Busy kids and a glorious weekend.

Apparently the children talked until after 10pm Friday night and were awake talking around 5am.
Despite having no children in the house I didn’t sleep well either.
When Tim got up at 6:30am I went to sleep.
I was out cold when the phone rang at 7:30am.
I was not terribly impressed at being woken from such a deep sleep and was feeling really grumpy for a while.
However, it was all good cuz it was Sasha.
She and Glen’s wife Maree were on a women’s walk in Nydia Bay and were keen to come out here when the other ladies went home.

The children played so well together all day.
I hardly saw them.
I made a large batch of muffins to share with the troops.
They disappeared quickly.
Mahalia went out fishing in the boat for a while.
Azzan was obviously quite tired so by afternoon he needed some time to himself.
I also told him he was to sleep in his own bed that night.
I cannot cope with him when he is tired.
And he cannot cope with himself!!

Steve & Glen went out fishing and diving.
Brought  us back some paua.
They were delicious – I had 2 for my dinner.

They whizzed up to Duncan’s Bay and got the ladies in the late arvo.
We had a lovely time together.
Maddi and I made a triple Self-saucing Butterscotch Pudding and took it down to the Cottage for dessert.
It disappeared very quickly.
Tim & I tucked Azzan into bed so he could get an early night before we popped down to socialise.

Mahalia took the kids down to the woolshed to find some penguins.

There were a few there which made them all happy.
They are nesting at present.

Sunday

The children were up and out there playing early.
The boys brought this critter into show me.
Azzan thought it would be quite a good idea to keep it as a pet and feed it up till it was big enough to eat.
I had other ideas though!





Sasha, Maree & I chatted over hot date scones and cups of herb tea.
Then Glen, Steve, Maree and kids cleaned up the Cottage.
Tim went on ahead with the children to take them skidder boarding up the top of the hill.
Azzan got left behind
Thankfully Steve was able to take him up.
Tim took a load around to Elaine Bay in the Safari to make it easier for Glen as he had more than a car full now the ladies had joined them.

I had a lovely few hours to myself.
I sat with a large pot of herbal tea and watched ‘Larkrise to Candleford’.
Then I made dinner.
It was all ready for when they walked in the door.
We had pita breads with an assortment of fillings.
The kids always love that type of meal.
Tim and kids arrived back around 6pm with Nathan.
He had driven into Elaine Bay from Yari’s b’day.
It was his first solo drive and he did well.
They left the Safari there so Mike can do some panel beating on it. – bit of rust control!
Hopefully it will be all done by the time we need it for our October family holiday.

Friday Mail and Visitors

The mailboat brought a few nice surprises.

Azzan always loves to help me open the mail but never expects anything for himself.
He hopes lots
This time though Sunni had sent a parcel to Azzan.
He opened it.
When he realised what it was he just stood there holding it, speechless for several minutes.

Do you think he is happy?

He was so thrilled to receive the Geronimo Stilton dvd and then to find it was 2 dvds with 13 episodes.
An 8year old’s heaven
Thanks Sunni – you are a wonderful big sister xxxx

I got a new Karen Kingsbury book so I was happy too.

We had some folk due in to The Cottage.
They arrived much later than anticipated.
Steve hasn’t been here in over 12 years so he was pretty thrilled about coming back.
After 10 years in Kalgoorlie in the dessert he and his family a loving being back in NZ.
He brought his two boys Jahmon (9) and Jye (7) with him.
Plus a friend Glen who came with his daughters Shakyla (8) and Maddison (11).

Mahalia & Azzan were dong their music practice when they all arrived.
The guys and I sat and chatted over a cuppa while waiting for Tim.
The children did not take very long to pal up

Before long I had Mahalia & Maddi asking if Hali could sleep in the Cottage with them.
The others put the boat in the water and went fishing.
When they got back Azzan joined the kids and I never saw them again till dark.
They were playing on the big gumtree swing and then down in the woolshed.

