Photo dump

Finally downloaded the photos on the camera which have been there for ages. Here’s some random snapography for you.

This one is of course a test to see if my mother is reading because it should illicit some sort of response from her (or anyone?) about how cute this kid is.

These two photos demonstrate a number of things. 1) Swinging high is fun. 2) Swinging high together is even more fun. 3) Letting go with one hand and leaning heavily to the left is like playing chicken with a fat blue pole. 4) The reason we as responsible parents commented on the day of taking these photos “we really need to separate those two swings by swapping one with the rope one” and finally 4) it demonstrates how we think B3 ended up with a bleeding gash to the top of his head just a day later. He narrowly avoided stitches. (His explanation of the events: “E5 was swinging too high!” “B…were you leaning over?” “No! E5 was swinging too fast. I was going just slow”. Hmmmmm… And no, I don’t have photos. I did think of it at the time but I’d have probably gotten blood on the camera. Grizzly I know. He’s OK though…we must breed them tough.

Oh, and this carefully cropped one (because it was far too much of a close up which unfortunately still shows evidence of an emerging double chin) shows a lovely necklace that B3 made for me out of his Magnetix. Awww sweet!

Nothing short of a miracle

I’ve been quite busy lately getting the Make a Plan project off the ground, and feeling a bit behind with things. But I finally sent a little something to Michelle R, who won the little giveaway way back in March! It’s a little brightly coloured knitted dishcloth. Now that I have one and know how nice they are to use and how cute, I thought I’d send one on. It was fun to make too. And no. I didn’t take a photo silly me. It took me so long to finish it and get it together to send I didn’t want mess around with taking a photo. After all, that would have taken about 12 seconds! As it is, it was nothing short of a miracle that it got posted within 24 hours of completing it!

Completely unrelated, my mother has a new laptop. And while this may not sound terribly interesting to you, it is in fact also nothing short of a miracle. She has soldiered on with an old and very slow computer for a while now (about 10 years) hesitating to upgrade because she didn’t think she needed to; that it wasn’t worth spending money on it because she didn’t use it that much. Anyway, now that she has this fast new laptop, and doesn’t have to wait 3 minutes for each page to load, I have insisted that she pop over here and visit me here on this little blog. (For those who don’t know, we are in different countries) So, Hi Mum!

Oh and speaking of miracles, I have learnt to knit socks. Thank you internet. That means using 4 (FOUR!!!) needles at the same time. Flippin’ irritating, but you see because I have made one, I have to do it all over again. What’s the good of one sock! Here’s a helpful link showing you how to knit a sock. I don’t have a photo of my sock yet, but maybe I’ll show you when I have a pair.

I gotta go hang washing while the sun still shines.

Loved this moment

Reading together, learning together. Little voices, enjoying stories. Happy days.

Last post about the Baby Packs

At the risk of boring you all to tears, I know at least a couple of people out there would like to see the final collection of donations for the Baby Pack Project.

Thank you to SweetP, Penny and Audrey.

A little Project I’ve been working on

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

~Howard Thurman

I’ve been rather busy lately… hence the lack of posts here. But I’m very excited and something small that I started has just become a little bigger and it’s time to share it with you.

As you may know, I’ve been increasingly concerned about the current situation in Zimbabwe. The recent elections and related events drew my attention back to this troubled nation and I just couldn’t get it out of my mind. I found it hard to believe the stories I was reading and felt helpless to act being so far away and so relatively powerless in these big world problems. However all through this year, the above quote has been coming back to me again and again and I firmly believe that when something grabs you and makes you come alive then it’s your baby. This issue grabbed me. I was sick of reading bad news and wanted to Do Something.

To get to the point….I eventually made contact with a Dr working in a rural hospital about 85km north of the capital. The hospital has a catchment of over 270,000, 25,000 of whom have HIV/AIDS.They are in need of many basic goods and medical supplies for running the hospital.

The situation in Zimbabwe is dire. It has 80% unemployment, 1.3million living with HIV/AIDS, there are food shortages, and the life expectancy has dropped from 60 in 1994 to just 34 now and the lowest in the world. Currently there has been an increase of political violence with 1500 reported incidents since March 29th when the elections were held. More than 30 people have been killed in targetted political attacks.

I know I can’t solve Zimbabwe’s problems. But I think I can make a difference in a few or in many peoples’ lives through the hospital which is working hard to help people in their community. So I made a plan. I have started a project to collected donated medical supplies and general goods and raise money to ship it to Zimbabwe.

I have started approaching potential donors, and yesterday I was blown away to hear from one company who has donated 4 pallets of medical supplies. We collect it on Thursday and so begins it’s journey from a warehouse in Auckland to a hospital in Zimbabwe. We have a long way to go. It will be lots of work, and we will need to raise lots of money to pay for shipping. I would be grateful of any support you can offer.

