Loving it - week twenty three

A few things to love from the week before.... 

The shots above are of our dinner the other week which was a curious interpretation of fish tacos based on the ingredients we had around the house.

The thing to love in amongst all this is most definitely the chickpea and sweet potato salad, which I may or may not have blogged about here before. I found this recipe on Sprouted Kitchen, which is a really good blog.  They are so tasty and can be eaten hot or cold, as a main or as a side. We eat them quite a bit around our parts.

The tortillas and hot sauce pictured come from Marthas Backyard in Mt Wellington. If you ever have a hankering for American food (most of which is actually fairly foul) then you should make your way here. It's a good spot for Mexican staples and also peanut butter and jelly, pop tarts and nutter butters if those are the items that float your boat.

I'm also loving my library books lately! I have just checked out Anna Jones' How to Cook and it is so good.  I actually kinda want to buy it now, so I can keep a version at home. I have also just finished reading Unprocessed by Megan Kimble and really enjoyed it.  It reminds me of one of my favourite books Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. I've already explored buying raw honey and raw milk in bulk as well as getting veges delivered to the door and purchasing our own flour mill (ahem). Ben is worried!

And in the fiction realm, I've just finished reading Life after life by Kate Atkinson.  Again, so good! If you've never read any of her books before, I really recommend them. You should start with Behind the scenes at the museum.

And the last thing I'm loving in my 23rd week is the small chats I have day-to-day with my girls. A lot of the time it's just the random sweet stuff... the 'I love you's' and 'you look nice in that top' kind of stuff that makes you happy.  But on other occasions it's the slightly more random stuff that gets you...like Juno asking for a willie for her birthday and then decreeing that if no-one bought her one, she would simply grow her own (good luck kid) and Mila, who cheerfully told me on a walk to school the other day that if you fake-burped at a rose on a rose bush, green steam came off it. This was totally true because her friend Elsie had told her.  OK kid, if you say so.

It's great to be grateful

Another double whammy, my new found blogging specialty!  

The weeks whizz by so fast and I keep forgetting to take photos which is pretty dumb. But we did take some of our delicious barley risotto from the other night, so I've treated you to a few of those.

Ben and the girls and I were down in Tairua, the weekend before last, at one of the prettiest beach spots anywhere, but we had forgotten to bring the camera so couldn't get any shots other than my Instagram ones. Boo.

Anyway, regardless of the lack of photography, our weekend was still an awesome one, take my word for it.  We had a practice run at putting up our tent, which went pretty well.  It's massive but so hot inside, we only lasted about five minutes before we aborted our tent mission.

We also went to Otara Bay for the day and had a picnic of strawberries, yoghurt, and marmite and chippie sandwiches. Mmmmmmmmmm.

Mila and Ben both braved the water and Bug and I got about knee-deep, which is an achievement for us.

The next day, we headed to Ocean Beach for one last swim and a spot of hard core shell collecting (again Ben and Mila did the swimming, Bug and I did the peripheral collecting) and then we made our way back to Auckland, stopping at Piako Pete's for some fresh smoked fish on the way.

Epic summery Kiwi weekend quite frankly.

The weekend just gone was a little different, it was just me and Ben and it was pretty errand heavy!

I caught up with my lovely friend Hannah on the Friday and what was supposed to be a business planning night was really just a wine-drinking gossipy night, but great nonetheless! We shall just have to get down to business next time..

On Saturday Ben and I house-hunted for a new rental (slightly soul-destroying) and also went out to Martha's Backyard to buy some Christmas presents and various hot sauces. We also went to the local hospice shop and scored a new puzzle, which we are currently working our way through, slightly hampered by our naughty cat who is hellbent on destroying it.

So anyway, that's been my life of late. 

Had a little bit of anxiety about future housing, work, money and my weight, but I'm trying to stay positive. The Universe has a plan and all that!

So in the spirit of positivity, I thought I would finish by listing a few things I'm grateful for right here and now:

Um, so the roof over my head is a good place to start. So grateful for a nice house with nice things and nice human beings (and occasionally a nice cat) inside.

