We are in sunny Santa Barbara, California, this Autumn. It’s the first time in well over a decade, certainly in my children’s lives, that we’ve been in the northern hemisphere for Halloween. It always irked me that New Zealand chose to follow the commercial line of Halloween, and ‘do it’ on 31 October (in the […]
Month: October 2013
Things I’m Loving
A few snippets of life from the past week that have brought a smile to my face… A sunset enjoyed with my family (except not all the children were happy to be at the beach… but it meant a lot to the man of the house and I!). Seeing one of my children with her […]
Happiness is RAIN for Kiwi Kids in Santa Barbara, California!
We arrived here in early August. It’s nearly Halloween, end of October, and today, for a couple of hours, we had PROPER rain! We’ve had a couple of hours of attempted rain only once in the past three months. This was real rain, that created hundreds of circles on the surface of the swimming pool, […]
Some sunsets feel too good to see alone | Prose for Thought
I took a walk, alone, on a Friday evening, after a week of being with my three children, every hour of every day. Alone, by the sea, I walked along the beach, past couples entwined and groups of friends sharing drinks, past people walking their dogs and jogging on the sand. There wasn’t anyone else […]
Weekending It! All action!
Having the man of the house home at the weekend gives us family time to get out and really explore this place – and we certainly had an action packed weekend of it! Whilst the rest of us were barely awake he headed off for an early morning paddle board, returning back mid-morning for a […]
Miss 3 takes her Chumash Indian book and puts it into practice
I’ve been reading a lovely book with Miss 3 about the way the Chumash Indian people used to live in Santa Barbara ‘The Chumash Through a Child’s Eyes‘. The book compares their life to our modern day life in a lovely way that young children can comprehend. On one page is a Chumash Indian child […]
Going with the flow of natural learning
There’s been some lovely moments in the home learning house here this week. We are meeting some lovely fellow home-schoolers in Santa Barbara, getting out and about, filling up pages of the diary and discovering lots of new learning opportunities. To be honest, I don’t always know how any day will pan out. We are […]
Fun at the Fair in the sunshine of Santa Cruz
“It’s ‘Blackpool Pleasure Beach’ in the sun!” we both said in unison as the children ran around us in excited circles waiting for their tickets. Old-fashioned rides blended with fair-ground games, candy floss and hot dog stalls were on every corner and the sound of screams, mixed with shrill laughter, filled the air. The only […]
Loving – Finding contentment in the moment, whilst aching for New Zealand
Loving the time my daughters are sharing together. I haven’t seen my oldest two so close for years and our youngest is loving the constant interaction of having her older sisters around. Loving the natural flow of our days, where ‘fitness’ is a swim in the pool, a bike ride to the village or a […]
Prose for Thought | Gliding in with the Fall
Autumn in Santa Barbara is not like any autumn I’ve ever experienced. It feels like summer, minus the long, light evenings. But there is still a change in the air, however slight it may seem to this British born lass, used to living in windy Wellington, New Zealand, for well over a decade! There are […]
Back from our road trip to San Francisco
What a trip! Exhausting with three children and a husband working hard in the office Monday to Friday! It wasn’t a holiday, but most certainly an adventure and an experience – with some amazing sights either side of the working week and a couple of incredible weekends either side. The drive back, from San Francisco […]
Things I’m Loving – This week away in San Francisco
Love that inspiration comes in all forms and life is never quite how it looks… Enjoyed a visit to The Exploratorium in San Francisco this week, where life definitely wasn’t all it seemed to be! We could have spent days there. The highlight for all three girls was playing with their shadows… [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcpswCx80bc&w=640&h=480] Love this […]
Prose for Thought – Over the rooftops of San Francisco in Fall
Inspiration for this poem is from a week staying in San Francisco. A beautiful, sunshine week in early Fall, but the beauty marred by the number of people sleeping rough on the streets; and the answers I sometimes struggle to give to the questions my children ask. Linking up with others that like to write […]
The Photo Gallery | Through the eyes of my phone
We are up in San Francisco this week and ‘The Photo Gallery’ prompt of ‘Through the eyes of my phone’ couldn’t have been more apt. I’m touring the streets of San Francisco, with three children in tow, and as much as I’d love to have time to take classy photos with my Canon DSLR I […]