The Genial Hearth
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Archive for Organisation
December 12, 2008 at 10:22 pm · Filed under Advent, Blogging, Domestic Life, Organisation, Puggle, Season
Make Blueberry and Cardomom Bread.
When doing the shopping, I wasn’t able to find dried blueberries (I think I usually find them at Woolies… I was at IGA). Instead I got dried cherries—what the recipe actually called for!
Sadly though, I napped with the children (three nights of Bilby waking in the middle of the night… teeth??), so I failed to put the wheat on to soak in time. None of this bread today:-( (We will make it though, possibly Monday… I’d like to see what it’s like with the cherries:-) ) I’ve cooked some fruit loaf instead, and Puggle was telling me today how he is going to squeeze orange juice for Dada in the morning:-) (I don’t think Paddington reads here every day, so it should be safe to say that:-) )
November 13, 2008 at 9:55 pm · Filed under Christmas, Organisation, Season
Our first Christmas card arrived in the mail today. Most pleasant:-) Of course, it’s also a bit depressing because I haven’t even begun to think about our cards yet:-(
(Actually, that’s not entirely true… I know I kept the list of recipients from last year, and all the addresses we had. I’m even fairly certain I know where they are:-) So although I haven’t done anything about it, I have thought a little:-) )
October 30, 2008 at 1:50 pm · Filed under Domestic Life, Organisation
I thought this was a good idea for approaching to-do lists:-)
July 9, 2008 at 3:25 pm · Filed under For the Future, Home Education, Organisation, Paddington
I’m a longtime Mac user… although, I don’t generally do much that is Mac specific.
Recently, there’s been some people talking about scheduling/planning their days with iCal, and Jen posted a tutorial today.
All the discussion reminded me that Paddington had at one point been playing with iCal to schedule iTunes playlists (this was a couple of years ago). I thought I would have another go:-) Late last night I remembered this plan. Sadly, it was too late in the evening for me to function effectively, but I did come across this page (with it’s helpful note at the top—although, sadly the link didn’t work!) I opened up iCal, and got to the point where it would call a script… I just didn’t have any ready (I knew what to write, thanks to that link, I just wasn’t sure where to put them):-(
With fresh eyes, I started today.
In my Applications Folder, I found AppleScript, and there found the ScriptEditor.app. I opened that, and simply copied and pasted the examples from that page (although I did rename the playlist so that it would find one in my copy of iTunes:-). I clicked on Compile, and then saved the Script in a folder (that I noted! It defaults to the Document folder, so I made a Scripts folder in that:-) ). I did this for a couple of different playlists.
Then I went back to iCal. I scheduled Mat Time as a recurring event (every day except Friday—Jen gave nice instructions for dealing with iCal:-) ) I set an alarm for it, and as per this page, made it call the script that set it playing the Current Week playlist (for ease, I basically named each script after the playlist it called:-) ).
Of course, I’ve now gone a bit mad and have almost filled some days with automatic music:-) It’s just an experiment… But I’m thinking that having quiet classical music coming on when it’s time to start getting ready for bed will help us all remember to start calming down, and I often forget to turn on music while preparing dinner—until my hands are already covered in food:-( And of course, the current week’s music selections around Mat Time:-)
But in the end, far easier than I expected!
May 28, 2008 at 8:11 pm · Filed under Domestic Life, Food, Organisation
Earlier in the year (Northern Winter), there was a flurry of discussion about soups. I mentioned it here. I wanted to refer back to it at a more appropriate time for the Southern hemisphere (me in particular:-) ), because I really liked some of the recipes and ideas:-)
May 27, 2008 at 3:45 pm · Filed under Birthdays, Craft, Domestic Life, Family, Organisation, Season, Sewing
Some time ago (probably about 10 years:-( ), about a week before my mother’s birthday (in August), I saw on one of those home shows a fabulous looking laprug, made of polar fleece with appliquéd autumn leaves. It looked great, fairly simple, and I was quite sure that mum would like it. So I went ahead and got the material (with a few alterations) and began. I didn’t actually expect to get it done in time for her birthday, but I figured it wouldn’t take me too much longer.
Of course, mum’s birthday is near the end of winter. So shortly afterwards it became too hot to manage polar fleece, so I put it away again. And only remembered to get to it about a week before her next birthday. That continued for a few years:-(
A couple of years ago we were given a polar fleece bunny rug. The construction technique looked like it might be a better solution than appliqué for the leaves (less than half the sewing!)
A couple of weeks ago, in preparation for Craft Sunday, I went looking for material. I quickly decided that I really needed to sort through my stash, which I did. I got rid of a certain amount, but it seemed obvious to me that I needed to get rid of more—and the best option for that was to finish sewing mum’s lap rug (3 metres of polar fleece takes up quite a bit of space!)
And now it’s done:-) I managed to complete it while mum and dad were away, and I’ve just delivered it to their place… it’s out of the house:-)
It’s made of two squares of green polar fleece (1.5m). Onto the wrong side of one of them, I sewed a selection of pairs of coloured leaves (just a straight stitch). I cut through from the right side to remove the green from inside each leaf. I then sewed the two green squares right sides together leaving a gap, turned them right side out and top-stitched. I sewed around the outside of each leaf again (through all layers this time) and then finally cut out the green on the other side. It means that both sides are the same, and (aside from where the seams are) it’s two layers thick across the whole thing.
