I've been Love Bombed!

Yesterday morning I had a note in my mailbox to pick up a parcel from the postoffice.... I was pretty excited, but being the morning I put it to the side and planned to pick it up that afternoon.

So lets fast forward......

 I had a huge surprise when I lady came out of the back office with a large box.... for me??? I got back to the car.... the boys were all for opening it then and there, but I restrained myself ( although I could have easily ripped it open too! ) and drove home, where I then placed it on the table unopened for the next hour, as a dealt with my eldest having a major meltdown over missing lego pieces!

( Lil Misses little fingers are the culprit )

When I finally sat down to open it, it was just what I needed, 

I could not believe my eyes! .......

I opened the cards and read the loving words, and just couldn't contain the tears.... so very touching...this was all for me!?

 ( I'm still feeling emotional about it!)

Thankyou so much to all of you who were involved,

 A big thankyou to the person who nominated me.... ( I have an inkling )

and lastly thankyou Sophie for dreaming up such a beautiful idea! 

 I feel truely blessed to be a recipient of this lovebomb.

And now for the breakdown..

This gorgeous head piece was quickly snatched up and is already adorning this little one's head

Move over NZ Gardener....

you now have competition for bedtime reading

 Wearing these now... just because I can!

And look at this great selection! Red lippy, a sticker which I think may belong on the car? or maybe the fridge? (can't decide)

A cute as pie gigatic polkadot (love) button hair tie......

And also I can't quite believe that I received Juliet's sewing kit! I only just left a comment recently about how gorgeous it was.... and there are all kinds of lovely notions contained within, including some beautiful butterfly stitchmarkers... and a darling set of novelty flat head pins ( hidden under the needles in photo )

Plus I can't go without mentioning all the yummy chocolatey treats ( aswell as some delish homemade truffles ), and luxurious beauty creams... boy I've been pampered!

So who is this "Sisterhood"?

After googling I came up with an article read here and then that lead me to Sophies blog here explaining it all for me......more tears!   It's been lovely to read that I've been one of many others to receive these.  Infact I'm now joining up here as I would love to be part of making someone elses day/week/month special, as it has been for me... and if you are thinking about it?

DO IT! 

I truely believe in Karma!



Kids in the Kitchen

Tonight Mr B made dinner again.

And as I am curious as to how long this episode of their lives will last, I will be documenting their dinners through this blog.

Tonight we had fish fingers, and stir fried cabbage.

I cut the cabbage, (though he wanted to look the part for the photo) while he was in charge of the fish fingers.... he attempted to stir fry the cabbage, but the job eventually was given to me...

 he's still respectful of a hot frypan

Condiments as you can see were tomato sauce and mild american mustard.... yip my kids currently have a love affair with mustard!

This turned out to be a great quick meal, that was easy enough to prepare ( with a little help ) by my 8yr old. And everyone agreed that the tempura battered version is much nicer then the crumbed... less greasy was the verdict!

Fish fingers are my go to dinner, when I can't be bothered cooking ( fish and chip shop is a 30 min round trip away )

Now we reckon it will be part of the boys repertoire too!



Things I'm Loving

Things I'm loving this week....

Although the boys are growing up waaay too fast for me to comprehend, I am enjoying some of the benefits of having older kids in the house.

It all started with Mr B having a tantrum about eating one of my dinners...he was promptly told to make his own... however the only recipe he could find was pancakes.... and to cut a long story short... he didn't get his way, but he did get to make the batter by himself for pancakes the next day..... since then I've had the older two make a batch of cookies this week.... all by themselves ( I only took them in a out of the oven ) and they were delish!  Then the other night my younger two helped me make the majority of our dinner. 

And tonight my eldest made us creamy carbonara ( from scratch, so proud ), I watched in the background giving him the instructions. 

Though the cherry on the top is that he thanked me for letting him cook it! lol

Also loving another culinary triumph! 