I'm grateful for my early morning cuddles with Mila.  She's our small, dark alarm clock (my mother's very apt description of her when she was a toddler) and I love her for it.  It's also our rare opportunity to cuddle without the four-year-old getting in the middle.

I'm grateful for my health, which seems to be slowly improving day by day.  I've seen my new naturopath a couple of times now and she's given me some fairly rank muck to drink and then these other drops which make my water taste like pool water, but it seems to be helping.  Everyday I sneeze a little less and use a few less tissues. Sneeze-free by summer?  Well, just maybe....

And lastly I'm grateful for big dreams and my crazy imagination. In the last couple of weeks I've envisioned the best job ever and furnished a beautiful house in my mind at least a hundred times.  Always so much fun! 

Loving it - week twenty two

Posting twice in one day, must be some sort of record!

This post is basically a shout out to my garden, which is coming along rather nicely. Ben and I went kinda crazy a fortnight or so ago and now have three raised beds out the back, plus seedlings waiting to be planted out, a strawberry patch, various herbs in planters and a really pretty lavender bush!

We have eaten some of our spring onions, and a lettuce and the bok choy needs to be picked.  I am totally loving being able to go outside and just grab stuff that goes straight into the pan, onto the plate and into our bellies. So much fun!

The girls have spied a couple of strawberries well on their way, so now the race is on between us and the birds to see who will actually get to eat them.  Chances are Olive will get in there first and muck everything up anyway, she is obsessed with the strawberry patch.

I have so many big plans for these fruits and veges - chili oil and relish, tomato sauce, ratatouille, strawberry jam, rhubarb crumbles, fresh peas in my pasta -oh my god, the list goes on.....

Anyhoo, that's me for week twenty one - a happy lady with dirt in her fingernails and probably a slug or two on the dinner plate.

Other things worth a mention...

Loving date nights as per usual - this week Ben and I went to Shaolin Kung Fu Noodles for dinner and then to the movies to see Legend. I thought it was OK, Ben really liked it. My vege and egg fried dumplings were a personal highlight of the evening.  So, so good!

Also, went to a BBQ to celebrate my friend Kiara's nine year stint in NZ (woo hoo Kiara!!), which was really enjoyable and a great nod to the coming summer and all the yummy barbies that lie ahead.

I had my hair coloured last week as well, which immediately makes me feel a million times better and I bought a new moisturiser, which I totally believe will make me youthful again (honestly, that's what the packet says....)

Loving it - week twenty one

As I mentioned earlier, I spent the long weekend in Tairua with Ben and his family. The weather came out to play (sort of) and I spent a really nice Sunday driving through to Waihi to have lunch with my dad.

We went to the Ohinemuri Winery, which is hidden from the main road through the Karangahake Gorge, but is nevertheless teeming with cyclists from the rail trail and other visitors.  I had carrot soup and a delicious chocolate orange mousse and dad had a duck liver pate with crusty bread and then a really fresh lime tart covered in berries.

The Karangahake Gorge is awesome- i really want to have a holiday there at some point.  I'm dropping mad hints to Ben, that we should camp there over Anniversary weekend, but he's pretty lukewarm about it!

I also had my first ever go at playing golf, which was pretty unsuccessful but surprisingly fun. It is so fricken hard to hit those tiny balls, but when you do, the feeling is pretty great.

On Monday, we went to JB Hifi to recoup our stolen losses and walked away with a huge haul of gear.  It was actually pretty exhausting trying to spend that money and wracking our brains about what we actually needed etc... but we weren't complaining.

I got the National's High Violet album, which I haven't even listened to yet, but am looking forward to cranking at some point.  And Ben got a tonne of PS4 related stuff and a PS4... so he's pretty much counting the hours until he's home alone now so he can binge on it.

So, what else am I loving...

Well, we took the girls to Western Springs the other night which was a fun glimpse of things to come as summer stretches out before us. To be fair, we probably jumped the gun a bit- it was kinda chilly and the girls were kinda scratchy, but that could have been because we had been to an open home before hand.

We are looking to move back into town, which is probably gonna be a hella expensive exercise, but we think it will be worth it because of commute hassles and our general dislike of living in Avondale. The house we looked at was a bit small when it came to living space, but it proved to us that there were nice places we can afford in the area that we want to live in, so that was a nice positive outcome to hold on to.

