Business – I sold SuperWAHM in May 2011 and have been business-less ever since.  It feels strange; I haven’t been unemployed for several years now.  I do have a website up still at http://melindabrennan.com but it’s just a placeholder site – nothing to see here folks.

Facebook – as per my last post in 2011, I quit Facebook for about six weeks.  However I seemed to miss out on so much information that wasn’t sent out any other way.  After finding out a friend’s mum had been in hospital for a week and I hadn’t known I went back on.  At present I’m attempting to not allow it to be as much of a time suck as it was previously.

Dian – the kiddo is now 14.  Where did the time go?  She’s very much a teenager, wears electric blue mascara and purple lipstick every day, dresses eclectically, has good days and attitude days.  Overall, she’s one of the most loving kids I’ve ever known.  Of course, I’m biased.  I’m quite proud of her.  She’s not afraid to be her own person, to wear what she wants because she likes it and not because it’s trendy.  She has hobbies that are outside the norm for her age group (collector dolls, photography and zoo-ology) yet follows them passionately regardless of what others think.  That is truly something to be proud of.

Homeschooling – we took Dian out of High School last year and began homeschooling her.  She was getting further and further behind at school, and a few other reasons that motivated this decision – such as the fact that after completing Year 7 she tested at year 5 level for maths.  Her education is going well now and she’s nearly caught up to where she’s meant to be.  We’re aiming to have her caught up to her peers by Year 11 so she can go to College with them, or continue homeschooling.  That’s a decision we’ll make in two years’ time.

Eddie – he’s still Eddie.    Currently in Egypt on a six month military deployment and gets home late April this year.   We have our 7th Anniversary in August this year, but I’ve been telling him that while ‘I’ have been married for seven years, he’s been away so much he’s only up to six!

Me, myself and I – I’m still me too.  The year away from business has been wonderful.  I’ve been able to think about what I want and need to do.  This year, 2012, I’ll be completing my Cert IV in Workplace Training and Assessment, completing my Diploma in Auslan (Australian Sign Language) and possibly doing a Cert IV in Project Management.  It’s going to be a fun year!

I’m still interpreting (Auslan sign language) for the two wonderful Deaf guys at church. Last year at Christmas we put on a Love Canberra Love Christmas event that was amazing, and wonderful to interpret for.  These two are so faithful and such wonderful guys.

Unfortunately I’ve had Tennis Elbow in both arms for the last six months or so, which is continuing to be quite painful and shows no sign of improvement.  This has been a slight impediment to my signing, not to mention just in being able to do everyday activities.  At its worst, there were a few weeks where I had trouble just picking up a coffee cup, thankfully the drugs I’m on reduce the pain to just a minor dull ache most of the time.

Toastmasters – I’m still in Toastmasters and recently achieved my Competent Communicator award.  It took me two years to get there, as there were so many other things I did during that time!  I’m the VP-Membership and Treasurer of Woden Lunchtime Toastmasters, and as of last week the VP-Education for Training in Focus Toastmasters.  In the two years I’ve been a toastmaster I’ve also mentored a new Club through startup and charter, and been a Co-ordinator for a Youth Leadership Program in one of the Primary Schools here.  Both of those were fantastic experiences.

Garden – still have my vegie garden although it’s changed a lot from when we first moved in here.  I’ll put an update for that up soon.

Pets – We still have four chickens in the backyard, although not the same four we started with.  Two of them are the originals, two are new.  Our two black Australorps died, one from a fox attack, one from cancer.  We replaced the first one, but that one also had health issues and had to be put down.

The cats are still here.  Suzy continues getting fatter and hairier.  Friday is still the same – the half wild except when he wants food character that he always was.

I think that’s pretty much everything up to date from the last year – so here’s to more updates this year!

Sure, it’s been fun, and there are some things that I’m missing already – like being able to ask for links to recipes.  But I’ve had several more hours to get things done today, instead of being lost in the Facebook haze.  It’s a good thing!

