Thursday, January 26, 2012

Rain, stale bread, and leftover Punkin*

Mmm... super-easy-quick-Punkin soup with croutouns*
The other day I made some of this....

Punkin Cheesecake Bars, from this fabulous book! CORR!* 

.... and this, with some frozen Punkin from the freezer of doom! (by this I mean, it is nearly punkin season again, and there is still frozen punkin in the freezer- time for a cleanse!)
 
 The little fellow had his Soul mate come visit. They hung out in the Tipi.

And for the first time in ages, I actually made a lil' something for myself. -A lil' something that wasn't food- cause I'm always making THAT for myself ;-).

And, as you can see, I'm having some issues with the ol' 'puter! Photo's and words are choosing their own locations today, it would seem. Though, I shall not blame the tools, it is just a case of me getting used to erm.... well, using my lovely Mac for something other than email, blog reading and facebook (shame, I know! But I'm changing my wicked ways- can't you see!)
Po marie y'all! Its my bedtime Xx Tink*

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Blueberries, Bliss, and the Boys*


So here's a little of what we have been up to of late... Thursday my darling boy and I went Blueberry picking with my Mama, Flower, and her kiddlies. It was fricken AWESOME! I grew up a seven minute walk from this blueberry patch in Pohangina, but I never made quite as good use of it as I could have- but now- WOAH! Try and stop me! 3.5 kg's on this particular day, and more next week- my freezer is going to be crammed with these wee beauties! 




 Blueberry sourdough pancakes. Yes that is real maple, my boy barely knows the meaning of the word sugar! One must prioritise such things, you see ;-).

Er, that would be a blueberry and apple smoothie! As my wee ratbag would like to think he can survive on Mama milk, weetbix (no, not MY choice!!) cheese and banana, I find smoothies are the way to get him having more fruit. Sometimes I use rice milk, if I have one open, to try and keep the dairy intake down a bit, but other wise we have raw organic milk, and raw organic cream! (Hell yes!!) 

 And this evening, something rather unheard of happened! I feel I must share, as it truly is a blissful miracle! My beautiful boy, who rarely is in bed before 9:30 (yes, that doesn't leave me with much time to myself does it- lucky I love him to pieces and know that one day he will be a teenager and possibly less inclined to hang out with me..).. was all curled up in bed at 8:18- and the Papa was out, so I had a candle lit bath, and read some totally indulgent trashy crafting goodness (this)!! CORR!! I'm feeling rather renewed..

My favorite grown man, and my favorite small one, hanging out in the sandpit. As it is summer around here, and my lil' fellow spends the vast majority of his time pants-less, it is becoming rather tricky to take/find usable photos... if you get my drift! Do it while you still can I say (the bare bum I mean! Lucky lil' ratbag!)

And while you may be thinking 'Ah, thats the life'- and though it is! And we are all damn near as happy and healthy as we can be, and feeling aware of how lucky we are, and much gratitude for it; here are some of the erm... less than beautiful/wonderful things... to remind y'all that we're keeping it real ;-).

*There is sand on EVERY surface of our house. Every. Sand is SO good, when it's outside.

*I cleaned a blueberry poo off the carpet the other day! Quite funny actually- toddler poo still doesn't gross me out! (I would like to point out that poo on the carpet is a very rare occurrence! Or any surface for that matter).

*The Papa and I rent, and though we love our house, we DREEEEEAM of living in Pohangina, or somewhere rural and beautiful, with gardens and an orchard and chickens and pigs and a cow... (ok, I know... but you've got to dream big right?!). It is a constant act of balance to remember not to be placing all our 'dreams of future happiness' into that basket, but to remember that what we have right now is worth celebrating, and the only real happiness is the present moment!

*Our vege garden has been taken over  by a rogue Punkin! Cheeky bugger! Lucky I like Punkin. And lucky my darling man is an ingenious  bloke, and has converted the 'ornamental grass and stones' gardens into prime vegey growing real estate!


And last but not least, here is a photo I like to call 'Potty and Pinny'!
Arohanui, Tink*

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Perfectly imperfect*

For a wee while now I had been contemplating starting a blog. Suprising, as I'm far (far-far) from a whizz on the computer!
But I have a small collection of blogs I love to read regularly (mostly holistic parenting), and a handful I check in with occasionally (mostly for sewing/crafting inspiration), and though this has been an activity I can happily squeeze into lil' snippets of 'me time', I have often felt that so many blog writers are, perhaps, a little afraid to show the 'less than perfect' sides of their lives... Could this be so?

As a mama on my own journey (or journey's! So many, intertwining journeys!) I sometimes find it hard not to compare myself to others who 'appear' to be 'doing it better'. I know this kind of behaviour is counterproductive, I know, and I am learning, a lil' more every day, to be gentle with myself. 
I know I am not alone with this kind of sentiment, and I have always appreciated the times when bloggers, or people in general, are brave enough to share their real-ness.

But don't get me wrong- I have a constant hunger for all that is positive, bright, inspirational and beautiful! I just want mine to have balance :-). Perfectionism is just not my kind of cuppa!



So here I go! Please consider this my attempt to show smidges of my life, as it really is, the beautiful, and the not so much; the real, and the magical (though I do believe those last two fit together perfectly, when we let them). Arohanui, Tinks*