Holiday activities, gym comp. Learning. In season fruit – Feijoas are weird and an acquired taste but the kid likes them. Baking.
Jungle gym climbing, baking, homemade tomato sauce, keeping plants alive for more than a week!!! The exciting going-ons of the last few weeks. And some sewing too.
Currently, I’m ..
Watching – Babylon Berlin on Netflix and Greys on demand as the episodes arrive express from the US. The former is weird, not awful, but definitely weird.
Listening to – The Greatest Showman soundtrack. On repeat, the kid loves it also.
Reading – I’m re-reading Legend by Marie Wu. Mostly because I forgot to get new stash of books out of the library and needed something to read and it was on my kindle ready to go.
Making – Trying to get back into more baking, mini frittatas and muffins this week
Sewing – cutting a jersey cards for the kid and a drawstring backpack for the kids copious dancing gear
Garden – pulling out old tomatoes and zinnias from the patio boxes that got battered in the winds and popping in some flowers for the end of summer into autumn. Also planning tree planting once the temps drop and the rainfall increases.
Dreaming – of patio furniture and autumn getaways
A new year! Is it weird that I believe that even years are luckier than odd years? i have nothing to substantiate this claim, and in fact it’s possible to infer from the years of blogging that odd years may have actually been marginally better. Or may be there are all the same really, with each having its fair shares of highs and lows.
Anyway! It’s an even year and I’m happy about it. I don’t have any huge resolutions. Predominantly because history has taught me I’m terrible at ‘resolutions’ and making changes in general. I start string and about 3 days in give up and refer back to older stronger habits.
So this year I’ve got intentions (resolutions by another name?) They mostly revolve around being calmer and more present, loosing 15kg and getting fit by running and walking more. So, same as every other year really.
We started strong with bike rides and hiking in the hills and going to the library to get out books to read in the evenings rather than web browsing and surfing social media. I have ordered chatbooks for both my own and the kids instagram accounts and my goal is to be mindful of the pictures I post so the albums become pleasantly collated records not a random mumble jumble of images.
The house is clean, I’m on top of the washing (shock!) and we are putting the phones, laptops and tablets down for more engaged time over puzzles and board games. So far so good. It is only day 8 of the new year tho.
Failing so far … still eating far to much chocolate. Blessings … the bakery is still closed so at least I can’t eat to much cake.
Blogging in 2018. My intention for this year is deceptively simple. I want to blog more regularly and take many many more pictures. I will keep up the 12 Monthly Photos of the Kid, and I am hoping to do 12 Months of Adventures – I think it’s my attempt to be mindful of the passing months and not to miss out on doing something, however big or small. Hopefully by the end of each month I’ll have a couple of adventures to choose from. May be. That’s the idea anyway. Call it work in progress.
January started on a high with a trip to Akaroa to have a walk, wander about and eat good food.
I haven’t really updated here all that much recently. It’s not been a intentional absence as some sort of commentary on my life or of whats going on in the world. Just an accumulation of being busy and not taking many pictures in the past two months.
That’s not to say we have been idle or bored. We got back home to NZ on the last day of June and heralded in 3 weeks of motel living, catching up with friends, playdates, furniture shopping, curtain ordering, and getting back onto an even keel.
The second week home saw massive snowfall and some great fun for the kids (and adults!)
We have moved into our new house and are loving it. Obviously I did have ideas of elaborate and artistic pictures taken of my favourite parts of our new place, but thats not happened yet – it might eventually but perhaps don’t hold your breath for it?
I am baking, cooking and generally starting to feel like I’m reconnecting with my happy space of creating a home for my little family and taking care of them.
The kid is getting back into all activities. She’s very excited to be learning her dances for the end of year ballet and jazz show (Peter Pan!). I was very proud of her having a very respectable outing for a short notice gymnastics ribbon day. Not bad considering she’s missed 6 months of learning the routines etc that all her team mates have had. Settling back into gym is taking a little longer – she adores gymnastics but we are still trying to find the right balance that reflects the training she was so loving in the UK.
