been commenting that the year has flown by.  Time, flowing like a river, flowing to the sea... tra, la, la, la…

I’ve been wondering why it seems like time is going by so quickly. I know they say that when you get older you notice it going quickly, but, hey, I’m not that old yet! I wonder if it is because our lives are so fast paced. I wonder if we slow down more, then we might savor the moments more….. what do you think?

I regularly get frustrated that I don’t have enough time to do everything I want to do. In reality, I am trying to do too much in this season of life! I still think I can do it all! Of course, I can’t, and I need to remember to do the important things, and not the urgent. Mama Hen just wrote a good post on this, and shared the things that are most important to her. Check it out here.

What are the important things you want to see get done in your day? I have no regrets about the time I spent with the children when they were little. I hugged and kissed them so many times a day. I held them tight, because I knew they grew so quickly. I enjoyed their little chatter and their sweet kisses, the flowers they picked me, the pictures they drew. I read to them, sang with them, prayed with them. I let them be children, and didn’t try to make them grow up quicker than they needed. Time, flowing like a river, …. goes by so quickly.

My children are older now, heading into their teens, and at a different stage of life. They no longer let me kiss and cuddle them like they used to (especially the boys, lol!). They still bring me their drawings, and their Lego creations to explain in great detail how they are designed. I listen to them and admire them. They still need that from their mother, in fact they will probably always need encouragement and approval from their mother. I encourage them to learn new things, to learn to work hard on the homestead, to care for eachother. All too soon they will be heading off on their own. Time, flowing like a river, …..goes by so quickly.

Have you thought a lot about heaven? We’ll have lots of time there! Eternity - that’s a lot of time! We won’t just  have lots of time, but there will be no more tears, no more sorrow. No more dishes?! One can only hope! Our life here on earth is so short, but it is eternity that counts. It is eternity that counts for our children, our family, our friends. Time, flowing like a river… can you imagine the river of peace that will be flowing in heaven, flowing, forever flowing.

One of the songs we sang when I was growing up, says it all:

In His Time

In His time, in His time,

He makes all things beautiful, in His time.

Lord, please show me everyday -

As You’re teaching me Your way,

That You do just as You say

In Your time.

In Your time, in Your time,

You make all things beautiful,

In Your time.

Lord, my life to You I bring,

May each song I have to sing,

be to You a lovely thing,

In Your time.

Yes, all the everyday things He will make beautiful. That is my prayer for this week. May I think on the things eternal and let go of the unnecessary in my life,… and may I teach  my children the important things.

The other day we had a visit from one of my older women, Stella. It is lovely when she and her husband Angelo come to visit. They have such a wealth of knowledge between the two of them, especially on homesteading and cooking.

We met Stella and Angelo five years ago when they were our neighbours. We both had two acres of land, and the amount of food they grew on their two acres was incredible! As soon as I saw their huge greenhouse, I knew I could learn a lot from them!!! This turned out to be so true. Not only were they avid homesteaders, but I found out that Stella was a chef! She taught me how to preserve a lot of our yearly harvest, and gave me many cooking tips.

When they came last week they brought lots of bits and pieces to share with us. They brought some seedlings for my garden - spinach, tomatoes, and green peppers. They also gave me some lettuce seeds  to sprinkle around . Stella had a little bag with dried bay leaves which she had taken from a friend’s tree. We had to laugh, because as she was giving me the bay leaves, Angelo yelled over to us,
“You don’t need to give her any bay leaves, Stella! She has a tree of her own!”
I was astonished! I didn’t know I had a bay tree! Sure enough, it is a big one - a couple of meters tall! Amazing!

We walked around the homestead while they inspected everything. They admired the chickens and ducks, told me the garden needed more water (which it sure does), oooohed and aaaahed over the asparagus, and just enjoyed the great outdoors with us.

Over a few cups of tea and coffee we chatted about all sorts of things. This time Stella had brought some of her favorite recipes with her to share with me. She had them written on slips of paper and I told her I’d photocopy them. She laughed and told me I needed to learn Greek first! So I grabbed a pen and paper and started writing while she translated.

I love learning new recipes that I know are tried and true. Stella has used these recipes over and over again, experimenting with them until they were just the way she wanted them to be.  Here are a few of them:

Greek Shortbread

250g unsalted butter

1/2 cup caster sugar

2 egg yolks

2 cups plain flour

1/2 cup self raising flour

1/2 cup slivered almonds, optional

icing sugar for dusting

Beat butter and sugar together, add egg yolks. Mix in the two flours. Roll out the dough and use cookie cutters or shape them whichever way you like. Bake in moderate oven till very lightly browned. When they are cold (or just before serving) dust with icing sugar.

Pizza Dough

15g dry yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 1/4 cup warm water

4 cups strong flour

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 tsp salt

Mix yeast, sugar and warm water together. Let it stand in a bowl for a few minutes until it gets frothy. In another bowl, mix flour and salt. Add the oil and yeast mixture and mix till it forms a ball. Knead it for a while, let it rise, then roll out into a round pizza shape.

