The Plan...

So I've been getting serious about organising and simplifying our family life.  The thought of a more structured week, simultaneously terrifies me and brings a sense of peace.  The calm of order, the pressure of maintaining it, and a little sadness at the necessary loss of some spontaneity in our days.  You know what though?  Mostly I'm just looking forward to the challenge.  And I have a plan.

First up, I hit the Sorted website, and worked on a preliminary budget for our current year.  It was such a helpful tool and gave me a much better picture of where our money will head to each week, and where we need to be more careful.  Have you used it before?  Awesome.

Next up, I created a weekly plan for our family.  I know know know that we will never ever stick to it completely, but it definitely felt good to set down a picture of how our weeks may go.  Stepping into part time work feels kinda huge to me, and I needed to see how it would work.  I also added lists of ideas for using some of our time, including a small list of personal projects, and a couple of fun family adventures that I would like to fit into our year.

At the same time, I worked up this chart, to mark my progress with some of the bigger goals for the year.  Some are fun goals (such as 'Read 40 Books'), and others are more challenging ('De-clutter Entire House springs to mind).  Man I'm looking forward to filling up those bottles though, yuss!

After a loooooong wait, I received my Frankie Journal, and subsequently jotted down important dates.  Again, getting an idea of the shape of our year.  I'm not much of a diary person, but each year I promise myself that this will be my diary year.  And this WILL be my diary year *wink*.

Currently I'm working on a Groceries Master List and a monthly meal plan, as well as researching sources for local dairy, meat and produce.  I'll probably share a little more on that soon, because I think that both of these are excellent methods for saving money and stress.

Guys, this is so much fun actually!  How about you, do you have a plan? xx

Summer

We are fast running out of days until my new job begins, so I'm thinking I better write a list of summery activities to ensure we don't miss out on our favourites.  So far I can think of about two activities, so it might be quite a short list :-P

Currently

Listening to: Delaney Davidson & Marlon Williams

Watching: Firefly

Reading: The Maze Runner - James Dashner

Making: Mini lawnmowers for a certain dude's upcoming birthday 

Planning: Wedding craft afternoons (for a friend's wedding, not mine)

Eating: Stone fruit

Drinking: Coffee Frappes

Dreaming of: Sleep

Fairy Tea Party

Eleanor has been spending a bit of time with her nana.  I love seeing what they get up to when they've been hanging out.  Freshly baked loaves of bread, water colour paintings, and in this case - a spread of fine, tiny food for some little wee friends.

Too much sweetness.

Cowboys-as

First birthday...

We have spent the past few days celebrating our one year old.  I'm tired, but good tired.  Love my little baby.  One is fun.

I'll pop back very soon with some more photos from the little picnic we enjoyed today.

In anticipation

We've been enjoying spending a bit of time on Ma's lawn.  Resting in the shade, retrieving items out of babies mouths (okay just one baby, who will enjoy his very first birthday in a few days time), and gazing at the abundance of fruit and vegetables growing before our eyes.  Reeeeally can't wait to bite into those peaches as soon as they've ripened.  Mmmhmmmmm.

Papped.

I couldn't help myself.  Their gorgeous hats were made by Jannelle of Heartfelt, yet more gifts from Santa.  Lucky sprites.  Also, some of these images were taken by Rosa-May.

Rawene

Dream house.  Rawene.

When in Rome, one must buy coffee and food from the famous-in-NZ Boatshed cafe.  The perfect perk-me-up (specially when there are smiling friendly faces behind the counter, who bring little girls free cupcakes, just 'coz).  

And it wasn't until I snapped these photos as we drove past, that I realised how many cute buildings Rawene has.  Nothing like being a tourist in your own town.

Noise

We had a power cut last night.  Actually, we were having dinner at a pub with some friends of ours and two things happened simultaneously.  One, Eleanor threw herself into my lap and snuggled in.  Because she's not really a snuggler most of the time, I figured something was wrong and checked her temperature.  She was definitely hot.  Two, the power cut out, and the bartender told us it was off everywhere.

Great.

I wish I could say I love a good power cut, but I very much don't.  I hate to say it, but I feel at an absolute loss when I don't have my laptop available.  I've been meaning to get into the habit of keeping it charged constantly, because power cuts aren't that uncommon up here, but yanno.  So, I was pretty P-Oed about the power cut, and also worried about my little girl because fevers are sent to freak the crap out of parents right?! who was sleeping fitfully and feverishly.  And there was nothing to do.

We lit the few candles we had and pooled them in the centre of the coffee table, and I began to flick through magazine articles that I usually just skim over without reading.  And then I remembered why I never bother reading them.  Silly parenting articles that I really don't agree with.  I should've gone straight to Good or Frankie, but instead I shoved the pile of magazines aside, and watched Zan play Solitary Chess (a very fun game - I got it for his birthday).  He placed the game on the coffee table so that we could both try and solve it in our heads.  

And then we just lapsed into silence, the kind of peaceful quiet that we never usually experience.  No TV, no clattering keyboard keys or noisy sew machine, no humming fridge.  Just candlelight and rustling trees.  The shallow breathing of our daughter which to be honest, totally kept me from relaxing, ever.  If I hadn't been so preoccupied with worry always magnified at night, innit?! I would have enjoyed it. Enough to want to do it again tonight.  I never give a moments thought to how noisy our lives are, how bright the lights.  I never realised how much these things contribute to the frantic nature of our days. 

I would do it again tonight, however those post-it notes are glaring at me and tapping the watches on their wrists, so I will be using my evenings for busy work over the next few weeks.  Still thinking I might sneakily plan a voluntary power cut sometime soon though.

p.s. I'll have more details about these magnetic alphabet sets soon, they might end up in my felt store.  There are a very limited number of them, and I won't be making them again after this lot.

Happy Easter