~ If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome. ~ Anne Bradstreet

My View

When Erich has left for work and the boys have left for school in the morning, I open the windows to let in the new day and this is what I see.

Getting colder...

as winter is approaching. I love our cosy living room, it´s like a cave with attic windows to let in lots of light. In the top right photo you´ll see the wonderful wooden support beams that gave me the idea to paint a tree silhouette on the wall behind. Bottom right is the little lane that passes by our building, one of so many hidden short cuts we´ve started to explore almost daily. I lived in this town 10 years ago when my children were babies - now they walk along side me while we go exploring, almost grown up now and I remember holding their little hands and pushing them in their prams on these same streets...it makes we want to turn back the clock.

Living the good life?

We´ve been busy lately...the boys are back at school which meant buying new shoes, clothing, books and stationary, finding new ideas for lunch boxes and ways to get the boys back into the swing of homework and study after our lovely, long 8 week summer break.
I am not one to waste or overspend BUT it was a real challenge this year. The school doesn´t need the boys old books to recycle(?), no - it´s not possible to use last years physics/biology/chemistry exercise book again this year (even though not even half of it has been written in) and it so frustrated me to see the difference in price when it came to buying "natural" clothing and shoes compared to made in China/India/Taiwan.
We spent one afternoon going through the boys old school books and tearing out anything of interest to make folders that we´ve put in the car so the boys have something to read and exercises to do on long trips or while we are waiting in the car. We made small notebooks from pages that hadn´t been written on, I´ll be making fabric covers for them and we can use them as gifts or as shopping lists and journals. There were still 3 paper carry bags full of paper to throw in the recycling bin after we´d finished. I bought glue, pencils, erasers and other stationary in bulk which will save us a lot of money in the long run but burnt a hole in my pocket on shopping day and we washed all the pencil cases and school bags which had them looking like new - I know people who buy a new school bag every year because the old one just isn´t "in" anymore. There are plenty of other things I´d rather do with €70 (per school bag).
As for school lunches...this is only one challenge amongst many when it comes to feeding 3 healthy and fast growing young boys/men. I don´t want them to eat rubbish, I don´t want them to eat products that come wrapped in 3 layers of plastic that have lots of numbers in the list of ingredients - but I also don´t want them to throw away their lunches because they taste horrible(even though they may be healthy) like I used to. So we have made a list of things that they like and that are nutritious and don´t cost a fortune. I bake bread, cakes, muffins and scones on the weekend and freeze them, we also buy locally grown apples and I make yoghurt twice a week - so they have a bit of choice and variety.
The main reason I started baking, making my own yoghurt, marmalade and cordials was to stop the flow of plastic going in and out of our house. It seems that you can´t buy a loaf of bread these days that doesn´t come in a plastic bag. We used to have a 60 litre bag full of plastic every week and now we don´t even fill one bag in a month. We refill our glass bottles with our own rasberry cordial every August, the only other drink we buy is apple juice which we buy from a local farmer in glass bottles that he takes back when they´re empty. We used to buy tetra packs of apple juice and orange juice - aswell as milk which we now buy from the farmer up the road for the same price as in the supermarket. We have 2 plastic 2 litre jugs which we fill up every second day, saving us and average of 14 tetra packs in a week just for milk. Our other main source of plastic was yoghurt containers - there is only one brand of yoghurt here which comes in a glass and it´s 3 times more expensive than other brands. I used to buy it when the children were smaller but now we need so much more and it´s just too expensive. I found an easy recipe for making my own yoghurt here and I make 2 batches from 2 litres of milk every week, mix it with jam, cordial or fresh/frozen berries and the kids love it. It´s a great drink too if you mix it with a bit of milk.
As for the clothing issue - it didn´t turn out too bad as my Mum bought loads of t-shirts for all 3 boys when we were in Australia and I decided a long time ago to buy only jeans for the boys which I brighten up with some jeans dye every 6 months or so to get rid of those faded knee patches. I love to buy things from here, I will just have to think ahead about sizes and buy things for the following year when they´re on sale. The same with shoes, I keep my eyes open for specials and the boys have a second pair of old shoes to wear at home for playing football and climbing trees. Winter is just around the corner and I will be sorting through the ski suits and winter sports equipment, selling the stuff which is too small on Ebay and buying larger things with that money.
I have come to realise that when I worked more hours I was earning more money BUT also spending more money to have things that I now am able to make myself, like healthy food. Having more time has definately improved the quality of life for me and my family and getting on the "use what you have" path has really changed our direction. If you´d like to read more about simplifying and making some changes look here.
green fox barking living the good life little brown dress everyday simplicity greenjewls

my 3 sons!

