Letters from Wetville

One of my favourite obsessions is foods for good health.  I do have to remind myself (often) that reading about good foods will not give me the benefits; I need to actually eat them.  I've kept up our home made food commitment, even though I gave up reporting on it daily.  Last week we had bought fish and chips one night and one morning I took asthma boy into town for morning tea after he came to work with me but beyond that we've been very good.  Asthma boy has made a very good recovery.  I'm not sure if it is pure good luck that he is responsible about listening to his body or if I can take some credit for the work I've put in feeding him well and explaining the food choices we make.  I seem to have my family in the rhythm of taking fish oil and cod liver oil each day and we are still using the flax seed oil topically on Fionn's eczema (which flared up with the asthma). I've been finding red meat a bit heavy lately and as I wait for a doctor's appointm...

There are photos of today below, wearing some things I made (grey t-shirt with stars print on it plus aqua-blue cardigan which looks and feels rather like a short dressing gown).  My hair is not brushed.  Joining the Me Made May'12 challenge was a commitment to wearing home made clothes, not to brushing my hair on Saturday morning. Today's new adventure was making ginger compresses for Fionn's chest.  He does seem to be improving, and now I know why I bought such a large piece of ginger in the groceries.  Sometimes I get frustrated that my kids continue to get sick despite all my efforts to feed and water and clothe and shelter them to good health.  But it is timely at that point, I tell myself, to remember that on both sides of their genetic inheritance, relatives died young of asthma and breathing/chesty/lung complaints, so getting it down to a few bouts per year is a success. Also, I have and had a head cold.  I wouldn't describe that as an adventure...

Me Made May'12?  Probably designed for people who don't have sick kids.  No photo today, though I did use my home made bag and I wore the petticoat/slip which I bought for 50 cents at the Sallies and took the hem up myself.  You wouldn't be getting a photo of me in my undergarments even if my photographer wasn't too focused on breathing to take photos. Favourite Handyman took the day off to look after Fionn and I went to work.  When they were much smaller I preferred to always be the person home with them when they were sick, but now they are bigger it is good to share the load and not always cancel my work commitments.  I also feel like a grown up feminist who actually shares the child care on the tough days this way too.  I find that it is easy to end up focusing on other aspects of parenting or child wellness and be oblivious to something slipping until it is a bit late.  For us, that has been running out of flax seed oil and not keeping the ome...

 Ah yes, it's that cardigan again.  Unless my sewing machine comes back and I perform miracles of sewing productivity such as I've never achieved before, then many many many photos of this Me Made May'12 lark are going to involve my purple crossover cardy.  If I knitted it again now I would make the sleeve and shoulder size smaller and add more rows and stitches across the front to fit the boobs.  But I've gone off knitting at the moment. The kids are responsible for the state of the wallpaper.  FH and I are responsible for the training of aforementioned children into civilised and thoughtful human beings and respecters of wallpaper.  The hallway is not the finest moment of any four of us.  I haven't quite the hang of the head turned for photo pose.  I guess there are many more days this month to preactise.  Unless I can find someone else to take my photos, I expect Brighid will be in at least one every single day for May.  I rememb...

I made the cardigan/vest.  I took the sewing machine to the repair person today.  Given the colder weather, I now have two cardigans and one skirt which are home made and suitable for work and one long sleeved t shirt which is home made and fine for wearing in the weekend.  I also have a nightshirt and a bag.  Not quite enough for sustaining a month of daily wearing of home made clothing. Wednesday 2 May Breakfast : they had porridge and I had toast with avocado and salmon on it. Lunch : kids' usual items assembled at home; adults had quiche. Tea : nachos + broccoli. Book club tonight.  Sleep time now.

 Day One of the Me Made May'12.  I made the cardigan myself.  It took 18 months and at the end of it I wasn't even that wild about the fit, but it is cosy and warm.  And purple.  I also made the skirt, out of some needlecord from my late mother in law's cupboard.  I think it was once destined for FH's sister when she was about seven.  You might find it easier to look past the droopy tits and the tummy which could be pregnant but certainly isn't than I do, but that, it seems, is the nature of the female gaze. The punga raised bed, with kale, rocket, spinach, celery and (in spring) red poppies.  Lemon verbena.  Green succulent on our red red fence.  The kale which I finally planted this afternoon.  Planting is quick, but the weeding required to make a space for planting takes a bit longer.  Alyssum, geraniums, sugar snap peas, rocket, myrtle ugni, thyme, calendula and today's addition: wel...

