Baking, Sort of

As Atheists, we don't celebrate christmas BUT that doesn't mean that we can't do a little baking! Yesterday my friend Shirley popped by with the most delectable treats I've had in a LONG time. After receiving the recipe last night, I thought that I would put it to the test and have the kids help too!

Here is my version of the recipe for Hazelnut and Cherry / Ginger Chocs


Ingredients
70g packet of hazelnuts
200g dark chocolate
1/2 tin (about 195g) of sweetened condensed milk
50g butter
1/2 cup crystallized ginger, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup candied cherries, whole or cut in half- you choose
24 small muffin (this is more like a candy sized paper cup) baking cups

Method
Line the compartments of two muffin tins with the small baking cups, set aside.

In a microwave proof bowl, combine chocolate, sweetened condensed milk and butter. Microwave until all ingredients begin to melt. Remove and stir until all ingredients are incorporated. Pour hazelnuts into chocolate mixture and stir until well coated. Split the chocolate mixture into two containers and add ginger to one and cherries to the other. Mix each well making sure all nuts and cherries/ginger are well coated.

Spoon mixture into baking cups distributing the mixture evenly amongst the cups. Place muffin tins in the refrigerator. Chocs should be well set before removing to serve. Enjoy!

Ivy, Melody and Cruz really enjoyed helping with this recipe. It is easy for children to help with the measuring of the ingredients, mixing and filling the cups. There was plenty of spoon licking and still enough to fill all 24 cups.

I hope that you will try this recipe and let me know what you think. It is an easy one to pull off seeing that NO baking is required.

Anniversary

Today is the one year anniversary of my one and only major surgery. It was on this day last year that my Neurosurgeon, N. Finnis, performed a PLIF on my spine in the L5/S1 region. It is hard to believe that all of this happened one year ago.

BEFORE

When I was pregnant with Cruz, I injured my back while cleaning out the chicken coop. I suffered for nearly nine months with horrific back pain accompanied by shocking/aching nerve pain and numbness in the pelvis and legs. I had seen specialists at the time who diagnosed me with a sprain to the sacroiliac joint and assured me that all would improve after I delivered. I struggled at times to walk and manage the pain. At that time, I thought it was one of the most challenging trials I had ever faced.

After delivering Cruz, my pain and symptoms escalated. I was able to have x-rays and an MRI and was diagnosed with Grade II Isthmic Spondylolisthesis. For the next nearly three years, I struggled with difficulty walking (often having a limp), debilitating pain, and the inability to find a surgeon who would treat me.

The problem, I was a breastfeeding mother. No surgeon would agree to do anything for my pain or back and I was continually advised to "soldier on". Luckily, in mid 2007, I was referred to Mr. Finnis and soon thereafter, he agreed to DO something to help me. It was on December 6, 2007 that I was admitted to St. George's Hospital in Christchurch for my spinal fusion/nerve decompression with instrumentation.

Here you can see the before and after radiographs of my spine.

AFTER

If I thought the struggle leading up to my surgery was harrowing, I had no idea that the post-operative period and onward was going to be equally as agonising. I can vividly remember waking up in the recovery room and thinking that my pain was almost unbearable. I was quickly hooked up to a pain medication pump and started pressing the button like there was no tomorrow. The next nearly five days were a blur. I was in bed for nearly three days before I attempted to stand at the bedside and walking seemed impossible.

I was still breastfeeding Cruz who came to the hospital the day after my surgery and then once or twice every day thereafter. I was sleeping more than awake but still managing to press my pain med button. The medication seemed so ineffective in relation to the severity of my pain. On the last day, Arnold and the kids picked me up and drove me home. I still don't know how I made the journey sitting up in the front seat of the car.

The next several weeks were spent in bed, resting and taking pain meds. The girls' birthdays passed and I barely remember them. My fortieth birthday passed and I was lucky to make it to the dinner table. More time passed and nearly 5 months after my surgery I was able to stop taking my pain medication and begin to live a relatively normal life- yeah right.

OUTCOMES

I knew immediately after my surgery that the pain I had experienced due to my herniated disc was completely gone. Yipee! Unfortunately, nothing ever seems to be 100% and I am left with nerve pain in the pelvis and legs, numbness in the pelvis and legs/feet that comes and goes, and back pain when I attempt to do too much at once. Thankfully, I have been able to get some help with the tasks that I have found aggravate my nerves- repetitive bending and heavy lifting- but you can't exactly tell your child that you can't pick them up when they have fallen and hurt themselves. More often then not, I do what I must and grin and bear it as much as I can.

I'll just have to see what unfolds in this next year.

Beautiful Day in the Garden

Today was a beautifully sunny day after several days of cloudy and cool weather. I thought I would share some of my favorite pictures taken today from the garden. Here is a sunflower called Moulin Rouge...
a bee visiting a flower on my sage plant...
a peach colored hybrid tea rose...
and one of my favorite flowers. Can you guess what it is? My clue is that it is a flower from a fruiting vine.
I hope your day was as pleasant as mine.

