Country Life pt. 2

Eatings.  Before we moved away from the city, we set the lofty goal of trying to source as many local, organic foods as possible, once we hit the countryside*.  In two years, we are still far, far from meeting this goal, but we definitely take pleasure in eating local goods as often as we can.

Neither Zan nor I are particularly gourmet chefs, our fare is simple, and mainly vegetarian.  But it feels soooooo super good to see a plate filled with more local produce than store bought items, and our kids devour these country-style meals.  Some typical summer meals:

We are definitely finding that it is easiest to source vegetables, eggs, seafood and a few little extra treats like garlic and pine nuts (that's my homemade basil/rosemary pesto up there!).  Still on our list is local, free range meat, organic raw milk and cheese.  I hope to start buying locally pressed olive oil too.  Slowly, slowly.

And to balance out all of that greenery, much of this homemade bread.  Much.

And of course, plenty of sugary, processed food slips through.  We are far from sainthood around here.

*Not that living in the countryside really makes much difference, as it is just as easy to source locally grown food in the city.  But anyway...

The Plan...

So I've been getting serious about organising and simplifying our family life.  The thought of a more structured week, simultaneously terrifies me and brings a sense of peace.  The calm of order, the pressure of maintaining it, and a little sadness at the necessary loss of some spontaneity in our days.  You know what though?  Mostly I'm just looking forward to the challenge.  And I have a plan.

First up, I hit the Sorted website, and worked on a preliminary budget for our current year.  It was such a helpful tool and gave me a much better picture of where our money will head to each week, and where we need to be more careful.  Have you used it before?  Awesome.

Next up, I created a weekly plan for our family.  I know know know that we will never ever stick to it completely, but it definitely felt good to set down a picture of how our weeks may go.  Stepping into part time work feels kinda huge to me, and I needed to see how it would work.  I also added lists of ideas for using some of our time, including a small list of personal projects, and a couple of fun family adventures that I would like to fit into our year.

At the same time, I worked up this chart, to mark my progress with some of the bigger goals for the year.  Some are fun goals (such as 'Read 40 Books'), and others are more challenging ('De-clutter Entire House springs to mind).  Man I'm looking forward to filling up those bottles though, yuss!

After a loooooong wait, I received my Frankie Journal, and subsequently jotted down important dates.  Again, getting an idea of the shape of our year.  I'm not much of a diary person, but each year I promise myself that this will be my diary year.  And this WILL be my diary year *wink*.

Currently I'm working on a Groceries Master List and a monthly meal plan, as well as researching sources for local dairy, meat and produce.  I'll probably share a little more on that soon, because I think that both of these are excellent methods for saving money and stress.

Guys, this is so much fun actually!  How about you, do you have a plan? xx