Tim and I were eating dinner while Hali & Maddi got the sleeping bag & gear sorted.
They munched on sausages and then went down for fresh fish dinner with the guys.
Azzan came flying in to ask if he could sleep down there too.
I suggested that maybe he should ask.
So he flew off to ask and then was back in a flash to get his sleeping bag.
He grabbed a sausage as he whizzed out the door in a great flurry of excitement.

Tim and I cuddled up on the sofa with our dinner and watched ‘Larkrise to Candleford’.
I kept on falling to sleep so we eventually headed off to bed.
It was very strange to have no children in the house!

Wharf building on a glorious Friday

Friday was a glorious day.
I managed to get the washing out onto the line.
It was great to be out in the sunshine.
Azzan & Mahalia cleaned up their rooms.
Tim was working on the wharf.

He is sanding the 8m lengths of decking.
They are very heavy and hard to handle on his own.
I did offer to help him cuz Nathan is not here.

Azzan and I went down to the mailboat and had a closer look at what he is doing.

It was a bit scary cuz nothing is nailed down at the end and there are lots of gaps!!

Walking on the new decking.

Azzan was enjoying the tightrope walking!!

See how long they are?

Me sizing up the next plank and wondering if I can lift it!

Staggering along carrying one end for Tim.

Tim decided I was better at cuddling him than lifting timber

Thursday – a really good day in town!

This was the first Thursday in quite a while that we were doing a day trip.
Of course I had the alarm set for 4:45am but woke around 3am.
Didn’t sleep much from then so got up around 4:30.
Cooked Nathan’s toasties for him and then woke him to have a discussion about him staying on it town for a few days so he could help Yari celebrate his birthday.
The discussion could have happened the night before & he could have been all packed and ready had the guys actually thought to discuss it with me.
But as they hadn’t Tim raised the subject at 3am!

I got Mahalia & Azzan up at 5am and we were heading up the drive by 5:30.
Had a good run to Nelson.
I was getting pretty sleepy after the first hour or so.
I asked Nathan to drive from the top of the Ronga.
He drove us to Nelson so I was able to close my eyes for a while.
I dropped him at ‘The Wood’, left Tim’s chainsaw at the Stihl Shop and then unloaded my photocopier at Lazer’s Edge.
It is a big dinosaur of a machine which I have had for so many years I have forgotten and it has never had to be serviced before.
It was quite an act finding somewhere to take it.
Am really hoping it just needs cleaning and a basic service as it is a really good machine.

Then we headed straight out to Edencourt.
I left Mahalia there to ride while Azzan & I zipped out to Spring Grove to see Sally.
I had told her I was coming to crack the whip and get her started on her packing as she hadn’t managed to get her head around beginning yet.
I had taken Nathan’s stock whip with me so walked in waving it about.
Created a good bit of laughter to begin the morning
We got into her homeschooling cupboard and over the next hour managed to sort out and pack up lots of boxes.
It was very satisfying to be able to leave her 1 empty cupboard and half a dozen full named boxes closer to the final pack and move!

I zipped back to get Mahalia.
I had asked her to be ready by 10:30am but as it was such a glorious day she & Callum were still out in the paddock riding.
We were off in a cloud of dust as soon as she got back.
No time to groom Tusk today unfortunately.

I was on a time frame as I had to drop the two of them at piano and then be at my appointment by 11:15.
Just made it!
I spent the next couple of hours with the chiropractor and massage therapist.
Then it was back to get the kids.
There had been a major muck up with violin which was very annoying.
We had a substitute teacher who really didn’t seem to know what was going on
Hopefully things will be back to normal next week when Fleur is back.
I had to make a run for it and get the children to gymnastics and be down the street at my counseling session by 2pm.
Needed some Mindfulness to begin with to settle my racing mind!

I got back to gymnastics about 10mins before they all finished.
They had a great session.
Nathan is enjoying having the 3 coaches working with them now as it splits the group well and they get a much better workout.

