Our Loom Band Addiction :)

29th April 2014

We have discovered the wonderful world that is loom bands and all the amazing things that is can create.

And I say 'WE', because I am just as addicted to it as Miss Personality.

When we bought our first loom, we just bought one.

When it became apparent that I was just as keen as her to create things with it. The next day I went down the road to buy me one :)

Then I realised it was Miss Blondini's birthday and what a great gift it would be for a 14 year old, so off I went to buy another one.

So we have become a family of loom band fanatics.

But I guess there are worse things in this world that we could become obsessed with,lol.

You tube has become our second addiction, as that is where we have learnt how to use our loom's and all these amazing coloured rubber bands.

All I can say, is there are some pretty creative adults and children alike, that have taken the time to not only create these master pieces to begin with, but also made video recordings to share, so others can have a go too.

Miss Personality made these, fishtail bracelet, single loop bracelet, and a flower ring.

 Mum's attempt at a starburst bracelet, and a single loop bracelet.

 I like this one, and have made a couple of them. It is the rainbow ladder bracelet.

I decided to change the colours and do it with a white border. It looks quiet nice, if I do say so myself :)

Being the big Minecraft fan that my daughter is, she could resist but do this minecraft creeper bracelet.

I love dragons and when I saw this tutorial I couldn't help but have a go. This is originally done in reds and orange as it is meant to be a Chinese dragon. But my favourite colour is purple, so  I changed it a little, but think it still came out awesome :)

I also made this cute baby tiger.

I think I enjoy making little animals and things better than the bracelets.

But it certainly takes a bit of concentration when following the tutorials.

Thank goodness for the pause, and rewind function of videos.

What cool, interesting things have you created ?

The Great Easter Egg Treasure Hunt!

23rd April 2014

I love this photo. It makes me giggle and to me, it is what easter is about, kids having fun.

Now we are not a religious family. We don't go to church, but we believe that religion has some great morals and guides as to how we can treat each other better. 

We had a quiet easter, away from family. But in some ways that can be a good thing.

Miss Personality doesn't handle too much chocolate well.

Saying she gets hyper is a bit of an understatement :)

But then again, I don't want easter to be just be about how many chocolates can I get.

Especially since we live in a country where we can just go to the shop and buy chocolate when ever we want.

I like the magical, child like excitement for the easter bunny though.

I like watching some fun movies about easter, like HOP.

I like getting sucked into the imagination of a child and just enjoy the idea of the easter bunny.

But we also started up a while ago, an easter egg treasure hunt.

We did it one year and ever since then, my daughter just looks forward to it every easter.

I like to go to the budget variety store type shops, they use to be called the $2 shop here in New Zealand.

You can find bags of these empty plastic easter eggs, and the great thing is you can use them every year. The amount of them you will need just depend on how many children you have.

Then I also buy from these budget variety stores, little bits and pieces. 

This year I bought a sheet of stickers (mermaids), some fairy fake tattoos, plastic rings, bouncy balls, little water pistols. In the past I have also bought little rubbers (erasers), but anything you know your child will like and will fit in the egg. 

Oh and of course some tiny easter eggs, can't forget those.

Then I write clues and put one in each egg, plus one or two of the little treasures that I have bought. The clue is what they must read and figure out where the next egg will be.

Not every egg has chocolate in it, but by doing it this way it actually become less about the chocolate and more just about playing a special game that she only gets to do at easter, where she gets to find treasures in an egg.

The other great thing about doing it this way, is that if you have a child with food allergies, you can miss out the chocolate inside the eggs all together.
Miss Personality had lots of food allergies when younger, which always makes easter hard to try and include them in all the easter fun.

Any way, no matter how you enjoyed your easter, hope you and your children had fun and really enjoyed it.

3 WEEKS AND COUNTING.................

Thursday 10th April 2014

It nearly feels surreal to think in 3 weeks our idea/ goal of living in a bus is going to become a reality.
It really feels like the statement above how it has all come about.
We came up with the idea, brain stormed how we were going to achieve it.
Didn't think it was going to happen quiet this quickly.
But asked the right questions to the right people and TADA!, it has all fallen into place.

It's funny though the reactions we are having with those who we share with, what we are about to do.
Most people have been really supportive, but you can kind of tell from there tone of voice that they kind of think you are a little crazy too.
Or at some point you will change your minds.

Some friends are, your so lucky, I would love to do that, but......................
Like anything in life though, if you want it bad enough, you will make it happen.

We have certain family members who are concerned, and that is okay, because that means they care.
But it is okay to not have all the answers straight away.
It is okay to be spontaneous.

Life some how becomes magical, adventurous and exciting again, to not have all the answers, to have a little bit of mystery about it all.

