Counting down to Christmas 2026 - Let's Reset!

Are you in need of a Reset? Why not join in with this virtual 5 day re-treat. I'm starting Ready, Set, September on Monday 14 September 2026! A chance to get a fresh start, to work on my home and my daily routines. Adding in a good sprinkling of Danish hygge. But – most of all – i want to learn how to take time for MYSELF. Daily self-care is the key to a joyful life and a cosy, clean home!

I am working towards a stress free Christmas by baby-stepping through the preparations and being kind to myself along the way.  I'm starting with resetting habits followed by a house declutter.  After that I'll be gently working towards a calmer home and habits that come more naturally as I keep practising.  Finally there are Christmas Missions which, with the bulk of the work done, means I can enjoy the build up to Christmas and Clean-up Missions that will put me back into the normal rhythm I'll be learning through October and November and leave me ahead for next year!

Now that sounds like something worth doing!

I'll be guided through this next week by Diane in Denmark.

To get the most out of it, it would be great if i could use this weekend to have ready the following items. No worries if i can't,  they're not absolutely essential. I'm not buying anything new, just using what I have available! I'll choose Mondays outfit the evening before, so I'm ready to jump right into this Virtual (Re)Treat. Okay, here's the packing list to gather together over the weekend ready for Monday!!...

PACKING LIST!

Notebook or a few sheets of paper (or a Control Journal or Home Management Binder).

Pen or pencil.

A timer (egg timer, kitchen timer, phone).

A few basic cleaning supplies: a duster/rag, cleaning spray (maybe pop those in a caddy or box for ease) and a mop, vacuum. 

A container to store  “pamper items”. (Remember, please don’t buy anything! Use an old basket, tote bag, box.) Don’t know what to put into the pamper basket? See below!

IDEAS FOR YOUR PAMPER BASKET…

Light reading. A magazine, brochure, book, library book, Kindle book.

A colouring book, journal, sudoku/crossword/wordsearch book, etc. Colouring pens or pencils. Knitting, crochet, small craft materials.

Favourite DVD, music playlist, Bible Study, Prayer meditation or fitness app.

Any odd remnants or samples of hand lotion, foot cream, face mask, hair treatment, perfume samples, nail varnish, manicure/pedicure items.

Essential oils, mini diffuser.

Eye mask, fluffy socks, cosy blanket.

LED candle, string of fairy lights.

Water bottle, ready-mixed mocktail or cocktail, juice, smoothie, chai mix, herbal tea sachets, hot chocolate mix, gourmet coffee.

A few small snacks. Your old favourites or try something new! Gourmet popcorn, nuts, muesli/energy/chocolate bar, exotic fruit.

That's it!  I'm ready to clean and pamper! 🥰

See you soon,

Nora xxx

Christmas 2026

 

This is a slightly ambitious idea, but.... I'm going to try it anyway!

For some time I have lost my mojo and been quite down, lacking motivation to even do the things I enjoy.  My energy is not what it was and like many others it started after we tried to return to 'normal' after covid.  

I innocently took the jabs believing I was doing the right thing and suffered some of the most awful side-effects....and still caught covid from a client!  At which point I gave up having them, but the damage was done.  Feeling like someone had removed my brain and replaced most of it with cotton wool!!

Apart from that, I enjoyed the lockdowns, going my own quieter pace, spending time with my husband and daughter without school runs, growing our own vegetables,  collecting the eggs from our hens, taking time to cook everything from scratch, daily walks in our beautiful countryside and basically home-schooling our daughter.

It showed us that a slower pace suited us, in fact it was so calming.  We lived without someone elses structure and timing imposed on us, true freedom.  I discovered everyone else's 'normal' was not me!

Anyway, although I came here to retire, I found there were people in need of support and so I began caring for the older people in my local community,  what a privilege and a blessing it has been.  Working one to one or two suits me very well, so well in fact that I invariably stay longer and do more than required on my visits.  I can genuinely love them and look after them.  The beauty of self-employment and not working for an agency. 

But, here I am having lost the thread of housework, a house that really needs some TLC after a flood and the impending Christmas celebration which, for the first time in this house, will be attended by all 3 sons, 2 daughters-in-law, our 17yo daughter who still lives with us (maybe her boyfriend!) and possibly my Father-in-law....with his dog! That's 9 or 10 adults requiring 6 or 7 bedrooms....which we don't have!!

The race is on to declutter, clean, decorate (as in paint not make look pretty...although that too!) and organise space for everyone to relax and enjoy!

