(AKA September 2022 Update)

What a month. Mainly it was all about my new job and trying to get my head around all the different things I do. So far all boxes are being ticked which is fantastic. School holidays threatened to put a spanner in the works but Mr T was able to work from home the days I was working, and go into the office on the other day. And as my head started to settle, and I got used to the routine, I was finally able to get back out to the garden!

And what a state it was (and still is) in! The asparagus bed has one sole plant surviving I think, the netted bed and herb bed were pretty much just weeds, and the tomato bed was a combo of weeds, borage, snow peas and a few tomato plants. I managed to weed that enough for the tomato plants to actually produce some tomatoes (mini amish and mini san marzano). And as the snow peas were on the edge of the bed they did quite well – except I didn’t trellis them properly and they ended up sprawled over the lawn!

I made some more strawberry jam and all the pots I gave away were returned with a “that was delicious” 🙂 It was a bit runny so I’ve been reading up on how to perfect jam making and it seems the trick is to keep in some of the less ripe strawberries and any green bits at the top as that has more pectin than really ripe fruit. Also adding some lemon juice as the acid helps the pectin to form properly. Next time!

I’m sure I’ve done other posts about making the most of leftovers and little bits of fruit/veg before they are past but I can’t find them! So I’m going to search and link to them here, or repost the info. Those of us responsible for shopping and feeding the family are increasingly feeling the rising costs and looking for ways to save or make food go further, me included, and so being able to find these when I need them will really help.

One of my latest creations was this stirfry veg and noodle dish. We had a bag of coleslaw veg that didn’t get used for it’s original purpose so I fired up the wok, a splash of sesame oil, and threw in the bag of veg. Added a bit of teriyaki marinade and soy sauce, a packet of wok-ready udon noodles, and then a little more soy and it was ready to eat. 🙂 It made a nice lunch and there is enough to have tomorrow as well. If I had any leftover chicken that would be nice in it as well.

Earlier in the week I was clearing out the fridge and found a few things that were destined for the compost/bin – some mushrooms, chorizo, ham, a bit of tomato, and half an onion. I chopped up and fried off those until softened and then put them in a bowl to cool. Once they were cooled I added a couple of eggs that I whisked up, and then some fetta that we happened to have in the fridge. I mixed that together and then poured it into a baking dish, grated some cheese on top, and then into the oven for 20 mins until cooked through.

I usually make this and spoon the mixture into a muffin tin, and that works better for me – when I cut the one from the baking dish it crumbled. You can make this with pretty much any veg/protein mix you have, and then once cooked and cooled it freezes really well. I flash freeze them by putting them on a baking tray, on baking paper and not touching each other, and into the freezer. Once frozen I put them into a bag and then back into the freezer. I reheat by putting into the microwave for a minute or so until heated through.

A similar thing to the above frittata but a bit less “eggy” is to make savoury pancakes. I make them based on a recipe tin eats recipe, but vary the veg depending on what I have. They can be frozen as well and make a great breakfast option for me.

If we have leftovers that won’t make a whole meal (like one portion of curry, chili, casserole, savoury mince) then we make pies either in the pie maker, or I’ve made “handpies” by just putting a little filling in a square of pastry and fold over the corners.

I’ve posted before about freezing vegetables before here, and when I was at the shops the other day they had 2 bunches of celery for $4. That’s quite a saving so I bought 2 and we will freeze most of it. We don’t use it uncooked, only in cooked dishes or stocks, so freezing it is the best way to keep it. And I read about using celery leaves in dishes, just like any leafy green, and so I froze some of those as well. I have previously dehydrated them and made up a seasoning salt with them – that was successful as well.

Ugh I forgot to do a July update. It was a busy, busy month to be honest. Here’s the post that explains why Something I do when I’m feeling overwhelmed is head to the water for a bit of a reset. It always helps 🙂

So I have been working as a mother’s helper for a couple of mums, and a virtual assistant and then a couple of weeks ago I spotted a small post in a local Facebook group asking if anyone was interested in a sales and client admin position in a small, local, publishing business, that could be done within school hours. A bit of back and forth email, a phone chat, tour of the office, and I start Tuesday! So now I have a job in school hours, which leaves me time to still help one of my mums as I do that after hours, and the virtual admin, as it’s only a few hours a week and can be done after hours as well 🙂 So I’m excited! It sounds like there is enough variety in the job to keep my ADHD mind happy, and being a small team with only 3 other people, and no dress code, I think my Autistic self will be happy too.

