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 […]
Between the game play (Minecraft), the crafting (Rainbow Looming) and all the preschool arts and crafts (baking ginger-bread men, sand play, painting, imaginary story telling and so on…) there’s been a lot of action in the house in California this week. My New Zealand born children have been energised with slightly cooler temperatures and rain […]
Every since I became a parent I felt grateful; grateful because as a couple we could afford for me to stay at home and be with our children in their early childhood. I have loved it, appreciated it, immersed myself in their world and learned so much from it. On the flip side – 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 […]
New is the hummingbird sun-catcher, hanging from the tree. New is the hummingbird feeder, dangling near by. New is this scene, just for a year, in a house in Santa Barbara, where all the nature is new to my eyes. Time in this house, with my three children, is ample, Sometimes it feels a prison, […]
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 […]
It’s Friday. The weekend is nearly here, which means family time with the man of the house. It’s so much easier to keep all three of our children entertained when he’s at home. As much as I am enjoying having the girls all at home, I do have moments of feeling like I’m being held […]
School commenced for two of our three children yesterday. Our ten year old has been attending school in New Zealand for five years and, apart from a somewhat dissatisfying, unchallenging experience in her first three years, she has pretty much excelled. She thrived at a private girls school she attended for the past two years […]
The past few weeks have been filled with impromptu meet-ups and casually arranged gatherings with friends. It is very indicative of the way we’ve lived our lives here in New Zealand – a very relaxed, unstructured, casual, ‘go with the flow’, ‘she’ll be right, mate!’ kind of way. I still vividly remember having to adjust […]
In less than three weeks we fly away from our home of some fifteen years, New Zealand, to start an adventure living in Santa Barbara, CA, USA. Our new adventure may be for just a year, three years, or possibly more. In this past week we flew up to Auckland, from our home in Wellington, […]
In the before children days a long, stressful stretch in the office was quickly remedied with a few drinks, a long lie in or a weekend away in the bush. Now life is a little different… Endless sleep deprivation. No chance of a lie in (in fact after eight years I’m not sure I know […]
I am bravely picking up the baton and going to give this post my best shot, where others have skillfully gone before me – inspired by the amazing mistress of words Vix of Vegemitevix blog and her ‘Tribal Wives in Britain‘ post. Here follows my offering and I’d recommend visiting ‘Moments of Whimsy‘ blog for […]
Ever felt like you are on the outside of a bubble looking in?