Interesting Conversation

Isn't it great to have an interesting conversation on just about anything. Today on the way back from a pub meal while on camp with work colleagues I sat with Sue and we had a great time talking about whatever! So today I'm grateful for great conversation.
Steph

Swimming Pools

I am grateful for swimming pools, especially when its hot and you really need to cool down.
Steph

Sisterly love and my son confiding in me!

Today I am grateful for two things, usually it's hard to think of one truly worthwhile thing to be grateful for, but today I'm definitely grateful for two. One being my sister who has taken me into her home for four days, I haven't had to pay a thing, not for food or drink, not anything. Today we went shopping and she paid for the clothes I needed, thanks sis! Secondly I'm grateful for my son confiding in me. My oldest son, Nicholas doesn't live with us, he is a very mature, honest, hard working boy (well, he is now a man really), who has a very good head on his shoulders. He usually rings or texts to keep in touch, but today he visited me at my sister's place and confided in me. It's nice to know that your kids can talk to you about anything, that's how I have always wanted it be, and it seems that it is how it's turning out! Thank goodness!
Steph

Nick on his 21st birthday.

Asian superstores

We, my sister, mum and dad, and Zoe went to South Melbourne Market this morning. For me and Zoe it was a first, and it won't be our last, it was great, such a variety of food, as well as other things that I could have spent heaps on if my house was finished. On the way home we stopped at an Asian supermarket near the Queen Victoria Market, called Minh Phat Asian Supermarket. Here they have a large selection of dried, fresh, jarred and canned Asian food. I bought up big as where we live there is no Asian supermarket, You can only buy a few things at the usual supermarket, such as Coles or Safeway, which costs much more. I am so grateful for these Asian superstores as I call them, especially this one, as it does have quite a variety and is pretty cheap. I love cooking and eating Asian food, the things I bought today will make it much more interesting and inspiring.
Steph

A mother's concern

I'm at my sister's place in Melbourne for the weekend, my mum and dad live with her so at the moment we are one big happy family under one roof. Last night Zoe woke to the sound of dad's oxygen machine, she didn't know what the noise was and it scared her. She came into my bedroom crying and saying "the sound is freaking me out". My mum had heard her and came into the room as well, but mum had thought that I was my sister and Zoe was me and she was very confused as to why I (or as she thought)was crying. I kept saying to her that Zoe was alright and she will go back to sleep. Mum however was concerned, still thinking that Zoe was me and that I was Isabella who had come into the room to console me. In the end after much confusion she said " I have to turn the light on to see" and when she did, she realized that Isabella was not in the room at all. Mum went back to her room and we all went to sleep. In the morning we all found out exactly what had happened and who and what was in the room etc. it was nice to know that my mum, even though I'm 44 and have a family of my own, she is still concerned about me, enough to wake up in the middle of the night to check things out. I love you mum! Steph

Living in the Lucky Country

Writer's block, I think I have it, it may have been because I had a migraine yesterday and my brain wasn't working properly due to the throbbing pain. My brain was dysfunctional enough that I didn't blog yesterday of all days Australia Day, not that Australia Day is usually a significant day in my life, although I know it should be as Australia is the lucky country where we have freedom of thought and choice, and I should be slightly more patriotic and wave an Australian flag from my car, wear Australia flag swimmers and make and eat pavlova, oh and don't forget the lamb! poor babies! But I don't, even though I am grateful to live here. So I suppose to make it simple for my poor brain which is still recovering from the migraine, I am grateful for living in the lucky country! There, was that patriotic or what! Steph

Pajama Days

Zoe loves her pajamas so much she hates getting out of them , and if we are staying home prefers to be in them the whole day, it does save on washing. Today I wasn't feeling that great so after I had a shower I put my pajams back on. Pajamas are loose and comfy, no wonder Zoe loves being in them so much. Steph

Hot Chicken

I don't choose to eat chicken, but it is great when you go to the supermarket early in the evening before going home and they sell ready cooked hot chickens, and your mind goes "Yes, that is what the carnivores are having for dinner". Easy Peasy! well for them anyway. It would be nice if they had some ready made, hot vegetarian options there, they do have cold options, I'd call them 'boring salad laden with mayo', yuk!!!!
Steph

