Lizzie's Home

Just Popping In To Say....

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 13:19:00 +0000

Lizzie's Home is on extended hiatus pending family commitments. In the meantime, feel free to browse the archives or come and visit at my weight loss blog, Huggle Mama - I'd love to see you there!

Buffet Hutch Makeover - Before

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 07:47:00 +0000

So here's how it happened. DH had some dry cleaning that needed to be put in, and since I am the resident PA around here, I found myself at the local shopping centre, pants surrendered (his, not mine) and craving a caramellatte. I tried to round up stray friends to partake in the joy that is a freshly roasted brew, but they were all busy. I got my coffee anyway - a new addiction, by the way - and wandered around for a bit. It was too soon to go home, and I was in the mood for some window shopping.

Eventually I found myself at a fabric superstore, buying a couple of odds and ends, and then made my way to a local thrift store. This particular thrift store (and most in the area) are mainly clothing-based, but they always have a few pieces of furniture in the back. To be honest, there's rarely anything decent to be found (unless, of course, you actually want to decorate with chipped laminate furniture) but very rarely, they have a piece or two worth a second look. That's when I saw it.

A little buffet hutch stood out from the crowd. It had a pleasant appearance, but it needed some work. I made an executive decision (after checking for soundness, of course) and bought it on the spot for $64. After arranging for delivery (we don't own a trailer), I'd spent $104. About fourteen seconds after spying it, my mind was already ticking over - specifically toward blogs the likes of this one, this one, this one and this one. I knew I could make it over into something pretty and functional.

The panelled backing will be perfect. The piece itself will most likely end up white or some shade of it, but the panelling and shelves will either stay a light pine stain (like the range shown here - love that look!) or the back of the hutch section will be painted a muted shade of pale blue or green (kinda like here - so beautiful!) Also, if you look closely at the shelves in the above picture, you'll see grooves cut to display plates - so that's an option for later.

The hutch section is in better nick than the buffet section. I love the scalloped edge at the top.

I doubt very much the unit would have been terribly expensive even new, but this is my first 'makeover' piece so for $64, I think it's a good piece to learn on. I'll have to do something about those doors though. They're too plain, and just chipboard panels. I'll want to jazz them up a bit, but I have no idea where to start! If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

It's also not a huge piece - about 32 cm (12 ½ inches) deep by 120 cm (around 4 ft) wide. It's 'shallowness' might actually work for us rather than against us, depending on what we use it for. It could turn into a table/unit for our (limited space) entryway. But the allure of a new craft cabinet is pulling me hard and fast in another direction!

The inside of the buffet isn't very good, but fixable, I think. I'm still undecided what to do in here - line the shelves (after sanding the crud away, of course) or paint them in a similar fashion to the hutch shelves. It might depend on what we do with those ugly plain doors.

Didn't notice this until it was delivered today - oops! While the backing of the hutch section is a nice panelling, the back of the buffet part is just ordinary chipboard. This hole was covered over with duct tape! The back should be easy enough to replace.

So there you have it - not an expensive wooden piece, that's for sure, but it will be fun to have a bit of a play around with!

The Easiest Oven-Baked Frittata You'll Ever Make

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:54:00 +0000

(click for image credit)

I don't know about you, but if I can work out an easier way to do something, I'm all over it. This frittata recipe falls right into that category - easy, wholesome and kid friendly. And best of all, it doesn't require a two-step cooking process. Everything is thrown into a large lasagna baking dish and forgotten. You can use any combination of vegetables and meat you like - we like semi dried tomatoes, spring onions and ham, with some capsicum (peppers) to give it a Mexican kick. Here's the original recipe (but really, it's just a guide. Mix it up!)

Oven Baked Frittata

Ingredients

2 medium potatoes
1 red onion, chopped
70g (2 ½ oz) pancetta, chopped (or bacon / ham)
100g (3 ½ oz) baby spinach
200g (7 oz) red grape tomatoes, halved
1 red capsicum (pepper), chopped
8 eggs
½ cup thickened cream
½ cup parmesan cheese, shredded
¼ cup tasty cheese, shredded

Method
Preheat oven to 200ºC (395ºF). Lightly grease a 5cm (2 in) deep, 26cm (10 in) x 16.5cm (6 ½ in) ovenproof dish.

Pierce each potato a few times and microwave on high until tender (alternatively, you could boil them, but slice first otherwise they'll take forever). No need to peel first, just scrub. Allow to cool, then thinly slice. Set aside.

Prepare all of your vegetables, any kind you like. If you have small kids, you might find a very fine dice of everything goes down better than big chunks of, say, broccoli or spinach leaves.

Place the slices of potato along the bottom of the prepared dish. Don't get fancy - overlaps and gaps are fine! (If you have leftover slices you could include them in another layer too).

Sprinkle with your choice of meat or vegetables (instead of the suggested pancetta, we usually use ham or bacon). You can totally eyeball this (for us, it changes every time we make it, according to what we have in the fridge. Load up the vegies or not. Half a capsicum (pepper) one time and a full capsicum the next. Pass on the meat. Totally your choice! About the only thing that stays consistent for us each time are the semi dried tomatoes and the potatoes. I don't even bother to measure anything).

Beat the eggs and cream together in a separate bowl and pour over everything in the pan. Don't stress if it doesn't look like enough egg mixture - quite often we have to crack an extra couple of eggs on the fly as the amount of vegies can change so much from one time to the next. You want the egg mixture to come to just level with the vegie/meat mix.

Sprinkle with cheeses (I rarely bother with both types - I just use the tasty) and bake until the egg mixture is set (dig at it a little - the egg should be the consistency of firm scrambled eggs, or quiche) and the cheese is browned on top (if the cheese is getting too dark, foil that baby up).

Serve with a great big healthy green salad.

Notes:
As you can see, we have many amendments to the original recipe! This really is 'slap it all together' cooking and as such, cooking times can vary greatly. It can take as much as 1 hr, 20 mins to set in the oven, so get it started early. But the best thing about this meal is that it is awesome both hot and cold (slight greying of the potatoes is normal). The only superpower it doesn't have is freezability. The egg just doesn't hold up well enough. But it will keep in the fridge for a good 2-3 days, perfect for lunches and leftovers. Enjoy :)

Check out Life As Mom for more nommy egg dishes!

A Blogging Examination

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:42:00 +0000

Why do you blog?

Did you begin your blog as a public journal? To keep in touch with family and friends? Because there was a writer inside you screaming to get out?

And then, six to twelve months down the track, why did you keep going? Did you become addicted to every-man-and-his-dog's social networking system of choice? Burned a feed? Started subscribing to other feeds? Categorized your Google Reader page to reflect your sixteen neatly segmented 'blogging genres'? (Ahem).

Did you join forums to learn more about blogging? Have you ever moderated a forum specifically geared toward blogging?

Do you sign every email - even those to co-workers - with your blog's URL? Make up funny names for your kids to protect their safety online?

Were you hesitant to tell any 'real life' people about your deep, dark, blogging secret? Ever keep a folder in your Favourites entitled Stuff To Blog About? Ever have other folders called Interesting Stuff To Read Later, Link Love and Pending Comments/Tags/Memes?

Ever dream in HTML code?

Ever accidentally type in <br/> instead of hitting the return key when you're typing a letter in Word?

Have you ever tried to explain the appeal of blogging to a non-blogging spouse? Had them roll their eyes or make funny gagging sounds?

Have you ever spent more than twelve seconds looking for a blog template?

Have you stopped being surprised when you learn the other classroom mums have blogs as well? Have you ever asked for their URLs? Ever given yours out?

Have you ever agonized over the issue of blog advertising? Set up a review blog so it wouldn't clash with advertising you have on your main blog?

Ever come across a purist who is dead-against advertising?

Ever gone through a massive feed reader clean out? And felt guilty doing it?

Ever come across a situation online where you've felt bullied? 'Outed' from the clique?

Ever secretly wished you could nail a spot on a Top 100 list? Ever wondered how on earth the current top bloggers managed to get their spots?

Ever had unrealistic BFF daydreams about a Big Name Blogger? Ever idolized her/him?

Ever had to ask what an Alexa rank is?

Have you ever not done a '100 Things About Me' post?

Ever hosted a meme? Posted a Mr Linky?

Ever hosted a giveaway? Ever given yourself RSI? Ever cleaned out your bank account posting four pound books airmail clear across the globe?

Do you harbour covetous thoughts about a blogging neighbour's fantastically-groovy custom made template?

Do you turn on the computer even before the coffee is made in the mornings?

Does your heart sink when you notice your Feedburner widget thingamy indicates your subcribers dropped by more than a quarter overnight?

Do you check your page stats every single day, including chasing up unknown 'came froms' and keeping an eye on your 'popular posts'?

Ever decided the whole shebang has gotten out of hand? Ever contemplated removing your stat counter?

Ever contemplated a blog move? Ever registered your domain name? Ever decided that blogging is leisure and therefore the cost of web hosting should technically come out of the Leisure section of the household budget?

Do you get anxious when you can't be near a computer?

Ever worked out that there are better things in life to be worried about than how many comments your post did, or didn't get?

Ever felt that freedom?

Blogging is a nifty little activity. You make friends. You might even meet some fellow bloggers. You've probably got at least twenty fellow bloggers on your blog roll, right?

But blogging isn't the be-all and end-all. Take me, for example. I haven't got a clue what an Alexa rank is. I'm only very vaguely aware of how Technorati works. And while I'd like to be in a Top 100 list, I'm not holding my breath. I'd like to think folks come on over to Lizzie's Home to visit without pressure. Lots of flashy widgets in the sidebars distract me (okay, so I have a small flash thing linking to DH's photography, but hey - if we can't plug our own husbands, what's the point in blogging at all, LOL). And to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of blog advertising. Most of the time, I have no idea what I'm doing.

And that's plenty okay with me.

* originally posted February 24th, 2008

Nine Years

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:49:00 +0000

My husband and I had a second honeymoon last week.

Okay, so it was less like the first honeymoon and more like a night at a hotel, but it was the antidote to a very long and stressful few weeks for us. We had a brilliant time celebrating our 9th wedding anniversary - we had lunch at the hotel (the same one where we were married and spent our wedding night), spent some time pottering about in the city, saw a comedian as part of an arts festival in our city, had a spa, and woke up to a breakfast that - shock! gasp! - somebody else had cooked for us! It was perfect.

