Monthly Archives: April 2012
femmes inspirées
Nanna
I am so blessed in that I have women in my life I am truly in awe of. For some reason I have had the pleasure of knowing young women who are born achievers, creative genius’, courageous and free-spirited. I am going to start a section of this Blog where I will be featuring each one of my ‘super woman’ friends who I feel could be great role models. From fashion designers to professional long borders, actresses to natural healers they have all got a really interesting story to tell and I am going to give each one a shout out!
This part of my blog is dedicated to the memory of my ‘Nanna’ who suffered from depression but without fail saw the humour or beauty in every situation. She told me “have faith” always and to see the good in everybody. Her underlying depression inhibited her from achieving things for herself so she lived for her family, and for retail therapy. When all have ‘left the nest’ and you are too immobile to walk around the shops what do you have left? if you didn’t pursue your dreams. It’s a great sadness, but I am not here to talk about sad things.
‘Nanna’ s story inspired me to take some time out for myself and figure out what I want to still be doing, when my boys have left home.
Watch this space for my first article which will be on a coragous friend who moved to LA to pursue her acting career and find inner peace.
“My life didn’t please me, so I created my life.”
― Coco Chanel
A girl should be two things: who and what she wants. Coco Chanel ~ May all our girls become who they were born to be.
Soulseeds celebrates ALL women. Click on the link to see more beautiful quotes and affirmations from a blog that I love.
The Gum Trees
I watched Avatar recently, and I am not here to offer my critique on the movie, but…it did get me thinking about trees. I found myself standing in the garden today just soaking up the beautiful colours of the gum tree bark. The light in Autumn is so beautiful and it illuminates everything that it touches.
I just had to take photographs and share.
The more I remember to have moments of just being ‘in the moment’, pausing for some time out (and then seeing it through the lens!) the more confident I feel about relying on the little things to keep me sane!
http://www.geektown.co.uk/2010/04/20/avatars-tree-of-souls-in-hyde-park-for-earth-day/
The little things
I have done some reading on a condition called ‘Nature deficit Disorder’ sourced mainly from the wonderful work of Richard Louve. His book ‘The last Child in The Woods’ was a great help to me when I wrote my dissertation at uni. I wrote about the effects that screen based media has had on the meaning of childhood. Another great author is Sue Palmer. She wrote a book called Toxic Childhood Worth a read if you have or are planning to have children.
Anyway that is something I could talk about for days so I thought I would just share my efforts to get my son’s hands dirty and his heart connected to all that mother nature has to offer. And the photography is a great creative outlet for me.
Now I would just like to add, I am not captain earth mother and my son does watch TV. My aim is to strike a balance, to feed his imagination so that he wont have to rely on the television.
My parents taught me to know and to respect nature. So here I am, passing on the love and hoping that in times of distress my sons will turn to the little things in life for salvation x
All photographs are my own.
Food panick!
Today I stumbled upon this article and it sent me into a panic that I had been an ignorant parent for not doing my research. My youngest boy has been drinking soy formula which seems to be the only type of milk that works for him. But after reading this article I had to throw all of the soy products out and replace them with standard lactose free (expensive) ones that are safe for him but not marketed at children necessarily. So was my hysteria justifiable? I don’t know. I thought that everything was ok in moderation right? or wrong? should I have investigated the effects of soy consumption first. Surely these super healthy foods are super and not just super money spinners for corporate industry.
Then to sprinkle more anxiety onto the situation I come across a blog post by ‘A real Food Lover’ -http://arealfoodlover.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/whole-grains-may-not-be-as-healthy-as-you-think/ About The level of phytic acid in whole grains and how it prevents you from absorbing nutrients!
So is there really a reason to panic here?- And do we need to be much, much more informed about what we feed ourselves and our offspring. Instead of just looking at the ticks of ‘healthiness’ on the package and thinking ‘yes I am making a good choice’ Perhaps we should look at the science.
I am now wondering about the feeling of wholesomeness I enjoyed whilst eating this bowl of quinoa porridge and local honey this morning.