Washing Machines

Thank God for washing machines. Today we had to do loads of washing because we had been away for a week, camping. I am grateful for modern washing machines, which means we don't have to wash our clothes by hand like they did in the old days, I just wouldn't do the washing, blah!
Steph

Our friends Goodrin and Stellios

Our good friends Goodrin and Stellios looked after our pets while we were away camping. They came and fed and watered them and even took the dogs for a walk each day. Without them we wouldn't have been able to go away. So thank you Goodrin and Stellios, I am grateful. Steph

Music

Music is what I am grateful for today, it has the ability to change your mood in an instance. Music makes you feel good, it uplifts your mood, makes you want to walk or run faster, it makes you complete mundane jobs cheerily, and of course music makes you want to dance until you can no more. Music sends you to another place, somewhere more serene, peaceful, exotic, exciting and/or fun. 
Steph

Pure Enjoyment

The look of pure enjoyment on Zoe's face today as we played badmington together was bliss. She wasn't so great at it, well she is only seven, but she loved it, she made some weird manouvres when attempting to hit the shuttlecock as if she had reinvented a ballet position, it was really funny to see. I just loved watching her expressions, hearing her laughter and just simply watching her enjoying the moment.  I am grateful for pure enjoyment.
Steph

Food Magazines

I'm not much of a fisherman, I don't mind fishing for a little while especially when we are reeling them in, but my husband and son absolutely love it. They can fish all day and all night. Dave goes into a trance as if he is in another world. So when we all go fishing, and because I'm usually forgotten about, I take something to read, usually food magazines, (yes I am obsessed with food).  Today I am grateful for food magazines, they are light reading and full of ideas for the next gourmet meal. Oh and tonight's dinner...trevally (caught by Alex) served with basil and coriander pesto pasta with pumpkin, broccoli and chilli. Yummy
Steph

Dave, My Husband

We went for a drive today to Genoa Falls and then to Eden. At Genoa Falls, on about the 2nd or 3rd step down I twisted my ankle and sprained something. It hurt for a bit but wasn't too bad. Then we went to Eden and to Nethercote Falls. On going down my foot felt  worse but we went down anyway (as I didn't want to miss out and we wouldn't be coming back for a while) with the aid of my husband and walking stick he made for me from a branch and the bandage he had in his car which he used to strap my foot with. When it was time to go back I found that I couldn't put any pressure on my foot without a lot of pain. So my gorgeous husband had to carry me out of the water and onto the bank where he then went looking for another branch for a crutch, and he found one, how clever is he? It was a long and slow journey back up the steep steps and Dave helped me by letting me hold onto him with one arm while I tried to work out the crutch on the other. I am truly grateful for my husband Dave as not only is he strong but he is also very resourceful. Love you darling husband.
Steph

Just before heading down to Genoa Falls

Genoa Falls - not much water here.

Genoa Falls

At Nethercote Falls - I couldn't move off this rock but it was nice to sit and watch.

Nethercote Falls

Sore foot with ice.

Culinary Skills

When camping, do you cook gourmet food or do you stick to BBQ meat and salad? Because I choose to not eat meat I need to be a little more adventurous when cooking my dinner even if we are on a campsite. Tonight the carnivores did have sausages, hamburgers, corn on the cob and salad, but I did add in a vegetable and tofu stirfry in honey, soy, ginger and chilli with thai rice noodles, yum. I am glad to say I can cook, I can gather a few ingredients on hand and whip up something more gourmet than sausage in bread, or baked beans out of a can. So today I am grateful for my culinary skills.
Steph

Camping

Camping is what I am grateful for today as at the moment we are in Mallacoota and staying in the caravan park for 5 nights. We decided to go away camping just to get away and relax before going back to work. We plan on seeing more of the countryside Australia has to offer and with Mallacoota being only 3 hours away from where we live its a good start. It is a bit weird though, we are sitting outside our camper having a drink whilst surrounded by other campers in tents, caravans etc, all of whom we don't know from a bar of soap, but we are having fun and relaxing all the same.
Steph

