The tree is up! I think we have done well to get it up by the 6th of December. We have a fake tree this year. We usually like a real tree, but I struggle with the growing of a tree to be cut down and end up on the curbside come January 1st. For the last 4 years, we had a tree in a large pot which we nurtured and loved. It didn’t make it through the hot temperatures and dry winds we got in February.  

So….this year we have a “rescued” tree, pre-loved you might say. In a stroke of irony, I rescued it from the curbside where someone was throwing it out. I brought in home in the back of the car, and we checked it out when the kids went to bed. It looks alright, it suits our needs, and it isn’t going to end up in landfill. Ari is extremely active and being very, shall I say, hands on with Christmas this year. This is the tree for us, right now, in 2009.

The cooking class – fabulous! The chef used mostly in season, local produce and we made some dishes I will definitely make again such as prawns with a mango salsa, pork roast stuffed with fig and apricot stuffing, and an amazing pea puree that is like summer in a bowl. The cherry clafouti we made for dessert was too easy and so delicious. I drove straight home from the class and bought some cherries so I could make it for dessert tonight.

I just want to add a quick post to remind myself that today has been a great day. I want to remember this in the tough moments that will come from 5-7pm this evening as tiredness and hunger creep in.  

I got out for a walk around the local lake, with Ari in the buggy and Ella riding her bike.

I ate 2 chocolate fudge cookies leftover from the baking frenzy on Wednesday for the Kinder and school teachers. And a piece of hazelnut biscotti.

I managed to go op shopping with 3 children. There was not one tantrum, even though I said ‘No’ to many, many requests for items.

I had no bread for lunch, so I made some crustless quiches in the pie maker. I like that I can whip up something decent at a moment’s notice using a hodge podge of items from the fridge and pantry. It’s a knack I’ve perfected out of my intense dislike of leaving the house to purchase anything with 3 children in tow.

Ella received her School Report in the post. It is outstanding. We are very proud of her.

I bought 5 kg of chat potatoes for $1.29 and split them with a friend. Dinner plan saved.

I am going out all day tomorrow here, with a good friend for a cooking class. It is a birthday present to herself for her 40th birthday last year. We were both too pregnant in 2008 to celebrate properly.  

I hope your Friday is great!

I thought I might join in on Claire’s “What’s Hot or Not”.

WHAT’S HOT:

* I set a goal at the beginning of this month to walk every day in November. I missed 4 days so not a bad effort. Most mornings I managed to get straight out for a walk  and leave hubby to the breakfast circus. It was nice to be out early, and have achieved something for the day.  

* I have sewn the girls some summer hats, and refashioned some clothes. I quickly made up a pre-printed advent calendar panel for Ari, who didn’t have an advent calendar. The girls have the pocket kind, and I have collected a few treats, activities and goodies to fill it with. Ari’s will be filled with his dummy each night. Advent calendars are also useful as bribery for chore completion.

* I spent 10 hours on the weekend completing a 1000 piece puzzle. I needed that quiet time of nothingness. The day and the family went through their day quietly without disturbing me.

* I am cruising with the Christmas gift purchasing. These 2 adorable little girls are for my 2 adorable little girls. The pattern is from Hop Skip Jump. I am scrambling with the teacher presents, which I cleverly bought at last year’s Boxing Day sales and have now misplaced, meaning I have to start again.

* We spent Saturday catching up on gardening and mooching around the house.

* The Christmas concerts for school and kinder are done and dusted. Our calendar is looking at a pretty clear run right up until Christmas Day. Woo hoo! We need it. As we are every year, we are limping our way towards the end of the year with everyone utterly exhausted and testy.

WHAT’S NOT:

* I’m still knitting that tedious string bag. I am up to the handles now, and should run out of cotton with about 6 inches left on the i-cord handles. Sigh.

 * Ella has sinusitis. She seemed well right up until the Assembly performance was about to begin this morning. She burst into tears, and I took her home. I was up until 9:30pm last night fashioning a donkey costume, which I was only notified that she needed on Friday afternoon. She ended up missing the concert and didn’t need the costume. Sigh.

* There was a copperhead snake in our chook yard on Friday afternoon. I went in to collect the eggs with Ari on my hip, and walked straight back out again. The Snake Man was called to collect said copperhead. He informed me to “Wacth it and see if it moves. If it moves, follow it and see where it goes so I can try and find it. I will be there in half an hour”. I paced nervously outside the chook yard, and watched the snake through the door of the chook house with some binocluars, in between rushed trips to the house to calm the kids down and stop them coming outside.   

When the Snake Man arrived he went into the shed, where much banging and crashing was heard.  Then silence. Eventually he called out, “Hey! Can you give me a hand? “(!!!!!). Apparently the snake had been halfway through eating a mouse, saw the Snake Man, spat out the mouse, and made a dive for the mouse hole. The Snake Man had hold of just 10cm of its tail. After sending some water down the hole, the snake relented and the Snake Man extracted it, but not before I had to run to the house and collect a torch, some wire cutters, and a crowbar to lift the tin on the shed wall. I was happy to wave them both goodbye. And pour myself a Cointreau.