Here is the link to the website for the project which is called Make A Plan. It details more about the project including how you can help, and will have updates on the projects progress as it goes along.

Baby Pack Project Update

A big Thank You to Penny who has donated all this beautiful stuff to the babies in South Africa…there are nappies, blankets, hats, bibs, socks, singlets, and warm hand knitted cardigans and sweaters. Thank you!

ETA: Also a big Thank you! to SweetP who has kindly donated money towards the postage! Yay….thanks so much.

I will post photos of the complete donation when it’s all ready to send.

Loving Winter

OK. I’m going to try. Although it’s still officially autumn, there is a chill in the air and I know that the real thing is just around the corner. I find NZ winters long and wet and grey and cold, but really, lets put it into perspective – we have a house and clothes and food, which is more than a lot of people in the world have, so today I thought I’d be grateful for what we have and celebrate the great things about winter.

Here are a few things that spring (he he) to mind:

• Pearl Barley. There is something so yummy about barley and we only seem to eat it in hearty winter soups. Today I’m making a big soup from lamb shanks and piles of winter vegetables and of course extra barley…in the slow cooker, which brings me to the next one
• Slow Cooker. I love using the slow cooker in winter. It makes the house smell yummy all day, and means all the food prep is done in the morning. It also makes very large quantities so some is left over to freeze or to eat for lunch the next day. I know I could do this in summer too, but it’s usually something I only do in winter. Oh, and it warms the house.
• Knitting. Around this time every year, I feel a knitting bug coming on. I’m not a proficient knitter, but I like to try new things. A couple of days ago I started learning how to knit socks. I love the internet. I love how you can learn anything. Anything? Anything. Anything? Anything. (that’s a movie line he he)
• Porridge for breakfast. I make great porridge if I do say so myself and I like the following variations: plain served with full cream milk and a little sugar, cinnamon and sugar, served with raisins (chuck in a handful while cooking), and for a treat on a gloomy cold day…sprinkled with soft brown sugar and drizzled with cream. Mmm….yum.
• Having a hot shower after dinner and jumping into bed all warm and read until you can’t stay awake.
• Listening to the rain on the roof. (Preferably while snuggled up and toasty in bed.) For me this is always a bit special because growing up, we had a tiled roof and you can hardly hear the rain. Here with a tin roof it’s usually REALLY LOUD!
• Watching rain with the kids.
• Wheat bags on cold toes.
• Driving through rain with the wipers on full. I also love driving through big puddles and flooded gutters and making such a large splash the kids shriek. (I can’t say jumping in puddles because I’m afraid I don’t like getting wet. Whimpy I know, but there it is.)
• Oooh ooh I know….drying my hair in front of the heater and
• Warming the kids jim jams in the dryer after their bath so they’re warm as toast when they put them on.

What do you love about winter?

Resistance

Resistance – Owen Sheers

Set towards the end of WWII, this is an alternative history. This story is written as though the Germans did in fact invade England, and opens with the disappearance of all the men in a particular farming community in Wales. The wives are left with no trace of their men and facing a Nazi occupation alone.

I was quite fascinated with the concept of this story, especially after reading Five Days In London which was a micro-history of May 1940, a period when the possibility of a German invasion was all to real. At that time there really were resistance unit set up amongst the men of the farming communities. Their brief (explained by Owen Sheers in his afterword) was that they would probably be active in resistance against the German invasion for a period of only 14 days. Not much of a life expectancy.

The author threads these historical facts throughout his story. It is quite a shocking thought really to imagine how different history could have been.

I liked this book, and enjoyed the idea of an alternate history.The plot was based around the women left behind, how they handled the invasion, and the relationships that developed between them and a patrol of German soldiers who end up living in the valley with them. The ending not a tidy as I’d have liked, although not as bad as it seemed the last few chapters were heading.

Summery Swapity Swap!

It’s not as if I’m over committing myself really….I mean now I only have FOUR! things outstanding to send out to bloggy friends. But check this out….a Summer Fun Apron Swap. Thanks summery Kate for finding all things summery and getting in on this one.

If you want to join in on the handmade apron swap, click here. You have until the 5th May to join up.

Lucky Me!

Look what I got! I feel so lucky to have received these in a little giveaway run by Jaime at Chirpings of Little Bird. The giveaway post is way back here!

Thank you Jaime. The cards are lovely! And I can’t wait to use them on some lovely handmade gift to someone…. (I still owe a giveaway gift as well as two Pay it Forward gifts! Eeeekk!)