Bike Safety Helmets

I am sooooo grateful for bike safety helmets! My gorgeous girl fell off her bike today, it scared the hell out of me, I really thought she would have done a lot more damage than she did.... She came out of it with a deep cut under her nose which needed steri strips (thank goodness no stitches), a very fat lip with cuts on the inside of her mouth and grazes on her arm, leg and chest. She was riding down a hill and being way too confident, not sure if she braked at all, lost control and then came off.....it was horrible, I had yelled out to her to slow down and then watched in horror whilst feeling helpless, unable to do anything to stop what was inevitably going to happen! When she hit the ground she turned over yelling and screaming, I ran as fast as I could towards her thinking to myself which bones has she broken? did she hit her head? I also thought "she is screaming so she isn't unconscious", thank goodness, what if she has broken any bones, then what would I do when I reached her? Oh my god! When I finally got to her (it seemed ages) I realized she wasn't broken anywhere but she was bleeding quite a bit from her nose and her mouth, I just held her and comforted her, my poor baby, she was in pain and I didn't want that, I wanted her to know everything would be alright! I felt sick! I carried her some of the way home until she said she was fine to walk the rest of the way and then after cleaning her up took her to the doctors. Thank goodness for bike safety helmets, it could have been a lot worse.
Steph

Pizza

Pizza is what I am grateful for today, even though it's not good for you and I definitely shouldn't have had it but when friends come around which include people with a mixed variety of tastes you can't go wrong with pizza, because everyone seems to like pizza. Steph

Rhizomes

Today Zoe and I went over to our block to do some gardening. I have some plants (a type of Rhizome which I thought were Dietes but now not sure) which have been in pots for a year now and in need of planting in the ground or repotting, and because we will be building soon I didn't want to plant them just yet so I decided to separate and repot some of them which looked in need of it. After dinner I was thinking of what I should be grateful for and today's gardening came to mind, I was thinking how versatile and cost effective Rhizome plants are and decided that today I would be grateful for Rhizome plants because you can propagate by dividing the established clumps. When we were still living in Riddells Creek, I divided one of our big Rhizome plants which had been planted in the ground, I think I ended up with about twelve or so plants from just that one, today I divided up four of those plants and made an extra twelve, with the minimal cost of some potting mix. How good is that!
Steph

About Rhizomes:

In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (from Ancient Greek: rhízōma "mass of roots",^[1] from rhizóō "cause to strike root")^[2] is a characteristically horizontal stem of a plant that is usually found underground, often sending out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes may also be referred to as creeping rootstalks or rootstocks.

If a rhizome is separated into pieces, each piece may be able to give rise to a new plant. This is a process known as vegetative reproductionand is used by farmers and gardeners to propagate certain plants. Examples of plants that are propagated this way include hops, asparagus,ginger, irises, Lily of the Valley, Cannas, and sympodial orchids. Some examples of rhizomes that are used directly in cooking are ginger,turmeric, galangal, and finger root.

Dietes

Unconditional Love

Again I'm stuck on what to be grateful for, don't get me wrong, I am grateful for a lot of things but I would really like to post about something really worthwhile, something I have really thought through and even maybe researched on. I suppose in reality being grateful for anything is a good thing.

Today I am grateful for..........unconditional love. Unconditional love is when you or someone loves another, regardless of their actions, beliefs or what they look like.

I love my kids unconditionally, sure they frustrate, anger and annoy me occasionally but I love them just the same. I also love my husband unconditionally, he also annoys the crap out of me sometimes and we don't always agree on things but at the end of the day we still love one another no matter what. This all goes for my family and friends as well. I suppose unconditional love is accepting others for who they are even if you don't agree with everything they do.