Sitting there at lunch, it was hard not to get into a reflective mood. Not fifty metres away from our lunch table was the courtyard where our wedding ceremony had been held. The room we stayed in nine years ago overlooked the courtyard. Even the staircase outside of our room this time around features in several classic wedding photographs. It was a good day, our wedding. Very simple (only about 60 guests), a dress made by my mother-in-law, a reception we did not go into debt for. And photographs - we've all changed so much. My nieces and nephews, then babies and preschoolers, are now in high school or not far from it. Hair was less grey. Girths were less wide (ahem). And my mother was there.

My very favourite photo at our wedding shows DH and I, each holding a son, under the canopy where the vows were said. Because the whole deal was uber-casual, the boys were dressed in tan cargo shorts and matching blue Hawaiian shirts! Jay was 2½ and Boof just 8 months (poor Moo hadn't been born yet). We'd only just begun to suspect Jay's development had gone awry, but were - at that stage - concerned with his hearing. The next year would be prove to be one of the biggest trials we've since faced. I would fall pregnant within a month of the wedding. We would run through the battery of tests for Jay - EEG, MRI, genetic screening and then finally, two autism assessments. By the end of the year Jay would be in speech therapy and autism playgroup and I would be the heavily-pregnant, stressed out mother of a preschooler and a toddler. Oh, and all this by my 22nd birthday.

Fast forward nine years and oh boy, life has changed!

Jay has developed (after some initial scary years immediately post-diagnosis) into an intelligent, compassionate individual, on par with peers in academics and without some of the common 'piggyback' conditions autism-affected individuals can get (no epilepsy, no intellectual disability, no mutism). At nearly 11 ½, he is almost as tall as I am and by the time he hits high school in a little under 2 years from now, he will be well on his way to nearing his father's height. Dark-blonde and with a friendly, open face, we've been blessed.

Boof, at 9 ½, is my Small Old Person. The capacity he has for learning and retaining facts boggles me. After an initial scare when he appeared to be showing the same early autism indicators as Jay did (our first clue was Jay's lack of speech), Boof hit the ground running. He skipped the first grade (which turned out to be one of the smartest moves we ever made) and now in the fifth grade, currently wants to be a research scientist. The field of study changes daily! He's was already quiet short for his age before the skip but now the difference is quite stark! His height is a non-issue - he has one of those engaging, inquisitive personalities that endears itself to everyone. A very technical, detail-oriented soul, he requested (and was extremely enthusiastically obliged by Daddy, no big surprise!) a camera for his birthday and instruction on how to use it, and Photoshop. Some Dads take their kids fishing - mine shows his kids how to photoshop Jaws belly-flopping out of the nearest river (fresh water be darned!) Boof is truly Daddy's 'mini me' - the only one of the three kids who has the black hair and brown eyes of both of his parents. I love seeing them work together.

Moo, my angel-girl, is 8. She was in-utero when the planes hit the Twin Towers (the next day, I took a scheduled 'mum's day off' and the collective reaction from everyone, wherever I went during the day, continues to be one of the oddest experiences of my life - it was surreal, even down here in Oz). She was in-utero when Jay had his first autism assessment. She was nursing at every speech playgroup or doctor's appointment I took Jay to for many, many months. Never able to take an artificial teat - and retrospectively, something I'm quite grateful for - she was my constant companion for many lonely hours when Daddy later changed jobs (the day after we received Jay's final diagnosis, no less) and had to live away during the week, home weekends, for a 6-month stretch. By the time Miss Moo was old enough to begin speaking, she had the benefit of two speech-therapied big brothers and two over-pronouncing, word-modeling parents. She picked up words with wild abandon and was speaking in full, comprehensive sentences at age 2 - long before the age Jay had said his first word. After two non-typical sons, I was just fine with a regularly-developing pretty little girl to buy dresses for!

Yes, we've been blessed. In nine years, we've lived a whole lifetime :)

Easy Menu Planning

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 12:47:00 +0000

(click for image credit)

I was recently inspired by Stephanie at Keeper Of The Home to revisit my menu planning strategy. Earlier in the year Stephanie began a series called Organization in the Real Food Kitchen with a post about menu planning. Of course my ears (eyes?) pricked up because if there's one thing I'm most hopeless with, it's keeping up with the the whole food preparation merry-go-round. I love collecting new recipes to try, and absolutely adore browsing food magazines, but I seem to have a teeeeeensy issue with follow-through!

I've done every known form of menu planning and food organization at one point or another - once a month cooking, ultra-scratch cooking, stockpiling, staring blankly at the contents of the pantry at 5:00 for weeks at a time, visiting the grocery store daily (yes, daily! When the cashiers know your first name - and you don't live in a small country town - you know you're in trouble!), planning every morsel of every meal to cross our lips down to the last half cup of rice, scouring the magazines and making elaborate lists of meals, printing off countless blank calendars to schedule a month of meals at a time, following a 'If it's Monday, it's Spaghetti' meal categorization plan, emailed menus written by others and even throwing my hands up in the air in desperation.

Here's a novel thought - the problem with trying all the different menu planning options out there is that the guru lauding the praises of this or that plan isn't you. And the people she (and occasionally, he) is trying to feed aren't your family.

So I've given up trying to be a gourmet cook. Or even super-organized. I no longer schedule chicken dishes for Tuesdays and freezer meals or leftovers for Fridays. I've even stopped slotting in meals on the calendar. What am I concentrating on instead? Good ol' fashioned home cooking (appropriately re-fashioned to a lower-fat version if necessary) with plenty of vegetables. That's pretty much it.

Stephanie - and a whole slew of others, except me (my bad!) - uses forms and printables by ListPlanIt to help with menu planning. Jen at ListPlanIt is a pretty cluey kind of gal. She knows that most home managers (myself included) tend to cook using a small but well-liked range of dinner recipes, so she created a printable to fit. Her figure is 21 meals, and that sounds about right to me, so I set about compiling my own list. Here's what I discovered:

When I got to about the 15 meal mark, I realised that every member of our family is perfectly happy (thrilled even!) to see certain meals repeated a couple of times a month. So duplicates of those got added to the list. Once eaten, the meal is crossed off.
Many of the meals I cook regularly can be switched up with little or no extra effort - serving rice instead of noodles or traditional pizza with delicious homemade dough vs thin-n-crispy pizza using pita bread. Even 'eggs' could be scrambled, fried or made into an omelette. I added variations on the side of each meal entry.
I still like to put the plan aside occasionally so along with my 21 meals I left room to jot down an additional 7, as I discover them online or in magazines. This allows me to try new meals (with the eventual aim to expand our meal list), alleviates meal boredom (even though we all like the 21 meals, the prospect of a delicious new meal is exciting) and gives me scope for creativity as my mood and energy dictates.
It also means that once my 21 meals were chosen, I only needed to plan 7 meals to round out an entire month's menu. The remaining 2 meals were written down as 'takeout' and 'freezer meal/leftovers' with the bonus last meal (no. 31, depending on the month) as an additional freezer/leftovers meal. Only extending my brain to find 7 new meals a month? Win!

There's a wonderful benefit to this kind of menu planning. Grocery shopping for the month is an absolute breeze. If you're extra clever, you'll compile a master grocery list with all the ingredients and amounts needed to make your 21 meals. Then, when you're adding your additional 7 meals, you'll throw those ingredients into the mix too, and you're done. Totally easy, and apart from perhaps an hour's worth of initial set-up, super-quick. And buying in bulk is easier too, since you'll know exactly how many chicken breasts / heads of lettuce / steaks you'll need each month.

All the benefits of traditional menu planning and grocery management but super-flexible. Love it!

Diets? Thanks, But I'll Pass

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 01:37:00 +0000

(click for image credit)

I hate the word 'diet'. There are a lot of accusations contained in those four measly letters. When you're on one, you usually feel deprived, grumpy and hungry. And when you're not on one, you're feeling guilty for not starting one sooner.

So guess what? I don't 'diet'. Oh, I definitely have in the past, but over the years I've come to my senses about what it means to eat well. So I thought it might be useful to lay my philosophy out on the table. Keep in mind that this is how I feel - it may not match up with your theories and that's totally okay.

The Good

Contains foods from every food group, including fats.
Sustainable long term
Requires healthy portion control (nobody wants to - or needs to - eat like a bird)
Works in a family situation (no separate meals, although minor modifications - like portion control - are okay)
Works in social situations (ie, eating out, Christmas etc - but Easter could be a problem!)
Does not require a cash outlay beyond regular grocery spending
Uses your country's official Healthy Eating Guidelines as a base (including portion amounts - there's a reason why they're the 'official' guidelines)
Uses the 'rainbow' approach to fruits and vegetables (eat a variety of differently-coloured produce to get the full spectrum of nutrients)

The Okay

Specifically requires membership to some sort of plan (Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig - expensive and hard to maintain the initial cost long term, although Weight Watchers is one of the better systems. My biggest beef with Weight Watchers is the constant hawking of 'their' branded products, from foods to calculators, scales and cookbooks)
Scientifically-supported (and tested!) plans that also include everything in the 'good' group (Australia's CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet, Total Wellbeing Diet For Kids - although the former is a little high in protein for me) There aren't a lot of diets out there backed by actual, solid science.

The Bad

Unrealistically limits certain food groups (ultra low carb, ultra low fat)
Unrealistically increases your consumption of certain food groups (ultra high protein)
Eliminates altogether certain food groups, for any length of time (no fruit, no bread)
Concentrates on one particular type of food for a certain length of time (eg, week long 'kick start' soup based diets) even if the plan thereafter is reasonable (if we need the ego boost of dropping kilos that fast, we should be examining our motives)
Creates more work than the average meal planning/cooking required for a family
Relies on ready-made foods, especially those programs which deliver an entire week's worth of meals to your door (a pet peeve - these do not teach you how to create nutritious meals and are wildly expensive)
Requires you to carry around some sort of tool (calorie counter book, points calculator) or is compulsive about weighing food.

