The Sort Report

A Fresh Notebook Is A Beautiful Thing

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 07:12:00 +0000

I'm a Word Nerd. I fully admit to loving notebooks, lists, schedules, routines and the grandmama of them all - The Household Notebook. I've tried various electronic means of managing household tasks (including apps galore), but nothing sticks for me like good, old-fashioned paper and pen. And I've fallen in love with the freedom a schedule gives me. Yup, you read that right. Freedom.

You see, I'm not what you would call an 'intuitive housekeeper'. I simply don't notice clutter when it has been there for a while - it becomes part of the landscape (sad, but true). So keeping a mental list of what household tasks need to get done when is never going to work for me. I'd forget to empty the trash, or go three weeks without changing the sheets, or leave the laundry until 10pm for the eighth day in a row. And then I'm genuinely shocked when I realize how far behind I've gotten in the housekeeping.

Lists, routines and schedules have saved my home.

There really is something delightful in seeing your plans in hard copy. My personal preference is, of course, the Household Notebook (or Home Management Binder, or Control Journal, or Homekeeping Record, or....) for anything permanent and referred to often, but I also use a faux-Moleskine like notebook for everyday jotting. I adore my little black notebook. It's simple, classic and - don't laugh when I share this - the pages feel smooth against the side of my hand when I write, LOL. I splurged on a couple of four-dollar pens (they write like a dream) and this is what I use to write notes, changes to my schedule, to-do lists, and anything else that catches my fancy. These little black numbers are large enough (larger than A5, not as big as A4) to use as a journal too, and I could totally see a whole shelf of identical books filled with years of hopes and dreams. You just don't get the same feeling from a tiny electronic smartphone screen.

Over the next few days, I'll be taking you on a tour of some of my favourite ways to keep track of my housekeeping routines, including the routines themselves and the methods I use to record them. I also hope to be putting up an updated Household Notebook tour and a bonus tour of a Recipe Binder I set up that has really changed the way I menu plan. Hope to see you then!

(image credit)

Another Freezer Cooking Adventure

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 05:44:00 +0000

image credit

It occurred to me today that I have a vast range of 'servants' in my home that I'm not really taking advantage of. Take my upright freezer, for example. At the moment, all that it contains is a 6-months-past-due package of puff pastry and a freezer burned beef roast. My decade-old breadmaker is still perfectly useful but languishing in a dark recess of some rarely used kitchen cabinet. And my crockpot should be a star attraction in my weekly menu, but isn't. All of these things should be working to make my life easier, and yet I'm not making the best use of of them.

Part of the reason why certain appliances rarely see the light of day lies within the design of my kitchen. We have a very small galley-style (walk-through) kitchen, with limited bench space (just two smallish areas). I would love to have these appliances standing proud and at attention, ready to be used, but we just don't have the counter space. It's very, very easy to end up with the kitchen a cluttered disaster unless we're continuously on top of the dishes and general 'putting away'. The precious bench space we do have is set aside for daily-used items such as the kettle and toaster. As the breadmaker and crockpot aren't used daily, away into the cupboard they go. And because we have an open plan kitchen / family room layout, any kitchen clutter is compounded by it's exposure to anyone who happens to visit.

Despite the teeny tiny kitchen, I'm lucky enough to have a fairly good sized upright freezer in my laundry room, and a decent above-fridge freezer. It's time to put them to good use!

In the days to come I'll be formulating a freezer cooking plan. I am spectacularly on board with the idea of freezer cooking, and have even produced some decent frozen meals in my time, but I've lapsed in recent times. I'm bummed I missed out on the latest round of Freezer Cooking Days (co-hosted by the lovely Jessica at Life As Mom and Crystal at Money Saving Mom) but no matter - I'll press on and get a head start on next month. I'll try a few 'one meal' recipes to see if I can stumble across some winners to add to my tried-and-trues. I have a fabulous Recipe Binder in development with literally dozens of 'in the wings' recipes to have a go at.

See you early next month for the next Freezer Cooking Days!

Snippets Of Daily Life

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 15:43:00 +0000

Middle (then aged 8) happily engrossed in his favourite activity

So, it's been almost a week since I posted - apologies. As it turns out, scheduling one's posts during a launch week is quite the prudent thing to do, especially if you're like me, with the kind of luck that makes Murphy rub his hands with glee. Of course, I did not do this! There was one thing after another this week - bam, bam, BAM. So here I am, late to my own party!

This is just a quick check in - it's 12:36 am here at the moment - to keep you up to speed with what's been happening around these parts.

We visited Eldest's potential high school on Monday. For those not familiar, Eldest is autistic and due to start high school at the beginning of February 2012. Until now, he has been in supported education (ie, a special ed class within a mainstream school) but the places simply do not exist for a similar set up at the high school level, so it's pretty likely he'll enter eighth grade as a mainstream student, the first time he's ever done this. This is real heart-seizure kind of stuff for us, but of course we're thankful his development in recent years may have placed him out of contention for a special ed class placement. He'll always have a disability, but so far he's coping well enough in school to survive with minimal intervention. It also afforded us the opportunity to check out the school from a 'non-disability' standpoint for when Middle and Youngest take the leap into the bigger fishpond in 2013 and 2015 respectively. Eldest also has an NEP (Negotiated Education Plan / Individual Education Plan) scheduled for tomorrow so we have lots to talk over.

Middle took a long overdue visit to a podiatrist on Friday. Apparently he has one of the worst cases of 'flat feet' the podiatrist had ever seen, but to be fair, the young lad looked fresh out of university so perhaps not the best indicator :P Middle will be fitted for an orthotic shoe insert in a couple of weeks and will require more expensive shoes from now on. This little exercise (the consult, the shoe insert, the return visit and the shopping expedition to procure the new shoes) will put us out of pocket around $300, with a 'rinse and repeat' due somewhere between 6 and 12 months from now. Again, mighty thankful we have money saved for this kind of thing.

Charlie the Wonderdog saw the vet this week. Dog's memories are short, I discovered - the last time he'd been on the vet's table was while he still had his, uh, 'bits' intact over a year ago and he spent the entire time showing us the whites of his eyes and shivering like a mad thing. He did well though and the visit was just for his most recent shots, but there went another $86! Coincidentally, we'd just finished counting up our coin jar stash the night before and had 'found' $84. Providence perhaps?

I have been making a very conscious effort to expand my culinary repertoire this week. Full report in my next Menu Plan Monday post but so far, the big hits of the week have been the homemade Thai Red Curry sauce and tonight's Bacon & Herb Stuffing. Both used FRESH herbs! These usually wilt away to nothing in the bottom of my crisper before I get off my backside to cook with them!

I'm really hoping for a quieter week. With far less expenditure thanks!

Menu Plan Monday ~ Clear Out Your Recipe File Week!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 04:44:00 +0000

Okie dokie. I wasn't going to launch The Sort Report for another month, until I had a small (but growing) archive behind me, but what the heck. It's been such a long time since I participated in a Menu Plan Monday but I'm on a bit of a 'clear the backlog of new recipes to try' kick right now, so it seemed like it was time to catapult myself back into the blogging fray. Hi there! Hello! If you've never 'met' me before, I'm a crazy Australian SAHM with three kids (one special needs). Welcome!

When I'm sorting out my menus, I like to use the framework of an 'If It's Monday, It's Spaghetti' kind of plan - it's easier on my frazzled brain and it (usually) ensures we don't end up with four or five dinners using the same protein source every week. In addition to this, I consider my husband's work schedule. He works a rotating roster and as an example, there's always a week-long stretch of afternoon shift when he's not home for dinner. We've dubbed this Kid Friendly Week and they're usually helping to choose the recipes, so what ends up on the menu tends to reflect their simpler tastes. We try to plan meals for this week based on 'leftoverability' and just put aside Daddy's portion to take to work the next evening :)

All the dinners are new recipes, and side dishes are in brackets.

Menu Plan

(July 26th → August 1st)

Monday ~ Pasta

Homemade Gnocchi Delizia (salad)

First time making gnocchi from scratch! Bechamel-base sauce with semi-dried tomatoes, broccoli and bacon.

Tuesday ~ Chicken

Baked Honey Lemon Chicken (rice, stir-fried vegetables)

Simple meal - chicken is put into marinade in the morning, and DH can pop this in the oven if I'm late getting home from my errands later.

Wednesday ~ Quick & Easy

Pizza Quiche (salad)

Homemade shortcrust pastry prepped and refrigerated in the morning. Throw together kind of meal.

Thursday ~ Beef

Thai Red Beef Curry with Homemade Paste (rice)

I've never made my own curry paste before :) Leftovers as fall back plan for the kids if it's too spicy.

Friday ~ Misc / New Recipe

Vegetarian Dumplings (Singapore Noodles)

Trying a new technique (and new recipe!) with gow gee wrappers. Serving this with a noodle creation I'll make up on the night.

Saturday ~ Crockpot / Freezer

Ropa Vieja (tortillas, salad)

Sydney's Crepes of Wrath is an absolute goldmine for tasty, hearty recipes - I have several of her recipes waiting in the wings. Highly recommended!

Sunday ~ Roast / Pizza

Roast Chicken with Bacon Stuffing (potatoes, broccoli, carrots, gravy)

Finishing off the week with a hearty family favourite meal. Baking the stuffing in a pan (new recipe).

Baking

Apple Cake (got a head start on that yesterday - a bit 'meh' but still okay)
Sour Cream Sugar Cookies (double batch - test freezing some of the dough)
Warm Chocolate Puddings (this is likely to be Sunday's dessert - new recipe)
Monte Carlos (sandwich cookies with a raspberry cream filling - new recipe)
Coffee Walnut Scrolls (new recipe)

(Some of these will be set aside and frozen for the kids' lunches)

Freezer

Mocha Pound Cake (you gotta have a pound cake in the freezer for emergencies, right? LOL - new recipe)
Fried Rice (a favourite freezer filler - great for side dishes, lunches and DH's work meals)

(Usually I'd set aside between 3 and 5 recipes/meals to put in the freezer - not all single meals, usually duplicates of things like lasagna and cookie dough - but because of the high number of new recipes this week, we'll stick with two)

Phew! That's a lot of cooking and baking to get through this week, but I'm looking forward to adding some new tried-and-true recipes to my trusty Recipe Binder (more on that soon!) Happy cooking folks!

For more tasty Menu Plan Monday morsels, drop by Org Junkie.

Be sure to check out my small (but growing) list of printables using the tabs in the navigation menu above. These are free for personal use - and if you'd like to see something specific, I'd love to hear from you. Just fill out the contact form in the About / Contact section above and I'll do my best :)

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Make Visitors Feel At Home With A "Welcome Guest" Box

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 14:36:00 +0000

As delightful as it might sound at times, being away from the hustle and bustle of home can be a double-edged sword. Vacations relax and revive you, but you can still feel a little lost and displaced without the comfort of your own 'things' around you - I know I do!

