The Apple Isle

Well what can I say, three posts in a week, your lucky I suppose that I have nothing to do right now and want to sit and write this lol.

I want to tell you all, I take photos of a lot of stuff intending to write on here. More often then most the time passes and the enthusiasm does too. Not today though, today was productive for me.

I woke up at five am, yes crazy, but that's life, I've always been an early riser. I got up intending to write, but instead I remembered that I stewed a batch of apples yesterday.

See I live on the most awesome island ever. There is always so much fresh fruit and veg it's crazy. With the generosity of others my family can eat all summer off the produce people bring to my door step. Over run with carrots, we eat carrots till we're orange. Carrot cake, stir fired, baked, soup, steamed. And the same goes for zucchini, apricots and berries. Plus Tomatoes, but they lend to chutneys and savory items more.

Dean and I planted a garden this year, so we can hopefully repay some of the generosity this coming season. In the mean time though we are up to apples. I love apples, I have one a day. Before we moved a Few months ago the house we lived in had two apple trees, and I used to apple it up all season.

My favorite thing to do with apple though is to stew them,and put the stewed apples into cakes and muffins. Well actually, when my babies were, actually babies, they were pretty much introduced to solids by eating stewed apples.

I don't know how to connect the writing to the picture on the app yet, so your going to have to connect picture with step yourself.

I've been wanting to put up a stewing apple post. Just to show you that it's not hard, and with a little, very little effort you can make fresh apple sauce yourself. It's organic, thick, and made by YOU!

Step one

Peel and core apples, placing them all in a big enough pot for the batch your stewing. I added a few pears here because they were sorry looking. In and out of lunch boxes till they aren't good for anything else but being made into mush.

Step two

Put the lid on and cook over a low heat. Yep you heard. No water, sugar or spices. Just lid on and let the heat and steam from the natural juices do the work.

Step three

Stir every now and then so that its not sticking to the bottom. It doesn't take long, and when it is done you can choose how mashy you want it. I like mine quite chunky. So when I put it in cakes and muffins you can see bits still.

Step four

Separate into zip lock bags (I like to measure it into 1 1/2 cup baggies so I know it's the right amount for the recipe I use) and put in freezer till you need it.

Or

Bake them into yummy cakes and things right away. Like I did, at 5am

Or

Do both!

:)

I love living on the Apple Isle.

Chocolate

I think I've posted about this before, but I'm doing it again, just to let you know that the practice is still alive and kicking in my house.

So I feel the same way about Easter as I do Christmas, in all aspects! Too much stuff, and not enough Christ. Well this isn't a post about my gripes, not really. It's more what I do when Easter is over, with all the extra things my kids get.

It's well over a week now since the easter bunny graced our lounge room floor with all his/her Easter delights. And over these past days since, I would constantly walk by a chair that I have near the walk way, which has been harboring all this time, well used, brown Easter hunt bags. I would look down briefly to these bags sitting on it, knowing I was just biding my time. Inside, I knew, because mums know everything, were loads of un eaten chocolate Easter eggs. See, with five kids that equals a lot of not only given, but eaten and un eaten chocolate. And unlike Christmas where I can't really do much about all the extra 'stuff' they get, I can at Easter.

What I do is, I wait until I know the kids have eaten all the good kind of chocolate, you know, Cadbury, red tulip...well that's about it really. Then whats left is all the generic sort waiting for me in the long forgotten Easter bags. Which are thoughtlessly left in obscure places like the chair I have near the walk way!

I take these bags, and whatever else I find un eaten around the house, and I un wrap all those chocolate bits from their little foil confines, and put them away in the pantry.

For what? I hear you ask. Because they didn't eat them before! what makes me think they will eat them because I've taken the wrapper off?

For baking! Trust me, all those awful tasting, cheap, making it look like you got the kids loads of chocolate chocolate will be oooed and ahhhed over when you pull out a tray of hot choc berry muffins from the oven. Or told your the best mum in the world when they eat their portion of choc custard, or warmed their little bodies after an afternoon of playing hard with nice big mugs of hot chocolate. I just smile when this happens, add more whipped cream to the quickly disappearing mug of yumminess. Knowing that for one hour in my day today, I took the time to gather the unwanted, forgotten 'extras' we dish out to our kids, and made them into things that nourish their souls, and give them memories.

Well nourishing their soul may be pushing it, but who can pass a hot choc berry muffin hmm?

On the edge of something, I can feel it

I was going to delete this blog, it serves no purpose, but to let me talk to myself, say out loud what's on my mind.

I'm not going to delete it. There is a way we all do things in this life, and this is mine. This blog is not face book, twitter, work, or for me to brag. It's about me and how I live.

Well, how do I live. I live well actually. I'm not rich, don't seek to be, I have enough. I'm not a super model, I don't even think I'm pretty. I do like to dress up on a Sunday though. It's my guilty pleasure. I like to be fit, but I'm not right now. I will be though I don't like feeling the way I do.

I say all this, because like I've said before on this blog, I like to do new things, stretch myself and grow. There are lots I things I think I can do. Like running a hundred meter dash like I used to, very fast. But can I actually do that anymore, no.

But what I can do is try.

Not to run, but other things. I do like to sing, actually I love music but that didn't happen. I didn't take singing lessons like I wanted to a few years ago. I can't even remember what new and exciting thing I did that year.

But last year, I decided to write a story, and post it to a free web site for stories called Wattpad. Who knew I could write a story from beginning to end. It was hard by the way. Hard to make what was in my head read well on paper.

I started with an idea, then thought about it all the time till it had bones. I told my husband and sister and they laughed at me. I told them that I was sick of reading the same old stuff in the genre I loved and that I was going to do this.

