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A New Plan

Hello loyal readers! (?)

I have decided to make some changes to the way I blog and as such, have decided to split my blogs more clearly and develop them a little more independently and for different purposes. To that end I've decided to start posting here as Dichotomy Girl to try and creat more of an identity for this blog.

Hopefully there will be a lot of changes and gigantic jump in posts too over the next few months.

rou·tine

Dictionary.com tells me:

rou·tine

   [roo-teen]

noun

1. a customary or regular course of procedure.

2. commonplace tasks, chores, or duties as must be done regularly or at specified intervals; typical or everyday activity: the routine of an office.

3. regular, unvarying, habitual, unimaginative, or rote procedure.

4. an unvarying and constantly repeated formula, as of speech or action; convenient or predictable response: Don't give me that brotherly-love routine!

My problem has been that I want to take a break after I've set up my routine.  I've realised that I have to let things *get* routine before I even consider taking a break, but realistically, routines are at their most routine when you do them even on your day off...

It may seem like an obvious place to get to, but it took me a while to comprehend it.

Here's hoping I have!

Small Steps.

I was recently introduced to the delights of Hyperbole and a Half and specifically this Hyperbole and a Half: This is Why I'll Never be an Adult post that REALLY resonated with me.  It was fun to see someone articulate my housekeeping style so well. 

Even so, I was not proud of this part of me.  I think at work they would be surprised to find that I have problems with keeping my space clean because I have a very neat desk at work.  My neat desk stems from sharing a desk for a long time, and then the refusal to let things get out of control in such a shared space. 

Home is where you relax, right?  Relaxing and cleaning rarely go hand in hand (I have one dear friend who might say otherwise).  It is, however, much easier to relax in a space that is tidy and not lost under mess.




In the last few weeks I have focussed less on grand plans and more on trying to establish a routine that works for me.

I have an app called Home Routines that has been invaluable.  I first downloaded the app months ago and used it a lot to start with.  Then life got in the way and I got resentful that I was the one doing all this "stuff" and I stopped using it.

The house was a mess.  Life was hectic.  It bothered me.

In an effort to move on/grow up/find sanity, I figured I'd already bought it, I really should use it.  So, I revisited it, I re-jigged my lists, I got specific.

Getting specific helped me a lot.  "Empty all bins" is less likely to get done than listing 4 or 5 bins that need emptying, at least I could then check off 4 out of 5 bins that I emptied.

I also gave myself room to have down days.  I don't get through everything on my lists every day, or even most days.  I aim to add to my "regular" list of things I do every week though, just slowly expanding the routine to regularly be getting a little bit more done, I have a goal to have a minimum number of tasks done each day and a desire to slowly grow that number.

So far it is working for me.  I'm getting more done each day, I am developing a pattern, I am finding little ways to slip the small tasks into everyday life without them being a big deal.  BabyCakes has even started making the bed if he is the last one out!  The simple act of walking into a bedroom and seeing the bed made is very satisfying.   Don't get me wrong, you still have to look past the piles of "stuff" stacked along the wall, but I'm getting there.

I am still yet to make peace with the politics of cleaning, but again, I am working on it (more on this at a later date). 

I still have a long way to go before I get remotely close to the kind of clean house I aspire to, but progress is being made.

The Front Yard Veggie Patch Project

We're very lucky to have a reasonably sized suburban block, with our house pretty central on the block.  Our front yard was once fenced (we have the old gates left under the house), but a previous owner decided it was best to remove this low fencing. 

This means that for our lifestyle, it is hard for us to spend much time out the front as we have to be ever aware of Miss Squid's exploratory nature, and not let ourselves get distracted with the task we might want to complete.  This means the only time our front yard gets any attention is when we walk through it to go out, or when we can't ignore the jungle any longer and it needs mowing.

Taking with BabyCakes, I think we have agreed that it would be a great spot for a veggie patch, as we walk past it every day (so have no real excuse to ignore the watering or harvesting duties), it is protected by a large hedge, but still gets a good deal of sun.  It also will mean that Dog won't be able to help with either the "watering" or harvesting duties.  The bonus will also be that there will be less yard to mow and less money to spend on veg.

I'm a bit excited by this project because we've been talking for ages about a veggie patch and just have never quite got there.  This feels like it could be just the impetus we need.

Now to plan what we want to eat and how it will fit together.

I need to dig out my books...

Procrastination is Fear.

I read the title quote on  simplify101.com.  It struck a chord with me and I don't want to live in fear any more.


I have had times in my life when I was painfully organised.  I've had times when I have lived like a slob.  I don't remember being stressed by being organised, I just was.  Admittedly, I didn't have a lot happening in my life at the time.  Work was my social life.  I worked and slept.

Then life got interesting and chores became well, chores.


I need to channel old skills into a more balanced application to suit our lifestyle, but I really feel that I am in a time of change.

Today, I try not to procrastinate.

A Day Out, Some New Projects - Green Heart Fair

Today a fair was held by Brisbane City Council to encourage people to live more sustainable lifestyles.  We were lured out by the promise of free trees (which we didn't end up getting because they ran out.