This week we are sweltering through Victoria’s hottest November week in 100 years. Ari was getting hot and bothered, so a summer haircut was in order. He was NOT happy. He screamed through the entire haircut.

I have trimmed his hair up until now, with him looking like cross between the Beatles and Friar Tuck. He has had 10 haircuts now. The boy can grow hair.

I cut the girls hair, and Jamie’s hair at home. I wasn’t sure about babies and the loud buzz of the hair clippers, so I took him to the hairdressers. Even sultanas could not stop the screaming. You know things are bad when he doens’t want sultanas.

So, possibly scarred for life at the hairdressers, but feeling happier and cooler. And looking so much older than 14 months.

There has been more rhubarb jam making. A double batch made up 9 jars and used up the rest of the rhubarb. Some of the jars are destined for Christmas gifts, and some for the pantry. I am making some progress on the Christmas gifts, and am almost done.

I hate to shop in December. The shops are hideous, parking is impossible, and the stores are full of things we (nor anyone) needs. I am going mostly homemade or homebaked. I did order these sweet birds by Kylie Johnson of Paper Boat Press. I meant to buy them last year, but they sold out before I could get myself organised. This year I have them tucked away for Mum and myself.

We are “family free” this year, with family doing other things on Christmas Day. This has never happened before, and I am imagining all kinds of fanciful activites our little family of 5 could partake in on Christmas Day. Mostly we will keep it simple and stay at home I think. There will be some seafood, there will be bubbles, and hopefully some swimming in the neighbours pool. Hmmm, best I put my book order in for summer reading.

I have been waiting for the right time to try a batch of Soule Mama’s Strawberry Rhubarb Jam. On the weekend Mum gave me a huge bunch of rhubarb from her garden, and the fruit farm had strawberries for $4 per kg yesterday. Since the girls ate most of the strawberries before I got to them, there was enough left to make just one batch of jam. But there will be more jam making this week, that is for certain. Sweet, sticky redness in a jar.

Jamie asked “More jam?”. There can never be enough homemade jam in my opinion. Especially lashings of it on buttered bread.

The most amazing clouds are suspended in the sky today.

It is a glorious day.

A fabulous, apple cake in one of the various stages of “taste testing”. I had hoped it would be packed up for school snacks this week, but I believe it may only last until mid-morning tomorrow before being completely devoured. The recipe and story is generously shared by maya*made here.

What a busy, but productive weekend! Hubby hired a mulcher and a rotary hoe. We saved ourselves some back breaking work, and mulched up the limbs and branches that had blown off in the gale force winds we had over the autumn and winter.

Jamie dug up the garden beds with a rotary hoe, to prepare them for planting. Ari got into the snow pea patch.

Willow was employed as the lawn mower and chook minder.

We picked most of our crop of leeks. We have been using them up for the last 3 months instead of onions in cooking, but there were still many more to be picked. We picked a bucketload and cut them up for the freezer. We let a few of last years leeks go to seed, and they all popped up this year without us having to plant any seeds/seedlings. I set up a production line where I chopped the long green leaves off directly into the compost heap, and dropped the lovely white leeks into a bucket. 

It wasn’t all hard work though. I picked up a copy of Meet Me at Mike’s from the library, which has many gorgeous things to make. The neighbours called in unexpectedly on Saturday night bringing a bottle of champagne with them. Love those kind of neighbours! I hope you had a great weekend too.

I picked up this skirt for $1 at my local op shop. As soon as I saw it, I knew it was destined to be a bag. It was late at night when I began looking for a pattern, so I abandoned that idea and decided to go with the “wing-it” approach. Not always a good idea late at night with repurposed stretchy fabric cut on the bias. This was the outcome.

By the time I added some pockets to the lining, I had used up every scrap of the skirt fabric except for the zipper, which I unpicked to be used in another project.  I kept the original waist band and worked around it, as I was too lazy to unpick it. I am happy with my new bag and it’s sunny yellow fabric.

I am slowly making progress on this bag from Purl Bee. I love String Market Bags, and have several already. But one I can knit myself? Too tempting. I am knitting it in some recycled cotton yarn that I love to work with.

I mostly knit either at the girls swimming lessons, or in the car line while I wait to pick up Ella from school. Some Mums chat, some Mums talk on their mobile phones, some Mums stare in to space. I knit. I take my precious crafting minutes any how I can get them!

Big fat raindrops started to fall at school today, just as Ella got into the car. The hail began as we drove out of the school grounds. It hailed all the way home. Steady, scary hail that lasted for 12 minutes and seemed to follow us as we drove down the streets to home.

It bounced off the car in little icicles, with Ari clapping his hands with joy at the thunderous noise on the roof of the car. The girls declared the hail looked “just like snow”. The temperature dropped 4 degrees in as many minutes.

After the rain, I kitted Ari up in his gumboots and waterproof pants and we went outside to explore.

And afterwards, some hot chocolate and sultana cake to warm us up after our adventure.