Brrrr, Winter has decided to make its entrance! plus thrifty things

When Autumn arrived according to the date, but it didn't cool down very much.  We were having beautiful days and some coolish nights, but not cold at all.  It was really lovely with beautiful days enjoyed by everyone.

However, over the past few days, Winter has decided that enough is enough and here it is!  We have had the fire on for most nights as it is very cold.  

I love this fire.  It keeps the house so warm.

It rained this morning (which was great because we really needed some rain) but I still had some washing on the line.  I raced out and brought it in and OMG the rain felt like someone had put it in the freezer and then sprayed it on me!  BRRRR, it was really icy cold.

I made some pea and ham soup on Friday, using the old ham bone from Christmas.  Mmmm, it is delicious.

I went up to see Mum and Dad on Saturday with the twins as they have got new carpet and I wanted to see it (and them of course).  I took some soup for them, some eggs and some lemon butter that I have made.  They were very happy with their goodies.

Mum had made pikelets with jam and cream and they were to DIE for.  So nice.  We had chicken and rolls for lunch and my sister and her family came over as well.  The kids had a ball playing with each other.

I am on the mend now and Thursday was the first day that I felt semi human again.  I took Tuesday sick from work because I felt really sick and could not stop coughing.  When you work with customers, it is really not a good look to cough your head off when serving them.  I'm still coughing but not as badly as before.  Slowly starting to feel a bit better thank goodness.

Ben was sick on Wednesday night and Thursday morning.  He seemed to have a headache and fever on Wednesday night and vomited on Thursday morning.  After that he was fine - I have no idea what was going on with him, but he is good now.

Now Rhys is sick with a vomit bug - a week later.  I'm not sure what is going on as we are usually a very healthy family.  It just must be one of those things.

Thrifty Things - not too many things as I have been very sick over the past few weeks:

• Baked yummy muffins for lunches
• Made pea and ham soup with leftovers (ham bone and carrots)
• Made lemon butter with eggs from our chooks and lemons gifted to me
• Gave a couple of gifts of lemon butter using cute tags made from old cards
• Dried all our washing on racks near the fire when it was cold weather
• Bought some clothes for the boys on big sale and got free postage
• Greg has been changing over all out lights to LED ones as these will save lots of energy
• Bought the toothpaste and pasta sauce we like on super special
• Finished a survey I was a part of to receive a $50 Coles voucher and I spent this on purchasing some washing powder and dishwasher tablets that we needed.
• Dyed my own hair and did my own waxing.

Yummy easy muffins for lunches.

I dye my own hair.  I buy in bulk, but have decided next time I will buy cruelty free dye according to my personal ethos.