Friday I made Green Tomato Chutney and I made around 9 jars of various sizes.  This has to be left to mature for six weeks.  Considering this was the first time I have made this, I am not totally happy with it but we will see what it tastes like in six weeks.

This morning I didn't go to church as I wasn't feeling very well so after I had finished work I went back to sleep and slept until mid-day which I must have needed.  This afternoon I feel a little brighter but not 100%.  I basically lounged around with DH and I put together this week's menu plan.  Including breakfasts, lunches (mostly for DH) and main meals with snacks, I am aiming on a food budget of around $200 this month or less. We need to do a food shop tomorrow or Tuesday morning so I will know then how much we have spent. I do try and visit the market on a Saturday for fresh produce and try to get away with spending no more than around $14 for the week.  This week will be a extra as I want to purchase a whole box of tomatoes to make tomato sauce for the freezer and the boxes are around $10.

Below is this week's menu plan:

Menu Planner

1^st – 7^th September

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner
M O N	Cold cereal & milk	I make Andrew lunches which will be a variation of sandwiches/rolls/wraps or filled pita breads.  He also has home-made cake or muffins & fruit added to his lunchbox   I don’t often eat lunch & if I do it may be a cup a soup or a salad	Dover Sole Potatoes Salad
T U E	Yoghurt Bananas Maple Syrup		Baked chicken legs Vegetable Cous Cous Green salad
W E D	Quick Oatmeal		Lentil Chili over rice
T H U	Home-made Granola Yoghurt		Pork chops & pintos Mashed potatoes Green Salad
F R I	Quick Oatmeal		Smorgasbord
S A T	Andrew special breakfast		Tuna & Rice fishcakes Baked Potatoes Green Salad
S U N	Home-made Granola Yoghurt		DH is cooking a special meal

Life around here has been a little bit busy over the last couple of days. Yesterday I was so blessed to receive an early Christmas present from my Mother in Law which was a Kenwood Food Mixer - in fact this machine does everything and includes a food processor, liquidiser plus accessories - so I was so so blessed.  This will make bread baking especially so much easier (not that I mind the hard work of kneading but with the food mixer this will be so much quicker and easier).

Also yesterday I picked around 10lbs of green tomatoes, we have noticed over the last few days that these are starting to rot so we thought we would leave them for another couple of days, as the weather was supposed to be really warm & sunny yesterday ha ha, this never really happened. I guess the sun came out about 6pm for around an hour but now from about 7.30pm onwards the nights start to draw in. 

Ok, back to tomatoes, there are still loads to be picked and several more are starting to rot and the tomato plants themselves have just about had it as the leaves are quite yellow now.  I also a few toms that were starting to turn red on the kitchen windowsill but some of these are starting to rot too.

I have possibly found a couple of English recipies for green tomato chutney but if you have any other recipies then please let me know asap as I need to really make the chutney either this afternoon or tomorrow morning

Wednesday was quite busy as I managed to clear two large bin liners full of rubbish (mostly mine). I emptied out my bureau, filing trays & bags with papers that I had not gone through in awhile and as yesterday was blue bin day (recycling bin) I decided that I may as well have a clear out.  I also had to wait in for a computer chair to be delivered so I made use of the time.  I also went through tons of papers downstairs so I was quite pleased with the amount I managed to clear and I have tons more space now woo hoo.

We are having a filing cabinet delivered a week on Monday which will go in my office.  I need to move things around a little but we are desperately in need of a decent filing cabinet.  We were blessed with monies for our wedding so hence have used some monies towards the filing cabinet.  We managed to purchase one on e-bay, scandinavian pine which is near enough the same wood as our computer cabinet.  We also purchased the office chair from e-bay too.  I had been using a dining room chair for years but sitting on this for long periods of time especially for work wasn't exactly comfortable. Andrew became so fed up with this chair that he decided to order the office one for me and it is so comfortable!

This morning Andrew had to be up around 5.15am so after he went to work I managed to put out two lots of washing (2 loads were washed yesterday evening and one around 5.45am this morning). I did my morning quick tidy up of the bathroom and cleaned the kitchen sink area and kitchen worktops before starting work.

Today is my ironing day so this afternoon when I have finished cleaning the kitchen I will be spending a couple of hours at least ironing which is fine.  I also need to start doing my menu plan for the next month this afternoon.

If I do make some chutney I will let you know how it goes - as I have never done this before.

I have also been having major problems with my desktop computer a lot lately & especially when I was working Tuesday evening, it must have crashed & at times re-started itself around 14 times.  The son of the lady whom I am working for took the desktop yesterday afternoon and is very  kindly re-building this for me.

Due to the above,  I am using my laptop (of which there are a couple of issues on here *sigh*). There are some email addresses etc that I don't have (Bren please can you email me your email addy ) and anyone else that I don't have.  Jacque & Jocelyn I don't have yours on here either - so please can you re-send when you can.