"What does HEAVEN mean to you?"Swirly Girl asked. I didn´t have to think about this one for long because HEAVEN for me is being a Mum to these 3 boys. I love them, they are unbelievably beautiful and clever and full of life and ideas. To hear them laugh is the most beautiful noise on earth, no music can compare to it.
It breaks my heart that their Father doesn´t play a bigger role in their lives and there has been many a night I´ve laid awake, thinking of ways I can make up for this and worrying about how it will affect their lives in future.
Daniel is the oldest at 14 and he is a logical thinker who loves reading about Samurais. He is great at school, very independent and he wants to become an analytical chemist when he finishes school.
Stefan is the dreamer, he is 12 and very popular at school. He hates tests and learning and will do only the absolute minimum to get by. He loves his long hair, is very sporty and is extremely considerate and respectful of others. He wants to leave school a.s.a.p learn to be a cook.
Markus is the youngest at 10 and he is wise beyond his years. He likes school and his biggest aim is to make the teacher happy. He cannot cope well when other people are disappointed in him and he loves animals, especially cats.
They all love reading, eating chocolate cake and playing board games.
There is so much more to these boys though, they have been through hard times and they have experienced many wonders. All 3 of them have travelled to Australia and Nigeria with me and we have spent many holidays in Italy and Croatia. The most wonderful time of the year for us all is summer because they have 2 months off school and we can enjoy the few hot, sunny days that we have here.
Many people I meet ask me how I manage with 3 children and if it´s normal in today´s world to have so many children (I couldn´t believe that question!) I wouldn´t want to have it any other way.

Self portrait tuesday

When my parents decided to emigrate from Austria to Australia in 1969, we all needed passport photos and my parents decided to also have a family portrait taken. Check out my short dress! I wore a really short dress at my First Holy Communion aswell...someone gave it to me a few months earlier and it fitted perfect but then I had a growth spurt and it was shorter than short on the day. I had great legs back then but I wouldn´t be caught dead in a mini these days.
About 3 months after this photo was taken, my parents left their siblings, parents and friends behind and started a new life in Australia. They had some Austrian friends there and for the first year or so we lived in a small flat at the back of a house where my mother worked as a housekeeper. She also baked apple strudel which my father sold to his work mates at a building company. It wasn´t long before they had saved enough money for a deposit on the house in the western suburbs of Sydney where they still live now.
It wasn´t possible to call overseas as it is these days so my parents taped casettes which they sent back to Austria, talking about how they were adjusting, their homesickness and anecdotes of their new life far away from home. When my Grandmother moved into a retirement home some years ago, she gave me some old photos - including the one above, and the box of cassettes she had kept. I was amazed by the stories, how strange our voices sound and what a show-off I was, always wanting to sing new songs I´d learnt at school and talking about my teachers and friends. Many a memory would be lost without these tapes so I feel very lucky to have them.

Housework

It´s Friday, my day off work, cleaning day and I am listening to the wonderful hypnotic sounds of the washing machine and the dishwasher. Soon the steam iron will join in the music before the vacuum cleaner has it´s solo performance. I will have the Friday favourite vegetable soup cooking on the stove by 11am and that old familiar smell of liebstoeckl will fill the air and there they´ll be again, the memories of my Grandmother.
She was amazing! A wonderful mother and wife and a perfect housekeeper although...she was blind. She lost her eyesight when she was young but it didn´t stop her from having 4 children and mastering life in such a positive way. She lived through war, poverty and all the hardships involved with not being able to see but she never dwelled on the negative sides of life, she was generous and found happiness in the smallest of things. Like eating vegetable soup with liebstoeckl cooked on a wood stove, eating a sweet apple on her favourite bench at the bedroom window where she could feel the sun on her face in the afternoon, listening to her favourite radio programme and spending time with other people who also liked to laugh and have a chinwag. She liked to be organised so it was very important for her not to have any unnecessary objects around so that she had important things at hand when she needed them. I can see her in my mind´s eye, touching things to feel and appreciate the texture and listening closely when someone knocked on her door and walked into her home - she recognised most people by the sound of their feet. I must try to be more like she was - live in the moment, keep my life and my home simple, surround myself with beautiful, usefull things and find happiness in small pleasures. I miss you oma!