29 @ 29

 1. Paint my toenails

 2. Scrapbook at least 12 moments of baby’s first year

 3. Plant sunflower seeds/grow sunflowers

 4. Eat tiramisu

 5. Get my hair cut

 6. Summarise/scrapbook our first year married

 7. Read a novel

 8. Lose 5kg

 9. Decide if I’m returning to work or not

 10. Participate in a Christmas ornament swap

 11. Write a Christmas newsletter

 12. See Harry Potter 7 (part 1)

 13. List 29 reasons why I’m a good mother

 14. Blog at least 29 times

 15. Email at least 50 photos/videos of baby to family

 16. Finish rainbow crochet blanket

 17. Get a nice photo of all 3 of us (plus maybe the dog)

 18. Take baby swimming

 19. Send 10 postcards or letters (with photos of baby maybe)

 20. Buy at least 10 bunches of flowers

 21. Try 10 new recipes

 22. Create a photo wall (in the dining room?)

 23. Make bunting for baby’s bedroom

 24. Have a picnic or tea party

 25. Find ways to celebrate each season

 26. Give away at least 29 things

 27. Try to take at least 1 photo every day

 28. Write my birth story

 29. Have 12 ‘dates’ with my husband

You can see my 28 things list here and my 27 things list here.

Review of 28 things aged 28

You can view the 28 things list here.

I have tried a couple of times to colour code it so it's easy to see what's complete, what was started and what wasn't done but for some reason it won't publish it.

At first glance the 28 things list could be considered an epic fail.

I completed 8 items.

But to be honest, I am pleased with what I achieved.

Not only did I complete those 8 items, I also made some progress with another 17 items even though I didn't finish them.

Only 3 items weren't started or completed and 2 of those were because I was pregnant and didn't want to do them for safety reasons (ride a horse and play badminton).

And let's not forget that in this last year I have achieved something pretty amazing. I got pregnant, grew a strong, healthy baby and then delivered him into this world (without any drug relief I might add).

Some things are more important than a list I drew up 13 months ago.

I realised pretty early on that I had made the list 'too much' - it wasn't a list of 28 things at all - most items had a bigger task than doing just one thing. It was do 28 of this or list 100 of that. I made it too hard.

Even if I hadn't been pregnant/a new mother for the whole year I think I would have struggled completing more items.

So I have made a 29 list but it's a fair bit simpler than last years. I'll try and share it with you over the next few days.

Keeping Busy

Our beautiful baby boy was born on Tuesday 10th August at 12.40pm.

We have been very busy between then and now getting to know him and learning how to be parents.

Hopefully at some point in the future I might be able to blog with a little more regularity but at the moment it's going to be very hit and miss.

So while you wait for some regular posts I decided to leave the cutest photo ever in this post :-)

Long time, no post

Wow - is it really the last day in July today? Am I really supposed to be having a baby in the next month? Eek! Seriously, where has the time gone?

My last day at work came and went and I thought about posting about my finishing work feelings.

We lost Graeme's Grandpa and I couldn't get the right words down to explain that.

And now I am 3 weeks into my maternity leave, baby's official due date is in 9 days time, we have a cot and a buggy (finally!) and I'm very much aware that there won't be too many moments to sit and think about putting words together soon.

I really can't wait to meet our new little person. I admit to being a little apprehensive about his journey into the world but knowing I will get to meet this little bundle that's been keeping me company with his little kicks and fidgets at the end of it makes me realise that it's going to be worth it.

I wonder what baby will be like? I think it goes without saying he's going to be gorgeous! How could he not be? What will he be when he grows up? When is he going to arrive?

There's so many thoughts and worries and questions at the moment but I have surprised myself and feel much calmer than I thought I would at this time. Maybe it's the hormones or some maternal instinct but there's part of me that just knows baby will be here when he's ready and we will do the very best we can for him when he gets here.

And until then I will do my best to put my feet up and rest up ready for being on round the clock duty when he does make his appearance!

June

Wow, June. How did we get here? Time is flying by and I honestly don't know where it went!

We have been busy getting ready for the arrival of baby and have now chosen most of the big items we want (cot, buggy, carseat etc) and either have them here or they are on order (fingers crossed they arrive before baby does!). We've also been attending antenatal classes and only have 2 left to go. We've already done the tour of the hospital and have a box of nappies ready to go so we are almost prepared!

I've found I've really had to slow down lately and am often tucked up in bed at 9 or 9.30pm most nights (what a nana!). Undisturbed nights are well and truly in the past and I'm often awake a few times in the night trying to get comfy. I'm trying to see the good side of this - it's getting me ready for being up and down in the night with baby!

