easter

Just come back from a late Easter up at the bach. Finished off the jumper I was making, took a walk to the park, made hot cross buns, had an easter egg hunt, and watched the Royal wedding of Will and Kate on our crackly old tv set.

Did I ever mention these trees at the Stillwater park. They are Oak trees. My Dad planted them way back. He was a bit of a greeny and was really into planting trees where ever he could. He said it stopped slips (amoung other things). He was also a member of the compost society. Exciting huh. I don't know what they did, but I guess it was in the 50s and 60s when everybody was pumping their soil with fertiliser. Dad was a bit ahead of the times in many ways. He also learnt the Maori language before it was the politically correct thing to do. He reckoned he was in a rugby team with predominately Moari team members, and theyd back chat the ref in Maori, and then when the ref said "what are you saying??" theyd be like "Just discussing the next move, ref".

Kid-free day

Catherine is having her traditional school holiday visit with her God-mother. I've been doing stuff.
Making a jumper at the moment. It's from the Lionbrand website. 1000's of quality free patterns, found here.

Also got around to starching the doilies I made a while ago. They take a couple of days to dry. To make starch just boil a tablespoon of cornflour with about 2 cups of water.

Went and bought some seedlings for the garden....

which I spent the day preparing the garden bed for.

And came up with a recipe to get through the masses of rubbarb we have in our garden.

(It's really just a cherry slice I changed a bit, from an Alison Holst recipe).

Here it is:

BASE:

2 cups of flour

1/2 cup sugar

200g melted butter

Mix this together, spread onto a tin and cook at 350 degrees F. for 15 mins.

FILLING:

10 large stalks of rubbarb

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

Boil this untill soft and spread over cooked base

TOPPING:

1 1/2 cups desiccated coconut

1/2 cup rolled oats

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

50 g melted butter

2 eggs

1/4 teaspoon almond essence

1/2 tsp mixed spice

Spoon this over the top of the mixture using 2 spoons, and flatten with a fork.

Bake at 350 degrees F. or 180 degrees C. for 20-30 mins.

Scrummy as!

Found a remedy for my plant stand and the family members who decide my plants are public property. I wish I didnt have to make these ridiculous signs, but it worked for my room, and when I signwrite them on corflute they look real official and people obey.

On a happier note, Catherine has been in the Greenlane Christian Centre Easter production. She's been doing quite well. She tends to be in her own little world and dance around to herself. I had to have a little practice with her and tell her to keep facing the front and give a big smile. She was so unselfconcious, Dana and friend of mine said "Are you sure she's your daughter?". Yup. Like chalk and cheese.

BTW... Catherine is in the grey mouse in the first photo, and in the red in the second.

Makin stuff.

Catherines in an Easter production this Friday and Sunday. Shes a mouse, so I made her the outfit to go with the mask theyve given her. I think theyll make cool pygamas once the show is over.

And I crocheted myself a snood. Well that's what Mum calls it, but I only have her word to go by. I've seen alot of them on the net, and decided to make one for this winter coming up. Speaking of which, we seem to be having an early one, so glad I got the wood chopped up before the cold set in. (Not that I can use it for this winter, but at least I'm not out in the freezing cold trying to cut it).

Holidays are going well. Looking forward to going to the bach second week of the hols, and Catherines looking forward to the easter egg hunt.

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Yay, school holidays... yippeee! Well, so far good anyway, said the man as he fell past the 32 story. Normally Catherine and I drive each other up the wall, but I'm planning to do one outing a day for Catherine, and also not feel guilty about locking myself in my room if I have to.

Also, check out the car!! I was sure it was going to be a disaster. I'm way too pessimistic. It went well. Even applied the picture of the dog fine! It's the first time I've ever moulded an image over curves - I didnt know what to expect (different vinyls react differently) and was REALLY nervous, but it went good. Yippeee to that too!

And I said I was giving up my signwriting business earlier this year, so when this enquirey came in I quoted a really high price, expecting them to reject it, but they accepted it and I got a really good price for my work for once.

It's raining today, and I'm taking Catherine to the indoor pools. No work on the horizon so I'm looking forward to being a Mum for the holidays.

Hope

I had a bit of a thought. Contentment all depends on where we place our hope. I realised this when I had 5 little pots of dirt which I carefully sowed cabbage, leek and cauliflour seeds. I congratulated myself on the money I had saved buying seeds instead of plants and looked forward to planting them all out into the garden ready for a winter harvest.

Then came along Catherine and sprinkled grass seed into them, and now I have 5 trays of grass whch smothered the seedlings.

Hope. If you place our hope in this life your gonna be dissapointed. Eventualy everything breaks, rots or dies.

I had another one of my gardening dreams last night. I was picking fresh cellery and beans to give to someone. I told Mum and she said "Gardens need weeding". (Ever positive my Mum). I said "I don't weed in my dreams". "Youre dreaming of heaven." she said.

I hope so, coz that means it's gonna be good.

Generosity, oh yes :)

I'm always trying to better myself, but at the same time be less self-absorbed. (Is that a contradiction?) I love what I read in word for today... "You don't have more problems than everyone else... you just think about them more"!. Well here's some bible verses I have been trying to put into practice, and a story to back it up. 2 Corinthians 9 verse 6 "He who sows sparingly and grudgingly will also reap sparingly and grudgingly, and he who sows generously will also reap generously and with blessings." 2 Corinthians 8 verse 11 " (give)... according to your ability and means. For if the eager readiness to give is there, then it is acceptable and welcomed in proportion to what person has, not according to what he does not have"

Here's the story:

While I have started tring to put these verses into practice, seems like God is dealing with others over the same issue as well. XXXX (nameless) from my church shared a story where they are pretty broke right now, but someone in need came to their door so she gave them a dozen eggs. And who came knocking at their door that day? Someone asking if they needed a dozen eggs. Then they shouted thier son's friend a takeaway meal, and who comes knocking on their door ? Someone giving them a spare takeaway meal. Now she reckons she's looking at what else she can give away!

Now I've been told to take these verses carefully. Be senseble and don't fall for "prosperity teaching". Being a christian doesn't guarantee a problem free life etc, etc etc. But I just thought to myself.. those verses are pretty clear! If they're not true, why are they in there??

Anyhow. My point is I gave up worrying about my future and the fear I have that I'll be eating dog food when I'm old coz it's cheaper, and hoarding every penny I get, living with a miserly attitude, and decided to put this backward economy into practice. Now, it's not a complete jump of faith, as in New Zealand we have the pension for 65 year olds, but things have really started looking good financially for me right now. I don't want to look to God as a cash cow, but it seems like He's good for his word.

It's a fine line though. I don't want to start giving just with the thought that I'll get even more! But there is freedom in taking the grip off a worry and handing it over to God.

My next post was sposed to be Generosity Part 2 with a post from my diary, but I've decided against it. I often get so self absorbed it's embarrassing. In the way of news, Catherine (daughter) is over the moon because she has a part in the play from her god-mothers church. She is totally in her element and she's lucky she has someone in her life to contribute in ways I can't. She also had a party yesterday that she was looking forward to all week. (I was dreading it all week). She insisted on drawing on bits of paper and wrapping them up as a gift. I was so worried about how the 4 year old would react to recieving bits of paper (I bought him a proper gift), but the people there understood her intentions and made it all ok and Mr. four even thought some of them were kinda cool. Big relief for me as parties are stressful at the best of times.