Another thing I’ve been doing in the past few weeks is getting my stall a bit more organised. I have the ability to take card payments, bank transfers, as well as cash obviously. And I sold one of the birds nest ferns that I propagated! That was exciting – I told the customer how I’d rescued the parent plant, it died off, and left me with 3 little baby birds nests. I still have one and I think I might keep it.

I’ve also donated some more plants to the Little Gnome Mobile variety bash; and this morning connected with a local that is cooking meals for people doing it tough at the moment and dropped off some groceries. I do love connecting with community like that 🙂

And this morning I finally sorted out my tomatoes and snow peas and gave them supports to grow up. I had put a trellis up for the peas but they grew higher than I expected and fell over. That’s actually all that’s really growing in our garden – well apart for a few lettuce and herbs. And a malabar spinach that I’ve been nursing along and hoping it will take off. Oh and the lime tree.

It’s a little hard to see but I did weed around the tomatoes and there is now a horizontal bit of mesh that they can grow through for support. Last year I ended up with two or three layers of the mesh as the tomatoes grew right up to the top of the support! And my snow peas are going to be a bit hard to harvest as they have intertwined so it’s like just one big mass of vegetation. Ah well, I’ve already harvested heaps from them and if we get a few more before the plants give up I will be happy!

And on the cooking front I made some strawberry jam with strawberries that I had in the freezer from last year. Bought when they were a dollar a punnet; and a frittata with some leftover bits and pieces and veg from the freezer. I normally cook it in muffin trays but thought I’d try in one big tray this time. I’ll go back to the muffin trays next time as it’s easier to manage if you are freezing for breakfasts/lunches later.

Oh and my neighbour gave me a few ripe roma tomatoes from her garden so I grabbed some coriander, lime and chili from our garden, plus a store bought onion. Threw it all in my handy-dandy Tupperware chopper and made a salsa 🙂 I didn’t quite get the proportions right but it was very tasty all the same and so easy to do. I don’t work for Tupperware but this is by far the best hand food processor I’ve used. And saves getting the big one out if you are only doing a small job.

If I remember (hahahaha) I will update here for the rest of August. Hopefully with how the new job is going!

Must be funny…. yeah, maybe not so much for the majority of us! I read something recently about how the issue isn’t that we should be saving or making a few dollars here and there by whatever means, we should be rallying for higher wages. Well, yes, we should be asking / expecting our politicians and businesses to start paying proper living wages; but when you are struggling to make ends meet and living pay to pay, those few dollars can make a huge difference! So I thought I’d list some of the things that I do in case they are helpful to anyone else. Note that these are things I enjoy doing, have the ability to do, and have the time for. They are obviously not for everyone.

A few of the things I do to make a little extra are:

• recycle containers – I take mine to a reverse vending machine but even less time/effort if you use bag drop off or collection;
• collect FlyBuys and Everyday Rewards, but I never spend just to get points, it’s always money I’d be spending anyway;
• cash back from Cash Rewards, Shop Back, and banks – ING gives you cash back on utility bills and HSBC gives you cash back on all purchases up to $100. There are conditions, but they are easy to meet.

I was curious how much I made doing some of these things and over the past 6 months it’s come to just over $1300. Which is not bad for very little effort. I also sell plants through an honesty stall which was another $1000, but that’s more of a hobby and more effort. Of course doing those things is not for everyone, but I enjoy doing them. If I wanted to I could do surveys and market research, and I used to, but now that just bores me to tears 😉

Something I really wish I’d started earlier is investing. Although when I was younger it was actually harder as you needed $1000’s to get started. Now you can start with as little as $1 with micro-investing apps, or $500 to invest through a CHESS sponsored broker. I finally made the leap into it last year, just relatively small amounts, but I’ve been getting dividends. No matter how small they are it’s exciting! Talking of investments – I’m a low income earner, so don’t get a lot of employer Super contributions, but if I put in $1000 myself I can get the government co-contribution of $500 so I’ve been doing that for the past few years.