Muffins

3 cups plain flour

5 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 1/2 cups milk

50g soft butter

3 eggs

Mix all ingredients together with a wooden spoon. Don’t overmix. If you want to add extra ingredients like chocolate chips, then use a little less flour. Bake in moderate oven until golden.

There were more recipes, and as I try them I will share them. I haven’t tried any of the above recipes yet, but would like to soon. I’ll let you know how they go.

We really had a lovely day with these friends. When they went home I made sure they had a big bunch of asparagus and two dozen free range eggs to take with them. They no longer have their two acre block but they still grow all their own veggies in their suburban backyard. We are going to be visiting them in the next month, so I will take photos of how they are making the most of their space. They are great examples of how you can homestead wherever you live.

It is such a special thing for me to sit with an older woman and learn from her. I am thankful that God has brought me various women to teach me to be a better cook and homemaker. Always be on the lookout for women to learn from! And then don’t forget to pass it on to someone else.

Honestly, I feel like I have just been behind with everything these past weeks after the operation. I am not ready for Spring and Summer! I need a bit more Winter rest! Unfortunately the seasons don’t wait for us and I am finding myself madly trying to balance the outside chores of Spring planting and Spring hatchings with the indoor chores of homeschooling and housekeeping. Mad is the word for it, and just taking a look around me confirms that I am indeed behind…… ~ sigh ~.

I can’t see any quick way out of my dilemna, however. I just need to plod and “do the next thing” as Elizabeth Elliot says.

Maybe one reason I am so behind is because of the Spring hatchings. All our hens in waiting have hatched their little ones, and they are soooooooooo cute! Just when I thought little chicks were the cutest thing on earth (other than real babies!), the ducklings hatched and Elizabeth and I are smitten!

Four out of the five duck eggs hatched. Here is Mama Chook with her ducklings:

She also has three chicks. The one below is an Isa Brown, having a drink with its sibling the duck:

It is just so amazing to see this perfect little miniture ducks. God did such a good job! Yes, they have a chicken as a “mother”, but they know to jump into the water bowl and splash around. One of the chicks is being psychologically damaged, however, by having ducklings as siblings. It copies them and runs madly towards the water bowl and jumps in! This afternoon I got a bigger bowl of water out so the ducklings could have a swim, and they just loved it. The minute I turned my back to water some plants, I heard a distressed cheeping noise. It was the chick with an indentity problem trying very hard not to drown. Needless to say, like little children they need constant supervision while near deep water.

This was the first time I have hatched ducks and it turned out really well. One day I might let a duck sit, but they are not known for their perseverance. I wonder how long it will be till the ducklings try to follow the ducks instead of the chickens…. it is very interesting and a great learning experience for all of us. Lifestyle learning!

I have still been very tired and trying to pace myself. I had a few days when I was feeling better so I tried to conquer the world! I paid for it for the next few days! It is difficult to ignore things that need to be done, but I can’t do it all at the moment. One thing that has been a blessing to me is watching my children help out around the place. They never complain when I ask them to do some of my chores. They have been a huge help and I think they have also grown during this time when their Mum has needed them.

I’ll leave you with this poem:

Do The Next Thing

At an old English parsonage down by the sea,

there came in the twilight a message to me.

Its quaint Saxon legend deeply engraven

that, as it seems to me, teaching from heaven.

And all through the hours the quiet words ring,

like a low inspiration, ‘Do the next thing.’

Many a questioning, many a fear,

many a doubt hath its quieting here.

Moment by moment, let down from heaven,

time, opportunity, guidance are given.

Fear not tomorrow, child of the King,

trust that with Jesus, do the next thing.

Do it immediately, do it with prayer,

do it reliantly, casting all care.

Do it with reverence, tracing His hand,

who placed it before thee with earnest command.

Stayed on omnipotence, safe ‘neath His wing,

leave all resultings, do the next thing.

Looking to Jesus, ever serener,

working or suffering be thy demeanor,

in His dear presence, the rest of His calm,

the light of His countenance, be thy psalm.

Strong in His faithfulness, praise and sing

Then, as he beckons, do the next thing.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

Make up your mind to be happy.  Learn to find pleasure in simple things.

Make the best of circumstances.  No one has everything and everyone has something of sorrow.

Don’t take yourself too seriously.

Don’t let criticism worry you.  You can’t please everybody.

Don’t let your neighbors set your standards; be yourself.

Do things you enjoy doing but stay out of debt.

Don’t borrow trouble.  Imaginary things are harder to bear than actual ones.

Since hate poisons the soul, do not cherish enmities and grudges.  Avoid people who make you unhappy.

Have many interests.  If you can’t travel, read about places.

Don’t hold post-mortems or spend time brooding over sorrows and mistakes.

Do what you can for those less fortunate than yourself.

Keep busy at something.  A very busy person never has time to be unhappy.