Jenny of ELEFANTZ: quiet life

BREAD...

I really do enjoy baking bread. And not just the daily loaf, though that's an essential for my darling man, who dearly loves a few slices of bread with his supper each night. What I enjoy more than the daily loaf is baking a variety of other breads which can be served in different ways, and made into lovely work lunches for hubby to enjoy.

This past week I made another focaccia, but with two different toppings - Celtic sea salt, garlic & rosemary; and rosemary, olives and sundried tomatoes.

We eat this with almost anything! Now that we're even more mindful of the grocery bills, much simpler nutritious meals grace the table, and a delicious freshly baked focaccia instantly lifts a bowl of soup or a pot of baked beans to new heights. It's inexpensive to make, easy, and fun. Three great qualities in a home-baked bread!

I also made Cypriot Pita breads, as my son-in-law is Cypriot/Greek and loves anything I make him from his homeland...so these were a test run (which hubby and I gobbled up) and as they were very successful I'll now bake them for Ross, Blossom and the children.

I picked tomatoes, cucumber, and lettuce from the garden, opened a jar of home-pickled capsicum, and thinly sliced a small lamb leg steak as our filling.

I had not made any fresh yoghurt (absent minded), so decided to try my hand at making my own mayonnaise, something I've often thought about but never followed through on. Well, goodness me, it was easy!! If only I'd known sooner, this would have appeared in our menu years ago. No more buying it from the store, so more $ will be saved in our grocery bill.

OUR WINTER GARDEN...

It's such a blessing to harvest from the garden. Each day I gather supplies for our meals, which can be tomatoes, cucumber, cucamelons, lettuce, rocket (arugula), spring onions, baby beets, snow peas, capsicum, jalapenos, zucchini, rockmelons, passionfruit, herbs...some days its a bit of everything, other days it's just a few, but every single day we get a bowl of these cherry tomatoes.

(that big yellow ball in the centre is a golden passionfruit)

I pack some of the red ones up in a container for 5yo Rafaella as she eats them like strawberries. In fact she can't get outside fast enough to pick some when she visits!

Cully May prefers to pick cucumbers because she likes them sliced and put into her school lunch box instead of fruit.

The blueberries are now in flower, which is early as we're still in mid-winter...but...it's not been much of a winter; I'm sitting here in a sleeveless dress and sandals, STILL. Such is life in the tropics.

An excitement this week are bananas appearing. We have eight banana trees at present, and the first has produced a flower, which in turn is bringing forth bananas. Can't wait, as I'm not much of banana fan, unless they're home grown - for some reason they taste way better.

The lemon and lime trees still have fruit almost ready to pick from last season, but there's loads of flowers on them again. Where we live the citrus trees tend to fruit year round.

BEING QUIET...

I decided not to blog 'just for the sake it' quite a while ago. Even though I enjoy sharing sewing, cooking, gentle living and all the things they entail, it still doesn't seem right to blog when there's not much to say.

So many blogs these days are overrun with advertisements, as the bloggers use them to make money, yet all it ever does for me is make me want to close the page and forget them. Do you feel that way?? I'd hate to blog for money, to be on that hamster wheel of having to write for the sake of it, no matter whether I had something genuine to write about or not.

Naturally, I'm still a pattern designer, and do need to make a living from that, so when I have something new to show you I will share it here...that's quite normal for me. But apart from that, when I open this page to write, it's with a hope that you are encouraged in your own life by some little thing I might say or show you.

How often are we all inspired by a few simple sentences, a photo, a recipe, an idea, a passage of Scripture? For me, this happens regularly through the blogs I still enjoy visiting (the ones without ads), and through the books I read or listen to, as well as in conversations with my darling Blossom, or my dear friends Rosie, Allie and Fee.

Anyhow, just thought I'd explain a bit more (from a couple of months ago) about why blogging has slowed at Elefantz. Of course, that doesn't mean you won't receive a bundle of regular blog posts one month! After all, lots may be happening and I'll be inspired to share it all, especially as I'm considering hosting a stitch-a-long in a month or two that you (and I) might enjoy.

Quiet for me is also just pottering about at home, keeping everything running as smoothly as I'm able with hubby working six days a week.

Balancing our decreased budget is a skill being fine-tuned at present; emptying the pantries to do up an inventory will fill my time next week; getting the most from the garden while we can before the insane heat returns in spring is a daily task; cooking from scratch 99% of the time instead of 90% of the time; sketching and drafting brand new designs for a 2024 block of the month; plus making time to enjoy my grandchildren, swimming a kilometre each day in the pool, and deeply, very deeply, immersing my mind and heart in the Word of God just as the sun tips over the horizon at daybreak.

That may all sound 'busy', and yet it's not, for none of it is rushed - now.

I was moving faster the first two weeks after we found out our income was going to be greatly reduced, but that only caused mental stress, and mental stress is bad for health...so I've let go and chosen to slow back down and move at that wonderfully calming pace I worked at before; doing what I'm able whilst being a tad more attentive to the 'how' and 'whys' so as not to waste my energy or time, but to value it.

Cooking is definitely a skill to be grateful for. Being able to 'whip up' a meal from the items on hand genuinely helps any woman's budget, but I think learning new skills adds to that ability, so as well as making use of the local library's cooking section, watching YouTube lessons, and having a go at making basics I once had only purchased (like the mayonnaise), I've also scoured the shelves of a few local op shops for cheap cookbooks that have an abundance of recipes we'd enjoy. For only a couple of dollars I found these two recently...

Both have a large variety of recipes that have minimal and 'ordinary' ingredients, easy steps, and look as though they'll be quite delicious, so I am very much looking forward to expanding my ability to work with little whilst still delivering good flavours. I'll turn the pages each afternoon as I sit out under the huge and shady poinciana tree with my cup of tea, a time when I stop everything and simply enjoy the beauty and solitude of our garden. Having a quiet place to sit mid-afternoon helps enormously with slowing the mind as well as the body. Along with the cuppa I take a novel with me (current read is Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey), or a cookbook, or my Bible, or a sketchpad, or just my camera in case the birds arrive to entertain me with their chatter and songs.

Before I sign off, let us take a moment to look at 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12...

"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life. You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody."

No matter what challenges come along in my life, or those odd moments when I question what I'm really doing with these latter years, I tend to end up back in these two verses assessing my priorities in the light of God's Word....and peace eventually fills me. It has become a compass of sorts, one which points me back to where I'm called to be, for too often doubts can creep in and I question the choices in my life which once were so sure.

This passage of Scripture holds wise instructions for homemakers like us who crave a quiet life, a productive life, a life which has value beyond our human understanding, because seen through the eyes of God it will have eternal significance - and that is what matters.

FREE PATTERNS...

For some quiet life encouragement, perhaps you'd like to stitch 1 Thessalonians 4:11?

I shared two free patterns based on that passage of scripture during the Covid crisis in 2020, so I'll share them both again today for those who may have missed out. So often I find scripture sinks deep when I stitch the words or simply contemplate a certain passage, so whether you make the small stitchery or the larger mini quilt, or both, may you be blessed with every stitch.