The flip side of making money, is saving it. They say for every $1 you save it’s like making $1.30 before tax. So here are some of the things I do to save money:

• checking the weekly catalogues – Woolies and Coles are my main shops and the catalogues come out on Monday’s at 5pm. I write down the specials for things that I would normally buy – the specials go in cycles so I buy enough of whatever non-perishable groceries to get me through to the next time it’s on special.
• meal plan for at least a fortnight based on what we have in the freezer/pantry;
• do a monthly pantry top up shop – I get a 10% discount once a month from Woolies for having a mobile with them, so it makes sense to use that on a big shop.
• make the most of leftovers and any leftover fruit and veg that would otherwise be destined for the bin/compost/dog’s dinner.
• Buying whole chickens (free range when on special as I find it tastes better) and jointing them; freezing the pieces to use whenever, and the carcasses for stock.
• buy things in bulk (honey, tomato sauce, shampoo, handwash, shower gel, laundry powder) and decant into smaller containers. Saves money but also saves on packaging.

I think I’ve posted before on some of the things I do to use up leftovers – I should make a list so I can find them again… Oh and one thing I did at the end of last year when I had some extra cash, and lots of rewards points offers, was to stock up on a couple of weeks worth of meat. I was thinking about needing it in case of covid quarantine/isolation but it’s turned out excellent because I use that up in my meal plan, and then replace it with whatever is on special that week.

Again these are all things I enjoy doing. If I didn’t I wouldn’t do them. I also have the time to do them – I actually find some of these things help to slow me down and be present/mindful. 🙂

I have that song running through my head at the moment. One of the features of my ADHD is that I get an idea, and then I get another, and another, and soon I’m drowning in ideas and trying to do them all at once. Then I get overwhelmed, overloaded, and my brain just says no.

So what caused it this time. Well I decided I needed to generate some more income and I like the VA work I have done, so I’ve started a business to try and get some more work along those lines. And I enjoy the parent helper work so I’ve been expanding my hours with that as well. And of course doing that (plus looking after 4 kids of varying ages, and the parent’s home while they were away, and the normal household tasks) has meant I haven’t been doing those things that bring me some peace and calm – like the propagating, gardening, craft, etc.

*sigh* I was really feeling quite down and unsure what to do, but writing it out I can see where I need to change things. I still want to go ahead with finding one or two more clients for my VA business, and keep on with the families (mum’s) that I’ve been helping, and possibly adding one more because I really do love it, but I really do need that down time / me time, whatever it is called, and not have that be the first thing that goes each time. I’m still learning (or unlearning) how to manage life – at 52 you would think I’d have more of a handle on it 😉

Well things seem to be actually settling into some kind of routine around here. Just in time for the school holidays! *facepalm* The weather has been a bit kinder the last week (at least in our part of the world) and there has been no heavy rains, wild winds, or freezing mornings. It’s actually the type of morning I love – sunny but cool enough that I can be out there without dying from the heat.

I was out there checking on my cuttings and plants, I lost a lot over last summer in the heat, and then the torrential rain, heat, rain, and repeat. I don’t have that many flowering plants on the go at the moment, I started to build up a bit of stock of shade/indoor plants and succulents, and I’m happy with the shade plants but the succulents don’t “spark joy” so I don’t think I’ll do more of those. The Ctenthe plants that I thought I’d lost from a certain over-exuberant puppy have started to get some nice regrowth on them, so I’m happy about that. And my parent gave me what I think is a variegated Ctenthe so I should be able to propagate that soon as well 🙂

We lost a lot of our vegie and herb plants as well – we only have 2 asparagus plants left, the herb garden got taken over by weeds so Mr T dug that up and then replaced a couple of things, the top bed is pretty bare apart from weeds and maybe one or two lettuce plants -maybe I shouldn’t advertise that with the cost of lettuce in the shops at the moment 😉 – and the bottom bed has a few tomato seedlings, snow peas and what I thought were climbing beans but they don’t seem to want to climb! I think I’ll try and get out over the weekend and get some more winter crops in. Oh and in our bed that has the compost bins I planted out some garlic, we have a couple of eggplants (they seem to self seed and keep coming back) and I have one lone zucchini seedling.