I would appreciate feedback, comments, info on this one!
Dairy free, low carb, choc/peanut butter bites made with wholemeal Indian ‘Atta’ flour
Somedays I just wake up craving peanut butter and what could be better than peanut butter with…yes chocolate. So to stop me from having Reeses cups for breakfast followed by a hot chocolate and peanut butter on toast (oh dear) I have spent some time inventing a healthly alternative.
These little nuggets of wholemeal, high protein goodness are what I came up with this morning. And according to my nearly three year old, they are yummy!
Success.
I used low carb, no added sugar chocolate called ‘sweet william’
Indian Atta flour (wholemeal)
Healthy peanut butter- Sanitarium
Natvia natural alternative to sugar
Pure coco
Eggs
Soy milk
Perfect with a cup of English Breakfast tea.
Smokey, spicey, slow cooked chicken and barley soup
At last my husband is home and cooking. Experimenting with a few different flavours. A spicy version of our usual child friendly chicken and barley soup. Its smells wonderful and today has been chilli and long. My mouth is watering and I cant wait to relax and let the spicy steamy soup relax my soul.
Yum. I will try to get the recipe out of him before he forgets what he threw in.
I did see some chilli, ginger, curry spices, slow cooked and strained chicken stock, onion, garlic and pearl barley.
Easter chick orange and almond flourless cupcakes (GF)
I'll admit, the title of these cupcakes is a bit of a mouthful, but I just didn't think there was any part of it that could be missed out.
Obviously the flavour needs to be in there - orange and almond; the type of baked good - cupcake; the fact they can be enjoyed by people with wheat and gluten allergies - flourless; and of course the theme that inspired them and gives them their cuteness - Easter chicks!
This is just Beautiful, flourless orange is my favorite cake flavour aswell. Yummy!
An Autumn inspired day- pumpkins, mushrooms, and a little birds nest.
Autumn salad
A perfect Easter weekend day today, Autumn graced us with all its beauty and more. It was a bit too warm for this time of year and the hot winds made it feel very summery. But there were still bright red leaves, mushrooms popping up everywhere, chocolate treats and a family walk in the bush.
Roast beef and pumpkin roasting in the oven ( along side a little polymer clay birds nest) chicken in the slow cooker. Daddy outside making beautiful curly wurly wood shavings that my son calls “my hair” and they do look like his gorgeous copper curls.
I knew that roast meat, mushrooms, chocolate and pumpkin would be on the menu but I didn’t make any plans for how I was going to use them. It was far too hot for my favorite pumpkin, coconut, chilli and lime soup so we had a lovely fresh salad instead.
Our salad ingredients;
Cos lettuce, cucumber, capsicum, sugar snaps, mushrooms, carrot and pan-fried pumpkin seeds (in rice bran oil and sea salt) with a honey, black pepper and balsamic dressing. The roast beef was still cooking so it missed out on being perfect with this salad. I will make something delicous with it for dinner instead.
I created the little birds nest to give to my sister as a gift in return for the lovely chocolate and coconut nests she sent down to us. We ate them on our bush walk, I needed a bit of real sugar to cope with my two-year old who was being a ‘un co-operative’ to put it nicely.
Hope you all have a lovely relaxing weekend.
all photographs are my own.
Thank you Mum for treasuring my old stuff
We are not the kind of family who have every latest plastic gadget toy in our house.
I don’t know of a parent who hasnt bought one and suffered serious buyers remorse when realizing that their child prefers the packaging that it came in.
We thought we were being a bit controversial when we put ‘no plastic toys please’ on our sons first birthday invitation. I have to admit though my boys have both teethed on bits of Duplo that my mum kept from my childhood. And I am so thankful that she did.
My sons are chewing on same colourful, fun, and very durable plastic toys that I did. They are family heirlooms now. Maybe one day my grandchildren will douse them in their own drool. I am so glad to have the old books aswell. I cant wait to huddle down in a tent with a flash light and my tattered old copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin.
Heres to the childhood stuff that never looses its magic.
