What to do when you feel lousy and can't do much...

Well, I think it's a great time to catch up on ideas. I've not had much time for thinking and contemplating beyond the weekly food menu, how to improve my paleo diet, and the shopping list ( I do a lot of thinking about food!).

So, it seems I have caught a bug. I've been feeling very low and had nasty stomach cramps too. Thankfully, no vomiting or diarrhea, but still feeling quite awful.

So rather than be frustrated, I've decided this time is actually a gift to be savoured. It's an opportunity to rest, because it is obviously something I need, and a chance to take time to  do nothing at all.

So, I'm in bed, writing this and doing some thinking and researching.

I've been thinking about the garden. I can't wait til we sell our block of land so we can spend some money developing our house block. I want to move the vegetable garden up close to the house, build a chook(chicken) yard nearby, and bring in a whole lot of fill so that we can have a LEVEL garden. I'm really sick and tired of having to have raised terraced beds. We lose so much water, and digging, planting, pushing a wheel-barrow and carrying things up and down a hill is just proving to be too challenging. It has led me to being very neglectful of the garden. So, that's the long term plan...

The short term plan is to start showing some love to my garden again. We've had a long hot summer (it's still happening), which makes for loads of lovely beach time, but very little loving of the garden. My garden isn't reticulated. I don't have the time or inclination to stand out in the Aussie sun, watering the garden for hours on end. Consequently, everything is suffering from a lack of water. Why won't it just rain???

So, I need to pull up many dead plants, put in a whole lot of organic matter, and rejuvenate the soil before I start planting out in late Autumn. I don't really want to do many of those jobs until the weather is cooler. So perhaps in the Easter holidays, I'll get a start on that.

Then I'll start planting out broccoli,beetroot,cabbage,carrots,lettuce,Asian greens,onions, spinach (lots and lots of this) and peas.

I've also been thinking about recipes. I recently got hold of this book: Bridging Foods: http://www.penguin.com.au/products/9780646521718/bridging-foods-introduction-gluten-dairy-yeast-free-eating.

I'm going to try out these recipes this week:

• Thai Fish Cakes
• Pumpkin and Tuna Sushi
• Coconut Chicken and Asian Salad
• Fish Tacos

I'll let you know how they turn out.

Oh dear - I seem to be thinking about food again! There's no way around it. A family has to eat.

I've also thought about getting more time to myself. I've come up with a tiny little plan to get 30 minutes of swimming laps in. Apparently the quietest time for lap swimming is between 2.30 and 3.30. On a Wednesday I'm not teaching period 6, which means if I left a tiny bit before home-time, I could manage a half hour in the pool. No one will miss me, and I'll get a well deserved 30 minutes to myself. Yippee! It's certainly worth a try.

I have to admit, though feeling sick isn't pleasant, it was nice to have some time to do nothing much at all.