Popcorn Popping

Sometimes you just really crave something sweet, salty and savoury... soo I decided to go with the unhealthyness that is caramel salted popcorn.  It's quick, easy and tastes amazing but don't forget about it like I did and end up burning it a little whoops! 

Pop some popcorn throw it into a bowl/dish. Make the caramel sauce.  I used a mix of sugar, butter, cream and salt pour over popcorn and you're good to go.  I popped mine into the oven but like I said make sure you remember to watch it and don't get distracted with feeding the puppies lol

 

To Do - Nothing!

Today was one of those days where I seriously didn't want to do anything and you know what?  I didn't do anything at all! 

I spent the whole day catching up on TV shows from the week.  Grandparents had left to go to an unveiling and because we had the pups and I needed to feed them I ended up staying home keeping them company and watching a weeks load of TV. 

So nice to just do nothing and not have to worry about anything or anyone else.. well aside from the puppies. I even went to town just to get take out and it was freaking ages away but totally worth it! Too bad I didn't take a photo but it was a good day to just hang out and do NOTHING!

Friday Night TV

Since moving here to live with my grandparents Nan and I have Friday night TV of Coronation Street.  I know right?!?!  But seriously, it's such an interesting show!  We watch every Friday and every Saturday. I only wished it didn't go so late some Friday's. 2 hours of Coronation Street is a bit crazy BUT Nan loves it and it's nice that we can watch together.  On top of that, it's a good way to kill a Friday night since we can't go out and party till all hours of the morning lol.

It's funny though watching TV with Nan as she likes to have an opinion on some of the characters as if it's real life haha!  Sooo funny!  But as I said I am loving that we can at least watch the show together, eve if it is for old Nana's lol!

Scratch

We haven't seen the mum of the pup in a week nearly and the times we have seen her she doesn't look very well at all.  Her eyes are glassy, she's walking funny and is moaning like she's in pain.  Today she finally managed to come home.  She looks a lot better  but poor thing hasn't been doing okay at all.  We aren't too sure what is wrong with her but she's back to eating normally though isn't taking to her pups so we will have to try later in the week.

Managed to get her into the tub to give her a wash as she smelt gross though it was pretty much a waste of time because as soon as we were done she jumped right back under the house to get dirty again. Crazy kid.

Garden Greens

I am loving the way the garden is looking. My strawberries are growing amazingly and slowly running and we are already eating the lettuce from the garden though we do need to buy some ice berg lettuce otherwise we won't have any sort of lettuce over Christmas. 

The herbs are growing well and my tomato plant that was slowly dying or looked as if it had some sort of infection seems to have picked up which is good.  I can not wait for everything to hurry up and grow so that we can eat it. 

Our fruit trees are also slowly producing fruit as well!  It's going to be a good time once everything has grown and ready for me to eat. I might end up turning into fruit and vegetables with all the things I want to eat from the garden.

Puppies

The other day our dog had puppies.  We weren't too sure how many pups there were but this morning I climbed under the house and managed to get one of the puppies.  Went into town to get some milk from the vet because the Mum isn't feeding or making enough milk for the pup and when I came home from town there 2 pups soo now we have 2 pups that I'm not in charge of taking care of.  They're good puppies and hopefully they get stronger.

We had no bottles but for some reason Nan had a baby bottle so we've been using that to feed the puppies, they're a little too small for the bottle and it's taking  alot for them to get use to drinking from the bottle but they'll be better.

On top of that I still need to think of a name for the puppies. My one is the big fat one! :) lol They're both girls so any name ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Mini Road trip

Aunty Mek stayed over last night and ended up leaving her purse behind.  It wasn't until she had got home to Kaitaia and went to the shop that she realised she had left her purse here.

Instead of having her drive all the way back we met half way.  It was actually a really good drive and nice to be able to drive in the car with the music blasting on a warm hot summers day.  The drive was nice and even the views are great.

Day of Rest

Sunday is a day of rest which also means a day of blasting music in my ears.  I'm a huge fan of music and love to spend days just relaxing listening to music and doing nothing at all.  It's just so calming.

Who else loves music as much as I do?

Happy 70th Birthday

Today was a long but really good day.  Nan and I drove to Kaitaia for Aunty Shirley's 70th birthday which was at Oturu Marae.

The party wasn't until 5pm so Nan and I went to Aunty's Mak's place and spent a few hours there helping out with the kids while I was on bread cooking duties. Shar made more bread while I cooked hoping we would get 300! There probably would have been 300 if we didn't eat it.  Haha.

We got to the Marae a little late so missed out on the beginning of the party but it was a good opportunity for me to be able to take photos before everyone came across from the Marae. 

Everyone did an amazing job with the birthday from the decorations to the food and even to the cake. We had hangi for dinner, cakes, slices, triffle and ambrosia for dessert and seafood galore. It was such a fun night and it really is nice to be able to spend more time with Nan's side of the family.  I was telling her earlier that we don't really know the Job side of the family so it's been nice that we've been able to spend the last couple of weekends with them both for sad and happy celebrations. It was fun listening to stories of Aunty Shirley and how everyone was related.  Though I was asking Nan a million times over who that person was or that person.  Lol.  We had fun.

I'm loving living here more and more and even though I am missing work and the busyness of Auckland I am really enjoying spending time with my grandparents, with the family and just relaxing and getting use to living here in the far north.

Things can only get better right?

Green Fingers

Today we went and got more things for the garden.  Not too many things though as the front garden is a little smaller than the one we have on the side.