So in summing up... the things I love this week and am forever grateful for are:

Long weekends -hell yeah, gimme more.

Long lunches - my dad is great mealtime company, never dull!

Open homes - a legitimate opportunity to snoop in other people's houses

The perfect marriage of chocolate and orange - I've been craving jaffas all week

Grumpy children - it's always fun teasing them a bit, then having a crack at cheering them up

The National  - why would anyone not love this band

Spending up large when it ain't your money - enough said.

Loving it - week twenty

No pictures!!!

Okay so there was a burglary at the beginning of the week and Ben's damn fine camera was stolen, along with some other stuff, so i'm gonna struggle to fill this post with any pics! Hence, the boring post.

I am of course loving the fact that nobody in the family was hurt as a result of the break-in, which happened while we were at work and school, especially little Olive, who must have been wondering what the hell was going on when people were lugging our TV down the hall.

But on the not so good side it meant hours of locksmiths, builders, insurance assessors, and two little people who are suddenly quite fearful.

Still, such is life.  My third burglary this year, so i'm assuming my theft trifecta is complete!

I'm currently loving being in the garden.  It's not really warm enough, but I no longer care.  Beds are being built and plants are going in. It's so exciting! I have visions of feeding the masses all with stuff we have grown ourselves! So far its just strawberries, rhubarb, rocket, bok choy, peas, lettuce, spring onions, squash and a zucchini, but there are plans to add tomatoes, chillies, an eggplant and more herbs into the mix.  Basically anything we can squeeze in, anywhere!

I'm also loving the Happier app. I have just started using it and I find it really good as a way of pausing and thinking about some of the things I am grateful for. If you're looking for a way to keep the positive juices flowing, I'd definitely recommend it. It's great for the ego when your happy moments make other people smile (almost as good as instagram likes!)

I'm loving online shopping as well. Honestly, I am ticking shit off the Christmas list like never before, and it's so much fun because you come home from work and there's a package for you (OK, so not technically for you, but you get to unwrap it in the first instance- thrill!!) and it is a little treat to brighten up the afternoon.

The weekend just gone, I ever so selflessly let my girls go off with their dad to a family reunion, so I took off to Tairua for the long weekend. It was a pretty great way to spend three days... more on that soon xx

Another birthday....

I am now the lucky mother of one very sweet eight year old.  The last stretch of September and the beginning of October are a fairly busy time for the Russell family, with my birthday and Harriet's birthday in September and then my niece James, my dad and Mila all together at the beginning of October.

On Friday the ninth, Mila turned eight and had a sleepover party at her dad's, which, by all accounts, went very well. I got my hands on her on the Saturday, which happened to be my dad's actual birthday and he was up staying with us so that was a bonus!

We headed out to Mission Bay for some playground fun and a picnic lunch with bacon and egg pie (Mila loves pies) and veges and raspberry suckies and other such yummy things. We also set up Mila's new soccer goal and had some fun kicking the ball at it and whoever had the misfortune of being goalie. But the weather wasn't overly pleasant, so we moved on kinda quickly.

Next stop was Lilliputt, where we all played minigolf on the original course, which was way quieter than the T-Rex one. Both girls got a hole-in-one on the first hole, so that was a pretty good way to get things started.  Ultimate winner was Ben, with Grandad a close second.  Us ladies were a little off the pace, it's gotta be said.  Still it was fun and I think the girls enjoyed it, although Mila did look set to throw her club on a few occasions.  

We headed back towards home after that, stopping for ice cream at the Tannery.  I had a golden syrup flavoured ice cream, which was delicious. June-bug went for chocolate, Mila had cookies and cream, Dad had a lemon curd one and Ben opted for strawberries and chocolate. Overall consensus is that Kohu Rd ice cream is the biz.

After that it was just home for some gardening, more football, chicken curry for dinner, birthday cake and a movie.  All in all a pretty sweet way to celebrate a pretty sweet kid's big day.

