I sew, I eat, I deteriorate....

I discovered the artistic side of sewing late in 2005. 

What an amazing discovery it turned out to be! Through 2006-2008 I had the best time collecting quilt magazines and sewing everything that caught my fancy. I taught Blossom to embroider and quilt and soon we were both hooked. 

Being a teenager however, Blossom went through stages of discovering and excelling in, many different crafts. Soon it was just me that lived and breathed my life amidst the quilting minions. It consumed my mind day and night, fabric was my drug of choice. 

Designing my own things took off early in 2009, and bless my socks, magazines wanted to publish them! This encouraged me even more to lay aside 'other' things in life and focus on the tactile delights of bringing my own ideas to life in quilts and stitcheries. I was as happy as pig in mud. 

But when you allow one thing to consume your time, other things have to pushed aside. I still spent lots of time with my family, and the washing was up to date, but in the last few months I have become increasingly aware that the nourishing meals I used to plan and prepare for my loved ones were appearing less and less on the dinner table, and sub-standard replacements were fast becoming regular guests.

Reduced health and vitality was being noticed by all...

Something had to give.

Now, I'm not going to stop sewing or designing...that would be detrimental to my mental health and probably send my husband batty, but I am going to step back a bit. Balance is what is needed, but with the scales tipped more towards the family and our improving health.

So where to start?? I enrolled in an on-line course through The Nourished Kitchen, dusted off all my neglected 'healthy' cookbooks, and went shopping! This is the second load of groceries I brought home today...

I also bought some great vegetable storer bags for the fridge...

...and pulled my pantry apart!

Six hours later it looked like this (sorry, no before photos - I forgot!) - just a couple of shelves to give you an idea of how organised I like to be...

 Having all my ingredients labelled and ordered helps me to see at a glance what I can use for a meal.

I used to do this in my pre-sewing days because cooking was my 'craft' and healthy bodies for my family and myself was very important.

Its so sad to admit that I left all that behind. I still dabbled in a healthy diet, but dabbling is not committed.

More news is that Blossom will be leaving school and returning to homeschooling at the end of June. Part of her education from July will be nutrition - she wants a large family (12 children!) so she is keen to learn how best to prepare meals for all age groups.

While I restocked the pantry shelves I baked a wholemeal banana and date loaf for afternoon tea...

...and as a 'fond farewell' to all those nutrition depleted ingredients I wanted to toss out, I made a lemon delicious pudding for dessert tonight. All ready to go into the oven in my very old enamel bowl...

I love old enamel bowls! Just having them to cook with makes me feel like I'm reclaiming those days past when as a child my grandmother used them for every meal. Actually, I don't ever remember my grandmother cooking from a packet...she made everything from scratch and I can still taste those wonderful meals if I close my eyes and journey back in my heart.

Good foods, wholesome ingredients, loving hands given to preparation, healthy family. Yep, that's my plan.

Join me in my quest?

I'll share all my successes and failures along the way, plus there will be laughter and good food (plus recipes!) too...

Y'all come back now, y'hear!

Hugs

Jenny

xxx