Clearing out the house

As part of my new years resolution in the 'Home' department, I have been clearing out the house of excess items that are just taking up space. So far, the op shop has had 3 large bags of clothes, 1 large box of toys, a box of knick-knacks, a couple of pictures and some other odds and ends.

Friends/Family have also taken a few bags of clothes (some of the items were near new, as Miss Taryn had so many clothes, some hardly got worn) and a couple other items - this is the most gratifying, to know someone else can and will benefit from the items.

I have also sold off the black table I removed from the studio, a screen/shade house and currently on trademe (with reserve already met) is our old phone system. I'm hoping to keep this up over the next few months and have a long list of more items for trademe. I guess this is kind of good too, as it puts a wee bit of cash back in our month ridden pockets.

Not sure I've done enough yet for anyone else to actually notice a physical difference, but the storage areas are certainly getting cleared out and I am feeling much better about the house too. Long may it continue!

Tiny Giggles

This was taken a few weeks ago when Miss Wendy and Vienna came for a visit. It is just so darn cute, but took me a while to figure out how to rotate the video (I took it in portrait format), save it and then change the file type to one that blogger would accept. Isn't she just gorgeous!

Right up his alley!

After discovering we had a leak and getting the wonderful people from Leak Detection Services out to pinpoint its probable location, we had to dig up our cobblestones and a few feet of sand/earth to locate the actual leak itself so that it could be fixed. One area of cobblestones came up quite easily, but the second set were proving more difficult. There was one cobblestone right in the middle that was already badly damaged, so Mike thought he might as well smash that one so that he could gain access to the others.

So, who do you think he called to do that job.....here's Jayden smashing away at the cobblestone, which of course was right up his alley!

Chocolate Helps

Ok, so eating chocolate is not part of the plan to be healthier this year, but when you get a $440 1/2 yearly water bill with a warning notice that you might have a leak, then have to pay the experts $135 to find said leak (under concrete and cobblestones) and they find not 1, but 2 and you then learn you are going to have to rip up all your cobblestones in about a 3 metre block, pay for a plumber to fix the leak and then try and restore the cobblestone (which have been in place for 20+ years and you know will never go back down the way they were)...chocolate does actually help. Momentarily anyway. (I did however manage to restrict myself to a small 25g Sante bar, which was a good idea, cause if I had started a king size block, we all know there would have been none left to share!)

A Day Baking

I spent a few hours in the kitchen the other day, doing a bit of baking, as I hadn't done any for weeks (mainly due to the heat and the lack of desire to be in a hot kitchen).

I knew I wanted some corn bread, so started there and thought I may as well do some other stuff at the same time.

So I popped out onto the deck and picked a couple of capsicums from my capsicum plant and off I went.

First I made the corn bread - yum. Still wasn't as good as Ma's, but it was nice. Had it for lunch with salad and some peach and mango chutney. Whilst that was cooking, I mixed up some savoury muffins. Couldn't find a recipe, so I just started with a basic mix and went from there. I added onion, corn, bacon, capsicum, herbs and paprika. They too were super yum. Might have to write down the final recipe (as a variation), if I can remember the quantities.

Then I moved onto the sweet stuff and made banana cake. I like mine plain, Mike likes his with cocoa (to make it a chocolate banana cake) and chocolate chips, so I made a compromise and just made it with the chocolate chips. That really hit the spot for afternoon tea. Would have been even better with a dollop of cream, but I resisted - New Year's Resolutions and all!!!

So my plan is to try and bake at least once a fortnight, so that every other week, the kids get home baking. I'll keep you posted on how that goes.

A change is as good as a holiday

Sometimes you just feel like a change and that's exactly what I felt like this morning when I logged into my blog, so I spent a couple of minutes and changed the background and colours on the blog. Not sure yet if I really like it or not, but will wait a few days and see if it grows or me, or if I feel the need to change it again.

If you want to jazz up or change the look of your blog - it's easy (and free) if you visit www.thecutestblogontheblock.com They have heaps of free backgrounds to choose from.

Lover of all animals

Jayden has always loved animals (although a few years back he did also like to torment our cats!). My cousin Barbara was given a goat and so we went to Kaukapakapa to see here and the new addition to her lifestyle block. I wasn't sure how Jayden would react to a goat, but I needn't have worried. He got out the car and went straight over to pat it (after a quick pat of Monty - his favourite dog). He is always telling us that we need to go live on a small farm so he can have lots of animals. Wonder how long he'd last once he realised the work involved in caring for a number of different animals???