On with 2015

So far this year has been going really well, we are all adjusting to our new lifestyle of school routines, continued flying in and out by Han for work and Hugo and I still hanging out at home.

Around October last year, mum's with older school children started warning me about the organisation required of having a child at school.  I am not sure if they saw the dazed and confused look on my face or if I had managed to screw up forgetting something at kindy one time too many, however by the fourth or fifth time it got mentioned to me I stood up and took notice.

October commenced with crazy de clutter and organisation around here, nothing and no one was safe, no cupboard too high or intimidating and no cupboard left unopened.  By Christmas I was working on little sleep but with a deep satisfaction that it was done, I googled, pintrest(ed?) and searched you tube for the best tips before commencing a cupboard, which made a huge difference to how I pulled it all together.  The wealth of information made me feel a little less crazy for basically becoming obsessed with organising!  I know fold sheets with Martha Stewart finesse and there is absolutely nothing in our cupboards that isn't used regularly or has a definite purpose, and I can't tell you how good that feels.

I have a mountain of belongings for a garage sale that speaks volumes underneath our house, exactly why did I purchase all these items?  Why did I keep them for so long?  Why did I think I needed them?  It is more than a little humbling especially as we have lived in countries with unspeakable poverty and always felt as though we were already good at filtering our wants and needs.

This year I am determined to take it further, I don't have anything really left to organise but I know I can do better with our budget and groceries.  For a while now I have been making our own washing detergent and yoghurt, dreaming about a big chicken coop and veggie patch, even making sure that our landscape architect understood that these would have to feature in any garden plans and obsessively sending him great designs incorporating play structures and chicken coops (although that might explain why I don't hear from him often!).

I have experimented a few times with making our own bread, only in the bread maker and yet it always turned out really stodgy, with massive holes in it and I was never happy with the results.  I continued to buy bread anyway as we don't really eat all that much of it, until now.  With Otto starting school the demands for bread has skyrocketed in this house and I was starting to notice a huge difference in our weekly shoppping, add to that the fact that I don't really understand all the additives in the bread we buy and I saw an opportunity to try my hand at bread making yet again.

Inspired by a few posts on this blog I figured I didn't really have much to loose, searched pinterest once again and Hugo and I got all the ingredients plus a few extras for some special biscuits this morning.  It was amazing, you would think bread isn't something to get too excited about but I loved watching it rise, knowing that the yeast was in there doing it's job, kneading it and working hard to get the best rise and most amount of air into the dough.  I followed the directions exactly and was rewarded with some of the best bread I have eaten in a while, I felt so accomplished.

This of course means I can now add this book to my birthday wishlist and hopefully learn a whole new skill.