One night, I sat at the computer and starred at the screen, looking back and forth from husband to computer and said "I'm going to do it, I'm gong to load a chapter."

One year later to the day, today. I've written three stories and have two more on the way. To my surprise I have fans, a web page, and a face book page where a small handful of people from all over the world come and join me. It's not like this. This blog is about something else. Stuff I like to do and how I do it.

No one knew I wrote stories, I didn't want to rely on the people around me, to force them into something they wouldn't like. I can honestly say that I gain my readers one at a time, page by page.

I have some that help with my editing, some that make my covers because they love my stories, and some that help run my new book club. ALL are my friends, it's a wonderful web I've created for myself. And it wasn't easy! And there is still a long way to go.

This was one of my secret desires. I've always written, I love it. I was invited to speak at the Society of Women Writers of Tasmania a few weeks ago. I did it, and it was fun. I felt very inadequate though, until Mary Hawkins, an author there told me this "don't conform Mel. Stay true to how you want to write"

There are a lot of people telling us how to do stuff out there. And I get very scarred sometimes to post chapters, proof read, seek advice. But the point is, is that I do it. I uploaded the front cover to the first book I want to publish today. Wow! It's happening. I feel like I'm on the edge of something. How far shall I take this. Well I don't know! Lets just see how far I can get :)

"I think it, I write it, and hope it makes sense"
Melanie Corona

PS- no house work has been done for a year! Something had to give lol

http://mcorona7.weebly.com/index.html

http://www.wattpad.com/user/mcorona7

http://www.nanowrimo.org/fr/participants/mcorona7

http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/12758932-mcorona7

http://m.pinterest.com/mcorona7/

http://www.facebook.com/mcorona70


I threw in the Pinterest one just so you know I'm not changed, just doing something new *giggles*

Free Money!

What? Free money? Now I know that Americans have the coupon thing down, but here in Australia we are lacking some what. BUT, when you do recieve something in the mail that you know you can spend money on use it.

I got a $40 gift voucher from spot light this week, it came with a spend $100 and get $40 off string attached but $40 is $40. Now it might be the ideal place to buy presents for kids i.e. not many Lego toys there. But...Dean is making some picture frames this year for certain members of the family and our bosses (as they are female). So we got some supplies for him.

I had on my gift ideas list new beach tows for the kids. So guess here I got those. Funny enough all kids beach towels were heavily reduced. For example we got Spider-Man hooded towels for $9 and a camp rock towel for $5 and so on. We got some chains for necklaces dean is making for the boys and to get it up to $100 we got wrapping paper. It all added up to just a few dollars over $100 but when the am swiped my VIP card he said we had to go back and and spend $20!!! Cool hey. So we got a beach mat and more wrapping which was $2 a roll because of my card. Grand total spent $60.67 who's smiling now. I got a press any for all the kids plus some! So message of the day, think outside the box and take advantage of those vouchers.

Let you light so shine

The next step I suppose is to decorate your house. Clean it fort and make everything smell nice. Then dig out the tree. Dean and I bought ours ten years ago, and every year we say we will get a new flashy fandangled one, but then very year we use the $12.50 Kmart one.

So once the house is looking good and smelling sweet. Gather the kids and tell them what a good job they did and then have the chat. You know, the chat telling them what the true spirit of Christmas is and that even though they can expect Santa on Christmas Eve send them to bed with a preyer in their heart that we can find someone else to give Christmas to so on Christmas morning their light will so shine.

Starting with a list

Ok so I think it's important to start with a list. I write lists for everything I started writing lists for everything when I was a little girl and they work. So trough out the year I hve been jotting down what the kid safe into, well their getting very little of that now and what I get for my kids another family will get also. So here we go this is my list of people I HAVE to buy for, why, because I love them and society demands it. Alright here we go


My mum
My dad
Foster brother 1
Foster brother 2
My sister
My brother In law
My nephew
My husband
Jackson
Charna
Kealin
Tyren
Baydan
My nana
My cousin
My boss
Deans boss
The eight single elderly people in my ward

Yep that about does it. I have a rule, I you don't live here you don't get and it goes both ways we don't receive from those not here. And you can throw in the family Going to unwillingly target.

So now that I have the list, I can see it, I can start to work through it. My kids and husband will be last though, mean yes, maybe, I'll tell you this now though. When you give you receive much much more! My kids are going to get the biggest gift that no money can buy!

Gifts for Christmas

So here we go again its Christmas time again, and I have the same internal argument about what to do.

So I'm Christian, and with the holiday season comes with it, for me, the joy of celebrating the birth of Christ. I find it an awkward balance to have the kids be excited about receiving presents, but maintaining the humble beginnings of where the tradition comes from.

So a few years ago we did hand made gifts for everyone and although I believe the gifts had more meaning, because we didn't give out half hearted, thrown together whatever's. we thought and we planned, but, in the back of my mind I still felt as though we were cheating our kids . Last year wasn't so bad. We bought TOMS shoes for the whole family, that actually didn't arrive before Christmas so we rocked up with nothing for everyone. Yes we were embarrassed and were scrambling around to get at least something and ended up paying twice.

With my husband going back to school this year it's been even tighter in this house. I missed the markets for my bags, twice, and now we have nothing.

Whatcha this space though because I am resilient and I am going to show myself and the whoever wants to read this blog how I'm going to make this Christmas work on a shoe string and teach my children a life lesson they can take with them forever. And you know how I'm going to do it...I'm going to give what I have away!! Yep you heard me. I'm going to find a family that has NOTHING!! And I'm going to give them something.