I'm also feeling a little less creative and full of ideas lately. I think my brain is busy focusing on baby related things and everything else has gone out the window.

I've been notoriously bad at taking photos and without photos I don't have much fodder for blog posts. I've had a look at what's on the camera today and then headed out into the garden in the rain to get some photos to share so I could finally update the blog. All flowers today - some brightness and prettiness to take away the winter blues.

It's been quite cold here some days and the fire is on most nights these days. I've taken to lighting candles and putting the fairy lights on to make the most of the darker nights with some twinkles!

I still struggle with the turnabout of the seasons in the Southern Hemisphere and it's weird to think Graeme will be celebrating his birthday next weekend in winter. I still have to buy his presents and am currently deciding whether or not to bake him a birthday cake, birthday muffins or birthday cupcakes...in fact I might go and have a peek through my reciep books just now to get some ideas.

And I'll promise to try and leave less time between posts next time :-)

Autumn skies

I've been snapping away photos of Autumn colours as I've seen them the last couple of weeks. Capturing the leaves on the trees changing colour. I love autmnal colours. I'm sure it comes with being an Autumn baby. I hope to share some of the pictures once I've got a few more.
Tonight though it was the sky that caught my eye. What beautiful colours and looking very much like autumnal colours. Enjoy :-)

The Coromandel (our honeymoon)

We had always planned to have a honeymoon once all our guests went home. It seemed silly to ride off into the sunset while they were all still here so we spent as much time with them as we could while they were here and planned for a honeymoon a little further down the track.
There were many ideas flung around for where we could go for our honeymoon but in the end we decided to stay here in New Zealand and have a new adventure in a part we'd never been to before.

So we packed up our car and headed to the Coromandel Peninsula. It's a long drive so we stopped overnight in Taupo on the way. We went the week leading up to Easter which turned out to be a genius idea because the roads weren't yet full of Easter holiday traffic.

We stayed 3 nights at the Crows Nests Apartments in Whitianga. It was beautiful. The start of Autumn so not particularly warm and in fact it rained a bit - but it was still lovely. We strolled around the town, took the wee ferry to the 'other side' and explored over there and drove a bit further afield to see what was nearby.
We particularly enjoyed Hot Water Beach It was a little like Disneyland in that it was full of tourists. There's hot water springs under the beach so at low tide the place is swarming with people with spades of all shapes and sizes, digging holes, looking for the hot water. On this particular day it was raining quite heavily so everyone had waterproofs and jumpers on over their swimmies. As soon as warm water was struck - off came all the outerwear and everyone swarmed into the hot water pool. Very strange but lots of fun!
We also attempted the walk to Cathedral Cove but some parts of the path were slippy and steep and given I was 21 weeks pregnant at the time we decided not to take any chances once I'd lost my footing once!

All in all, a lovely, relaxing time away. Unfortunately it seems a long time ago now (isn't it always the way just a couple of weeks after you return from holiday!) but will be a lovely time to remember in years to come.

Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins

One of my favourite muffin flavours is raspberry and white chocolate muffins but I've only ever bought them from cafes. After eating a particularly nice one whilst on holiday (more on that later!) I declared to Graeme that I would attempt baking my own version. Graeme found me a recipe online which I adapted slightly out of sheer laziness and for quicker mixing times!




Here goes....

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups self raising flour
• 100g butter
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg (lightly beaten)
• 1 cup raspberries (frozen or fresh)
• 1/2 cup white chocolate bits
• Icing sugar (for dusting)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190degrees (I have a fan oven so set it at approx. 170degrees)
2. Lightly grease muffin tins (I use silicon trays so spray them lightly with spray oil)
3. Add the flour and sugar to the bowl and mix
4. Melt the butter in the micowave (for approx. 40 seconds if the butter is chopped) and pour into the dry mix
5. Add the milk, the egg, raspberries (straight out the freezer) and white chocolate bits
6. Give it all a stir until mixture is just moistened (don't mix until completely smooth)
7. Spoon into muffin cups
8. Bake for 20 mins (I checked them after 15 and they definitely needed the extra 5)
9. Stand for 5 minutes and then turn onto a wire rack to cool
10. Dust with icing sugar
11. Eat and enjoy :-)

The original recipe suggested rubbing in the butter to the flour but that seemed like too much effort to me and they came out fine with melted butter instead.

They are truly delicious and were particularly tasty warm.

This recipe makes 12 (large-ish) muffins.