Last Full Week - part 1

This is our last full week in our home here in Canterbury.

I am going around and enjoying all the lovely things about it - making the most of the quirky things I love about my house. Why is it that we women get so attached to our homes. I do feel as though I can understand Lot's wife in the Bible. You know - the one that turned back to look at the burning city - she was turned into a pillar of salt for her disobedience, but I often wonder if she felt that little hankering for one last look at her home.

Nobody wants to buy our house yet. We've had quite a bit of interest in it, but no buyers. We don't feel worried about it - there will be the right family at the right time, and in the meantime, we may have to rent it out which we hate to do, but it might be a necessity. I dont think we should have any difficulty getting tennants. Have you seen how many houses there are to rent in the entire Waimakariri district at the moment on realenz.co.nz as of yesterday? Wanna know this staggering number.....

1. One house.

So I have been looking at my house with appreciative eyes these days - and taking photos of the things I love, like this room - my quiet little sitting room. It's the room which is always tidy - no kids' toys allowed in here!

In many ways I hate to leave the South Island. It is the land of my birth and the land of my ancestors, both Maori and European. In the Maori culture, family heritage and ancestry is inbred in our psyche and stories passed down through the generations of long-dead forefathers. It's part of who we are.
So I feel some sadness at leaving the land that y ancestors loved and called home. I always wanted to walk the Bridle Trail over the Port Hills one day, where my great great grandparents walked after their ships pulled into Lyttelton harbour in the 1800s, but the earthquakes have done away with that dream. Maybe one day in the future we'll be able to walk over those hills again.

I will miss my lovely bedroom with the colour scheme that I was talked into. The interior decorator told me I would come to love it, and I have. In fact, I love it so much that I will be painting that unknown new bedroom in Tauranga the exact same colour.

I love my curtains.

We had some people come and view the house today privately. It's always a mad scramble to get the house presentable, especially with a 'nor-west wind blowing and making everyone irritable. But I am so grateful to my dear friend Noni for allwoing me the use of her flower garden. Don't these flowers look perfect in my dining room.

This little picture that hangs in my dining room used to hang in my office in Chicago, USA. I love it so much. I think it is my dream house - if I didn't have 4 children.

One of the features of our family living area is the massive fireplace surround, and of course our lovely wood fire. There is nothing I like better than a cosy winter's evening sitting around the fire with friends, or a good movie or a good book, or just a nice husband to cuddle up with.

This is the first view of our family living area as you come in the front door. Isn't it nice? It's such a sunny room and very light and airy, which is fairly typical of a New Zealand house. Good light is not in short supply in these parts.

And I will miss the wide, long hallway. It's a great thing to have on 'indoor' days. And I will save the rest of the house for another post - part two. The hallway takes us down there.

Halcyon Days

I am in denial that we have to be out of our beloved home in 2 1/2 weeks, so we have been enjoying some lovely, long summer days at home doing some non-moving things, peppered in between sorting through the attic and the cupboards, finding a house to rent in Tauranga and getting packig and moving quotes.

One of the things I've been trying is a little bit of candy-making. I have had a recipe stashed in my recipe box for years and everytime I go there to look for something else, I see it sitting in there. It is for Sea Foam Candy. A friend from Oregon once sent some over to New Zealand for us and I was hooked. It's a delicious sweet that melts in your mouth, but it has been years since I tried it. I think it is called Sea Foam because it has a light and fluffy texture. I just used vanilla for flavouring, so I need to experiment with some more flavours. The candy is surprisingly easy and quite quick to make. You do need a candy thermometer though. I plan on getting my son to take photos of the process when I make it today, so I might post a tutorial..

Today, I plan to make some more. I hace also been making alot of cordials and drink concentrates for my family. The raspberry cordial we had at Christmas is a huge favourite and lasts a long time, even with my four thirsty camels. And the Chai is becoming a tradition with us to have a cup before bedtime.

In the latest Good magazine, there is a recipe for Rhurbarb fizz and Ginger Beer. They both take around a week or so to brew, so I'm starting that today in the hopes that it will be ready next week to enjoy.