I swear, I can't face my children's birthdays without thinking back to the day they were born. For Mila that means memories of an atrocious labour that seemed to last an eternity, being admitted to hospital and then finally having my little girl wrapped up beside me (actually, not so little, a whopping 9+ pounds). 

I remember looking at her and feeling the weirdest rush of emotions- she at once seemed so alien and familiar. I thought she was weird looking but also the most beautiful thing I had ever clamped my eyes on. 

I wasn't great at parenting a young baby its gotta be said, but it didn't seem to put Mila off. She has been my staunchest supporter and ally from the get go.  She gives me the best cuddles, and the best advice when I lose my way.  She is great for a laugh, she loves a practical joke (as long as she's not the butt of it), she loves family, friends and most of all every kind of meal be it savoury or sweet.  Everyday I think how lucky I am to have her. 

Happy birthday Mila!

And it's been a while, but here some things I've been loving over the past month

* My new yoga course at The Yoga Ground.  I'm halfway through the eight week course and starting to feel like i'm finding my feet... or hamstrings, or glutes, or triceps.....

*Our vege garden, which is slowly starting to take shape.  Dad has helped us plant some seedlings and we have built a couple of raised beds to accommodate a lot of veges over the coming summer months. I'm so excited!

*Tacos.  Specifically the mushroom one I had at Mexico, when we all celebrated my friend's 40th and the pulled beef one I had at Miss Clawdy's where we went for a bang-up meal for Dad and James' birthdays.

*Friends, wine, summer plans.  Dreaming and scheming about New Years Eve and camping fun over a glass or two of wine in the late afternoon sunshine with a friend, is the perfect way to round out the weekend imo.

Hooray for birthdays!

Just a quick post tonight to save me from getting too far behind!  I promise, more will soon be forthcoming.  I've been busy at work and my step dad died last week so I haven't been in the best frame of mind for blogging.  Still its not all bad!  You only have to look at some of the pics from birthday weekend away in Kohukohu with Ben to see how good things can really be.

We took a Friday off the weekend before last and made our way up north at a leisurely pace, driving through Dargaville and up through the Waipoua Forest.  I saw Tane Mahuta for the first time - that's one big ass tree right there! We also went to Rawene for lunch and had fish and chips on the wharf while we waited for the car ferry.

After that it was just a quick drive to Kohukohu, quite possibly one of the smallest, prettiest towns in NZ (in my opinion).  We stayed in an old cafe building that sat right out over the water. It was mainly just one large room with a wrap around deck and it was perfect. Ben tried his luck fishing, but didn't get anywhere and he also taught me how to play chess, which I kinda sucked at but enjoyed nonetheless.

We had dinner both nights at the local pub and had great coffee from the cafe and Ben had an epic meat pie too. We also drove out to Mitimiti on the Saturday, which is a remote, wild west coast beach totally worth a visit (again, in my opinion).

On the Sunday we made our way back to Auckland again taking a scenic route, this time through Langs Beach, Waipu Cove and Mangawhai.  We had lunch at Bennetts in Mangawhai and then bought some delicious chocolates from their store, some for us and some for the girls.  It was a pretty sweet weekend all round, it's gotta be said.

More soon, I promise!

As ever, a shout out to Ben for the mad photo skills.

A catch up post (again)- week sixteen and seventeen

Once again, I'm playing catch up!

Quite a bit has been happening over the last couple of weeks, I started my new job with Auckland Libraries last Monday, which has been pretty time consuming and exhausting. I honestly come home so tired, I feel drained of energy. But, I figure that once I learn the systems things will be come a bit more normal and i'll stop being so goddam sleepy!

Last Friday Ben and I went out to celebrate the end of my first week, which was fun. We went to The Cav on College Hill, then Bonita in Ponsonby for a drink and finally stopped in for dinner at Mekong Baby, which was super delicious and I can't recommend highly enough.

The previous weekend was fairly low key...the girls were with Anton and Ben and I hung around the house and went up to his parents for Father's Day dinner on the Sunday. On Monday, after school, the girls gave Ben his 'step-father's day' present, which was a pie magic- kind of a present for all of us really... We made bacon and egg pies, which featured the silverbeet Bug had grown in our vege plot.  They were pretty tasty.  We have also been eating a lot of the broccoli out of our garden, so we are achieving to an exceptionally high gardening level.

