FINDING BALANCE BY SIMPLIFYING

Let's face it; we all need to find balance in our lives. Juggling your family, your job, your social activities, and last but not least your own downtime can be a challenge. Same goes for the young adults who are going to college, university, have a part time job, are studying, and have social activities.  (Whew, I am unbalanced  just reading this list).

We are all looking for ways to do the job right and with pride while finding shortcuts to get there, which would allow us to do the other things in our lives. As some of you already know, I moved to the deep country and decided to live simply thus the name of my blog.

In my pursuit of simplicity I decided to start making my own cleaning products and also browsing the web for recipes and household hints.  I did find a recipe for DIY (Do It Yourself) dish soap ( for hand wash, not dishwasher) by Jill of Onegoodthingbyjillee,  I decided to make it and have been using it for 2 weeks now and it works. Be warned there are NO SUDS, but the dishes come out squeaky clean (including wine glasses).

See below for recipe

Now for the dreaded task of cleaning your oven, and dealing with the fumes that it leaves when using it for the first time after cleaning, whether by hand or a self cleaning oven.  This morning I was all ready to  finish making (for the first time, may I had) Irish soda bread, when  I realized I should clean the oven first.  After I finished cleaning it, I was not looking forward to the fumes (you know what I am talking about) when you use your oven for the first time after cleaning it. I did not want the fumes, so I decided to experiment and thought hey if it works for the microwave it should work for the oven. You know the trick: half a lemon in a bowl of water and place it in the microwave for a  minute or so. I placed a glass baking dish with 4 cups of water and a few squirts of lemon juice in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes. No fumes for my Irish bread!!!! and my kitchen smelled lemony. Oh BTW, the bread came out real nice and delicious.  There you have it folks, another trick to making your life more simple and pleasant smelling!!!

Speaking of pleasant smelling, next time you vacuum your carpets  no need to use store bought carpet freshener, all you do is take 1 cup of baking soda, one cup of borax and a few drops of your favorite essential oil ( I like orange, lemon and lavender) I like to switch it up week to week. Mix the dry ingredients then add your essential oil and mix together until there are no more clumps, put it a plastic bottle, sprinkle on the carpet and leave for 15-20 minutes, then pass your vacuum. I will also be making my own laundry detergent, alcohol free mouthwash and bath soaks. That is just for starters. I will be sharing all this with you.

 DIY may seem time consuming, and it can be, depending on the product you are making.  The dish soap took 20 minutes and the carpet freshener took 15 minutes.  I find it to be very therapeutic and you are doing something for yourself, which can bring you great pleasure and you can also share with family and friends.  Now, that is not a bad deal!!!!.

Irish Soda Bread

2 cups white flour

2 cups whole wheat flower

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp salt

2 cups buttermilk

Mix all dry ingredients 

Add buttermilk and mix with hand and form a ball

On a floured surface knead bread 9-10 times and form ball

Put in greased casserole

Bake on middle rack, 425 for 35 minutes.

It is ready when you tap bottom and sounds hollow.

Happy eating!!

(To be continued)

PS: Make it a Great Day for Yourself

NEVER TOO OLD TO LEARN A NEW HOBBY

Round and Rectangle Knitting Looms

A friend of mine, suggested my next blog should be on Loom Knitting. She wanted to know more about this craft as she had never heard of it.

Moving to the deep country after living in the city for most of my life, it was imperative to find a hobby to keep me busy in the winter months.  I did not want eating to be my hobby, been there, done that!

I never thought of myself to be crafty.A friend of mine was courageous enough to offer to teach me how to knit.  So, off I went to buy some knitting needles, yarn and a "How To" booklet. While I was perusing the yarn and craft aisle, I saw this package with four (4) plastic circles with pegs and a hook, I had no idea what they were or what I could do with them.  I was intrigued and I bought them and put them on a shelf when I got home.  Three weeks later I took them out of the closet, read the instruction and proceeded to make a hat. I became very excited about Loom Knitting. Since my first hat in early October I have loom knitted over 7 items, such as scarfs and baby blanket. 

Being a visual person,  I decided to go on YouTube.  There are many Loomers out there who are generous in sharing their passion and knowledge of Loom Knitting by making tutorials. I am very grateful to Kristen at Goodknitkisses , Isela Phelps at PurlingSprite, just too name a few. 

I am looking forward to  creating many different items to share with family and friends and on my blog. After finishing one project, I cannot wait to see what I will do next.  It is very exciting.  I am looking forward to creating many more  items and also create my own patterns.     

 Remember, we are never too old to learn new things and discover our inner talent and passion.    

(to be continued)
PS: Make it a Great Day for Yourself

My First Hat

A scarf in the making on the Martha Stewart  Knit and Weave Loom Kit

MOM'S RECIPE

Well, here we are, a new year is just beginning.  I hope your Christmas Holidays were festive and filled with joy and love of family and friends.

I was blessed to have my daughter with me during  the holidays.  We shared some laughs, good conversations and we baked together.  We made a "Pudding au chomeur"( poor man pudding cake). A French Canadian favorite. It is full of calories and sugar.  


WARNING
It is full of calories but it will make your tummy smile.

I would like to share with you my mom's recipe.

Dough
2 cups flour
1 cup white sugar

2 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoon butter
1 cup milk

Mix first 3 ingredients together and gradually add the butter to form a granulated consistency.
Add the milk to form the dough
Loosely pat in bottom of baking dish

Sauce
2 cups brown sugar
2 cups boiling water
2 tablespoon butter
2 teaspoon vanilla

In a bowl mix all the sauce ingredient together until butter melts .
Pour over the dough in the baking dish

Put in oven at  350 for 45 minutes.
Serve with vanilla ice cream

Enjoy!!!!

(to be continued)
PS: Make it a Great Day for Yourself

OPEN TO CHANGE

Well, here I go ready or not, my first blog.  I am not a writer, so I will write the way I live: simple and to the point.

As I am sitting here, putting my thoughts together, I thought it would be best to bring you to the beginning (not the beginning of my life, LOL), but the beginning of my new adventure of this next chapter of what I call my life.

I am a city girl now living in the deep country, who worked for most of my adult life. When I was not working outside the home I was raising my beautiful daughter during what most professionals call a child’s formative years.  As I look at my 23 year old daughter, and how she grew up to be a responsible, fun loving, sympathetic, giving young woman, I know I did one thing right; I raised her to be independent, teaching her to be confident and believing in herself.

Like the song says “I hope [she] dance[s]”.

I am a 55 year old woman who is now retired from the “working world”, I just came to accept this as a fact.  After 1.5 years I also came to accept that I will no longer be working outside the home, but I am working at restoring my faith in myself and others.

I do believe that when one door closes, a window opens up and I only needed to look through that window and crawl out and stand up tall.

Outside that window, I saw nature in it’s full glory and the opportunity to find -not myself, because I always know where I am- what I can be good at and even excel at on my own terms.

What do I hope to accomplish through blogging, you may ask? I would like to share my experiences of living simple and most importantly being confident and knowing that fear of the unknown can be the springboard to new adventures in our lives.

I will be sharing some of my favorite recipes, talk about my new found hobby(Loom Knitting), gardening , country living, and whatever moves me that day.

(to be continued)

PS: Make it a Great Day for Yourself