ABOUT ME

We have moved over to Living The Dream Homestead

A Journey of food, sustainability, organic living and our expanding family...

I was born and raised in Melbourne Australia. When I was 19 I met future husband and 9 months later we were engaged to be married in another 9 months. We took a year off, I deferred from University and my husband quit his job to travel around Australia for our honeymoon in a purple Kombi Volkswagen that we had lovingly restored. Towards the end of the trip we met up with one of my husbands high school mates who lived on 150 acres in Western Australia (where my husband grew up on 20 acres). He introduced this suburban girl to homegrown meats which I was previously squeamish about! He also introduced me to heirloom seeds and what large corporations are doing to our seeds, food and health. When we got back I started growing my own veggies but we lived in the hills at that stage with a lot of trees which let in very little sunlight. Because of this I had limited success. We moved for a number of reasons, a crazy neighbor who had no boundaries on one side, and neighbors who had very loud and aggressive daily/nightly/early morning/in the middle of the night arguments on the other, the house falling down the hill, tiny house, crazy slope, and wanting to grow more veggies being the main reasons for wanting to move. We now live very close to where I was brought up, in a larger family home, on a flat block with quiet keep to themselves neighbors.

When I graduated from University in mid 2009 we decided that we would start trying for a baby! 5 months later and we were happily pregnant with baby number 1 due in August 2010. When we had moved into our current home we decided we could finally start trying for baby number 2. A month later and to my surprise I was pregnant! unfortunately that pregnancy only lasted a short 6 weeks and on new years day 2012 we lost baby number 2. It has and continue to be a long journey to have baby number 2 (3?). Recently we succumbed to the help of a fertility specialist, never did I think I would need to visit a fertility specialist, or even struggle to fall pregnant. I suppose I was lead by the false notion that wham bam thank you mam and I would instantly fall pregnant (a lot of people I talk to have this notion which I believe to be false- yes some people can just look at their partner and fall pregnant but for a lot of women this isn't the case. It is a silent torturous struggle that many women walk silently). After 4 doctors the fertility specialist finally listened, she put down our infertility to 3 things. I wasn't ovulating (which I knew wasn't the case), sperm issues (which I also knew wasn't the case, since we had fallen pregnant easily twice), or a blockage from the miscarriage. A HSG test a week later determined that there was a small blockage and happened to clear it out. We fell pregnant the next week after 15 months of trying.

I have always loved food and at 12 or 13 I had decided that I wanted to be a chef. In year 9 I wasn't yet 15 but started work experience in a Mexican restaurant. To my surprise I wasn't just washing dishes - a task we all shared. I was able to learn the ropes of a commercial kitchen and how to work in busy service. The most valuable thing I learnt from this job was how to use both hands and not just my dominate right one. I decided after a long stint working here that becoming a chef was probably the wrong career choice for me as I knew I wanted to have a family and working nights wasn't going to suit. So I left my job but continued on in the hospitality industry. I love hospitality, everything it stands for, the community great food and exciting ingredients. I get pressured a lot from my husband and close friends to start up in the hospitality industry again (when I am ready to return as I am happy and content being a stay at home mummy).

So this blog is all about my life and it's encounters, with a strong focus on food and what I grow.

Some extra things you may want to know about me....