I dropped M&A at dancing.
Nathan shot into the library while I fueled up the Terrano.
Then we whizzed in to The Warehouse to get Yari a card and birthday voucher.
From there it was over the hill to Tahunanui to pick up the Safari.
Nathan transferred all our gear while I talked with Niven about what had been done and what still needs to happen.
Nathan headed to Wakefield in the Terrano and I took the Safari back to the city and picked up Azzan.
Left him at the library and whizzed around Countdown.
Mahalia met me there after jazz.
Then we picked up Azzan and we picked up Chinese takeaways for them and a Burger for me and left town.
We popped in to pick up Seb’s mail on the way.

We were home by 8:30pm.
We were chatting in the car about music.
Mahalia is happy to pick up violin if she can so Azzan said he would teach her to get her up to speed.
Mahalia then said she would help him with his piano practices.
I was talking to them about how much practicing helps you to advance.
That learning music is like babies learning to speak.
And that if you practice lots then you will get far more from your lessons and you will eventually then begin to enjoy your music.

Azzan commented that ‘actually music was becoming quite a joy to him now.’
I am very glad to hear that – it makes up for the times when I feel like I am pulling hens teeth to get him to actually do his practising!!

It was a really good day.
Everything connected and the day went very smoothly 

A few days at home – lovely :-)

Monday

Tim has spent his days working on the wharf.
He has had to lift all the temporary planking so it is looking rather naked again.
But now he can start laying the permanent 8m lengths of decking.
Unfortunately it is one of those jobs where he could do with a helping hand and we have no-one extra here to assist right now.
Probably get inundated with wwoofers as soon as he is finished it

He has had some gloriously flat calm days to work there which have been great.
The sky was really interesting when I took this photo.
A very strange reddish cloud formation was hanging below the morning clouds as they lifted.

Nathan has been working on his school work.
He is doing a newspaper for Classics based on Trojan wars and Greek mythology.
Right up his alley!

Azzan was bored.
He came and asked me what bored meant.
I told him that it was a form of selfishness.
That someone who was bored needed to start thinking beyond themselves and look for things they could do for other people.

I suggested he might like to help me sort out the pantry.
He was pretty excited about that idea.
I had bought some more Klip-It containers last week when I spotted them on a half price sale in Countdown.
I had been waiting for some larger containers to get the job finished.
We spent 2-3 hours in the pantry sorting foods into appropriate sizes and cleaning up.
It had gotten into quite a mess over the past weeks.
Azzan was like a wee wind-up Energiser bunny!
He was so keen to help and do things that he was rather a liability.
I was having to keep him contained so as not to spill stuff everywhere due to his extreme enthusiasm!
He was a brilliant wee cleaner-upper though.
He had the hearth brush and shovel in action and was sweeping out and cleaning up empty packets as I created any mess.
He was a bit lethal when he was wielding the kitchen broom – I had to duck a few times
We finally got the job done.

Mahalia was helping to prepare dinner while we were busy.
She made a white sauce to go with some fish and roasted up some pumpkin and made a small stir fry.
I made ‘Java Cream’ sago pudding.
When I was filling the container I had a bit too much sago so decided that we really needed dessert.
Good decision – it was delicious.

Tuesday

I couldn’t sleep so got up at 4:30am and spent a peaceful few hours working away in my art corner.
I put some wood on the fire, wrapped a blanket around my legs and turned on the radio.
Newstalk ZB is very entertaining at that hour of the day.
I got so much done on the scrapbook I am working on.
It was very satisfying.

Tim was back down on the wharf again.
He did plan to go fencing in the afternoon but ended up staying down there till dark.
He is really getting into it!

Nathan got a call from his English teacher about a story he had written while at the NMIT day on Friday.
He emailed it back to Nathan to continue working on.
I was very impressed with the content of it.
He now has to expand and tidy it up to earn the credits for the unit.
We worked on it further during the day and I critiqued it further after dinner.

I ended up spending a major part of my day in the study.
The morning was spent sussing stuff for the kids in between getting them onto their chores and school work..
The children were wanting new sheet music so I was cruising the web trying to find each piece.
I found some of them.
But failed to find 2 pieces.
Mahalia is wanting ‘Scarlet‘ by Brooke Fraser and Nathan is wanting ‘Rabbia e Tarantella‘, the theme tune to Inglorious Bastards.
If anyone knows where I can find them please let me know.

