March in Numbers

What a busy month in house....well maybe that is the normal in my house.

So here are my numbers featuring number 2.

• we had to buy 2 lots of  water to put in  our water tanks due to the ongoing drought.  Here we are with the water tank at our house 7.30 in the morning.  We were his second delivery that day.

•  2 mornings of rain that's it since Boxing Day 2012.

Nothing like a happy rain dance when you get a little respite from the weather.

• Hayden had 2 blood test 2 weeks apart because his creatinine level was very high even for him.  He has kidney disease.
• We had to buy 10 bails of hay to keep the cow in our paddocks fed.
• 320sq m of tin roof that makes up our house/ garage/ carport and 'man cave' was prepared and painted twice.  150sq m of deck is underway.

• I/2 of our rather large wood shed is filled with enough fire wood, sourced (from a recyclable source) felled, split, moved and stacked.  I have to say in the middle of a drought it does not feel like we need fire wood ....but I really know better.  So I am happy that once those crisp cool days of winter hit us we will be able to walk around the house with our shorts and t'shirts on and the house will be lovely and dry.
• Hockey started in our house with 2 days of musters and team selection,  to mark the ominous arrival of all those Saturday mornings of sport about to start.
• I lost my car keys for the 2nd time in 18 months.  I am keen to find a solution to this problem I see to have.  Just maybe a bit of technology that helps with the find component might just help.

I am linking this post to Julie at Notes on Paper

February in Numbers

With February being the start of the school year we have been busy getting back into routine.  I don't know if my numbers reflect this but here we go

• 28 days and no rain....still.  We are verging on drought and have had to buy in water once already to put in our tanks.  Here I am checking the water.  The photo is my reflection in the water at the bottom of the tank before we go the water we needed.

• Auckland, where I live, has had less than 20% its usual rain fall for February.  No wonder we are buy our tank water in.  Of course we are not complaining.  Last year we had no summer to speak of.

• One 5 hour hockey session for McKenzie even though the season has not stated and we are in the throws of a long and hot summer.  She even got to be ball girl when Auckland U21 women played the Australian Secondary School girl.  She is 4th from the left.

•  Andre has started back at junior golf and has played 4 holes 3 times in February.  He is there on the green somewhere.

• We have spent 2 days preparing our fire wood  getting it ready for splitting in March

•  Novopay (the new payroll system for teachers in New Zealand owned by the Australian company Talent2) has paid me once correctly and once I have been over paid.  After six months of getting wrong most of the time I am getting very tired of it all.

•  A melatonin break of 1 week is what Hayden just needed. It was really hard work.  It reminded me why he needs help to unwind and go to sleep.  If only that wasn't the case.

I am linking this post to Notes on Paper

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.

November in Numbers

I can't believe that November is now gone and  the end of the year is looming quickly.  Here are my numbers for November.

• As a family we started Orienteering in the summer series.  It took 3 of us (2 children and me) 37 minutes to complete the first weeks course.

 

(Credits can be found here at Nuts4Digi)

 

• Unusually for me, because of my disabled son, I have worked all but 1 day this month.  It has been hard work as all the things I have to do for my son sometimes get a little out of control but needs must at times.

 

 

 

 

• November was a dry and cool month.  We had 50% less rain and we were about 1 degree cooler according to the met service.  I know it is spring but I sure could do with summer arriving quickly.  My clothes line sure could do with a little more use too.
 

 

 

 

• Our Christmas tree went up on Thursday 29 November.  Brandt was going to be overseas a lot in the next month so this was the best time to get it up. So 3 children and 2 really tired parents undertook the traditional tree dressing process.

 

 

 

• The roof began the painting process.  So with 320 sq/m of roof to paint it was water blasted by us, and the painting process began. In my weekends I was helping DH paint and as he does not have weekends like me he was painting while I was at work.  The roof is now about 2/3 painted so I am happy.  Of course I will happier when it is all done. That is the walls and the 150 sq/m of decking.

 

 

 

 

 

 



Well thats it for this month.  I am linking this post to Notes on Paper

 









October in Numbers

I just can't believe how quickly this year has gone

So without ado here are my numbers

The month started with 2 weeks of holidays.  This was the final break before the long summer holidays.

