Be kind

Life is so short.  I sometimes have visions of the light going out of Jemimah's eyes as the injection took its course.  And I wanted so much to pull her back and make her stay longer.  I have dreams about her.  Last night she was running in a forest.

Life is short and precious.

I want to be kinder.

I want to be kinder to children.  To my beautiful precious children.
To other children I know.  I children I meet.  How can I do this.  I think thing that most often makes me unkind to my children is rushing.

• I need to remind myself to slow down and focus on them.  Make myself some reminders.

Other children I know - I am having a moritorium - if that is the word on being bitchy and having negative thoughts about the nephews and nieces this year.  I think things have improved a bit.  We had a lovely climbing session yesterday for Cade's birthday.  I would like more days like that.
I feel like I have some lost time to make up for with my friends kids.
My goals this month are to:

• choose a nice book for Martin for his birthday
• put some plants in a pot for Charlotte
• find a good present for Rachel.

Other children.  It makes me sad that thousands of children are dying of starvation everyday in our world.  Thousands of mothers are watching the light go out  of their children's eyes or cry in pain because they have nothing to fill their stomachs with.  What can I do about this?

thursday bookshelf

I am thinking I would like to try to have a shelf of my top 100 favourite books.  Not really sure about whether 100 is the right number or not, maybe it is too many, probably not enough, but I figure if I set a goal that is a start.  It is something I can modify later.  What I want to do is read through my collection of books and if i think a book belongs in my top 100 I will give it shelf space and make it a new, hand crafted jacket.  if a book doesn't make it to the top 100 it can be filed if it might be useful eg shakespeare, given away to someone else or if it is a total waste of paper and shames the trees it was made of I will endeavour to make it into something else.  How about that for a noble cause?  I already partly started this project as it have been kicking around in my head for a couple of years now.  They first book on my shelf will be Diamond Age or A young ladies illustrated primer by Neal Stephenson.   I have recently re read it (still love it, even better a decade on) and just need to make it a new cover - it really needs one, Ella tried to eat it.  I am thinking something lovely and steampunk to reflect its marvelous content.

scottish shortbread from old fashioned favorites

This was a pretty straightforward recipe.

• it was easy to make with not too many ingredients
• there were plenty of jobs for Charlie - sifting, spooning flour into the bowl and pricking the biscuits
• tastes good

bad things - it is a bit crumbly but that might be different if it cooked for the length of time expected ( I did it at 150 c in indented head oven but it took much longer than the stated 30 minutes).

3 out of 5 - would make again

Wednesday test kitchen

Hey I've decided to test kitchen some of the multitude of cook books we have before keeping and chucking them. Some are already keepers because they are beautiful and we use them regularly. Some - not so sure about. So my first test kitchen book will but The Australian Women's Weekly Old-fashioned Sweet favorites. Sounds great doesn't it. Not really Julia Childs but hey - who the hell cares?