Oh...and we hold a Christmas party every year around 18th December!

I need to get some routines and habits in place, I need to find time to do DIY, declutter as we finish painting rooms and refurnish, work, support husband and daughter, eat decent food, get decent rest and organise presents, cards and celebration food.

So.... I thought I would encourage myself by posting my aims and recording my progress and maybe encouraging someone else to achieve.

I've given myself lots to do, that's the perfectionist in me.  But I won't be beating myself up if I don't achieve it all, I shall just be pleased with any progress from where things stand at the moment!

I hope this reaches and encourages someone else out there and we can do this together.  It would be lovely to have company.

First job of the day is sanding beams in the loft, I'm off to put on some grotty clothes and my face mask!  Delightful I assure you!  

Must dash...lots to do!

Toodle-oooo

Nora 

xxx

Perfect pancakes

 It's been a while since I posted and a lot of water has flowed under the bridge!

I've not been well and decided to overhaul what I thought was a good diet and cut out some things that I thought might be aggravating my gallbladder.

Part of that has, of course been learning, or even inventing some new things to eat. 

There are many people out there for one reason or another that need to avoid wheat (I'll explain the path to that another day!), with that in mind, I've been prompted to share this recipe in the hope that others will find this recipe, enjoy it, make it their own and share it with others...let's share the love!

Here's a photo....

I'm sorry I started eating it before I thought to photograph it!  🙈

Here's the recipe...

The dry part is:

150g of gram (chickpea) flour or buckwheat flour (or wheat flour if your OK with that)

1tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

The wet part is:

250ml any milk (I used almond and I've also used soya, oat and dairy)

1 egg

15ml or 1 tablespoon of oil, melted coconut oil or butter (I used avocado oil)

Flavouring:

I chose tumeric powder and fresh chopped parsley.

(Why not try chive, basil, or thyme.  Garlic, chilli (flakes or fresh). Ground Indian spices.  You could pop in finely diced mushroom or Sun dried tomato.

Go sweet and opt for cinnamon and finely chopped  or grated apple or sultanas and lemon zest. A liquid coffee flavour (Camp Coffee in the UK) with walnuts.

Think about what would fit the base and what you would top it with.... almond extract or ground almond in the base and topped with fresh raspberries, flaked almonds and yoghurt. Cinnamon base and apple, sultana and cream topping.  Lime set in the base and topped with pineapple and coconut cream!

Gosh, getting a bit carried away there,  but I hope you get the idea and make sure you pin this so that you can go back and share your combinations for others to try.)

So....we have our dry mix in a bowl, we add in the wet ingredients and our flavourings and whisk together ensuring all the flour is incorporated. 

Heat a frying pan or skillet on a medium high heat, if its not a non stick you may need a slick of butter or oil.

Once heated, pour in some mix.  The choice of size is up to you. My small pan turns out a 7" pancake, I use my biggest pan to make several 4" pancakes in a batch (good for stacking!)

Cook for a couple of minutes, (it will loosen to lift once its cooked) then flip and cook the other side for another minute or so.  They should turn a little golden, but you can cook them as dark or light as you like.

I topped mine with scrambled eggs and spinach, tomorrow I have some mushrooms to use up, so they will go in.

Tonight I've had this as a light supper and tomorrow I will be having more for breakfast.  A sweet option would also make a great dessert!  You make it fit with your schedule and preferences.

This is a great experimental base....so, as Miss Clavel says in Madeline.... "Go wild!!"

I hope you enjoy it.

See you again soon.

Toodle-ooo

Nora

xxx

Tree of Knowledge & Tree of Life...there are 2 trees!!

How many times have I read the book of Genesis, chapter 3...and therefore how many times have I missed this previously!!

Doh!  (note to self...take more notice!)

My reading for the day was The Fall of Man...

...and I had a lightbulb moment (that's Nora speak for 'the Holy Spirit revealed this to me').  

I started studying around this subject...boy, some of it was like wading uphill, through treacle in flip-flops!  But I think I got there and will now try to explain it in simple terms .... mostly for myself because I know I will read it again in the future and question it.  In fact I have written out 2 post-it notes and stuck them to the relevant chapters in my Bible.

So first we know that God created Adam & Eve.  They are created in God's image meaning that they have good characteristics and abilities with access to the Tree of Life.  If they love God and do as He asks, they will live forever (but this isn't a dictatorship so they do have freewill).