• 2 weeks school holidays begin....Well the second week of the holidays is October.

• McKenzie played 6 days of hockey, 8 games and her team finished 4th in the Colliers Cup (Under 13 girls) New Zealand tournament.  Here is the coach giving the girls their half time pep talk.

 

(photo source The Times)

• 6 weeks at work this month with a new pay roll company and none of my pay fortnights have been right.  Grrrrr .....Just as well we are not solely reliant on my pay to live.

• I spent a whole 2 hours making my daughters outfit so she could look like a pupil attending school with Harry Potter.  Right down to  the owl made from a pinecone.

 

You can read about this project here on my blog.



• Working (I am a primary school teacher) 4 sometimes 5 days a week this school term.  I am trying to put some money together to pay for the house paint. 

 

 

 

• 2 days raking up bamboo, cleaning up the yard and paddocks so that all the winter rubble can be disposed of .  You can see that my 3 children helped us move the wood and bamboo

 

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

 



• Finally the need arrived for McKenzie 11 years (or nearly 12 as she would say) to have a phone.  It came with a set of rules but with her staying away with the hockey tournament we thought that it was time.

• McKenzie played her flute at St Mary's College Junior Proms.  She was one of 85 first year instrument players in the band she played in.

I am linking this post to Notes on Paper.

September in Numbers

Boy oh Boy what a busy month.  I am so glad that winter sport in our house is over and we have our weekends back. 

So here are my numbers for September

10 is how old Hayden became this month.  It is somewhat of a miracle considering when he was three he suffered a traumatic medical event from which he was resuscitated.  1 cake was made to share with his friends.

1 tweenage girl in my house was saving her lunch food for a 'science' experiment in her bedroom.  It was accidentally found.  Hmmmm.

3 is the number of fejoa trees we cut down in our small yard.  They were just producing so much poor fruit which then just rotted on the grass it was a problem.  Now we have a rather bare view but time will fix that as the tree line in the background is camillias.

1 experiment with an egg and vinegar was set up for my 8 year old son.  Very successful.  The photo shows the bubbles of the shell disolving as we watched.

Then there is the hockey.  The last 3 saturday games for the season took place.  I am glad my children have fun playing hockey.  3 games out of town for McKenzie and her Auckland Under 13 representative team.  Exhausting but I love how she always come out of the practise sessions (8 in all during September).  Here is Andre making a takle.

Of course the driving for the hockey meant that one out of town game I drove 5 hours return trip to Whangarei with a 2 hour stop to watch the game and back home again.


Spring is officially here and the 6 fruit trees in my yard are all flowering, my lawn is starting to grown and I am wishing that summer would hurry up and arrive.

Then the magic number of 100 arrived.  Yes 100 days until Christmas arrived and sent me into a moment of list making.

This is all for this month.

I am linking this post to Notes on Paper.

August in Numbers

Winters last month has is now over.  Here is what it looked like.

3 is the number of fejoa trees we chopped down in the little yard at our place.  It looks a mess at the moment but in the that ugly fence line is going to show a hedge of camillias.  I can't wait.  In the meantime there is 1 garden hitting me right in the eye that now, that the rain has stopped, I can get out and weed, decide on some garden edging and use the gardening vouchers we have been given to add to the plants that are there.  Then out of my side door the view will, by the middle of summer look decidedly more pleasant.

2 Saturday mornings without out hockey.  Hmmm not necessarily what we want right before the end of the club season but there you go.  Just as I have got used the sleep in we are back to a 7.30 at the turf. 

8 months was how long it took the experimental potato to sprout so that Andre could find out if he could grow a potato.

Then there is the 1 cow we have, to keep the grass in the 2 paddocks down, who jumped the fence to see if the grass was greener on the other side. (Oh yes we ran out of grass and had to mow the little growth we had on our lawn to feed the cow)

155 hours this month were spent waiting for Mckenzie to get off the bus after school.  You can tell that I had time to fill because I worked this fact out.

This month DH did a 13 day trip to London and back.  I have to say it seems like a long time when he is chilling out while away and I am rushing around like a bull in a china shop.

The price of petrol went up 3 times in 7 days in August.  Grrrr.