If you're lucky enough to avoid a hotel and be invited to stay at a relative's or friend's home instead, it's a wonderful thing. Good food, good company, and a comfortable bed. Even without a separate guest room (our 'guest room' is a sofa bed in the living room), a lot can be done to accommodate overnight visitors and to make them feel at home.

One of the best ideas I ever heard about was the "Welcome Guest" box. Upmarket hotels and bed-and-breakfasts have been doing it for years - a small box containing toiletries, first aid items and a few small luxuries is set aside to make the guest feel special. I loved the idea, so I began doing it for myself at home.

I recycled a little straw storage box from elsewhere in the house and with each weekly grocery trip added an extra couple of items to my list - things like dental floss, spare toothbrushes, pretty soap, bandaids, hand lotion, individual purse packs of tissues and paracetemol. Travel toiletries (mini bottles of favourite brands produced to comply with airplane regulations) are perfect for this because guests should generally be given unopened bottles, although there are exceptions depending on the product (larger bottles/packages of lotion or paracetemol, for example).

While guests should always be free to take the whole kit-and-caboodle home with them when they leave, I've found it works equally well to keep a box in the linen cupboard, and just restock it as needed. Either way, feedback has been 100% complimentary and guests love knowing they can arrive with almost no notice and hardly anything packed and still know they're well covered with life's little basics!

Streamline Your Food Shopping With A Master Grocery List

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 06:34:00 +0000

Tackling the grocery store madness is tough work, no doubt about it. First you have to decide what will be on your menu for the week ahead. Then you have to find those buried recipe cards and magazine tear-outs, compile a shopping list, check the pantry, and round up the family members to ask if they need anything. Is it any wonder many of us get to the grocery store grumpy, exhausted, and ready to shell out more money than we're comfortable with on convenience foods in order to end the experience as quickly as possible?

We've all heard that a master grocery list saves time and energy at the store, but I'm going to show you a way to take that general idea and supercharge it. Like most good systems it will take a little time to set up, but I promise you it will be worth it. You'll zip through the store in record time, leaving more energy for the really important things, like Monopoly tournaments with your kids. Ready? Let's go!

Before You Start

First, it's important to realise that you won't be able to complete all of the steps in one hit. There's a lot to work through, and you don't want to burn out before you get the chance to enjoy all your hard work. Take your time!

What You'll Need

Small notebook
Pen
Access to a computer and printer
Time (multiple visits to the grocery store are recommended, but don't go out of your way - use your regular grocery trips spread out over a few days or weeks)
Patience!

Step 1 - Reconnaissance

The next time you're at your regular grocery store, take your pen and notebook and as you're walking around the store, jot down aisle numbers and the items listed on the end-of-aisle hanging signs (there are usually about 6-10 items listed). For example:

Aisle 10

laundry powder
cleaning products
toilet paper
stationery

If you're already familiar with the store, you'll just be confirming what you already know, but get an 'official' list down on paper nonetheless. Finish your shopping and go home.

Step 2 - Delving Deeper

On your next grocery run, pick a 'start point'. This is typically the point at which you begin your natural meander around the store (for a full weekly shop, that is). Believe it or not, this isn't always near the entrance. At my local supermarket, I 'begin' at the front end of Aisle 10, close to the registers, but the actual entrance to my store is near the produce/Aisle 1. Your own 'order of business' will depend on several factors, including the store layout and your personal preferences. Consider where the heavy items are, like laundry products and dog food. You might want to start near there. But for now, stick only to the aisles - not the perimeter. There's a reason for this - trust me!

Once you've established your starting point, begin walking down the aisle in the direction you would naturally take - most people follow a fairly intuitive and predictable pattern as they shop. By all means combine this with your regular grocery shopping, but go slowly...and look UP. Along the length of the aisles, near the top shelves, there are usually 'category markers' signifying where certain subcategories of items begin and end within each aisle. Write these down. Using the Aisle 10 example we began earlier, you might see something like this:

laundry powder
laundry liquid
stain soakers
dishwashing liquids
toilet paper
paper towels
kitchen sponges

...and so on.

(An important note: Since the idea behind this version of the Master Grocery List is to minimize the 'headless chicken factor' (ie, backtracking between aisles when you forget an item), remember to look on both sides of the aisle. Try to keep the category markers from both sides of the aisle in order when you take your notes (you can double check the order later if you need to). Later, when you're rocking the new system, you'll only need to go down each aisle once - though you will occasionally 'zig zag' from one side of the aisle to the other - and everything will be in perfect, natural order).

Don't worry too much if you notice markers for items or categories that you don't actually buy (a good example is the dog food section if you don't have a dog!). Just jot them down as they are - in later steps they will help you gauge where similar items might be kept.

With this step, it's important to take your time - it took me several visits to get all the category markers (there could be as many as thirty per aisle, multiplied by however many aisles your store has). It will take you even longer if you typically take your children shopping with you.

Step 3 - Work The Perimeter

By now you should have a list of items, in the usual order that you'd shop in, sorted by aisle, not category. This is a significant difference over your standard Produce / Meat / Dairy type of list, and really the key to the whole system. Often, similarly-categorized products are not kept near each other in the store. An example at my own supermarket would be the cheese and milk fridges, which are at opposite ends of the store, despite both being 'Dairy'. Using my old, standard type of master grocery list, I still had to walk back and forth in the store in order to cross an entire category off - nothing was arranged in my natural order of movement - which is exactly what the supermarket wants! More time looking for items or walking past end-of-aisle displays means more money for them. Let's get smarter and beat them at their own game!

Once you have the aisles sorted, take the edge of the 'perimeter' of the store nearest to the end of the last aisle you've just walked down (remember, we're going for a natural, intuitive walking pattern here, so don't walk across the store!), and repeat Step 2. This part is a little trickier, because the perimeter of the store doesn't always have the same category markers at top shelf level and they aren't generally arranged in an easy 'linear' order as with the aisles. Your store should, however, have very distinct 'areas' around the perimeter - often these are Bakery, Produce, Deli Counter, Meat, Milk, and Freezer. In your notebook, put these areas down as headings, keeping them in order according to the direction you are walking. Using your natural meander as the basis, walk slowly through, or alongside, these areas, making note of the items you would typically buy. In Bakery (in my store, this consists of a few central tables plus a U-shaped shelved area), it might look something like:

white bread
grainy bread
bread rolls
hot dog buns
hamburger buns
bread sticks

...and so on

Work your way around the perimeter of the store. Since most of the fresh and frozen foods are around the perimeter, people tend to put these items in their carts last to minimize the 'squish factor' - so tackling the aisles first (and then the perimeter) tends to follow a more natural walk-around-the-store pattern (see, I told you it would make sense!)

Step 4 - Embrace Technology

Well done - the hard part is over!

In your notebook, you should have an aisle-by-aisle (plus perimeter) breakdown of where everything is in the store. Written down in the order in which you would normally shop and using aisles and categories specific to your store.

Now it's time to fire up a Word document. If you've tried out a Master Grocery List before, drag out your copy of that as well (your original master list will give you a great starting point, listing all of your 'usually bought' items). Open a new document and create a few headings - all your aisle numbers ('Aisle 10', 'Aisle 7' and so on) plus all the perimeter categories ('Bakery', 'Meat' etc). Remember to keep these headings in order beginning from your personal 'Start Point' and ending with the last perimeter section. Because I begin in Aisle 10, my list obviously begins with that as my first heading, and not Aisle 1.

Next, using the notes you made on your reconnaissance trips as a guide, enter each individual item from your original list onto your new Master Grocery List under the appropriate aisle/area heading and in the appropriate order. If you don't already have a master list, don't worry! Brainstorm your basic grocery items and throw those in, or look over a few old grocery receipts. During this step you can also safely skip over including any item you know you wouldn't regularly buy. Your Master Grocery List should represent your family's shopping habits, not someone else's, and definitely not the store's idea of what you should buy! Here's how it might look:

Original List (or brainstormed items / receipts)

Dairy (using your standard Dairy / Meat / Produce layout - ie, nothing in order)

milk
cheese
yoghurt
cream cheese
cream

Master Grocery List

Aisle 1/Fridge (using your new, streamlined 'even my non-grocery-shopping husband could do this' approach)

full cream milk
half and half
fruit juice
thickened cream
magazines
sour cream
stationery

It looks random, but it's not! You now have the most useful shopping list you've ever created in your hands!

I try to keep my Master Grocery List to just the one, one-sided page for ease, so I don't list absolutely everything we buy, but certainly most things. Here's what my Master Grocery List looks like:

(click to enlarge)

Each of the items I've included above is in order according to the layout in my store and you can see I've included some space to jot down any items we might need that week that aren't part of our 'regular' groceries.

Step 5 - Wrapping Things Up

Can you imagine how much time and money you'll save having all of your regular grocery items listed in the order they appear in the store? How much easier the weekly food shopping will be if you have little helpers along for the ride? No back-tracking down aisles (a pet peeve of my dear, but long-suffering husband!) If you get sick and have to have your significant other shop for you, you couldn't possibly make it any easier for him!

For the first couple of weeks you'll be constantly remembering things you want to include on your list and others you'll want to take off. Print just one copy of your final list (you can print another later if you need to) and use the first week or two to take notes in the margins. If you buy something regularly, but there's a long time between purchases, leave it off the list - the Master Grocery List is best suited to regular weekly or fortnightly grocery shopping.

Once you've got everything looking as you want it, print several copies of your Master Grocery List for your Household Notebook, and keep one on the fridge. Instead of a 'scratch pad' approach, this kind of Master Grocery List also prompts you about items you normally buy, but may not need that week, in case you see a great unadvertised sale ("Oh wow! Brand A crackers are really cheap at the moment!" - glance at list - "I don't need them this week, but the sale is too good to pass up, they'll store well, and since it's a regularly-purchased item we'll use them eventually"). When you run out of something, use a highlighter or simply circle the item. When you put the item in your cart, cross it off the list.

The possibilities are endless! Once you've compiled your list for your regular grocery store, you might consider repeating the process for other stores in your area, or your favourite warehouse store. Of course, the bigger the store, the longer the set-up!

And the best part? I'm now memorizing my list. It's quite hilarious when DH calls in at the supermarket for me on his way home from work and calls me because he can't find something.

"Baker's flour? Where on earth is that?"

"It's in Aisle 6, right after the dried fruit but before the condiments. If you're approaching from the front of the store it's on your left, about halfway down the aisle, third shelf from bottom. You're welcome!"

I can honestly say that re-working my old master list into this new format is one of the biggest time saving devices I implemented in 2009 - try it out!

