The progressive blog

The progressive blog.

You know that feeling when you really want to blog because it has been far too long...and you had all these ideas leading up to it and then when you actually sit down to do it...you draw a blank?

Well today I'm going to try a progressive blog. It is literally going to take me all day. I will leave the page open and when I remember something again...I will come and type it down. Capeesh?

9am: Google the word "Capeesh". The spell checker is not picking up the word I mean. Found it:

“Capisce?” is American pseudo-Italian slang for “understand?”In formal Italian, capisce is pronounced “cah-PEE-shay,” but in slangy Italian and English it’s “cah-PEESH.”

Well that's some great learning right there. And its only 9:02 on a Monday morning. Must be an Italian cultural themed 24 hours, because last night we watched a funny as rom-com called "When in Rome" with Kristen Bell and some other tall dark and handsome fella. I recommend it if you like predictable rom-coms. 

Later.....

I was looking back on some photos of a family get together yesterday to find a descent one of me. Alas...my  eyes are shut in most of them. Lame.

True story....when I was going for a passport photo a few years ago, Miss joy was 18months old  also needed a passport photo. I thought she would take a million pics and wouldn't sit still etc. Wrong. She clicked first shot and I needed several (10) shots because my eyes were shut in all of them. In the end we had to go flash-less. What a dink. Another embarrassingly true story my drivers license photo looks hideous because the same thing happened...but that time I made my eyes extra wide open so they wouldn't shut and it looks ridiculous.
At least hubby looks lovely. Weirdly Miss Joy is now starting to do the same thing...maybe we should both get our eyes tested.

We took the kids up the Auckland Skytower yesterday. The glass floors are so cool.

Later still...

I am so over talent shows..the voice...american idol...blah blahs got talent. Its too much.
But last night we caught the end of NZ's Got Talent. Did anyone see that "loop song musician". That was amazing. Here's the link in case you missed it.

I've never seen anyone do that before.

Okay enough of this. I better get some stuff done. I am the queen of procrastination.
I've decided to get back into some fitness and healthy eating. So I will avoid that chocolate brownie that a friend bought me. It's calling my name from the fridge. Eat me, eat me. I will resist and do my DVD exercise instead.

Many many many moments later.

Okay so now my arms hurt and I can barely type....but. I. must. see. this. through.
What was I thinking restarting my new fit lifestyle with a Gillian Micheal's DVD. I should have gone for a gentle walk.
Bah. I need a lie down.

I found the link to this on Pinterest. Its a banana slicer. I love a good kitchen gadet but this  has the funniest reviews ever. They really are taking the mickey. There are 250 reviews most of them are pretty funny.

I love funny people.

My current blogging pet peeve: Going to leave a comment on blogger accounts and they have word verification....which you need a PHD to decipher. Or the the "must wait till blogger approval". People please.  I need to read the published comment...in case a) I made a spelling mistake...or b) it made no sense....and finally c) sometimes I'm just nosy and want to know what everyone else said!

As you can see you when you leave me a comment (which I know you will!!!)...it has been made extremely easy! No word verification or waiting.
JUST. SAYING.
xx

Eek "Survivor" starts up again on Sunday night. We love Survivor. Hubby has got all the Quotes down pat. 
Stuff Jeff always says...

• Previously on... Survivor...
• Come on in, guys!
• First thing's first. Immunity, back up for grabs.
• Let's get to today's reward challenge

Can't wait.

Well that will have to wrap up a days worth of random thoughts through my day.

bullet point life

 My Life as it currently is, in bullet points.

• Have ya missed me?
• Im going to blog in bullet points today.
• Just a catch up on random things Ive been up to. 
• I finished work at 11:30 last night. I came home tired but couldn't get to sleep. So I got up and watched the Box for a while...okay until 1am. Then got up to sort kids for school etc.
• Perhaps blogging when tired isn't such a good idea.
• Our church's women's ministry in doing an 8 week course on Lisa Bevere's Lioness Arising Book. I am really enjoying it.
• Miss Joy and Joe did great at their school cross country. 2nd for Miss Joy and 1st for Joe. I love that they give their best. Proud mama.
• Its been the weirdest and hardest year. Grief, potential grief, big changes, kids having anesthetics. One thing I know for sure; God is faithful and His peace transcends all understanding.
• I finally had a blood test to confirm what I already knew. I have low iron. Probably have had it all year. Have been feeling quite slow and tired this year. Not a good way to help deal with the previous bullet point. 