A lot don't quiet understand though that this isn't going to be short term, this is long term.
This is just the beginning of the journey to where we want to be :)

At this stage we have a home - housebus,
We have somewhere to park our new home,
We know where our money is coming from,
And we have each other.
At this stage that is all we need to know :)

Over time we will personalize the bus to be more us and to cater for us in every way.
Part of that personalisation is going to be coming up with a name.
Why name our bus?
Well why not :)
It is going to have personality, just like the rest of us.
The challenge will be coming up with a name that everyone who lives in the bus will be happy with.

For all those other people who travel in a bus, caravan or motorhome.
Have you named your home?
How did you come up with your name?
If you would like to share it, would love to hear what it is :)

Being A More Peaceful Parent.

Monday 31st March 2014

Ever since I had my first child, I have been trying to change my style of parenting.
You give something and go and if it feels right, you keep doing it, if it doesn't you change it.

I found it was really hard at first, because I just automatically did what had been done to me.
My parent's believed in smacking and yelling, because they had been smacked and also because of frustration.
Now we have all been there, being so frustrated we do the first thing that comes to us.
For my parents who were smacked as a child, then that is what they did when they got frustrated.

I didn't like smacking, as it made me feel bad, and I didn't like to make my child cry.
So I went to the library and tried to learn as much as I could about toddler/ child behavior, so I had a better understanding of it all.
But I still found myself at times, out of frustration reverting to the way I had been brought up.

Parenting is always evolving, as we get older, as our children get older, as we have more children.
It's just a natural progression.
I have always been open minded enough to try different approaches, if something doesn't feel right, or doesn't work.

But lately I have been reading a lot on Peaceful Parenting, as I am at a point with my youngest, where the old ways of doing things are no longer working.
It all sounds great in theory, but in the heat of the moment it can be tough.

But I know that if I come from a place of love and compassion instead of the instant reaction of frustration and anger, then there is hope for change.

My daughter love language is cuddles and affection, and I find when she has just said things that have upset me or not what I would like to hear, it is very hard to want to be affectionate with her.
But the more I push her away and want to distant myself from her the worse her behavior gets.

Does anybody else go through this?
How do you deal with it?

I know nobody is perfect, and it's a matter of having a balance of respect and boundaries for each other.
But how do you teach this?

But I also love the way my daughter can just let things go, I wish I could be more like this.
She will get frustrated, have a vent at me, and at this point I have sent her to her room for time out, as she has yelled at me in her venting. Then once she has calmed down and come out, it is like nothing has happened and she is happy to let it go.

I am happy for her to vent, as we all need to do it.
I just want less yelling.
Because when she has vented for everything that I have asked her to do, it wears a little thin and that is when the frustration comes in again.

I have found reading a lot of blogs on posts on peaceful parenting is helping though.
http://www.ahaparenting.com/_blog/parenting_blog
http://www.littleheartsbooks.com/2013/11/29/the-gift-of-a-strong-willed-child/

So it is a work in progress and some days it feels like 3 steps forward and 2 steps back.
But I will never stop trying to be a more peaceful parent.

My Way Is Not The Only Way To Get Things Done.

Monday 31st March 2014

Been trying to encourage Miss Personality to use the analogue wall clock to tell the time. She knows how to do it, but just needs a little bit more practice to fine tune it, if you know what I mean.
But when nearly every device in the house tells her the time in digital, whats the point of reading the wall clock, as far as she is concerned. But then again, does it really matter. I mean she can read the time, she knows what quarter to, and quarter past and half past is. She knows the difference between am and pm.

Our other issue is trying to get Miss Personality motivated to do her personal jobs in the morning, she is really good at distracting herself, and then it's lunch time by the time she has finished them.
I have noticed I get distracted easily too, so maybe that is where she gets it from,lol.

Now I knew she had a fascination with time/ numbers, to a certain extent, as she has her dad's need for having a digital clock next to her bed, so she knows what the time is, at all times.

Now dad has increased this desire by giving her his old watch.
It tells the time in digital, but it also does a whole range of other cool things.

• It tells you what the time would be in different countries.
• It's a thermometer
• A stop watch
• Tells the date
• It's a compass
• It is water resistant
• It has an alarm.
• And makes different kinds of beeps to tell you certain things.

Now in regards to her personal jobs, this watch has lead to some interesting developments.
Miss Personality decided to time herself while she does her jobs, to see how fast she can do them, and then each day she tries to beat this time.

I watched and had to nearly put my feet in my mouth, to stop from commenting and just let her do what she felt the need to do.