Buffet Hutch Makeover - Before

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 07:47:00 +0000

So here's how it happened. DH had some dry cleaning that needed to be put in, and since I am the resident PA around here, I found myself at the local shopping centre, pants surrendered (his, not mine) and craving a caramellatte. I tried to round up stray friends to partake in the joy that is a freshly roasted brew, but they were all busy. I got my coffee anyway - a new addiction, by the way - and wandered around for a bit. It was too soon to go home, and I was in the mood for some window shopping.

Eventually I found myself at a fabric superstore, buying a couple of odds and ends, and then made my way to a local thrift store. This particular thrift store (and most in the area) are mainly clothing-based, but they always have a few pieces of furniture in the back. To be honest, there's rarely anything decent to be found (unless, of course, you actually want to decorate with chipped laminate furniture) but very rarely, they have a piece or two worth a second look. That's when I saw it.

A little buffet hutch stood out from the crowd. It had a pleasant appearance, but it needed some work. I made an executive decision (after checking for soundness, of course) and bought it on the spot for $64. After arranging for delivery (we don't own a trailer), I'd spent $104. About fourteen seconds after spying it, my mind was already ticking over - specifically toward blogs the likes of this one, this one, this one and this one. I knew I could make it over into something pretty and functional.

The panelled backing will be perfect. The piece itself will most likely end up white or some shade of it, but the panelling and shelves will either stay a light pine stain (like the range shown here - love that look!) or the back of the hutch section will be painted a muted shade of pale blue or green (kinda like here - so beautiful!) Also, if you look closely at the shelves in the above picture, you'll see grooves cut to display plates - so that's an option for later.

The hutch section is in better nick than the buffet section. I love the scalloped edge at the top.

I doubt very much the unit would have been terribly expensive even new, but this is my first 'makeover' piece so for $64, I think it's a good piece to learn on. I'll have to do something about those doors though. They're too plain, and just chipboard panels. I'll want to jazz them up a bit, but I have no idea where to start! If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

It's also not a huge piece - about 32 cm (12 ½ inches) deep by 120 cm (around 4 ft) wide. It's 'shallowness' might actually work for us rather than against us, depending on what we use it for. It could turn into a table/unit for our (limited space) entryway. But the allure of a new craft cabinet is pulling me hard and fast in another direction!

The inside of the buffet isn't very good, but fixable, I think. I'm still undecided what to do in here - line the shelves (after sanding the crud away, of course) or paint them in a similar fashion to the hutch shelves. It might depend on what we do with those ugly plain doors.

Didn't notice this until it was delivered today - oops! While the backing of the hutch section is a nice panelling, the back of the buffet part is just ordinary chipboard. This hole was covered over with duct tape! The back should be easy enough to replace.

So there you have it - not an expensive wooden piece, that's for sure, but it will be fun to have a bit of a play around with!

The Easiest Oven-Baked Frittata You'll Ever Make

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:54:00 +0000

(click for image credit)

I don't know about you, but if I can work out an easier way to do something, I'm all over it. This frittata recipe falls right into that category - easy, wholesome and kid friendly. And best of all, it doesn't require a two-step cooking process. Everything is thrown into a large lasagna baking dish and forgotten. You can use any combination of vegetables and meat you like - we like semi dried tomatoes, spring onions and ham, with some capsicum (peppers) to give it a Mexican kick. Here's the original recipe (but really, it's just a guide. Mix it up!)

Oven Baked Frittata

Ingredients

2 medium potatoes
1 red onion, chopped
70g (2 ½ oz) pancetta, chopped (or bacon / ham)
100g (3 ½ oz) baby spinach
200g (7 oz) red grape tomatoes, halved
1 red capsicum (pepper), chopped
8 eggs
½ cup thickened cream
½ cup parmesan cheese, shredded
¼ cup tasty cheese, shredded

Method
Preheat oven to 200ºC (395ºF). Lightly grease a 5cm (2 in) deep, 26cm (10 in) x 16.5cm (6 ½ in) ovenproof dish.

Pierce each potato a few times and microwave on high until tender (alternatively, you could boil them, but slice first otherwise they'll take forever). No need to peel first, just scrub. Allow to cool, then thinly slice. Set aside.

Prepare all of your vegetables, any kind you like. If you have small kids, you might find a very fine dice of everything goes down better than big chunks of, say, broccoli or spinach leaves.

Place the slices of potato along the bottom of the prepared dish. Don't get fancy - overlaps and gaps are fine! (If you have leftover slices you could include them in another layer too).

Sprinkle with your choice of meat or vegetables (instead of the suggested pancetta, we usually use ham or bacon). You can totally eyeball this (for us, it changes every time we make it, according to what we have in the fridge. Load up the vegies or not. Half a capsicum (pepper) one time and a full capsicum the next. Pass on the meat. Totally your choice! About the only thing that stays consistent for us each time are the semi dried tomatoes and the potatoes. I don't even bother to measure anything).

Beat the eggs and cream together in a separate bowl and pour over everything in the pan. Don't stress if it doesn't look like enough egg mixture - quite often we have to crack an extra couple of eggs on the fly as the amount of vegies can change so much from one time to the next. You want the egg mixture to come to just level with the vegie/meat mix.

Sprinkle with cheeses (I rarely bother with both types - I just use the tasty) and bake until the egg mixture is set (dig at it a little - the egg should be the consistency of firm scrambled eggs, or quiche) and the cheese is browned on top (if the cheese is getting too dark, foil that baby up).

Serve with a great big healthy green salad.

Notes:
As you can see, we have many amendments to the original recipe! This really is 'slap it all together' cooking and as such, cooking times can vary greatly. It can take as much as 1 hr, 20 mins to set in the oven, so get it started early. But the best thing about this meal is that it is awesome both hot and cold (slight greying of the potatoes is normal). The only superpower it doesn't have is freezability. The egg just doesn't hold up well enough. But it will keep in the fridge for a good 2-3 days, perfect for lunches and leftovers. Enjoy :)

Check out Life As Mom for more nommy egg dishes!

A Blogging Examination

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:42:00 +0000

Why do you blog?

Did you begin your blog as a public journal? To keep in touch with family and friends? Because there was a writer inside you screaming to get out?

And then, six to twelve months down the track, why did you keep going? Did you become addicted to every-man-and-his-dog's social networking system of choice? Burned a feed? Started subscribing to other feeds? Categorized your Google Reader page to reflect your sixteen neatly segmented 'blogging genres'? (Ahem).

Did you join forums to learn more about blogging? Have you ever moderated a forum specifically geared toward blogging?

Do you sign every email - even those to co-workers - with your blog's URL? Make up funny names for your kids to protect their safety online?

Were you hesitant to tell any 'real life' people about your deep, dark, blogging secret? Ever keep a folder in your Favourites entitled Stuff To Blog About? Ever have other folders called Interesting Stuff To Read Later, Link Love and Pending Comments/Tags/Memes?

Ever dream in HTML code?

Ever accidentally type in <br/> instead of hitting the return key when you're typing a letter in Word?

Have you ever tried to explain the appeal of blogging to a non-blogging spouse? Had them roll their eyes or make funny gagging sounds?

Have you ever spent more than twelve seconds looking for a blog template?

Have you stopped being surprised when you learn the other classroom mums have blogs as well? Have you ever asked for their URLs? Ever given yours out?

Have you ever agonized over the issue of blog advertising? Set up a review blog so it wouldn't clash with advertising you have on your main blog?

Ever come across a purist who is dead-against advertising?

Ever gone through a massive feed reader clean out? And felt guilty doing it?

Ever come across a situation online where you've felt bullied? 'Outed' from the clique?

Ever secretly wished you could nail a spot on a Top 100 list? Ever wondered how on earth the current top bloggers managed to get their spots?

Ever had unrealistic BFF daydreams about a Big Name Blogger? Ever idolized her/him?

Ever had to ask what an Alexa rank is?

Have you ever not done a '100 Things About Me' post?

Ever hosted a meme? Posted a Mr Linky?

Ever hosted a giveaway? Ever given yourself RSI? Ever cleaned out your bank account posting four pound books airmail clear across the globe?

Do you harbour covetous thoughts about a blogging neighbour's fantastically-groovy custom made template?

Do you turn on the computer even before the coffee is made in the mornings?

Does your heart sink when you notice your Feedburner widget thingamy indicates your subcribers dropped by more than a quarter overnight?

Do you check your page stats every single day, including chasing up unknown 'came froms' and keeping an eye on your 'popular posts'?

Ever decided the whole shebang has gotten out of hand? Ever contemplated removing your stat counter?

Ever contemplated a blog move? Ever registered your domain name? Ever decided that blogging is leisure and therefore the cost of web hosting should technically come out of the Leisure section of the household budget?

Do you get anxious when you can't be near a computer?

Ever worked out that there are better things in life to be worried about than how many comments your post did, or didn't get?

Ever felt that freedom?

Blogging is a nifty little activity. You make friends. You might even meet some fellow bloggers. You've probably got at least twenty fellow bloggers on your blog roll, right?

But blogging isn't the be-all and end-all. Take me, for example. I haven't got a clue what an Alexa rank is. I'm only very vaguely aware of how Technorati works. And while I'd like to be in a Top 100 list, I'm not holding my breath. I'd like to think folks come on over to Lizzie's Home to visit without pressure. Lots of flashy widgets in the sidebars distract me (okay, so I have a small flash thing linking to DH's photography, but hey - if we can't plug our own husbands, what's the point in blogging at all, LOL). And to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of blog advertising. Most of the time, I have no idea what I'm doing.

And that's plenty okay with me.

* originally posted February 24th, 2008

Easy Menu Planning

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 12:47:00 +0000

(click for image credit)

I was recently inspired by Stephanie at Keeper Of The Home to revisit my menu planning strategy. Earlier in the year Stephanie began a series called Organization in the Real Food Kitchen with a post about menu planning. Of course my ears (eyes?) pricked up because if there's one thing I'm most hopeless with, it's keeping up with the the whole food preparation merry-go-round. I love collecting new recipes to try, and absolutely adore browsing food magazines, but I seem to have a teeeeeensy issue with follow-through!

I've done every known form of menu planning and food organization at one point or another - once a month cooking, ultra-scratch cooking, stockpiling, staring blankly at the contents of the pantry at 5:00 for weeks at a time, visiting the grocery store daily (yes, daily! When the cashiers know your first name - and you don't live in a small country town - you know you're in trouble!), planning every morsel of every meal to cross our lips down to the last half cup of rice, scouring the magazines and making elaborate lists of meals, printing off countless blank calendars to schedule a month of meals at a time, following a 'If it's Monday, it's Spaghetti' meal categorization plan, emailed menus written by others and even throwing my hands up in the air in desperation.