Maybe in time I’ll turn it back on, do a huge friend cull and maybe use it again.  But for now, I need to concentrate on my own study, Dian’s homeschooling, being a single parent for the next six months (hubby is being deployed overseas again) and all the other roles that I have.

It’s time for me.

A group of working adults got together to visit their University lecturer. The lecturer was happy to see them.  Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

The Lecturer just smiled and went to the kitchen to get an assortment of cups – some porcelain, some in plastic, some in glass, some plain looking and some looked rather expensive and exquisite.

The Lecturer offered his former students the cups to get drinks for themselves.

When all the students had a cup in hand with water, the Lecturer spoke:

“If you noticed, all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal that you only want the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you wanted was water, not the cup, but we unconsciously went for the better cups.”

“Just like in life, if Life is Water, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold or maintain Life, but the quality of Life doesn’t change.”

“If we only concentrate on the cup, we won’t have time to enjoy or taste the water in it.

This is the bottom layer of Dian’s meal.  Nutella sandwiches cut into hearts, cherry tomatoes (amazingly still growing in this cold weather), and a bear shaped egg.  Biggest lesson here – the extra large eggs that I use for cake making are NOT good for bento, they’re way too big.

.

Top layer for Dian.  Snow Peas, mushroom, carrot, broccoli florets, california rolls with a tiny bottle of soy sauce.

.

Bottom layer of my dinner – california rolls.

.

Top layer of mine – a fish and a star moulded eggs (two eggs is way too much), carrot, mushrooms, broccoli florets and snow pea salad, and a bottle of soy sauce.

I’m on a bit of a baking kick at the moment.  I’ve always enjoyed cooking, but I’m usually cooking savoury food, main meals etc.  Except for my Creme Caramel that I’m still working on getting perfect (it’s a lot of fun trying!), I don’t make a lot of desserts.

Then I found SWEETAPOLITA.  Rosie has very quickly become my object of hero worship.  Not only are her cakes divine to look at, the recipes work (you’d be surprised how many online don’t), and she’s amazingly talented, plus she responds to comments on her posts!  Yes, it’s a bit of a ‘thing’ with me – if I take the time to comment or ask questions, I’d really like the blogger to respond.  That’s the whole point of comments, to have a two way conversation.  So I’m totally star struck at her fantabulousness!

Last week one of the students in the other Auslan class (Australian Sign Language) brought in a huge bag of lemons from her tree.  I took several and joked that I’d have to make a Lemon Meringue Pie with them and bring it to class.  I’ve never made a Lemon Meringue Pie in my life before, although I do love eating them.

Instead of the pie, I made Rosie’s Lavender and Lemon Cake and took that into school to share with both classes.  It’s a big cake, 20cm/8″ around and about 15cm/6″ high.  And we ate well over three quarters of it!  Note that the photo’s are taken after the cake had been in the car, and on my daughter’s ipod as I forgot my camera.  Actually, this pic was taken ON the car….

The layers didn’t appreciate the drive too much, there was a bit too much lemon curd in between each layer and they moved slightly during traveling.

But they still tasted great!

And now there’s none left, although I’m a total convert to culinary lavender.   After tasting this cake I went and bought my own culinary lavender plant (Lavender Angustifolia) as buying it dried is pretty exxy.  So hubby and the kiddo are going to be having some interesting dishes with lavender flavouring in the future. 

Be warned, it makes a LOT of salad!

Click the link to download:

Rainbow Rice Salad

.

My friend Paul is doing an experiment on getting video’s ranked on Google.  You can read all about it Here

And if you like playing bass guitar, then you really need to check out his video’s on how to play bass regardless of the challenge. 

Not the best camera work….  LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQHg-Pg7lOw

This is a seven year old Diamond Python.  Gorgeous!

Dian’s dress that she’s wearing was a suprise for her, I made it in the evenings and hung it up on the door for her to see when she woke up.  She loves it!