Most satisfactory:-)
May 12, 2008 at 11:15 pm · Filed under Advent, Bilby, Christmas, Domestic Life, Family, Organisation, Season
The Christmas stockings!
The Christmas stickers (for in the Advent calendars)!
Some kitchen bench!
A white stovetop!
Room for Bilby’s bed!
It’s been a somewhat productive day:-) (My connection to the outside world was down for most of it… so I achieved more than I expected to…)
April 12, 2008 at 10:45 pm · Filed under Bilby, Cygnet, Domestic Life, Family, Organisation
So, I have a Toyota Corolla Seca (1992/1993). Interior width (between armrests) in the back seat, 126 cms. On average, car seats are 50 cms (we measured… it’s pretty consistent!) Currently we have two car seats. Obviously a third is not going to fit.
We looked at cars, we measured their rear seats. None (well, one exception) that we were looking at were 1.5m wide. After checking the first three dealers, we ducked in to a baby shop to check the availability of narrower seats. It turns out there are two. There is a Newborn to 18 kg seat (the Compaq/Compaq Deluxe, 45* cms), and one booster seat (the Hi-Liner, 40* cms). We were planning to move Bilby into a MaxiRider (50 cms) so that Cygnet could use the newborn seat we currently have (although, if we have to get a new newborn seat, she could probably stay in her current one (50 cms) ). Either way, that would get us to 135 cms. The widest of the options was 134 cms. We figure that some of those measurements were generous enough to give us the extra centimetre, but probably not to get us to 131 cms (the most common width). Of course later, we realised that we could get that by putting both Cygnet and Bilby in Compaqs–that would get us down to 130 cms!
(*I went back to check on the precise measurements, and also, how high above their base the widest measurement was… The Compaq is 43 cms at 19 cms above the base, the Hi-Liner is goes to 44 cms at 23 cms above the base. Sadly, the armrests at the back in my car are 22 cms above the seat, so it’s still not going to work for my car.)
Who knew it would be so hard to fit three children in a car!
(The exception? Toyota Tarago. Which seats 8, we could have three in car seats requiring attachment points, plus two in boosters, plus another. But yes, we could fit our current two carseats, plus a new carseat of average size, side-by-side in the second row.)
February 7, 2008 at 10:20 am · Filed under Domestic Life, Food, Organisation
For some time I’ve been meaning to be more attentive to our freezers (bottom of the fridge and separate chest freezer). At the moment, I tend to put stuff in there but forget what I have (particularly in the way of ‘processed’ foods… I’m not so bad with stock/berries/vegetables/ice-cream). Particularly after being inspired by Susan’s Soup Week, I’ve decided to get on top of the freezer situation:-)
So I’ve finished a Freezer Storage Chart (which I’ve already found things that can be improved… but I’m not going to let my perfectionism get the better of me!) to help me with freezer organisation. I’ve listed all the things I’m likely to have in the freezer (I have included stock, mostly to help me work out when I need to make more… rather than run out). I’m going to laminate it, and stick it on the side of the fridge. When I put things in, I’ll mark the boxes, when I use them I’ll erase the boxes.
We’ll see how it goes:-) I’ll probably do a new chart in about six months, making the changes that have become obvious:-)
February 5, 2008 at 9:15 pm · Filed under Domestic Life, Food, Organisation
This year we had 15 adults and 13 kids (although, 4 of those are less than 18 months, so their eating capacity is not as great).
I made 12 batches of pancakes. 3 with crépe style, 3 flapjack style and dairy-free (milk replaced with water), and 6 flapjack style. I think we probably have about 1 and a half batches left (so we’ll have pancakes for breakfast one morning soon:-) )
Lots of sweet toppings (mmm… maple syrup:-) banana, sugar, lemon, butter), savoury was spinach/cheese/onion, and burrito.
All up, a success:-)
February 4, 2008 at 11:07 pm · Filed under Carnivals, Domestic Life, Food, For the Future, Organisation
It’s the wrong season for us, but I’ve been getting inspired by some recent soup posts. First of all, Susan talks about her plans for Lent, with Soup Week (and some more recipes here—more to come!) I like this idea a lot (and some of the recipes so far!) and am really tempted to try it in some form this winter:-)
Then, Barbara describes her Soup Night efforts, which sound like a great way to entertain:-)
And then Suzanne is hosting the Loveliness of Soups Carnival. Don’t forget to check out the comments for even more recipes!