Here's a novel thought - the problem with trying all the different menu planning options out there is that the guru lauding the praises of this or that plan isn't you. And the people she (and occasionally, he) is trying to feed aren't your family.

So I've given up trying to be a gourmet cook. Or even super-organized. I no longer schedule chicken dishes for Tuesdays and freezer meals or leftovers for Fridays. I've even stopped slotting in meals on the calendar. What am I concentrating on instead? Good ol' fashioned home cooking (appropriately re-fashioned to a lower-fat version if necessary) with plenty of vegetables. That's pretty much it.

Stephanie - and a whole slew of others, except me (my bad!) - uses forms and printables by ListPlanIt to help with menu planning. Jen at ListPlanIt is a pretty cluey kind of gal. She knows that most home managers (myself included) tend to cook using a small but well-liked range of dinner recipes, so she created a printable to fit. Her figure is 21 meals, and that sounds about right to me, so I set about compiling my own list. Here's what I discovered:

When I got to about the 15 meal mark, I realised that every member of our family is perfectly happy (thrilled even!) to see certain meals repeated a couple of times a month. So duplicates of those got added to the list. Once eaten, the meal is crossed off.
Many of the meals I cook regularly can be switched up with little or no extra effort - serving rice instead of noodles or traditional pizza with delicious homemade dough vs thin-n-crispy pizza using pita bread. Even 'eggs' could be scrambled, fried or made into an omelette. I added variations on the side of each meal entry.
I still like to put the plan aside occasionally so along with my 21 meals I left room to jot down an additional 7, as I discover them online or in magazines. This allows me to try new meals (with the eventual aim to expand our meal list), alleviates meal boredom (even though we all like the 21 meals, the prospect of a delicious new meal is exciting) and gives me scope for creativity as my mood and energy dictates.
It also means that once my 21 meals were chosen, I only needed to plan 7 meals to round out an entire month's menu. The remaining 2 meals were written down as 'takeout' and 'freezer meal/leftovers' with the bonus last meal (no. 31, depending on the month) as an additional freezer/leftovers meal. Only extending my brain to find 7 new meals a month? Win!

There's a wonderful benefit to this kind of menu planning. Grocery shopping for the month is an absolute breeze. If you're extra clever, you'll compile a master grocery list with all the ingredients and amounts needed to make your 21 meals. Then, when you're adding your additional 7 meals, you'll throw those ingredients into the mix too, and you're done. Totally easy, and apart from perhaps an hour's worth of initial set-up, super-quick. And buying in bulk is easier too, since you'll know exactly how many chicken breasts / heads of lettuce / steaks you'll need each month.

All the benefits of traditional menu planning and grocery management but super-flexible. Love it!

Taking Advantage Of Freezer Cooking When You Don't Really Feel Like Doing It

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:10:00 +0000

It's happening again. The freezer cooking bug has burrowed its way under my skin and set up shop.

I have long since been a fan of OAMC/Freezer Cooking. Love the idea. Tend to fail miserably at the execution. I finally came to the conclusion not too long ago that 'true OAMC' (making thirty meals in one sweat-producing, food-processor-exploding hit) is both foolish and irritating (the planning! the shopping! the monstrous amounts of onions to dice!) Over time my theory on freezer cooking has settled into a much more palatable incarnation; a sort of loose interpretation of Lynn Nelson's Busy Cooks Pyramid approach. At least some of the time. Today we're talking about tier one, or Cooking For The Freezer.

It has to be the right mix of recipes, too. Not twelve different kinds of soup. Not eight different pies. And good gracious, no more Chicken Divan, which weirdly seems to turn up in 98% of all the OAMC meal plans I've ever come across online. Broccoli and I are living a very tumultuous relationship. In my brain it works on its own, lightly steamed, or married with cauliflower in a white sauce and crouton concoction. Dancing with chicken and smothered in some sort of condensed-soupy stuff? Not so much.

So whenever I feel the freezer cooking bug bite (whether that bite be big or small), I circle around the issue for several days. Mock up some plans. Discard most of them. Finally settle on five or six recipes only - meals that can be easily multiplied. And then remind myself that it will probably still take me three days to complete them. Life happens. These are not meant to be full, complete meals. You'll still need to throw together a salad, or steam some fresh vegies on the night (a common criticism of freezer cooking tends to be its distinct lack of fresh produce - this doesn't, and shouldn't, be the case). The idea, I think, should not be to eliminate all the dinner prep work in the evenings, just most of it.

Here are some freezer cooking tips that have served me well over the last few years:

Plan to portion off a meal for that night's dinner. Plenty of freezer cooks I know plan to order pizza on Cooking Day. However, in my experience a husband (well, okay, mine) can tend to get a smidgeon annoyed when takeout is suggested, considering we just spent "...all day in the kitchen cooking!" Suck it up and sacrifice one of the meals destined for the freezer and save your cash. Crockpot recipes are worth their weight in gold for this reason - fire up the crock in the morning, before you tackle your other recipes, and ta-da! A stress-free dinner on Cooking Day.

How much of each recipe to make is entirely up to you. However, unless its a first-time tryout (in which case you should never make more than a single family meal), all of your recipes for these kinds of mini-sessions should be at least doubled. Since they're already meals your family likes, not meals chosen by some faceless Martha Stewart-type you found on the net somewhere, there should be nothing on your list that your family wouldn't eat again within, say, a month. Other than that, go nuts. But just because someone else triples 10 different recipes for a full month worth of meals, it doesn't mean you have to.

Freezer cooking usually won't replace weekly grocery shopping. Sorry! You'll still need to hit the store for fresh produce and loss leaders regardless of what goes on your Cooking Day list. With this approach the idea is simply to create a few 'my head is killing me, the kids tore the curtains playing Tarzan and the dog peed on the freshly mopped kitchen floor' kind of escape plans. Your small cooking session might stretch as far as a couple of months because you're not eating exclusively out of your freezer stash - you could, of course, but this isn't usually how it works around our house. When it comes time to menu plan and compile a shopping list, drag out your Freezer Meal Inventory and squeal with glee when you discover the treasures lurking in your 'vault' (ie, your freezer). For two or three nights that week, coast. Or if meat just seems across-the-board expensive in the weekly circulars, rely on the sale-purchased and deliciously-cooked meals you already have on hand. But don't sweat the fact you don't have the full 30 meals tucked away.

And finally...

Replenish, Replenish, Replenish! At the very least, make a couple of double-batch recipes, or one triple batch one every week or two. Alternate protein source each time you do it so you don't end up with sixty-seven chicken meals. Keep updating your freezer meal inventory and aim to restock when the stash is low.

Happy cooking!

*Lizzie's Home re-hash

Top 14 Apps For The Modern Day Homekeeper

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:02:00 +0000

Times have definitely changed. As I was entering my teens (sometime in the early nineties), personal computers were just coming into their own. It was pretty common to meet families who still didn't have a computer at home. We were one of those families. Our first computer was an old Commodore, already almost a decade old, when I was about fourteen. Black screen, yellow text. Games came on floppy disk! Internet connections were positively laughable (hands up who can imitate the old dial-up tone?) I remember being absolutely dumbfounded when, at a friend's house once, someone put a CD into their disk drive and music came out!

In my lifetime the cassette tape has been taken over by the CD, and now the CD is being superseded by the age of digital music. VHS tapes only make appearances at garage sales and DVDs, once expensive and rare, are now everywhere. Gone is my much-loved Atari 2600 (bought in the late eighties), replaced with a long list of new, magical game consoles. Televisions used to be tiny and back-heavy. Now they're huge and hang on walls. It's hard to believe I'm only 30!

Currently 'King of the Mountain' in terms of portable technology, Apple's iPhone has revolutionized the way we access, store and share information and music. Being a frugal girl at heart, when I recently had a little play money to my name, I decided against the iPhone for reasons of economy. Instead, I purchased a 32gb iPod Touch - the iPhone's little sister, if you like. With music.

The iPod Touch can't take photos (no in-built camera), can only connect to the internet via wi-fi (unlike the iPhone's 'everywhere internet' approach with 3G - although you do pay for data/downloads for that) and not being a phone, it obviously can't make calls (although like most great things in life, there's a cool work-around for that, as you'll see below). The $600 I saved being 'okay' with the lack of all of those features sits just fine with me!

But the absolute stand-out feature of both the iPhone and iPod Touch are the Apps. Apple's App Store now boasts 115,000 of the mini computer programs, on every topic imaginable. Some, predictably, are atrocious. Some ooze class. And quite a few of them would be a fantastic addition to a tech-savvy homekeeper's tool box. Here are some that I've discovered (for screenshots and more user reviews, please see the App Store).

Epicurious (Free)

Recipe apps are a dime a dozen. They all do pretty much the same thing - give you access to tens of thousands of recipes (usually housed at a large website, which you access via the app, so they require internet access (in the iPod Touch's case, via wi-fi). But Epicurious seems to me to be the best of a very large bunch. It's fast and has a clean interface, plus it gives you the ability to 'favourite' recipes and to search keywords by course, cuisine, season and dietary considerations. There's an entire section for drinks using the same search features, and you can even add a recipe's ingredients to a shopping list with a single click. And did I mention it was free? We like free.

Bottom line: More recipes than you'll ever make in a lifetime, wrapped in a simple interface, for free.

Skype (Free)

I'd heard about Skype for years, but until I realised my new iPod Touch came with a microphone attachment whatsit on the headphone cord (only available on the 32gb and 64gb models), I'd never had the opportunity to test it out. Free calls over an internet connection, anywhere in the world, for as long as I like? It seemed too good to be true. But it is true. And I might be the last person on earth to plug into the fad, but I'm hooked. You'll need Skype on both ends of the call for it to remain free (it's a free download to a Mac or PC as well) but you can also buy credits to allow you to use Skype to call a landline or mobile phone. As long as you have a microphone (and a webcam if you want to video-chat) you're home free. I tested the app on my iPod Touch (so audio only) from here in Australia right over to Montana in the States (hi Mandi!) and it was as clear as a local phone call. I am totally enamored.

Bottom line: You need this. 'Nuff said.

Stanza (Free)

Like to read? After downloading a few different 'book collection' apps, some paid and some free, I decided to try out a popular 'free book' app to see if it held up against the others. The main thing that had been holding me back was the misguided notion that I would still have to pay to download each book once I had the free app. Totally wrong. As well as offering 50,000 contemporary titles for an additional cost, it includes links to a further 50,000 free books from sources such as Project Gutenburg and Feedbooks. All the classics as well as countless others. Many of the free titles were included in a very popular paid book app I'd downloaded prior (gah!) For anyone just starting to explore their iPhone/iPod Touch as a portable book reader, I'd recommend Stanza as a first port of call - the interface is very intuitive and the font size and style is customisable. On my reading list right now? Vanity Fair. Why? Because I can!

