Fragile X Syndrome Awareness (we're famous LOL!)

As part of Fragile X Syndrome awareness month we were asked to be a part of a piece that Studio 10 from Channel 10 was putting together.

The producer, camera man and hosts of the show - Ita Buttrose, Jessica Rowe and Natarsha Belling were delightful people and I thank them so much for putting together such a lovely story about our family.

Fragile X awareness segment

I hope you enjoy our story.

Rachael
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Busy boys on winter days

It has been fairly quiet around here for us.  It was a bit overcast, cold and rainy on Tuesday and Wednesday but we have been keeping warm with our fire.

Bush Turkeys in the tree at the park

Boys being boys, they can't stay cooped up in the house all day so we went for a visit to the park for a play. Typically, the twins decided to put on a performance - Rhys as we were going in and Ben as we were leaving.

Rhys putting on a performance LOL

 But overall it was a lovely little play with beautiful river views

Brooklyn Park

Rhys still going!

Rhys did actually enjoy the park eventually

Beautiful river views

Then the following day we went on an outing to our big hardware store and again went via the river ferry.  The river is only about 10 minutes from our place by car and it really is a beautiful spot.

The river at Berowra Waters

River ferry

I have been very busy organising therapies for all  the boys over the past week and also organising their funding.  This seems to involve copious amounts of paperwork and phonecalls, which is VERY time consuming, but all worth it for them of course.

Hope your week is going well

Love
Rach
xxxxxx

Banana Walnut Bread in the breadmaker recipe

I would love to share a recipe for a delicious Banana Walnut Bread, made in the breadmaker.  Personally, I am not as keen on this un-toasted as it is a bit dense for my liking.  BUT when it is toasted in the toaster, with butter spread on, it is cafe quality banana bread.  Absolutely delish.  I have a slice for breakfast every morning these days (so lovely on a cold winters morning with a coffee!). 

A friend made this for me and it was so yummy that I asked her for the recipe.  I believe that it comes from her breadmaker recipe book but not quite sure which one.

I have a Breville Bakers Oven brand breadmaker.  It is quite old now but works perfectly.  This recipe has to cook for 30 mins longer in my breadmaker than what the original recipe says, so you may need to adjust your times too. 

(ORIGINAL RECIPE)
Banana and Pecan Muffin Bread

Liquid Ingredients
3 Tablespoons (45g) butter, melted
2 Eggs
1/3C milk
1 Cup mashed bananas

Dry Ingredients
2 & 1/4 Cups plain flour
1 Cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon Bi-carb soda

Addition
1/2 Cup pecans (I use walnuts)

Setting
Yeast Free (and then on my machine brown top and then extra bake 30mins)

Procedure

1.  Add liquid ingredients to bread pan
2. Select Yeast Free bread
3. Press start and mix
4. With machine still running add dry ingredients and mix for around 2-3 mins, using a plastic spatula scrape mix down sides and corners of bread pan (important to do this)
5. While machine is still running, add walnuts
6. Leave to mix and cook
7. Check when finished and if too soft on the top, select extra bake for approx 30 mins or so.

Wet ingredients mixing

Dry ingredients mixing

Mixing

Scraping down (very important)

Adding walnuts

I then cool the loaf and slice it.  I put it into a plastic bag and put into the freezer.  Every morning I take a slice from the freezer, microwave for 30secs and then put in the toaster to brown.  Spread with butter and enjoy with tea or coffee.  A great way to start the morning.

Cooked loaf cooling

  

All sliced up

YUM YUM YUM!

A cafe would charge about $7 for a slice and coffee.  I think it would cost about $3 to make the whole loaf and you get about 10 slices!!!  It is really easy to make because the breadmaker mixes and cooks it for you. 

