Monday 29 July 2013

30/52

'A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, for 2013'


Gus - searching for a bear in the weta cave at Percy Reserve.  As we strolled through the forest - the big dark forest, past the pond - the deep cold river, and into the cave - tip toe tip toe tip toe, so much fun was had.  There were no bears in the cave but a great deal of laughter instead.


Felix - peering out the back of the ferry looking at the 'star fish' which is how the children described the churning water they saw from the back of the boat.  We safely made it from Days Bay to Wellington without losing a child overboard - phew!

Sunday 21 July 2013

29/52

'A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, for 2013'


Gus - very seriously explaining his theory to me about the statue of Mahatma Gandhi that is situated in front of the Wellington train station.  This is his 'we're talking serious business' face.


Felix - climbing onto Gus' lap as they prepare to descend the big slide at the Wellington Botanical playground.  He demonstrated complete trust that his big brother would look after him when they shot down the slide, squealing with absolute delight, and then did it all over again.  I was standing there watching, silently freaking out, but doing my very best just to stand back and let them have their fun.  Thank goodness neither boys chose to have a go on the flying fox this time! Xo

Monday 15 July 2013

28/52

'A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, for 2013'


Gus - "I'm a flying, jumping unicorn!  Mummy - do unicorns fly? Do they jump? Oh good! I'm flying, I'm a unicorn!" We're loving the Hugalugs at the moment (thanks Kirkie) as there are no arguments about long sleeves or long pants on winter days.  If Gus wants to wear a short sleeve t-shirt or shorts, he knows that he just has to grab his Hugalugs and its fine.  Wonderful!


Felix - Thrilled to help me feed the vegetable garden some seaweed fertiliser, "I strong Mummy, my do it by myself" as he struggles to lift the watering can up without pouring it all over himself.

Sunday 7 July 2013

Changes on the horizon



I have a new laptop, spent two hours this morning coaxing the printer and laptop to talk to each other, have taken out a sizable student loan, and have sorted out my workstation (complete with paper flowers courtesy of Gus) all in the name of education - mine that is.  Yes, I have finally decided to return to study.  

Midway through my degree I had decided that I wanted to continue studying towards a Masters in Education but moving state, then country and two children later, my plans were happily put on the back burner.  But for the past six months or so I had been wondering if the time was right to get back into it. 

Would I have the time and energy to make a real go of it? How on earth am I going to kick my brain back into action to be able to write, read and speak in such a way that makes sense to someone over the age of four?  Am I prepared to put my baby into childcare? ("I'm not a baby Mummy, I'm a big boy!" declares Felix constantly, but aren't they always your baby?) Will I still have the time the boys deserve to have with their Mummy, which was the whole reason I chose not to return to work?  How will I ensure we don't become a 'hurried household' - something that stresses both Gus and I out to no end? So much to consider, but at the end of the day Grant told me to stop faffing about and just do it, so I did.  

Being a rather critical early childhood teacher (some might say that is an understatement), the biggest problem for me was choosing a childcare centre that matched my ideals and where Felix would be happy.  No big name plastic fantastic service for my boy (apologies if your child does attend this type of service).  The centre had to be pretty special to meet my expectations, and low-and-behold what is literaly five minutes walk from our home, but a Rudolf Steiner Early Childhood Centre. The centre resides in a tiny cottage, which means that the number of children are low whilst the number of adult to child ratio is high.  The Steiner philosophy is so calm and gentle, working with nature and the natural rhythms of life and is just perfect for Felix.  It took him a mere week to become settled, feel comfortable with the routines, and to develop close connections with the teachers.  I was and still am amazed at how easily he has settled in.  What a champion!

Now with just a week to go before the semester starts I'm feeling rather nervous, especially as there is a 1000 word essay due in less than a month. Oh my goodness - wish me luck!

27/52

'A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, for 2013'


Gus - gazing out the window on the kindergarten train trip into the train station where 32-odd children had lunch and then caught the train home again.  A great adventure.


Felix - a rickety old rocking horse that has definitely seen better days brings so much delight for any child who rides it; including our dear Felix!  He has now worked out how to do wheelies on it (well to make it buck really but we're splitting hairs - he calls it wheelies.)

Joining in with the lovely Jodi.

Tuesday 2 July 2013

Bloglovin

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/5269797/?claim=m9f7j9u7fyc">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Not entirely sure what this whole bloglovin is about but I assumed I had better try and keep up with the times! Xo

Monday 1 July 2013

Back to basics


The time has come for us to take another step towards becoming more natural in our home environment, i.e. getting back to basics like Nana did.  I had been wondering for some time what the next step would be but wasn't sure where to start.  We are pretty comfortable with the homemade rosewater and witch hazel baby wipes, and cloth nappies are a piece of cake to keep smelling fresh now that I know to soak the dirty naps before washing them.  The spray cleaner, antibacterial spray and glass cleaner, all from Wendyl Nissen's book Old-fashioned guide to raising your baby chemical-free, are just a part of our cleaning repertoire and are all we ever use now.

So after having run out of moisturiser, the choice of what the next step in my quest for a natural home would be was made for me.  Not having washed my face with anything other than water in two years, and not being able to remember the last time I used toner, I decided it was time to do something about it.  A little googling and I found the most basic facial exfoliant possible - baking soda.  Just mix up a little paste in your hand and scrub away.  It leaves your face feeling so soft and its already in your cupboard. Livin' the Crunch Life provided a great and easy to make recipe for an apple cider vinegar based toner, which takes minutes to make and doesn't smell at all like apple cider vinegar.  There are a heap of face cream and oil recipes but they seemed to require too many ingredients or seemed just a little too complicated to make - except the face oil recipe by Crunchy Betty.  It simply has three ingredients and all you have to do is mix them together - anyone can do it.

To finish off my new face care regime I added make up remover pads to my grocery list, and then two minutes later scrubbed them off when I found these reusable facial pads on Ravelry.  It took me around 10 minutes to make one pad - so not long at all considering I'm only a beginner on the crochet scene.  Just love quick and easy crochet!

At the end of last week, as I wrote down dishwashing powder, body wash, liquid handwash - all the items I dread buying because of both the price and the indecipherable and toxic ingredients list, I wondered if these items could also be made at home.  Blow me down - they can!  Thanks again to Wendyl Nissen for her dishwashing powder and liquid handwash recipes which work just as good as those you buy at the shop and for a fraction of the cost.  Tried and True's recipe for homemade bodywash using just three ingredients is ridiculously easy to make and cost $10 to make three litres.  Incredible!

Next on my to-make list are bubble bath, laundry powder and liquid dishwashing liquid.  If you have any ideas then please share.  Hope you'll have a go at getting natural too. Xo