Wordless Wednesday 20 June

Just sometimes the best stories don't have the best photos but here they are anyway.  Andre had decided that he was going to be Bear Grills and sleep in our Fejoa tree over night.



This first photo is the bed in the tree with wood as the base and branches to act as the matress.

Then there is the talking to me trying to persuade me that it was a good idea to sleep outside for the night.

Then finally the demonstration that the bed holds his weight.

Needless to say Andre slept inside where it was warm.

I am linking this to My Little Drummer Boys

Insulation

Our house is not new.  In fact it is old enough to be in need of a good renovation job.......30 something years old. 

New Zealand is not well known for robust building construction.  Now I don't mean here the structural work but the everything else stuff...insulation in particular.

This year we have been lucky enough to take advantage of a government initiative to insulate homes built before 1980, that is us.  It also targets families with the medically fragile.  That is us again.  So with two big ticks and the lure of a 66% discount on ceiling and under floor heating we went ahead with the process.

Now that we are having really cold days and even colder nights I can tell you that this is the best piece of investment that we could have made.  I know that I love my house warm, and that I run my fire all winter day and night, the insulation has made a great difference.  My fire does not need to run as hot to make my house tropically warm, my electric blanket is not getting a long workout and of course I can still walk around my house with shorts and t shirt on while it is frosty outside.

Now we just need to look at our curtains as there is no discount for double glazing and we will be ready to wear swim suits inside all winter next year  (insert a big smily face right here.)

So there is the truck with the insulation.

and here is the ceiling, now well insulated keeping us toasty warm.

Mondays Menu 18 June

Two weeks of the school term  to go and we are running on overdrive.  We are all really tired.  I even had to go to the supermarket late last night so we had food for Tuesday.

Anyway here is my menu for this week to help me cope with all that is being thrown this way.

Monday  A frezer meal pre cooked.....the plan for tonight fell apart so an emergency meal was on the table instead.

Tuesday  Shepards pie with salad.

Wednesday  Dahl with naan bread

Thursday  Crockpot stew

Friday  Pizza homemade

Saturday steak, baked potato and salad

Sunday   Leftovers

I am linking this to I'm an Organising Junkie

Fridays Fabulous 5 # 12

Here I am with yet another week of things I have that I love.

My new music to run to.
21 by Adele

Then there is this Mosaic Maker.  Might just be perfect for your blog or even getting printed out.  Personally I can't wait to give this a try.

Of course I am always marking pages I think would be a great thing to do in the school holidays.  This friendship braclet, at Purlbees web site ,looks just like one of those activities.

My list would not be perfect without some food thing and here is a new to me recipe for strawberry jam at Bits of Everything. I know if you are like me and live where it is winter just now then you wont be making this until summer but I thought that I needed it bookmarked so I can get back to it when I want to find this in a hurry.

Finally there is this and if you are a teacher, especially a relief (supply) teacher then this is just the perfect link.  It will generate worksheets and answers with the ability to adjust the level as you need. 

I would love it if you read this and have favourite things if you can link me up.

Finally

there is only one way to describe what happened to day and that is ....finally.  Yes you read it.  After nearly 14 months of waiting, seeing 3 Occupational Therapist depart their job  we are finally in possession of one Hayden appropriate carseat and one all terrain buggy suitable for running with and use when at those early morning sports fixtures. Of course the long wait was primarily because we could not afford these items and were waiting for some funding in a pool of money from the government.

I know that this buggy will never be out grown by Hayden as he is just about 10 cm short of his full grown height.  He sure has room to grow into it and  same with the carseat. 

The carseat is escape proof so fingers crossed it holds up to this end of its description.  He loves it and I know if he is throwing a tantrum he will no longer be able to escape.

Then there is the buggy.  Way big, fits in the car and Hayden loves it without even stepping foot outside for a test drive.

I am sure smiling today.

Wordless Wednesday 13 June

This is what happens when it rained last weekend and my children wanted to play outside.

I am linking this post to My Little Drummer Boys

How Early is too Early?

If you think anything before 6 am is too early you would be mistaken.  In our house we are up before 6, in fact at 5.40 am.  But what would you think if I asked if before 5 am...would it be too early?  Oh yes in my house way too early. 

Sadly Hayden is either wide awake or fast asleep.  Just in the last two weeks he has been waking really early before 5.  Ordinarily that would not be too much of a problem as most people would be able to stay in their be and go back to sleep, maybe read a book and yes one of those wonderful women I work with even got up to do the ironing at 4.30am because she woke up.  It is not the case with Hayden.  He is bursting with energy waiting to run and meet the day.  Luckily he has stopped wanting to jump out of the window so he can run around the outside of the house to bang on my window.  The result is incesant calling out waking everyone up as he did this morning.  Hmmmm just maybe it was wrong the leave Hayden in his bedroom until I was ready to get up.

Monday Menu 11 June

Another week is here.  Watch out world I think I am organised.

Monday  Shepperd Pie

Tuesday   Curried Chicken pasta

Wednesday  chicken noodle soup

Thursday  Crockpot stew

Friday  French Onion Soup with McKenzie bread.

Saturday  Cold meat, baked potato and salad

Sunday  leftovers

By the way I discovered this link to cooking for the month that is worth a thought or two.

I am linking this post to I'm an Organising Junkie

Friendship

We live on a lifestyle block of 2 acres.  Half of the land is our yard and the other half is made into two paddocks for our cow.  Now right here and now I openly admit in our house we eat meat.  Not every day but more days in each week than not.