Reading

Ivy's ability to read has really impressed me lately. We have used a balanced approach (both phonics and whole language) in teaching her to read. Other than using our home, local and Christchurch City libraries, I have purchased an American phonics program which had been recommended by the mother-daughter homeschooling advocates, Jessie Wise and Susan Wise-Bauer (The Well-Trained Mind).

Ivy has been completing the exercises in the Explode the Code series and is currently on book4.5. She also reads readers and other stories. She is able to decode texts while comprehending the content.

The day before yesterday, Ivy was able to read a lengthy story from a book called The Magician of Puddle Lane and Other Stories by Sheila K. McCullagh. I was interested to see the reading level of this book to be able to gauge where Ivy's reading is at. So, I used the Fry Readability Formula to determine the average grade reading level of the story. This is something that is fairly easy to do and it gives you a good idea of the difficulty of particular texts- which can differ greatly from what a publisher states as the reading level. I was surprised to see that the story, about a girl receiving a magical box for her birthday, scored at the 6th grade reading level. This blew me away. I had no idea that Ivy's reading was that good! She is only 5, turning 6 in late December, and a 6th grader, if my memory serves me right, is 11 years old!

Things seem so normal to us as home schoolers in our own little world of learning until we compare what we are doing with others out there. What a great achievement for Ivy!

How Bizarre!

The other day we received a publication called "Fruit and Fleece- The Community Newsletter of Loburn School, Friday 31st October." Even though we home educate, I always read this newsletter to see what is going on in the community. It usually carries advertisements from local business people and it was through this publication that I found a great massage therapist.

As I flipped to the third page, passing a typo in the Principal's letter to the community, I saw something that really left me perplexed. Here you can see a report on the activities of the Loburn School Junior Syndicate (not to be confused with gangsters or bankers).
As a former teacher I know a little bit about what happens in a classroom. I have no issues with the jigsaw technique which is a cooperative learning technique. In fact, I think it is probably quite well suited to situations where students are from various years and ability levels.

I do have concerns in relation to this activity used at Loburn School. My first problem is with the content chosen by the teacher or group of teachers to be explored by the children of the junior syndicate. As you can see, the teacher decided to have the children investigate one of two different people. One envelope contained a picture of the late Sir Edmund Hillary and the other a picture of the controversial figure Mother Teresa. I can't argue with choosing to study Sir Edmund Hillary. This man is an icon in New Zealand and I have no trouble with this choice. As you might guess though, I do have trouble with students researching Mother Teresa. Why would she be chosen? What significance does she have to New Zealand? Was the teacher not aware of, as Wikipedia calls it, the "diverse range of criticism" about this figure? Please read more about Mother Teresa here, here, here, and here.

I believe the teacher's choice of Mother Teresa unnecessarily brings religion into the classroom. How could this be done and then publicized to the entire community? This type of activity only reinforces our family's choice, as Atheists, to home educate our children.

Secondly, I find the answers given by the children to the first question to be bizarre. Unfortunately, we are only given a snippet of what was done during this activity. As you can see the children were supposed to answer three questions about the person in the picture, the first question being "Who am I?" I am left wondering... Why would a child answer that the old woman was a person in a gang, the first person born, or any of the other answers that seem so off? Has the teacher redirected these children and helped them REALLY identify the person? What role do Mother Teresa's religious beliefs play in her identification and what religious subtext is being pushed by the teacher? What did the teacher offer to answer or clarify the question, "Why is this person special?"

I am thankful that my children were not unwittingly subjected to this activity that, in my opinion, is masquerading as learning/social studies. Here in New Zealand the lines between religion in the classroom and secular instruction are blurred. While there is no State religion, christianity seems to get more face time in the classroom than most other mythical belief systems. With December fast approaching, I am sure we will see more of jesus and his crew than we as Atheists can tolerate!

To Play Or Not To Play

Last week and again yesterday, we tried out our local Playcentre. Here, Playcentre is a place where children from ages 0-6 can go once or twice a week to engage in free choice play and parents can stay and play alongside their children. It is a parent-run cooperative with one hired supervisor. In the past I have stayed away from anything that IS public education (yes, Playcentre is an early childhood education option) because we home educate but after receiving an advertisement in the mail, I thought I wouldn't pass judgement on it until I knew exactly what it was.

On our first visit, all three of the kids had a blast. There were so many things to do, many of them being REALLY messy. Ivy enjoyed painting and created a slew of artwork. Cruz enjoyed using the scissors and cutting things into an unbelievable number of tiny bits and Melody enjoyed the gluing and collage area.

The Playcentre had many other things that the kids enjoyed including a huge sandpit with all of the toys you could ever want, a water table, a real woodworking area with saws, nails, drills and hammers (this would never happen in the USA as the possibility of hurting one's self would be too great), slides and other outdoor equipment, a goop station with slime and the like to play with and too many other things to mention. As you can see the kids would easily be able to find something to entertain themselves with for the two and a half hour session.

All was well until we turned up at the Playcentre yesterday. I had intended to enroll the children because the centre passed my inspection list of being fun and not providing instruction. As I began to ask more questions, I was quite surprised with the answers I received and the began to see a certain "Stepford Wives" look in the eyes of the other mothers.

