Wordless Wednesday 27 February

This photo shows Andres homework.  I structure made with creative solutions to hold it together.

 

He struggled all week with his idea and finally decided that he could do glue and a rubber band.  We discussed it a little and decided to use homemade glue (water and flour).

 

 

I am linking this post to My Little Drummer Boys.

Pineapple

Today I thought that I would blog something just a little different.

When I was living in Brunei one of the thing I loved was all the local fruit.  No I am not taking about the vomit smelling durian fruit.

 (image source here)

 

 

I am talking about the pineapple.  Truth be known the pineapple I bought was probably imported but we very cheap none the less.  One of the most painful things about pineapple is the cutting of the skin off.  I always seemed to leave bits of that tough skin on the edible flesh.  So I asked a friends wonderful amah Bless if she would show me how to cut the pineapple the local way and this is what I found.

• Firstly you take the pineapple and cut the skin off.  Now we don't grow this fruit in New Zealand so I thought I would post the photo of an unpicked fruit.

(Source here)

 

 

Then you run your knife around the pineapple following the little bits of skin left and you end up with a fruit looking like this.

 

 

 

 

 

Next you quarter your pinapple down the verticle line.

 

 

 

 

Next you notice that a pineapple has a hard core which can be unplesant to eat so cut it out.

 

 

 

 

Finally you cut your pineapple into bite size bits.  I slice down the long line three times and then cut into the size you enjoy.  That is all there is to it.

 









 

 



Monday Menu 25 February

Here I am this week on my own and rushing around with the after school activities.   So my menu reflects this moment in life.

Monday  chicken (cooked in the crockpot) with potato baked and green vege

Tuesday  Crockpot  beef stew on rice.  Based on the recipe on my blog.

Wednesday  Beef stir fry with a soy and ginger sauce (scroll down to see the recipe)

Thursday  Vegetable and Macaroni Pasta Bake

Friday  Zucchini Loaf and salad

Saturday  lemon and herb marinated chicken with potato and salad

Sunday  leftovers.

I am linking this to I'm an Organising Junkie

Fridays Fabulous Finds #30

So here we are will some more of my finds for the this week.

• check this little idea out for home.  Simple and easy to do and found at How about Orange
• Oh I love this little idea.  Just a pity I don't have a tree like that really close to my house but in the cows paddock.  But I still love the idea from Oh Happy Days.
• I love this little idea for the car but my handbag might benefit from a first aid kit like this.
• What is it about a smile?
• then what about those photos and becoming better on those overcast days.

What great links have you found this week? 

Wordless Wednesday 20 February

So we had a little fun with our photo this week. 

Ok it may not be funny to you all but we had a lot of fun with this photo.

I am linking this post to My Little Drummer Boys.

Monday Menu 18 February

Here we are for this week.


Monday  Noodly Dinner

Tuesday   My husband is making dinner.  Its a surprise.

Wednesday  chicken salad with chillie cream dressing

Thursday  Indian Coconut Chicken Curry .

Friday   Chickpea and vegetable patties with salsa

Saturday  Cajun chicken pasta

Sunday Leftovers.

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

Getting it Clean

Sometimes I think that all that jewellery I have in my draw could do with being worn.  So all that silver that I wore some years ago was dragged out the other day looking rather tarnished.  So after some research and found an easy bit of kitchen chemistry to do the job.

Line a glass container with tin foil.  Sprinkle a generous supply of baking soda in the container.

 

 

Lay your tarnished items in the container.

 

 

Pour to cover boiling water a and leave to do the job for about 5 minutes.

 

 

Thats all there is to it.

Wordless Wednesday 13 February

Here it is.  Found inside our house.

I am linking this post to My Little Drummer Boys.

Monday Menu 11 February

Here is my menu for this week.

Monday   Spagetti and Meatballs

Tuesday  chicken with baked potato and salad

Wednesday  lamb and vegetables hoisn stir fry (sorry this is not on the web)

Thursday  Chicken and pineapple curry.

Friday  Macaroni and cheese

Saturday  Dill and Mustard Chicken Burgers

Sunday Easy do it yourself meal. 

Sorry not so may links this week.  I am linking this to I'm an Organising Junkie

Happiness

This year my one little word is Happiness.  It is a follow on from last years word Breathe. 

My art journalling this year is going to be relecting on this and what that looks and feels like to me.

In January I created 4 pages I thought I would share.  They are inspired by my word and reflect what I was thinking at that moment of time.

(credits for this are found here)

(the credits for this can be found here)

(credits for this page can be found here)

(Credits for this page can be found here)

 

 

While I know that happiness is an internal thing I don't think it ever does any harm to reflect on what it looks and feels like. 