Friendliness

Oops I forgot to post yesterday, well I forgot up to a certain time and then I was too tired, so here is my post for Wednesday 11th January. On Wednesday I was grateful for friendly staff behind counters and service desks. My husband and I had to visit the doctor's and the woman behind the counter was very friendly and helpful and it made me think of all the times we have had to deal with sour faced, unfriendly, rude and bored staff. Isn't it nice and refreshing when you get someone with positive and effective customer service skills. It's not rocket science is it, it simply means you have to be friendly to customers/people with a smile on your face.
So smile and be friendly, it makes you feel good as well as making others feel good.
Steph

The Meaning of Friendliness:
Friendliness is being open toward other people, taking the risk of inviting them into relationship with you. It means being curious, warm and inviting toward people you don't know well and letting yourself be vulnerable and interdependent with people you do.

Vegetables

Today I have to be grateful for vegetables, they are so versatile and because I don't eat any land animals, but eat fish (I suppose I am classed as a Pescetarian), I need to eat a variety of vegetables to keep me healthy and luckily for me I love them. Today I made a delicious vegetable soup and added some barlotti beans and chickpeas to it. Zoe loved it, she had one and a half large bowls full for lunch. I really should make more soups, a variety of different ones to keep it interesting.

I find that when I cook my meal, it takes far less time to make then the carnivores' meal. I have made a huge variety of delicious vegetarian and seafood dishes which include pasta dishes, rice dishes, baked dishes, soups, curries, and different nationality dishes. Here are some pics of my food.

Baba Ganoush and Smoked Salmon Dips with Crostini

Sweet Potato and Ricotta Ravioli with Sage Butter Sauce

Fettuccini with Eggplant, Fetta and Pine Nuts

Spaghetti with Roasted Vegetables and Chickpeas

Portobello Mushrooms stuffed with Tomato, Onion and Fetta

Spinach Souffle

Tortellini with Mushrooms and Broccoli

Brown Rice with Beans, Tomatoes and Tofu

Smoked Salmon on Corn Fritters with Sour Cream and Poached Egg

Asian Style Prawn Salad with Peanuts and Lime

Stir Fry Bok Choy and Mushrooms with Oyster Sauce

Smoked Salmon, Baked Tomato, Cheese and Poached Egg on Crossiant

Vegetable Hoi Sin Spring Rolls and Prawn and Ginger Money Bags

Arancini with cheese, Arancini with Artichoke and Vegetable Puffs

Greenies or Environmentalists

Hmmmmm, what shall I be grateful for today? Today I have found it really hard to find something truly worth being grateful for, other than the obvious things that we take for granted everyday in our lives. I feel I need to be grateful for more meaningful things than say my doona, or a chair or the sky!!!! Today I want to be grateful for the people on this earth that truly work hard at preserving our natural environment, not sure if the word 'Greenies' will suffice in this situation as the word 'Greenies' could mean a whole lot more than just people wanting the best for our environment. I am grateful for those people who stand up to government bodies, industrialists, corporate bodies and others who just plainly and simply don't give a damn about the environment.  How dare you people (you will know who you are) screw signposts advertising your business to innocent trees, just for your financial gratification, I'm sure the local council has no idea of your intention to detract from the natural beauty of the surroundings with your ogre advertising sign, and unfortunately even if the council did know, it would probably not be one on their priority list of things to deal with. So thank you to those people who do care about our environment and are working hard at preserving it to it's natural beauty. Steph

My Comfy Bed

I love my bed and that is what I am grateful for today. I had a wee bit too much to drink last night, I think was so excited about having friends around for dinner that I drank way too fast and probably a little too much, so I'm a bit ashamed to say that Dave put me to bed and I was feeling a bit sorry for myself and a bit guilty. This morning I woke up feeling even more sorrier for myself.

Dave and our friends decided to go fishing in the afternoon and that was truly an excuse to have a nap in my wonderful bed which had been calling to me all through the day, but I hadn't been able to respond because of course I couldn't just go back to bed and leave them all could I. However when I did hit the pillow I rested for at least an hour and a half and my hangover had disappeared, thank goodness.