Bottom line: Don't buy a paid book app until you've checked out the free titles on this one.

mGifts - Gift List Manager ($1.19 AUD / $0.99 USD)

I was surprised at this one - if only I'd known about it in the months leading up to Christmas! Start a list for all of the people in your extended family, set stores that are likely to include the items you're looking for, include an estimated budget for gifts and set events to specifically shop for. You can include photos next to each person's name (with an iPhone, snap away, otherwise you'll need to upload photos from your computer if you're using an iPod Touch) and you can even set a passcode so prying eyes can't spoil the surprise. The app separates the items on the list into 'needed' and 'have' so it's easy to see at a glance how much money you have leftover for any person or category (a tip: when adding new people or events, add your budget alongside the name - for example, "Fred ($35)" for a one-glance reminder of what you have to spend).

Bottom line: Worth the money, simple interface, handy gift organizer/budget tool.

Awesome Note + Todo ($4.99 AUD / $3.99 USD)

To be perfectly honest, you shouldn't buy this app before you've downloaded (for free) Awesome Note Lite. Props go out to the design department for coming up with a really beautiful loading page interface but I'm still not completely convinced it's the right 'notes' app for me. It does have some really cool features though - each individual folder can be colour-coded (I have mine set in rainbow colours!), set with a customizable mini logo and passcoded, which are all great, and it's a thousand times better than the 'notes' app that comes preloaded on the device, but when you get into the guts of the app, it's really just a notepad. You can set priorities for each item, and you can use it as a 'to do list', but if that's all that you need, then you're bound to find something else cheaper (or free) that will do the same thing. But it is the #1 paid app in the Productivity section at the moment, so plenty of people must think it's wonderful.

Bottom line: Get the 'lite' version first. If all the 'pretty' is worth $4-$5 to you, go for it.

Chore Bank ($2.49 AUD / $1.99 USD)

This neat little app is exactly what it says - a chore and allowance management system for your kids. It's pretty intuitive - you add your kids (which creates an 'account' for them), add your chores (and the money you're prepared to pay for each chore), and record 'transactions' as Junior completes each chore. When you tick off each chore, the account balance goes up accordingly. When the child 'spends' money (or loses some via bad behaviour perhaps?), it comes off the available balance. All very simple. One niggly little thought I had actually has nothing to do with the functionality of the system itself but rather the motives behind it. Some families (including ours) don't believe in the 'every chore earns you cash' theory. It's not something I'd actively promote in my kids, as there are some things they're required to do just because they're a part of the family. However, even if you feel the same way as I do, it can still be used as a supplementary system for bigger, less regular chores. You know, the stuff Junior can do to earn a little extra cash above and beyond his regular responsibilities. I don't see a problem with that - it's how I'd use this app.

Bottom line: Think about how you approach chores/allowances at the moment. Do you pay for each task, or are some things required 'just because'? If it's the latter, would you use this app in tandem?

iRewardChart ($5.99 AUD / $4.99 USD)

If you're a fan of Handipoints, you'll recognize the theory behind this app. You add your children, edit the tasks you want them to work on (there are plenty of pre-loaded ones including general behaviour (manners, no teasing, be polite etc), chores (all the standard stuff) and responsibility (brush teeth, comb hair). You can add your own tasks as well. The next step is to add your rewards in the setup section. Again, it comes with plenty pre-loaded but you can add your own as well (extra bedtime story, crafts project, $2 pocket money and so on). You can edit the 'redeem value' of any of the preloaded or user-set rewards. The execution of the system is super-easy. You simple tap a star to 'colour' it (you can also give half stars), and when Junior has earned enough stars, he can go 'shopping' for rewards, which come off his total. There are plenty of reasons to love this approach - it includes behaviour modelling as well as straight out chore management for starters, and it's not cash-based. The visual aspect would work especially well with younger children. Get the kids involved in the setting of rewards and they'll be eager to earn stars!

Bottom line: It's expensive. Be absolutely sure this is the kind of approach you want to try before you buy it, as there isn't a lite version.

Balance (Free)

Believe it or not, this little free app is probably the most basic one I have downloaded to date, but for some reason, I'm totally tickled with it. Let's start with what it's not - a full featured budgeting tool. There are a whole bunch of those in the App Store, many with lite versions so you can try them out first. This is an extremely basic tool to keep track of money in and money out of your account (an in-app purchase allows you to track multiple accounts, but the free version with its one account is plenty good enough for me). It's an absolute no-brainer of an app. Here's how I use it. DH and I each get 'mad money' or personal allowances. Once the money is gone, it's gone; all other purchases must be accounted for in our regular budget but mad money is ours to save or waste at will. Each of us keeps track of our own mad money so that we're sure of how much is left at any given moment. Balance is how I keep track of mine. You add 'income' as it comes in (at the beginning of each fortnightly pay period, I add my allocated 'mad money' allowance as income). You register transactions as money goes out. Income shows up as black, money out as red. The balance of the account (or in my case, what I've got left to spend each fortnight) shows up at the bottom of the screen, already calculated for you. Dead simple. It has a poor rating in the App Store reviews but I believe that is only because it just can't compare to the 'real' budgeting apps - even the lite versions - which offer more features. Personally? I totally dig the 'you just can't get confused' simplicity. Oh - and you can set a passcode to protect your privacy as well.

Bottom line: It's free! If you're like me and just want to account for those little bits of personal spending money that seem to flutter in and out of your purse, this tiny download is completely worth it. A great example of the 'less is more' theory.

Dictionary.com (Free)

This one is fairly self explanatory but it has one major thing going for it. Once downloaded, the app doesn't require an internet connection, which is plenty handy if you've got an iPod Touch and are out of wi-fi range. It also includes a thesaurus and a 'word of the day' feature.

Bottom line: Because the app works in offline mode, the entire database of definitions is stored on your device. This is fine, but the download is huge (for an app) at 35 MB. Something to bear in mind if you're nearing your data cap.

Weightbot ($2.49 AUD / $1.99 USD)

It seems that along with shopping list apps, weight loss and fitness apps dominate the App Store in equal numbers. If you're a die-hard exerciser, live in the US, or track calories, then by all means take advantage of the top three or four paid and free apps and you'll probably be a very happy camper. I am not a die-hard exerciser, don't live in the US (the US based apps tend to have US supermarket products too), and don't calorie count, which renders most of the 'weight loss' apps fairly useless! When I'm in 'weight loss mode', I follow a really normal eating plan that doesn't really require a complicated calorie tracking system and yet I still want to see my progress and look back on past history. Weightbot has an exceptional interface, tracks your weight over time using a graph and shows your weight loss progress in 'ticker' format, and includes a changing BMI reading as you work your way toward your goal. It also makes fantastic use of the iPhone/iPod Touch's touch screen and tilt/landscape functions. Even the sounds are cool! You can also set a passcode to keep your information private. One feature would make it perfect, and that's the ability to track measurements (waist, hip, thigh etc). Other than that, it's a pleasure to use.

Bottom line: If you're not after a calorie-counter type app, then this one is at the top of the 'weight tracker' food chain.

wCal ($2.49 AUD / $1.99 USD)

I had to laugh when I found that there are so many 'women's issues' trackers in the App Store - do we really need so many? Most are geared toward fertility (ovulation dating and such) and so aren't my thing, but you know, a girl might have need to know when the monthly visit is due again and wCal is a nice, easy way to track and predict cycles. It doesn't have any bells and whistles - it simply tracks the cycle length (both in calendar view and list view) and the fertile days - but the interface is clear and the badge icon/name is discreet! You can also passcode-protect your information

Bottom line: Simple, easy and discreet tracker. Probably better priced at $1.19 AUD / $0.99 USD considering it's simplicity, but still a decent choice.

PriceBook ($2.49 AUD / $1.99 USD)

I was surprised to see there weren't more of these kinds of apps in the Store. There are several that combine price book capabilities with a shopping list function but only two that really took the tracking aspect to the right kind of level. Of those two, I prefer PriceBook. You can set your own stores and units, and it shows a historical list of past prices so that if you coupon (we don't in Australia - ughh!) you can see how good the coupon needs to be to beat your lowest recorded price. When entering prices you can specify whether you used a coupon and/or it was on sale and the unit price calculations are accurate. The only somewhat-confusing aspect of this app came when a custom unit was set. For example, let's say you're tracking metric units (I was). You set a custom unit for 100g (most on-shelf unit pricing labels down here reflect 'per 100g' or 'per 100ml'), and check the size of the package (let's assume it was 335g). You set the 'quantity' to reflect how many 'units' can fit into the actual package size - in this case it was 3.35. This is easy enough to get used to once you've added a few items, but to make things crystal clear for myself, I took to entering brands like this: "Uncle Toby's Plus Cereal, 825g" as an 'at a glance' way to remind myself what the size of the package was. Clear as mud, right? (Note: A similar price book app to research is Price Book Comparison Shopper, at the same price)

Bottom line: Someone needs to get deep into the grocery price book arena and come up with a much nicer interface than the apps currently on the market. Given that a price book would probably end up being one of my most used apps - especially considering the iPhone/iPod Touch's portability - I would pay more money to get one that worked beautifully and intuitively. Otherwise, it's a fair interim app.

SpinCycle - Household Task Manager ($2.49 AUD / $1.99 USD)

SpinCycle has the potential to be a really good little app. It focuses on three main activity types - Maintenance, Cleaning and Shopping - and comes preloaded with plenty of standard household tasks which you can add to your personal lists as well as the ability to create your own custom tasks. You can also set regular daily tasks ("Dailies") which is handy. But I don't know. It just seems like the same old 'to do list' reworked with a fancy interface. What I'd like to see is a truly dedicated and customizable 'Weekly Plan / Daily Plan' type of app, with each day's 'Dailies' coming up on a separate page rather than just under the day headings with all of the tasks on the same page. However, since there's a distinct lack of 'household management' apps out there, it's a pretty good alternative to use while you're waiting around for the good stuff to be developed.

Bottom line: Best of a slim bunch, nice interface and usability.

Convertbot ($1.19 AUD / $0.99 USD)

This one comes from the makers of Weightbot, so you'd expect it to be a beautifully-designed app - and it is. It has a similar design feel to Weightbot, which I love, and offers an extensive set of units available for conversion. The interface is fantastic. There are several free conversion apps out there, but most are rated poorly. Convertbot stands out with it's high rating.

Bottom line: If you want a full featured conversion app, get this one. It's worth the buck.

Post Script

You might have noticed that I haven't included any games or social media apps in this list. There's a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, if you tweet, then you've probably already got a Twitter client that you prefer and there's almost certainly an equivalent app. Secondly, Facebook/Myspace are great for catching up with old friends but totally useless when it comes to household productivity!

