Ticking along

Gosh, has it really been that long?

Life is ticking along nicely, and every day, I am just so grateful.

It feels like a period of calm after a long, hard struggle.

I often find myself just staring out the window at the view or looking at our big kitchen or at our spacious car

(which we're paying off but I'm still so grateful for).

I guess I haven't had much motivation to blog or even take photos.

I am just being.

It's nice, actually.

Turbo is still a bit of a challenge at the moment. His language is not the best...and I have no one but myself to blame.

"Go away!" is one that I hear about a hundred times a day.

Good one, Penny.

And Smiley and I had a little trip to Starship Hospital on Friday for his cough that he's had since late March!

Yes, that long.

I have been to the doctor so many times and been told he's ok, but his day care lady insisted that he needed a chest x-ray (because she's a doctor!! not) and got me really worried.

Turns out mother's intuition is best.

Turbo's going to see his first ever movie tomorrow with his Aunty and cousin...and I'm going too. He's even missing kindy for it. And Smiley's spending the time with his much loved Nana.

Can't wait!

Hope you're all having a fab week so far

Glorious space

The boys are revelling in the space and freedom and want to be outside most of the time. Can you blame them?

This in one direction...

And this in the other...

Our front yard

And loving the little community around us. The front house has four kids, one of which is Smiley's age and another boy who is 6 years old who comes over to play with Turbo. And the house next door has a five year old boy who also plays with Turbo sometimes.

So awesome when there is trust and goodwill between neighbours. They freely let their children come over to play and the offer is there for us to do the same. Turbo's a little young to just wander over like they do, and I've yet to get around to taking him over but the offer is there. 

 Once again I'm amazed at how well God looks after us.

Feeling: grateful



Two lunchboxes

Last night I packed not one, but two lunchboxes. And right now I am at home, kid free. Turbo is at kindy. And it's Smiley's first day at a home-based day care which he's going to attend for two mornings each week.

He didn't even cry when I said goodbye to him!

And so here I am with time on my hands. Lovely!

Well actually I'm supposed to be working. My friend and I have set up a small business contracting administrative support to other small businesses. But as we have only prospective clients at the moment, there is no work to do.

Plenty of packing and cleaning for next week's move though....which I'll get into soon. If you know me well, you'll know I can't do nothing for very long.

I'll leave you with some gorgeous pics of some family time we spent at the beach last weekend. New Zealand is truly beautiful!

At my house - Celebrations! and what I've learned along the way

Today, the very, very last, final result was posted up for Mr Samoa's exams.

He passed!!

So we packed the kids in the car as soon as they woke and headed to the park for ice creams.

We want to celebrate every moment of this victory...savour it, if you will.

It's been an incredibly stretching 5 year journey, spanning most of the length of our marriage. Crazily, we added two kids to the mix during this time

(one kind-of planned, one totally unplanned).

We have struggled, soared, cried and laughed, but most of all, grown stronger in every way. We have learned to draw together and encourage each other, and not let the stress drive a wedge in between us.

We've also learned to accept help, and ask for it sometimes. That was hard. But it became easier along the way.

The lowest moment was when we learned that Mr Samoa's study was not finishing when we were lead to believe it would.

We fought the system, we prayed, we met with those in authority.

It was not to be. The agonising journey was to continue for at least another 6 months. Hard to swallow when that's what you've been holding out for for 4 and a half years.

This last season of the extra study time has been the toughest of the 5 years. No job offer presented itself, like we prayed and believed for.

Doors slammed shut in our face.

And so we learned to trust God like we've never trusted before. Trust that He would look after us, that He would work things out for our good and that this journey was not going to break us!

And a job came Mr Samoa's way, at the right time, in the right place.

Now it's over, I can look back and breathe a sigh of relief.

We waited for this moment for a long time.

Mr Samoa starts work as a qualified teacher in 8 weeks!

As Mr Samoa would say in true Samoan style:

Cheee-hoooo!!!!!!!!!

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At my house

This morning, once the it had stopped raining, we went to the library. I hauled out my not used much double stroller (I really should get out and walk more, but it has been winter), bundled up the boys and set out.


The library visit lasted five minutes. I picked the books. Turbo just wanted to move on.

After morning tea on one of the benches outside the library, we set off down the street with Turbo leading us. We're going for a walk, I thought. We passed the shops and headed towards a petrol station. Hmmmm. Past the petrol station and I began to realise where we were going.

He lead me to McDonalds! We've only been there a few times but obviously enough for him to know where it is. Darn. I bought him a 60c soft serve (I refused the request for chips...who wants to spent $2 when you can spend 60c?) and he explored the tunnels in the play ground.

Then afternoon naps for the kids...or should I say cat naps in Smiley's case. He still does not sleep more than 40 minutes at a time during the day. So we caught some sunshine on the trampoline and waited for Turbo to wake up.

Then Mr Samoa and I took the kids up to the mall, got a coffee and tried to catch up on his weekend (he'd been away). Turbo had other ideas and headed for the game zone. 'Spiders, frogs!' he said. There's this game where you shoot spiders and frogs. Great. So we just went with it and had coffee at the game zone. Still time spent together right?

Love my cool little family.

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At my house

The weather is warming up - yay! No more winter woolies, cute as Smiley does look in this photo.

We spent the morning at Rocket Park, a really cool, heaps to do park in Mount Albert, Auckland. Only thing is there was a holiday program there with much bigger kids - about 60 of them! Totally took over the swings and equipment and Turbo looked a little lost. But not for that long. Soon he was right in there with them.

And now peace has descended on the house as they both take their afternoon naps. I love this time of the day! Don't you?

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Added later:

The peace didn't last long at all. Smiley woke up early and wouldn't go back to sleep. He then woke Turbo up who was VERY unhappy at being woken. So we decided to enjoy the sunshine some more and Turbo got a little treat as consolation for being so rudely awakened.

At my house

What a day! Turbo stayed over his Auntie's house on Saturday, which was awesome, except that he came home with his feet covered in mosquito bites. Which by today, were swollen, oozing, bloody sores. I'm not going to post a photo. They actually look pretty gross. I've posted a photo of what ONE mosquito bite does to his foot. You can imagine what more looks like. He's inherited his Mummy's sensitive skin. I remember suffering the same fate when I was small and going to primary school with my legs covered in plasters. Hoping he won't have the same! I remember being so embarrassed.

So today has been spent....sitting. He can't walk! After the doctor's visit this morning, we spent the rest of the day on the couch watching TV or reading, in the highchair eating or in his pram when I took him for a walk. Turbo is aptly named for his high energy levels and non-stop movement. So it was quite strange seeing him still. He is very uncomfortable and cried on and off throughout the day at the same time asking for a 'culla' (cuddle). He also wanted to be carried a lot and at a solid 16kg, this was a little challenging.

Today was also filled with syringes of antibiotics, antihistamines and pain relief medicine. I was up about 8 times last night, applying cream or just comforting him. It's times like these that you wish you could take your child's sickness for them. I hate seeing him suffer.

But knowing Turbo, he will bounce back pretty fast. So that was my day. Hope yours was better!

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