I've got quite a lot to love at present, though my positive thoughts vibe is clearly a little skewed as I somehow managed to incur two speeding tickets within an hour of each other on the first day of my week off. Furthermore, that entire work-free week I carried around an annoying head cold that wouldn't quit and I ended up on the couch watching telly for half the time.

Ah well, you can't win them all I guess :) Thankfully, there were some highs to celebrate among the lows.

To start; I checked out Kim Gordon's autobiography Girl in a band  and I'm really enjoying it so far, she's an awesome writer.  Also, we went to the museum with the girls on the weekend and I hadn't been for ages. It was cool, I liked the special Auckland exhibit currently on as well as old favourites like Wild Child and Auckland 1866 (the old school town set up with the apothecary and whatnot).

A couple of weeks ago I went out for lunch with Viv, Luca and Liz at the new Scratch Bakery in Milford, and Viv and I did a spot of shopping afterwards.  I got myself some new pants from Topshop and a couple of of plain tees from Glassons.  I always love getting new clothes! I also went out for lunch with Ben and his mum on my week off (I've been lunching a lot of late) and I got some new dinner plates from Deco to Retro as well as two second-hand Elton John records- score!

I'm also loving my new coffee spot Elsie on Mayoral Drive, the novelty of using public transport for the first time in ages, working with a bunch of cat mad women, watching Bug throw herself into her swimming lessons (finally), catching up with my pals at a baby shower, getting to goo and gah over little people and lastly I'm loving the anticipation of the long weekend that lies ahead in honour of my upcoming birthday....hurrah!

Loving it - week fifteen

I have the week off - Hurrah!

Annoyingly I've got sick, but I refuse to let that get me down. I've kinda made the most of the last two days- got my hair done, caught up with my friend Hannah and her cute-as-a-button twins Max and Stella, and I've managed to pick the girls up at 3 both days, which is novel for all of us.

In typical Kate fashion, I had a list of things to let you know about that were well worth loving and were keeping my spirits high, but alas I've totally forgotten them (The two little people crowding me out on the couch don't help, or hearing Elsa sing Let it Go for the one trillionth time!)

I went up to Orewa on the weekend and saw John who has moved back into his home to be cared for there. He's doing ok, but breathless as anything.  The girls and I also hung out with Viv and Luca and ate chips and drank wine- great way to end a Sunday, even if you are sick.

Last week we booked our camping trip which is exciting,  even though we don't have a tent, chairs, or any kind of equipment really!

Ben made mexican spiced beef cheeks on Saturday and we tried to make burritos, but they were way too big and made a bit of a mess. The flavours were ace though. We also watched The Princess Bride (mainly for the adults' benefit I think).

On Sunday we got dumplings from Mr Zhous, another thing to love.

I've decided I've got horribly out of shape this winter, so am working on being a little more healthy moving forward into summer- I've gotta get moving! Am doing ok so far this weekend, did some yoga yesterday and am hitting the pool with Viv tomorrow.... but still, as ever the thing with me is actually sticking to the plan. Oh and cutting out the cake- this trips me up EVERY. TIME. Anyway, I've decided to love making plans with the best of intentions, it's always so fun at the start.

PS: if you're wondering about the pic it is a throw back shot of Samoa. I am without camera this week as Ben has taken it to Queenstown for work. (It's a terrible pic, I mainly put it in to see if my mum or sister ever read my blog, cos I feel like they will be outraged ;))

Loving it- week thirteen and fourteen

Another double whammy coming at ya, because as per usual, I coudn't get my a into g last week!

I feel like I have had a busy two weeks of not doing much but feeling exhausted nonetheless - ever have one of those?

The weekend before last, my dad came up and we went and watched the All Blacks at Eden Park. It was heaps of fun, they totally wasted Australia and we had great seats. Kingsland was crazy busy that night; we got a lift in around 5pm and it was impossible to get in anywhere pretty much. Thankfully we managed to squeeze in at Citizen Park and have a few drinks before the match.