 

So there I am from the profound, to the happy to the deep and dark.

 



Fridays Fabulous Finds #29

Were we go for this week.

• I am investigating storage for my photos and came across this comparison of cloud storage
• I love this little tutorial on using light when taking photos.  Pop over to Lil blue boo to take a look.
• Since my front garden is going to look something cottage like I thought this would be a good place to start at Better Homes and Gardens.
• Oh my this article about bullying and the power of one teenager is just an incredible read from the Washington Post.
• Then if you are one the make and do trail then this one cute idea.  A birthday jar.

Wordless Wednesday 6 February

Here is my favourite photo of Andres 9th birthday 

 

 

I am linking this post to My Little Drummer Boys.

December '12 and January '13 in Numbers

I can't believe that I have been keeping my numbers for a whole year.  December has gone and here is my post finally out of the drafts file and ready to go with January taggedon the end.

• 2 birthday parties organised.  DD turned 12 and DS2 had an early party as we are away for his birthday when he turns 9.

• 3 Christmases we attended.  All family ones and I have to say by the time the last one came around we were well Christmassed out.

• 3 children finished school for the year.  They were very tired and grumpy and very please that the summer holidays are finally here.

• DH was away with work for 14 days right over Christmas.  We did a skype Christmas morning which is something that is the best option when DH is away overseas with work.  It was Hong Kong this year but he has been all around the world on different years.

• I have started doing Couch to 5k again and am at week 5 (I started at week 4).  I am so unfit but it will be all worth it in the end.  I hope to do a 5k fun run in February.

• 0 mornings of sleeping in as Hayden is still waking at 5.30 am.

Then there was January

• No days of rain.  Zero that is .....nil drops of rain.   Our grass is very dry, our gardens very thirsty and my washing getting dry on the line everyday.

• I started Project 365 fresh and took a photo a day and a few more for good measure.  Long may this committment last.  My pages and photos can be found on my blog here.

• Hayden spent 16 days in residential respite care which gave us a well needed break. I got 16 nights of uninterrupted sleep and 16 sleep ins while he was away.

• 4 of us went camping for 14 days at Ohiwa Harbour and had a fabulous time.  The weather was perfect and our airbed stayed up.

 

(We are with friends toasting Marshmellows on the beach.  Such a wonderful time had by all.)

• DH has just spent 31 either on leave or one off days from work.  Lucky me...he was on holiday with us and then spent time painting the house.  If you look closely you can see my DH by the front door painting.

• Hayden gets home and the next morning we have our 1st emergency of the year.  Well on a real emergency but the 1 power cord for Haydens feeding pump was broken and so his machine could not be charged.  It took 5 phone calls and 6 hours to sort it out so that 1 little boy could have 500mls of Nutrini RTH food over night.

• Talk about high maintenance Hayden then needed 1 trip to the hospital for the usual blood tests and 1 trip to 2 pharmacies for medication and then finally he needed 3 new mattress protectors.  All of that in 5 days not bad really.

• 2 of three children started school and so Andre was at school 4 days at the end of January, Mckenzie did 2 days and Hayden is yet to start.  

• I covered 18 books for the start of school.  That was only for 2 children.

• Andre had his 9th birthday.  My how he is growing up.

I am linking this post to the Notes on Paper blog.

Monday Menu 4 February

Here we are posting a day late but none the less a menu.  School has been back a week and there is no rest as everything else starts up at the same time.

So here is my menu for this week.

Monday    freezer meal

Tuesday  easy fried rice

Wednesday  ham steaks with nectarine salsa, baked potato and garden salad.

Thursday  ham, cheese and vegetable frittata, potato and salad

Friday  pizza homemade.

Saturday  chicken nuggets with potatoes baked and salad.

Sunday  leftovers.

 

(this is my version of Easy Fried Rice)

Fridays Fabulous Five #29

Here we are the first of my finds for the year.

• With school luches back on the menu this post from Planning with Kids about lunches etc is a good start for the year.
• Since I am considering cloud storage as one of my methods for backing up photos I thought that this article from Digital Trends did a nice summary that I could understand.
• How about 50 things to do before you turn 12.  Now I think that this could apply to any child.
• I am looking at some music to help me keep my running pace up so I might need to read this little list some more.
• Since my Word for 2013 is Happiness reading this really resonated with me.

January 2013

I have been working away at staying on track with my Photo a day diligently so far.  I have even finished my pages off for this month and it only 1 February.  So here they are.

So all of these pages we created with the following products.....template, dates from Life in a Box from Weeks and Wildflowers.  Papers, borders, flowers ribbons all from Life 365 Hodge Podge 1 and fonts small font and 2peassquish.