Chime in with your favourite (paid and free) productivity or 'home' based apps in the comments. I'd love to expand my list!

Moral Of The Story? Always Have Fresh Batteries In The Camcorder

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:02:00 +0000

This never fails to crack me up...

No Bag? No Problem!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:08:00 +0000

Isn't this a cute idea?

I have a sudden urge to go buy a case of bandannas!

Homeschooling Is Beginning To Sound Better With Every Lunchbox I Pack

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 10:02:00 +0000

So the random picture? It's a cake. And I made it over a year ago, for Boof's 8th birthday, but never got around to posting a picture before. I was looking for a pic to head up this post and came across it and thought why not? It's about the most creative thing I've ever done in the kitchen and trust me, it wasn't even that much of a victory because I cheated. I used a couple of bought madeira cakes and a whole bunch of chocolate coins and plastic chains and called it a day. Surprisingly, it seemed to work. I especially liked the part that said I needed one little triangle of a Toblerone because I got to eat the rest of the bar. Arrggh, me hearties!

I had a big long post planned out but not more than five minutes ago I discovered all of the following in the space of approximiately 53 seconds:

We're out of eggs (I was throwing together some cupcakes for school lunches).
We're out of small change (I was going to my fallback plan of a lunch order).
I thus still need to make sandwiches/pack lunchboxes x 3 - so back to making cupcakes.
Now I have to research egg substitutes for the cake mix (What? You thought I would bake from scratch at 10:30 pm? No chance!)
Paid a bill I thought was overdue. Discovered Talented Hubby's delightful trick of writing when it was due on the calendar an entire day early, little scamp that he is (Did he think I was going to forget to pay it or somethi--- oh, wait. Good call, you're forgiven)
Realised I forgot my (older, wiser) sister's birthday. I'm sorry C!
Remembered TH is out of clean work shirts.
TH is on call tonight - so I can't even iron damp and let dry overnight (one must be dry and ready to go in case he's called in).
Discovered an appointment for tomorrow at 10 am - here at the house - that I'd completely forgotten about. Had planned to go out. Considered rescheduling. Too much hassle. Will keep appointment tomorrow, sigh.
Looked around the (open plan) family room/main living area. One corner is clean but I doubt I can make appointment lady sit there facing the wall (to shield her from the rest of the mess), so I'll have to clean up a bit between now and then.
God bless the five new podcasts I just put on my iPod this afternoon.
I'm not going to bed very early tonight, am I? Sigh.

Until tomorrow. If I live.

P.S. The dog ate FOUR pairs of underwear today. He stole them from the washing basket in the hall. They're not the first casualties either...

For The Record, I'm Not Cool About This

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:49:00 +0000

The vast majority of Bloggityville is beyond awesome. Good grief, the friends I have made! But I have a bit of a bone to pick so gird your loins people. Are they girded? Good.

I'm a fairly happy-go-lucky blog admin-y kind of person. I don't require word verification or enable comment moderation. But I have just one small request for anyone leaving comments on Lizzie's Home. It's teeny really. Minuscule.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE refrain from hijacking my comments to sell me (or my readers) anything.

There are two levels to this. One is a straight out text link at the end of your comment. If you're a personal blogger, there's no need to worry about not being reachable, since you can always slide your blog link into the Name/URL option when leaving the comment. I want you to link to your blog. And say nice stuff about what I write. Keep doing that! But if you're a business, I will delete your comment, even if it was complimentary.

The second level of solicitation is more sneaky, but in a lot of ways, worse. DO NOT put your business link in the 'URL' part of the Name/URL option when leaving a comment! Normally, when I see a comment, I will visit your site. It's polite, not to mention really cool, to meet new people. But if that link takes me to your business (or spam) site, I feel cheated. And it makes me mutter things about comment moderation and word verification and I don't want to go down that bleak, nasty road. It's bothersome for me (extra admin work) and let's be honest, sort of annoying for the folk leaving comments. Again, play nice or you WILL have your comment deleted.

Now, if your comment was genuine, but got deleted, I invite you to re-comment. I love comments! If you really don't have a personal blog to link to, it doesn't mean you can't join in. Just leave the URL part blank.

Guys, I don't want to be one of those bloggers who gets all riled up over stupid admin-y type things like this, I really don't. But I have always held a very strong opinion about advertising on this blog - in that I don't do it - and if my readers are anything like how I am on others' comment streams, they're going to click on commenter's links and names. With each of these click-throughs, I am, in effect, advertising for you. For free. And if you're a business, that bothers me. So don't do it. Please.

You may now return to your regularly scheduled programs.

Please note: Genuine, personal blogs/bloggers, even if they sell something 'on the side', will never be deleted from any comment here (unless, of course, they're mean and nasty trolls, in which case, be gone with you!). There's a big difference between a personal blog which also sells something and a business website where selling is the main objective. And clearly, this is all at my own discretion. So play nice, and we'll all get along swimmingly :)

It's Been A Slow Week. Here's A Funny.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:31:00 +0000

I am totally stealing this from Mummified Times Five because hey, it's HEE-LARIOUS, and it totally makes me want to go visit North Carolina.

This coming week? Not so slow. Or lazy. Lots of cleaning. Have a big Link Love post planned for this weekend. More soon!

Ahhhh, Twilight. And Sonic. And Sweet Tea.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:10:00 +0000

I'm coming down off a post-Twilight euphoric daze. Yesterday Talented Hubby, groaning all the while, took me to Blockbuster so I could rent the movie. There was one small problem though - I hadn't yet finished the book. So that's what I did most of yesterday afternoon. I finally finished reading at 9:07 pm. And by 9:09 pm I was happily scrolling through the opening credits.

First impressions? Book was definitely better than the movie, but then most of them are. This first movie, I'm told, had a small budget. I think you could tell. The moving lines behind the characters as they ran made me giggle. Not to mention the poorly-disguised 'I look like I'm running but really I'm on a cable' thing. But the absolute highest point of hilarity for me was All The Whiteness.

Now I get they're supposed to be vampires. And apparently there's a law somewhere that states all representations of vampires on film need to have an 'Elizabethan arsenic' feel to them. But come on! The girls managed to look fair-skinned but not abnormally so - why not the boys? They (Edward, Jasper, Carlisle, Emmett, James) all looked like a Kitchenaid mixer had exploded flour all over them. Methinks a better disguise - especially considering most of them had decades to perfect their blending in techniques - may have included a little rouge. To me, preppily-dressed folk with powder-white faces stand out like a sore thumb. Now, if you dressed the Cullens in goth regalia to go along with their white faces, they'd blend right into most high schools in the world!

That said - I loved it, LOL. And there's a whole other post in the works about the intricacies of Edward's appeal. I am tragically invested and I don't care who knows it.

New bloggy friend Stefne (with her darned insightful, imaginatively-titled blog) and I had an impressive Twilight debriefing session via Twitter and Messenger this morning. Chief among our concerns - and I can't be the ONLY person ever to have thought of this, so excuse the crass-ness - was the question of what happens when Bella, uh, experiences her 'delicate time' of the month. Any takers? LOL. It's on the same level as the 'how do you pee in space?' question. There has to be an answer to this one.

Moving right along...

Lots of crazy stuff happening about the place here. The inlaws are coming to stay tomorrow for two nights. We love them, so this is a good thing. And this time - woot! - we can actually offer them more than a leaky old air mattress as we recently purchased a sofa bed. Oh, the luxury!

And of course, there's our trip coming up. While my physical presence may be on the steps of the Opera House, my heart is busy planning a (mythical, at this stage anyway) trip to the States. I am starting a list of culinary delights I mean to try if I ever get there (seriously, brutal flight prices from Australia pretty much eliminates the kids' inheritance, so perhaps never would be a good estimate?) On the list so far? Sonic in Texas and sweet tea anywhere else in the 'south'.

Hey...wouldn't it be great if I had someone from each state in the US nominate some sort of legendary local food item for my list? Jump in in the comments! Spread the word!

Can't Blog. Have Discovered "Twilight"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 11:29:00 +0000

Okay, so I'm a year or two behind the rest of the known world, but I've always been a slow starter!

I would also like to take this opportunity to "thank" Stefne Miller for pushing me over the cliff edge in regards to this book. Dishes are once again being ignored, as is Mt Washmore. Of course I'd heard of it before last week - hard to ignore all the soulful Edward posters in the stores and the recent release of "Twilight" the movie down here - but I pooh-poohed the entire phenomenon in much the same way as I scoffed at Harry Potter.

Well, Ms Meyer, you win. Your publisher's freaky viral marketing and the fact that Forks high school is the new Hogwarts sucked me RIGHT THE WAY IN.

I didn't even wait for a library copy - I bought a new book on a whim when I saw it on the store shelf last Friday. Co-incidentally mere HOURS after Stefne lauded Edward's praises to me from the Twittertops.

I am embarrassingly enthralled.

Baaaaaaa! (that's a sheep, folks)

Lizzie Gets Real. Brace Yourselves.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 02:14:00 +0000

I love it when I discover new bloggy treasures. This week I 'met' Stefne Miller via a call out on Conversion Diary but it was this post a couple of days back that really sealed the deal for me.

So in the spirit of faithful sisterhood and, at the very least, in order to provide future Twitter-fodder, I give you my own 'Lizzie Gets Raw' list.