Over a month ago we went through all the motions of changing banks.
I sent out all the forms and paperwork to the various companies to let them know to update their details.
So, I was pretty annoyed yesterday to find that our old account which I hadn’t quite closed yet was overdrawn because two major players had ignored my updated advice!
It activated me to finally close the account and to heck with anyone who tries to use it from today!!
In so doing I also had to sort out some of the kids accounts which were linked in with my internet banking.
That took up a major part of the afternoon

It was such a glorious day.
Azzan decided to take his cd payer and speakers out onto the deck and dance.
I managed to capture him dancing to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.
It is a beautiful slow piece of music.
He really tries to get into the feeling of the music when he dances.
Unfortunately both of my camera batteries went flat before I could film him dancing to something more energetic.

Tim found a very large chicken in the freezer so I roasted it in the slow cooker.
Azzan peeled veges and Nathan helped get them cooked.
It was a delicious meal.

Mahalia decided to help Azzan clean up his room.
They did such an awesome job of it.
Azzan came and told me that he and Hali had decided it was better if they didn’t fight any more and that they should work together now
You can glean from that statement that I have been remonstrating with them in recent days on that issue!!

I watched the last few episodes of Series 2 ‘Larkrise to Candleford’ and went to bed far too late.
I just had to see Thomas & Margaret finally getting wed!



Wednesday

The weather is warming up.
It was quite breezy here today.
Nathan helped Tim to carry down more of the 8m lengths of wharf timber.
Tim was planning to do some fencing today but the wind has kept him back on the wharf instead.

Nathan worked some more on his story.
Am trying to get him to get it finished so it can be posted tomorrow.
Mahalia made breakfast smoothies so there was a large pile of breakfast dishes to wash.
She loves to look for new recipes in my Smoothie recipe book whereas I just make the same old, same old, banana & berry ones!
I had a chat with Phillipa and Sally this morning.
Also caught up with the health nurse.
We are so excited about Azzan’s nocturnal enuresis progress.
He has made huge progress in the past month.
It is very exciting to be finally coming to the end of this very very long term major family genetic problem.

I did some school work with Azzan.
He has a huge pile of busy books which he loves.
He hates colouring in but loves doing word searches and puzzles.
So he gathered all his half used books yesterday and is working through them so get some finished so we can lessen the pile somewhat.

I headed off to my bed for a couple of hours while the rest of the crew had lunch.
I was disturbed a couple of times by little folk who didn’t seem to appreciate why I was in there
I woke to find Nathan had left a mango smoothie beside my bed.
Nice

I spent all day in my dressing gown today.
Didn’t seem like any particular reason to be getting dressed.
So I have slummed it all day.

After my sleep I made some ginger gems and then prepared a chicken stir fry for dinner.
Azzan & Mahalia were watching Pink Panther while folding washing.
I sent them up the hill with Tim to get some fresh air while he went looking for a sheep to kill.
Didn’t find one so came back smelling okay.
I absolutely abhor the smell of freshly killed mutton!


I had my shower just before dinner – at least I was clean for the end of the day.
We have a very early start tomorrow as we are doing town in one day and my calendar is very full.
Well I thought it was full and then Tim added some more to the list!

Tim is reading the kids their night time stories and tucking them into bed.
Nathan & I are just making the lunches for tomorrow and then it is us off to bed.
Night

So good to be home :-)

Saturday

Azzan was on my case from around 5am to have a spa.
I was not at all impressed to be woken at that point so sent him back to bed.
He kept on coming back every 10mins or so to ask until I gave him one enormous flea in his ear around 6am!!

I finally gave in and he had his spa.
So when I hopped in around 8am it had cooled off somewhat.
Just as I was getting a bit too cool to stay in and was contemplating getting out I got a phone call from a friend who I hadn’t talked to or seen in 5 years.
So I laid back and chatted with her.
Then when the phone cut out I quickly hopped out and managed to make it back to the bedroom before she phoned back.
We then talked on for sometime.
I was in the study in my dressing gown getting colder by the moment.
But it was really good to catch up with each other.

