The Difference an Apron Makes....

My darling baby brothers borrowed our car for a quick road trip (needed extra seats) and in return they bought us some gifts! They were traveling through Bundaberg so stopped in at the Rum Factory and bought Pete some Liqueur and for some reason they bought me an apron! I think it was a bit of a dig at how messy I am when I usually cook.... they know me very well!

Anyway, I did a lot of baking/cooking today and used it - the first time I have ever used an apron believe it or not! I couldn't get over the fact that I felt like a REAL cook wearing it! I even felt really in the groove - not just cooking more weird things for the girls..... so, that's the difference an apron can make! Not to mention that they are very easy to make and I can see two little girls who will be wanting one of their own...

In other news, we have had an entire Saturday with NO purchases except the newspaper (from Pete's personal funds). For us who love to go out on a Saturday morning and usually spend pointless $$, this has been a really big achievement and I am very proud of us.

I put a white/cork board up in my office and on it I have stuck our pledge, and the list of birthday/christmas type events that we will need to buy gifts for this year with a section for ideas now, and on the whiteboard we are going to write down our spending urges and the date so we can be sure we are lasting the 48 hours and see in black and white what we really want to spend our money on.

Ont he list so far are:

• Sigg water bottles - we have 1 currently, but its a 600ml bottle and I want to get the girls a 300ml bottle each as I am really not keen on them drinking from plastic cups ALL the time.... just me trying to avoid more unknown chemicals and who knows what entering their sensitive systems. No date with this one as its been talked about for months, so when we do get organised I think we have definitely earned them!
• Wireless Router Thingy 4/1/08 - ok this is one of Pete's wants - and I think its a good idea too - that way if I am here he can still access the net via his laptop (that already is wireless capable) and do whatever he needs to do. I think we can easily hold out the 48 hours on this one because we need more research into options etc.
• Fort - this is going to be the girls belated Christmas gift - we left it too late to order on in time for Chrissy, so when we get through all the suppliers and work out which one to order, it will also be outside our cooling off period.

I'm not sure if there are other things we are thinking of that haven't written up, but if they aren't on the list, they aren't being bought!

In other news, we actually ate an entire roast! No, not all in one go! Usually we have a roast one night then say we'll eat it as leftovers, and Pete might have a sandwich or two, but some is always thrown out eventually. Not this time! We had the roast dinner on New Years Day, and ate roast and vegies the following night and roast and salad the next and there was none left over at all. We decided then that from now on if there are leftovers, they are eaten the next night - so we'll have a couple of nights of the same thing - at least we aren't throwing food out for no good reason.

We have also managed to get my compost bin put back together whilst Pete has been home, and my worms are flourishing too! We also found the recycling bags, so from now on, we are back into the swing of our recycling ways as we were before we moved.

I had a feeling there was something else I had been pondering, but I can't remember it right now, so it will have to be added later!

Theresa