1. I am a Christian
2. I was born and raised Catholic but became a born again Christian when I was 13ish
3. I am not religious
4. I love food
5. I love to grow my own food
6. We have a boxer named Roxy
7. We have 4 chickens
8. I hate having a messy house but once it is messy I find it hard to clean as I don't know where to start
9. My husband is obsessed with four wheel driving
10. Me not so much
11. I am very short (5 foot 1)
12. I am shy despite me being quite loud
13. I laugh
14. A lot
15. We are renovating
16. I want a lot of children my husband want two...lets hope we have twins next ;)
17. I have very little patients and like things done now.....
18. I love Volkswagen - but only old ones (My first car a 1972 beetle and my second a 1971 purple kombi which we travelled around Australia in)
19. I have a massive sweet tooth
20. I only enjoy eating seafood deep fried
21. I hate mayo 
22. I like to eat my food separate much to my husbands disgust (if I were to eat pasta I like my sauce on the side)
23. I like extreme sports
24. I love to travel and could go away somewhere lovely right now
25. I love animals
26. I changed majors at University after my first year as my original major (hospitality management) wasn't challenging enough and bored me to tears so I changed to double major in applied economics and international trade.
27. I love studying and could do this for the rest of my life.
28. I Google research everything
29. I procrastinate
30. I have a huge veggie patch
31. I don't really enjoy eating fruit but love veggies
32. If I am to eat fruit it has to be perfect with absolutely no blemishes
33. I hate duckface photo pose and cannot look at a photo if someone is doing this
34. I hate it when people cancel last minute when they could have told you hours before
35. I hate it when people are late and hate being late myself
36. I absolutely 100% hate it when people wear their shoes inside my house.
37. I love watching foodie shows and grab inspiration from them
38. I love taking photos
39. I am not a helicopter parent
40. I like to make everything from scratch
41. EVERYTHING!
42. I love watching cooking shows
43. Jamie Oliver is my inspiration. Over 13 years ago I started watching him and he inspired me to cook with more herbs and flavors and to keep things simple and homely.
44. I played tennis for many many years
45. I am a stay at home mum and plan to be until our youngest is in primary school
46. We plan to travel full time for around a year or more before our oldest goes to high school
47. I love to compost, and have 4 compost bins and 2 worm farms
48. I don't use chemicals on my garden
49. I try not to use chemicals around the home
50. I have naturally curly eyelashes but on my right side on the outside of my eye those lashes are super curly and almost loop over - I hate it.
51. If one more person tells me that they are over being pregnant I will punch them in the face (especially those friends that know we are having difficulties TTC! [this happen twice in just as many days] those that don't I breath in and change the subject)
52. I will never complain about being pregnant again! I will promise myself to love every minute (or at least try).
53. I can only sleep if I have a blanket (even if it is 40 degrees celsius)
54. I hate asking for things
55. I found the newborn stage a walk in the park 
56. Toddlers are much harder, much much much!
57. I love water and can spend all day in a pool or at the beach
58. We chose a biblical name for our son (Israel meaning 'triumphant with God' or 'who prevails with God' or 'to rule', 'be strong', 'have authority over' leading to 'God rules' or 'God Judges') (Jireh means 'God will provide' it is also prophetic, when Abraham was asked to sacrifice his long awaited son, and was obediently walking up to the mountain Issac asked we have wood we have fire but we do not have a ram, Abraham replied God will provide, he did there was a ram ready and waiting)  and our future children will also have biblical names. The reason for this is that the Bible says in Proverbs 22:1 'A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.'
59. We didn't name our child after the country 
60. or the footballer
61. We were told we were having a girl at the 18 weeks ultrasound, this didn't sit well with me and I used to have panic attacks about this, until we had an emergency 36 week ultrasound and I asked them to confirm the sex...'did they tell you you were having a boy?' - UM NO????? 
62. I work well when I am organized. I freak out majorly when I am not! So when I was told I was having a boy I freaked! Not because I wanted a girl more (in fact I really wanted a boy first) but because I had nothing boy and I had just finished the nursery and packing my bags, which meant my last month of rest and doing sweet nothing I was actually working against the clock and reorganizing myself.
63. I got it done in time.
64. I love anything curd, lemon curd, passion fruit curd, orange curd mmmmmmmmmmmm curd
65. I love op shops
66. And garage sales
67. And markets
68. I don't do fairy's
69. Or witches
70. Or harry potter
71. Or anything fantasy or sci-fi
72. I like comedy, and adventure and feel good movies
73. I love to read.
74. I wish I had more time to read but the reality of parenting is that you just can't sit and read.
75. That's okay because reading too long gives me migraines.
76. I love writing lists
77. FOR EVERYTHING!
78. Hence this list ;)
79. I love to fish but don't have much luck
80. I get seasick
81. I have only been overseas once and would love to discover more of the world
82. I am oh so clucky
83. I get sad thinking that we may not be able to have any more children
84. I wanted my children to be close together. Both my husband and I have large gaps between siblings (7 years and 12 years respectively) so we both wanted this for our family
85. I dream of acreage
86. I love being crafty
87. I am a folder not a scruncher
88. I'm a talker
89. I am working on the listening bit
90. I'm an early to bed early to rise kinda girl
91. I don't like telling other people's children off and very very rarely will I do this
92. I don't mind when other people direct my child - unless they talk over me when I am trying to direct him
93. I'm a neighbors fan (Aussie TV series)
94. I am impatient
95. I love to daydream
96. I can be very self conscious
97. I love to sing but never in public
98. I tan really easily
99. I don't do horoscopes
100. I apologize if I have repeated myself