Beds are great aren't they? Most of us, are lucky enough to have a comfortable bed to sleep in, it's just there, always ready for you when you are feeling tired, sick, bored, naughty or just want to be on your own for a while, you can watch movies in it (if you have a tv and dvd player in your room that is), you can eat in it, drink in it, read in it, do other stuff in it (you know what I mean), and of course sleep in it, and you can even lie awake at night thinking about stuff you really shouldn't be thinking about in the middle of the night.
Steph

Friends

Today I am definitely and abosolutely grateful for friends. Today friends of ours have come to visit us, and along with some new friends that we have just recently made, we are sharing a great meal (Spanish theme cooked by me of course with some help from Zoe). It feels like we are back to where we were living, just like home. So it must be just right.It feels just right. Steph

Zoe helping to roll the meatballs

School Holidays

Today I'm definitely grateful for school holidays. Being a teacher I get school holidays off each time they occur which is fantastic, especially if you have school aged children. There are so many benefits, including; the obvious -getting the time off, going on a holiday if you can afford it, spending loads of time with your children, not having to make school lunches (I hate making boring school lunches), sleeping in, catching up on the cooking shows you taped ages ago, reading more books without falling asleep after the first paragraph, catching up with friends and family, experimenting more with food and much more. Steph

Cooking Shows

I had a more productive day today as I did some gardening on our block of land, it was hard work and I needed a break so when I got back home I decided to watch some of the cooking shows that I had recorded from quite some time ago. I just love watching cooking shows, I love to cook and experiment with food, and I love tasting different food especially ones from different countries and cultures, so today I am grateful for Cooking Shows. Not quite as deep a topic as my previous posts but a topic I am truly interested in.

Cooking shows allow you to experience food in an entertaining way, showing you how to prepare and cook food, tempting your taste buds and taking you to all sorts of interesting places around the world, which makes you want to be there, not only to experience the location but to taste the gourmet delights that they have just cooked. YUM!

My favourite cooking shows are:
Nigella Kitchen
Italian/French Food Safari
Food Safari
Food Lover's Guide to Australia
Alive and Cooking
Rick Stein
Ainsley Harriott
Bill's Tasty Weekends

I also like Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmare

Hungry now so I better go cook something.

Steph

Freedom

My post today is about Freedom, freedom to do as we please, when we please, within our financial situation, morals and societal limitations of course. Today, because we, Zoe, Alex and myself (Dave was working) are on holidays, we didn't do much really. I went to bed last night with plans to do some gardening, but on waking up today with a stiff and sore neck probably from sleeping the wrong way, and seeing that it was raining outside, I knew gardening was out of the question, so what did I do? not much really. After breakfast and a shower I watched a movie with Zoe, did some Internet surfing and then watched another movie with Zoe. It was just one of those nothing but relaxing days.I could have gone for a drive, shopping, to the movies, did some cooking, read a book, played some games, visited a friend or a new place of interest, instead I chose to stay home and do nothing much at all. So therefore I really am grateful for my freedom as there are people in countries who wouldn't have such luxuries.

Billions of people live without freedom. In the worst countries, they live in fear and insecurity. They are literally slaves, bought and sold, or the effective slaves of their governments. They are hungry, starving, or diseased. They live in primitive refugee camps; are suffering under torture or the immediate threat of death; are diseased and soon to die without treatment. They are prisoners, concentration camp inmates, or in death camps. They are soldiers subject to the most barbarous treatment or involved in lethal combat. They are children performing dangerous forced labor. They are civilians cowering under bombing and shelling. They are women who are second-class citizens and cannot leave their home without completely covering themselves, the permission of their husband, and the presence of a male relative. They are the aged and infirm that barely subsist under dangerous environmental conditions. Even those who escape all this and manage to feel happy and safe for the moment still live under the realistic threat that war, revolution, disease, famine, extreme poverty and deprivation, or a dictator may destroy their lives, or those of their loved ones. So they live in fear of arrest and prison, of disappearance forever, of forced labor, genocide, mass murder, and an unnatural death.

We take our freedom for granted and most of us wouldn't take the time to think of those who are less fortunate.