Tim spent most of the day on the wharf.
He is beginning to make some good progress down there again.
He now has all the 8m planks so has lifted the temporary decking and is replacing it with the proper stuff.
He is spending most of every good day down there and is feeling like he is actually getting somewhere now.

Mahalia came to visit me with a wee critter.
She and Tim had been out to do the possum traps and she had brought home this baby.


I stayed in the study a while doing things so by the time I thought about getting dressed my feet were so cold I went and had a mid arvo hot shower in an attempt at warming up my extremities!

I sat with the kids for a while and watched a few ‘Pink Panther’ episodes.
They are still very funny

I got dinner ready.
Was looking for Mahalia for ages.
She had disappeared.
Eventually she and Tim arrived in.
They had gone fishing and got some cod for dinner.
It was delicious.

I watched an Agatha Christie movie ‘The Body in the Library’ before toddling off to bed.
It was good.
I really enjoy Miss Marple and also Joanna Lumley.

Sunday

I soaked in the spa with my book for a while.
Chrissy put me onto a new biography of Leonard Cohen.
It is making a nice change in my reading materials.

Tim and the kids went out to check the possum traps again.
Thankfully no babies came back this time!

I have been trying to keep Azzan to task with his piano & violin practising.
He loves playing on the Clavinova and creating new sounds and recording himself.
But the plain straight forward actual practising is a real chore

I am also keeping Nathan at his school work.
He is getting up to speed as long as I keep him at it.
He finds it way too easy to diverse off into stargazing land or up to his room or outside!
He got another unit finished this morning and I am trying to get him onto some Classics this arvo.

Graham came around and we had fellowship and lunch.
Had a great discussion and learned about dugong and manatee.
Fascinating part of creation.

I got Mahalia to put on her two new jackets.
While looking for a jacket last week we found this leather look one in Farmer’s sale.

It was marked down from $69.95 to $15.00.
But as I went to the counter one of the buttons fell off so they discounted it again for me.
When I left I check the docket – they had sold it for $7!!
Another button came off so we bought some more on Thursday.
Mahalia chose these and I think they look better than the original ones.


This is the lovely downie coat I bought for her.
It is so cosy and snug and the colour is her favourite.
It zips all the way up and has cute toggles and several big pockets inside and out.



Tim, Graham & Mahalia went out fishing again this arvo.
Azzan watched some more Pink Panther.

I chilled out for a while and watched a few episodes of ‘Larkrise to Candleford’.
We had an easy dinner of fresh fish and rice.
Tim & Nathan cruised the net for a while looking for rifles.
A nice relaxing Sunday. 

Chilly mornings, sunny days in Nelson

Thursday

A really cold morning.
I cuddled up in my cosy dressing gown till I had to force my way out of bed and into my clothes.
Even then I piled it on over top of my clothes until I had to walk out the door!
The two children were able to get themselves up and going in time to come with Nathan & me.
I had to drop Nathan at The Wood by 9am so had 2 hours up my sleeve to do a few things.
Once we had done some jobs we went to Zumo to have hot chocolates and meet up with Chrissy.
It was lovely sitting in the sun there.
It is a lovely warm environment in all ways.
Then all of a sudden it was nearly 11am and I had to rush off to pick up Nathan.
I dropped Mahalia & Azzan at the School of Music and then took Nathan to Nelson Beauty Therapy for his skin treatment.
Bedelia is amazing.
Such a positive, well informed, enthusiastic and caring person.
She is doing so much for Nathan and his skin is looking so much better for her treatments.
I had only been there a couple of minutes when I got a call asking if I was coming to have my massage therapy.
I somehow had forgotten my 11am appointment!
It all worked out well as the kids were all sorted so I zipped down the street and had my hour session with Scott.
My shoulder is responding slowly to the treatment so it is worth it all.

I met up with the children after midday.
We went on to gymnastics and then to dancing.
Azzan flaked out half way through gymnastics.
I guess it is only a couple of days since he had the tummy bug and his tummy was hurting from too much exertion.
He asked if he could flag ballet so he went to the library with Nathan.
While Mahalia was dancing I got groceries for dinner.

