The Womanly Arts (and some cooking and sewing)*

I am enjoying listening to this just now. I was in the library, looking for some Qi Gong (which I didn't find...), but instead found this cd full of empowering lectures. Tonight, after the boys went to bed, I stayed up in my reasonably clean kitchen (less of a rarity these days- I swear, this organisation thing is gently being welcomed into my life!), and made Sauerkraut, and wrote this, while listening to that lovely Louise Hay (CD 1), and shall sleep much better for it. And live much better for it too, I am certain! :-).*

Mmmm... Mirky cabbage water!*

Other fermenting adventures in my kitchen include the ongoing love that is Kefir, (made by adding kefir grains to raw milk, before straining and keeping the grains to reuse), Sourdough, which I am finally getting the hang of, and am cranking out some mean-ass loaves of tasty brown goodness! (along with pancakes and crackers)

Kefir*

Sourdough Pancakes, sunday tradition for me and the ratbag*

Put it all together!*

Some clearly less nourishing kai!*

And, wonderfully, I have been managing some time in the stitch room. I'm getting my sewing groove back, after starting to feel like 'someone who used to sew'... YUSS! :-D. Arohanui, Tink Xx*

Oh! Magical time spent in my stitch room!*

Bliss*

Lucky lil' guy hardly wore a nap' all weekend!*

A few weeks back, the lil' darling and I had the wonderful opportunity to attend an Unschooling Retreat (the first of its kind in Aotearoa, I believe), being held in our other home, the beautiful Pohangina Valley. I had started (erm....) a massive, longwinded intro, but have decided instead, at least at this stage, to just hurry my ass up and put up some photo's. So here we go! Enjoy :-).*

Klimt and wriggle toes*

My beautiful boy and I*

Has somebody been walking on a rainbows?*

Drum love!*

One of the laid back discussions*

Kiddlies nearby, as the big folks yarned*

Sisters!*

Adventures of one Frodo ('F' theme fancy dress)*

Ferocious and the faery*

More drum love!*

Boogey time! (Action shot)*

Hey! (Hehehe! This was the view from my bunk- made me laugh often!)*

Bunting with wonderful quotes on it was hung throughout the camp. I took photo's of most, and shall scatter them through upcoming posts :-).*

Possibley the children's/young peoples discussion...?*

We made flags*

We take food pretty seriously! (Seriously- the food was AMAZING!)*

ROOOAAAR!*

One of my favorite singing groups from the saturday night concert*

Keep up!*

Sunday's timetable*

(And two of the thought provoking, and inspiring quotes).

The feeling of community was undeniable- and it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life! I've never been surrounded by so many families with whom I have felt such a connection, it truly was blissful! And the joy I felt, being in the midst of so many families searching, and practicing conscious connected parenting, was most inspirational and heartwarming to say the least! It is so reassuring to be reminded that there are MANY other parents out there who are giving their children the respect they deserve (this comment I must elaborate on and say I felt this in relation to all the beautiful attachment parenting I witnessed, and was a part of, through out the whole weekend, from everyone who attended!).
My dreams of a world where this kind of love and mutual respect for each other is the norm, has blossomed into ... well, something far more solid than just a dream! :-).
Arohanui, Tink Xx*

Wheeeeeeeee!*

What has 11 wheels and goes "WHEEEEEEEEE!"? 

Here's a clue....

This one's for you Flower baby!

 These... (plus another)... plus this babe on wheels..

Equals this!

 Coolfun! (erm, private joke on the lingo!)

My fab friend Flower gave me these beauties for my burtday, and I finally cranked them out tonight- can't believe I waited so long! The lil' fellow and I did a super speedy mission up the road and around the corner, but until I get stopping sorted proper I will confine the skates-buggy combo to the driveway.

And, in other news, autumn is here, according to our blackberries... Yum! But, I'm still really wanting some more summer please!

I had a few glasses of wine last night, and started yet another 'serious' blog post.... So many unfinished ones. It would seem that writing about things that really matter takes far more time, concentration, practise, and editing, than writing vaguely entertaining faff! Gee, who would have thought ;-).

It'll happen, as all things do, in my own sweet time!

Hope y'all are well, arohanui, Tink Xx*

Snippets..*

Every snatched couple of minutes spent in the stitch room is soundtracked by THIS song... Obsessed- Moi?!

I am super-duper excited about THIS wonderful adventure this weekend....

Don't worry pickle, you're coming too!*

And I promise (myself mostly!) that I will actually write all those other half started posts, starting next week....! Arohanui, Tinks Xx*

D.I.M. (Do It Myself)*

Its a rather busy week this week in my world -who am I kidding, we're all busy! :-). 

I'm trying my hardest to be organised for Le Party this weekend, so I'm not freaking out on the day. I'm not much of an organiser, but I'm trying! Learning a lil' more each day :-). So I have a heap of photo's on the Mac daddy, and some bloggy posts roaming around in my head, but all shall have to wait until next week. 

BUT I couldn't help but show off what I (half!) accomplished today while the man cooked tea (a true rarity!).....

Before, with the newbies in the background.*

These chairs were fricken MANKY!(two still are. Maybe tomorrow?). Thats a sand-porridge-snot-yoghurt-dogknowswhat combo on those seats! Mmmmm....... They have been nagging at my eyes for a while now...

And after. Shiny-shiny!*

The Dadyo asked for a staple gun for Xmas (for building a clear plastic green house for seedlings). 'Hell yes!' I thought! So for a change I spent some money on him. And today I bought oil cloth (water proof, wipeable, fab for a kitchen in which a pants-less toddler likes to hang out, and help the Mama cook, and spill stuff, and is yet to learn how to say 'wees', or 'potty' until its too late!), and a lil' contraption that pulls out staples, and I made some magic! Woohoo! :-D. 

Arohanui, Tinks Xx*

 

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*

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*