I don't find it difficult to set goals for my performance review in my paid job.  There is a process by which these are set and someone evaluates whether I've met them and about 8000 pieces of paperwork are created for this purpose. I've got goals for my at home job as well, though only my family can assess whether they are being met and we tend to make decisions and responses about that together (without any paperwork).  My main goal relates to the health of my family.  As the weather turns markedly colder, I'm glad we've been supplementing with cod liver oil each day.  My dad has horrific memories of being made to drink this stuff, but a) the version we get from John Appleton's doesn't taste so bad and b) the vitamins A and D which it contains are totally worth any icky taste.  As the sniffles and snuffles announced themselves right on cue with the storm last night, I pulled out the zinc mixture and made it up with 'pink ink'.  Other people may...

On a dark, wet and windy day, my very Favourite Handyman fixed the wash house window so that it won't blow open and break into smithereens when the tumble drier hose is venting. He used his electric drill, which has to rate as the most generally and utterly useful present we've ever gotten him.    I cut out another skirt, this time in red corduroy.  The interfacing is from a 20cm piece I had to buy in the quilt shop in Hanmer Springs a few years ago.  It was too pretty not to take a little bit home.  If it wasn't so darned expensive, I would have bought a dress length's worth.  As the light is too poor at the sewing machine in the lounge, I'm only cutting at the moment.  This week I will get an adjustable lamp to sit beside/above the sewing machine and then I can start night sewing again.   Then I started version #2 of the Simplicity 1945 crossover top.  This time I took a lot more care to make the exact same alterat...

Sewing day.  I bought New Look 6300 with two other patterns for the grand total of fifty cents recently at St Vincent de Paul in Hokitika and today I set about creating myself a new skirt with it.  The pattern only goes to a 16 and so I added 3cm to each back piece and 6cm to the front.  So far it has been successful.  One useful thing about having a fat tummy is that fitting it does mean a straight or slightly a line skirt has plenty of room in it for walking.  I'm unsuited to the constraints of a proper pencil skirt.  I ditched the order of sewing suggested by the pattern instructions and measured the darts onto myself with pins in front of the mirror.  I also changed it into a skirt which sits on the waist rather than below the waist.  The blue corduroy comes from my late mother in law's stash and I suspect it was bought many years ago for FH or his brother.  The paisley is a small piece which took my fancy in...

Pah.  Home made blah blah for breakfast and lunch and OUT for dinner!! We took Mary K out for dinner at Frank's Cafe, quite the most interesting and worth visiting eating and drinking and live music establishment in Wetville.  Mary had her wedding reception at this venue in 1948 and we have taken her a few times in recent years.  Tonight we took her to say thank you for the lovely things she has given us from her home as she organises to sell it.  We also chose Frank's because at the end of this weekend it closes down and we are all sad about that. I had turbot and it was beautiful.  No cooking, no dishes, no arguments, no one unhappy. Perfect way to end the week.

Thursday 26 April Breakfast : porridge and cornflakes (Brighid had to eat porridge before she was allowed cornflakes so that she had enough energy for the day.  We are mean parents and we have plans to extend, not retract, our meanness).  I had chicken sandwiches, I think.  A lot happened since breakfast. Lunch : FH and I had leftovers.  The kids had the usual lunch box things, assembled at home. After school : ice creams at home. Tea : a casserole of sausages, chickpeas, onions, garlic, ginger, various sauces and carrots which turned out okay.  Plus peas and corn on the side. Books I got from the library: Marvellous mince and sensational sausages by Simon and Alison Holst 100+ Tasty $10 Meals by Sophie Gray Taste of a Traveller by Brett McGregor Apparently the last book is by New Zealand's first Masterchef.  I've only watched Masterchef once, on holiday, but if his kumara felafel is a success, or his chickpea and pancetta stew , I'll be shout...

Anzac day.  Fionn promised to wake his dad in the morning so they would get to the dawn service in time.  Fionn took this responsibility very seriously and came into our room at 4.15 am.  He tried again at 4.46 and eventually we rose at 6am.  Fionn and FH went to the dawn service and later on I took Mary K to the cemetery service.  We collected flowers from my garden and hers and took them, with poppies, to Mary's husband Lou's grave and to his brother's grave.  Lou was a prisoner of war in WW2 and it was on April 25th that he was captured in Crete.   For all of Mary's long married life, the Women's Section of the RSA has been very important to her and she was glad to see some of those women today, even though she is now too frail to join in with making sandwiches and serving tea after the dawn service.  We weren't Anzac day service attenders before we moved to the Coast and I am in no way pro-war, but knowing Mary and Lou has given this day ...