The Downright Ugly

ANY diet that includes ANY form of deprivation/starvation (eg: no food before midday, only liquids every second day etc)
'Detox' diets (the amazing thing about the human body is that if you're getting enough fibre and water, it cleanses itself - I know! Who'd have thought?)
'Food combining' diets (eg: only eat carbs with protein)
Strict 'percentage based' diets (making sure you have 23% protein, 12% carbs etc per meal - ridiculous - you only need to remember the 'half, quarter, quarter' rule. Half a plate of vegetables, a quarter of protein and a quarter of wholegrain carbs. Eyeball it.)
The majority of big-name book diets (this one is a little less clear cut for me, and there are some really sound healthy eating books out there, but generally speaking I am suspicious of anything Oprah recommends, or any book that has a 'following', ie, Atkins)
Shakes! (why not make a healthy smoothie?)
Bars! (a glorified muesli (granola) bar - and never a good substitute for a salad)
Soups! (soup is the easiest thing in the world to make! Why are you filling your body with factory-made crap?)

* Obvious exceptions to these include special medically-appropriate and allergy/intolerance-specific diets (doctor or dietitian approved, gluten-free etc) Be sensible - trust your professionals.

Now clearly, if I only ever followed my own advice here, I'd be slim and gorgeous. I am not. My particular problem lies (mostly) in snackfood (especially chocolate), barely any intentional exercise, portion control and motivation. I think I understand enough about 'the good, the bad and the ugly' to know what to concentrate on and what to avoid, diet-wise. But putting it all into practice can be quite dull! I need a way to make it second nature, a total no-brainer kind of deal.

For a while I tried planning out all my menus and snacks, but missed the spontaneity of just throwing something together on the night (this is also helpful when you forget to shop for groceries for the meals you planned!). Then I came across a really simple idea - perfect for the 'meh' days I seem to frequently have.

A healthy eating magazine down here in Australia ran a healthy eating plan feature that didn't need you to remember anything fancy. For breakfast, it gave several options (already calorie-counted) but its lunch and dinner suggestions are where the plan really comes into its own. It didn't tell you what to eat, but rather how to plan your own healthy meals. It separated meal components into columns - protein, carbs, vegetables and fats - and gave multiple choices for each, in appropriate portion sizes (for example, the 'Carbs' column contained options like '2 slices wholegrain bread' and '1 cup cooked pasta'). You simple pick one option from each column and you're done.

Because I'm me, I cut the article out, stuck the sheets onto card with pretty pictures of salad sandwiches and people in running shoes, laminated them and stuck them to my pantry door. Best thing I ever did. Here they are:

See? Purdy...

It's normal food, in appropriate portions. And I love how it gives you the option to wave your culinary wand as desired on the night.

In the next day or so I'll create a document (or link to one, if I can find one online) based on these sheets so you can see what I'm talking about. But it was definitely a good thing to post this right on the pantry door.

Fit Lizzie!

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:06:00 +0000

I must be nuts.

I can't think of any other reason for what I'm about to do. It flies against all self-preservation and privacy tactics I've thus employed in my blogging life but to heck with it - I'm going to do it anyway. With any luck, in a week this post will be buried in the archives and forgotten by the blogosphere at large. I hope.

I'm about to embark on a public weight loss campaign and in an effort to remain transparent and real (or perhaps to serve as a comical warning to others?), you all get to come along for the ride. No holds barred. Raw. Embarrassing. And hopefully by the end of the year, significantly slimmer.

So - gulp - here are the big, scary numbers:

I have approx 25.5 kilograms, or 56 pounds, to lose
My BMI is currently in the 'obese' category, at 32.9
My waist measurement is well above the 'high health risk' indicator of 88 centimetres (35 inches)

In addition, I have a very strong family history of heart disease (both of my parents had heart attacks in their early 50s, one of which was fatal), cancer and pre-diabetes. In short, I'm toast if I don't do something. So over the next few months I'll be liberally sprinkling Lizzie's Home with health posts, and updating my stats (which are initially blank, waiting for the embarrassing riches each Monday morning will bring).

Why? Because I can't be the only one struggling with this. And maybe after reading along with my slow, laborious, sweaty journey, someone decides to join me in the land of triple-strength jogging bras and endless lunchtime salads. And that would be way cool. Because the real aim in all of this is to give our husbands and kids the kind of wife/mother they deserve.

In addition to the food challenges, exercise is a necessary evil. And I'm not so crash-hot with keeping up with intentional exercise. We're sweating our way through Australia's usual summer temperatures at the moment, and choosing to sweat extra on top of the everyday sweat one has to put up with seems positively stupid. However it won't be this way for too much longer - toward the middle of March we'll see cooler temps come into play, and (I'm hoping) a personal increase in wanting to move my rump will be the obvious result. And I've set some goals. Because I'm just that kinda gal.

Running

To paint a picture, I don't run. At all (see previous comment re needing industrial-strength jogging bras - ouch!) But somewhere back in the recesses of my brain, I remember what it feels like to run, and I want that back. I ran a lot in high school, competing in sports carnivals before teenage apathy hit around the age of 15. It sounds strange to say this, considering my utter lack of fitness over the past 15 years, but I can well understand the theory behind the 'runner's high'. Weird, I know.

Goal: To complete the 9 week Couch To 5km program in 12 weeks (allowing for two weeks of walking warm up and one week's worth of run repeats if needed) I'll run Mon, Wed and Fri.

Regarding the warm up phase - because it has been so long since I was last exercising regularly, I'm going to spend 2 weeks (minimum 3 x 45 min walks each of those weeks) just walking before launching into the running side of things. Then on to real guts of the matter

Walking

The Couch To 5km program only requires three runs a week (with a day off in between). I don't do so great with the 'less is more' attitude to fitness. It has to be a repeated, daily thing for it to 'stick' with me. But I can't be running every day or I'll do myself some damage. Instead, I'll walk on the 'off' days (Sundays for resting), just to keep the momentum going. A three kilometre (1.8 mile) walk at a moderate pace three times a week is about the right level for me.

Goal: 200 kms / 124 miles by September 1, 2010 (not including regular day-to-day movement or distances covered while running)

At 9 intentional kilometres walking a week, I'll reach my goal well within the 6 month timeframe.

Gulp. Here goes.

Taking Advantage Of Freezer Cooking When You Don't Really Feel Like Doing It

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:10:00 +0000

It's happening again. The freezer cooking bug has burrowed its way under my skin and set up shop.

I have long since been a fan of OAMC/Freezer Cooking. Love the idea. Tend to fail miserably at the execution. I finally came to the conclusion not too long ago that 'true OAMC' (making thirty meals in one sweat-producing, food-processor-exploding hit) is both foolish and irritating (the planning! the shopping! the monstrous amounts of onions to dice!) Over time my theory on freezer cooking has settled into a much more palatable incarnation; a sort of loose interpretation of Lynn Nelson's Busy Cooks Pyramid approach. At least some of the time. Today we're talking about tier one, or Cooking For The Freezer.

It has to be the right mix of recipes, too. Not twelve different kinds of soup. Not eight different pies. And good gracious, no more Chicken Divan, which weirdly seems to turn up in 98% of all the OAMC meal plans I've ever come across online. Broccoli and I are living a very tumultuous relationship. In my brain it works on its own, lightly steamed, or married with cauliflower in a white sauce and crouton concoction. Dancing with chicken and smothered in some sort of condensed-soupy stuff? Not so much.

So whenever I feel the freezer cooking bug bite (whether that bite be big or small), I circle around the issue for several days. Mock up some plans. Discard most of them. Finally settle on five or six recipes only - meals that can be easily multiplied. And then remind myself that it will probably still take me three days to complete them. Life happens. These are not meant to be full, complete meals. You'll still need to throw together a salad, or steam some fresh vegies on the night (a common criticism of freezer cooking tends to be its distinct lack of fresh produce - this doesn't, and shouldn't, be the case). The idea, I think, should not be to eliminate all the dinner prep work in the evenings, just most of it.

Here are some freezer cooking tips that have served me well over the last few years:

Plan to portion off a meal for that night's dinner. Plenty of freezer cooks I know plan to order pizza on Cooking Day. However, in my experience a husband (well, okay, mine) can tend to get a smidgeon annoyed when takeout is suggested, considering we just spent "...all day in the kitchen cooking!" Suck it up and sacrifice one of the meals destined for the freezer and save your cash. Crockpot recipes are worth their weight in gold for this reason - fire up the crock in the morning, before you tackle your other recipes, and ta-da! A stress-free dinner on Cooking Day.

How much of each recipe to make is entirely up to you. However, unless its a first-time tryout (in which case you should never make more than a single family meal), all of your recipes for these kinds of mini-sessions should be at least doubled. Since they're already meals your family likes, not meals chosen by some faceless Martha Stewart-type you found on the net somewhere, there should be nothing on your list that your family wouldn't eat again within, say, a month. Other than that, go nuts. But just because someone else triples 10 different recipes for a full month worth of meals, it doesn't mean you have to.

Freezer cooking usually won't replace weekly grocery shopping. Sorry! You'll still need to hit the store for fresh produce and loss leaders regardless of what goes on your Cooking Day list. With this approach the idea is simply to create a few 'my head is killing me, the kids tore the curtains playing Tarzan and the dog peed on the freshly mopped kitchen floor' kind of escape plans. Your small cooking session might stretch as far as a couple of months because you're not eating exclusively out of your freezer stash - you could, of course, but this isn't usually how it works around our house. When it comes time to menu plan and compile a shopping list, drag out your Freezer Meal Inventory and squeal with glee when you discover the treasures lurking in your 'vault' (ie, your freezer). For two or three nights that week, coast. Or if meat just seems across-the-board expensive in the weekly circulars, rely on the sale-purchased and deliciously-cooked meals you already have on hand. But don't sweat the fact you don't have the full 30 meals tucked away.

And finally...

Replenish, Replenish, Replenish! At the very least, make a couple of double-batch recipes, or one triple batch one every week or two. Alternate protein source each time you do it so you don't end up with sixty-seven chicken meals. Keep updating your freezer meal inventory and aim to restock when the stash is low.

Happy cooking!

*Lizzie's Home re-hash

Streamline Your Food Shopping With A Master Grocery List

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:06:00 +0000

Tackling the grocery store madness is tough work, no doubt about it. First you have to decide what will be on your menu for the week ahead. Then you have to find those buried recipe cards and magazine tear-outs, compile a shopping list, check the pantry, and round up the family members to ask if they need anything. Is it any wonder many of us get to the grocery store grumpy, exhausted, and ready to shell out more money than we're comfortable with on convenience foods in order to end the experience as quickly as possible?

