I think most Victorians would agree that this year in particular it has felt like it is the Winter that will never end! Don't get me wrong, Winter actually is one of my favourite seasons, but this one is just going and going and going ...

Maybe it is because I am now back being a full time employee and have to leave the house at ungodly morning hours, travel vast distances and traverse muddy school yards that I didn't have to do when I was being mum at home.

Maybe it's because I am again stuck inside with a damned flu! Again, universally agreed to be the worst flu season ever! Either way, I am here now thinking about you, my blog. Thinking about how aspirational it was, how determined it was and how much time I had to devote to it.

Somewhere along the way with our move to the seaside and 4 small children becoming larger, busier ones, I let something go in my life. And this was it. I want it back now. I have so much to say and not just about food anymore. I want to talk about cutting all sorts of crap from life, as this is starting to clog up my existence. So, let's start the conversation again shall we?

Below are the books that have once again been my inspiration. I have eagerly been awaiting these to come in the mail. I borrowed Rhonda's books from the library and thought them so worth the money I ordered them so I had copies for myself.

I have been diving head first into these during  my convalescence and they are telling me the answer to the question I didn't know I was asking. My Winter wasn't just lasting all this year, it's been going for many years and yes it's time to shake off the grey clouds and start living life again how I want to. Without guilt, without time constraints, without nay-saying. 

If you want to get a sense of what I mean head to these two authors, and feel the cold of Winter blowing away for yourself:

This year my husband and I decided that we needed to change communities and move home. It wasn't because we hated where we were or that we didn't like the people we lived with. In fact we will miss the other families in our community very much.

We decided to move to keep our focus on our children's health and well being. We have 3 boys as you know and eventually those boys will be teenagers and young men. Teenagers need healthy interests and awesome friends and role models to get them through what can sometimes be a rough ride into adulthood.

The community we were in was all like us, young families and although this is great when the children are little we didn't think it would be good when the children were older. Life in the suburbs with thousands of bored teenagers didn't sound appealing.

Our quest to find a new home took us to the seaside for a sea change. We have found a suburb that has a village feel and a mixed demographic. Our new neighbors are retired and the children's new school is half the size of their old. Furthermore, their school overlooks the ocean and we are a mere 5 minute walk from the beach.

My husband can fish with the boys, my daughter and I can peruse the markets for good, local fresh food and together as a family we can spend greater quality time together ... mostly renovating at the moment ... the new house is a real fixer upper!!

To my loyal followers, I just want to let you know that things may be a little quiet on the social media front for the next two weeks as I am moving house ... and we all know what a pain that is!!

Please feel free to post your ideas, recipes and more in my small absence and I look forward to reading all about your chemical free lives when I return!

In the meantime don't forget that my books are always available for purchase and when I'm back on board we can have lots more fun together living the chemical free life!

Sometimes I need to remind myself just how far my children have actually come on this food journey of ours and give them a lot more credit. 

We recently had a little friend of my daughters over for an afternoon play date and I soon realized how different our food habits are now.

It was very hot when I picked the kids up from school so I bought them some frozen orange. The guest didn't like this and asked if we had Zooper Doopers instead (a colored and sickly flavored ice Popsicle in a tube)to which I had to say no we didn't. But I did have a healthy Smooze (natural flavored ice treat) from the freezer she could try. She didn't like their coconut flavor.

When it was afternoon snack time I offered fruit, the guest didn't like fruit, but was happy to try my cake, until she was told it was made from Weetbix! That wasn't liked either. 

Our poor guest had to resort to eating her leftover school lunch, which was full of processed crackers and cookies with pink frosting and colored sprinkles. The kind of treat my children would never touch these days.

yes, my kids have certainly changed their eating habits and for the better and there is never a complaint or a no when they are offered some Weetbix slice!

This is my beautiful daughter, Taylor No. 2! She's gorgeous huh? So bubbly, funny and smart. She is the reason this site is here.

Just like regular mums I thought I was feeding my children healthy nutritious food that would help them grow and thrive. In fact I was feeding them the kinds of foods I grew up on and well didn't I grow up fit and healthy?

However, I was wrong. My five year old daughter was floundering. She didn't have the relaxed happy go nature of her older brother, in fact quite the opposite. Interest in books and reading did not come naturally and her defiant attitude had us all in a spin.

Think, does this sound familiar in your household with one of your children? Firstly they are hard to rouse in the morning. In fact if you let them, they would sleep to lunchtime! When they do wake they’re grumpy and grizzly, argue about breakfast, school uniform, hair brushing and then it only goes downhill from there.

Tummy aches after meals, short tempers and tears over nothing. Then there’s the anxiety over new situations and sibling squabbles, and the inevitable fight to get them to bed at night.

Physically my daughter displayed itchy, pale skin, had dark circles under her eyes and a general lethargy. I've since read some people explaining it as having a fog over their brain.

My daughter had started primary school and it wasn't the stellar start to academia that we were hoping for. She had little interest in books and scared of things like school plays and sports. It was baffling as her overall attitude to school was excellent and when she wasn't acting like a three year old she was the most intelligent, insightful, kind little girl you could hope to meet. So why did we still need time outs and reward lists?

The impetus to seek answers for this behavior came because of two events. Easter school holidays were approaching and I was secretly thinking there was no way I could go through another school break like the one we had at Christmas, someone wasn't going to make it out the other side alive!

The second event was the most worrying of all. It occurred when my 5 year old precious child announced to me while she was having a particularly low moment that she wanted to die! I was horrified, it’s surely not normal for a 5 year old to be depressed and suicidal.

My first step was to take her to a GP and ensure there wasn't a medical reason for her tiredness, as I thought this was the reason for the cranky behavior. Her iron levels were tested but all was fine. I changed her shower gel to soap free and started making my own washing powder to ease the itchy skin symptoms, but there was no change.

My next thought was that we would have to see a Paediatrician to discuss behavioural issues. But before we did this there was one more route I wanted to attempt, diet changes.

I remembered a mother from playgroup that had changed the diet of her 2 year old son. She was the kind of mother who never got to sit still because she always had to run around after him.

In only two weeks this little boy went from a child who never sat still, wasn’t talking and generally destructive to a pleasant little boy. He was able to sit still and play with others, started speaking and looked you in the face when you spoke to him.

So what had his mother done? She had changed his diet and limited his T.V. screen time after reading the website www.fedup.com.au by a lady named Sue Dengate. After a brief look I realized this was definitely for us.

The testimonials were like a hidden camera had been placed in our house. After reading the site through we decided to make some changes in our home and it was easier than you would have thought. Believe me if it wasn't easy I wouldn't have done it. I’m pretty lazy like that.

And if I hadn't seen the changes immediately I wouldn't have persevered. Just like when you start a weight loss diet, it’s easy to lose heart if you don’t see results immediately.

So, if we could do it,  you can do it too. Does any of this sound familiar? Tell us about through the Your Stories page or comment below. I'd love to know what your doing to cut the chemicals in your child's life.