We had a lovely family lunch today, however, there was one hiccup.  The Duke brought the extra folding table upstairs and had just finished cleaning it when the leg became separated from the table.  This meant that we had to use the sewing table at very short notice so now everything that was on the table is now on the floor.  I had been gradually working on deluttering and tidying that room but it has just become more imperative.  I will take a photo before I start so that you can see before and after shots.  The only problem is that I don’t now when I will get to the after.

We have a family lunch tomorrow and I am catering for most of it.  I started thinking about the menu and decided that it did not need to be extravagant.  Most of all I have created a meal mostly from ingredients which I had to hand.  I will be feeding 11 adults, 2 pre-schoolers and a baby and here is what we will be eating:

Soup – Leek and Sweet Potato with fresh bread rolls (breadmaker)

Main – Lasagne, Chilli Chicken with Corn Chips, Rice, Garden Salad

Dessert – Caramel Tart, Lemon Tart, Ice-cream, Cream

Drinks – Soda Water with Rosella Cordial, Lemon Cordial

Finish – Tea, Coffee, Shortbread

My sister is making the lasagne.

The only things I need to buy especially is vegetables – sweet potato, leeks (soup), mushrooms (chilli chicken), lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, capsicum (salad) and cream.

We have our own lemons and eggs which were used in the tarts and the cordials were made with home-grown fruit.

We make our soda water using a Soda Stream.

I am looking forward to a special family gathering tomorrow.  I will share the recipes (with photos) soon.

……..to me!  It has been a big day – work and then dinner with family so no organising or sustaining today.

I am very comfortable with my age as it is only a number and you apply whatever connotation you wish to the number.  I just need to remember that I am now 53, not 52, whenever I am asked my age.

Thank you to all of my friends for their birthday wishes.

I will be back again tomorrow.

This afternoon I gave my grand-daughters a very special gift – my time.  I spent 1.5 hours with them while Belle went to an appointment in the city.  They had my 100%, undivided attention and we had a wonderful time strolling through the city.

We rode escalators, walked through the park, saw fountains, window-shopped, heard the clock chime and absorbed the sights and sounds of a late afternoon in the city.  I did not have a stroller for Izz so they both walked tirelessly, each holding my hand.  We were in no hurry so we just took our time and delighted in being together.

I bought 4 pairs of socks for Miss O – a bargain at $1.25 each and a piece of material for $8 which will make several pairs of leggings for them.  The shopping was fun as they both helped sort through the socks on the bargain table looking for the size and colour that we liked.

I am sure they will sleep well tonight and I know I will, too.

As a grandmother I have all of the time in the world and to be able to share it with my grand-daughters is a real pleasure.

90 years is an achievement in anyone’s language and today we had the opportunity to share the celebration of my aunt’s 90th birthday with a large number of extended family.  It was a joy to spend time with 4 generations of various branches of the family.  I find that these sort of events serve to remind us of the importance of family and I come away with renewed respect for blood ties.  Friends are fantastic but there is something special about family.  Perhaps it is the shared history?  My family mean the world to me and I don’t ever want to let go of that.

Since I work full-time I don’t get to do much in the way of domestic chores during the week.  I know some people resent spending their weekends doing ‘housework’ but I actually find it quite a relaxing change from my working week.

Today I started by cleaning most of the drawers in the kitchen.  I have mostly deep drawers rather that cupboards so I took everything out of them, cleaned the drawers and replaced the contents.  Just have a couple more left to do.

Then there was the shopping, meat from the butcher, a few things each from IGA and the Co-op as well as a trip to Bunnings to buy a Gerni high-pressure cleaner (after much research and debate) and finally the purchase of an old silky oak dressing table/chest of drawers which needs restoring.  We will go to collect it tomorrow morning.

This evening  we made pizza for dinner (the dough was from the freezer) so while the oven was on I made fruit crumble with 2 apples and some of the rosella pulp (left from when I made the cordial) which was also in the freezer.  A muesli slice for lunches filled the oven to capacity.

Other than that I also did some washing and we cleaned the car this afternoon.  The new Gerni had a workout as there was flower debris stuck all over the car from Thursday when I parked it in the street near the station while I went to work.

I am looking forward to tomorrow as we are off to a 90th birthday celebration for my aunt so it will be good to meet up with lots of extended family.

This is the last in my series of ‘organisation’ posts for this week.  Keep watching and you will find many more posts from time to time about organising in all of its guises.

Today I organised to make hot cross buns morning tea for my colleagues at work.  It took some planning as I put the dough on when I got home from work and it was almost 11pm by the time I took the finished product out of the oven.  The effort was worth it when I saw the looks on everyone’s faces when I arrived with a basket of fresh buns for morning tea.

My first attempt was a week ago from this recipe from Rhonda Jean, on the Down to Earth blog.  They worked well except that I put them too far apart and made them too large.  I also decided that we would like more spice in them.  I corrected all of these things with the batch I made last night (shown above) and they disappeared quickly at work.  I glazed them but did not do the crosses, however the ones I will make next weekend for the family will have crosses.

I rectified the problem of the buns spreading on the tray by putting the pieces of dough closer together and using high-sided cake tins.  In fact, some fused together and it was a simple matter of pulling them apart once they were baked.

This time I actually ended up with 21 buns and they were just a nice size to have with a cup of tea or coffee.

I now know that I will not be buying hot cross buns in the future.  Try the recipe and see what you think.

The Duke makes all of our bread using the breadmaker.  I have previously used it successfully to make pizza dough.I must admit that my hot cross buns have given me renewed confidence to try making the dough for other rolls and specialty breads in the breadmaker.

What do you make in the breadmaker?

How many times have we heard that time management is the key?  I believe that statement is so true.

Organisation is not all about putting things in boxes/shelves or spending hours labelling and colour-co-ordinating our stuff.

Managing or organising our time is just as important, if not more so.  Many years ago, when I was a stay-at-home Mum, I remember telling The Duke that if I didn’t get things done by 9am they did not get done.  What I was saying was that I am a morning person and I am much more likely to effectively achieve my goals if I start early in the morning.  I also know that lists are my best friend.  I write shopping lists, lists of jobs I need to get done when I get home, lists of phone calls I need to make, lists of gift suggestions, menu plans and so on.  I could probably make a list of my lists 🙂

I frequently surprise myself at just how much I can achieve.  For instance, I may put rice on to cook in the microwave for 18 minutes and in that time I can take a load of washing off the line and fold it, hang out another load and come back and the rice is still not finished cooking.

I have been writing this while I have dough for hot cross buns mixing in the breadmaker.  It is nearly finished so I will go and turn the oven on to warm as they need to rise for another half hour before baking.  I also need to empty the compost and wash the dishes.

I am taking the buns to work tomorrow to share for morning tea.  I will take a photo of them when they are out of the oven and show you tomorrow.

So, what are your best tips for organising your time?