New Year's Resolutions

At camp clean, my friend Tania showed me a small book she had created to track her progress for a goal she had set herself for 2010. It was really neat. I decided to do something similar, to track how I was going in following my New Year's Resolutions. I haven't quite finished the book's cover, as I am still tossing up between a couple of possible titles but will add a photo when I do.

It is broken down into 3 categories:

Business

Home

Personal

Each has it's own set of resolutions/tasks to complete that are quite specific, but generally, they all add up to:

Improve the performance of the business:- Studio, stock levels, working hours, advertising.

Improve the quality of life for all in our home:- Tidier, less clutter, healthier meals, better routines, more family time, more relaxed home life.

Improve myself:- Healthier food, more exercise, night school/course.

Some of the more specific items have already been completed or commenced and it's great to get to the end of January and see that they have made a huge difference already. I think with the little book to track the progress I will be more inclined to follow through as I will want to be closing each month on a positive note and looking forward to adding the results to the book.

What are your resolutions and how will you track them?

Home grown goodness

We have been growing our own little planter boxes of veges for the past few years. The first 2 years we had pretty good success, but in the 2008/2009 summer, we had a bad season, where most of our plants died and I got a little disheartened. I then read Glenna's blog and got inspired to try again, so at the end of last year, I decided to give it another go. I happened to read an article in Consumer about some of the plant mixes containing too much new bark and so in the process of breaking down the bark, the soil actually uses the good nutrients to do the work, rather than feeding the plant. So, I emptied out the beds and replaced the soil with their recommended plant soil mix - Yates, and boy - what a difference. We have had probably 100+ strawberries off our 2 small plants and currently still have 6 good lettuce plants, 2 capsicum plants that are full or capsicum, 3 tomato plants (currently with a combined total of over 100 tomatoes - some cherry tomatoes), a mesculan bed and a sugar snap vine (for which I will have to take a photo), just now producing - it was planted much later than the rest.

It is really rewarding making a salad entirely from items you have grown yourself and I have found that when the kids get in and help, they are more likely to try the vegetables and actually even enjoy eating them straight from the plant as little snacks. Great stuff.

My mum has just given us another 2 large pots, so at the end of this season, we will be transplanting the 2 capsicum plants into a pot each, to allow them to grow a bit bigger and which will also free up a planter box for something new. I wonder what the kids will choose?

Rockin it Out!

The kids got a Playstation 3 & Rockband for Christmas and love playing on it. Mike has also become a huge fan. During the holidays I have often gone out and come home to find them rocking it out in the lounge. Taryn has to get properly attired before she plays of course! She has also tried some fancy guitar moves - but missed most of the notes while in this over the head position.

Most friends/family that come over have to have a turn as well. Good family fun.

What you looking for???

During camp clean, Al came up for a visit, bringing gorgeous baby Aiko and Cannon with him. Aiko had this cute as doll that wiggled and played music. Cannon was checking it out - he claimed to be trying to find the off switch - I'm not so sure - you judge for yourself!

Spot the difference

During camp clean, Wendy had to go to hospital briefly. It just happened to coincide with the same night Carol came to visit. We sat around chatting and laughing. Then we got the munchies and opened a bag of chips. I remembered that Wendy had made some dip the day before and not wanting it to go to waste....I took it out the fridge and we had it with our chips. The next day, I popped the bowl back into the fridge with the ingredients needed to remake the dip and wondered if she would spot the difference. She laughed - thankfully!

Camp Clean

As usual, we had our annual camp clean this year, where mums and kids are invited to come and stay at camp for free, in exchange for helping to clean the camp (additional jobs not performed by our commercial cleaner). We had myself, Paula, Tania, Wendy, Kat & Glenna, along with the kids, Vienna, Taryn, Jayden, Bailey, Renee and Emily.

The camp looked amazing once we had finished our cleaning aspects and we stayed for just short of a week. We would have stayed longer, but due to circumstances - illness and the break down of a car, it was easier to just call it a day and head home on the Monday.

During our stay, we went down the bank one night to check out the glow worms. We got see to see way more than last time (sorry Ashley) and possibly there are more further down the track, but the overgrowth stopped us from going any further in the dark with little kids.

Some yummy home baking was done at camp, with Renee being a super helper the day I made sultana scone - thanks Renee -although I was somewhat disappointed that chocolate crunch didn't make it!!! hint hint!

Bailey had brought up his electric guitar, so he and Taryn had a bit of fun with that. Vienna got to check out the outdoor sinks and she seemed to enjoy her sink bath. Taryn got loads of cuddles with Vienna (as did I - yum) and Miss D (Carol) came up and gave me my first Ukulele lesson, as well as hung out with us whilst some of us did a bit of painting. It was a great camp clean. A little more quiet than usual, bit still a good one.

Thanks to all the lovely ladies who cleaned. Camp will be looking pretty amazing for April ScrapCamp, what with how clean it is, plus the inside repainted, floors downstairs repainted and the new septic system in. We wont know ourselves without that dab smell after showering! lol!

Paeroa

On the way home from Hamilton, we detoured and stopped in to see Mike's dad, who lives in the Karangahake Gorge, just out of Paeroa. We stopped to get a photo of the kids in front the bottle, which despite going there many times, had never done before. Jayden went straight to play with the animals as always. We chilled out, staying for lunch, at which point Taryn asked her grandad to cut her some doorstop slices of ham to have in her sandwiches, but when it came to eating them, she could only do one! Not surprised, just look at the size of those slices and that's toast bread too!!!