One of the reasons I haven’t been out in the garden as much is that I have been setting up / expanding a couple of other ways that I earn an income – virtual assistance and parent helper. I talked a bit about my virtual assistance work and expanding that here, and I need to update that page as I now have my website ready to go. I plan to “open the doors” in the new Financial Year (so in a couple of weeks!). The parent helper work comes from an idea I had at the end of last year (or maybe before that) because I know how hard it is for families trying to juggle work, children, and also trying to have some kind of life outside of those two things. My particular interest is to help parents in the early years of having children when it is most intense with sleepless nights and little time for any self care or downtime, and parents that don’t have any support network from family. I’ve been doing this “unofficially” for a while so earlier this year decided I’d start expanding this service as well. So why both? Well, because I enjoy both and I plan to only work with a few clients in each area so I’m hoping that they can work well together. If not I guess I decide which one I like better!

So that pretty much sums up what has been happening for me around the homestead – I’m also trying to keep focusing on food waste and making the most of the food we buy particularly as it sounds like times are going to get tougher financially before they get better! Oh! Something I did at the end of last month but didn’t include in that update… we had an area of our kitchen extension that was very messy. I’d used an old book case to store some appliances on and bakery things on the shelves. I liked how easy it was to access the appliances but didn’t like how it all looked so I purchased a set of drawers from Amart which gives me a nice look, they are wide/deep enough so I can put my most used appliances on top and then put all the smaller appliances, baking equipment, etc, in the drawers.

Over the past few years I have worked as a virtual assistant (VA) and found that it is something that I really enjoy. What is a VA I hear you ask? Well, it’s basically someone that you engage to help you in running your business; or to assist you with one off tasks such as website creation. Different VAs will have different specialities and expertise that they offer – for me, I enjoy taking on the “boring bits” of running a business so that my clients can focus on their passion, and the reason they started their business. I offer services such as data entry & transposition; customer service including answering queries and follow up; proof reading and editing; quote preparation, invoicing and payment follow up; website maintenance; and a variety of other tasks as required.

VA work also allows me to work in a way that supports my neurodiversity and mental health; and it fits in perfectly with my other commitments. So now that my youngest is settling into grade 1 and I have the time available – I am looking forward to making some new connections and providing assistance where I can.

Coming soon to a website near you….

Rachel Fordyce – Virtual Assistant

Helping you to get back to your business.

So July 1st I opened up my virtual doors. I’d created my website, my facebook page and insta account. And in the following few weeks I found myself another client or two. And then …. I saw a client sales and admin job advertised in a local FB group. And I thought why not check it out?

Turns out it was my ideal job and so a few back and forth emails, a phone interview, a quick tour of the office and overview of what the job entails, and I now have an office job. With paid leave and sick days! I’ve never had that before. The job is actually ticking so many boxes. It’s only a few minutes away from where I live; it’s in school hours so I can still do drop off and pick up; it’s a family friendly workplace so when I had to leave on the first day to go pick my son up as he’d hit his head on the concrete, it was all fine; variety – half desk work, half a little more physical; and a nice team to work with. And I work Monday to Thursday so get Fridays off.

Well it has been a while since I last posted an update – whoops! Not a great deal happened in February other than getting the kids organised and settled back at school. I don’t do well in the summer heat and then it was the torrential rain keeping me in. And then on the 14th March, after a lovely weekend away at Bribie and a long over due massage I fell down the stairs. I ended up with a detached ligament and avulsion fracture. After 2 weeks in a moon boot I graduated to an ankle brace. I’ve had that on pretty constantly for the past 4 weeks and I’m *supposed* to have it on for another 2 but it’s starting to get pretty uncomfortable so I’m going to see if I can get away with strapping it instead.

So for the rest of March and most of April I haven’t been doing much at all as I was couch bound and under strict instructions from Mr T to actually rest. I did get all the Marvel movies watched though… plus Cranford, River Cottage Australia, Sense and Sensibility (two versions), Sanditon, Lark Rise to Candleford, a bunch of Doctor Who and cooking shows. Since then I have slowly been getting back to my shade houses though – they were a bit of a disaster after the rain and me not being able to get down to water them. Mr T did water a bit, but he was also doing everything around the house, for the kids and looking after me, plus his own fulltime job. Anyway they are almost looking back to their semi-tidy state and I have also managed to start propagating some more plants. Which is good because my stall is a bit bare at the moment!

