Homekeeping and Autumn Walks

It's been a busy week - but we have finished off with a lovely slow day. With it being half-term, we planned a couple of fun outings and visits. Friday however was reserved for a quiet day at home. Time to be spent with just each other, doing ordinary things.

I have been inspired by a dear friend - Elastic Mom. She is full of thrifty, frugal ideas. Her latest post was related to a house move that they are in the middle of, she tells of all her cooking and preparing meals in order to have free time during the move and not to worry about meals. I was inspired by how she uses all the little things in her fridge to whip up what sounds like a feast! Today I decided to follow in her footsteps and see what meals I could create out of what was left in the cupboards and extend my shop day by and extra day.

Upon rising early, I riffled through my fridge and cupboards and found milk, onions, garlic, cauliflower and potatoes. Perfect ingredients for a hearty rich creamy soup for dinner tonight. Of course no soup is complete without homemade bread. So using Elastic Mom's wonderfully quick recipe, I whipped up some honey/oat cheesy bread, using some of the mixture to make savory muffins for a mid-morning snack. That was dinner taken care off. For lunch it was re-heated quiche from last night for one daughter and a baked potato with baked beans for another. I also baked a loaf of Challa (spelling??) bread to fill the gaps between lunch and dinner. We still had yummy Brownies and cinnamon rolls left over from our baking earlier on in the week. I was pleasantly surprised how creatively one can eat when there is 'nothing' in the cupboards. I think I am going to try and rise to the challenge more often. This way I get to do away with waste and really use everything down to its last. Often I get to the end of the week, with another grocery delivery arriving and end up throwing away bits and bobs that we have not used.

I love the way the sky is reflected in the lake here.

 Okay, so that's it on the home-keeping front. With winter fast approaching, we are taking full advantage of every sun-shiny day there is. Although the air is bitingly cold now, we can't resist bundling up and breathing in it's lovely crisp freshness.  Today the girls pulled on their new BRIGHT finger-less mittens (super easy to knit), jumped on their bikes and we headed off to our local park. The day was beautiful, autumns colors spectacular and the sunshine on the water just sublime, as you can see from the pictures peppering this post ;o)

We raced along at break-neck speed...

We stopped to stroke a friendly kitty,

Wow! Those mitts really do stand out -LOL

and enjoyed swinging as high as we could go...

all essential ingredients in the mix of childhood!

So that's us today. Loving life, loving autumn and loving being outside ;o)
Happy week-ending everyone.