We've all heard that a master grocery list saves time and energy at the store, but I'm going to show you a way to take that general idea and supercharge it. Like most good systems it will take a little time to set up, but I promise you it will be worth it. You'll zip through the store in record time, leaving more energy for the really important things, like Monopoly tournaments with your kids. Ready? Let's go!

Before You Start

First, it's important to realise that you won't be able to complete all of the steps in one hit. There's a lot to work through, and you don't want to burn out before you get the chance to enjoy all your hard work. Take your time!

What You'll Need

Small notebook
Pen
Access to a computer and printer
Time (multiple visits to the grocery store are recommended, but don't go out of your way - use your regular grocery trips spread out over a few days or weeks)
Patience!

Step 1 - Reconnaissance

The next time you're at your regular grocery store, take your pen and notebook and as you're walking around the store, jot down aisle numbers and the items listed on the end-of-aisle hanging signs (there are usually about 6-10 items listed). For example:

Aisle 10

laundry powder
cleaning products
toilet paper
stationery

If you're already familiar with the store, you'll just be confirming what you already know, but get an 'official' list down on paper nonetheless. Finish your shopping and go home.

Step 2 - Delving Deeper

On your next grocery run, pick a 'start point'. This is typically the point at which you begin your natural meander around the store (for a full weekly shop, that is). Believe it or not, this isn't always near the entrance. At my local supermarket, I 'begin' at the front end of Aisle 10, close to the registers, but the actual entrance to my store is near the produce/Aisle 1. Your own 'order of business' will depend on several factors, including the store layout and your personal preferences. Consider where the heavy items are, like laundry products and dog food. You might want to start near there. But for now, stick only to the aisles - not the perimeter. There's a reason for this - trust me!

Once you've established your starting point, begin walking down the aisle in the direction you would naturally take - most people follow a fairly intuitive and predictable pattern as they shop. By all means combine this with your regular grocery shopping, but go slowly...and look UP. Along the length of the aisles, near the top shelves, there are usually 'category markers' signifying where certain subcategories of items begin and end within each aisle. Write these down. Using the Aisle 10 example we began earlier, you might see something like this:

laundry powder
laundry liquid
stain soakers
dishwashing liquids
toilet paper
paper towels
kitchen sponges

...and so on.

(An important note: Since the idea behind this version of the Master Grocery List is to minimize the 'headless chicken factor' (ie, backtracking between aisles when you forget an item), remember to look on both sides of the aisle. Try to keep the category markers from both sides of the aisle in order when you take your notes (you can double check the order later if you need to). Later, when you're rocking the new system, you'll only need to go down each aisle once - though you will occasionally 'zig zag' from one side of the aisle to the other - and everything will be in perfect, natural order).

Don't worry too much if you notice markers for items or categories that you don't actually buy (a good example is the dog food section if you don't have a dog!). Just jot them down as they are - in later steps they will help you gauge where similar items might be kept.

With this step, it's important to take your time - it took me several visits to get all the category markers (there could be as many as thirty per aisle, multiplied by however many aisles your store has). It will take you even longer if you typically take your children shopping with you.

Step 3 - Work The Perimeter

By now you should have a list of items, in the usual order that you'd shop in, sorted by aisle, not category. This is a significant difference over your standard Produce / Meat / Dairy type of list, and really the key to the whole system. Often, similarly-categorized products are not kept near each other in the store. An example at my own supermarket would be the cheese and milk fridges, which are at opposite ends of the store, despite both being 'Dairy'. Using my old, standard type of master grocery list, I still had to walk back and forth in the store in order to cross an entire category off - nothing was arranged in my natural order of movement - which is exactly what the supermarket wants! More time looking for items or walking past end-of-aisle displays means more money for them. Let's get smarter and beat them at their own game!

Once you have the aisles sorted, take the edge of the 'perimeter' of the store nearest to the end of the last aisle you've just walked down (remember, we're going for a natural, intuitive walking pattern here, so don't walk across the store!), and repeat Step 2. This part is a little trickier, because the perimeter of the store doesn't always have the same category markers at top shelf level and they aren't generally arranged in an easy 'linear' order as with the aisles. Your store should, however, have very distinct 'areas' around the perimeter - often these are Bakery, Produce, Deli Counter, Meat, Milk, and Freezer. In your notebook, put these areas down as headings, keeping them in order according to the direction you are walking. Using your natural meander as the basis, walk slowly through, or alongside, these areas, making note of the items you would typically buy. In Bakery (in my store, this consists of a few central tables plus a U-shaped shelved area), it might look something like:

white bread
grainy bread
bread rolls
hot dog buns
hamburger buns
bread sticks

...and so on

Work your way around the perimeter of the store. Since most of the fresh and frozen foods are around the perimeter, people tend to put these items in their carts last to minimize the 'squish factor' - so tackling the aisles first (and then the perimeter) tends to follow a more natural walk-around-the-store pattern (see, I told you it would make sense!)

Step 4 - Embrace Technology

Well done - the hard part is over!

In your notebook, you should have an aisle-by-aisle (plus perimeter) breakdown of where everything is in the store. Written down in the order in which you would normally shop and using aisles and categories specific to your store.

Now it's time to fire up a Word document. If you've tried out a Master Grocery List before, drag out your copy of that as well (your original master list will give you a great starting point, listing all of your 'usually bought' items). Open a new document and create a few headings - all your aisle numbers ('Aisle 10', 'Aisle 7' and so on) plus all the perimeter categories ('Bakery', 'Meat' etc). Remember to keep these headings in order beginning from your personal 'Start Point' and ending with the last perimeter section. Because I begin in Aisle 10, my list obviously begins with that as my first heading, and not Aisle 1.

Next, using the notes you made on your reconnaissance trips as a guide, enter each individual item from your original list onto your new Master Grocery List under the appropriate aisle/area heading and in the appropriate order. If you don't already have a master list, don't worry! Brainstorm your basic grocery items and throw those in, or look over a few old grocery receipts. During this step you can also safely skip over including any item you know you wouldn't regularly buy. Your Master Grocery List should represent your family's shopping habits, not someone else's, and definitely not the store's idea of what you should buy! Here's how it might look:

Original List (or brainstormed items / receipts)

Dairy (using your standard Dairy / Meat / Produce layout - ie, nothing in order)

milk
cheese
yoghurt
cream cheese
cream

Master Grocery List

Aisle 1/Fridge (using your new, streamlined 'even my non-grocery-shopping husband could do this' approach)

full cream milk
half and half
fruit juice
thickened cream
magazines
sour cream
stationery

It looks random, but it's not! You now have the most useful shopping list you've ever created in your hands!

I try to keep my Master Grocery List to just the one, one-sided page for ease, so I don't list absolutely everything we buy, but certainly most things. Here's what my Master Grocery List looks like:

(click to enlarge)

Each of the items I've included above is in order according to the layout in my store and you can see I've included some space to jot down any items we might need that week that aren't part of our 'regular' groceries.

Step 5 - Wrapping Things Up

Can you imagine how much time and money you'll save having all of your regular grocery items listed in the order they appear in the store? How much easier the weekly food shopping will be if you have little helpers along for the ride? No back-tracking down aisles (a pet peeve of my dear, but long-suffering husband!) If you get sick and have to have your significant other shop for you, you couldn't possibly make it any easier for him!

For the first couple of weeks you'll be constantly remembering things you want to include on your list and others you'll want to take off. Print just one copy of your final list (you can print another later if you need to) and use the first week or two to take notes in the margins. If you buy something regularly, but there's a long time between purchases, leave it off the list - the Master Grocery List is best suited to regular weekly or fortnightly grocery shopping.

Once you've got everything looking as you want it, print several copies of your Master Grocery List for your Household Notebook, and keep one on the fridge. Instead of a 'scratch pad' approach, this kind of Master Grocery List also prompts you about items you normally buy, but may not need that week, in case you see a great unadvertised sale ("Oh wow! Brand A crackers are really cheap at the moment!" - glance at list - "I don't need them this week, but the sale is too good to pass up, they'll store well, and since it's a regularly-purchased item we'll use them eventually"). When you run out of something, use a highlighter or simply circle the item. When you put the item in your cart, cross it off the list.

The possibilities are endless! Once you've compiled your list for your regular grocery store, you might consider repeating the process for other stores in your area, or your favourite warehouse store. Of course, the bigger the store, the longer the set-up!

And the best part? I'm now memorizing my list. It's quite hilarious when DH calls in at the supermarket for me on his way home from work and calls me because he can't find something.

"Baker's flour? Where on earth is that?"

"It's in Aisle 6, right after the dried fruit but before the condiments. If you're approaching from the front of the store it's on your left, about halfway down the aisle, third shelf from bottom. You're welcome!"

I can honestly say that re-working my old master list into this new format is one of the biggest time saving devices I implemented in 2009 - try it out!

Make Visitors Feel At Home With A "Welcome Guest" Box

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:05:00 +0000

As delightful as it might sound at times, being away from the hustle and bustle of home can be a double-edged sword. Vacations relax and revive you, but you can still feel a little lost and displaced without the comfort of your own 'things' around you - I know I do!

If you're lucky enough to avoid a hotel and be invited to stay at a relative's or friend's home instead, it's a wonderful thing. Good food, good company, and a comfortable bed. Even without a separate guest room (our 'guest room' is a sofa bed in the living room), a lot can be done to accommodate overnight visitors and to make them feel at home.

One of the best ideas I ever heard about was the "Welcome Guest" box. Upmarket hotels and bed-and-breakfasts have been doing it for years - a small box containing toiletries, first aid items and a few small luxuries is set aside to make the guest feel special. I loved the idea, so I began doing it for myself at home.

I recycled a little straw storage box from elsewhere in the house and with each weekly grocery trip added an extra couple of items to my list - things like dental floss, spare toothbrushes, pretty soap, bandaids, hand lotion, individual purse packs of tissues and paracetemol. Travel toiletries (mini bottles of favourite brands produced to comply with airplane regulations) are perfect for this because guests should generally be given unopened bottles, although there are exceptions depending on the product (larger bottles/packages of lotion or paracetemol, for example).

While guests should always be free to take the whole kit-and-caboodle home with them when they leave, I've found it works equally well to keep a box in the linen cupboard, and just restock it as needed. Either way, feedback has been 100% complimentary and guests love knowing they can arrive with almost no notice and hardly anything packed and still know they're well covered with life's little basics!