We did end up spending a surprise amount of money, mostly on products we had talked about getting but hadn't bought yet.

 

A Bokashi Bucket.  I've been wanting one of these for a while.  All kitchen scraps except bone can be put in here to be composted.  The "juice" can be used as a fertilizer, and the solid waste is buried to recondition soil. With a small child in the house I love that left over cereal, half chewed fruit pieces and dinner thrown to the floor can all be recycled rather than thrown in the garbage.

 

A monster 2 litre stailess steel drink bottle.  Babycakes was given the note that I wanted a stainless steel drink bottle at Christmas timeand now I'm kinda glad he couldn't find one, because today was the first time I've seen a 2 litre one for sale.  I usually take 2 x plastic 750ml bottles of filtered water to work so I am well aware of the weight I'll have to carry when it is full.  Hopefully the water should taste fresher too!

 

We bumped into David from Productive Gardens again (you may remember my blog post about our stacked herb garden).  At the time we purchased the set up we didn't get a rolling trolley which was both a good and a bad thing.  Good because they have now brought out a custom made trolley and bad because it would have been useful right from the start! 

 

Some herbs to fill the empty holes in the planter pot.  I really hope we can harvest some of the English Spinach!

 

The pot planted out and the trolley underneath.

A Name Change....

Hi there!

It occurred to me this morning that I should try a different name for this blog and "Accidental Hippy" works for me. 

I've called myself an accidental hippy on more than one occasion (usually at folk music festivals - depsite the fact that at folk festivals is where I feel the furtherest from "Hippy" as I socialise with dyed-in-the-cloth hippies). 

Today I was thinking about my cloth nappying, baby wearing, home made baby food, non-cry-it-out settling, co-sleeping ways and figured that a lot of people would call me "Hippy" and so I took action.

Hopefully soon I will make some posts more frequently than quarterly!

Quality Time With The Family?

PLAN OF A DAY'S WORK FROM 1941

1. The housekeeper should rise early, open up the house, then have a cup of tea.
2. Prepare the breakfast, i.e., make porridge, put the kettle on.
3. Sweep the room in which the meal is to be taken.
4. While dust is settling, put the articles for setting the table on a tray.
5. Dust the room.
6. Set the table.
7. Finish preparing breakfast.
8. After the meal clear away, brush and fold the cloth.
9. Wash up.
10. Attend to the bedrooms, which should then be sufficiently aired.
11. Plan and arrange the meals for the day.
12. Sweep and dust the house.
13. Special work.
14. Preparation for lunch.
15. After lunch wash up and prepare dinner. Leave the kitchen tidy.
16. Free time. Sew, recreation etc.
17. Cook and serve dinner.
18. Wash up and tidy the kitchen.

Reference:
Savage, Winifred 1941 A Handbook of Home Management, 6th Edn, Alfred henry Pettifer, Acting Government Printer Sydney

hmmm.

Oops.

Well. It's been nearly a year since I have posted. My excuse is I've been somewhat busy and/or tired for most of the past year. I do however have a few projects to work on, so I hope I can remedy that.

With Squiddley's arrival life has changed dramatically. Life with a child does tend to make one much more domestically focussed. A baby does not *make* you stay home, but it tends to be easier to stay at home. "Ducking out" anywhere doesn't happen for me too much any more, given that I don't usually have a hand free as I walk out of the door, and that's after I make sure there are no obvious puke/pee/poo stains one either of mine or Squiddley's outfits. The size of the baby is not an indication of how much extra work there is to do either. One look of our washing line on laundry day and you'll usually find half the line dedicated to Squiddley's clothes/sheets/wipes/nappies and the other half is for us bigger folk in the house.

I plan to organise my budget better, and plan more to leave less to chance in our lives. Its such a simple thing to say, but a big thing to do, so hopefully, that's a project that will have some longevity.

I've also been using Modern Cloth Nappies (MCN) exclusively for the last couple of months and have had lots of questions about them from friends who know that I'm using them. I've discovered that my opinions of the many different styles and brands change back and forth over time as Squiddley grows and fills them out differently. I decided that I should write about my experiences so that I can share them with interested folks without coming across as some kind of weird nappy zealot - there are enough ways I'm weird as it is!

So, that's my plan. Given that it has taken me hours to write this much, we'll see how it all goes.

Hopefully, I shall update soon with some MCN chronicles!

A Project Coming Soon...

We have a three bedroom house. One room is our bedroom, one is a computer room/study, where I'm sitting right now (down by the kitchen), and the third bedroom, near ours, has been the guest room.

It will be re-purposed.

Into a nursery.

Despite the temptation to pick out furniture, themes and paint schemes as soon as one comes to grips with such big news, there is a need to be a bit reserved. For one, there will be an influx of family at Christmas who will be looking for places to sleep, and secondly, there are some that think I shouldn't have even told you the big news at this stage (9 weeks), because the risk of miscarriage is still significantly high.

Thirdly, there is the whole "will you find out the gender" debate... not that a baby will care what colour their room is, but the adults around it tend to. To be honest, I'm very tempted to decorate around the existing shade of pale yellow, so that I don't have so many colour dilemmas.

