:: life lately ::

A bit of a collection of thoughts and happenings today! We're currently enjoying some beautiful sunny, warmer days, which make a whole lot of difference to motivation and the productivity of getting things done, cleaned and sorted around here! I've found myself unexpectedly surprised this year by the shortness of the 'winter' we've had here. I guess 9 years of long, cold, rainy/snowy winters in England and Switzerland had me used to waiting out the beautiful spring flowers and greenery that bursts forth in such a contrast to the cold, short winter days. In Switzerland there can be snow on the ground for 6 or 7 months of the year, considering we lived up in a mountain village. This year it feels like we've blinked and almost missed winter, and pleasantly so :o) Not that Auckland really puts on much of a wintery show!

Until this last week we had several days in a row that provided a scene like this one above. Combined with some bugs that the girls caught, our day time activities admittedly included a lot of the following...

Alot. So much so that I've become a Peppa Pig expert. Almost. I would guess we may have viewed each episode five times which, for the number of episodes, is quite a feat. They are only 5 minutes long each, kinda sweetly annoying as well and cover a whole range of topics from fire engines, to recycling, going on holiday and new babies. Thankfully we can switch to the French version from time to time to change the voices :o) Although, Peppa Pig has resulted in many outbursts of disappointment-bordering-on-tantrums when it comes time to switch it off, so there's a bit of a love/hate relationship with it all.

Mrs Duck persists with her daily visits, hobbling across the grass and jumping up on the concrete to sit expectantly, quacking outside the door. We've persevered very well in not feeding her or Mr Duck, who often accompanies her. Until she discovered a crust of bread that had been left behind by the birds yesterday. Sweet, but the mess left on the concrete not so...

This little man slept with us in the lounge during the cold, rainy afternoons because he seemed to settle much more easily with company nearby. He's such a sweet little guy! His sisters love to help him and initiate going to get anything he might need, including reading materials for his tummy time...

 Or just keeping him company...

Though, even with no company from us he loves to smile and talk to his mobile!

Since Théo arrived I've been often inspired to bake and create things in the kitchen. I love the thought of a warm, freshly-baked-cookie-smelling kitchen and hope that's one memory our children hold of their childhood one day. I'm slightly peeved when I read how bad refined sugar is for us, but some days just call for forgetfulness of such things and enjoyment of some indulgence! Baking, I've found, is also provides me with an enjoyable little "project" to achieve in a day, with yummy results. Although, I admit that several times I've sacrificed precious time, while the three little people sleep, completely to this form of creating, only to realise I'm unprepared for the chaotic late-afternoon-before-dinner hour. Suddenly the previous feelings of domesticated goddess-ness disappear like vapour, and I realise all-too-late that some priorities were all mixed up!

I missed out on partaking of the last half of these delicious cookies when I decided to go refined-sugar free for the month of October, curious to follow my sister's example and see if it made any difference to how I felt. It has been relatively short-lived as, less than a week in, the choice between letting the girls' icecreams drip all down their fronts or 'helping' them quickly became apparent that there was only one responsible-mummy decision to be made! Thankfully we don't eat icecream every day :o)

We have, however, enjoyed a couple of visits to our favourite local café, which is situated across from one of the most beautiful beaches in the area. The girls love their fluffies, and whenever I propose the idea of going to a café for a fluffy the first question is "and marshmallows?!" of which these particular fluffies give them two. In fact, often we no longer need to order them, the lovely café ladies bring them to us a few minutes after entering!

Superma and Megapop's house is one of the girls' favourite places to go to. Yesterday we went to see Superma's newly planted vegetable garden, and to pick oranges off the tree (which were left behind on the grass much to my disappointment!). Here they were helping make mint tea, which was delicious. I'm hoping that our next home will have a garden so that we can grow our own veges and herbs.

In the meantime I'm enjoying working my way through Tearfund's Live Below the Line recipe book which has a lot of delicious, easy, and completely affordable recipes, which are exactly what I enjoy discovering. These are some of what we've been up to lately. Life has it's challenges and joys at the moment. But we're well surrounded by an amazing family and many things to be thankful for. One of which we hope will eventuate this afternoon as we go to visit a house that we will possibly, hopefully call "home" very soon.