I was told by my father that my last blog was crap (he did not use those exact words..he is not that cruel) …he wanted more of the “Bek” stuff and less of the “Matilda” stuff. I told him the idea was to promote the store but he reminded me that people also liked to see what my little clan and I had been up to.
So here goes..
Well the week started with a trip to Northam to see an old friend..Who is now married to my cousin! Small world hey! She lives in a place called Northam which is a country town 1.5 hours from Perth. So I packed up Kayden and we hit the road. It was a rather relaxing journey thanks to my old friend TomTom. Kayden slept quite well (until I had to stop the car for roadwork’s…bloody roadwork’s!!). My girlfriend Kylie and I enjoyed a relaxing day with our three children and got to have a good catch up. So that was Monday!
The rest of the week was the usual with a day of house/My Friend Matilda work and an evening staying with my parents. We do this every Tuesday night as my Mum looks after Kayden when I go to work on Wednesdays…Wednesday mornings we get him up and dressed then handball him to Mum as we run out the door with toast in hand!
Kayden came down with a cold (As did Kylies kids!) on Thursday and so Friday we had a nice quiet day at home. Kayden had a wonderful sleep thanks the assistance of Panadol and I had a lovely morning wrapping up and preparing my first lot of orders. That’s right, My Friend Matilda has officially opened! We got off to a flying start with lots of orders from both friends and new fans! Thank you to all those who made an order.
Anyway where was I? Oh yes! While Kayden was sleeping I played some tunes from one of my favourite bands on the IPod, Mumford and Sons. It’s funny, while in my last couple of weeks of pregnancy when I was having a whale of a time (get it?) waiting for Mr. K to arrive, I played this album over and over. It is now one of the only albums that can stop him mid tears and listen…thank goodness it was not ABBA or even worse…KESHA!
So I decided to get back to basics, which is part of my resolution this year. That is, to provide Kayden with the kind of upbringing I will later be proud of. I got out my free range chicken (I strongly believe in spending the extra money on free range and organic meat, especially for Kayden…even if it means we don’t spend as much on delicious junk food full of MSG's for ourselves…hey..I didn’t say I was perfect!) Where was I? Yes…the chicken. I defrosted the chicken and made good use of the lemons my mother in law gave me from her tree (which she enjoys reminding me are bigger and better lemons than the ones from my tree!) I then combined it will some herbs and garlic oil that we purchased down south on a weekend away earlier in the year. Oil is something else I will never scrimp on…bad oil can ruin a good dish.
Here is my dish…not bad hey?
If you want the recipe..Don’t ask me…I don’t really follow recipes anymore as it seems too hard when you have a dog or a child (or both) waiting to trip you up around the kitchen as pictured below!
As I mentioned above, I am taking things back to basics and Mike and I recently purchased an above ground garden bed…I raided my parents bookshelf and borrowed a Yates 1975 garden guide which I laid in bed reading and studying (much to Mikes amusement!) I then took Kayden to Bunning’s (garden store) for an outing where we picked out veggies.
I am very proud of how well it is going and each afternoon I take Kayden outside to water and check for any developments!
Here is a picture of the patch at the moment. I will be posting you some more updates as the produce starts to grow! By next week...we will be self sufficient..oh I am so funny!
Most afternoons just before Mike gets home from work we will spend some time enjoying the warm sunshine. We have quite a small outdoor area but Mike has laid some lawn and we have a pretty lemon tree in the corner which for some reasons reminds me of Tuscany. I enjoy looking out into the garden while washing the dishes in the kitchen and picture the day when I see Kayden playing out on the lawn with Tillie nearby.
We have a wooden bench under the little lemon tree. Mike and I sat on this bench many a evenings in summer when Kayden was tiny and we would discuss how much ours lives had changed with a newborn..I won’t lie…most of the time it was counseling each other that it would get better (and it did)
I also sit here some afternoons and read a chapter of a book and maybe even treat myself to a cheeky glass of wine while Kayden lays on a blanket looking up at the clouds..
This is pure bliss for me and the times when I really love my life and realize how fortunate I am to have those little moments with Kayden on my own (here I go getting teary again!).
Oh this is also a popular sight you will see in our back yard, nappies on the line. I am a very proud ambassador for reusable nappies. That is also part of my taking things back a notch. I strangely enough get joy and a sense of satisfaction out hanging them on the line and using them over and over again. There is lots of debate over whether or not they really save you money. I will argue that they do and this is a major reason why we decided we were going to use these but the biggest factor was the effect disposables have on the environment. So I guess I see this as doing my bit for the globe. However I must add, we do still use disposables when going on outings as nobody wants to carry around a stinky nappy in their handbag!
That’s enough for now, speak soon and please leave a comment and say hello.
Love Bek, My Friend Matilda.