My second sourdough starter is a success...

It took me two attempts, (the first starter ended up all over the car floor after the crash).... and my first bread was too sour ( I left the sponge for too long )  and it stuck to the bowl.... but the second is just right :) 

And I'm loving rainbows,

I'd forgotten about how many rainbows you see up north...I used to take them for granted when I was younger, but now the kids and I are taking great joy in rainbow spoting!

Lastly, I am touched by all the support offered by my bloggy friends after my post about my accident....

Thankyou so much to you all, your words have really helped me lift my spirits this week :)

Joining in here this week with Things I'm loving at MNM's



My Creative Space - Therapeutic Creating

During the last couple of weeks, I found whipping out the paintbrush and click clacking on the needles has really helped me keep my mood somewhat level ;)

So finally my little mousie is finished...

Her name is Dotti...

and yes Lil Miss is standing on the table behind... some things

I'll choose to ignore, when I'm trying to get a good photo

My lil girl loves her, which could be a bit of a problem...

Dearest Dotti is flying over to England soon for my first little niece to be....so I might be knitting another, which is sure to be a pleasure as this pattern is so easy to follow and I learnt alot of clever techniques along the way, including the brilliant way the tail is made.... see here for the patterns.. and while your there do check out her other ones, as they are gorgeous!

Apart from finishing Dotti, I've also been putting an effort into creating a warm and cozy environment, and this bunting I made, has instantly uplifted the feeling of our living/kitchen area... I think it adds a bit of carefree fun... great for the soul!

And just what I needed

But however as you can see from the otherside I still need to get the paintbrush out again.

However there's a good excuse, since I've run out of paint..

 and until today I've been without a car see here

Though currently this is what's been sitting on my lap..

Can you guess what it will be?

See some more creative spaces here

I've been dreading writing this post... but here goes

The last three weeks have been busy.

Busy catching up with Mike, enjoying being a family unit again,  planting fruit trees, building raised vege patches, installing our homemade compost turner ( courtesy of my lovely Mike )

And then there was my eldest boy turning 10! ( it's still sinking in )

But it's also been a rollercoaster of emotions for us in the last couple of week.  The day after we waved goodbye to Mike ( again ), I hit a real emotional low.  The thought of having to wait another 4 to 6 weeks before our family was reunited again, really got me down.

Only two days later, Mum told me to pack the car and stay with her for a couple of days...  It was horrible night, raining and blowing a gale outside and it was getting dark when we left, but I was happy for any type of escape, so I packed the kids,

 and headed down the road.

We'd only got 8kms down the road, when I came around the corner to see a tree lying in the road, I slammed my brakes on, and yip you guessed it ....CRASH!!.... ( write off )

This is where I can only say the following 

I'm grateful.... No one got hurt

I'm grateful... that I managed to send enough txt messages to get help before the reception cut out

I'm grateful... for a friendly local stopping to help, on the way home from milking. And along with my neighbours help and herself they drove us back home.

I'm also grateful for my neighbours continued help, they have done milk runs, rubbish runs and are dropping off and picking up my kids from the bus stop everyday!

But of course when it rains it pours, the day after the crash my water ran out...  So I'm grateful to our plumber who arrived 10 mins after I rang him ( the water pump ceased ) and promptly called in a favour to get the water truck to arrive that day :) 

And the support just keeps on coming... yesterday I had an offer for the use of a car, from the guy who grazes our land, ( I've only met him twice ) and then today the cable man ( yip finally gave in and got TV ) offered some free topsoil for our raised garden beds!  

So as you can see, even though it's been rough couple of weeks, and poor Mike wishes he could do more from afar, I have been recently reminded, that I'm very fortunate to be surrounded by a such friendly community.

I know that this is a very vague post and there more to this story, but mentally I just couldn't write it in any otherway...

During the last week, I've found, doing alot painting, sewing and knitting, has helped me keep my spirits up... so I'll share soon.