31 days to clutter free life and home; Day 1: New Beginnings

My knowledge and awareness to the blogging world has been opened and I am beyond "amazed". I owe it to following my friend Tracey's blog ;Control the Chaos.
I am learning so many different ways to connect to the the bigger world and explore some of those things I have wanted to do.
While doing my regular "thing" of reading Tracey's blog I came upon this "31 days to.." part and that came up in my mind " constantly" these past few days. Thinking about it and trying to convince myself that I would definitely, never ever, will be able to write every day and do something with this was finally put to rest when I made my decision today to plunge into it.

This October link party is originally hosted by The Nesting Place.

So here I am, making that big dive.I have been reading Laura's book "Clutter Rehab" from I am an organizing Junkie ,and decided this would be my chance to put the book and the passion to totally unclutter my life and home. Baby steps. I know that sentence does seem too ambitious.

So here I am, choosing to organize and unclutter my life and home including such as;
1. Various sections of my home (Note: not entire rooms in one go!)
2. Organizing my own company and family life
3. Prioritizing and making my "things to do" list more human.And not superhuman
4. Try my best in reducing the things in our home

I dont expect anyone to follow my journey or even read this. I am doing this for me and my family.

What better way to start this off as I celebrate my 30th birthday!

Seville Orange Tart

Serves 8
Takes 1 hour to make. 1 hour 10 minutes to cook. Plus cooling.

Ingredients:
4 Seville oranges (or the grated zest of 4 small oranges and the juice of 2 lemons and 2 oranges)
6 medium free-range eggs
250g caster sugar
150ml double cream

For the pastry:

175g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
50g icing sugar
100g chilled butter, cut into small pieces, plus extra for greasing
Finely grated zest of 1 small orange(not sevile)
1 large free-range egg, separated
2 tsp freshly squeezed orange juice


1. To make the pastry, sift the flour, icing sugar and a small pinch of salt into a food processor, add the chilled butter and the orange zest. Pulse until it looks like fine breadcrumbs, then tip into a mixing bowl.

2. Mix the egg yolk with the orange juice, add to the bowl, then stir with a round bladed knife until the mixture starts to come together into a ball. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly until the mixture forma a smooth dough.

3. Roll the pastry out thinly on a lightly floured surface, then use to line a lightly greased, 4 cm deep, 23 cm loose- bottomed flat tin. Prick the base all over with a fork, then chill for 20- 30 minutes.

4. Preheat the oven to 200 C/fan 180/ gas 6. Line the pastry case with a crumpled sheet of baking paper and a thin layer of beans or rice, then blind bake for 12- 15 minutes until the edges of the pastry are biscuit colored. Carefully remove the paper and beans/rice, then return the pastry case to the oven for 3-4 minutes.

5. Beat the egg white until slightly frothy, then brush it over the bases and the sides of the pastry case. Return the case to the oven for another 1-2 minutes until set. Remove and leave to cool. Turn the oven down to 120C/fan 100 C/gas 1/2.

6. For the tart filling, finely grate the zest from the oranges, then set aside. Squeeze the juice from the seville oranges (or from the lemons and 2 of zested oranges) to give 180ml. Break the eggs into a bowl, add the caster sugar, then whisk gently with a fork until just mixed but not frothy. Strain the citrus juice, add the double cream, then mix briefly. Strain through a sieve into a large measuring jug, then stir in the citrus zest.

7. Partly pull out the shelf of the preheated oven, slide the pastry case onto it, then pour in the filling. Carefully slide the shelf back in and bake for 40-45 minutes or until just set.
(I thought why do i need to play around with the filling in the oven, so took it out and poured it on place on the kitchen counter. When I had to walk with the tart ,real slow and not to spill the filling , while i walked toward the oven, I understood why that step was very important and was just not some fancy thing to do! :( ). It should still be a little wobbly in the centre, but will firm up as it cools. Remove and leave to cool, but don't refrigerate. This is best served, cut into wedges, on the day it's made.

And my Tart was.......
The zester (does this word exist)that I used made long thin rinds. I should have used a zester that cut them in thin small pieces, like sprinkles. But it tasted really nice and even the pastry was so delicious. It does take some time to get all the juices and did use more dishes than needed, but worth it and was fun to make. I served this to my Mums and Tots group, as they are indeed my guinea pigs to my testing to sweet things!

Still growing-30 next week

We write for five minutes flat on Fridays.

We here at The Gypsy Mama write bold and beautiful and free. Unscripted and unedited. We just write without worrying if it’s just right or not.

Won’t you join us?

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. Go a little overboard encouraging the writer who linked up before you.
OK, are you ready? Give your best five minutes on:

GROWING

GO

Hitting the big 3 next week...30.... How will that change things?
How have I grown so far? I really can't put a finger on what kind of emotion to feel. Happy. Overwhelmed. Excited. It's all there but still not quite there yet. Apart from physical changes in my life during childhood, adolescence, university, marriage, and having 2 boys, there has been maturity at different phases.

I clearly remember the leap in my spiritual maturity during my time at University at Manipal while I did my Masters. Grace Home contributed to my huge leap in Bible knowledge (previously founded on the Jesus movies). And a sense of those things that are important and what's real. I am someone who would get excited in anything new that I saw. If I saw some lovely quilts, I would dream of quilting and making quilts for my future kids. If I saw a malnourished orphaned child, I would dream big of rescuing children and providing for them. It's great to have excitement and dreams in life.A maturity to put these excitements in God's hands and wait on Him is what Grace Home taught me.