Ben and I made haloumi burgers on Friday night for dinner, which were really good.  We have made them quite a few times and always reckon that if we ever had a burger making biz they would be our go to vege burger option. They are pretty simple but so tasty- portobello mushrooms, haloumi, roasted peppers, mayo, onion and a green. 

I took dad to swimming on Saturday and thankfully June-bug got over her sudden water fears and got involved with her lesson. The last couple of times had been kind of pathetic on her part; a lot of refusing to hop in and then refusing to participate- so annoying when you know she can swim pretty well for a four-year-old! However, this weekend just gone by,, Anton informed she once again refused to get in the water and to quote Anton "Bug is done with swimming".  UGH.  I'm gonna take her this weekend and push her in. Maybe.... probably not! It is tempting though.

This weekend just gone by was pretty low key. I worked the Saturday and babysat my nieces, who are little well-behaved blonde angels. We ate brisket, which Ben had smoked all day in his weber with coleslaw, bbq sauce in fresh bread rolls and we watched Guardians of the Galaxy at the girls request (I may or may not have dozed off for the most part).

On Sunday, Ben and I had one of those 'get shit done' type days, which involved markets, supermarket, briscoes for a toaster, rebel sports for a yoga mat and Real Groovy for some record perusal.  I bought two rippers (as pictured) for a whopping $7.  What a bargain hunter.

Anyhoo, here's some stuff I have been loving of late, listed in no particular order...

First up, I have started watching The Walking Dead's first season and subsequently have had a whole series of zombie apocalypse extreme survival-type dreams.  

At a glance this would not seem like the series for me, but I'm totally hooked on it. The new spin-off series starring Cliff Curtis starts tonight and I'm pretty amped on that too.

Some other things I'm grateful for this week include: having my girls for an extra night this week (thanks Anton), rediscovering chocolate ice cream, my daily eight thirty coffee, hot water bottles and topshop tights (honestly, they are the best). John came off his medication a week ago but is doing remarkably well. So well, in fact he is heading home today to continue his respite care at home. Another week with John about is definitely something to love.

Also, Little Sister in Henderson is a recent discovery and it is so good. I would recommend anyone who finds themselves in that part of the world to head there asap for Kokako coffee, great breakfast options and the most enticing cabinet food you've ever clapped eyes on.

Also, whileIi'm giving a shout out to yummy places to eat, I have to mention Musashi in New Lynn as well.  Ben and I went there for date night on Fri and it was so good. We sat at the back at a long granite bench and got a shared menu for two with Beef Sukiyaki, green salad and Agedashi tofu as our mains.  The presentation of the beef had extremely high novelty value- it comes in a little pot and cooks down at your table.  It was all really tasty, prettily presented and worth the money (imo).  Also, it's BYO which always gets a big tick from us!

And there you have it, two weeks of stuff rolled into one little ole blog post. Have a happy week everyone x

Loving it - week twelve

Talofa!  Having just returned from a week-long tropical holiday with my mum and sister, I'm finding plenty to love this week, but the Auckland weather doesn't feature! (Oh my god, it's so fricken cold here right now, I feel like I could actually perish at night.)

None of our group of three had ever been to Samoa before, and I can't understand why because it's pretty awesome. We stayed on the southern coast at Coconuts Beach Club and spent most of our time either lounging around the resort, eating at another joint down the road or tiki-touring in our rental car across the island.

I was the sole driver and frankly, the driving was exhausting at times due to the sheer amount of pot-holes in the road. The locals ambling along the road three abreast are a hazard unto themselves as well.

Highlights for me included a waterfall we visited on our last day in the O le Pupu-Pue National Park.  I was a bit too scared to jump in, but I did swim and the water was amazing, as was all the bush around.  This was the one spot where I saw a lot of lizards too. 

Oka was another trip favourite, none of us could get enough of this dish and at least one person ordered it at every meal pretty much. Oka was always raw tuna marinated in coconut milk with various additions like tomato, cucumber, chili, coriander and lemon. The best thing to eat in the searing heat.