Ivy is turning six in December and that would put her past the age for Playcentre. She would still be able to enjoy the rest of this term but after that she would be left out. I asked if she would be able to come along with us as Melody and Cruz would be 4 and 2 respectively and she would have her exemption from attending a regular school. I was initially asked if there was someone I could LEAVE her with. Then, I was told that she might be able to come and could do her school work at a table while the children played.

I was a bit surprised with both of the responses. The conversation devolved into me, the parent, being told I would be responsible for Ivy while we were there- to- me asking who is responsible for my other children while we are there (hoping they wouldn't answer, "The State!"). I guess the people really didn't see it coming but I couldn't help myself. I started questioning the underlying philosophy of Playcentre- where play and free choice are the way children learn- and asking how that mysteriously ended when the child turned 5 (the age when most parents send their children to school). I pointed out that once a child went to school, they had very few choices to make, their learning was planned, the topics they are to study are mapped out and books to be read are generally chosen by the teacher or democracy in the classroom. I tried to explain that as home educators, Ivy wouldn't have to sit there and do school work while the other children played-aren't kids in school allowed breaks/recess/play lunch-WHATEVER? Our learning doesn't have to take place from 9 am to 3 pm, Monday through Friday.

I also tried to explain that our family philosophy was not to DROP Ivy off somewhere (where that would be I am still unclear) but to include her as a valuable part of the family. I tried to stress that it would be a HUGE blow to her not to be able to come along. I would never sign up for something where she would be crushed like that. The woman, the information officer of the Playcentre, confided in me that she had to keep quite at home about what she and her 3.5 year old twins did during the day because her 5 year old at school would feel like she were missing out. And then, the woman said she was MISSING OUT! Oh no!

Needless to say, I left my concerns with the information officer. There was a meeting of the cooperative last evening and Ivy's case would be made. If the Playcentre is happy for Ivy to continue to come after she turns 6, I will most likely enroll. If not, we may look around for another Playcentre that is willing to work with home schooling families.

Historic Day

While I have already voted in the American Election via Absentee Ballot, I can't shake the excitement of Election Day. I am somewhat saddened to not be in America for what I believe will be a pivotal day in the country's history.

I am pleasantly surprised that so many people are taking this election seriously and I am hoping for a record turnout. Amongst 40-somethings that I know, the support is strongly in favor of Obama. This is, I believe, indicative of a "changing of the guard," if you will, in American political thinking. Gone are the thoughts of having a knowledgeable grandfatherly person running the country and instead people seem to be desirous of a fresh, intelligent and younger approach to redirect a country that seems to have lost its way.

I will be sitting here in New Zealand with my fingers crossed as I watch the election returns on the internet (this will be a family affair this evening) and hope that going forward, America will be headed in a new, more positive direction under the leadership of Barak Obama!

Ballet Results

I am pleased to announce that Ivy passed her I.D.T.A. Preparatory Level Ballet Exam with HONORS! We are so pleased with Ivy's performance in this first exam. She is already talking about preparation for the next level's exam, next year.

Socialized Medicine New Zealand Style

I can't say enough good things about socialized medicine. It is one of the driving factors keeping me and my family here. Once again, I engaged the public health care system and was very pleased with the service.

Today I went into Christchurch to take Cruz for a follow-up test at the hospital. About a week ago, I received a couple of letters in the mail indicating the dates and times of appointments that a pediatrician had scheduled for him. When we showed up at the hospital there wasn't a long registration process or lengthy administration session regarding insurance, just the service.

Upon arriving at the department, I placed our appointment letter in a box at reception and waited our turn. The technicians were efficient and pleasant. They completed the tests using the very latest in equipment and then we left. It was that simple AND money NEVER changed hands.

I myself have overnighted at Christchurch Women's and found their service and expertise fabulous. My American readers might not believe that there is actually a person who comes around and asks if you might like to have a cookie and coffee, tea or other drink at morning and afternoon tea time and then again in the evening before you go to bed. This isn't an additional service, this IS the service.

Now I know you might be saying, it's awfully nice that you got a cookie but how was the care. Well, let me tell you that having numerous specialists on your case, conferring about your ailment/problem and then directing your treatment is something that most people would love to have and believe me, I did!

Now, if you want to have a back-up plan just in case something MAJOR occurs and you want to have coverage to see doctors in the private sector, health insurance here is incredibly inexpensive. For a family of five, we pay a small fraction of what we might in America. Quite frankly, I think we pay less for all of us than we would to cover one adult in the U.S.A. As an aside, let me assure you that the doctors in the public system are just as good as the ones in the private system. How do I know this? They are the same doctors!

I have used my health insurance to cover a major surgery last year (which I'll be blogging about on my one year post-op anniversary in December). Can you imagine an insurance coverage where you pay nothing, there is no co-pay, no percentage unpaid? Well this is what we have. My insurance not only covered all of the hospital, surgeon, radiology and other associated fees, they also paid 100% for me to stay5 days in a PRIVATE room. How can you beat that? The fact of the matter is you can't!

