Falling in love with a freezer.

While yes, part of me is falling in love with a freezer because every time I open it it's a milisecond of not feeling like I'm going to turn into a puddle that someone will have to clean off our hardwood, it's mostly because I'm (dare I say it) a lazy cook. I let food go off. I actually cringe and shudder about how much food I've wasted over the years from my sheer laziness. It's not good, it's not environmentally friendly, and it attracts various rodents that live around our house. 

Preserving food often brings up images of old women bottling tomatoes and making jam, I've (sadly only just) come to the realisation that my freezer is the perfect tool for preserving food and helping my mornings run smoother. Fucking shocking discovery, I know.

I know most people use their freezer to batch cook, I just cant. For some reason batch cooking doesn't work for me, I get lazy knowing my freezer is full and spend a week not cooking, then I'm back to square one. So I focus mainly on one of the benefits of living in Queensland. Fruit. Audrey would live off a steady diet of banana, grapes, tomatoes and pears if we let her. This means that at times I buy way, way waaaay too much fruit, then Audrey goes to stay at her dads, or we spend a solid couple of days out of the house, and it goes off, and I get angry that I once again, wasted food.

Chopped frozen fruit has been a godsend lately. 40 degree days have Audrey and I craving Ice-Cream, smoothies and anything else that isn't above 2 degrees celcius. Lemon juice from extra-cheap lemons from our greengrocer have been made into ice-cubes, perfect for adding to water on the extra hot days, and we've been making guilt free, healthy sorbets and ice creams, and many green smoothies have replaced traditional breakfasts. The freezer has also come in handy to help us organise our mornings. After our last shopping trip, I washed all the greens and had Audrey tear the leaves into small bits, then froze individual portions. They're ready to be chucked in the blender with some ice, water and a few pieces of fruit, and wham bam thank you ma'am, you've jumped onto the healthy hipster bandwagon. 

Though damn them, because they're delicious.

Where in the World is Patchwork Natural?

Things have been rather hectic in the abode of Patchwork Natural lately, and it was only when a friend mentioned my blog that I thought 'Oh. Shit. Yes. My blog. Might wanna jump on that'.

Sorry.

The craziness of life has lately been spurred on by a rather long trip home, attempting to unpack, a re-enrollment for a new Kindy for the Dinosaur, toilet training for said Dinosaur, and some unfortunate (to say the least) news of a wonderful friend and role model is weighing heavy on my heart, and the hearts of my family.

I so desperately want to write, but words form in my head and the sheer exhaustion of having my plate full has me resting my head on my desk, fingers poised to type, then grabbing a bottle of wine instead. It will come soon, as life settles back to its relative normality and I come to terms with the terrifying changes happening around me. My world around me has revolved and changed and settled into another place, and I'm stuck looking around at this whole new life that so far, I haven't made full sense of.

I know I'll be back in a few days, words can only swirl around in my head for so long.