A (Homeschooling) Addition

Ah! - the irony of blogging about living simply, is that life often isn't!

With three young children, a hubby with a demanding job which requires long days, my WAH-business and now homeschooling, life is often hectic. But despite how hectic our days and weeks often are, we still strive to live simply.

Some weeks are better than others; heck, some YEARS have been better than others!

But we still go in for home cooked meals, long afternoons with books and tea, puddle jumping and backyard mud pies, local hikes and expanses of time at home for the children to fill as they wish.

And now - homeschooling!

My eldest kiddo, known around these parts as The Little Guy, or TLG, is coming up to 7 years old, and although I try to keep our learning approach as 'simple' as our lifestyle, there is a fair amount of teaching and learning going on. The twins are coming up on 3 and a half and they tag along, learning effortlessly as we go.

I was considering starting another homeschooling blog, to keep track of what we are doing, our plans, our adventures and projects, but it occurred to me that I might just segue this blog a little, and incorporate what we are doing for 'school' here (I use that word very loosely!)

One more note, before I go!
Know that I don't have all the answers. That sometimes homeschooling terrifies me, that the prospect of failing looms pretty large sometimes. That none of my children are gifted or geniuses - just averagely bright. That my way is not THE way.

But, it is fun!

Food Waste Friday: A Slip, A Recovery and A Save!

I just love The Frugal Girl blog. Really - just love!

Each week (well - most weeks) she blogs about her food waste, a kind of public declaration, aimed to reduce her own food waste. And she invites the rest of us to join her!


I didn't blog about my Food Waste last Friday, in no small part because I knew I had some food waste, and just couldn't face writing about it! I felt pretty awful about slipping up after four zero Food Waste weeks in a row.

So last week I lost half a bunch of kale, some watercress, and about a quarter of a tub of cream cheese. I was upset about each of these, because all of these would have been easy saves (kale and watercress could easily have been thrown into a salad, and that small amount of cream cheese could have disappeared in a single lunchtime meal of cream cheese and jam on toast). But I got busy, and a little overwhelmed and the items all went way past their good-to-eat stage.

But, this week, I picked myself back up, dusted myself off and got back in the proverbial saddle, for another zero Food Waste week - yay me!

Also, I had a huge food save, which I was really proud of. We were prepping for a picnic dinner last weekend, and My Good Man helped out by hard-boiling a dozen eggs for some egg salas. He decided to experiment with a new cooking method, which went a little awry, and we were left with a dozen cold, soft boiled eggs. We tried re-boiling them, but they just started to get tough outer whites, but still soggy inner whites and yolks ... not so good for egg salad. I put them aside, and hard boiled a new dozen eggs for the salad, which worked out fine.

But what to do with the dozen soft boiled eggs?! I peeled a couple of them the next morning, mashed them up a little, and just cooked them in a skillet, making a sort of chunky scrambled egg. Served on toast, no one batted an eye! I served the rest of them on subsequent mornings, until they were all gone - total save! Double yay! (I really felt bad at the prospect of wasting a dozen fresh-from-the farm eggs).


So how was your Food Waste this week? Feel free to share, or add a link back to your own Food Waste blog post; I'd love to hear from you!

A New Grocery Shopping Routine

I have a couple of big factors when it comes to grocery shopping.

1. buy healthy food
2. shop within a budget
3. get food that everyone in the family will eat
4. shop in a way that minimizes waste.

This didn't seem so difficult, but honestly our grocery budget was creeping higher, as was our food waste each week. We always seemed to have plenty of food in the pantry and fridge, but I was always met with deep sighs when I suggested meals or snacks.

Something had to change!

A couple of months ago I inadvertently adopted a new way of grocery shopping, that has seemed to meet all of my criteria. Now this new method is not hugely dramatic, more of a subtle shift, but it has really made a big impact on the way we eat, our budget and our food waste. We are not buying LESS, but shopping and eating with a different focus.

In the past, like most families I would have a look at our pantry and take a few requests for evening meals, and make my menu plan for each week accordingly. Then off I would trot to the grocery store to buy whatever I needed for those meals.

What I eventually found was that I was buying items specifically for meals. There was invariably some of the item left over, and it would sit at the back of the fridge until it went bad.

I also found that despite my plans to use up leftovers for subsequent meals, the family would protest ... and so the leftovers would invariably sit until they wound up on the Food Waste Friday list.

All round not good :-(

So my big solution?! Bulk shopping for everything!

Everything!!

I buy all our pantry items in bulk, keeping them either in the freezer or in airtight canisters. This includes items like pasta (regular and gluten free), beans and pulses, flour and grains, and a few canned items like tomatoes and black olives. I replenish these as I need them, but it saves me buying small quantities each week, at a higher cost. I also found that when I use smaller packets, I have a tendency to prepare the entire bag, creating those leftovers that get wasted.

Our week to week shopping is now centered around perishables only, such as fruits and veggies, cheese, tofu, and dairy free milk (we drink rice and soy milk).  And our meals are then focused around these weekly perishables, rather than around recipes.

For example, in the past we would have burritos, with a package of tortilla wraps, a tub of guacamole and a jar of salsa. Now we have rice and beans, on a bed of spinach, with fresh avocado and tomato.

Before it would have been a specific bean chilli recipe, now it is more likely to be beans cooked in seasoned (homemade) pasta sauce, with roasted veggies and quinoa.

For me the difference is in focusing more on elements of a meal, rather than the meal itself. And, with all of those veggies it is healthier to boot. (When you buy spinach and romaine lettuce in 4 lb bags it takes a real commitment to make sure they get finished each week!)

We are now doing almost all of our shopping at Costco and our local health food store (we buy all of our grains, beans, nuts and flour from the bulk bins at our local health food market).

The photo at the top of the post is of our recent Costco shop, which is fairly typical (save the eggs, which we usually have delivered from a local farmer, along with our milk).

As I said, a subtle shift, but one that seems to be the right fit for our family!


How do you grocery shop? Daily, weekly, monthly? Do you focus on bulk, packet, or a combination of both? Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!

A Cocoon Day

Our weekends tend to be quite busy, between errands, swim lessons, catching up with friends and what not. I often find that the first day of each week, in contrast to the busy weekends, needs to be slow paced and quiet. We call them Cocoon Days.

Yesterday was just such a day for us; the three day Memorial Day weekend was filled with adventures, fun and busyness, and I could see that all three of the Little Ones were needing some time to just play at their own pace, read books, lay around for spells of time doing nothing. Perfect!

I often find myself getting a little caught up in the 'busyness' mindset; so much to see, so much to do, and the slippery slope of over-scheduling both myself the the kiddos. But, I am reminded time and again, by my own Little Ones, just how much they need the time to to do their own thing.

A few years ago, I had something on the schedule everyday for The Little Guy and I; our days were full, and honestly, both he and I were feeling the stress of it. The constant rushing and the anxiety over being late were big issues for both of us. 

Even though on an intellectual level I realized how stressful all this rushing was for us, I had not quite anticipated just how freeing it would be to move towards more days that are made up of free time, rather than appointments, play dates and places to be.

So for now our weekly schedule hangs on just one or two events, with plenty of time left over for long conversations, building projects, walks and bicycle rides in our neighborhood, cooking and baking, reading, pottering around, craft projects, playing in the yard, getting muddy, having fun, and all the other 1001 things a child will find to do when given the time and space to do it!


What does your weekly schedule look like? How do you balance appointments versus home time? Feel free to share; I'd love to hear from you!