So, while New Zealand is known for its clean and green image, it should also be known for having options for health care that are accessible to everyone and for that I am thankful.

Ballet Exam

Yesterday, Ivy had her International Dance Teachers' Association ballet exam. A judge flies to New Zealand from somewhere in the U.K. to test all of the students who have been studying for their exams. Ivy has been studying for the last six months at the preparatory grade level for this day.

We needed to arrive at the dance studio in Rangiora at 8:40 a.m. in order to allow time for warming up and getting on the ballet skirt and her number. At about 7:30 Ivy started to gather her ballet items together and announced that she was unable to find her ballet shoes. The entire family searched the house and cars and were unable to locate her shoes. Finally, at ten minutes after eight, Ivy called her ballet instructor, Jenna McKenzie, and asked if she would still be able to take the exam without the shoes. Jenna said that she would but that she might have an extra pair of ballet slippers.

We dashed out of the house and made it to the studio in time. Thankfully, another mother had arrived with three pairs of shoes, one of which fit Ivy. Yipee!

Ivy was the first student to go before the judge. She was number 1 and had to perform on her own as no other students were taking the preparatory exam. Ivy says she did well and that the judge was "mesmerized" with her performance. We will be receiving exam results in the next few weeks. We will be keeping fingers crossed until then.

Labour Weekend

Here in New Zealand we have just finished celebrating Labour Day. I was really looking forward to a great weekend because it marks the day after which people here traditionally plant out their vegetables for their veggie gardens.

Unfortunately, our weekend started with rain and continued with rain until Monday. On Monday, the temperature here seemed to reach about 25 degrees Celsius and I was loving it. It was truly reminiscent of a Northern Hemisphere summer's day which I desperately miss. I used this nice day to plant out some of my vegetables that I have been babying along in the greenhouse and try my luck out in the real world. I was playing things with a certain level of caution as the vegetables that I had previously planted out had been hit by unexpected heavy frosts and they, well, DIED.

Pulling their tattered and wilting limbs from the ground freed up some room for some interesting transplants. I have managed to plant two varieties of beets (in NZ aka beetroot), Burpees Golden Globe and Chioggia which when cut appears with both red and white sections alternating, think of a bullseye target. Continuing in my stateof garden bliss, I planted out 3 rhubarb plants (Glaskins Perpetual) and a variety of peas called Progress. I also transplanted my green/spring onions called White Welsh and regular cooking onions called Stuttgart Long Keeper. All of the onions look so healthy, I really hope they continue to do well.

This is also the first year that I have taken the plunge and decided to make an asparagus bed. I was able to procure Mary Washington crowns and planted them in a bed that I had ammended with sand and rotted horse manure. Let me tell you that while New Zealand is considered to be clean and green the soil where I live is junk. We are on what at times seems like massive amounts of clay. Not that I feel that I need to justify ammending the soil- ahem.

Anyways, many areas of the garden are flourishing right now so I thought that I would share some of the more cheery spots. Here is the first rose of the season.
A spear coming up in the new asparagus bed.
Here is just one of the many strawberry plants I have growing in our berry house. The house guarantess that we will be eating the berries and not the birds.
Here are bunches of grapes forming on the Riesling vines. If we can get by without frost damage, we will throw some bird netting on the grapes in an attempt to make some wine this year.
All in all, things are shaping rather nicely in the garden.

Back to Knitting and Sewing

I am sorry that my blog has failed to mention much in the way of knitting lately. I am still working on my Circular Shrug from Ravelry and the tedious nature of the K2P2 ribbing was really bogging me down. Thank goodness for the transition point I reach the other day. After 7 inches of K2P2 ribbing I have now moved on to, you guessed it, K1P1 on the RS and P1Slip1 on the WS. This is referred to as Mock Ribbing. I keep asking myself why I ever started this project but I am one to try as best I can to finish- ahem-what I start.

Here is a ball of my hand painted felted merino that I am using for this project. The wool seems to take on a different look when it is wound into a ball. I have to say that I wasn't sold on the colors until I saw them this way.Here is my shrug or part there of.
Here is an up close view of the transition area from K2P2 to mock ribbing.
I have to say that things are moving much more quickly now because just before the transition I did 1 row of K2Tog P2Tog reducing the number of stitches I was working from 246 to 123. That's a bit of a relief. Then, with the mock ribbing slipping every other stitch on the WS I feel like I am flying through this project- as the Tui ads say...Yeah Right!

As a side project, I have taken on a sewing project with the guidance and support of my friend Shirley. She helped me choose a pattern for a skirt that the girls can wear to the International Rodeo that is taking place in Christchurch next month. They have brand new metallic pink cowgirl boots and western summery shirts but with teeny tiny wastes, finding something that fits skirt wise in a real challenge. Hence, this sewing project. Here is the pattern envelope. The skirt pattern is the purple skirt the little girl is wearing.
I have chosen to alternative the fabric in the tiers using a solid for the first and third tiers and a print for the middle tier. Here are the fabrics I will be using.
Ivy will be the recipient of this skirt. If all goes well and I can make this pattern work, I'll be on to making one for Melody. I have sewn together all of the panels for each tier of the skirt and am now needing to do the gathering.