The move to this house September 2011 has been our first venture out of the suburbs and so it is also the first time we have had a cow in two paddocks.  Of course there has been many benefits to living on the rural fringe of Auckland.  We now have a yard for the bikes to ride around in, Hayden no longer wants to run away from home and we don't have to take extreme measures to keep him safe, we love our privacy and not hearing road noise and neighbours.  Really the list is endless.

Now we are half way through the year and our cow is nearly 12 months old.  The winter is here so we will winter him over but that leaves us with Hayden and that friendship he has developed.  I know friends with a cow but you need to know Hayden to understand that he really loves this animal which we bought with the view to filling our freezer with some leftover to share.

I hope that Hayden is not capable of understanding what we have done with the cow when the time comes and the calf that will replace it will be a suitable replacement.

The he can begin all over again teaching the calf how to trust him, that Hayden really just wants something to talk to and he really wants to know why the cow does not want to give him a ride.

(Credits found at Nuts4digi here)

Wordless Wednesday 6 June

Finally here are my photos for today.

Fishing at Maraetai just last weekend.

Since high tide was late in the day this was the view as Andre and his dad left the fishing spot.

I am linking this post to My Little Drummer Boys

Decisions...just somethings need to be said allowed

So here is my page portraying this. So real in my life but still all to be faced.
We have a major decision looming in our house. Every month, every week, every hour every minute brings us closer to making this life saving, honest and loving decision. I am sitting here crying as I type because this decision could be be very decisive in our house. It impacts on the life of one of my children. I have never put these thoughts on paper before let alone published them anywhere but here we go. My disabled son is in renal failure. He While he is still a few years off being able to have his name on the transplant list. Deep down the decision about donation is there in my subconscious. The reason that this decision is so challenging for me is that I am unwilling to put my husbands, my childrens or my own kidneys under investigation to see if we are compatable. Please dont judge me for this thought. Really it breaks my heart to come to this conclusion at this stage. I don’t like the what if’s. You know .... what if something goes wrong with a donors life, or one of my children. Even how could we survive with my husband out of work and what if my husband does not recover his medical enabling him to continue to work. I know he would not be happy being a stay at home dad. I mentioned life before. Here it is important to realised that my special son was not boorn disabled it happened to him. Since that defining moment (the one when he became disabled) I have come to question what his quality of life is like in comparison with what might have been if..... The there is the sheer fact that this little life places immense stress on all of us. It has cnanged his ability to live independently as an adult, it has taken away our ability o be spontanious in life and certainly changed our the way our family unit interacts. A cant see wheat the pathway forward is going to look like. I don’t know if my sons life will even put him in a position to be a candidate for transplant. Maybe I am worrying about it all for nothing.

(The credits for this page can be found at Nuts4Digi here)

Monday Menu 4 June

So I missed planning my menu for last week and really suffered for it.  I will not do that again if it can be avoided.  What last week really proved to me was that busy weeks need planned menus and this week is busy yet again.

I hope that this will work amoung the many taxi (after school sporting activities) rides I will be providing while DH is away for the week.

Monday   Freezer meal for just such a busy night.  Just heat and eat.  Casserole from the freezer.

Tuesday  Fried rice (this is really good because it can be heated as needed and easy to eat when out in the car for the children.

Wednesday  Curried Chicken Pot Pies with coleslaw

Thursday  Beef Pho

Friday  Italian Beef and Lentil soup with bread

Saturday  Sweet and Sour Stirfry chicken

Sunday   Leftovers


I am linking this post to I'm an Organising Junkie

May in Numbers

Gosh May has been a busy month in my house.  I am not sure that my numbers truely reflect this but anyway here is my month in numbers.

17 is the number of days that we have had our fire going this winter so far.  As we do not have any other form of heating/ cooling and are suckers for a warm house we have a wood burner.  Luckily we have access to a renewable pine plantation that provides us with free fire wood.

3  is the number of flaxes we moved from the front of the house to the back.  It was a big job but now it is done.

Sadly we had 1 rear end accident.  Not our fault as we were stopped at a red traffic light but the insurance company is really trying to treat us as a the bady in this situation.  Unfortunately it was our little airport car.  The one my husband takes out to the airport and leaves there while he is out of the country.  Now it looks like the insurance company is trying to right off our car and then we will be stuck and we dont have the cash at this moment to replace it.  So here is the 7 days of struggling with the insurance company and more days to come.

Luckily in May we had only 8 autumn days of rain.  Fabulous really.  I guess that was why our fire went on as our mornings were frost and 0 degrees C but the days gloriously sunny.  This photo is sunset on one of those fabulous days.

Then there were the 4 children I took to Haydens renal appointment at Starship Hospital.  Luckly there were 2 Clown Doctors and 1 rescue helcopter to give some entertainment.

(This photo is found here along with an article worth a read especially if you are one of the creative people)

I am linking this post to Notes on Paper blog where you can read other peoples numbers for May.

Fabulous Fridays Finds #11

Oh my poor blog has been neglected.  Here I am this week with just a few links I have loved this week.

1.  When I find some time here is my idea of the perfect little project for adding a little quirk to my house.  Little pot planters here I come.

2.  I need to do some baking for the school lunch boxes. I love the idea of browsing My Baking Additions cookie list and recipes.  I have no idea which I will try but they all look too good not to have a go at something.

3.  This month list of ideas of daily photos you could take is now up at Katrina Kennedy's site.  This months printable list is here.

4.  I am the bearer of never ending bad hair days.  Just perhaps I might need to try this idea out I found at More Design Please

5.  I found this little article about Must have apps for your smart phone.  Oh it all could be so adictive.