One thing I have been doing (apart from when I was couch-bound) is looking at our food waste and trying to minimise what we throw out. I bought some Tupperware Vent Smart containers and they seemed to have helped. I’m not exactly sure if it’s the fact that the veg/fruit is lasting longer, or I can see what we have more easily and actually use it before it goes off. And I’ve been trying to make the most of leftovers, even small bits of veg or meat that might not be enough for a lunch on their own – they can be thrown into a soup, frittata, fried rice, or savoury pancake. I think I’ll have to do a separate post of these ideas so when I get distracted by something else and forget, I can refer back to it!

I prefer the savoury pancakes to frittata as they aren’t as “eggy”. I add a bit of Chinese 5 spice to the batter and have them with soy. Very handy for me to have in the freezer for an easy breakfast. So I am pretty happy with that side of things – it not only cuts down on food waste but also saves money and fits in with the idea of trying to live more lightly on the earth. And thinking about ways of using up leftovers and preventing waste is very satisfying. I am itching to get back into the garden though after a long hiatus.

I mentioned earlier that I watched River Cottage Australia and that has me inspired a little. That and the cooler weather! I have some garlic ready to be planted (I already had it in this time last year, but I’ve heard most plant around ANZAC day so I should be fine) and have planned out what else I want to plant just now. I do have to make sure that I don’t overdo it as my ankle is still far from healed, so I’ll need to take it a bit slowly and rely on Mr T a fair bit. I’ve also been following Self Sufficient Me on Facebook/You Tube a bit. He’s up in the same climate as I am so it’s good to see what works for him. One of the things I like about his approach is that you don’t have to be (and probably can’t) be self sufficient in *everything* but just try for self sufficiency in some things. Oh and I treated myself to the book Costa’s World for added inspiration.

So the above was all written at the end of April – it’s now coming to the end of May and I still haven’t posted it! The rains have come back, we seem to get one or two dry days and then rain again. Our dryer is getting a workout which isn’t great but there’s no way I can dry 6 people’s worth of clothes without it, so I’m grateful to have the option! I am mobile now, no more ankle brace, but I’ve got a fair bit of rehab to do. I was hoping to start walking but the rain is interfering with that a bit! Oh and I’ve had a bit of a think about something I want to do in the second half of the year, and I’ll post about that soon 🙂 And hopefully I won’t leave it as long between updates again!

I’m feeling … I don’t know the word for it. But somehow this year already feels a bit like it’s out of control and it’s only mid February. The Omicron Wave has messed up my head a bit. Like for 2 years here in Qld we fought so hard to keep case numbers low and deaths to a minimum. We weren’t popular at times, but we were relatively safe and leading our lives to the best we could. Each death was a tragedy no matter how old or young, the person’s state of health, disabled or not. And then December last year, just as we were opening our borders the Omicron variant arrived in Australia. I thought, ok, we’ll have borders open for Christmas/New Year and then shut them again temporarily, have our snap lockdowns, and get it back under control. But no. Borders remained open, no real restrictions, no attempt at slowing the spread. Case numbers rose dramatically and we were told to expect to catch Covid at some point. But it’s for the good of the economy and getting back to normal life. Unless of course you catch Covid and die, or suffer from Long Covid in which case … well … what? How many people have we “lost” because now apparently we loose them, instead of acknowledging their death. How many families have been heartbroken needlessly. I don’t think we would have had so many deaths if we’d approached this more cautiously.

I find it incredibly disturbing that we are being asked to accept these high numbers of cases and deaths and say “it’s good”, “it’s what needs to happen”. I can’t do it. So I’m not listening to the pressers any more. I can’t. I can’t listen to “the numbers are blah, blah, but this is what we expected, we are on track”.

Of course I do understand that we need to return to some kind of normal. But how different would it have been if we didn’t open a flood gate? If we allowed people time to get their vaccines and boosters before letting Omicron rip through the communities. Time for people to prepare *before* rather than putting “Covid preparedness kits” together afterwards.

I’m not sure how to deal with all the Covid stuff but hopefully letting it out here will help. I’ll talk to my psychologist about it too. And then on top of that there’s the normal life admin of running a house with 4 kids that are all at different important stages. I have a feeling this isn’t going to be the slower year I was hoping for!