I hope to have more done on both of these projects to be able to share really soon.

Banks Peninsula

Things have been so busy lately I have hardly had a minute to sit down. We have been involved in so many activities, from watching the Springston Trophy competition at the Rangiora A&P Show Grounds to going to see a local production of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe to spending a couple of days at Hanmer Springs, that it seems I have once again failed to update my blog.

Today, we headed out to Banks Peninsula. Arnold wanted to do some surf casting so we headed to Birdlings Flat. Now, I believe that Birdlings Flat isn't technically on the peninsula but it is close enough. Today we happened to be the only people there. Would this happen anywhere else?
Birdlings Flat is a very interesting area because it is rugged and stony. There is very little sand here and it would be very dangerous to swim in the ocean due to the waves and the contour of the foreshore. We settled into a nice spot and Arnold set up his fishing rod. The children enjoyed sliding down the huge hills of stones, beach combing, and playing at the playground. I relaxed and took a break for a minute or two and took in the beautiful scenery and the ocean spray.
After leaving Birdlings Flat, we headed over Gebbies Pass towards Lyttelton. Lyttelton is a fabulous area which I will have to devote a whole post to at another time. Suffice it to say that the scenery is also stunning and the trip around the various bays is awesome.

We stopped at Corsair Bay so the children would be able to get out of the car and play at a lovely bay side playground. I never had a view like this from any of the playgrounds I frequented as a kid!
We headed into Lyttleton proper for some ice creams and then headed through the tunnel to Christchurch. The areas of Sumner and Scarborough are so nice. We decided to stop at Scarborough so the children could play again and Arnold could drop a line into the water off of a rocky outcrop. Here you can see the walkway along the ocean at Scarborough.
Here you can see the way the houses are built along the hillside with spectacular views of the city, the sea and the hills.Unfortunately, Arnold was unable to catch anything so we headed to our favourite fish shop on Manchester and picked up some nice fish, scallops and whitebait to have our own fish and chips at home.

After a day like today, I know I'll sleep well tonight!

The Challenge...

At times I feel like my mind is turning to mush. I have been debating about returning to University and taking a course or two in mathematics. I need to do something a bit more intellectually stimulating. Arnold knew of my need to clear out the cobwebs that have accumulated over the last SIX or so years-no time like the present for a little spring cleaning, hey-so he has challenged me to learn a programming language, Ruby.

I purchased a book the other day and have made my way through the first two chapters with very little difficulty. I could remember some of the information that I had previously learned back when I was studying at De Paul. There, I took courses in C and C++, among other things.

I know that Arnold has ulterior motives in setting this challenge for me but I don't mind. Anything to get the mind back in order, at this point, is greatly appreciated.

Whirlwind Weekend

The last part of this past week was so busy. We had painters coming to repair the paintwork in our living room because it had been damaged by leaking water during the big storm of a month or so ago.

On Friday, I set out early with the children in tow and we were determined to spend the entire day away from home. We started by stopping by Arnold's office and dropping off some cards the girls had made for him. Then we were off to Borders Books in Riccarton to look for a book. After that, we headed to Willowbank to start the really fun part of our day.

The children just love Willowbank and it's easy to see why. This is a great family and child destination and being able to feed the animals doesn't hurt either. All of the kids wanted to be able to feed the eels and the farm animals so we were prepared with enough food to feed an animal army. The kids love to use the spoons to place the food into the mouths of the eels. The eels seemed somewhat sedate when we arrived but the kids were able to coax them to the surface and some of them even lifted out of the water. Melody was BRAVE enough to touch one and said that it was very smooth.

Next, we were off to see the ostrich. The girls attempted to feed it but became scared when it came close to their hands. After demonstrating how gentle the ostrich was-yes, I did feed it myself- the girls thought they would save their food for the farm animals instead. We enjoyed seeing the new enclosure for the capuchin monkeys called Monkey Island. We also enjoyed seeing the otters.Next were the farm animals. Here you can see one of the Kunekune pigs getting ready for a feed.The sheep are always a big hit too.
These miniature horses are on a special diet so they were left with a few nice pats.
After finishing off with the farm animals, we headed over to the Maori Village. The kids had a peek into the houses and other buildings.
The display of the Kea, New Zealand's alpine parrot, is always interesting. The animals a flying freely in an enclosure that visitors enter and walk through. We were lucky enough to have several Keas fly overhead and heard them calling to each other. This picture doesn't give a great perspective of the bird's size (it measures 48 cm in length) but you are able to see some of its colorful plumage.
After looking for but not seeing any tuatara or kiwis, we left Willowbank and headed off for some lunch and shopping. After making these quick stops, we went on to the Christchurch Botanic Gardens.

The Gardens is a lovely place to visit and we do so very regularly. The children love playing in the playground and running in the large, open spaces. We stopped to take a look at some of the spring colors that were on show as we walked the length of the gardens.