Top 14 Apps For The Modern Day Homekeeper

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:02:00 +0000

Times have definitely changed. As I was entering my teens (sometime in the early nineties), personal computers were just coming into their own. It was pretty common to meet families who still didn't have a computer at home. We were one of those families. Our first computer was an old Commodore, already almost a decade old, when I was about fourteen. Black screen, yellow text. Games came on floppy disk! Internet connections were positively laughable (hands up who can imitate the old dial-up tone?) I remember being absolutely dumbfounded when, at a friend's house once, someone put a CD into their disk drive and music came out!

In my lifetime the cassette tape has been taken over by the CD, and now the CD is being superseded by the age of digital music. VHS tapes only make appearances at garage sales and DVDs, once expensive and rare, are now everywhere. Gone is my much-loved Atari 2600 (bought in the late eighties), replaced with a long list of new, magical game consoles. Televisions used to be tiny and back-heavy. Now they're huge and hang on walls. It's hard to believe I'm only 30!

Currently 'King of the Mountain' in terms of portable technology, Apple's iPhone has revolutionized the way we access, store and share information and music. Being a frugal girl at heart, when I recently had a little play money to my name, I decided against the iPhone for reasons of economy. Instead, I purchased a 32gb iPod Touch - the iPhone's little sister, if you like. With music.

The iPod Touch can't take photos (no in-built camera), can only connect to the internet via wi-fi (unlike the iPhone's 'everywhere internet' approach with 3G - although you do pay for data/downloads for that) and not being a phone, it obviously can't make calls (although like most great things in life, there's a cool work-around for that, as you'll see below). The $600 I saved being 'okay' with the lack of all of those features sits just fine with me!

But the absolute stand-out feature of both the iPhone and iPod Touch are the Apps. Apple's App Store now boasts 115,000 of the mini computer programs, on every topic imaginable. Some, predictably, are atrocious. Some ooze class. And quite a few of them would be a fantastic addition to a tech-savvy homekeeper's tool box. Here are some that I've discovered (for screenshots and more user reviews, please see the App Store).

Epicurious (Free)

Recipe apps are a dime a dozen. They all do pretty much the same thing - give you access to tens of thousands of recipes (usually housed at a large website, which you access via the app, so they require internet access (in the iPod Touch's case, via wi-fi). But Epicurious seems to me to be the best of a very large bunch. It's fast and has a clean interface, plus it gives you the ability to 'favourite' recipes and to search keywords by course, cuisine, season and dietary considerations. There's an entire section for drinks using the same search features, and you can even add a recipe's ingredients to a shopping list with a single click. And did I mention it was free? We like free.

Bottom line: More recipes than you'll ever make in a lifetime, wrapped in a simple interface, for free.

Skype (Free)

I'd heard about Skype for years, but until I realised my new iPod Touch came with a microphone attachment whatsit on the headphone cord (only available on the 32gb and 64gb models), I'd never had the opportunity to test it out. Free calls over an internet connection, anywhere in the world, for as long as I like? It seemed too good to be true. But it is true. And I might be the last person on earth to plug into the fad, but I'm hooked. You'll need Skype on both ends of the call for it to remain free (it's a free download to a Mac or PC as well) but you can also buy credits to allow you to use Skype to call a landline or mobile phone. As long as you have a microphone (and a webcam if you want to video-chat) you're home free. I tested the app on my iPod Touch (so audio only) from here in Australia right over to Montana in the States (hi Mandi!) and it was as clear as a local phone call. I am totally enamored.

Bottom line: You need this. 'Nuff said.

Stanza (Free)

Like to read? After downloading a few different 'book collection' apps, some paid and some free, I decided to try out a popular 'free book' app to see if it held up against the others. The main thing that had been holding me back was the misguided notion that I would still have to pay to download each book once I had the free app. Totally wrong. As well as offering 50,000 contemporary titles for an additional cost, it includes links to a further 50,000 free books from sources such as Project Gutenburg and Feedbooks. All the classics as well as countless others. Many of the free titles were included in a very popular paid book app I'd downloaded prior (gah!) For anyone just starting to explore their iPhone/iPod Touch as a portable book reader, I'd recommend Stanza as a first port of call - the interface is very intuitive and the font size and style is customisable. On my reading list right now? Vanity Fair. Why? Because I can!

Bottom line: Don't buy a paid book app until you've checked out the free titles on this one.

mGifts - Gift List Manager ($1.19 AUD / $0.99 USD)

I was surprised at this one - if only I'd known about it in the months leading up to Christmas! Start a list for all of the people in your extended family, set stores that are likely to include the items you're looking for, include an estimated budget for gifts and set events to specifically shop for. You can include photos next to each person's name (with an iPhone, snap away, otherwise you'll need to upload photos from your computer if you're using an iPod Touch) and you can even set a passcode so prying eyes can't spoil the surprise. The app separates the items on the list into 'needed' and 'have' so it's easy to see at a glance how much money you have leftover for any person or category (a tip: when adding new people or events, add your budget alongside the name - for example, "Fred ($35)" for a one-glance reminder of what you have to spend).

Bottom line: Worth the money, simple interface, handy gift organizer/budget tool.

Awesome Note + Todo ($4.99 AUD / $3.99 USD)

To be perfectly honest, you shouldn't buy this app before you've downloaded (for free) Awesome Note Lite. Props go out to the design department for coming up with a really beautiful loading page interface but I'm still not completely convinced it's the right 'notes' app for me. It does have some really cool features though - each individual folder can be colour-coded (I have mine set in rainbow colours!), set with a customizable mini logo and passcoded, which are all great, and it's a thousand times better than the 'notes' app that comes preloaded on the device, but when you get into the guts of the app, it's really just a notepad. You can set priorities for each item, and you can use it as a 'to do list', but if that's all that you need, then you're bound to find something else cheaper (or free) that will do the same thing. But it is the #1 paid app in the Productivity section at the moment, so plenty of people must think it's wonderful.

Bottom line: Get the 'lite' version first. If all the 'pretty' is worth $4-$5 to you, go for it.

Chore Bank ($2.49 AUD / $1.99 USD)

This neat little app is exactly what it says - a chore and allowance management system for your kids. It's pretty intuitive - you add your kids (which creates an 'account' for them), add your chores (and the money you're prepared to pay for each chore), and record 'transactions' as Junior completes each chore. When you tick off each chore, the account balance goes up accordingly. When the child 'spends' money (or loses some via bad behaviour perhaps?), it comes off the available balance. All very simple. One niggly little thought I had actually has nothing to do with the functionality of the system itself but rather the motives behind it. Some families (including ours) don't believe in the 'every chore earns you cash' theory. It's not something I'd actively promote in my kids, as there are some things they're required to do just because they're a part of the family. However, even if you feel the same way as I do, it can still be used as a supplementary system for bigger, less regular chores. You know, the stuff Junior can do to earn a little extra cash above and beyond his regular responsibilities. I don't see a problem with that - it's how I'd use this app.

Bottom line: Think about how you approach chores/allowances at the moment. Do you pay for each task, or are some things required 'just because'? If it's the latter, would you use this app in tandem?

iRewardChart ($5.99 AUD / $4.99 USD)

If you're a fan of Handipoints, you'll recognize the theory behind this app. You add your children, edit the tasks you want them to work on (there are plenty of pre-loaded ones including general behaviour (manners, no teasing, be polite etc), chores (all the standard stuff) and responsibility (brush teeth, comb hair). You can add your own tasks as well. The next step is to add your rewards in the setup section. Again, it comes with plenty pre-loaded but you can add your own as well (extra bedtime story, crafts project, $2 pocket money and so on). You can edit the 'redeem value' of any of the preloaded or user-set rewards. The execution of the system is super-easy. You simple tap a star to 'colour' it (you can also give half stars), and when Junior has earned enough stars, he can go 'shopping' for rewards, which come off his total. There are plenty of reasons to love this approach - it includes behaviour modelling as well as straight out chore management for starters, and it's not cash-based. The visual aspect would work especially well with younger children. Get the kids involved in the setting of rewards and they'll be eager to earn stars!

Bottom line: It's expensive. Be absolutely sure this is the kind of approach you want to try before you buy it, as there isn't a lite version.

Balance (Free)

Believe it or not, this little free app is probably the most basic one I have downloaded to date, but for some reason, I'm totally tickled with it. Let's start with what it's not - a full featured budgeting tool. There are a whole bunch of those in the App Store, many with lite versions so you can try them out first. This is an extremely basic tool to keep track of money in and money out of your account (an in-app purchase allows you to track multiple accounts, but the free version with its one account is plenty good enough for me). It's an absolute no-brainer of an app. Here's how I use it. DH and I each get 'mad money' or personal allowances. Once the money is gone, it's gone; all other purchases must be accounted for in our regular budget but mad money is ours to save or waste at will. Each of us keeps track of our own mad money so that we're sure of how much is left at any given moment. Balance is how I keep track of mine. You add 'income' as it comes in (at the beginning of each fortnightly pay period, I add my allocated 'mad money' allowance as income). You register transactions as money goes out. Income shows up as black, money out as red. The balance of the account (or in my case, what I've got left to spend each fortnight) shows up at the bottom of the screen, already calculated for you. Dead simple. It has a poor rating in the App Store reviews but I believe that is only because it just can't compare to the 'real' budgeting apps - even the lite versions - which offer more features. Personally? I totally dig the 'you just can't get confused' simplicity. Oh - and you can set a passcode to protect your privacy as well.

Bottom line: It's free! If you're like me and just want to account for those little bits of personal spending money that seem to flutter in and out of your purse, this tiny download is completely worth it. A great example of the 'less is more' theory.

Dictionary.com (Free)

This one is fairly self explanatory but it has one major thing going for it. Once downloaded, the app doesn't require an internet connection, which is plenty handy if you've got an iPod Touch and are out of wi-fi range. It also includes a thesaurus and a 'word of the day' feature.

Bottom line: Because the app works in offline mode, the entire database of definitions is stored on your device. This is fine, but the download is huge (for an app) at 35 MB. Something to bear in mind if you're nearing your data cap.