So ....  the snake tempts Eve to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil, which she does, she then gives it to Adam and they become wise.  They understand that they are naked and their desire to cover up comes to the notice of God.  He then knows what they have done and has a problem.

What God created has now become 'equal' in terms of knowing good and evil and knows that this won't work, in fact now that they are 'spoiled' it could be dangerous for the future if they are allowed to live forever.

He has to punish them (this is the first judgement of sin) and he also has to prevent the chaos their wrongdoing will cause by preventing them from living forever (making them mortal) and so sends them out of the Garden of Eden which prevents them access to the Tree of Life.

This is the lightbulb moment when I realised that Adam & Eve ate from the Tree of Knowledge and then God sent them out of the Garden of Eden so that they couldn't eat from the Tree of Life.... yes, 2 trees.

One that leads to eternal life with all the goodness of God and the other which reveals all the opposites or the absence of all the good things  (because where you create love, the absence of love is hate, where you create good, the absence of good is evil, where you create humility the absence of humility is pride...and so on!)

I thought this picture showed it well.....  

So now Adam & Eve cannot eat from the Tree of Life (and nor can the rest of humanity), this makes death inevitable and, wonderfully,  resurrection possible, so by doing this God creates a means to save mankind.

A great example of God bringing Good from evil.

So that is what the whole Bible is about really.  God wanting us in the Garden of Eden with him, us messing it up and God finding a way to ...well.... get round the problem!

We have free will (remember, it is not a dictatorship) and we can choose God's way or Satan's way....just so you know, this is not something we can sit on the fence about!

We choose God's way through choosing Jesus Christ or we don't choose Jesus Christ and by default we have chosen Satan's way.

If like me you never realised there were 2 trees, or you did but didn't understand then I hope this helps.  I'm not saying this is an high brow, intellectual answer - that's for you to study further if you wish.  It is just my clarification for my own notes which I thought might help someone else.

I hope to return soon to share some more eye-opening (Spirit-lead) stuff, in the meantime....

God Bless

Nora

xxx

Before...

 That's it really....a 'Before' photo with the hope that it guilts me into getting started on a decorating project or 2!

We have lived in this house since Oct 2018 and in the first year we were finding our feet and learning what plants were in the garden and which we could move to grow veg plus and endless round of visitors!

We then shut up shop for winter except for Father-in-Laws visit for Christmas and then, of course, the pandemic started!

We could have decorated then I suppose, but the weather was so lovely and for us, life was quite normal because, we live quite a slow, remote life here, but also Missy still had school as she was in that transition year from 6 to 7 that only didn't attend school for about 2 months.

Anyway, we didn't decorate, we cleaned, sorted and really kept on top of the garden.  We thought we might decorate during the winter when we have to be indoors...but that didn't really work out as we tend to get a bit down and our motivation for such things, and in poor light, deserted us!

So here we are back in May 2021 with not a paint splash of decorating done and a house that is perfectly presentable, but starting to need a little TLC.

So that plan this year is to re-vamp the kitchen...we're thinking cream cupboards and woodwork and pale pink walls...yes, hubby suggested that!  So I'm all go with that as I'd been holding back on that suggestion.

So here are the 'before' shots of the kitchen / diner....

 

A little more info on that is.... we quite fancy copper or rose gold accessories and handles, no this doesn't involve a trip to landfill, but instead a can of copper spray paint to transform handles, utensil pots, frames etc.  And we'll also be sanding down and varnishing the floor and taking a look at soft furnishing...mostly from fabric out of my stash or the charity shop....or maybe dyed. 

Next up is mine and Hubby's bedroom, we're going soft cream or pale peach, probably with cream woodwork....we may well go the whole hog with a new carpet, but it depends....if the floorboards are nice, we might go with sanding and varnishing those...we'll have to see...

So...there we have it!  I've put it out there and now there is no escaping the fact that I have said it... hoping it motivates me and in a few months I will be able to show you at least ONE room!

Hey-ho and Toodle-ooo!

Nora

xxx

Scrappy cloths

Since we moved to the North Pennines, and since Missy watched an offering from the wonderful Sir David Attenborough which left her in tears and determined to lighten our footprint on the planet, we have been on a mission! 

We started small and are getting better at cutting down on plastic, reducing the rubbish we send to landfill, buying all that we can second hand, finding ways to use what we have until the end of it’s life and above all being inventive!

Of course, with a child, clothes are something parents seem to buy lots of!  They grow so quickly!  Missy is the 5^th of 5 children, but the youngest of the older 4 is a girl, but 10 years older than her, so there aren’t too many hand-me-downs.