The kids also liked climbing the stone paths in the rock garden and finding their way to their favorite climbing tree. Near the Canterbury Museum entrance, there was a tree with the remnants of its fall leaves underneath. Ivy , Melody and Cruz enjoyed having an old fashioned leaf fight. Seeing them playing in the leaves reminded me of my earlier days in Chicago when we would rake up the leaves into big piles and have a real go at it!

After meeting up with Arnold after work and heading out to dinner, all of the kids collapsed in the car. They were snoozing up a storm by the time we reached home.

I was so tired, I could barely get myself off of the sofa for the rest of the evening. While we had a great time being out for the day, I hope that this isn't an experience that I will be reliving anytime soon!

A Beautiful Day

Today was the best day, weather wise, that we have had for a long time. Maybe my memory is just clouded by all of the rain and cloud we have had as of late. I decided that we would all get out and try to make the most of this as we never REALLY know how long it will last. So, after Ivy completed her phonics work this morning (she is just starting Explode the Code Book 4) we ran a few errands and headed off to Mount Thomas for a hike.

Mount Thomas is what we see each day when we look out of the living room windows onto our patio. It is THE feature in our view. All of the kids were really excited to head out for a hike and Ivy asked if we might have a picnic while we were there.

Here you can see the view that we enjoyed from the spot where Melody chose to set out our picnic blanket. After a lunch of delicious sandwiches that I had picked up from Rangiora Bakery, we set off on our hike choosing to follow the Kereru (NZ pigeon) Track.

Here is part of the track as we headed up the mountain.

We love to try to spot different birds at Mount Thomas. If we are unfamiliar with one, we will look it up in an attempt to identify it when we get home. The first bird that we saw on our hike was the NZ Tomtit. It is a beautiful little bird that we do not see near our home. I was hoping to see a kereru, as I have seen them on this track in the past, but we were unable to sight one today.

We did see some lovely native plants which the kids enjoyed immensely. The forms these plants take captivate me and I love learning more about them.

Many of the beech trees that are near the walking track are covered with a type of sooty mold which is black in appearance. Here you can see several tree trunks partially covered with the mold.
From what I understand, this mold grows on surplus nectar that is exuding from an insect that is living on the trees and this nectar/modified sap is what is involved in the production of honeydew honeys.

As we continued to walk uphill, we crossed more waterfalls and little streams than I could keep track of and the children loved hopping across.

Many parts of the track on the way down were terribly muddy. Ivy's shoes were sucked down into one muddy spot where she had some difficulty freeing herself. Cruz was wearing a brand new pair of gym shoes so I was stuck carrying him over all of the muddy patches- no matter how steep or slippery. Melody was the only one of us that had the proper shoes for this expedition. She couldn't find her gym shoes before leaving the house so she decided to wear her gumboots. Smart girl!

We continued to make our way down the track and ended up at a lovely stream where the children were able to cross a bridge and climb down a bank to dip their tired toes into the water. The water was cold but refreshing and I think they all thought that that was the best part of our hike. It was hard to get everyone back in the car as no one wanted to leave but after a 1.5 hour hike, I was ready to have a relax myself.

Our hike turned out to be the perfect way to spend a truly glorious spring day.

Father's Day, Knitting and Seedlings

Playing catch up once again...

Last Sunday was Father's Day here in New Zealand. The kids and I like to make this a special day for Arnold and we did our best this year. The day started with a special breakfast of bacon and eggs with American-style buttermilk biscuits. The kids enjoyed helping to form the biscuits and putting them on the baking sheet. Arnold seemed to enjoy the fuss and also likedd the gift that the children had picked out, a very smart looking R.M. Williams shirt from a local Men's Shop.

After a bit of a relax and tidy up, we headed into Christchurch to see the Da Vinci Machines exhibit at the Canterbury Museum. The exhibit contained mock-ups, some working and some not, of many of Da Vinci's designs. The exhibit spanned the spectrum of his "genius" including designs from warships to optics to flying machines.

Here you can see mock-ups of two of his inventions. As with many inventors, only a fraction of the things they develop actually work as intended.

After the exhibit, we headed over to the Arts Centre and enjoyed some Madrid-style churros and chocolate sauce. Yum! The children were still starving after that so we headed into the CBD (for my American viewers the Central Business District) and stopped for lunch at one of our favourite restaurants, Mum's 24 Korean and Japanese Restaurant. The food here is great! The kids love both the vegetarian and meat wontons and mixed tempura, while I tend to the Bulgogi and Arnold usually has the Bento box. This place is very family friendly and the food is consistently delicious, hot and served quickly!

After such a busy day I was ready to collapse at home and so were the kids.

On to knitting...

I am continuing to work on my Circular Shrug. This project is zapping all of my energy. I am making very slow progress through the 274 stitches of each row and I am not sure that I will ever again make a garment that requires 7-9 inches (American pattern) or 2X2 ribbing-yuck. After the 2X2 ribbing is complete I'll be on to endless rows/inches of mock ribbing- oh yea :(

Here you can see the amount of progress I am making.