And once settled we got kittens. While we still miss our old guys massively these little bundles are just pure perfection. The whiter/creamier ones is our little boy, Spencer. And his mink tabby sister (who is also about 50% bigger than him) is Ellie. They are Ragdoll hybrids and have the greatest temperaments.
Probably the biggest change, and I have no pictures to annotate it with, is that our homeschool journey seems to have rather abruptly ended.
The kid decided, after some discussions with us that she wanted to try school. To see if that would be a better fit and work more harmoniously for her, rather than being at home 1-2-1 with me all day everyday.
So far (week 3) she is comfortable and thriving. Really really happy. While I miss her lots it is hard to feel anything other than joy that she has made a choice that appears to be the right one for her.
Thank heavens for floofy, dozy, crazy and cute kittens to keep me busy!
Autumn is here, cooler nights, bonfires and woodburners going. Fruit and veggies form the garden. Peppers, courgettes, spinach and kale. Carrots and peaches.
Sunny days outdoors, sidewalk chalk and bike riding. The chiminea burning rosemary twigs and scenting the washing.
The kid found a Mantis who was aggressivly studied (poked and prodded) before being released. I doubt he’ll stop by this house again!
I have dug out the winter merino and down jackets. A wooly hat on my crochet hooks. Wood is dry and ready to burn. Kindling being chopped almost daily.
A holiday in 3 week. Much excitement. In between cold meds and rest from the first bug of the season.
A walk ona cool morning yielded some delicious and unexpected delights. Blackberries which we spectacularly missed last year. Well we hit the metaphorical and possibly literaly blackberry jackpot. So many. So few tarty ones.
Because lets be honest here. While natures bounty is all well and good, blackberrying is russion roulette for your taste buds. And it’s brutal if youre not spot on timing wise.
Well, we were spot on. The kid ate loads and loads. As many as I could pick her, and time after time she exclaimed “sweet and juicy mama”.
It was an over all lovely walk, even taking the blackberry awesomenss out of it. Cool morning air with a faint woodsmoke tang, a little mist on the far hills as we set out that burned off as the morning progressed and warmed up. Leaves beginning to turn. Elder berries heavy on the branches. Dry grasses spiling seeds. A greenness that, where we live, spells the ending of a hot, dry and fire laden summer.
Hello Autumn. Welcome. We have missed you.
Christmas clothes, christmas ornaments. A little pattern testing that ive combined into Christmas clothes making. Her own ornaments. The easiest, fastest most fuss free pizza Ive ever made. Seriously. I make pizza pretty often and make the dough myself. Im no novice in that respect. But. This. Was live changing.
Two ingredients. No rise! And yes I will share. 2 cups of self raising flour + 2 cups of natural or greek yoghurt. Mix into a very wet and sticky dough. divide into 4 (or 3 in our case) and plop onto floured baking parchment. Sprinkle with flour and flatten. beware its *sticky*. Add topping. Slide onto a preheated tray. Cook. I did mine at 250 (or the hottest my oven would go – so probably a bit above 250) for about 10 mins or until it looked cooked.
The kid decorated hers herself. Child cooking for a win.
Thank me later 😉
From my backdoor (literally stood on the step) the little building on the right is our sleep out/spareroom/art craft and school room. Veggie beds have onions, garlic and lettuce in them. The small square bed will be sweet peas.
Moving towards the back – front veggie beds on the left are cabbages, kale and spinach. There is a lemon tree and a plum tree. blueberry bushes in the foreground and the blossom tree is a peachcot tree. A;leo peas against the garage on the far left out of shot. The 5 big beds at the back are our main producing veggie beds and currently have brassicas in, broccoli, kohl rabi and kale, some strawberry plants and germinating seeds for carrots and butter beans. Capsicums and zucchini will go in as soon as I’m totally convinced we won’t get a errant frost.
This week has been a ‘good night’ to the garden week. I have dug over most of the beds – the capsicums are still in the ground (got about 4 left to harvest) and the parsnip bed. But the rest are guy and ready to receive generous quantities of manure and blood and bone.
There are also a few tree rounds (same again that’s not pictured) to be split ready for next winter too. Not a lot as its form the stump felled rather than a whole tree, but it should yield a couple of cubic metres once split up.
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