Love 

Rach

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Garden bargains and freebies

Hi there

Ben helping me potting the plants

I love garden bargains and am known to stalk the mark down rack at the local garden centre / hardware shop.  Most of the time the plants just need some re potting, water and TLC and they are as good as the ones at triple the price or more!

my little helper

The boys love to play in the back yard and we have a groovy play set and trampoline for them to use.  I like to be out with them most of the time when they are playing, so I can keep an eye on things.  I bought a bench seat and table off Gumtree for $40 about 12 months ago and set it up under a tree, so that in summer I could watch the boys and keep in the shade.  As it is winter, now I need the opposite!

My seat in summer

I had the same type of seat under our patio and it wasn't very functional there, so I moved it into a sunny spot in the yard, where I can happily sit in the sun, have a coffee and supervise the boys.

It needed a little something to pretty it all up, so here is what I did.

warming winter sun

We had Council cleanup a few weeks ago and I found these two terracotta pots on the side of the road.  Nothing wrong with them, so I nabbed them and popped them in the back of the car.  The big pot would have cost a lot to buy new - probably over $30 at least. I love council cleanup.

I popped down to our local large hardware store last week to see if they had any seedlings (yes they did but too expensive for me), and they had these two plants on the clearance rack, looking a bit droopy and sad but at a great price of $1 each.  I grabbed them.

only $1 each

Using my lovely compost from one of the veggie garden beds I filled the pots up and potted up the plants that were half dead - funny after a good water, they were as good as new!  I also had an old pot in the shed which I put the half price punnet of begonias into.

Now a lovely spot to sit and have a coffee

So I have a nice looking little sitting area, which will be blooming with lovely little flowers very soon and all for (nearly) FREE!

Gotta love (nearly) FREEBIES!  LOL

All snuggled up watching a movie.  It's cold outside!

Love

Rach

xxxxxx

Changes, some vegies in the vegie garden and pottering around

Hello everyone

Our chickens enjoying the back yard

I decided to bite the bullet and go to Flower Power to buy some seedlings.  WOW they are very expensive at around $5-6 per punnet.  I decided I couldn't afford that but had a wander around and found the clearance rack and they had half price seedlings.  Yay!

The chook on the left was almost bald for 12 months - that is how long it took her to recover from the battery farm.  The other chook is moulting at the moment so is missing some feathers.

I bought - parsley, spinach, red onion and paid full price for a cos lettuce punnet.  I also got a half price punnet of begonias.

I planted them into the garden beds and they look great.  I think they will go really well with all that lovely compost that I put on there last week.

Parsley and Cos lettuce

Red onion and parsley

Spinach

Garden beds

It has been beautiful winter weather here.  Lovely clear days, but freezing at night.  We have had the fire on every night because it is so cold.

I have started the first of some big changes in my life as well.

I started growing my hair, from short, when I was about 38yo, in anticipation of turning 40yo.  Anyway, I had about 4 years growth and my hair grows very fast.  Its length was a bit above my bottom, so quite long. I don't have nice long hair - I wish I did but it is wavy and frizzy and because I am getting a "ahem" bit older, I now dye it once a month to get rid of the greys, which made it even frizzier.  Also, and I know this may sound a bit strange, since I decided to grow the mop, we have experienced a few.......hmmmm, not sure of the word to use........... trying times???

Long hair!

So, I finally decided to do the big chop and go pixie hair style.  I LOVE it.  Seriously, it looks fantastic, has taken years off my face and I feel like a new me!  My hairdresser is brilliant and she knows my hair so well - what a great job she did.  I think we both felt great afterwards actually.  Perfect timing for me as I needed a bit of a confidence boost.

Not really into the selfie thing, but the new do!

I'm not really the most photogenic person and don't really know how to take a photo of myself properly, but you get the idea.

Love always

Rach

xxxxxx

Chooks and Compost

It was a glorious winter weekend, blue sky and lovely sun with a little chill in the air.  

I had a wonderful Saturday when I went up to visit my Mum.  She made my very favourite cheesy scones and we relaxed, chatted and went on a "Tiki Tour" - a New Zealand term for driving around looking at the sights.  It was lovely to be child free for a day too!  Honestly, by the time I got home I absolutely felt like a different person - completely re-charged and almost feeling back to my normal self.  Thanks Mum xxx

Not my chooks or compost but a great picture!