I am also considering taking on a side project, something fun and zippy to help me relax after my intensive rib knitting. I am considering the child's Hug Me Shrug by Sara Galley as I have some lovely Sublime- Cashmere/Merino/Silk DK that would work. The only issue is that while both of my girls are very tiny- Ivy especially- their shoulder measurements exceed that of the pattern so a little Math will have to be done. No problem, I'll just knock those numbers out in no time.

I thought the shrug was a nice project as when I was at the mall yesterday, getting Cruz a haircut, I noticed that many of the fashions for women for the upcoming spring and summer include mini cardis and front closing shrugs. Ah ha, my knitting projects are fashionable.

This week has been a bit of a wash in the garden. The weather continues to be drizzly, cold and very windy out our way. Inside the greenhouse the temperatures have been mild but not warm enough to get my tomatoes going. My peas, beans, bok choi, beets, lettuce, caulis and broccolis are all sprouting. Also, the lovely Moulin Rouge sunflower seeds given to me by Shirley are sprouting like mad. The little shoots are a deep, deep red and I can't wait to see what they look like when all is said and done. My other flower seeds that have germinated are hollyhocks and calendula. Everything else seems to be holding off for warmer temps.

Starting Seed

This time of year is always full of excitement. After receiving the Kings Seed catalogue, picking all of the varieties we want to grow and then ordering the seed, the big day arrived. With the kids' help, I was able to fill approximately 150 pots with soil and get things going. Here you can see the results of the first round of seed sowing.

I selected many different tomatoes as I am trialling various heirloom varieties to see which will grow and ripen in our area. We are able to grow massive amounts of pear shaped and cherry tomates but our cool conditions seem to play havoc with some of the larger types of tomatoes. I'll be scrutinizing these plants very carefully. I am also planting more beans and peas this year as they always seem to do well here.

Here is the greenhouse that Arnold constructed from a free plan we found on the internet. This is a great place to escape the Norwester, which was blowing a gale today, and get all of the potting done.

I am also in the process of rehabilitating my gardenia. I have just repotted it and am trying to bring it back from the terrible shock it received this winter. I just remember how wonderfully fragrant the flowers were when I grew gardenia in Virginia and long for that same variety- which I have not been able to find here (Billie Holiday).

We are nearly ready to get some planting done in our garden beds. I'll take a picture tomorrow of all of the work our garden helper, Mike, has done to get our beds in order. We have two varieties of potatoes to plant, Jersey Benne and Agria, garlic and Martha Washington Asparagus crowns to get in place.

Arnold has also been able to finish boxing in the garden beds before another dowsing of rain came a few days ago. This was a follow-up to the storm that we had had as a result of the tropical storm a few weeks ago.

Prior to the storm, the chickens appeared to be back on the lay. Cruz had been visiting them every day and was getting between three and four eggs a day. Here is the stash he gathered after just a few days. Take note of the tiny egg there. It is from one of the pet bantams. The girls claim it is Dotty's egg.

I hope to take more pictures tomorrow. Please check back for further garden updates and news of our latest science project.

So Much to Say

In the words of Dave Matthews I have so much to say. So many thing have been going on that I have been too busy to update anything.


Some of the recent excitement includes...

I finished drying my hand painted felted wool and the color looks great. I have been able to wind two of the skeins into balls to get the full effect of the color changes that appear. I have also taken the next BIG STEP and cast on 276 stitches in the hopes of completing the Circular Shrug pattern listed on Ravelry.com. This project is going nowhere fast as there is an extended amount of K2P2 ribbing to get through but it is exciting to be knitting again. I am even looking into getting a shrug on the needles for Melody.Here is some yarn Eye Candy.

On the kids front, while shopping at our local New World Melody believes she sees the character from one of her favorite book series, The Time Soldiers. She was amazed at the fact that she saw teenagers in the supermarket dressed in camouflage outfits and wearing the same hard hats that she had seen the Time Soldiers wear. After seeing the Time Soldiers, the fire alarm sounds and we make a mad dash for the exit, leaving our cart of groceries behind. We later put 2 and 2 together and realize that seeing the Time Soldiers and the sounding of the fire alarm are no coincidence. We figure that the men in black suits were attempting to capture the Time Soldiers with the ruse of a fire. Luckily though, they escaped as we noticed they did not return to the store to purchase the groceries they had left behind.

Last Friday, Arnold and I were able to go out and have a nice dinner at Pedro's Restaurant to celebrate our 13th wedding anniversary. Arnold enjoyed their calamari and whole grilled fish while I had the sampler of dry cured Spanish meats and a mixed seafood platter which included king prawns, grouper, and Morton Bay Bugs. This was my first time at Pedro's but it won't be my last. I think it is the best restaurant that I have been to in New Zealand.

Last Saturday, I took the girls to see RNZB production of Romeo and Juliet. Unfortunately, the RNZB has re-interpreted Romeo and Juliet and turned it into West Side Story meets Gangster Rap and we leave after the second act. I think that Ivy may be put off of ballet after this last performance but we hope to get her back on track and are looking into renting a classic version of the play.

