Taking things a little slower.....

This week has found me a little bit obsessive over my herbal ally challenges. I realised yesterday that I am going to have to tone it down a bit and pay attention to other things in my life as well. In fact I am going to have to get a little more organised! This is never an easy task for me as, you see as soon as I free up some time or space, I find something else to fill it with.

Last week I was able to focus a lot of time and energy as everyone else was preoccupied. This week my youngest started vying for attention and wanting to go out. Yesterday, I literally had to remove the herbal book from my bag and tell myself NO you are going outside to play not study! We did stay out for most of the day and then when I got home I crammed in quite a bit.

I fed the kids lunch, pulled down the bunches of drying tansy and saved a good basket full which I aim to start using for some infusions for flea spray later today.  Then I thought I better get cracking on my journal. You see I have been keeping two other notebooks all week as I did not want to mess up the journal. I was being very fussy about decorations etc, when it dawned on me...this is MY journal...I should be writing in it. So I filled a few pages, yes all last night. I did manage to feed my family but they ate a little late! (For those just meeting me, I cook vegetarian and meat meals due to a divided family on food). Although we had bbq last night, I prepared vege kebabs, meat, potato salad, tossed salad and corn on the cob. All fresh so time consuming to prepare. Cooking can take from 1/2 to 4 hours of my time a day).

My tea supply for a few days, hanging out with some fennel which my daughter has been munching on!

So far this week.....I have read lots of "facts" about Tansy. Read a fair bit about thujone and looked up various other words relating to the scientific side. Of course everyone paints Tansy as being a dangerous herb. I don't agree. In fact I drank a cup of tea already with no terrible side affects. Me being me, the scientific side is going to be a hard one for me to study. I prefer to go with my instict and own experiences. I have however, downloaded some scientific reports to have a read of (heres hoping I can concentrate long enough to learn something).

So besides making tea, I have been gathering tansy and keeping her around me as much as possible. I plan to pot some and bring it inside to see if it growns indoors as well. I did my first drawing, from memory rather than trying to copy the plant with water colour pencils...........

This has since become my title page in my journal. I almost attacked it with water and brush but did not like the effect on the stem so left it as is. I was later chastised by my oldest daugther who informs me this is how water colour pencils are supposed to look. But I spent a bit of time with detail here people I don't want to blur it out! LOL (My book, my book!)

Things to do this week:  (I won't show you my real list, you might faint, so just my Tansy time list)

• Visit the library and round up a few books
• Buy some jars and bottles (I don't have any spare)
• Round up a dye pot
• Buy some water colour paints (I love drawing with the pencils but can't seem to make them paint nice).
• Practice my painting skills
• Infuse/Infuse and Infuse some more!
• Bake some Tansy cookies
• Pot some tansy for indoors

I think I am going to have to give myself a limit on things to do each week as I also need to keep up with the housework (we have a large household), the vegie and herb gardens, the children, the homeschooling, the business accounts, getting Gem ready and outfitted to start University (college?), the pets, friends, homeschool group each week, excursions, my knitting/crochet/cross stitch pursuits, cooking, LAUNDRY, my man (he also needs attention occasionally or he gets grumpy) and keeping  my sink shiny!

Are we tired yet? I thought so! Yep! The thought of it all is leaving me feeling a tad overwhelmed. So I shall try very hard to take ONE thing at a time! Wish me luck! For now, I am going to drop everything, take a trip to the library and maybe do some crochet! (So says she, who fully knows if she finds any good books where her nose will be all afternoon!)

Hugs and smoochies xoxox