Flu

I have the flu,
I'm feeling blue.
All through the night
My body has put up a fight.
Fevers, chills, aches are not a thrill.
Drugs are my friend
I hope it soon ends.

Passing of a season

I've been consciously aware recently that I am out of the baby season of life. Two are now at school and Naomi is gaining independence in leaps and bounds (she will be hopefully starting Kindy soon). We have sold/given away must of our baby clothes/gear. Certain activities are easier- meal times, getting ready in the morning, shopping... I also have no great desire to watch the new show on TV about new mums.

I did enjoy the baby stage. I quite liked being pregnant, holding a small beautiful baby, watching them grow and develop. But I won't deny the hard parts- broken sleep, constant tiredness, juggling multiple children's needs...

I also admit that although I may think the baby stage has ended, God may have other plans (as a couple at church have just discovered) and I'm trusting that God's plans are best.

I am also able to look back and thank God for all the wisdom, strength, energy, protection and support he has provided me with through this season of life. And have faith that he will continue to provide all my needs and continue to teach and rebuke me in this next season I am now in and God willing, the many more seasons to come, so that in all things God may be glorified.

I also will not refuse an opportunity to hold someone elses baby and help them to navigate this season of their life.

Sick, sick, sick...

I have been looking after sick kids all week. Ben has had tonsillitis since Monday and both girls have had a random virus that has kept them home most the week too... AND now I have got it!
Right now I'm really enjoying the peace and quiet (and rest) after a week of being house bound with kids (peter has taken them all to church).

Snow time...

Last weekend (well, the one before, this post has taken a while to get up!) we went on our annual snow holiday - the last two years we've had absolutely perfect sunny weather and plenty of snow.  So we were due to have some bad weather sometime!  We stayed in the same cabin as last year, except we had the van Gemst family accompanying us in the cabin next door.  We drove down on Sunday morning and headed straight up the mountain for some toboggan action - it was cloudy and relatively warm - not ideal conditions for the snow, which was rather soft and slushy.  The toboggan run was slow as a result, so we didn't have all that many runs.  I took the older kids up onto the rocks for a bit of exploring and playing - something I did last year and they really enjoyed.
Monday morning was similar - cloudy, but at least not windy at all.  We had a really good morning tobogganing - the run had been groomed, so it was nice and smooth.  The kids were begging to go back up onto the rocks to play up there, so after lunch we went up again, making a snowman and having a snowball fight!
Tuesday morning was cloudy and rainy, so we had a look at the weather forecast, only to find that Mt Tongariro (about 20km away) had erupted overnight!  Fortunately the wind was blowing in the right direction and it was a small eruption, so it didn't affect us at all.  The weather wasn't particularly good though, so we decided to just pack up and head to the AC Baths in Taupo for a swim.  Being a school day, the hydroslides weren't running, which was sad, but we still had lots of fun in the warm water.

"The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” (Job 1:21b ESV)

Today is touched with sadness.  Our niece, Hannah Ruth Nygaard died this morning, she was 8 weeks and 4 days old.

She was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (for more on the condition and her story, my sister has blogged about it).  And although some may think such a short struggling life is just a burden/pointless/discouraging...there are so many ways which God has used this life to his glory.  For me personally I have been challenged and learnt a great deal about prayer (when I live on the other side of the world to my sister, there wasn't much else I could do) and about dependence on God to supply all my sister's needs as I all I can do is limited skyping (none of the things that I would naturally do like cooking meals, looking after my nephew, hugs...).  Today I'm also challenged to appreciate the 3 children God has entrusted to me and the blessing that they are, as well as to not waste this time he has given me with them to bring them up in the ways of the Lord.

Hot water pastry Recipe

For those of you who are interested in the Hot water pastry Recipe that Peter mentioned in his Pasties post yesterday...here it is:

Hot water pastry

150g butter, chopped
2/3 cup (160ml) water
2 1/2 cups (375g) plain flour
1/2 teaspoon sea salt flakes

Place the butter and water in a saucepan over high heat and bring to the boil.  Remove from the heat.  Add the flour and salt and stir until a smooth dough forms.  Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (usually takes only a few minutes).

Recipe from Donna Hay magazine, Issue 57, p150


Then just roll it out to desired thickness (not too thin) and filling and enclose.  Bake until crisp and golden.

(one batch of dough makes about 6 large pasties)


If you've every made cooked playdough before you will find this pastry recipe a very similar process (and the end result is a fairly similar consistency).

Pastie time

It was my turn to cook dinner tonight... Pasties are nice and easy. Hot water pastry really is dead easy to make. Throw in some veggies and some meat and bake. Voila, yummy dinner.

Rugby time...

I took Ben and Joanna to the Chiefs game against the Crusaders last weekend - haven't got around to posing any pictures or anything yet.  The game was a sellout, so the crowd was large and loud, which always makes it more fun. Between the three of us, we had the Chiefs colours covered, but after the game Ben declared that he was a Crusaders supporter - mostly because he knows more of the Crusaders players (Richie McCaw and Dan Carter etc).  Oh well, we'll see if he changes his allegiance one day...

New playhouse!

Last weekend I pruned a few more branches from some of our trees.  One of them is an evergreen, so it still had lots of leaves.  The result is a big pile of leafy branches, which we couldn't do much with other than pile next to the fence.  The chickens were really excited by the new vegetation and spent a few hours climbing through it and over it and in it.

My new exercise toy

I got this so I can get up early in the morning to exercise without freezing my butt off outside (with all those sub zero mornings we've been having!)