Lastly, we have recently been lucky enough to find someone to help us get our garden in shape as Arnold is very busy with work and it seems to rain EVERY weekend. Mike is doing a splendid job and the children couldn't be happier with the way he lets them help!

I'm Dyeing

Today, I was excited to accept the invitation of my friend Shirley to come over and dye some wool. Shirley is quite experienced in all things dyeing and I greatly appreciated her mentoring me through my first foray into color.

I started with my Classic Elite Yarns 100% Felted Merino in 100 gram hanks. The choice of colors was truly overwhelming and narrowing down my picks was not an easy job. I settled for Cherry Red, Salmon, Golden Yellow and Rose Pink. Here you can see Shirley demonstrating how to wet the hanks in warm water with a squirt of dish washing liquid.

Then the hanks are squeezed out and placed on a towel where they continue to dry and wait for the dye to be applied.

Next, Shirley mixed my colors. She stressed the importance of remembering to add the acid (vinegar) to the water and dye. She enlightened me on technical dying terms like "splosh". Here you can see Shirley mixing thing up.

Then came the application of the dyes on the hanks. I found this to be incredibly labor intensive and can see why the cost of hand painted yarns is what it is. After applying the dyes, I wrapped the hank in plastic wrap and then zapped it in the microwave for 3 minutes. The yarn rested for 2-3 minutes and then was zapped again for 3 minutes.

After using the microwave, it was time to rinse the yarn in cold water and gently squeeze out any excess. I took my bag of dyed hanks home and placed them on my drying rack in the bathroom to finish drying.

While I am not sure how I feel about the finished product, I am sure that this was a great experience. I have to admit that I am terribly color challenged and I think this is just what I needed to get away from my usual array of browns, dull greens, and blacks! As these hanks dry, they are really growing on me. I think I'll survive to dye another day.

If you are interested in the finer points of my experience and some of the dyeing that Shirley did today, please check out her blog www.shirleygoodwin.blogspot.com.

Playing Catch Up

I have not been able to get to the computer much this past week. Between the terrible flooding that we experienced in North Canterbury, Arnold's illness and the seemingly never ending rain I have had my hands full.

Prior to the 31st of July, it seemed as though we had two solid weeks of rain . On the 31st the terrible storm that had hit the North Island traveled down South and let us have it. Here is a picture taken on the 31st of the Ashley River during the downpour.

Environment Canterbury (http://www.ecan.govt.nz/home/)Surface Water Hydrologists were out with there fancy equipment measuring the flow rate of the river and checking that the bridge was safe. Thankfully it was and we were able to travel more directly to Rangiora for supplies like diapers, chocolate and potato chips to help us ride out the storm.

I was lucky enough to get one day of sunshine on the 2nd of August before everything "turned to custard" again on Sunday. I made the most of my time outside by working in the flower/herb area and worked at removing all of the grass plants that continue to sprout and grow as a result of some careless reseeding of our lawn by a landscaping firm. Here you can see the area before and after I had a go at it. It is amazing that so many bulbs are sprounting and that the Daphne has decided to flower this year. The artichokes aren't looking bad either. Even Ivy's carnation has a few flowers to show.

On Sunday, the 3rd of August, the rain set in again. The children were becoming very antsy inside and I was getting a bit antsy too. Despite Arnold not feeling great, we were able to take the kids to the new indoor entertainment center in Christchurch (on Cranford) to blow off some steam. All of the kids enjoyed the bouncy castles and inflated obstacle course. Ivy and Melody also enjoyed bouncing on the trampolines while attached to rubber bands and Cruz liked the Desperado atrraction where he could sit in a wagon and shoot at "naughty people" on the screen. In fact, Cruz had the third highest score of everyone that played during his round. Bravo!

We have had a few days of rain since then but it seems as though the pattern is temporarily changing and we have been able to get out a little more. Yesterday, the kids took their bikes out and rode around on the driveway. They also got into a little trouble in the puddles and had a bit of a splash around.

Today, after a early morning work session, everyone headed back outside to enjoy the sun. I worked more in the garden. Cruz was very helpful in emptying out my weed bucket and removing trimmings to the compost pile. He can be such a good helper. Ivy and Melody invited Cruz on a garden walk where they walked a good portion of the perimeter of our property behind the shrubs. The girls reported in the Cruz found a pine cone behind one of the bushes and that his face broke out in a rash after licking it. Oh my!

Ivy has had an achievement that I would like to note. She has been working on her reading and last night read the entire book Angelina's Ballet Class that had been given to her by her Uncle Eric. She is really progressing with her reading and can read so many things. She is also learning to recite another poem. This one is called The Bush Mouse. She continues to work in her Singapore Math book and is attempting to put to memory the basic math addition facts. She enjoys playing games online to reinforce these topics.

Melody has a new game from Every Educaid called Ladybug Letters. She is playing it to brush up on her alphabet recognition and letter sound skills. She is also keen to work on math and is working with her Father on the concepts of bigger and smaller.

Cruz wants to use scissors and is very interested in using and tasting the glue sticks.