Sometimes when Jay gets home from school and fusses and moans and whinges his way through the afternoon for no apparent reason other than he wants to make his presence felt, I take myself quietly off into the ensuite, lock the door, and bawl my eyes out in a Grade A Ugly Cry. I do my own fussing and selfish whining, the whole nine yards of 'Why me? What did I ever do to deserve this?', and then I dry my eyes, stick a tissue in my pocket to catch the nose drips, and walk out calmly to finish fixing snacks. Nobody in my family knows how much I cry, especially over Jay. My heart just gets so sore and heavy sometimes.
Sometimes I look back over my life, and wonder what in the heck happened to the person I used to be. I used to have focus and direction. Now, not so much.
I yell at my children. Not all the time....but I yell.
I swear on occasion. Not all the time...but I swear.
I no longer recognise nor like my own body and feel powerless to stop the avalanche of time and society's expectations about what it should look like. Sometimes I care, and sometimes I don't, but the times I don't? I'd rather not feel like a total loser for not knowing anything about makeup or haircare, thankyouverymuch.
I do not give my best to my husband. A lot of the time he gets the 'leftovers' of me.
I am sometimes resentful that I sometimes get the leftovers of him too. And then I feel guilty because he works full time and I 'don't work'. And then I start to hate Tiger Woods for hawking a Playstation game that steals away the precious leftover time we do have. And then I feel guilty because my poor husband needs to unwind from a (very) stressful and (occasionally) dangerous profession and who the heck am I to deny his quest for a virtual hole-in-one? And then I realise I'm talking in circles and my head explodes. Sigh.
I am CONSTANTLY behind on housework, which bothers my husband, and makes me feel like a speck of dirt. Which incidentally, I don't even notice is there (I'm messy, he's not).
I don't feel like anyone is truly proud of me.
I don't feel like I do much to warrant the pride anyway.
I want to read the bible daily but don't.
I want to go to church but don't know how to start (it's harder than you think when you spend 27 years as an atheist and are married to the same). I have been to exactly one non-funeral church service in my life, and didn't much like it. Reeked of rote recitation to me. If I go again, I have a laundry list of what I'd like to get out of it. I realise that's wrong but I still want it according to my own terms.
I am scared to think what an about-face on faith would look like to outsiders, namely family (none of whom are Christian), so I don't talk about it. I barely even blog about it.
I have a keen sense of social justice but when push comes to shove, I sometimes hold back on exercising it.
I have no fashion sense WHATSOEVER and actually think most fashion trends are a waste of time and money. If I had $50 to spend, I would buy books, not clothes. This extends to jewelery. I'd rather 'mad money' than sparkly things. This is one area that gets Talented Hubby a free pass.
I don't wear my wedding or engagement rings but it's not because I don't want to. It's because I've gained some weight in the last few years and they no longer fit, and I don't want to tell Hubs the real reason because we've already had them resized twice - once bigger and once smaller - pre and post pregnancies. I no longer have the excuse of 'baby weight sausage fingers' to fall back on.
I don't have super-close friends. I'd like to, but I find it hard to establish friendships.
I would love more children, despite things being, uh, 'taken care of' so that doesn't happen. If the decision was made to 'un-take-care-of' things, I would be thrilled. THRILLED.
I crave the respect and admiration of my husband but I'm not entirely sure I get it. I want him to wake up and say 'Daggum it, she chose me?' but I still think of it in terms of a works-based theology - if I just do this, clean that, be there for that thing...and then when I fail in those things, it doesn't bode well for one's emotional footing.
I waste time on the internet every single day. That's right, I said WASTE. But I don't want to stop.
I fight God with every step and breath I take. I ignore, bend, or gloss-over the rules all the time. I still wonder why He puts up with it. I have changed a lot, but I still find myself reverting back to my old way of thinking whenever the excrement hits the oscillating air-moving device. I sincerely have no idea how to bridge this gap.
It bothers me that my husband isn't more open to matters of faith, and I don't mean regarding his own (or not) ideas on faith (that's his own journey to take, if he ever decides to set off on it, and that's highly unlikely), I mean openness to MY feelings on the matter. His opinion means the most to me in the whole world and I do not talk to him about faith because his comments sometimes make me feel like a gullible fool for believing in the unseen in the first place.
I pray, but haphazardly. I pray for my husband sometimes, but he doesn't know it. I don't want to sound like I've flipped my lid.
I listen to Christian music and podcasts, and read books with a Christian theme, but still feel 'guilty' doing it.
Sometimes married life feels like a tethered life.

I adore my husband (he truly is one of the most decent, caring, responsible men I've ever met), I crave my children, and overall, life is pretty darn sweet. But it's not perfect, and neither am I. It's about time I stopped caring what others think and start living for real.

There Are Some Pretty Sweet Things About Turning Thirty

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:07:00 +0000

Today marks 30 days to go until I turn 30. Bye-bye twenties. You were tough, but you also rocked considerably. Here are some things you taught me.

Three children by age 22 generally earns you a few stares. Stare back - it really freaks people out!
It's entirely possible to survive three children - who are not triplets - in nappies (diapers) at the same time.
Your twenties are for taking leaps, before practicality, reason and logic win out over youthful impulsiveness.
Autism? I've got you licked. So there.
It eventually becomes less strange to be constantly ten years younger than your kids' friends' parents.
Twenty is all about you. Thirty is all about them. Or Him, as the case may be.
Your body is changing. Best accept it as fact and move on.
It's a pretty impressive set of circumstances to be pumping milk on your 21st birthday. I mean, that's a gem of an anecdote to pull out at Junior's own 21st right there, surely!
Life doesn't end when the night-clubbing does.
Extra-support underwear begins to overtake the 'frillies' in your delicates drawer. What you used to spend on a matching set now goes toward a multipack of whatever best holds the folds in and about three pounds of ibuprofen to recover from the experience.
I now understand why my mother preferred knitting to leaving the house.
Lines begin to show on your face.
Numbers begin to increase on your clothes tags.
Marriage is awesome. Keep doing it.
Death sucks.
Teenagers begin to bother you, because they simultaneously remind you of the crazy stuff you got up to when you were their age AND scare you witless when you think about your own kids not being that far off from the evils of peer pressure.
Teenage boys begin to seem more devious the closer your baby girl gets to puberty.
Elastic pants don't seem so crazy after all.
"Mortgage" is grown-up-speak for "no more new boots for you!"
Think of all the money you saved by not drinking your twenties away.
Marrying young means thinking about all the meaningful, uh, 'intimacy' that wasn't wasted on people who didn't deserve it.
Three months after turning thirty, I'll have dipped my toe into FIVE different decades (ten points to anyone who can tell me how :P)
There's more to life than holding grudges.

Goodnight all :)

I Should Be Cleaning My Kitchen, But...

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 02:41:00 +0000

This is Charlie the Wonderdog. He says "rowf!" Actually this picture is kind of old (in it he was four or five months old and he's now 10 months) but it's a fairly accurate representation of what you can expect to see him doing at any given point in the day, including now. Good Lord that dog sleeps!

In other news...

Talented Hubby has been working so hard lately. He's had a lot of difficult (emotionally, professionally) situations at work lately and that can get a person down after a while. But he handles it well - far better than I, that's for sure. I'm very proud of him...and we're both looking foward to getting away in a few weeks.

I made a Shepherd's Pie last night. While not a disaster, it certainly didn't knock my socks off either. For some reason, Shepherd's Pie/Cottage Pie escapes my culinary repertoire. You would think it would be easy, right? It's just beef mince (ground beef), spices, thickening-something-or-other (usually flour) and vegies. But I've never found one I'm entirely happy with. One day...

No garden this year :( I'm quite disappointed about that but will save up my pennies and plant next year. I was really looking forward to fresh tomatoes too, darn it.

Did I tell you all I succumbed to my inner fifteen-year-old and purchased Seasons 1 & 2 of Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman? I didn't? It's kind of funny, and I'm copping a fair bit of good-natured ribbing from most of my relatives, but I am loving it. I remember sitting down to watching this show as a teen with my mother - I believe it was on a Saturday? - and now Moo is sitting down with me watching it (co-incidentally, I did the same thing with Jane Austen movies, just like my mother did with me, and I'm happy to report I have a cute little Darcy-swooning daughter on my hands, LOL) We talk about 'girl business', like how romantic it is that Sully followed Dr Mike all the way to Boston, or what prejudice is (Native Americans, African Americans, migrants are all covered). Okay, so that last part isn't specific to girls and in actual fact Boof (who is 9 and far more worldly in his own eyes) has frequently provided some good debating material along these lines, but I'm quite enjoying it all. There are certain parts I'm not so crazy about - the girls in the saloon (although less because of what they do - as that is never really elaborated on - but more so because of the 'W' term used to describe them. I don't allow her to watch episodes that have Myra - saloon girl - as the focus) and there was one episode that focused on the racist exploits of the 'clan' (don't want to use common term as I don't fancy weeding through the Twitter spammers later, sigh). But most of the time the show is tame and sweet, and at least tends to paint the questionable aspects in a moral light (for example, they had an episode about gambling, but the character in question had a deserved fall from grace because of it).

Moo and I have particularly liked watching the budding romance of Dr Mike and Sully. I remember being completely enamored with Joe Lando when I was a teen and there may even have been a teen mag-style poster of him resplendent as Sully adorning my ceiling at one point -- but we won't mention that again, 'kay? LOL. I'd forgotten how cute it is to watch a romance blossom naturally on screen as it did back, well, before the internet really took off and TV had to ramp up the sexual material to compete. As old-fashioned as this might be, I'm glad Moo's being exposed to a romance - yes, even this young (she's 7 ½) - that focuses on things like courting and protection and old world charm.

I'm nothing if not a tragic romantic, LOL.

The only downside? Of the 6 seasons (150 episodes, plus 2 TV movies - and yes, I 'Wiki-ed' it because hello? That's how tragically and geekily involved I am :P) only 2 are so far available on DVD down here, with the 3rd coming in October and gosh-knows when for the remaining three. I've already used up all birthday and Christmas presents for this year when I bought this, so I'm going to have to raid the change jar when the time comes!

You may all laugh at my television viewing choices...now.

Bikes, DIY, God Signs & Japanese Chimps

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 11:09:00 +0000

Happy weekend guys! Did you miss me? Let's kick things off right away:

DIY Meal Planner Frame (Perfect Sentiment) - I'm rather taken by this whole idea. Must. Implement. Soon.

Rain Gutter Book Shelves Tutorial (Raising Olives) - This is so cool! I'd do this if I thought Talented Hubby would let me...

Dry Erase Calendar (Nannygoat) - Sort of similar to the first link, but I love how the idea can be adapted to just about anything, turning what would normally be an ordinary thing into something quite special.

Asking God For A Sign (Conversion Diary) - I have so been there :)

Story Dice (Scribbit) - What a sweet gift to give to a young one! (I especially love the variation for the non-artistic, LOL)

The Bike Raffle (The Meanest Mom) - Laughed till I cried. Mostly because this is pretty much my family.

And finally this...it's in Japanese but it had Talented Hubby and I in hysterics!

See you on Monday!

Trying To Crawl Out Of The "Meh"

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 07:07:00 +0000

Okay, so even though it's winter right now, our winters do not include - obviously - Christmas trees or snow. Winter snow elsewhere in Australia? Sure. Not in my city though. Which means the above pic isn't a very accurate graphical representation of my current situation. I just think it's cute.

Moving on...LOL.

I have been battling a fairly severe case of the "blog blahs" these past couple of weeks. All of August actually. I'm working on it, I really am, but the interesting thing I've learned recently is that life really does go on when one doesn't blog. Don't worry, I'm not about to shut up shop, LOL. But I am finding it far less stress-inducing to keep to a 'whenever the urge strikes' kind of schedule. I'm not in it for the ad revenue and I'm getting to the point where subscriber numbers and page hits bother me less and less. I blog because I find it fun. So this 'everyday' thing? Lovely in theory, a bit impractical in reality - at least for me. The ease of twittering the day's trivialities instead of blogging about them does make it the laziest choice!

