Friday 12 August 2011

Nourishing... the kitchen



A part of my whole food challenge, is ensuring my kitchen is in tip top shape, and ready to tackle the challenge with me.

I am lucky in this respect, because when we built our house last year, I had the opportunity to design the kitchen to suit me. This was something I had been dreaming of over the past few years. The house we knocked down was an old holiday house - as you can imagine, the kitchen was not designed for a growing family of five. But I do miss that pokey little kitchen sometimes - there were a lot of laughs had in it, and memories made. We still laugh about the open shelving that sat over the rubbish bin that hubby hit his head on every single time! And I can still see my chubby little toddler take her first steps from one side of the kitchen to the other (which was perfect for a new walker, as there was literally a metre and a half in between! )

But these days I count my blessings every morning when I walk into my new, sparkly kitchen. The things that make me smile the most though, are not the flash new oven, or drawers that slide easily closed with one push ( though I do love them! ). No, it's the love that is in every corner.

This beautiful antique blue jug was given to me by my father one Christmas. It is the inspiration for the interior of the whole house. As
with any knick knack in my house, it must serve a purpose - so for today it is the holder of very important utensils.



My windowsill makes me feel warm and fuzzy more than once every day. It holds those precious gifts my children bring me back from a play in the garden, or walking the dog. More often than not, the flowers are a token gesture from my 12 year old, as it's easier to give Mum a flower with your head bowed than say "sorry" when you're 12, right?
And this final photo, is the chaos of a family of 5. It makes me happy every day, to know that this house is a home, because of the chaos of my brood.

I think my kitchen and I are ready...!

Nourishing

february 2011 239


Ok, I'm doing it. I've officially signed up for the 30 day wholefood workshop with Heather Bruggeman from Beauty that moves.

After one too many post pasta headaches, bloating and feeling sluggish, I have clicked on 'register' and paid my ( mighty economical! ) $45.

And hubby? - noooo, he's not committed to anything that excludes meat, but he has suggested doing 30 days without beer ( with an intermission at 2 weeks - just in case it's too hard! ). I guess that's a pretty good commitment, I mean an Australian going without beer is like a sloth going without sleep.

Sooo.. anyone feel like joining me? ( or you can just enjoy tracking my progress and pain over the next month as I write about it here!)

Hopefully I can inspire you too, to nourish and clean your body from the inside out.

Click here to read more about the workshop.


Monday 8 August 2011

Creating...






An inspirational weekend visit to Churchill Island ( Phillip Island ) Heritage Farm, has seen me digging, composting and pruning all weekend long. ( If you're in Victoria, you HAVE to see this place - it's an incredible step back in time )

I loved their philosophy of protect, nurture and support the local farmers!

As the farmer encouraged the kids to milk the friendly dairy cow, he explained the importance of buying direct from the farmer through farmers markets, and the goodness obtained from an organic, unprocessed product.

Mother Nature was giving me all of the signs this weekend that it was time to get the garden in order! A trip to the Osteopath ended in a tour of his residential garden ( which is half the size of ours ). As he pointed out 35 different fruit trees, 10 olive trees and mounds of vegetable gardens overflowing with chilli, lettuce, kale and all sorts of wonderful treats, I knew that I had used up all of the excuses for not tackling ours.

So my next creation shall be the introduction of some bare rooted fruit trees to the rather desolate looking front path! ( Next week shall be even busier as I have ordered over 1000 heirloom seeds for the vege garden - check out The Diggers Club for their amazing range of Organic, Heirloom mail order seeds ( perfect for busy mums who just can't stomach a trip to the nursery today! ) )