Weightbot ($2.49 AUD / $1.99 USD)

It seems that along with shopping list apps, weight loss and fitness apps dominate the App Store in equal numbers. If you're a die-hard exerciser, live in the US, or track calories, then by all means take advantage of the top three or four paid and free apps and you'll probably be a very happy camper. I am not a die-hard exerciser, don't live in the US (the US based apps tend to have US supermarket products too), and don't calorie count, which renders most of the 'weight loss' apps fairly useless! When I'm in 'weight loss mode', I follow a really normal eating plan that doesn't really require a complicated calorie tracking system and yet I still want to see my progress and look back on past history. Weightbot has an exceptional interface, tracks your weight over time using a graph and shows your weight loss progress in 'ticker' format, and includes a changing BMI reading as you work your way toward your goal. It also makes fantastic use of the iPhone/iPod Touch's touch screen and tilt/landscape functions. Even the sounds are cool! You can also set a passcode to keep your information private. One feature would make it perfect, and that's the ability to track measurements (waist, hip, thigh etc). Other than that, it's a pleasure to use.

Bottom line: If you're not after a calorie-counter type app, then this one is at the top of the 'weight tracker' food chain.

wCal ($2.49 AUD / $1.99 USD)

I had to laugh when I found that there are so many 'women's issues' trackers in the App Store - do we really need so many? Most are geared toward fertility (ovulation dating and such) and so aren't my thing, but you know, a girl might have need to know when the monthly visit is due again and wCal is a nice, easy way to track and predict cycles. It doesn't have any bells and whistles - it simply tracks the cycle length (both in calendar view and list view) and the fertile days - but the interface is clear and the badge icon/name is discreet! You can also passcode-protect your information

Bottom line: Simple, easy and discreet tracker. Probably better priced at $1.19 AUD / $0.99 USD considering it's simplicity, but still a decent choice.

PriceBook ($2.49 AUD / $1.99 USD)

I was surprised to see there weren't more of these kinds of apps in the Store. There are several that combine price book capabilities with a shopping list function but only two that really took the tracking aspect to the right kind of level. Of those two, I prefer PriceBook. You can set your own stores and units, and it shows a historical list of past prices so that if you coupon (we don't in Australia - ughh!) you can see how good the coupon needs to be to beat your lowest recorded price. When entering prices you can specify whether you used a coupon and/or it was on sale and the unit price calculations are accurate. The only somewhat-confusing aspect of this app came when a custom unit was set. For example, let's say you're tracking metric units (I was). You set a custom unit for 100g (most on-shelf unit pricing labels down here reflect 'per 100g' or 'per 100ml'), and check the size of the package (let's assume it was 335g). You set the 'quantity' to reflect how many 'units' can fit into the actual package size - in this case it was 3.35. This is easy enough to get used to once you've added a few items, but to make things crystal clear for myself, I took to entering brands like this: "Uncle Toby's Plus Cereal, 825g" as an 'at a glance' way to remind myself what the size of the package was. Clear as mud, right? (Note: A similar price book app to research is Price Book Comparison Shopper, at the same price)

Bottom line: Someone needs to get deep into the grocery price book arena and come up with a much nicer interface than the apps currently on the market. Given that a price book would probably end up being one of my most used apps - especially considering the iPhone/iPod Touch's portability - I would pay more money to get one that worked beautifully and intuitively. Otherwise, it's a fair interim app.

SpinCycle - Household Task Manager ($2.49 AUD / $1.99 USD)

SpinCycle has the potential to be a really good little app. It focuses on three main activity types - Maintenance, Cleaning and Shopping - and comes preloaded with plenty of standard household tasks which you can add to your personal lists as well as the ability to create your own custom tasks. You can also set regular daily tasks ("Dailies") which is handy. But I don't know. It just seems like the same old 'to do list' reworked with a fancy interface. What I'd like to see is a truly dedicated and customizable 'Weekly Plan / Daily Plan' type of app, with each day's 'Dailies' coming up on a separate page rather than just under the day headings with all of the tasks on the same page. However, since there's a distinct lack of 'household management' apps out there, it's a pretty good alternative to use while you're waiting around for the good stuff to be developed.

Bottom line: Best of a slim bunch, nice interface and usability.

Convertbot ($1.19 AUD / $0.99 USD)

This one comes from the makers of Weightbot, so you'd expect it to be a beautifully-designed app - and it is. It has a similar design feel to Weightbot, which I love, and offers an extensive set of units available for conversion. The interface is fantastic. There are several free conversion apps out there, but most are rated poorly. Convertbot stands out with it's high rating.

Bottom line: If you want a full featured conversion app, get this one. It's worth the buck.

Post Script

You might have noticed that I haven't included any games or social media apps in this list. There's a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, if you tweet, then you've probably already got a Twitter client that you prefer and there's almost certainly an equivalent app. Secondly, Facebook/Myspace are great for catching up with old friends but totally useless when it comes to household productivity!

Chime in with your favourite (paid and free) productivity or 'home' based apps in the comments. I'd love to expand my list!

There's A Little Bone Dust In All Of Us

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:45:00 +0000

I have waited to post this for what feels like a sweet forever. Why? Because the woman you are about to meet is a walking miracle. She should not be alive. On May 16th, 2006 she was shot three times - twice in the stomach and once in the heart - by the man who used to be her husband. She was in a coma for weeks. By the grace of God alone, she lived. She LIVED. Amazing.

Miss Wanda Ray, this is for you...

If you take a look at the image above, you'll notice two things almost immediately. First, the tree doesn't match most people's standard definition of beauty. Where perhaps once it stood proud and upright, today it bends. Gnarled. Weathered. Scarred.

In short, it is flawed.

But take another look.

The roots of the tree - it's heart if you like - lay exposed, leaving delightful hollows in the wood on which the weary can rest. The leaves cluster together and point upward, toward their Creator, silently understanding that community and worship strengthen even the weakest, most tortured sapling. It is truly beautiful.

And that second thing?

Though time has left it's mark, though the small cracks in the surface of the wood will continue to weather and widen, it bends...

But it does not break.

Talented Hubby took this picture a couple of years ago. The tree in question lies in the south-east of South Australia, in an area known for it's timber industry - and it's tall, straight, flawless pines. Those pines have never held much appeal for me. Bundled in together, fighting for sunlight but never quite reaching it, straining, yearning - their entire existence wrapped up in being the best, the tallest, the strongest. Then, just when they're at their peak, they're chopped down and sawn into uniform planks, along with every one of their neighbours. There is no character and no warmth in those pines.

And then you have this little old tree - gosh knows how old it is - and in all it's imperfections, in all it's history, it still manages to point to God, to let itself stand testament to what He has done with even the smallest, most flawed part of His creation. It stands atop a slight hill with loads of space all around. No need to compete. No need to compare. Just plenty of room to breathe. Can you imagine coming to this tree for shelter? For comfort? I sure can.

Right now you're probably making every excuse under the sun. I'm not like this tree! Not me! I'm nothing special! All I did was survive! Except that's hogwash. You are phenomenal. God is using you in the most profound way - I mean, here I am, clear across the planet, and I'm thinking of you, and trees, and God.

Amazing.

It was uncanny the way I thought of this tree as soon as I heard Wanda's story. If there ever was a visual representation of a person in nature, this picture would have to be a contender. And, because I just can't help myself (*grin*) here's a little "Lyrical Prozac" of my own. Listen to the words:

Wanda, we love you girl. "Be the tree!"

Wanda Ray runs a store, Bone Dust Cowgirl, in Oklahoma City, OK. If you're of the 'western' persuasion, pop in for a visit - you might just leave with a new best friend. James Stephens, Wanda's fiance, carves amazing (and, in all honesty, utterly unique and edgy) jewelery there too. If you would like to read some more about Wanda's story, you can find the details here. Bone Dust, Oklahoma (the fictional yet somehow very real destination you end up when you're finding yourself) also has a Facebook page (P.S. By way of explanation, 'Wanda' is an online persona and real details can be found at her store site)

Along with her friends Libby True and Fannie Grace, she is also a podcast queen. You can find the girls at Flawed But Forgiven - "three Christian women who get real about the issues and subjects that surround them" - and at their podcast page on iTunes (just type "Flawed But Forgiven" int0 the iTunes Store search field - Wanda talks a little more about her story in Episode 22). Flawed But Forgiven also has a Facebook page and the girls have a collective profile there as well - Wanda Fannie Libby.

She's ALIVE! Call Off The Search Teams!

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:32:00 +0000

"Destination" by Talented Hubby

You know how it goes - life keeps attacking you from all different angles and you don't even realise you're under attack until you stop to breathe and that's when life tries to smother you with, you know, even more STUFF, and before you know it two weeks has gone by and you've gone AWOL from your blog with no explanation whatsoever.

Hi! My name's Lizzie! You might remember me from such blog posts as "Ahhhh, Twilight. And Sonic. And Sweet Tea" and "Who Knew Unloading Groceries Could Be So Educational?"

There was no real reason for my bloggy absence except about a week into it, I realised a week wasn't going to be enough so I kept going. I just wasn't feeling it. What 'it' was exactly, I wasn't sure, I just knew my brain power was being all used up by just doing the regular 'mum thing'.

So, what's been happening then, I hear you ask?

Eventually I'll get around to finishing off my Sydney story but for the time being we'll lay that aside (no brainpower = meh. Soon though). Talented Hubby returned to work after a couple of weeks off, busier than ever. The kids returned to school after their end-of-term break (they've been back at school a week now - we're in the fourth and last term, and break for our summer holidays around mid December). Boof and Moo got their school photos (taken last term) back the other day, with Boof being most upset that the photographers had forced him to smile open-mouthed and his big front teeth were visible. Jay lost a tooth. Moo had a hissy fit when I told her we would not be purchasing any books from the school' s book club this time. Boof has begun to walk to school on his own (he's 9, but we live really, really close and he's the responsible one). The dog almost ran away. That's life in a nutshell for us at the moment. Sydney really was fabulous and gave both Talented Hubby and I the break we desperately needed, but it's taken us a little longer than expected to get fully back into the swing of things.

I think we all go through periods of reflection. While I wasn't completely offline (my many tweets will attest to that!) I did have to carefully spread my creativity and blog posts just weren't going to make the grade. Thankfully, I think I'm over that and hope to build up my posting again. Thanks for putting up with that :)

More soon.

Come Fly With Me...To Sydney (Part One)

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 06:54:00 +0000

Oh hai! Did you like my lame-0 attempt at thwarting the would-be burglars by pre-scheduling my last two blog posts? You know, the ones that were haphazardly thrown up YouTube clips because I ran out of time to write something deep and meaningful? You did? Awesome.

