There has been a frenzy of what the Princess calls 'hibernation cooking'. It has only been chilly once, but when school starts, you know the countdown is on.
I have so far turned 20kg of tomatoes (not mine, unfortunately, this year) into roasted tomato sauce, which now resides n the freezer. I have turned the early plums into plum sauce. I have the second last plums (the D'Agen plums) in the dehydrator, becoming prunes. And I have acquired a slow cooker. A really big 6 litre slow cooker. Yesterday I turned 2.5kg of beef shin into an enormous amount of Osso Bucco, half of which has joined the roasted tomato sauce in the freezer.
I joined the Ravelympics in an effort to get some WIPs sorted. I finished a Stash,
a self designed Cowl
and the Ishbel
and I managed to finish the Rocking Sock Club socks from the November package, a lovely CookieA sock called 'Raven Swirl'.
I'm currently not too far off finishing a Damson for my lovely Step Mother. Unfortunately, her birthday is tomorrow, and I don't think I am going to get there.
Yarnadan was not a success. Despite some de-stashing and frantic knitting I managed to finish or dispose of around 1 kg or yarn. A bit more than that came in, but I am not admitting how much. There were some sock club parcels, a few moments of madness on the internet, and about 8 socks and 8 jumpers worth may have come through the door. Drat.
I am feeling quite good that there have been no yarn purchases this month. Some yarn has come in, due to sock club memberships, but I have not actually gone searching and slapped down boodle for balls (or skeins), so that's a win.
One of the main reasons for the blogging silence has been that my kids returned to school, and they are both at school five days a week this year. This has meant I had time on my hands. "Aha", I can hear you saying. "If she has all this time on her hands, why hasn't she been updating us with her no doubt riveting life and all the exciting things she is doing?"
Now, a normal, sane, adult type person would say, "Hmm. Time on my hands? Great, I'll clean the house. Or knit more, or catch up on reading or do some gardening." That is what a sane person would say.
I thought, " Great. Time on my hands? Why don't I go back to university and get another degree. I know, I'll do a Master of Teaching and I'll specialise in primary school.''
Not only am I doing this, I decided that it would be a really, really good idea to do it online.
And to do it full time.
So I am currently a student, a full-time student, part time mother and casual cleaner and house person (very, very casual!). I may be the owner of the messiest house in Northern Tasmania.
So, instead of posting exciting things on the computer, on an irregular basiis, I've been...
Well, I've been posting slightly less exciting things on the computer on a regular basis. So far, I've been a student for two weeks and I'm not behind yet. That's got to be good, right?
The really interesting thing will be how I manage to juggle the full time practical in-class requirement, when I am sent forth to practice my skills on unsuspecting children.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