We then went outside to check out the massive tree that had fallen some time back, that Mike's dad had slowly been making his way through. It had landed on their caravan and you can see in the photo what remains of the caravan now. Mike then went for a walk and catch up with his dad and we stayed for a nice light dinner.

We headed home via another detour, back over to Mercer, to pick up mums wallet which she had left at MacDonald's and had luckily been handed in. A good end to the week off for Mike (his only week each year).

Hamilton for New Years

Last year our finances didn't stretch quite far enough for our usual Christmas camping holiday (I'm not a real rough it kind of camper, so it has to be flushing toilets and hot showers for me, which means a camping ground), but we did manage to spend a couple of nights under canvas, at my sister Michelle's house in Hamilton. There were a few other guests staying, so the spare rooms were taken, as was the neighbour's house, so we took our tent down and pitched it on the front lawn.

We had a lovely New Years Eve, with great food, some good cocktails/wine and of course good company. My brother in law Simon lit the brazier when it started to cool down a bit, which provided a bit of warmth and some additional light. It obviously wasn't really that cold for the kids however as they even went for a midnight swim in the pool.

A lovely couple of very relaxing days with family.

A couple of days ago, we booked our camping holiday for Christmas this year, planning 10 days in Napier at a Top 10 camping park. It should be loads of fun and we'll get to show the kids more of the country.

Christmas Food

As we weren't really at home much for Christmas, I skipped most of the creative Christmas food making. I did however manage to make some yummy Christmas puddings with mallowpuffs, white chocolate, Jaffas and spearmint leaves. We also had a ham (day after boxing day), which I glazed with a yummy maple syrup and pineapple juice concoction. It was really good - just a pity the pineapple ring fell off just as I took the photo. Despite our best efforts, we didn't manage to get through it all before going away, but what we did have was super yum!

Christmas Pinata

For as long as I can remember, our family (extended on mums side) has had a Pinata at Christmas time. Originally we would all get together on Christmas Day and have it, but as the family grew and another generation came along, more and more of us had to split our Christmas Days with our respective partners families and so we started getting together on Boxing Day instead. We now have the Pinata on Boxing Day.

Christmas Days used to be mainly at mums place, with the odd one at 230 Beach haven Rd (my Uncle's house). Every year my mum would think of something new to make and commence making the Pinata. My brother made her a very fancy star one once, but it was near impossible to break open. My Aunt Pat also helped her with a few, as did I and My Aunt Pat also made the odd one herself if my memory serves me correctly.

Anyway, a few years back mum and Aunt Pat decided it really need to go down to the next generation to make the Pinata (or Pinny as we call it). It has however taken 3 years for that to actually happen. So last year, I made my first Pinata - a Christmas Wreath. It was hard to know how strong to make it and so I did perhaps go overboard on the reinforcing, but it lasted right through till the last child and then was finally beaten to a pulp, allowing the lollies and presents to fall out.

I've already started thinking about what to make for this year's Pinny (although I will actually be away for Boxing Day this year), so if anyone has some cool ideas, feel free to share. Here's a pic of my first ever Pinata:

Christmas - Not at the Kemps

For the past few years now, we have been having Christmas Day at our house (other than one Christmas when we went to Hamilton). It started with having the moor family over one year and the Mike's family joined in and since then it has sort of been a combined Christmas brunch at out house. This Christmas just gone, I decided that I just didn't want to do it all this year. I needed a break and also wanted to spend a Christmas with just my family on their own and then just Mike's family on their own, rather than all together and I think my family kind of liked that too.

We went to Mum and Dad's, which was lovely, as we hadn't done that in years. It was nice not to have to be fluffing around and although I did help get some things ready and did help with the dishes afterwards, it was really relaxing. Everyone was so chilled out, it was great!

This year, we are going away camping in Napier for Christmas with the Robinson family, leaving Christmas Eve and staying 9 nights, so we will see the New Year in down in Napier as well. really looking forward to showing the kids a bit more of the country - before they get to the stage that they don't want to go camping with us any more!

Guest Blogger-Taryn on the Green Day Concert

Firstly thank you Lisa who gave my mum the tickets to the concert. In December me and my mum went to the green day concert it was awesome. Still a little to loud even with earplugs in but the feeling of being there and being part of the crowd was amazing. I took loads of photos on my phone. The best part of the concert was when the band left the stage and everyone starting screaming louder then ever and the band come on for 2 final songs. After the concert my mum bought me a booklet and a green day tie so now I have a shelf on my desk with all of my green day merchandise on display. Green day was my first concert and I loved it, so I can't wait to go to another concert.

Blog Catch Up

That's what will be happening over the next few days. The posts probably wont be in order and there may be quite a few new posts to read in one hit, but with my main computer dead, I have felt a bit like I lost my right hand. No email history, no camp files (booking sheet most importantly-urghhh!) and so have been busy utilising the time to do other things whilst the data was retrieved. We are 1/2 way there and just need to now see if my photos (about the last 5 years worth) can be retrieved from the separate hard drive. - I sure hope so, or I know I'll be crying over that one. What about your back up you might say... yes, on a separate drive, but in the same computer and the motherboard died, so we are trying to assess if any damage made it's way to the drives. So, for the important files that my wonderful brother-in-law has recovered, I now have them on my laptop and a totally separate external drive, plus, some even copied a 3rd time onto a flash drive. Overkill probably, but hey - you just never know.

So anyway, due to all the downtime without the computer, the studio is now super clean and tidy and I will get the blog up to date and then may make a start on the office (which is far from tidy). Watch this space.