• I am obsessed with "My Kitchen Rules" (TV 2) . Ahhh Pete and Manu. 

•  I did a Treaty of Waitangi workshop last week. Lessons learnt: 1) When you get a group of talking woman together, the opportunities to go off topic are endless. 2) The only British  man in the group will be the first to be shown how to "Hongi". 3) The key to being culturally safe is to be sensitive to other peoples beliefs, cultures and values, and communicate, communicate, communicate. 
• I had my hair done a couple of weeks ago. Its a bit different. I like that I never have the same hair style year in year out. I was talking to my hairdresser about it. She says she has the same clients who come in to have their hair set the the same way every week/month. I hope I don't do that when I'm old.

 

• I am sure that I have the poster child for the terrible twos. I think I am dangerously close to being one of those mothers on "Super Nanny". Jo would be rolling her eyes at the camera about me. And if I caught her I would go all nutty at her, saying things like "you don't even know what you are talking about....you don't even have a  24/7 family yet....you aren't sleep deprived...they haven't worn you down to a nervous wreck...of course the kids YOU nanny are lovely because kids are always better behaved for strangers...and grand parents..." 
• Whoa. I have no idea where that came from. I told you I shouldn't be blogging tired.

•  The All Blacks creamed the Auzzies on Saturday and it was GOOD.

• I thought I may have got away with having no winter ills. Alas. I have the sniffles today. 

• SPRING IS ALMOST HERE! <------------ ( can you tell I may just be a little excited about it)
• I got into spring cleaning a little early and wiped down a few cupboards on Saturday. I didnt mean to. I was just looking for some ingredients to make carrot cake.
• I did not have the right ingredients to make carrot cake. I'm keen to make one though.
• My sister in law is visiting from Australia. Yay.
• While I was awake last night, I was wondering to myself if  blogging was a little naff.
• The kids and I have started a new thing. Its called fantastic Friday. Its when I pick them up from school and we go and have some fun somewhere instead of coming straight home. A play at the park and an ice cream for example. Its Miss Joys favourite part of the week. Who knew something so little could mean so much as long as you do it every week.
• The kids have got a couple of pen pals. Two kids in Perth the same age as them. How cute the little hand written letters. It would be easier to be email buddies. But why not encourage a little bit of hand writing practice and old fashioned snail mail. 
• Whew....That was a lot of random stuff. Hope all is well in your world.
• This picture crack me up. A parody on  "Haters Gonna Hate"

 

 
 

Change

Zak Zak fallen asleep eating sushi.

 A few months ago I went along to my favourite sushi bar. It had become a weekly institution. Okay, okay...sometimes I went more than once a week. I was worried when a new road cut down my traveling by car time from 8 minutes, right down to about 4, but a little self control helped me keep it to a reasonable frequency during the week. My toddler and son both enjoy the salmon rolls, so I tell my self, it's a treat for them too.

Any hoo, our town has a lots of sushi bars (Seriously I think we have the highest per capita for the population...Im sure!) but I had settled on this one place. The people were nice (Korean instead of Japanese though...I worked this out one day when I tried out my 3rd Form Japanese on them..."KONICHIWA"...blank look back.). The  sushi rolls were consistent and tasty. They had a good system and there was always ample free parking.

I had become accustomed to the nice people there. Sometimes they would sneak one of the boys a little crumbed prawn or something. And so I was a little taken a back when the teller told me in her broken English that they were "finishing their business". And Im not proud of what came out of my mouth next...."What do you mean you are finishing!? How can you do this to ME?!" (Yes...I did!) "Some  new owners will be here from tomorrow."... NEW?!. I paid and walked away sad faced. "All the best for the future" The lady behind me says after she had payed. Oh yeah...geez Im selfish! Thinking about me.  So...I take change personally sometimes.

So I went back to see the new owners...suss them out really. I  found ways of critiquing their sushi..."its not how the old owners made it..." and generally avoided the place by trying new places.
But today I went back. And you know what? It looks amazing. They have changed the decor a bit...and I like it. They have added new products to their range, which I tried today. The new girl is even nicer then the last people. She has a friendly face, and she is pretty quick with her telling skills. And...I have found the yummiest new thing. A banana and chocolate spring roll, dusted with icing sugar. Oh dear the hips really don't need that one!

So today I'm deciding that most change is good. That Change happens whether you want it or not. That change is beyond your control almost all of the time...unless you are the one making the change. That our job is just to roll with it...or figure out a way to change it for the better instead.

“Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.” ~Robert C. Gallagher

An Ode To Hannah

When I was  a young toddler with a new born younger brother, a stranger knocked at the door. She was a tall older lady in her sixties spreading the Good News. My mother was a lonely new immigrant with a newborn son that would not stop screaming, despite her best efforts. A listening ear was just what my mother needed. Mother did not convert to the Gospel this woman talked about as she was a devote Hindu, but it was nice to know someone cared.

Fast forward a few years and others came into mothers life. Neighbors, acquaintances, even her GP all professed to speak of the Good News of a God she did not know. After being invited to see a  visiting Healing Evangelist Mother decided that church was where she needed to be on Sundays...along with the rest of the family. I was seven.

In the meantime the old lady who spread the Good News by knocking on doors moved to another town an hours drive away. Her name was Hannah. Mother was excited to tell the old lady about her new conversion to the same faith she had once shared with her. Our visits became more frequent as we got to know her and we were allowed to call her "Nana". She already had Grandchildren of her own but didn't mind a couple more.

In the August school  holidays of 1989, I spent my first days away from my family with Hannah and her husband Charlie. I was eight years old. They lived in a small two bedroom cottage painted orange. It was high on a hill on an isolated farm with a few beef stock. 
Hannah was severely disabled by Rheumatoid Arthritis. Her fingers were bent and her she walked very slowly because her knees hurt so much. In fact, all of joints hurt. She found basic tasks very tricky to do, opening a jar for example. So I volunteered to do things and she patiently taught me. Things I was not allowed to try at home such as bake a chocolate cake and make dinner.  I learned to vacuum properly, wash clothes by hand with a "wash board" and she also taught me to knit. Uncle Charlie took me out on the farm to feed the stock some hay.

Over the next few years I continued to stay with her in the holidays and continued to learn new things. I was mowing their lawns at the age of 9. "Just make sure you don't pull it backwards and get your feet chopped, dear..." Okay...I thought and off I went. I remember chopping wood that same year, and then her teaching me how to get the fire going in their old pot belly fire.

She continued to get more disabled by her arthritis and I continued to help do things for her like help shower her, wash her hair, scrub her back and other tasks that now I think back on and wonder if a 9-12year old should have been doing. Its probably why I became a nurse.

But the most valuable thing Hannah my 'Nana' taught me was about Jesus. She loved to share about the bible and I was a willing sponge. I loved all that came out of her mouth. She constantly verbalised verses about God healing her arthritis. And I agreed with her prayers believing for her miracle.

In the year of 1993 her husband Charlie died of a heart attack. He was younger than her and so it was  quite a surprise that out of the two of them he died first. She managed to stay in her home with carers for a while, but it soon became inevitable that she needed to move in with her daughter living further away from us. And so my farm holidays ended. I saw her infrequently over the years, and was saddened to learn that she had passed away and I hadn't been made aware, missing her funeral.

A couple of days a go I restarted knitting. As an eight year old I was pretty bad at it, never really making anything. While I have been knitting, I have been  reflecting on Hannah and how she randomly came in to my life, but helped set my life on a completely different course. I thank her for teaching me all those life skills, setting me up to be a good nurse and most importantly teaching me to know Jesus. I have no doubt that Jesus has given Hannah some new knees and she is dancing in Heaven right now.

An Ode to Hannah my adopted Nana.

Weekend of Possibilities

This month we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. I had booked tickets to see the Flight of the Conchords a few months ago and it conveniently fell the week after our anniversary. I have been a bit scratchy the last few months so a nice romantic weekend away was what we really needed. Some much needed reconnection time. I planned a weekend away to the big city and we called it the "Weekend of Possibilities", doing stuff that we don't get to do these days with three kids in tow. I had  planned a few things and left room for spontaneous plans too.

Highlights were:

 Stopping in at the Kaiwaka Odd Socks Cafe and scoring this burger for $3.50

Shooting stuff. I sucked at this...but it was fun giving it ago.

My first time go carting...The guys past me several times...but fun none the less.

We checked into our downtown apartment, which apparently used to be in Auckland's red light district...oops. 26 floors up gave us a great view over the harbour...or the heebie jeebies when we looked down.

I scored us a Grab One deal to Mikano in Auckland. A 6 course degustation menu for half price.

We walked to the Vector arena and was thoroughly entertained by the the Flight of Conchords. The were such a laugh.