We're home (burglars take note: I will be really quite cross if you come now). We are EXHAUSTED like we've never been before, but we're home, we're safe, and the plane didn't crash. All good things. Photos to come tomorrow, mostly because - would you believe it - Talented Hubby has gone to work a catch-up shift despite not being due back until Saturday, and he had sole control of the camera and therefore all the post-editing work. And yes, we Photoshop with abandon. Just pre-warning you.

So let's get crackin'. This is Australia.

We live in Adelaide. We had to get to Sydney. Since we didn't particularly fancy two days of ~~arguing over who had the rights to change the radio station~~ enjoying each others' delightful company in the car, we chose to fly.

Australia is a big country, but the flight from Adelaide to Sydney only takes a smidge under two hours. We left on a Monday morning along with all the work commuters and babies this side of the Pacific Ocean. School had broken in my state (ie, the cute pink one, South Australia) for a two week holiday a couple of days prior.

But wait.

The story goes further back than that.

For FIVE SOLID DAYS leading up to our departure, I had battled a headache that wouldn't quit. Mr Paracetemol (and his more beefy older, stronger kin) had helped, but it was wearing me down. I should have paid attention to the oddity of the situation because the night before we left, a Sunday, I discovered that I am, in fact, quite stupid. The headache was a warning sign that something worse was going to happen if I didn't pay attention to my body, and wouldn't you know it, happen it did, in the form of a migraine - while at my kinda-sorta-pre-departure-birthday-dinner. I started getting warbly vision in one eye, something that has happened before but still didn't make me click. I whispered to TH that I felt unwell but what I didn't tell him at the time was that I was also feeling severely dizzy and (I realize retrospectively) in danger of fainting. I finished my meal very quietly and tried not to fall out of my chair.

So we get home. Me being the kind of gal I am has, of course, left a pile of things to the last moment, including some laundry and most of the packing for two adults and three kids for 6 days. You know, just the small things really. So I'm rushing around like a mad chook feeling green (my vision was, mercifully, back to normal and I no longer felt like I was about to topple over, but I wasn't exactly light on my feet either and I still had the blasted pain to contend with). I finally managed to finish everything (I had to prioritize and thus the fridge contents went un-tossed and - I worked out on our return - I had forgotten to clean the burned-on food from the stove - yuk). Went to bed praying I would wake up chipper again, and for the most part - thankyou God - I did.

The usual airport-y check-in tasks were completed in due time and that's when things started to go mildly pear-shaped. First, I was flagged for a security screening (drug wand thingy). Then the flight was delayed (thankfully not for long). Then we realized we were leaving from Gate 13. Did I mention that I neither fly often or fly well? My first flight was a medivac flight while in pre-term labour back in 1998. My third was to my mother's funeral (on the return journey I also battled, uh, bodily-fluid-'evacuation' of a different kind thanks to a run-in with some bad chicken - stuck on a plane toilet for an extended period of time? LIFE FAIL). Not a lot of good flight memories. This time I wasn't ghost-white-sweaty-vomiting or anything, but the anxiety was real enough and I white-knuckled the arm rest the second we hit even the teeniest discernible turbulence.

We landed without any kind of 'evacuation', thankyouverymuch.

Taking the train from the airport to the station nearest our hotel was both interesting and expensive. Finding the hotel itself, wheeling our ancient little suitcase behind us, wasn't hard though. The room was lovely, fifteen stories up. We dumped our luggage and went exploring.

(Part Two coming soon...)

Moral Of The Story? Always Have Fresh Batteries In The Camcorder

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:02:00 +0000

This never fails to crack me up...

No Bag? No Problem!

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:08:00 +0000

Isn't this a cute idea?

I have a sudden urge to go buy a case of bandannas!

Homeschooling Is Beginning To Sound Better With Every Lunchbox I Pack

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:02:00 +0000

So the random picture? It's a cake. And I made it over a year ago, for Boof's 8th birthday, but never got around to posting a picture before. I was looking for a pic to head up this post and came across it and thought why not? It's about the most creative thing I've ever done in the kitchen and trust me, it wasn't even that much of a victory because I cheated. I used a couple of bought madeira cakes and a whole bunch of chocolate coins and plastic chains and called it a day. Surprisingly, it seemed to work. I especially liked the part that said I needed one little triangle of a Toblerone because I got to eat the rest of the bar. Arrggh, me hearties!

I had a big long post planned out but not more than five minutes ago I discovered all of the following in the space of approximiately 53 seconds:

We're out of eggs (I was throwing together some cupcakes for school lunches).
We're out of small change (I was going to my fallback plan of a lunch order).
I thus still need to make sandwiches/pack lunchboxes x 3 - so back to making cupcakes.
Now I have to research egg substitutes for the cake mix (What? You thought I would bake from scratch at 10:30 pm? No chance!)
Paid a bill I thought was overdue. Discovered Talented Hubby's delightful trick of writing when it was due on the calendar an entire day early, little scamp that he is (Did he think I was going to forget to pay it or somethi--- oh, wait. Good call, you're forgiven)
Realised I forgot my (older, wiser) sister's birthday. I'm sorry C!
Remembered TH is out of clean work shirts.
TH is on call tonight - so I can't even iron damp and let dry overnight (one must be dry and ready to go in case he's called in).
Discovered an appointment for tomorrow at 10 am - here at the house - that I'd completely forgotten about. Had planned to go out. Considered rescheduling. Too much hassle. Will keep appointment tomorrow, sigh.
Looked around the (open plan) family room/main living area. One corner is clean but I doubt I can make appointment lady sit there facing the wall (to shield her from the rest of the mess), so I'll have to clean up a bit between now and then.
God bless the five new podcasts I just put on my iPod this afternoon.
I'm not going to bed very early tonight, am I? Sigh.

Until tomorrow. If I live.

P.S. The dog ate FOUR pairs of underwear today. He stole them from the washing basket in the hall. They're not the first casualties either...

For The Record, I'm Not Cool About This

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:49:00 +0000

The vast majority of Bloggityville is beyond awesome. Good grief, the friends I have made! But I have a bit of a bone to pick so gird your loins people. Are they girded? Good.

I'm a fairly happy-go-lucky blog admin-y kind of person. I don't require word verification or enable comment moderation. But I have just one small request for anyone leaving comments on Lizzie's Home. It's teeny really. Minuscule.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE refrain from hijacking my comments to sell me (or my readers) anything.

There are two levels to this. One is a straight out text link at the end of your comment. If you're a personal blogger, there's no need to worry about not being reachable, since you can always slide your blog link into the Name/URL option when leaving the comment. I want you to link to your blog. And say nice stuff about what I write. Keep doing that! But if you're a business, I will delete your comment, even if it was complimentary.

The second level of solicitation is more sneaky, but in a lot of ways, worse. DO NOT put your business link in the 'URL' part of the Name/URL option when leaving a comment! Normally, when I see a comment, I will visit your site. It's polite, not to mention really cool, to meet new people. But if that link takes me to your business (or spam) site, I feel cheated. And it makes me mutter things about comment moderation and word verification and I don't want to go down that bleak, nasty road. It's bothersome for me (extra admin work) and let's be honest, sort of annoying for the folk leaving comments. Again, play nice or you WILL have your comment deleted.

Now, if your comment was genuine, but got deleted, I invite you to re-comment. I love comments! If you really don't have a personal blog to link to, it doesn't mean you can't join in. Just leave the URL part blank.

Guys, I don't want to be one of those bloggers who gets all riled up over stupid admin-y type things like this, I really don't. But I have always held a very strong opinion about advertising on this blog - in that I don't do it - and if my readers are anything like how I am on others' comment streams, they're going to click on commenter's links and names. With each of these click-throughs, I am, in effect, advertising for you. For free. And if you're a business, that bothers me. So don't do it. Please.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled programs.

Please note: Genuine, personal blogs/bloggers, even if they sell something 'on the side', will never be deleted from any comment here (unless, of course, they're mean and nasty trolls, in which case, be gone with you!). There's a big difference between a personal blog which also sells something and a business website where selling is the main objective. And clearly, this is all at my own discretion. So play nice, and we'll all get along swimmingly :)

It's Been A Slow Week. Here's A Funny.

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:31:00 +0000

I am totally stealing this from Mummified Times Five because hey, it's HEE-LARIOUS, and it totally makes me want to go visit North Carolina.

This coming week? Not so slow. Or lazy. Lots of cleaning. Have a big Link Love post planned for this weekend. More soon!

Ahhhh, Twilight. And Sonic. And Sweet Tea.

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:10:00 +0000

I'm coming down off a post-Twilight euphoric daze. Yesterday Talented Hubby, groaning all the while, took me to Blockbuster so I could rent the movie. There was one small problem though - I hadn't yet finished the book. So that's what I did most of yesterday afternoon. I finally finished reading at 9:07 pm. And by 9:09 pm I was happily scrolling through the opening credits.

First impressions? Book was definitely better than the movie, but then most of them are. This first movie, I'm told, had a small budget. I think you could tell. The moving lines behind the characters as they ran made me giggle. Not to mention the poorly-disguised 'I look like I'm running but really I'm on a cable' thing. But the absolute highest point of hilarity for me was All The Whiteness.

Now I get they're supposed to be vampires. And apparently there's a law somewhere that states all representations of vampires on film need to have an 'Elizabethan arsenic' feel to them. But come on! The girls managed to look fair-skinned but not abnormally so - why not the boys? They (Edward, Jasper, Carlisle, Emmett, James) all looked like a Kitchenaid mixer had exploded flour all over them. Methinks a better disguise - especially considering most of them had decades to perfect their blending in techniques - may have included a little rouge. To me, preppily-dressed folk with powder-white faces stand out like a sore thumb. Now, if you dressed the Cullens in goth regalia to go along with their white faces, they'd blend right into most high schools in the world!

That said - I loved it, LOL. And there's a whole other post in the works about the intricacies of Edward's appeal. I am tragically invested and I don't care who knows it.

New bloggy friend Stefne (with her darned insightful, imaginatively-titled blog) and I had an impressive Twilight debriefing session via Twitter and Messenger this morning. Chief among our concerns - and I can't be the ONLY person ever to have thought of this, so excuse the crass-ness - was the question of what happens when Bella, uh, experiences her 'delicate time' of the month. Any takers? LOL. It's on the same level as the 'how do you pee in space?' question. There has to be an answer to this one.

