Advent day 17 - acceptance

I have had a very productive day today. I got my car fixed. I went shopping. I needed to buy a rolling pin so I literally went to every op shop in Hervey bay (I was after a few other things too) but I couldn't find one anywhere. I had to get one from woolies and it was the only utensil on the shelf wrapped in plastic :(

I came home and started baking and making cosmetics and I was on a roll (geddit, rolling pin.. roll... sigh).

I planted some peas, chilis and more tomatoes.

I made cashew milk. Again similar to oats in that it tastes like wet cashews. Oat milk tastes like we oats. I shall see how it goes in the smoothie tomorrow.

I made James' hair gel for him again. I let it set for longer this time so it is more sticky and I put it in the fridge so I hope it works even better this time.

I made more deodorant. This time with tea-tree and rose-geranium essential oils.

I also had a go at making perfume oil. Its surprisingly easy, but it isn't like a spray. It's based on jojoba oil. I used rose geranium and lavender essential oils. The cute bottle I got from Biome. Its like one of those ball applicator thingos. Literally just filled the tube with jojoba oil and added about 20 drops of essential oils.

I also had a go at making tooth powder with bentonite clay, charcoal, bicarb soda, salt and peppermint. https://www.biome.com.au/blog/natural-whitening-tooth-powder/

I chose not to go with the turmeric. I haven't tried it yet, so we shall see if it tastes like dirt tomorrow.

I had some leftover arrowroot and bentonite clay, so I made some foundation powder.

The hardest part it getting it to match my skin. This is the recipe I used, but I reduced the cocoa a bit. https://www-purelyunrefined-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/www.purelyunrefined.com/all-natural-powder-foundation/amp/

I buggered up my Nutella that I made today. I accidentally burnt the chocolate so I had to try mixing honey and cocoa to make it chocolaty, and it doesn't quite have the smooth consistency that my last one had. But that is ok, I'm still learning.

I also took a big chance today (well I say that, it is just a completely foreign recipe that I didn't know was going to work) and made tortillas! Hence having to buy a rolling pin

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/1864/flour-tortilla-wraps.aspx

Cooking them on a dry hot pan is weird, its just like burning them. They tasted ok and probably need a few more tries to perfect it. The recipe makes 60. There was no way I was making 60, so I just sort of winged it with the ratios and it turned out ok. So I was pretty happy with this one.

I wanted to talk about acceptance though and what all this has to do with it. There are a few things that I've learnt about acceptance this year that I think has generally helped me as a human being. I have learnt to accept failure. The amount of times teaching this year that I've failed, and recipes that have failed, and choices that have failed and hard work that has failed me this year has been constant. But it isn't a bad thing. I've just learnt to get on with it. And considering my mental health over the past 6 or so years, that is a big step. I remember the first time this year I took containers to the butchers to get meat (something that is a great idea for Christmas if you are buying lots of meat) I was so nervous. But I had to keep reminding myself that the worst thing that can happen is that it doesn't happen. Today I had to accept that I had to pay for a new car battery. I had to accept that my Nutella mucked up. I had to accept that my tortillas might have burnt the house down or failed in some other way (I wasn't going to let the house burn down). I have had to accept that I can't change everyone's mind about things. That I can't influence the behaviour of everyone around me in regards to going zero waste. But I don't think (and I'm being very truthful here) I could have done this if I didn't think that God loved me whether I failed in any of this or not. I don't know why that is the defining factor in all of this. But it really helped me realise that I didn't have to get it perfect.