Today, was my chooks and compost day - and I loved it!  

I know I am a bit bonkers, but my two favourite things in the world are chooks and compost.  See I told you so.

Why?

Well, chooks are fantastic little animals.  Not too smart, but so loving and productive.  They eat all your food scraps, give you yummy eggs and are very relaxing to watch them chook around.  At the moment, I only have two gerls.  One is moulting, so looks pretty shabby and the other one, who honestly looked like death for the past 12 months, now has beautiful light brown feathers and looks like a new chicken.  She is gorgeous.  I bought them from a cage egg farm and it has taken the now good looking chicken the whole 12 months to recover from her ordeal.  I originally had 5 chooks but 3 have passed away in 12 mths sadly.  It is a tough life for a battery hen.

Compost is magic.  EVERYONE should compost if they have a yard.  Simply put (and I only do simple), you put all your left over food scraps (anything except meat) into a compost bin, plus any grass clippings, leaves, ripped up newspaper, teabags, hair from your hairbrush, chook and animal poo and so on...... add a bit of water now and again, give it a turn now and again (I don't really do this actually) and after a while it turns into compost - ie dirt!!!  MAGIC!!!  It is great stuff and especially great for garden beds that are getting a bit water repellent and dry. 

Mummy's little helpers

My compost needed to be sorted out, so I emptied out the two bins (read shovelled out 2x large containers and then shovelled them onto raised beds) and put the wonderful compost onto my vegie garden boxes.  The dirt in the boxes had become a bit dry and water repellent and they needed organic matter to be added.  DONE!

Then I repositioned the compost boxes as one was in the sun a bit too much and was getting a little bit too hot.  

Then I shovelled out the chook run (nearly killed me and I have a blister on my palm to prove it!) and then shovelled the stinky mess of chook poo, grass clippings, food leftovers and wood shavings into the compost bins for the worms to work their magic.

Chook run before - not yet shovelled

And here is the chook run after.  Looking good.  We let the chooks free range in the afternoons when our doggie goes to bed inside.  Doggie is a chook killer so we can't let them out with her around.

Chook run after - lovely and fresh

A very productive weekend and it didn't cost me a cent.  I'm looking forward to a productive week - I have my To Do list done and will be powering through it this week.  Might have to get some plants into those veggie planters.

I'm now relaxing in front of this wonderful heat source - love it.

Wishing everyone a great week too.

Luv Rach
xxxxxx

Unexpected life changing events

In my life, I have experienced some significant life changing events - good and bad.  Most of us have at some point in time.

I am in the midst of a good and bad life changing event.  While I don't mind change at all, some changes I do resist and find very difficult to adjust to.  Especially when the changes are unfair to me (and my family), are unjust, deliberately vindictive and impact on us in a negative way.

The good part of this event is that

• My husband, children and family are the most precious people I have in my life.  They have shown me unconditional support and love through some of my darkest days.  
• I have friends who are also the most precious people I have in my life.  They too have shown me unconditional support and love through those dark times.  I will never, ever forget their kindness.
• I have found out who my real friends actually are and I was very surprised.

Some lessons I have learn't

• Even if people consciously know they are doing the wrong thing to someone, they will still continue to do the wrong thing if it means it will make their life easier, accentuate their position of power or blindly follow leaders to ensure their position in the "clique".
• It doesn't matter how dedicated you are, how supportive you have been, how many results you have achieved - all the good you have ever done is forgotten the moment you can't "toe the line".
• That sometimes you must go backwards, in order to be able to move forward.
• To stand up for what is right, even if that means you stand alone

Eventually it will all be over and what is meant to be - will be..............................

No matter what, my wonderful family and friends will still be with me and we will all go on to lead wonderful happy lives.  The future is ours to take!

Future posts will be about Thrifty Cottage fun, so stay tuned.

Love 

Rach

xxxxxx

PS, Karma is real and will be visiting certain others.............