 On Saturday morning hubby did the Powerade challenge while I enjoyed a sleep in. He ran 9km along the waterfront and did a respectable time of 45 minutes. Well done piyar. Somebody is finding it a little difficult to walk a few days later though!

Hubbies Brunch

Saturday afternoon I went on the hunt for some Macarons.  I drove to Newmarket especially to find some from this chick. I felt no shame in asking for one of each flavour...11 in all! Don't worry I shared some with hubby.

On Saturday night we went out to Simon Gault's Euro restaurant. Yep...it was pretty upmarket alright. I left the camera at home as I didn't want to look like a couple of yokels. Really nice food that's nice to do once in a loooong while.

image

After that we braved walking in the city at night to the Comedy Bar. I had booked tickets to see Ben Hurley..who ended up being sick. A comedy bar is definitely not for the faint hearted. A lot of swearing and gross humour...so you have to take the good with the bad. And unfortunately we got placed in the front row...literally spiting distance from the the comedians, and of course they ripped into us. Hubby told them that we were from out of town and had left the kids at home...and he thought that was hilarious...making it sound like we had left them literally at home to fend for them selves! We had a good laugh but probably wouldn't do it again.

I kept saying to hubby as we walked back to the apartment..."look at us walking through Queens Street on a Saturday night...how hip are we!" Of course when you have to point it out like that...its official...you are NOT hip any more ;)

We had a great time on our Weekend of Possibilities, doing the two things we as couple most enjoying doing together: EATING and LAUGHING.  Must do it again sometime. Right back to reality and maybe a diet!

TV MOM's

Im a big TV watcher. Can't help it. During the 80's and 90's growing up, its what we did. Early morning cartoons, after school, watching the news with dinner in our laps. All normal behaviour for me and my brother.

 One of our (mine and hubby's)  favourite weekly shows at the moment is "The Middle". I think it because I can see a lot of myself in "Frankie". I like watching it because they seem a lot like a "normal" family. So I have decided that if you cross Lois from "Malcolm in the Middle" and Frankie from "The Middle" You get me.

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 It got me thinking about the other Tv Mums (Moms) we've grown up watching. So Ive compiled my top 10.

1. Claire Huxtable from the Cosby Show
2. Jill Taylor from Home Improvement
3. Mrs Cunningham from Happy Days
4. Debra Barone from Everybody loves Raymond
5.  Peggy Bundy from Married with Children
6. Maire Barone from Everybody loves Raymond
7. Fran Fine from the Nanny
8. Lois from Malcolm in the Middle
9. Frankie Heck from the Middle.
10. Lorelie Gilnore from the Gilmore Girls.

Who were your favourite TV moms?

Is there any that you identify with?

Thankful Thursdays

Yep. Thats right Im bringing it back. I did a few "T-Ts" when I first started blogging, but some how lost them along the way.

So here's a funny story.
Yesterday I was having a monumental crappy day. It started off crappy...and then just continued to be crappy. Whenever I'm having a crappy day I put on my music and then promptly proceed to the "Humour" section of Pintrest. I know you you  bloggers out there are in to craft and photography section...But my top two categories are Humour and Food. That about sums me up really!

Anyhoo. I had promise a lovely friend that I would bring her around a dinner. Except I had been feeling all sorry for myself and couldn't muster up any inspiration so I decided I would shout her out for nice meal instead. It was as much a nice treat for her as it was for me. I desperately needed to get out of the house and have some time out.  I made the rest of the family dinner and then headed out to pick her up.

We arrived at the lovely restaurant and had a delicious dinner. ( I had the duck again...So good!). We decided we were too full for dessert and opted for a hot drink instead. When the hostess brought our drinks she started to set up some more cutlery. "Hold on...theres a story behind it..." She brings us out a Vanilla Cream Brulee to share. "We've had a call from someone to say they are paying for your meal...and he said to say- make sure they have the brulee if they haven't ordered dessert."
What?! We were flabbergasted. There were only a couple of people who knew we were coming out as it was a very last minute decision. We figured out it was a guy from church who I hardly knew...but decided to bless both of us! We had a great laugh about it. It was such a blessing of a night as we talked for hours...needing to be moved on because we were the last ones there.

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So this Thankful Thursday I'm thankful for:
-The Humour section of Pintrest.
-Lovely church family who bless me.
-And an awesome God who knows when you need a pick me up from a crappy day.