Moving right along...

Lots of crazy stuff happening about the place here. The inlaws are coming to stay tomorrow for two nights. We love them, so this is a good thing. And this time - woot! - we can actually offer them more than a leaky old air mattress as we recently purchased a sofa bed. Oh, the luxury!

And of course, there's our trip coming up. While my physical presence may be on the steps of the Opera House, my heart is busy planning a (mythical, at this stage anyway) trip to the States. I am starting a list of culinary delights I mean to try if I ever get there (seriously, brutal flight prices from Australia pretty much eliminates the kids' inheritance, so perhaps never would be a good estimate?) On the list so far? Sonic in Texas and sweet tea anywhere else in the 'south'.

Hey...wouldn't it be great if I had someone from each state in the US nominate some sort of legendary local food item for my list? Jump in in the comments! Spread the word!

Seriously? I Hate Intolerance. Just So You Know.

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:31:00 +0000

So I have this relative. Who has, at times, been quite difficult to understand and be around. Who frequently (several times a week) sends me viral emails. Some are funny little jokes. Some are anecdotes of a more risque nature. I learned quite quickly to make judicial use of the 'delete' function. However today I got an email that I actually took offence to. It was racist. It concerned an issue I have absolutely no interest in or affiliation with. And yet I still hesitated before hitting 'send' on my reply email. I contemplated doing what I always do - simply deleting the emails and waiting for the next round to begin in a day or two.

So you're probably asking, why not just request the emails stop? Well it's not that easy. The relationship remains - how should we say this - delicate after a semi-recent falling out. Close enough to want to keep the relationship as smooth-sailing as possible. The last thing I want to do is start bailing water back into the boat. So I have kept my mouth shut. Until now. The email was sent, the request made. Please do not send me any racist, sexist, ill-informed, inflammatory, obviously viral or hoax emails. Jokes are fine. I like jokes. I might even have a chuckle at the more, uh, 'suspect' types. I'm a big girl - I can work out what's what. But the racist stuff? It pretty much makes me sick.

Okay, so I didn't email those exact words, but the sentiment was pretty clear. Let's see how much water ends up back in the boat, shall we?

(picture credit: Hugh MacLeod, Gaping Void Gallery)

Can't Blog. Have Discovered "Twilight"

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 11:29:00 +0000

Okay, so I'm a year or two behind the rest of the known world, but I've always been a slow starter!

I would also like to take this opportunity to "thank" Stefne Miller for pushing me over the cliff edge in regards to this book. Dishes are once again being ignored, as is Mt Washmore. Of course I'd heard of it before last week - hard to ignore all the soulful Edward posters in the stores and the recent release of "Twilight" the movie down here - but I pooh-poohed the entire phenomenon in much the same way as I scoffed at Harry Potter.

Well, Ms Meyer, you win. Your publisher's freaky viral marketing and the fact that Forks high school is the new Hogwarts sucked me RIGHT THE WAY IN.

I didn't even wait for a library copy - I bought a new book on a whim when I saw it on the store shelf last Friday. Co-incidentally mere HOURS after Stefne lauded Edward's praises to me from the Twittertops.

I am embarrassingly enthralled.

Baaaaaaa! (that's a sheep, folks)

Lizzie Gets Real. Brace Yourselves.

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:14:00 +0000

I love it when I discover new bloggy treasures. This week I 'met' Stefne Miller via a call out on Conversion Diary but it was this post a couple of days back that really sealed the deal for me.

So in the spirit of faithful sisterhood and, at the very least, in order to provide future Twitter-fodder, I give you my own 'Lizzie Gets Raw' list.

Sometimes when Jay gets home from school and fusses and moans and whinges his way through the afternoon for no apparent reason other than he wants to make his presence felt, I take myself quietly off into the ensuite, lock the door, and bawl my eyes out in a Grade A Ugly Cry. I do my own fussing and selfish whining, the whole nine yards of 'Why me? What did I ever do to deserve this?', and then I dry my eyes, stick a tissue in my pocket to catch the nose drips, and walk out calmly to finish fixing snacks. Nobody in my family knows how much I cry, especially over Jay. My heart just gets so sore and heavy sometimes.
Sometimes I look back over my life, and wonder what in the heck happened to the person I used to be. I used to have focus and direction. Now, not so much.
I yell at my children. Not all the time....but I yell.
I swear on occasion. Not all the time...but I swear.
I no longer recognise nor like my own body and feel powerless to stop the avalanche of time and society's expectations about what it should look like. Sometimes I care, and sometimes I don't, but the times I don't? I'd rather not feel like a total loser for not knowing anything about makeup or haircare, thankyouverymuch.
I do not give my best to my husband. A lot of the time he gets the 'leftovers' of me.
I am sometimes resentful that I sometimes get the leftovers of him too. And then I feel guilty because he works full time and I 'don't work'. And then I start to hate Tiger Woods for hawking a Playstation game that steals away the precious leftover time we do have. And then I feel guilty because my poor husband needs to unwind from a (very) stressful and (occasionally) dangerous profession and who the heck am I to deny his quest for a virtual hole-in-one? And then I realise I'm talking in circles and my head explodes. Sigh.
I am CONSTANTLY behind on housework, which bothers my husband, and makes me feel like a speck of dirt. Which incidentally, I don't even notice is there (I'm messy, he's not).
I don't feel like anyone is truly proud of me.
I don't feel like I do much to warrant the pride anyway.
I want to read the bible daily but don't.
I want to go to church but don't know how to start (it's harder than you think when you spend 27 years as an atheist and are married to the same). I have been to exactly one non-funeral church service in my life, and didn't much like it. Reeked of rote recitation to me. If I go again, I have a laundry list of what I'd like to get out of it. I realise that's wrong but I still want it according to my own terms.
I am scared to think what an about-face on faith would look like to outsiders, namely family (none of whom are Christian), so I don't talk about it. I barely even blog about it.
I have a keen sense of social justice but when push comes to shove, I sometimes hold back on exercising it.
I have no fashion sense WHATSOEVER and actually think most fashion trends are a waste of time and money. If I had $50 to spend, I would buy books, not clothes. This extends to jewelery. I'd rather 'mad money' than sparkly things. This is one area that gets Talented Hubby a free pass.
I don't wear my wedding or engagement rings but it's not because I don't want to. It's because I've gained some weight in the last few years and they no longer fit, and I don't want to tell Hubs the real reason because we've already had them resized twice - once bigger and once smaller - pre and post pregnancies. I no longer have the excuse of 'baby weight sausage fingers' to fall back on.
I don't have super-close friends. I'd like to, but I find it hard to establish friendships.
I would love more children, despite things being, uh, 'taken care of' so that doesn't happen. If the decision was made to 'un-take-care-of' things, I would be thrilled. THRILLED.
I crave the respect and admiration of my husband but I'm not entirely sure I get it. I want him to wake up and say 'Daggum it, she chose me?' but I still think of it in terms of a works-based theology - if I just do this, clean that, be there for that thing...and then when I fail in those things, it doesn't bode well for one's emotional footing.
I waste time on the internet every single day. That's right, I said WASTE. But I don't want to stop.
I fight God with every step and breath I take. I ignore, bend, or gloss-over the rules all the time. I still wonder why He puts up with it. I have changed a lot, but I still find myself reverting back to my old way of thinking whenever the excrement hits the oscillating air-moving device. I sincerely have no idea how to bridge this gap.
It bothers me that my husband isn't more open to matters of faith, and I don't mean regarding his own (or not) ideas on faith (that's his own journey to take, if he ever decides to set off on it, and that's highly unlikely), I mean openness to MY feelings on the matter. His opinion means the most to me in the whole world and I do not talk to him about faith because his comments sometimes make me feel like a gullible fool for believing in the unseen in the first place.
I pray, but haphazardly. I pray for my husband sometimes, but he doesn't know it. I don't want to sound like I've flipped my lid.
I listen to Christian music and podcasts, and read books with a Christian theme, but still feel 'guilty' doing it.
Sometimes married life feels like a tethered life.

I adore my husband (he truly is one of the most decent, caring, responsible men I've ever met), I crave my children, and overall, life is pretty darn sweet. But it's not perfect, and neither am I. It's about time I stopped caring what others think and start living for real.

There Are Some Pretty Sweet Things About Turning Thirty

noreply@blogger.com (Lizzie) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:07:00 +0000

Today marks 30 days to go until I turn 30. Bye-bye twenties. You were tough, but you also rocked considerably. Here are some things you taught me.

Three children by age 22 generally earns you a few stares. Stare back - it really freaks people out!
It's entirely possible to survive three children - who are not triplets - in nappies (diapers) at the same time.
Your twenties are for taking leaps, before practicality, reason and logic win out over youthful impulsiveness.
Autism? I've got you licked. So there.
It eventually becomes less strange to be constantly ten years younger than your kids' friends' parents.
Twenty is all about you. Thirty is all about them. Or Him, as the case may be.
Your body is changing. Best accept it as fact and move on.
It's a pretty impressive set of circumstances to be pumping milk on your 21st birthday. I mean, that's a gem of an anecdote to pull out at Junior's own 21st right there, surely!
Life doesn't end when the night-clubbing does.
Extra-support underwear begins to overtake the 'frillies' in your delicates drawer. What you used to spend on a matching set now goes toward a multipack of whatever best holds the folds in and about three pounds of ibuprofen to recover from the experience.
I now understand why my mother preferred knitting to leaving the house.
Lines begin to show on your face.
Numbers begin to increase on your clothes tags.
Marriage is awesome. Keep doing it.
Death sucks.
Teenagers begin to bother you, because they simultaneously remind you of the crazy stuff you got up to when you were their age AND scare you witless when you think about your own kids not being that far off from the evils of peer pressure.
Teenage boys begin to seem more devious the closer your baby girl gets to puberty.
Elastic pants don't seem so crazy after all.
"Mortgage" is grown-up-speak for "no more new boots for you!"
Think of all the money you saved by not drinking your twenties away.
Marrying young means thinking about all the meaningful, uh, 'intimacy' that wasn't wasted on people who didn't deserve it.
Three months after turning thirty, I'll have dipped my toe into FIVE different decades (ten points to anyone who can tell me how :P)
There's more to life than holding grudges.

Goodnight all :)