Although the food at our resort was a bit hit and miss (actually pretty bad), their Fia Fia night was really fun and despite the torrential downpour through out dinner the performers kept us entertained with heaps of songs, dances and fire twirling, licking and dancing (this probably has a proper name). 

Coconuts also made epic cocktails and Harriet and I did a great job of working our way through a big chunk of the list, and the staff were friendly, accommodating and sweet. In fact one girl helped Harriet in a medical emergency by taking us back to her house to find supplies because they had run out at the hotel.  At Sinelei we managed to befriend a waiter who hugged us all good bye when we had our last dinner there on Sunday night, he was a total sweetheart who seemed to really like my mum and who's last words were "goodbye palangi."

Like most holidays I go on, I kept thinking about how much my kids would love it there- the heat, the water, the wild surrounds make a pretty perfect kids' playground and there was so much to do that we never got round to that I can't wait to find the time and money to go back with the fambam in tow. 

********

On a sadder (much, much sadder) note, my step dad John has gone into hospice for the final time to be made comfortable as he finally succumbs to his horrible degenerative lung condition. I have been up to see him twice and the last time he was unable to really speak as he has decided to go off his antibiotics, which are basically prolonging his life. 

The amazing team at hospice are keeping him comfortable and relaxed and he is able to sleep most of the day. It's really too hard to talk about or accept and in this situation there is nothing to love, there's only a terrible sense of grief. 

Loving it - week ten and eleven

A double whammy this week, due in part to general slackness and general busyness!  So much has happened since I last touched base including a new job offer, which I accepted.  So, in one month's time I shall be heading over to Auckland Council to work out a one-year contract working on their library website.  I'm pretty excited about the new opportunities that lie ahead and figure it's a step on the path to self-employment (aka world domination of the webby kind).

The weekend before last, Anton and I took the girls to see Disney princesses on ice, which was actually pretty cool.  A total overload of young girls all frocked up and high on sugar. The best part of the whole thing was managing to keep it a secret from Juno and Mila, who right up to our arrival at vector genuinely thought we were just all going to get coffee 'as a family'.  Parenting win for us!

Other fun events last weekend included dinner out with our friends Simon and Viv on the Friday and dinner at Ben's friends house on Saturday to fare him well before he went off to Europe.

This weekend that has just gone has been a good one too.  We took the girls down to Tauranga to see my dad and checked out the Mount, went for a swim at Welcome Bay pools (my favourite), hit the Tauranga Farmers' Market, made Lemon Meringue Pie for dinner, took a ride on a miniature train and just generally had fun with grandad. 

So, in honour of my busy two weeks, here's some things I'm loving at present...

I bought a new swimsuit in preparation for my trip to Samoa this week and I love them.  Black and kinda slimming i think?  I didn't cry in the changing rooms anyway, so that's a win!

I also got some new makeup, which i love.  Nars foundation and Stila primer. I'm determined to learn how to put make-up on like a proper adult and not a kid that raided her mum's makeup bag.

I'm loving Jamie Oliver's bircher muesli recipe, which we have been eating for breakfast for the last couple of weeks. We take it to work with stewed fruits and it is really good. And actually keeps me full- success!

I got a hard copy of the Kings Seeds catalogue, which makes for great reading and planning and plotting and dreaming. Kind keen to grow my own loofahs at some point....

And lastly I'm loving weekends out of Auckland with my crew. Fun times x

Loving it - week nine

Well, it's practically week ten but I've said it before and I'll say it again- better late than never!

I'm trying hard to stay positive at the moment but the stress of having an uncertain job future lying ahead of me has taken a toll on my body somewhat and my pbs has flared up.  Having a chronic condition is a real pain in the ass.... like totally.  I have been pain-free for quite some time after months of prolonged discomfort and 'flare up' after 'flare up'. So as you can imagine, I was pretty upset when I was struck down on Tuesday. I ended up crying on the couch, pumping myself full of nurofen and hugging a hot water bottle. Ugh.

Anyway, the thing about chronic conditions is that you're stuck with them, so at some point you have to make peace with it.  I've spent too long envying other people their ability to eat anything and drink anything, to never have abdomen pain that feels like fire in your lower belly. Getting stressed about the situation only makes it worse, so now I try to be as zen as possible about it. But sometimes that's easier said than done.