When you have packers coming in to pack up the house, it does take a lot of the stress out of moving. So mostly we are just sorting through things and deciding what we want to keep and what we can live without. We arrive in Tauranga on January 28 and the children start school on the 31st. So these weeks before the chaos begins are precious and I'm treasuring them in my lovely big house. We are going to a much smaller rental for awhile until we can sell this place - there is no section basically at the house we are renting, but it is a new, spacious home, so that makes up for it and only 5 minutes from the school and my brother-in-law's house.

An Old Diary

Yesterday we found my old diary. I started writing it in 1985 when I was 13 years old.
The last entry is the 16th December 1991, soon after my 20th birthday. The pages are even getting yellowing age spots on them now, but when I open up the cover to read the years slip away and I am back in my youth again.

I have howled with laughter over some of the things I wrote, and have pondered with sadness some of the other things.

It is interesting to read at 40 what one wrote at 14. To relive a moment of youth through the intimate thoughts, feelings and expressions of your own self is an enlightening thing. I'm so glad I kept a diary then, and I'm so glad I've kept it all these years.

The diary is mostly full of a long and sad friendship/romance that defined my teen years and into my early adult years. I have written about this before briefly. But it is interesting to go over it again and find fresh insight into what was an intense and important time for me. I find it a little sad, and at the same time it brings a little smile to my face as I read over my raw emotions at the time, just because I took myself so seriously and teenage emotions are so intense. My grandmother once told me that a first love is never forgotten - even when you can't love them. I think that is true, as I think about the years that have passed since then and the events that have conspired to bring me to where I am now in my life. How two people can walk down two very different roads. And I acknowledge God's sovereign and gentle, guiding hand in mine.

The rest of the diary is full of funny and interesting little anecdotes of school life and home life. I have laughed and laughed over my accounts of the different boyfriends I had in my latter teen years. I pretty much refer to all of them at one point or another as 'being like brothers'! Who was I kidding! One entry in 1989 just before I turned 17...

"I'm not being vain, or anything, but I have 6 boys chasing me..."

I laughed at the entry where I decided to agree to be a boy's girlfriend because my best friend told me I should, even though I didn't really like him! Oh dear!

I love all the little school stories. About which girls are 'false' and who I don't like, and who I'm sticking by, and how much I got for my math exam. How I first shaved my legs on 1 May, 1987! My first skiing trip. My first school ball. My first kiss. It's priceless stuff. I spent one entry raving madly about my father because I'd asked him to go and pick up three of my friends when they finished work at their part time jobs, and Dad refused. 40 tells me Dad was quite justified in refusing, but 16 did not understand. I laughed so hard over that yesterday! I will try to remember that one when my own 16 year olds are unreasonable.

Here is a little excerpt from my school ball.

Anyone who raises their eyebrows at the 2.40am, might like to know that my parents and that of my dance partner's had met before the ball to discuss and agree upon a time we were to be home by. :o) But maybe in these days, 2.40am is not so bad.

I found an old newspaper cutout of Michael J. Fox. I seem to remember my school friends and I had a little crush on him. Family Ties on tv, and the Back to the Future movies were rather popular at the time.

I also found three last wills and testaments that I painstakingly wrote out. It's hillarious to note what I left to whom. My brother got my hairdryer! ??? My cousin got my soft toys. My grandparents (who have all passed away now), received sentimental things like my stories and my 'very best ring, with the ruby.' My 'past friend' got a little soft toy monkey back that he'd given me. My best friend got my jewellry, and my father got all my money; and at the end, I leave 'each one mentioned in this will a small locket of my hair." Giggle!

I think I will encourage my children to keep a diary - even just for the pure entertainment value when they are older. Also, it does help put past events into some perspective as you look at your experiences with older, more mature eyes.

Letting In The New Year

We have a tradition for the new year.
I don't know the origin of it, or if it has any meaning, but it's a little tradition I rather like.

At the stroke of midnight, as we kiss goodbye to the dear old year, we open our door and 'welcome in' the New Year.

Do you do that too?

And the sun finally came out in the late afternoon yesterday long enough for me to get my annual photo of the last sunset of 2011.

I wonder if the sunsets will be as spectacular in Tauranga?

Happy New Year!