I am thinking this winter will be filled with soups:-)
February 4, 2008 at 1:35 pm · Filed under Food, Organisation
We have a lot of recipe books! Some years ago, I made an Appleworks database to store recipes once I had used them—otherwise it can be a nightmare to find that recipe I know I had somewhere… Of course, Appleworks is being phased out, and it would be nice to have some of those other features I’ve heard about (printing shopping lists! checking against your pantry! printing shopping lists!) So the time has come to make the switch—before my database dies horribly (yes we have backups, but that wasn’t enough to save my library database:-( )
Last year, TidBITS ran an article comparing 10 recipe databases. Having perused it, I’ve narrowed my choice to three, MacGourmet (would be my first choice, but it doesn’t do the pantry thing), A Cook’s Books (which is where I am starting), and TheRecipeManager.
I’m interested if anyone has experience with these, or any words of wisdom about the topic (we are Mac users, and these are all Mac-compatible… we have no use for alternatives that aren’t:-) )
February 1, 2008 at 1:20 pm · Filed under Domestic Life, Organisation, Progress
I’ve seen several people this year look at focusing their efforts on de-cluttering on a room per month basis (we don’t have enough rooms, so it should be do-able!). This made a certain amount of sense to me, but by the time I ‘connected’, January was more than half over. Then I realised that I could probably do the bathroom in a single sweep.
I kept getting side-tracked:-( I’ve gone through some of the main bedroom, and clothes—but not the bathroom:-( Yesterday was the last chance for the month… and I ended up with the remnant of some migraine-like headache (not something I want to repeat!) so I didn’t get to it.
But it’s done now!
January—Bathroom…Done:-)
February—Hmmm… Main bedroom? Or Kitchen? I might decide over the weekend. I know it’s a short month, but both of these are fairly huge endeavours, so I’m happy to take a second swing at them later in the year.
Still to go… main bedroom, kitchen, lounge, living room, laundry, hallway, kid’s room, back porch, outside (or do this alongside), study (Paddington is really doing this, but there is some of my stuff I should clear out).
January 19, 2008 at 8:00 pm · Filed under Bilby, Books, Family, For Children, Home Education, Organisation, Picture Books, Progress, Puggle, This Week
Week 1, Block 1, Boronia Term
We’ve started back reasonably well. I wouldn’t say we’re fully back into the swing of things, but we are definitely back to singing, Mat Time, and some of the reading. Puggle is happy to go and choose an activity from the sewing cabinet (and mostly put it away again).
I’m still not completely happy with the way the sewing cabinet is set up—the shelves/language work is good, but the art/craft side is a bit unfocussed. Also, my aim is to have it arranged so that I only have to move a couple of things and it’s clear for sewing (making a virtue of the fact that we always end up with ’stuff’ there… if I choose what is on there, I can choose to make it easily moveable.) I probably need to look at that this evening, I want to sew tomorrow, and I don’t want it to be a pain to set up:-)
One of the things that I think is helping me feel we’re off to a good start is the books. Last year a lot of our reading was printouts (for most of the year we didn’t have book copies of A Child’s Garden of Verses
, or the Fairy books, we just found a copy of the poem/story online and printed them out). This year, we have all the books before the year starts. They are in a tub (well, the ones we’re using at the moment, four of them), and Puggle will wander over and bring me one of them at random times. I have post-it notes marking what we’re up to, so it’s easy to pick up where we left off (the Anderson and the Lilac Fairy Book have longer stories than he can cope with in a single sitting), and of course, they have pictures:-) He is most keen on Aesop, and will ask for more, and the Poems (well, the poem!) is a hit… he can’t wait to do the next one:-)
We do have a bit of a change in our days, Bilby is no longer having two naps as a general rule. Last year we’d have Mat Time when she was napping in the morning (and we’d light a candle—although, I doubt we’d be doing that for now even if she were asleep… it’s a bit too warm!) and that’s not possible now. Given the nap has basically disappeared this week, we haven’t re-settled to a rhythm as yet. I’d like to see us take the bucket of books outside, so Bilby can explore while we read a bit… but I’ll have to think about how to manage the singing bits… I guess a ‘cheat sheet’ of all the songs? That could be a pain though, as they change on different schedules… I may need to re-visit the songbook idea…
I was a little worried that I’d planned on too much. As I said, we’re not back into everything yet, (and we’re also not back to our outside activities yet), but I’m feeling better about what I’m intending. I need to get better about playing the music, and the art set up needs work (I didn’t get to anything other than putting the book out for him) but other than that, Mat Time is no more than about 20 minutes a day (and that’s a good mix of singing, reading and talking about a picture—although, he also chose to bring over some of the outlined letters we used last year:-) ), and the rest of the stuff is pretty much there for him to use as he feels the inclination. So, for three and a half, I don’t think that’s excessive.
January 14, 2008 at 11:18 am · Filed under Craft, Domestic Life, Organisation
I’ve had a few people ask me if Craft Sunday was on… basically they will be the first Sunday after the 15th—except for February when it will be Saturday instead (I’m going to do a Latin class:-) ).
So this Sunday coming (the 20th), you’ll be welcome to come by after 1.30. I have no idea what I’ll be doing, but if I’m organised I might be starting a shirt for Paddington… otherwise it’ll be one of my many ongoing projects (ooh! I could work on Puggle’s floor rug!)
Hope to see some of you there:-)
(The following Craft Sunday will be on Saturday February 16th.)
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by A. A. Milne
by Andrew Lang
