Giving to yourself

I've had another email asking for help with ideas so, with the permission of the writer, I'm opening this up so we all have a chance to offer ideas, support and encouragement.  Today's email is from Jo in the UK.  To summarise Jo's email,  her husband is working nights, her work hours have just been doubled and although she loves her job, she feels she has no time left for herself.  Jo lives in

You, me and the kitchen sink

Today I am featuring Heather's kitchen in Pennsylvania USA.  It's another unusual kitchen which proves, yet again, how diverse we all are.
Heather writes:"We live in an octa-decagon shaped house that we built from a kit, so our kitchen is a little unconventional, but works just like any other kitchen.

My husband & a friend made the cabinets from leftover wood from our ceiling. You will see that

Moving to suit your age and values

 I received an email from a reader a day or so ago and I thought the answer might be of interest to others as well.  In part, the email asked:

"I have a few questions, my husband and I are in our 40's and have only one son left at home. We would like to change our home as it is a very small block although the house is a good size.We try and grow vegies and everything we can in-between the garden

It's Not about the eggs

Several years back, darling daughter had a friend visiting over

the Easter weekend. Dearest son had already
moved on to college so it was just the girls and me.

One of the Easter traditions I began pre-teen
years, in order to reduce the amount of
sugar overload in the baskets, was an Easter Egg hunt
in the back yard.
Since the kids were long passed wanting to dye the eggs,
I had resorted to the plastic kind with the twist of filling them
with coins from the "change tin".

Although the girls were not expecting it, and would have preferred
to sleep in after a very late night before, I rousted them out
and shoved them into the yard for "the Hunt".

I was sure that the thrill of competition would take over and
soon these girls "much too old" for an Easter Egg hunt were running
and giggling all over the yard looking for a glimpse of the
yellow, pink, green and blue eggs.


Once all the eggs had been discovered each girl twisted
open the eggs and began to pile their loot onto the
porch table to count. Every year,
including this one, a surprising turn of events. No matter
how uneven each egg's number and value of coins; no matter
the disparity among number of eggs collected by each hunter:
the amount of coins always, every year, would be
within one dollar's difference of each hunter.

Darling daughter who was to be home in a month, has been
accepted into Tisch, the film school of NYU. Although we are thrilled,
this requires her to stay on for a class in summer school,
and delays her arrival home. Dearest son, residing far away
in Oregon may not be here for a visit as soon as I anticipated.

I miss my children every day, every hour, but the Holidays seem
to deepen the intensity for the longing I feel to wrap
them in my arms and hold tight. Will we ever do another hunt?
Will I repeat this with grandchildren some day? If I am long since gone,
will they repeat it with their children on their own?

Easter- it's not about the eggs.

In my Garden

Wishing a safe and Happy Easter to everyone!

My friend Julie did the first photo for me. Is that the coolest or what?
What a sweet, wonderful and talented gal.
I ADORE her blog. Go see it here. Right now!


My cup truly runneth over. Look at this one!
I am bouncing in my chair I'm so excited!
I have to learn how to do this or maybe I'll just send all
my Pics to Julie for her MAGIC touch.

Julie, thank you so much, I am thrilled!

A project while I'm patiently waiting

The work of a simple homekeeper can sometimes be complicated.  I keep changing things, particularly my work spaces.  I love change and look for ways to change so that my work stays interesting and is done efficiently.  I am currently in the middle of cleaning up and rearranging my work room.  This room used to be Hanno's office and even now he tenaciously holds on to a tiny portion of it - a

Chitting potatoes

If you've been lucky enough to grow potatoes in your backyard you'd know the sign you look for to indicate when you should harvest.  It's when the green potato tops die down and you're left with bare earth.  Of course, you can harvest before then, but when the top dies, you know that no more growth will follow.  If you were to go out to a commercial non-organic potato farm, you'd probably see