Below are the routines that I have changed.  The ones I had before were for use when I was single but now I am now married I have changed them quite a bit.  The Daily Schedule has been taken a bit of work due to our never knowing which days he is working as he only gets schedule weekly.  I had trouble with putting this up yesterday as this was way to big so I decided to take a photo of this one instead.

The routines below I have not started yet and plan on doing so I hope from Wednesday.  Andrew is home tomorrow and we are going out in the morning. 

Below are the routines:

Daily Routine

Morning routine:

v     Make bed

v     Take  meds and vitamins

v     Check calendar

v     Thaw something for dinner if I need too

v     Exercise

v     Shower

v     Fix hair and fix bathroom whilst there

v     Make coffee with breakfast

v     Check any emails

Early afternoon routine:

v     Eat lunch (I don’t always do this)

v     Meal Prep

v     Make any phone calls I need too

v     Check emails

v     Get bread/rolls out of freezer to thaw

v     Check/calendar/planner for next day appointments – if any

v     Write in Journal

Late afternoon routine:

v     Tidy up rooms, pick up & put away things,  magazines, papers etc

v     Clear dining table (often books, papers etc are left on here during the day)

v     Set dinner table

v     Start dinner (except Saturdays when done in morning)

v     Light candles (if dark enough of course)

v     Put on some relaxing music

Before bed routine:

v     Kitchen clean it up, shine sink, lay out clean dishcloths as needed

v     Review checklist to make sure nothing is forgotten

v     Think about tomorrow

v     Write a “to do list” for next day in journal

v     Gather up items I don’t want to forget for next day & put by back door

v     Prepare & pack Andrew’s lunch box for next morning

v     Set table for breakfast for the morning

v     Decide on clothes for next day

v     Cool down time & get ready for bed:

v     Read for fun or listen to music, watch dvd/tv with hubby

v     Relax in a hot bubble bath

v     Brush teeth, clean & moisturise face, brush hair

v     Take meds

v     Reflection on Today

v     Spend time in God’s Word & pray

v     Go to bed at a reasonable time! Preferably at the same time each day (unless going out)

v     Fall asleep with a smile on my face & in my heart J

Daily Cleaning Duties
	Mornings	Afternoons
Monday	Clean Bathroom Wash Kitchen & Bathroom Floors	Ironing
Tuesday	Clean upstairs including windows Washing Day
Wednesday	Clean downstairs including windows
Thursday	Baking Clean out purse Polish shoes & boots if needed
Friday	Clean Kitchen Change bedding Washing Day

 I will be adding some flexibility here, for instance, today is a Bank Holiday so I have not done my normal "Monday chores", so this will be done next week as per normal.  If a day is missed here and there, then that particular day's chores can wait until the following week. This used to be a big deal for me as awhile ago if say I missed doing today's chores then I would do these the next day but after reading and taking on some of  Emilie Barnes "More Hours In My Day" then I have learn't to adapt. 

I don't really use Fly Lady a great deal but I love some of her ideas and I have adapted some of her routines to fit in with what I need to do & get done each day as you have seen from above.

Have a blessed evening

Below are some photos taken from our garden which is forever changing in regards to vegetables growing on a daily basis which is good of course

This is a photo of our back garden but it does go back much further. We have fruit trees growing down the middle, two apple, one pear and one victoria plum.

Next is our corn which has grown even more so now since this pic was taken last week:

 Pepper plants:

This is where our main vegetables are which includes corn, runner & dwarf beans, one squash plant, more peppers, beetroot and green vegetables of some kind (silly me forgot to put in a label when planting for these :lol):

Tomato plants, we have around five different varieties of tomatoes growing:

More vegetables including carrots & onions:

This is the actual length of our garden - as you can see it is long:

Here you can see peppers:

This is our cat Biz's favourite hiding/sleeping place away from the sun:

Ok, the week before last we picked a lot of raspberries (I forget how many lbs we picked) and some redcurrants:

So here you have it, a few photos of our garden & some of the vegetables we are growing so far

I am starting to read this book again from cover to cover this time as I really do need to.  There are a lot of different views over this book but most I have to say are positive ones.  My friend who so kindly gave this book to me purchased the book and started reading it but was just about ready to throw the book out the window as she did not agree or like the book at all.  I asked if I could have it so she very kindly sent this to me as a gift. 

I know there are different view points on this book and I can to be honest see both sides but I do have a lot of time not only for this book but for Michael & Debi Pearl and what they stand for.  I have discovered that in Northern Ireland there is a small distribution business who are independent distributors of No Greater Joy, I have received a couple of  the NJG magazines as a gift when I ordered another book that I wanted by The Pearls.  The books plus postage was next to nothing.  I will no doubt order some more books in the future.

Going back to "Created to be his helpmeet", this is a brilliant book, why?

v      Because this is based soundly on the Word of God

v      There are so many examples of how the Lord has changed not only marriages but hearts of women and led them back to the simple truth which is the Word of God

v      There is so much in the way of help and advice for both older and younger women

v      The chapters of this book are backed up by the bible - going back to the first point here