All the way to Tuesday with nary a bought sausage roll. Tuesday 24 April breakfast: the others had porridge and I had fish and vege salad. lunch: yoghurt or sandwiches, le snak or snak log, fruit, pistachios and salami for the kids; pumpkin salad for FH and I.  Actually I had two lunches.  I had a scrambled egg with bacon and spinach at 11am and my pumpkin salad at 1.30pm.  tea/dinner: roast chicken, roast potatoes, steamed broccoli and raw carrots. Having two lunches was useful as it meant I wasn't hungry for ages after I spent $419 on two dental fillings.  From a scientific perspective, it is clear that my mouth was numb from the injection, but equally, it could have been numb from the dent in our credit card. As for dinner, Brighid ate all of her dinner, liked it and asked for seconds.  This has not happened since 2011.  If I'd had a special bell to ring to announce this auspicious and wonderful moment to the rest of Wetville, I would have sent ...

Monday 23 April Breakfast: porridge for the others; fish and veges salad for me. Lunch: leftovers for FH; yoghurt or sandwiches, fruit, pistachios and salami for the kids; fish and veges salad for me. Tea: nachos with chilli beans, spinach, cheese and avocado. So we did it.  Four home made breakfasts (that bit is normal, to be fair), four home made lunches and dinner/tea on the table only one hour after the last meeting at work finished.  Now I've got pumpkin cooking in the oven which will, I hope, form the basis of a lunch salad for the adults for tomorrow. Susan Fletcher's Witch Light is very good.  It is set in the Highlands of Scotland in 1691, when William of Orange is on the English throne to the disgust of many in the Highlands, with dark and brutal consequences.  I hope everyone who is short round here goes to bed soon so I can go to bed myself and read.  I don't have to stay up and do dishes.  Chief cook I may be, but I am not bottlewasher....

      Sunday afternoon at the beach.  Brilliant way to spend our last daytime hours before school starts back.  I went to work in the morning while Favourite Handyman took Fionn and Brighid to a grassroots rugby league morning.  Sunday 22 April. Breakfast: variously, cornflakes and leftovers Lunch: sandwiches, leftovers Tea: A slow stir fried mixture of anchovies, onions, leeks, garlic, spices, tomatoes, spinach, red peppers and potatoes, topped with cheese and avocado. Post beach afternoon treat: pancakes .  They were yummy, gluten free, and now I have a hope of using up the bag of buckwheat flour I bought last year. Tomorrow the home made budget challenge starts in earnest.  I've never made four lots of lunch to leave the house on a work day ever.  Fionn and I are the morning people in our family, so he is already quite good at making his own lunch and is also looking for a pocket money raise.  Hopefully we can...

Saturday 21 April breakfast : variously, cornflakes, leftover crumble + yoghurt, coffee.  All assembled/made and eaten at home. lunch : sandwiches or wraps with salami, tomato sauce (a major food group for the short people), pesto, fish. dinner : beetroot and feta salad, tomato salad, broccoli and sausages, which I made, and fruit salad and ice cream contributed by our lovely dinner guests.  The four children contributed a sign reading "desert! and now!" as part of their campaign for a second round of pudding. Snacks involved feijoas, brasil nuts, corn chips and hummous. After seven days without alcohol, I enjoyed tonight's wine. Today's virtuous achievement: I cleaned the entire kitchen bench and kitchen windowsill. Thank you Blue Milk for drawing my attention to this analysis of class and motherhood .  It is excellent.

Christopher, here is the rhubarb cake recipe .  Friday 20 April breakfast : poached eggs.  Favourite Handyman made them.  lunch : variously, across the four of us, salami, hummous, raw carrots, marmite or nutella sandwiches, le snak or snak logs, leftover potato cake from yesterday, salmon and vege wrap.  I prepared it all in advance, except for the salmon and vege wrap which I made fresh for myself when I got home. tea/dinner : turbot, rice and veges (broccoli, carrots, onions, cherry tomatoes).  Favourite Handyman cooked it.  He pan fried the turbot which he had coated in egg and then in a herb and crunched up cornflakes mixture.  It was beautiful.  We used el cheapo ordinary cornflakes, but I expect you could get equally good results with gluten free cornflakes.  I didn't eat all my rice as the children and I went to see Laksmi today.  My joints have been a bit inflamed and I'm not going to wait for them to get worse.  Laks...

Not to make a car at home, not at all. But our trusty Nissan Sentra, which is 21 years old and has provided us an excellent service for the last six years, is starting to protest. It's leaking oil and consuming water and got rather hot and stinky on the way home from Nelson to the point that we turned round and went back to Wakefield to get it checked out. It will likely putter round town for a while yet, but in terms of travelling over the hills to leave the West Coast in any direction, it is losing reliability. We don't do car credit in our family. Borrowing money, paying interest on something which depreciates, is a craziness we have thus far avoided and we want it to stay that way. So how to save more money? To make all food at home. I don't mean absolutely everything from scratch but I do mean no takeaways and no bought lunches. We've done it before and we can do it again. Starting this project in the holidays helps get a bit of organisation going. Until ...