As for themes, the early fore-runner in my mind is a Noah's Ark/Animal theme... generic, but cute...

If I leave the paint colour the same, then the spare room remains non-offensive for guests, and a quick swap over of furniture after Christmas should mean that it is a fairly painless process. (Let's hope so!)

I wonder if I will indulge my Ikea fetish, or find another way to furnish the room... At the forefront of my mind is the need for the room and furniture to grow with the child - I don't want to have to throw out the "nursery" furniture and start over again when the child reaches 3. Perhaps by the time bub is 3, some of their personality can be reflected in a new paint job.

Who knows! At the moment, only the seed of the project exists.

Dilemmas and Decisions

We were fortunate enough to be able to buy a fairly modest (by today's standards) house sited pretty centrally on a 600+ square metre block. This means we have decent sized gardens the whole way round the house, which is somewhat daunting when while most of the gardens are fine, they do need a lot of attention to bring them up to even a good standard.

It is easy to sit back and do nothing because doing anything looks scary, and it is a ploy I'll often use when procrastinating. I have decided though, that I would like to start both a veggie patch, and a compost heap. I'd like to reduce how much rubbish we throw out, and I'd like to buy less at the supermarket. In our recent diet regime we learned that there are some veggies we eat plenty of, that would be handy to be able to at least supplement our purchases, or be self sufficient with.

The list that was brainstormed with BabyCakes the other night is:

1. spinach (probably NZ spinach)
   
2. tomatoes
3. zucchini
4. corn
5. rocket
6. lettuce (probably cos)
7. carrot
8. broccoli

According to my "Kitchen Garden" book they are all pretty much sown/ transplanted in spring, and harvested in summer through to autumn, with some starting harvest in spring. (The picture is of the two books that I own about gardening - they are pretty much my first reference point these days!)

There are pretty much two possible sites for the garden bed in mind, both with their own issues. One is in the back right hand corner of the back yard, which sees a lot of sun and is bordered creating a nice deep garden bed.... with a giant tree stump in the middle of it, and some pesky self sown jacaranda (ish) trees in the other corner of that patch. Stump grinding sounds like it could be an expensive job - but we have other stumps left by the previous owner that will also need grinding so it is a known project on our 'to spend money on' list.

The other site is to the left of the back deck, along the fence line, just inside our new(ish) fence. At the moment, it gets a lot of sun, but we have planted passion fruit vines along the fence and if they ever get established, will block out the afternoon sun. This bed is much narrower in depth, with many less obstructions in it - and about as far away from the back steps as you could possibly get, and stay in the back yard. The key to good use and maintenance of both a kitchen garden and compost heap is of course, to be as close as possible to the kitchen!

We do have a few weeks to weigh the options up, and come up with a solution. Of course, I guess I could also move the garden bed after the first season if the results are not as planned.

Too, installing a water tank would also be handy before we embarked on our edible garden... but then the gutters would need replacing, given how many holes there are in them...

Saving money on the groceries could turn out to be an expensive process!

Fighting Father Christmas...

Now that we're married, and the wedding and honeymoon are paid for, we can start to think about spending time, energy and money on other things, and one thing we have been super keen to put some energy into is the house and garden.


Last weekend and this, we've been in the garden starting to wage war on the thousands of dandelions that are currently resident in our "lawn" (and I use the term loosely, because I think there is more coverage by dandelions than by grass). Having been away on honeymoon for 3 weeks, the grass hadn't been mowed in over a month, so the dandelion flowers and clocks (seed heads) stand out over and above the greenery. Add to that that it has rained quite well since we got home, and we have a very happy dandelion crop!

Naively, we started pulling up dandelions in patches before thinking about the task a bit more logically. Realistically, we probably should have made it our mission to remove all the clocks and flowers, so that the problem isn't perpetuated. We realised this after a while, and started the new task with energy which quickly dwindled with the frustration of trying to remove the clocks without the seeds being dispersed all over the place. BabyCakes had started in the garden well before me, and got frustrated before me. I'd started on the patch of lawn outside our front door, which has clear boundaries, and was about half way through when BabyCakes moved his attentions inside. I was determined to see the patch I'd set out to clear, clear. Thankfully, I stuck it out for the 15 minutes longer that it took, and can happily smile on that patch - now we have to maintain vigilance of beheading the flowers, whilst also finding the time to remove the existing plants!

The wheelie bin looks about 1/3 full after this morning's efforts, and having read the Wikipedia article, and wondering if in the name of being both budget conscious and environmentally responsible, if we should look at eating some of them - they are supposed to be high in iron as well as vitimins A and C, or potentially we could use the flowers to make dandelion wine... Maybe because Australian's seem to have to fight to grow vegetables that the notion of eating something that grows as a weed is hard to get my head around!

The more I read about the options, the more I wonder if I should experiment! The wine making piques my interest, but I would need more equipment than BabyCakes already has, and it takes quite some time to see results by the looks of things - maybe I should think on it some, I don't think I'll be running out of supply any time soon!



Oh, and the title comes from my childhood memories of dandelion clocks being called "Father Christmases", before blowing on them and making a wish.