My really good friend, who now lives in England was back in New Zealand on holiday for the 1st time since since McKenzie was born 11 years ago

Finally McKenzie got her braces on.  0 teeth need extracting and in 2 years (fingers crossed) her teeth will all be in alignment and then she will need a plate or such like to keep them all in place until the final lot of baby teeth fall out when she is about 15.

I am linking this post to Notes on Paper

July in Numbers

Here is my month in numbers.

July was one really busy month.  You would have thought with a two week school holiday break I would not feel like I have just run a marathon.  Then when I sat down to looks at my notes for this post I was left thinking that I must have been exaggerating about my month.  Who knows but this is what it looked like.

6 weeks after our little airport car (DH works at the airport) we finally get it back and it is looking like nothing had happened to it thank goodness.

14 days of school holidays during the winter school holiday.  It was cold but fine with those chrystal clear winter days.  -1 being the lowest morning temperature.  The frost in the cows water trough was so frosty it was still icy at 10 in the morning.

2 children spend on wet day during the holidays telling me that they are baking and they know what they are making.  So I sit back and let the excited duo go to it.  At the end of the mornings baking, two different batches of cookies later my kitchen was completely cover in dishes of the dirty variety.

1 is the number of days Hayden had to spend in hospital with a last ditch effort to prevent the need for surgery.  An all day stay in Day Stay at Starship Hospital hooked up to a fluid to thin blood just incase the blockage was a stubborn blood clot.   Luckily we had the help of the Clown Doctors to entertain us as well as the Play Therapists

This school term is seeing a committment to 4 consequitive days of hockey for McKenzie each week.  I am not sure who it is harder on, her or me.  This effort is partly her club team and partly for her Auckland representive team.  Luckily it her that loves her hockey.  Pity her little 11 year old mouth is not coping so well.

McKenzie player her 1st representative game of hockey this year.  Not a pretty photo but all I have at the moment.  I have to say after moving associations it sure looks strange with her dressed in blue and white and not the Counties Manukau colours of red, black and white.

1 is the number of new all terrain buggies the Health system of New Zealand has generously provied us with so that I can continue to take Hayden out when I exercise and when the saturday sport is rudely early and his medication is not finished.  He looks very little in it but I know he will never out grow it as he is unlike to grow any taller than 140cm.

143 photos is what I took in July.  I am trying to capture a reflection of daily life.

and finally a little bit of everyday life

2 is the number of alarm clocks I have in my bedroom far across the other side so they are not turned off in my sleep.  One is set for 0130hrs and the other for 0530hrs. 

I am linking this post to Notes on Paper so pop on over to have a look at what othes numbers are like.

 

June in Numbers

I can't believe how quickly the month of June has gone.  It has been very eventful and exhausting in our house. 

29 June marked the end of the second school term here in New Zealand.  We are all well ready for a holiday, the staycation variety, and can't wait for a chance to let life just happen.

6 days of hockey out of 9 days was the number of days McKenzie played hockey in her endeavour to be selected for Aucklands under 13 girls hockey team and yes she made the team for which she was very excited about.

8 was the number of days McKenzie was then sick after trialling for the hockey team.  I think she had a cold on top of the end of the school term exhaustion and her body put up a protest. 

Last month we had had 7 days of struggling with the insurance company over the car accident we were involved in.  Now I can report that we have continued all of June, 30 days, without my husbands work car.  Still waiting for it come out of the panel beaters shops.  Hmmmmm

1 is the port a cath that is not working.  1 is also the number of dye tests the port a cath had to have to see if it could be fixed before he has to have surgery.Finally 0 is the number of monthly blood test Hayden had because his port a cath was not working.

( Haydens port a cath is there so blood can be accessed and IV fluids can be administered when he is sick)

70,000 litres is the amount of water the water tanks at our house now have.  Yes the two tanks are full to overflowing.  That is because it has been raining in the last couple of weeks and our tanks collect the water so we have water for everyday use at home.

1 day of fishing for Andre who has decided that him and fishing are just the perfect father and son activity.

64 litres is representative of the amount of milk my family uses in one month.  You would think in New Zealand it would be a cheap comodity but sadly not and $280,96 a lot of money really.

I am linking this post to Notes on Paper

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.