Our first born has flown the nest! She’s following her dreams and passion for theatre by undertaking a Bachelor of Fine Arts, in Production Design, at The University of Melbourne. She flew (literally) on Valentine’s Day, flying Wellington to Auckland and then onto Melbourne, with a couple of suitcases and a carry on bag to […]
It’s the second week of term 1 and we are getting well into our stride. Thankfully the first two weeks of this term have been short ones – four day weeks (if only all weeks were four days on, three days off!). We headed over to Martinborough for a couple of days this weekend, to […]
Tomorrow morning the alarm will wake us all up. Our seven and a half weeks of living free of the bell come to a close. There is generally a feeling of excitement and positivity at starting a new school year, mixed with a dash of anticipation. Farewell to long, cuddly lie ins with this furry […]
On the 29th May this year, hubby and I celebrated 16 years of marriage, a good fourteen-plus years of which have been spent living as expats in New Zealand; on the opposite side of the world from our birth place of England and our dearly loved (missed and thought about often) families and friends. It […]
After twelve years of being a very full-time stay at home Mummy (including three and a half years homeschooling my middle daughter, whilst caring for my third born from home all her first five years, and fifteen months living in the USA, where all three daughters were homeschooled) I am now the very proud (and […]
There have been so many momentous changes in our family life this year so far. This week, by far, has been the biggest. I have experienced, for the first time in nearly twelve years, having all three of my daughters AT SCHOOL! I have soooo many feelings about this. My emotions are on a non-stop […]
Our 11 year old daughter has been awesome in supporting her 9 year old sister settling into a new school this week. Friends, family and regular readers will know that our 9 year old daughter has been homeschooled these past three years, due to school anxiety; but having made a lot of progress in overcoming […]
Blogging has been sporadic this past month, on hearing from Crown Relocations that our container load of belongings was finally going to be delivered back to our home in Wellington. I was determined to have the house organised, with storage space for everything that was coming. We’d purchased a few extra things whilst away in the […]
Where do I start?! The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of saying goodbye to our life in Santa Barbara, enjoying a last few days in Disneyland California, and then finally boarding an Air New Zealand flight for that final flight home! It’s been weeks since I have written anything on this blog. I’ve […]
When you get out of the habit of writing about the little slices of life, that make it worth living, it’s hard to know where to start. Everything I write, which means so much to me, will be trivial to others; but I share it all the same, as I’ve learned that there’s a wonderful […]
There’s nothing worse than flu to knock a person off kilter. It’s worse when the whole family, children and all, are affected. It’s forced us all to slow down and write off the first week or so of this New Year. The only silver lining for the adults, particularly me, has been a forced detox […]
We have seen in the New Year from the vibrant city of San Diego, where there is an abundance of attractions, activities and beautiful scenery. There is so much to do here that I already want to start planning my next visit. On the drive down we stopped a night at Legoland California, where all […]
Any expat will understand that Christmas (that is if it is a holiday that means something to you) is hard away from your home. This year, our first Christmas in Santa Barbara, California, USA, could have been twice as hard – particularly for my British husband and I. We spent our growing up years, till […]
Dare I say, ‘I’m getting used to this place’? Where the weather barely changes – apart from the length of light in a day. Where clouds are cause for exclamation – and rain is a rare, yet welcome, distraction. I’ve come from a place that knows big weather, where a person learns to dress in […]