Can I just say I'm not a fan of winter! It feels so cold in this old house, its been that cold that I've been having to wear 2 pairs of socks and so many layers its hard to move, was complaining about the cold to my lovely sister the other day and she just laughed as what I think is cold is summer weather in Ireland, poor love shes been over there for almost 9 years now.

Have been so slack since its been cold as well, haven't even looked at sorting my spare room out, not really sure where to start, but I need to get to it so I can start packing some stuff up ready for our move at the end of the year.

I've been so bad that I've even been using disposable nappies on the little man instead of the mcn's but i got them all washed up and folded next to the change table now so I really have no excuses. Sadly miss 3 still uses disposables for the moment, waiting on the weather to warm up so I can start toilet training her.

I have however managed to get my grapes ready for the dehydrator, they will sit in the laundry for a few days to dry out a bit before I turn it on, by then the kids will probably need more fruit leather and dried apple and banana, miss 8 might even like some pineapple.

Haven't been here for a while its just been one of those weeks, feel like I have achieved nothing but I'm sure I did something.

Between being sick, miss almost 3 working out how to open the child gate on her room and master 18 months learning how to climb out of his cot its been exhausting, not keen on the 6.30am wake ups.

Best thing about being sick and winter is yummy hot fresh bread and homemade soup. Pumpkins soup and natural yoghurt one of my favourite soups.

So this week I got busy and made some laundry powder, now that I've got given a spare food processor I'll be able to make a big batch and no more grating soap by hand.

I got busy cooking and made more crumpets, have found another recipe to try out on the weekend thanks to my lovely cousin Tania.

Hubby took me out for dinner Monday night as we've been together 4 years, feels like we've know each other a lot longer than that though, lots more years yet to enjoy each others company though :)

Made some yummy homemade pasta for dinner Tuesday night, diced up some chicken and bacon, rehydrated some mushrooms I had dried a few weeks ago and added some garlic and evaporated milk to make a chicken and mushroom creamy pasta.

Today I made another batch of biscuits for the ferals and tried making some short bread, jelly slice and caramel slice, although I think my caramel slice was a bit of a fail.

This week I dug out some apples from the fridge since the kids haven't been eating them so I dehydrated about a kilo of apples, still have another kilo to go, also foodland had bananas out on special for $2 a kilo so grabbed a few and dehydrated half, a few more snacks for the kids, next time will be more apple and a couple trays of fruit roll as they are nearly at the end of the last lot I did.

Well its been a long few days yet I feel like I got nothing done. However am proud of myself as I finally got all the washing done, folded and put away before I have to get a start on the next lot Friday lol.

So since it was a long weekend I did a little cooking, have made the kids more fruit roll, we had a small Chinese banquet Saturday night although I don't do it very often was told I need to do it at least once a fortnight :)

Had another attempt at crumpets with much better results, can only get better from here on in Im hoping.

Also made myself some raw organic chocolate using cacao butter and agave nectar, made some lovely little hearts and then with the left overs added some shredded coconut and made my own coconut roughs.

Today I am making another frugal mud cake as requested by hubby so that's in the oven cooking away, will probably make some more choc chip cookies for the kid while the ovens on and have pumpkin and spinach in the dehydrator ready to make some flour out of so can experiment with making pastas and breads, maybe even try a pumpkin and sultana cake.

Well kids ran out of biscuits yesterday so miss 2 informs me "you need to make them mummy" so thought i'd better do what I was told and went into the kitchen this morning and made some.

Now have a full biscuit container not sure how long it'll last though.

Lasagne for dinner tonight, I get 2 out of the one recipe which thankfully is enough for Hubby and the 3 ferals, next time will remember the garlic bread though, oops.

I had chicken enchiladas that I made and froze for myself with some mexican potato wedges.

And while the oven was on I decided to make a frugal mud cake, just took it out of the oven waiting for it to cool down then will make some chocolate icing so its ready for morning tea tomorrow.

Its been a rather quiet day today not much on the agenda, have more cooking to do over the weekend, might need to write a list of things to make and see how far I get helps that I have an extra day monday as its a public holiday here, might even get the kids in the kitchen :)

Well it seems today got away from me, was planning to get on and write about what I got up to yesterday but woke up not feeling the best and chasing after 2 of the 3 ferals was very testing today but I made it through. :)

Took a few pictures while I was busy yesterday, love taking pictures of my food sadly I'm not much of a photographer.

I did a few trays of dried fruit for the kids.

Apple, Pear and Banana

Also had a bit of a play around and made some Nutella scrolls which didnt see the end of the day so I'm guessing the kids enjoyed them.

I think next time I make sweet scrolls gonna try some pie apricots with a crumble topping.

Taking The Plunge

Well I have finally taken the plunge and joined the blogging world, could be interesting, must say I'm a little nervous as its all new to me, but hopefully I can help inspire some, get advice from other and just learn more about being frugal, living a simple life and enjoying moments with family and friends :)