Back to Basics Challenge

• Sowing seed or Planting
• Planning for The Future - meal planning, the next seasons garden plan, working out storage plans or more long term goals and projects like plans for digging root cellars
• Working for the Future - storing food, managing stores, preserving, building that home made cob or solar oven, adding house insulation, saving for manual grain mills etc
• Building Community - volunteering, donations, joining an existing community group, forming your own community group, taking a cake to a friend having a hard time, calling someone you just let drift out of your life, etc
• Learn a new Skill

• Planning for the future. I got to shop at Coles this week. While I was there I got the flavoured teas that my son requested two weeks ago when I went shopping at my usual shop. I found that they have changed the stock in the store and flavoured teas are not there anymore, well not many, and especially the ones our son likes. I was able to get Verjuice. It is something Maggie Beer uses. At least I can use her recipes, but not sure about it's shelf life and practicality yet. I got bay leaves and cinnamon sticks. Our shop doesn't have them because they come in packets to hang up and they only like to have jars. There are jars of cinnamon sticks, but probably not the brand they stock. I also got a couple of things to encourage the girls in the kitchen.
• Working for the future. On Thursday I combined my trip to Coles with a trip to get passport photos for my daughter and shopping for her trip. We are going to a day where we get the information we need in Melbourne in September. But I felt I needed to start getting her clothes to wear. She is going to a Muslim country, but I suspect I was a little bit worried for nothing. However, Target's clothes this season are so different. Probably if you live near shops you may not think so and have already seen them. They are floaty, longer, I suppose "hippy". My daughter loves her new clothes. I felt worn out when I got home, not at all sure what I had done, if it was OK, and how my budget would cope. It is a 1 1/2 drive and took all day, and life goes on in the evenings straight after you get home. I did a bit of work to work out what best to buy when at the supermarket. Our fruit would have come on the day we are going to the city, and I couldn't buy a lot of meat, so some thinking required, and a list.
  
• Building Community. We joined in in a Youth Group activity and a Spotlight (Uniting Church) activity.
• Learn a new skill. I found that shopping was new in some ways. Target and Coles are both different, and the bakery had a juice bar near the front door so it was difficult to see where the sandwiches and rolls were. I hadn't seen Target's mission statement for lack of a better word on the wall before in the circle. Coles used to save me heaps back years ago. I noticed by big save at the time, tea, is not as reduced as it used to be. Coles tea used to be a significantly cheaper than the other brands, $2 something. Curious about their boxes of UHT milk now. I tried out a Mangosteen fruit. I learnt how to eat them. The girls have been experimenting with chocolate drinks. I didn't think I needed new cups, but really it isn't such a bad idea. Saw three we really think suited the girls in Coles.