Thursday 23 February 2012

When life gives you lemons...

...make lemonade, something like that right? It has been some time since I posted, life has been busy. I landed my dream job so we have been busily preparing for me to go back to work. Picked up some great work clothes from the op-shops and had my first day today. All went well and it was just wonderful to give my brain a workout, not that I have anything against nursery rhymes.

We continue to be full time cloth, well that WAS until our washing machine died! Life is really testing us this year so far. We have tried to fix it but we think it is a bit beyond it so we are on the hunt for a new one, well when I say new I mean second hand or free! In the meantime I'm lucky to have a lovely mum helping me out with the use of her machine, I also use the laundromat up the road and have had lovely mums offer to do a load for us! Gosh I just love community spirit.

The past couple of weeks in our area have been road side collection weeks and there is a LOT of junk on the side of the road, but if you look a little deeper you may often find some wonderful gems. We had a look on the weekend and Luke picked up a couple of old kids bikes, bought them home pulled them apart and created one great learner bike for Lila. She is a fair way off using it but it was fun and free. We also picked up a pretty cool wheelbarrow planter box for our herb garden. It was at the house across the road and Luke went over and wheeled it back. I had to laugh as it made the most god awful noise as it was being wheeled, not very inconspicuous at all!
YESI'MTAKINGTHISWHEELBARROW!!!!

Our planter box, in the 'garden'. Still on the lookout for some good soil...

Building Lila's bike

We have begun making our own bread. I'm not talking the pour the packet into the bread machine kind, I mean kneading the dough then letting it rise, then kneading then letting it rise kind of bread, its a work in progress to make the perfect loaf but my goodness it tastes good and gives your arms a killer workout! It is our aim to one day get a bread machine and have a fresh loaf every morning we need one.

I recently went for a hike with my dear friend as she is in training for a hike in Peru. I was completely expecting to die and her to have to drag me home but I was so much fitter than I expected! I guess all this walking not only saves money but it appears to be helping enormously health wise also.

Spending wise we are still plodding along, having not bought anything for coming up to two months now, I don't miss it really, I mean sure there are days where I'd love a bag of chips or something like that but the moments are always fleeting. The money is still draining out of our account, but it's being spent on much healthier and really, much more delicious things. There's nothing like a beautiful orange after a hard day, sure beats a bag of chips or lollies!

The latest with the No-Poo trial is that I washed my hair! I lasted 4 weeks, and the only reason I did it was because I had to turn up at work which is a very professional environment, and my hair was disgusting! I'm a bit annoyed I did it but I haven't had to wash it again since then. I think going the four weeks without washing has helped cut down the need and I fully plan to stretch it out and find alternative methods where possible.

The challenge has taken on a different vibe now. The initial excitement has died down, and living a less consumption-driven life is just becoming 'life'. It's good in a way, it means that living this way is becoming second nature, but it's beginning to feel like we're not trying hard enough. Admittedly we have many projects still not up and running, things like the vege garden, sandpit, compost bin and the like, and our home-made dish soap needs replenishing, so it's not like we've hit a wall, but we could use some progress to fire us up and make it feel like a challenge again.

Them's be fightin' words!

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