To Socially...

Discover....

that I must be a bit of an oddball around here for my age, after attending a night out with an over 50's singles group, was a bit disconcerting. I mean, I know I’m a little weird but to know so much about social internet and be able to send bulk emails, moderate (I was asked what that is!) a forum and post frequently on blogger and Facebook, and now I’m using the Snapchat app thanks to my adult kids, set me apart from the rest of the group. To also grow vegetables, by preference, instead of flowers and ornamental trees made me a little more of an outcast. I’m glad I didn’t say anything about homemade soap and laundry liquid or start talking about sourdough starter and baking my own bread…..they may have thought I should be in a straight jacket or I’d escaped from somewhere!!

I declined the invitation to go to one of the local clubs after dinner as I’d had enough. They are nice people but they have narrow views and I’m afraid after being on the DTE forums for just short of 4 years and moderating for half that time I didn’t feel I needed to be exposed to their views and they certainly weren't interested in mine. As I’ve almost accidentally removed myself from the land of the living in the last 2 years I want to ENJOY life, and have new experiences and grow physically and mentally, not stagnate in the same spot in my life journey as some of the group members seemed to be doing.

If you don’t like your life YOU CHANGE IT! It’s not easy but no one else can do it for you.

I was catching up on blogs this morning and this struck a chord with me as I’ve done it before the self-caused hiccup in my life put it on partial hold for a couple of years. I continued to plant some veges, turned off lights/power points that weren’t being used and kept cooking from scratch whenever possible, while enjoying the free things life has available like the joy and company of exercising the dog, beautiful sunrises/sunsets, the glory of a flying flock of noisy galahs and the delicate way a butterfly goes about its business….just to mention a few.

Reading this helped me feel good again about my decisions and what is right for me. ….Thanks Phil.

At the moment the split peas are soaking for the pea and ham soup tonight, the sourdough starter was fed earlier and will be bubbling gently soon for the sourdough crumpets I want to make to have with the soup, I’ve brought in most of the laundry that was washed using homemade laundry liquid that contains homemade soap and as soon as I empty out a dead tree from a pot and toss some mixed greens seeds in there I’m going for a bike ride and letting the dog tag along.

Life is good if you know how you like to enjoy it :D.

Hope everyone had a truly enjoyable weekend.

Cheers,

RobynLouise xo

Reboot and Reshuffle

Hey everyone, I finally remembered to purchase the washing soda and made laundry liquid (wash) yesterday. This should last me a few months and for a cost of about a dollar as I used my home made laundry soap!

                        

Just after my last blog post I made home made cottage cheese using powdered milk and juice from the lemons off the tree here. I'll be trying this again and using the lime juice next time to see how it works out.

This blog link was posted in a DTE forum thread but I altered the recipe a bit as I used 4 cups of water to 1 cup of powdered milk. I also used ¼ cup of lemon juice as I wanted it spreadable.

The "curd" draining

The recipe makes about a cupful. 

Soooo yummy! 

Last of all, as I’m finally socialising here and going out to dinner with the local over 50’s singles group, I shuffled through my “glad rags” to see what would fit, and is suitably warm enough, for the suddenly cooler weather. This involved lots of trying on clothing yesterday morning when I had my RMO (Rostered Morning Off).

I was pleased to find that it was worth keeping those clothes I was determined to fit back into one day as I now can *big cheeky, cheesy grin*. I’ve saved myself a small fortune there and damn if they don’t look better on me now than they did when I bought them as I’m still curvy but in all the "right" places. Yep, I’m full of myself but I worked hard for this and I feel I deserve the rewards. If I can’t love and respect myself and all I’ve achieved then how can I expect anyone else to?

There’s another Discover moment.

I’m hopeless at selfies and the natural light is awful here today as it’s raining so I’ll try to finagle someone in the group into taking a photo of me on my mobile phone tonight and update here tomorrow :D.

Cheers,

RobynLouise xo

Postscript: Managed a not so bad selfie!

Cheers, RL xo

Expensive week?

Spent money all over the place on all sorts of things in the last week!

A "new" bike cost me $250 plus $50 for the helmet I then needed. Mind you, the bike is about 6 months old and barely used and is almost $800 brand new for just the bike plus it has extras in the form of locking chain, lights and little carry bags for your goodies and the bike's repair/tool kit. With 27 gears I should be able to find a suitable range of speeds/torque to keep me fit :P.

I went away for the Easter long weekend to visit my daughter but the day before I left my mobile phone died :(. Purchased a new phone whilst visiting that cost me about twice as much as the bike. As I can't take a photo of it, as it is also my camera, it should last me at least 3-4 years compared to the under $100 talk/text/bit of internet varieties that I've owned previously.

Between the bike and the phone I have a lot of learning to do *roll eyes*.

Easter Saturday I surprised my eldest daughter with an early "cake" for her birthday.

         

The centre was also filled with chocolates and choc covered liquorice. If you fancy one of these, and live near the Junee Liquorice and Chocolate Factory , they are well worth it. Organic chocolate and liquorice in wonderful types and flavours. If you can't visit then you can always buy their boxed goodies online.

For someone who said she didn't eat chocolate or sweets very much my daughter managed to demolish this, mostly on her own, by the end of the long weekend :D.

I also bought myself a few things and the jar of choccies, below, which I shared amongst a few of the guys who "torment" me at the place I work. They're a good bunch and keep me alert with their humorous comments. Lucky my hair is already going grey though!

The weather is cooling off this week so I've ordered in a load of wood to burn in the wood stove but it won't be coming until after next payday.....thank goodness.

Cheers,

RobynLouise xo