She would do the first job on her list, then stop the stop watch and record the time in seconds.
Then she would start stop watch from beginning, and record the time in seconds after she had completed the next job.
At the end of her jobs, she then asked me how many seconds in a minute, then converted each time to minutes and then added them up.
The second day she did this, she was so excited to beat her time from the day before.

Now was it important for me to interrupt her and tell her she wasn't doing it the way I would have done it.
NO!

But after I extracted my foot out of my mouth, I smiled at what she had achieved all on her own and happy to do it.

I am interested to see what other things this watch can inspire her to do :)

We Are Getting A Bus!!!!!!

Saturday 29th March 2014

We have talked about making one of our goals, getting a housebus, when we came back from Australia in September.

We didn't have the cash to buy one outright, so we just did a lot of talking about what we wanted in a house bus, the budget of what we could afford. Researched what things we needed in our future home.

Didn't think it would be happening for a while to be honest.

We don't have the skills to build one and thought it would be a lot easier buying one already set out.

But we also found when looking at ones for sale, that there were not many built for families.

A big majority of them seem built for the retired couple.

But an opportunity has come along to rent to own a house bus, that we couldn't say no to.

So in 5 weeks we say good bye to the four walls of a house and go totally mobile.

Wow! 

It's scary and exciting all in one :)

When we found this one, and it ticked all the right boxes , we just had to go for it.

Features:

1976 305 Mercedes

11m long, 2.4m wide 

200hp rear engine with automatic transmission

Airbag suspension with high ratio diff fitted.

1000 ltrs of fresh water

1100 ltrs of wast

70 ltrs fresh toilet water

80 ltrs of toilet waste

Marine toilet

Gas heater

Califont and full size gas stove

110 ltr 12v/24v.230v fridge

Hi tech absolute 400ah deep cycle house battery with dedicated temperature controlled charging and monitoring system

12m x 4 m awning

With all this, it still leaves plenty of room to still personalise it.

I have been reading blogs on housebus families and how they have things set up in their homes.

We have been reading up on solar panels as this bus does not have them, and how to use an inverter so we can run a washing machine, charge our phones and laptops.

We buy things that we can use that doesn't use electricity, so we conserve what we have as much as possible. Like the hand mixer, whistling kettle to go on the gas stove, wind up lantern/ torches, that kind of thing.

We have been reading up on how to do your washing, camping style.

We have been researching ways to modify this bus so we can be as self sustaining as we can.

I also read up today about super magnets that can be used to put up your curtains instead of using cords and curtain tracks.

It's all so exciting and new.

Do you live in a house bus?

What things did you do to make your life easier?

What gadgets have you found to be, must haves?

We are ideally looking for a bit of land to rent to put our new home on too.

Still need to find this.

How did you find the perfect place to park your house bus?

It's funny this time last year I would never have dreamed that this is what we would be doing :)

But we cross of that days on the calendar, excitedly as we look forward to our new adventure.

Growing Our Own Food

Thursday 27th March 2014

I have been researching about growing plants and fantasizing about the day that I can grow my own food.

Part of that research has been to do with watching DVD's on living off the land.

We found these 2 in the local library about a New Zealand man called Te Radar.

It was great to watch someone doing what we want to be doing, from the country we call home.

Then I had my lightning bolt moment and realised that I can start doing it now.

I don't have to wait till we have our own land to live on.

Yeah our backyard is only very small, but some things can take a long time to grow, especially when you are growing them from seed.

I got Miss Personality involved. I asked her if she would like to help me plant my seeds I bought from the supermarket.

The internet is so great for us beginners that go blindly into new projects with the enthusiasm of an eager child.

We found this idea of planting seeds in old empty toilet rolls, you just stuff newspaper in the end, so the potting mix and seeds don't fall out the other end.

Miss Personality did an awesome job helping me do this, and then put the potting mix in for me too.

Well until she found the cricket hopping about in the bag of potting mix,lol.

Then it became mum's job :)

Any way after placing the seeds into the potting mix in the toilet rolls, and then giving them a good drink of water. We sat back and waited to see what happened.

We also had read that when planting them from seeds, you need to make sure they have a good balance of moist soil and sun, so that the germination can take place.

With in a couple of days, Miss Personality excitedly came and told me we had some sprouts sticking through and over the next few days, we had more and more.

Because it is starting to cool off as we head into winter, we are just moving them around to which ever spot has the sun on it.

I re potted them just recently. We have 2 broccolli, 2 carrots, 2 lettuce, 2 silverbeet (but something seems to be eating them), a tomato and a lemon seedling.

I also went out an bought a feijoa plant, as these are one of my favourite fruits.

Will look at getting an apple tree, a mandarin tree, and would like to grow grapes, and a passionfruit vine at some stage. 

But one thing at a time :)