So what's been going on these past couple of weeks?

Boof sat a national mathematics competition test last week and even though we won't know the results for a few more weeks, we think he did well. This was a totally optional thing but was right up Boof's alley so he jumped at the chance. Atta boy!

We booked and paid for our trip to Sydney in a few weeks. The trip is about three-quarters "Good Lord we need a BREAK!" and one-quarter "Happy 30th birthday Lizzie!" The weather will be warming up into spring but not too hot. Talented Hubby is busy planning all the photo opportunities and I'm busy freaking out about the plane ride (I don't do planes well, LOL). But it will be great and we're really looking forward to the break, something we don't do nearly often enough. What we are NOT enjoying? The fact that it will cost about as much for 6 days as it did for BOTH of us to fly, stay AND eat breakfast daily when we travelled to Bali in 2000. Okay, so the then-recent civil disturbances in neighbouring East Timor kind of bumped the price down, but still. It's very hard to see a 'per night' hotel tariff for Sydney and not automatically convert that to a comparable "cheap Bali t-shirts" figure, sigh. When we went to Bali we took what we thought was a modest amount of spending money and still came home with over half of it - and we bought a LOT of stuff. But Sydney is a place that neither TH or I have been since we were wee things and I know the lure of Taronga Zoo is too strong to resist for my photography-mad husband. I mean, we don't even have ELEPHANTS at our city zoo...and they have a baby one!

Also, I am sick. No specific reason. Though weirdly, my legs hurt. I think it's because my friend C and I got stuck in the torrential rain yesterday which was then capped off by severe wind, freezing our wet denim legs into icicles. My legs feel like they've been run over and haven't felt truly warm since, despite being in dry clothes the second I got home. So yeah, legs that don't work properly and no doubt, a cold coming. Auuugh. I took some classic photos with my mobile phone, including one particularly amusing one with C using her 1yo son's parka as a rain hat, but she made me promise not to blog it. Actually, she threatened me with an unflattering Facebook retaliation so I had to concede defeat, LOL.

The poor dog - the wind had been blowing the rain inside his kennel all day so by the time I got home he was saturated and shivering and I felt horrible. That dog has never had so many cuddles and treats in one stretch as he did yesterday afternoon.

I promise I won't be such a stranger this week. No, really. As for now, I'm off to take some paracetamol and download a podcast or seven to make cleaning my kitchen far more palatable.

Mwah.

Using Google Reader As An Alternative To iTunes

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 07:04:00 +0000

Did you know that when it comes to podcasts, not everyone likes iTunes? It's true.

I find it tedious and awkward to download podcasts the traditional way. I don't want to subscribe to them via iTunes (which automatically begins downloading any queued podcasts the next time you open the program) for two main reasons.

I sometimes only have the time to 'cherry pick' individual episodes that look interesting, rather than the whole kit-and-kaboodle (some of which I may delete due to time restraints anyway).
I'm not in the habit of loading up iTunes terribly regularly, except when downloading specific songs. I don't use it as a music player very often as my song collection fits in its entirely on my iPod itself, and I prefer to use a jack plugged into our sound system rather than put up with the tinny efforts of the laptop speakers. So if I subscribe to a podcast via iTunes, it's quite possible I'll have thirty queued episodes, each an hour long, ready to go the next time I open up the program. This KILLS our internet download limit. And takes a sweet FOREVER.

So what's a podcast-loving, time-restrained gal to do? Look no further than Google Reader!

Now, I might be the last person on the planet to clue onto this fact, but Google Reader is useful for all sorts of reasons, some of which aren't related to reading blogs at all. I know, shocking. Anything with an RSS feed can be subscribed to via GR - including podcasts - but unlike iTunes, everything is done manually, rather than automatically. In my case, this is a GOOD thing.

Here's how I do it.

The first thing to remember is that not every random page URL will work. If you just want the podcast, and not the blog entries associated with the same site, then you need a unique podcast-only feed. Finding it isn't always as easy as it seems.

Nearly every blog or site out there will, of course, publish an RSS icon (or a text link) in some prominent location in order to subscribe to blog content, or if you have a browser that supports it, up there at the end of your address bar, you might see a mini RSS icon - it pops up whenever you're on a site that has a feed attached to it (if you look up there now, you'll see one up there to quickly sub to Lizzie's Home :) But for podcasts, there can be several different ways of finding that unique podcast feed.

Here are just a few that I've come across - not every site will be the same, but it will give you a jumping off point.

Level 1 ~ Podcasting Is My Day Job

If you're looking to use Google Reader to subscribe to a well-known or professional podcast, such as a major church's sermon series or to a radio show , then you're in luck. Most of these folks give clear links to their unique 'feed page', usually front-and-centre on their home page. Let's take your average Australian radio duo, Hamish & Andy (disclaimer: possible toilet humour on that one. Examples given are just the ones that came to mind first :)

(Click on each image to enlarge)

You don't even have to plug your brain in for this one. You just choose your preferred subscription service (iTunes and RSS both feature in this list) from the drop down menu...

...click on your standard Google subscription button...

...and Bob's your uncle.

Level 2 ~ Podcasts Are Important, Sure, But Isn't iTunes Easier?

Yes and no, LOL. I personally prefer to do things this way for all the reasons listed above, but that certainly doesn't mean everyone has to! Even websites which have podcasts as a large part of their offered media (a church site, for example), sometimes don't make it terribly easy to see there's life beyond the standard iTunes subscription button. Or at least they make it generally harder to find the unique podcast feeds.

Here's an example from Mars Hill Church.

Way down the bottom of their home page, there's a teeny tiny text link to 'Feeds' (sometimes, like this example, you'll need to go a-searchin' for that elusive link, and site maps can help if you can't seem to find what you're after first go).

Once you're there though, you have a ton of options. Mars Hill, like many similar sites, offers vodcasts as well as regular and music podcasts and lists each option's unique pod/vodcast feed link button on the one page - handy.

From here on out, it's the same deal as the first example. Click on button, all done.

Level 3 ~ If You Can Find It, Good Luck!

Every now and then, you'll come across a lesser-known, or poorly designed site that still offers a podcast you'd like to keep track of through Google Reader, but whose design makes it incredibly difficult to work out how to get that unique podcast feed.

KFUO radio station out of the States is a good example:

This is the home page. Funds - sourced directly through listener donations - clearly go into paying the station costs (and rightly so!) and not toward web design! After several months of diligently returning to the site each Tuesday to get a right-click-to-download link to the most recent podcast, I figured there had to be a better way.

But before we get into that, here's a good example of what happens when you take a random site's home page URL - even one who specializes in podcasting, such as KFUO - and try to put that into the subscription window in Google Reader (obviously, doing this for a blog would work perfectly, if being subscribed to the blog content is what you're after, but unique podcast feed URLs are a very different kettle of fish :)

This fails because the URL you put in isn't the unique podcast URL. So what do you do instead? Go back to the picture of the KFUO home page. There's a very small 'XML Podcast' link in the left hand menu, and it takes you here:

If the site offers multiple podcasts, as this one does, then they're generally collated and listed on a single page for ease.

Right click on the appropriate link, select 'copy' (or 'colour in' the text link, right-click and then copy)...

...and paste the URL into the Google Reader subscription box.

So...What Now?

So those are a few examples of how you can find, and subscribe to, the unique podcast feeds of sites that you love through Google Reader. Now what do you do with your new found power?

Since one of the main reasons I keep track of my podcasts this way is to kind of 'store' them until I'm ready to download them, I can happily go a couple of weeks just letting them build up. I have a 'Podcasts' folder set aside specifically to do this (if you look closely at some of the Google Reader shots, you might see it on the left) and currently subscribe to five unique feeds, one of which is a vodcast.

The best part? When I'm ready, I don't even need to return to the site itself to download the podcast.

To keep the podcasts out of my general 'unread' pool, I 'star' each one as it comes in, then click 'mark all as read'. This won't delete them, so don't freak out! It just removes them from your unread item count.

Clicking on the 'Starred Items' at the top of the left hand menu will bring up your whole list. When I do this, I usually have a few from each of my five podcasts, all jumbled up in order of when they were published.

Let's look at your average podcast subscription screenshot in Google Reader:

There's a convenient little player build in to each entry, and I'll use that sometimes for ease, but I generally prefer to download the podcasts to my computer so I can sync them up on my iPod later.

If you look closely at the picture, you'll see an 'Original Source' text link underneath the embedded player. Right-click, 'save target as' or 'save link as' and when the save window appears, choose your location on your computer, rename file if necessary and hit 'save'.

Wrapping Things Up

Perhaps you think this is a horribly convoluted way to achieve the same thing that can be done automatically via iTunes. You're right, sort of! If there's a podcast that you are 100% committed to (ie, would listen to every single episode) and you're the kind of person who plugs in their iPod each time they turn on the PC, then these methods may not make much sense to you. I personally find them brilliant for my needs :)

A wonderful side benefit of subscribing to podcasts in Google Reader is that, like regular blog subscriptions, the resulting list of past posts are a sort of handy, simple 'archive' list, sometimes going back months or even years. If the podcast site archives their programs, rather than remove them from the system (to be fair, some do, to save on the exorbitant hosting/bandwith costs - an hour long sermon can be HUGE) then you could conceivably download a podcast that is over a year old, long after it disappears from the main list on the site. Using KFUO's Wrestling With The Basics example above, I was just now able to download a program from Jan 6, 2007, right from within Google Reader - no trawling through archived pages on a website, if they exist at all. And it all comes complete with Google Reader's usual features, like Shared Items, Notes, and the handy search function (know you heard a sermon about the fruit of the spirit about a year ago but can't remember who did it or when exactly it was 'published'? Pop in the keywords in the search box).

Be aware, however, that not every site will do such a long archive - another podcast I regularly listen to removes their podcasts after a couple of months, and if I'm behind and have that many 'starred' and awaiting download, I might find the earlier one or two won't be available (ie, they've not been archived on the main site). This is all worked around really easily by keeping an eye on your undownloaded podcast count and just downloading to your computer every now and then, even if you won't have time to listen to them right away. Once they're on your computer, they're there until you need them :)

Putting the podcasts onto your iPod is RIDICULOUSLY easy:

Open iTunes (you don't even need to plug your iPod in yet).
Open the folder into which you've downloaded the files.
Drag from the latter to the former. They'll pop right up on your iTunes list. I have a playlist I call Audio and I just throw everything on that.
Plug in your iPod. If you've set it up this way, it should sync files automatically, otherwise manually sync using the option in the file menu.
Eject, unplug, and rock your podcasts as you wash dishes/hang the laundry/clean up the vomit the dog left behind after eating your favourite sock.

Enjoy!