 Steph

Health

This afternoon I was thinking about the people we know that are sick, it was a bit depressing thinking about it really. I think the reason I started thinking about this was because Dave my husband had some sort of 'turn' today while he was working outside in the heat of the sun, he thinks it was heat stress, he felt dizzy and uncoordinated and his hands and arms began to shake. He came to me at work to let me know what happened and I told him to go home and rest and get plenty of fluid. Of course after that I started to worry about him and couldn't wait to finish work so I could check on him, I was thinking all sorts of horrible things, wandering what he might have. He was okay thankfully, it turned out to be because of the heat and dehydration and nothing more.

So today, you guessed it, I am grateful for HEALTH. We take it for granted that we are healthy until wham, all of a sudden we get sick. Young people think they are indestructible, the 19yr old apprentice at work said he woke up with pains in his chest, and that it has happened to him before, I suggested he visit the doctor and not to assume that just because you are young that it's just nothing, he stated that he was indestructible! My own sister died at 21 of an aneurysm of the aorta, and my brother in law died at 31 of cancer. One of Dave's elderly clients had to move to his daughter's place because he has cancer and not well enough to live independently any more, such a shame. My own father has been sick on and off with a heart condition for the last 17 1/2  years, I don't know how many times he had to go into hospital, and now he is on 24hr oxygen supply. My own mother has had cancer four times and survived, she's doing well. In 2010 out of nowhere I got sick with Pneumonia and was off work for almost 3 weeks. It can happen to anyone at any time.

Being healthy is a great feeling, we may wake up in the morning occasionally and think to ourselves 'I don't feel so good' but in reality once you get up and get in the shower you are fine and ready for the day ahead. So consider yourself lucky when you are healthy.
Steph

Family

Hello again, 

This morning when I woke I started to think about what it was I was going to be grateful for, and I started to think about what I have been hearing people say about their Christmas, how they didn't enjoy it because they were around people they didn't like. I thought that this was terrible, how can people dislike their families, especially at Christmas time, after all isn't Christmas about being with the ones you love the most, your family. So today I have decided to be grateful for my FAMILY.

I think that I have the best family on earth. My family are far from perfect, they do sometimes annoy me and upset me, but most of the time they are lovable, generous and nice to be around. I have had a pretty rough year and my family have been there for me through it all. My husband Dave especially, he has been great at keeping me going, his understanding, empathy, listening, comforting, helping around the house and with the kids and much more. My mum and dad and especially my sister Isabella were great too, they phoned often to see how I am, and have been generous in all aspects. My kids have been great too, Zoe my youngest seems to know when I need a hug and a kiss, Alex knew to keep out of my way but also to come and sit at the end of the bed just to be near me, my eldest Nick, would phone or send me nice texts. Over all my family have given me space when I needed it and they were there when I needed them the most. 

On Christmas day we had all my family here at our place, Mum, Dad, my sister Isabella came Christmas Eve and stayed for three days. They live four and a half hours away and we hadn't seen them in a while so it was great to see them, especially mum and dad as they hadn't been to our place before. My eldest son Nicholas came with his girlfriend on Christmas day and left Boxing Day. It was great to see them as well as when we go to Melbourne to visit, they are usually busy working or out having a good time with their mates and therefore we only see them for a short time.

After Christmas I felt a little flat after all the excitement of having everyone around, but came good once things got back to normal. I love having my family around me no matter what time of year. I am a lucky woman to have such a great family, I hope yours is just as nice. See my photos of my beautiful family.

Gorgeous daughter Zoe eating her favourite food, sausages

My beautiful girl

Husband Dave doing his favourite pastime, fishing, although I think he wished he had caught a slightly bigger fish.

 Son Alex with a bigger fish, his favourite pastime is fishing as well.

From left, Alex, eldest son Nick, his girlfriend Ali and Dave. We went walking Christmas day to let some of the food go down.

My sister Isabella and one of her dogs (they are like kids to her)

My beautiful mum and dad. They look really happy here, it's Christmas morning and they are watching others open their presents.

Nick, Ali and Dave again.