Still, making my list of things I love serves to remind me that life 's not really that bad and of course they're all things that make me happy, so the stress levels drop and the pain reduces - score :)

The pics above are all of  a cake baking session Mila and I had when we hung out during the school hols.  We made a chocolate cake on Bastille Day in honour of my nana Sylvie, who died earlier this year.  July 14 is her birthday but I couldn't really think of anything particularly French that my nana would like (she was a pretty fussy eater). She did love chocolate cake though so that's what we went with.  A little bit of tweaking was required as I didn't have exactly the right ingredients (happens to me all the time) but Mila and I were pretty stoked with the end result. The cake we made was adapted from a recipe from the book Gran's Kitchen by Natalie Oldfield.

Other fun things we did on our day together, which I'm loving, include watching make-up tutorials for ages and trying to achieve a 'smoky eye' (we didn't) and also doing a couple of yoga videos thanks to the lovely Adriene from YWA (she's awesome, youtube her). So basically I'm loving the internet, days off with my daughter and chocolate cake!

The International Film Festival is on in Auckland at the moment and I've managed to check out two films so far. First up was The Lobster, which was the opening night film.  It was so good, but so weird. On the weekend we took the girls to see Enchanted Kingdom in 3D, which was an Our World-type nature doco about Africa.  It was pretty cool to and was narrated by Idris Elba (Stringer Bell from the Wire), which for some reason made me giggle.

On the Thursday we saw The Lobster, Ben and I also went to Little and Easy for an after work drink and checked out the Street Food Collective for dinner; a pretty sweet date night all in all. I'm definitely loving the Street Food Collective and am keen to head back to try some more stuff.

And well yep, I think that sums up what I'm loving at the mo.... onwards and upwards I say xx

Loving it - week eight

This is a two part post, the first part being a re-hash of my weekend fun times on Saturday and the second being a list of some of the things I've been loving of late (there's some overlap, I admit)

First up, a nod to friendly occasions.

This weekend my pals and I threw our first ever mid winter Christmas complete with turkey, presents and the best feckin' dessert you can imagine (thanks Chris).  We had the party at our house and Ben spent all Saturday smoking a pork shoulder in his new Smoky Mountain Weber bbq. 

The smoke was intense! So much so, that a sheet that had been drying on the line had to go through the wash again the next day because it stunk. The weather totally played ball, it was one of the most beautiful clear Auckland days you could have hoped for, but so, so cold. 

After about 11 hours of cooking the end result was pretty amazing, although the intense smokiness of the meat did take some getting used to.

We also had amazing vege loaf, potatoes, salmon, stuffed turkey roll, brussel sprouts, broccoli, Yorkshire puddings and gravy, I was stuffed afterwards. Liz and Chris were in charge of pudding and made chocolate orange souffles with custard. They were divine.

Before dinner we 'secret santa'd' and had mulled wine. Seriously, could a group of people get more festive? I don't think so.

I scored 10 scratchies, which I thought was a pretty swell gift- so much fun scratching to be had and then I made $5 and won an extra free ticket - sweet!

Felice Navidad peeps.

And on that note, a list of things I'm loving of late.

First up a shout-out to Chris and Liz, who own OTT patisserie in Birkenhead.  Our Christmas desserts were so yummy and the almond croissants and lemon meringue pies you left behind were life-saving the next day. If you're day-tripping to the shore, or more importantly if you're a shore-dweller, you need to visit this place for bready goodness.

And while we're giving out shout-outs, one to my pal Viv of Revival massage therapy who organised for me to have an hour-long massage on Sunday with a new, prospective therapist.  It was so good! I am now able to move my neck again without any pain- life-saver Viv!

I'm also loving leftovers, especially the pulled pork sliders with coleslaw and bbq sauce Ben created on Sunday, along with afternoon drinks at the pub on Sunday (the best way to pick up your kids!), impromptu visits from sisters and nieces who helpfully sit with you and make crepe paper streamers, cuddles with Olive- who just gets cuter everyday, and having my girls back home under my roof again. 

Bliss x