The children seemed really surprised that we were going back to the house so early.
Managed to get there by about 5:30pm and had time to repack the Terrano as we weren’t going to be taking the Safari home.
There was too much work for the garage to do before the weekend.

After dinner M&A hopped into bed and watched a dvd.
Azzan had found a ‘Pink Panther‘ dvd at the library.
I was quite surprised that he hadn’t seen it before.
They absolutely love it.
Must say – when I was there age, I did too

Nathan & I watched TV and then I filled hotties and hopped into mine.
I surfed TradeMe for a while sussing out downie jackets for Mahalia.
They are so expensive new and as she is still growing I didn’t want to spend $200 on one just yet.
And that is sale price
She is growing upwards so fast at present and hasn’t any spare flash on her bones so feels the cold.
I had been searching for something warmer for her but come up with nothing economical
I found a downie coat which was being sold in Nelson for $30 so I messaged her and she text me back quite late telling me she could meet up the next day

Friday

Nathan had to be at NMIT by 9am so we were up and packed and gone by 8:30am.
Left Nathan at his Math and English study day.
Took Mahalia & Azzan up to the Winnington’s.
Chatted with Margaret for a while and then headed down the hill to my appointment.
I haven’t been totally happy with the counselor I have been seeing for a few weeks and after making some enquiries via a retired counselor friend of mine I finally took the bull by the horns and made some phone calls.
I was finding it all rather daunting so have really had to pluck up a heap of courage to make this move.
The lady I had chosen actually had a free appointment so I met her at 10:15am.
It was a good choice
After my hour with her I headed back in to the city.
I was feeling quite drained so text my friend to see if she was in the city centre.
She was, so I met up with her and her husband for 20mins at Sweet As.
It was great to debrief with her and talk things through further and know I had made a good choice.
It is also really good to have such a supportive and understanding friend.

They then headed up to the Cathedral for communion and I zipped over to Nelson Beauty Therapy for my hour of pampering.
It was lovely to lie back and enjoy a luxury facial and chat with Bedelia after such an tense hour.

I was already to face the world then so I went and picked up the kids.
We whizzed over the hill to Tahunanui and gathered up all the jackets etc we had left int he Safari.
Then popped in to visit Lily for 5 mins.
Whizzed up to Enner Glyn to pick up Nuana.
The Terrano was filled almost to the roof but we managed to squeeze her bags in and then stuff all the blankets and jackets into the spare spaces.
We got back into the city with time to get some baked potatoes for lunch before picking up Nathan at 3pm.
I had arranged to meet the lady with the downie coat there too.
She arrived and Mahalia tried on the coat.
It fitted well and looked great so we bought it.
She was a tiny Chinese girl and the coat was too big for her!!


Nathan wanted to pop into the library.
We chatted with Pete & Helen while waiting for him.
Hadn’t seen them in years and they were parked right beside us!
Then we were on the road.
Only stopping for a few minutes to get the mail from Seb’s house and check out that all was ok there.
Picked lemons and silver beet and we were away.
Nathan drove to the top of the Rai Saddle.
He actually relinquished the driver’s seat voluntarily!!

We took Nuana home and then were at our back door by around 7pm!
Quite amazing to get home so early.

Cold but sunny winter days

Tuesday

I was woken early by Azzan vomiting.
He went back to bed and stayed there all morning.
He actually bounced back far quicker than Mahalia and spent most of the morning lounging with glasses of flat lemonade, watching dvds and reading Wild Tomato magazines – what a life!

The girls were planning to go help Tim get a truck load of fire wood.
But it took them nearly all morning to actually get dressed, have breakfast, tidy their room and feed the birds.
Tim thankfully had things to do on the wharf while he was waiting.
It was a lovely sunny day although temperatures were very crisp.
The rest of the country was still firmly in the grip of a major snow storm.