My current life in the Netherlands and being part of a church here, has contributed to my next step in maturity. Being a Bible study leader, Church council member, Church creche leader and other roles at various points of my almost 6 years here has added a few more furrows of learning on my brain and a clearer picture of my purpose here. (Many things still remain unclear, though). Most of all "a wait and think and then speak " policy has clearly been established , other than the occasional foul ups.

Me: Now Lord , what are your plans for me? What do you want me to learn?
God: Beloved, all will be revealed in My own time. Prepare yourself to have a teachable spirit.

STOP

Five minute Fridays: Joy

Back on my Five minute Fridays after a week of New Wine and 3 weeks of India
Pure unedited writing begun by Gypsy Mama

GO
JOY
A constant reminder over the years whenever I grumble, feel overwhelmed with lack of something, empty or irritated when God silently breathing into my heart "Do you have my joy, child"? The joy of the Lord is my strength. A wonderful healthy happy family. JOY. healthy me. JOY. A job that I love doing a few days week enabling me to be part of the children's life more.JOY.a husband who has a job in this time and season. JOY. Two beautiful boys. JOY. Watching them play, laugh together and fight together. JOY. Provision in all things. JOY. Opportunity to know you and grow in you. JOY.JOY.JOY.

Nehemiah 8:10 – “the joy of the LORD is your strength.”

STOP
Link up here to write you Five Minute Friday

Pinterest

Back from India and diving straight into family,home and work. I have been fascinated by "Pinterest" .Its an absolute discovery! You can have different boards and pin things that you like in them. Helps me to pin up the blogs that I like. Cute kids stuff that I see while surfing.
Saying no more. Take a look and be dazzled!

http://pinterest.com/manjusarajacob/

Making use of limited space to contain my entire life is a struggle.
Here is the kids book shelf that I rearranged and made it look a little more pleasant and sorted books into baskets. The top basket ones for Elijah's board books. And another basket for Christian books on the christian section in our library.

Five minute Friday: Full

I HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING LISA'S A.K.A THE GYPSY MAMA FIVE MINUTE FRIDAY
On Fridays around these parts we like to write. Not for comments or traffic or anyone else's agenda. But for pure love of the written word. For joy at the sound of syllables, sentences and paragraphs all strung together by the voice of the speaker.

We love to Just write without worrying if its just right or not. For five minutes flat. Here is how we do it:

1. Write for 5 minutes flat with no editing, tweaking, or self critiquing.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in(you can grab the button code in the right side bar of her website).
3. Go and tell the person who linked up before you what their words meant to you. Every writer longs to feel heard.

OK, are you ready ? Give me your best five minutes for the prompt:
Full.....

GO

As you can see my Five minute Friday is written on the Monday for this week. That's because my Friday ... as the topic says was "Full". Full as in busy and full of bad news.

I woke up checking my email in bed(i realize I shouldn't be doing this), to find that the mother of my friend was diagnosed with bone cancer. That was my first dip even before I could get out of bed. To not be there for them at this time and to not to know what they are going through just fills me with that kind of uneasy feeling.

The day I decided not to send Elijah to the daycare.. was the day he had to fall down these Dutch steep stairs. The thud.. or rather the many thuds I heard.. and I still hear in my head is one thud I cannot forget.There he was lying on the floor and blood every where. Long story short.. the poor boys front two teeth fell off. I found one completely out lying on the floor. Among the blood I couldn't find the other one. Went to the doctors. Got an all clear(The Dutch doctors are all about giving the all clear . all the time). Saturday Morning we saw a little bit of the teeth in the mouth and thought if it was broken or something like that.
Went to the emergency dentists and he said that the tooth had pushed into the gums. That must have been one blow for that tooth to get pushed inside. But there wasn't any need to take it out and it would be fine. So for the next 6 to 7 years of his life he will be walking around with the 1 mile gap in his mouth. He obviously recovered with 15 minutes and was upset that he couldn't bite into his apple. But mama is still reeling over that incident and hearing thuds in her sleep.

My "full" day isn't over yet.

Once things settled, I checked my email(again) to find out the father of my best friend who we knew very well and went for EfM classes(Education for Ministry) together for 2 years, opened their home for the young adults of Trinity Church Eindhoven to meet for cell, fathered in all the expat students, went back to Hong Kong and was doing missionary work among the Chinese factory workers... died of a sudden heart attack. He was perfectly healthy and always biked 45 mins to work.

FULL

I intended to write on how my life was FULL of blessings. And at the end I can say how full of protection and blessings my life and the life of my family has been.

STOP

FIVE MINUTE FRIDAY:Loss

FIVE MINUTES TO WRITE ON A TOPIC CHOSEN BY LISA-JO OF GYPSY MAMA. UNEDITED WRITING FOR 5 MINUTES.
This is the first time i am trying this out after following a friends own Five minute Friday.Here it goes....
GO
Loss
How many of those opportunities in helping someone, saying s few words of encouragement, just being the listener, have i missed in the past week alone. A loss to me in doing what God wants me to do. But knowing that God does achieve that purpose through someone else in another time, does comfort me a little bit.
What do i do with this sense of loss in missing God's point. Do I wallow in it and say I cant do any of what you give me Lord, stating reasons such as kids, work ,home, family.
No.
I choose to pray harder for the Lord to show me these opportunities clearly, and give me the courage and strength to follow that call. This is the journey I signed up for. If missed today, you will help me gain it another day.
STOP