We don’t go mad with a full school uniform for every day, but clearly you have to have one spare set!  And it all gets a good deal of use.  So, by the time the school year ends, the sweatshirts and trousers are usually OK to pass on, but the shirts are pretty grim!  Paint, lunch, biros and grass stains take their toll.

So, what can we do with them?

Well Missy had 3 pretty polo shirts that I held on to wondering how they could be repurposed and then the lightbulb came on in 3 ways….

1 – they have pretty buttons that can be reused.

2 – from the underarm to the hem, they are square

3 – there is an amount of ‘scrap’

I cut the side seams off, cut horizontally across the chest from underarm to underarm and removed the buttons.

 

The buttons went into my button box.

The 2 squares from each body of the shirts was overlocked around the edge to make cleaning or spills cloths (instead of paper towel) and all the ‘scrap’ including that created by overlocking will be joining my ‘stuffing’.

‘Stuffing’ is all the offcuts of fabric and threads from projects that are too small to even use on patchwork and they go into an offcuts bag kept at the side of your workstation. 

Many dressmakers are now employing the ‘Make do and Mend’ ethos of their Granny and making a stuffing bag which is simply 2 squares of scrap fabric (or old sheets or curtain, hubbys shirts etc), seamed on 3 sides to make a pouch and into that putting waste.  When full it can be used as a cushion pad, or smaller clumps of the waste can be used to stuff doorstops, draught excluders, toys…..the options are endless.  I often find I have more projects than stuffing….and nothing to put into landfill!!

Mine swallows up offcuts from cutting patterns out of fabric, threads, selvedges, the ‘trim’ from using the overlocker…..and more recently laddered tights AND….yes, you know whats coming…the chopped up scraps from those school polo shirts!

I’ve recently got back into knitting and apart from keeping a small ball of the yarn (with the ball band) for repairs, all the offcuts from sewing up my projects will be heading for my stuffing bag!

So, there we are…..cleaning cloths, buttons and stuffing!  No waste!

I have to say that I have become ridiculously excited when I find a new use for things and can keep my bin free of unnecessary waste.  Things in this house get used, used and used.....if they are made of natural materials, they may find themselves added to the compost heap....or like a rather dodgy looking wooden spoon, used for lighting the fire!!

Let me know what new and inventive ways you have found to reduce your reliance on landfill and take responsibility for your waste.

See you very soon,

Toodle-ooo

Nora

xx

 

A new book....

 ...and not one I EVER thought would prompt me to put pen to paper!

It all started when a friend gave me a bag of books to take to the charity shop for her and said that I could take a look and if there was anything I wanted, to take it.  OK.  Thanks very much!

I had a look through, there were some gardening books, a beautiful Concordance Bible and....a huge book of women's stories that I thought I would take a better look at.  And I am so thankful I did!

Inside were 5 stories, re-written in a more contemporary way about 5 strong women of the Bible, and one of them was my favourite Ruth.

Knowing the 'Love Story' of Ruth, a sort of Cinderella story, I was looking forward to the other 4 stories too.

Well, I read them all.  How wonderful they were.  Well written and thought provoking.  Each section ended with a set of questions, a bit like a Book Club might ask, you know....what did you think of this character, did what happen surprise you, how could it have ended differently.... you know what I mean!

Well, in essence, this book was a book of Bible stories and the review questions were Bible studies.

It was so good I ordered the book of 5 stories about men in the Bible!

And this is what I'm reading at the moment.

Reading that first book was a pinnacle moment.

It lead me to watch a sermon on TV which got me searching for a book to help with my anxiety called 'Be Anxious for Nothing' and this was linked to another called 'Battlefield of the Mind'.

And these in turn got me thinking about my bookshelf and some books I had that I could revisit.  When I was studying for my health sciences degree I was recommended a book by Lee Strobel, all scientific studies...all faith based.  In fact he has written at least 3 in the same format, all undertaken to disprove the person of Jesus, disprove Creation over Evolution and to question faith.  Science and Faith?  Well, I challenge anyone to read these and not think more deeply about the scientific findings within.

So began my journey to rekindle a belief that took root as a child, but had never been developed because I didn't know how.  Now I know more, I am excited. In this hurting world, it calms and thrills me that, irrespective of faith, we can read a book that gives us good advice and live a better, more considerate, more loving life that not only makes us happier but can be used to bring happiness to others too.

Until next time, 

Toodle-ooo!

Nora xxx