Are you busy?

It's always a busy day here on sundays. Kind of. Well, there's the obligatory catching up on folding and sorting washing, the putting away, the making of beds...you know, all that jazz. But then there's our regular outing to the farmers' growers' market. Ethan and I toddle (well, I'm closer to a waddle now) off there every sunday, even though now I get a lot of my fresh produce delivered. It's too hard to miss out and then find out, for example, that I could have bought strawberries for about $6 a kilogram, or got a box of apples for only $5 - like I did today with both of these fruits! The dehydrated apples were such a huge success with Ethan that I'm already dehydrating about a kilo of apple now, and I've preserved some lemons this morning that I bought last week for a dollar a kilo as well. The lemons are for my sister, as her and her partner are in to Indian cuisine and I think they'll make a lovely gift at Christmas. I will take some photos of them in the next couple of days, along with a few other pictures that I want to share of the presents I've been making and storing for my friends and family.

I wasn't sure about making people gifts, and my partner isn't really over the moon about it either. He comes from a family, like me, where it's usually just the size of the wallet that counts. But this year I'll be trying to stay afloat with one income and a family of four to feed and keep sheltered, clothed and happy, and I figure that the sewing machine was a gift to me, meant to be used, and if I can make a little boy or girl happy with a new library bag or a nan happy with a heat pack full of lavender and orange oil, then so be it. At some point, my friends and family are going to have to realise that just because my partner works away, it doesn't mean we have a huge expendable income. I feel rude saying it, but that's just how it is this year, and has been before but we've blindly gone in to credit card debt to pay for presents.

A girlfriend of mine and I were talking about it (we've both agreed to op shop for each other, and I'm soooo excited about her present I've already shown it to her!). It occurred to me that in years previous to this, when I've bought presents from shops and poured my thoughts about them for hours in to hours more of shopping for family and friends, the presents are often not really any better recieved than if I had just given them a card. I think that in life, we all think that the salutations we'll receive for something should be much higher, and the anticipation for times of year like christmas are too severely waited for, even as adults.

So that was what helped me come to terms with what many in my family (and my partners' family) will probably find a bit mortifying, if not humourous. But oh well, I don't care if they laugh behind my back to be honest. It's the thought that counts, right? Well, how much more thought in to a gift is there than when you've spent nights up sewing beautiful things, knitting, or preserving fruits so that people can enjoy a beautiful gift from your heart or a special treat on top of their morning toast or a late night treat on top of their icecream? Sounds pretty good to me!

So that's where we've been today and yesterday. Although I can't sew when I've got Ethan up, I can certainly do things like preserve lemons, make jam (although that is waiting until my partner is home!), and prepare other special treats. Ethan has loved the lemon preserving today, and the making of jelly for him as a treat, so it's been a busy day, well spent. And the total cost? About $15 all up for two kilos of lemons, 3 kilos of apples, and 4 large tubs of strawberries. The rest I already had, or was free!

Happy days, unless you count being asked if the "jelly is ready yet?" every ten minutes!