On Holiday

I'm sitting at a friend's computer in the afternoon sun after helping make kei apple chutney and blobbing out on this gorgeous Sunday. We (DH, kids and I) are up North (ie. the top bit of NZ - considered 'up North' by Aucklanders like me!) on an extended weekend break.
Spending a lot of time daydreaming about where we would like to live, what we would plant, what we could sell at the farmers markets, what animals we could raise and then eat ... and tempering the daydreams by reading articles about urbanites who have tried the lifestyle block living and ended up moving back to the city after it didn't work out.
But we could make it work - couldn't we? And I keep thinking that who cares if it doesn't work out - does it matter if we move out to the country only for a few years? Those few years would be lots of hard work but fun, quiet, eating our own food, hunting, fishing, planting trees and enjoying a completely different lifestyle to what we are used to in the big smoke.

I'm going to sign off - it must be about time to make some apple sauce for the local pork that's roasting away in the oven. Accompanied with some yummy relish on the mashed potatoes that was made yesterday from the abundance of quinces on the tree. And possibly some home-made wine to go with the whole of dinner ...

This is definitely the life!

Oh Be Careful

I have just about finished reading an excellent book called 'Consuming Innonence'. I wish every parent would read it. The book is all about the effect on children by tv, movies, marketing, toys, brands, clothing, books, etc etc... It's one of those books where I am constantly just saying, "YES - I agree!" The author isn't Christian - in fact, I get the impression that she possibly had a little Christian or Catholic education when she was younger and it was or has become horribly distorted but despite that she is really really onto it when it comes to keeping your kids away from or teaching about the influences of the media.
Take clothes for example - what perverted and distorted people think that young girls should wear sexy clothes? - skirts, boots & tops that say "Hey look at me and what I have to offer"!!!???
She has a chapter about Disney - how parents don't read to and often don't even know the original fairytales but just believe that how Disney has portrayed them must be the correct way.

Oh - there are too many things in the book for me to say how good they are. I just wanted to say it's great.

The kids have been singing "Oh be careful little eyes..." at Sunday School quite a bit recently and it's such a great song to sing at least once a day. Because when we forget or we get too tired or we let things slip ... that's when we begin to allow things (tv, books, influences etc) that we know in the back of our mind are NOT good.

That's my bit for the day. Now back to wiping multiple snotty noses ... we have colds in our house at the moment. There's going to be lots of garlic in our dinner tonight :)

Timothy Theodore James Parkinson
He's a year old next month and this is a pic from the day he was born. Today he called my name for the first time and I am really buzzing about it.

Music & the Brain

I've been busy on the computer in the last two days looking for research about music and the brain. A friend of mine attended a lecture where the person talked about the effects of classical music vs pop music on rats - the classical rats completed mazes the best and when their brains were examined later, all the bits in their brain were 'beautiful' (don't really know how to describe that!) but the pop music rats became slower and slower at completing their mazes and their brains were a mess. Hmmmm... I like to see the research and find other research that backs it up so I've been busy googling for a while.
I'll post anything interesting that I find. So far, it seems that classical music is definitely beneficial - for maths, language, memory, relaxing etc. I did find one study that said that preterm babies put on weight better and were less agitated/lower heart rates when listening to classical music in the neo-natal units than babies who didn't have classical music. Kind of handy if you know someone who has a struggling premature baby.

Here's some pics of NZ scenery. Thanks to our friends for going on holiday and taking such great photos!

Check out the great house and garage that Chris made for the kids. Marcail is sitting holding Timothy. Alex is standing up and Joel is in the garage.

First Post

Number one we've just begun ...

I've thought about starting a blog for months now so here goes ...
I don't know how it's going to turn out - will it be a collection of odds and ends that I find interesting? Will I attend it faithfully for a few weeks until something else takes my fancy? Or will it become my diary - something that I've never successfully managed to keep because I don't like my handwriting.
Let's find out...