I got Nathan working on his school work at the kitchen table while I dragged out my sewing machine and overlocker.
Haven’t used them in years so was rather rusty.
As it was so cold and I had just realised Azzan really was short of warm pants for around the farm I got all enthused about making him a quick pair of trackies.
So I lugged out some fabric choices and got Mahalia to climb up and fossick through the pattern boxes that I have stashed on the top bunk to find a suitable pattern for them both.
Firstly I couldn’t locate the instruction manual for the overlocker and they are such temperamental creatures if not threaded properly.
So after much hunting I finally found a pdf for free on the net and downloaded that.
It was 101 pages and I only needed 3 or 4 of them and my printer will not just print a few pages.
It has to print the while lot!
So, brought my laptop out to the table and got the threading done.
Then I worked my way through the mending box.
It sorta builds up and usually by the time I get to it the garment in it have either been forgotten about or they are too small so get chucked out.
I found a pair of camo pants that Nathan had passed on to Azzan which needed some easy mending.
I had to have pins though so went searching for them.
In so doing I then found the missing instruction manual
I was exhausted by this point and was realising why I actually just buy clothes for my children these days!!

The girls finally got their skates on and went off to help Tim just before midday.
They loaded up the truck and then came back for lunch.
After lunch ‘the girlies’ (as Tim kept calling them) unloaded it all into the wood box at the back door.

I lost Nathan at this point.
I allowed him to pop out to do a quick job and that was it for the arvo.
Never saw him again till dinner time.
So much for a day at his school work

The doctors nurse called up with my blood test results.
It has gone down again.
Bummer
Have to start taking iron again.

I managed to make 2 pairs of lovely warm fluffy pants for the kids.
Mahalia was rapt with hers, Azzan was rather nonplussed.

After such a lovely day the weather rapidly changed in the late afternoon.
It closed in, became extremely cold and then the rain began.
It was a bitterly cold and wet night.

The children got themselves all packed ready for an early departure to town the next morning.
We had a roast veges and mutton chops for dinner.
It was delicious.

After dinner I sat with Nathan for an hour or so and got him nearly through his Latin set.
I threw a few clothes into a bag and got as ready as I could and then hit the sack.
The forecast was for -1’C overnight so I was not looking forward to the drive out as it was threatening to be very cold and icy.
Figured that if it was that cold I would leave later and change my plans slightly.
In the meantime I got myself a good nights sleep.

Wednesday

I woke at 5am so enjoyed a nice hot leisurely shower.
Made the cheese toasties for the children’s lunches before waking them up just before 6:30am.
We managed to get loaded up and away soon after 7am.
There was a slight breeze blowing at home so nothing was frozen or frosty.
The view at the top of the hill was clear to the west with a gorgeous view of the mountains behind Nelson laced in snow.
To the north it was still very cloudy and murky.


We caught a glimpse of the hill just beyond our boundary covered in snow.
The Vodafone tower is at the top of this hill.


There was still hail frozen along the sides of our road and then as we drove a few minutes from our boundary we came upon this frozen white stretch of road.

I was rather concerned about the ice factor but it was actually fine to drive over.
Once we got passed St Kilda we had a good clear run all the way into town.

Just passed here we followed two young deer as they ran along the road in front of us.
It was a beautiful to watch them.
The kids were really excited.
There was snow along many of the hills we passed under.


We made good time to town.
I was planning to drop Nathan off at the house to study for the day on our way past.
As I turned in at the driveway Lily all of a sudden threw up all over herself and Mahalia.
Poor kid.
She obviously had been holding it a while.
Cleaned her up.
Unloaded the Safari and Nathan.
He was staying put to study.
Said hi and bye to Frances & John and then headed into town.
I got a frappaccino and drinks for the kids.
Then we took Lily home.
The Safari was making some horrendous noises everytime I turned a corner.
I took Mahalia & Azzan out to riding.
Then went to visit Sally for an hour or so.
Came straight back into Tahunanui and took the Safari into the garage to see what the problem might be.
It looks like the free wheeling hubs may have failed.
Thankfully the Terrano was just down the road at the auto electricians and was ready to be picked up.
Niven dropped me down to pick it up.
I am praying that the Safari job wont take too long to fix nor be too expensive

I had time to do a few jobs before going back out to pick up the children.
They had their own lessons and then stayed on to help Callum get the horses ready for the horse trek with some other home ed kids.
Mahalia loved being there for so long.
She is so keen to be a helper there.

She ended up going home with Sophie and I took Azzan and met up with Sasha for a cuppa and chat on our way back through Stoke.
Then we just had time to go to the library, get food for dinner, pick up Mahalia and come back to the house by just after 6pm.

The children were very glad to get off to bed.
Nathan had done more sleeping than studying while we were away so I got him to finish his Latin after dinner.
It’s been a long day but all’s good.

Sunny but VERY cold!

I woke up very early and couldn’t sleep.
So soon after 4:30am I got up and piled some more wood into the fire and did some serious art work.
Haven’t been at my desk in so long it’s crazy.
Got heaps done on a special book I am working on which makes me happy

Once 7am came around it was light enough for me to take my book out and soak in the spa for half an hour.
It is the first time I have ever worn slippers out to get there.
The crisp, crunchy, slippery hail was just too much for my bare feet today!

We had a beautiful day here today.
There were terrible storm reports coming at us from all sides.
It was sunny and calm here all day.
But – it was still extremely, bitterly cold!

We could see the snow on the hills across from us and Graham & Tim told me that from the top of the hill they could look north east and see snow to sea level along the Kapiti Coast.
Neither of them had a camera though and Tim was not prepared to go all the way back up the hill just to take a photo!

The hail is still on the ground.
Some has melted but it must be very cold for it to still stay on the ground like this here.
It is very hard and slippery underfoot.

The girls were pretty spoilt today.
When I came out to the kitchen Azzan had already given them breakfast in bed.
They decided to stay in their pyjamas for the whole day
Lily reckoned staying in her pj’s makes her feel all fat and lazy.
They took the big heater into the school room and played in there all day with the Belville Lego.

Tim worked away on the wharf.
Not too sure how he kept warm cuz the sunshine sure wasn’t giving out any heat.

I was keeping Nathan to task with his school work.
That’s a mission in itself!
Azzan was busy running about sorting stuff, playing computer games and doing his puzzle book.

We talked with Shanni & Jesika on Skype for ages this arvo.
My internet seemed to loose power and I couldn’t load anything except emails and Skype.
Found out later that both Telecom & Vodafone had issues early this arvo.

I did some more art work this afternoon and then made dinner.
It was an easy spaghetti meal which all enjoyed.
Seems the easier the meal the more the enjoyment!!

I just caught the eastern sky tonight as it caught the reflection of the sunset in the clouds.
Over to where I am looking on the other side of these hills is Wellington and the Kapiti Coast.
It has been snowing there most of the day and I have been watching the ice blue, steely cold sky from my cosy living room.

I managed to prise the girls out of the Lego tonight for dinner and discovered they hadn’t fed the birds all day.
So I sent them out with a flea in their ears to get it done before dinner.
They are still in their pjs

We had an early dinner tonight.
Great!
Now I will have time to watch the movie I hired from town.

Tim is putting the children to bed now and then he and Nathan want to get loose on the net to suss out rifles!!

After the Storm

Despite the absolute bitter cold outside the children just wanted to be out there.
Mahalia & Lily took the camera out and made lots of movies.
There must be some sort of electric energy in the atmosphere during storms like this that sets the kids off cuz they just buzz!

I curled up by the fire and watched an episode of Larkrise to Candleford, series 2.
I had been battling a headache for the past two days – not fun

I finally dragged them indoors soon after 5pm.
It was time to help me get dinner ready.

I had bought pita breads home so we made up all the fillings to have them for dinner.
Tim got a box of pears in and the girls helped him peel a pot full.

The pita breads were delicious and everyone enjoyed them immensely.
There is something about being allowed to choose what you put in your own that makes them so delicious.
We managed to get the 3 youngest off to bed reasonably early.
They need to make up sleep time!

Tim & I watched another episode and then went off to bed soon after 9pm.
Nice an dearly for us too.
I wanted a spa but the hail was very thick on the deck and Tim wouldn’t brave the cold so I didn’t either.