We picked up some corn,  capsicum,  lettuce and some flowers to help keep the bugs away.

Loving that while staying here with my grandparents that I can learn how to do my own garden.  I more so can't wait for everything to grow so we can eat it all.

My strawberries are growing amazingly though I wished that I had've bought more plants.  Also my coriander is looking great too.  A little worried about my tomatoes as they may have some sort of 'bug'  nan thinks soo need to keep an eye on that.

Grow garden grow.  Please bugs stay away.

Throwback Thursday

When sorting through photos today I couldn't help but be amazed at some of the photos of myself. 

Ever since I can remember I've struggled with my weight. Though to be honest I never really paid much attention to my weight until my marriage ended.  Food became my comfort which even though when you know you shouldn't you still can't help but eat food. 

I use to think I was happy.  I use to think I looked good but it's not until a drastic event happens in your life that you realise that you're not happy at all. For some it's a relationship ending for others it's a death in the family.  Losing a job.  Different people have different circumstances. 

When my marriage ended I realised I wasn't happy at all.  I ate too much.  I was overweight and I knew something needed to change.  It took a lot of will power and effort but eventually I realised I needed to do something or things would get worse. 

At my heaviest I weighed in around 105kgs. I never thought I would ever be in triple digits but like I said,  I thought I was happy.  I honestly tried every diet under the sun.  Low carb.  No carb.  High carb. No fat.  High fat.  Eventually my cravings got the best of me and I would be back on the see food eat food diet. 

It was never easy but eventually weight slowly began to shift.  After years of trying different approaches I decided to just opt for the healthy clean eating option.  I managed to lose 15kgs which put me in the low 90s.  Like I said it wasn't easy. 

For the last year I have been stuck in the low 90s with my weight not shifting at all it was frustrating so I decided to switch up how and what I was eating.  After lots more research I decided to go with the low carb high fat approach.  I suffer from PCOS and already know that my body doesn't process carbs very well even though I LOVE them like nobody's business so I knew LCHF would work for me. 

Things were great.  The weight started to drop again and slowly I was learning to actually love myself and really be and feel happy.  Don't get me wrong i totally still love junk food and I love carbs but I try my best to limit those foods. 

Today I can happily say I'm now sitting in the mid 80s though to be honest it's only been this past week that I've realised the numbers on the scale don't mean anything!! It's all about how you feel and how you look.

Now go and throw away those scales! Oh and I make no apologies for all the pictures of myself lol. 

Water Runs Dry

We've been low on water the last few days and had hoped for some reason.  Sadly what little rain we did get was only enough to feed the garden and nothing else. 

Called for some water the other day and they said it would probably be a couple of days.  Luckily for us the guy came this morning.  I guess when you're use to living in the city and being connected to town supply you don't worry so much about running out of water. 

I'm adjusting more to the rural far north though at times I am missing work and the hassle and bustle of Auckland traffic but at the same time I'm enjoying the slow paced life of rural living. 

Nan has been doing a mix of knitting,  crochet and other crafts and is busy trying to make a hat though it's way too big.  Went to try it on Papa and I tried to get a sneaky photo in but Papa caught me and took the ring off before I could take the picture lol.  At least I got one of Nan. 

Oh and in other news hoping to get some sort of internet that isn't mobile data in the next few days.  It will save me millions in mobile data and now need to convince Nan to get herself a new computer.  Her old one just won't cut it...  It's taken me months to convince her to get internet I can only imagine how long it will take me to convince her that she needs a new computer lol.

Christmas

I'm the  BIGGEST fan of Christmas and I don't even care about gifts.  For me it's so much more the spirit of Christmas that I love more than anything else.

For some reason people always seem to be that little bit nicer.  It's always a happy season and it's so hard to believe that it's pretty much just around the corner. 

I told Nan today that we need to get a tree.  The first thing she said was... "We don't have any kids" I promptly told her we don't need kids we have the three of us and we still need a tree and soon because December 1st is nearly here. 

Christmas always reminds me of my cousins and doing 12 days of Christmas which I love and miss.  Falling over.  Almost getting caught.  Breaking and falling off a fence.  Seriously some of my best memories ever. 

When my marriage ended I always thought my first holidays and birthdays would be difficult but honestly,  they weren't bad at all. I had friends and people who I now call family that helped me through it all.  We were able to have awesome Christmas celebrations together and eat AMAZING food because we all know Christmas is also about eating food the whole day with family and friends. 

Even though it's just the 3 of us I am still looking forward to Christmas and can't wait to see what we do.  We are lucky because we have family close and might just have to visit them all lol. 

Roll on December 1st then the Christmas spirit really will be in the air. I can't wait!  

Sorry

Is it too late now to say sorry?!?

I'm totally in love with this song and I don't even care that Justin sings it haha.  Go listen.  Now.  All of you.

Random Act OF Kindness

I have been fortunate enough where someone has done some sort of act of kindness for me whether it has been intentionally or randomly and anonymous.

For the last 3 years I have been apart of a FB group called Motivate Me NZ and during this time I have had many ladies who have helped me out with renewing my membership, sending me packages and just being there when I needed someone to talk too. I have opened up to so many women and it's so nice to be part of a group where I am able to know and learn that I'm not the only person who has having a hard time. I love the support in the group and what it stands for. 

Today I was able to help out someone in the group by renewing their membership for them. I never did it for the bragging rights and I also wanted to do it anonymously but my main reason for doing it was because of all the times I have had people help me out I wanted to pay it forward and help someone too.

The world can and would be a much better place if we all did one small random act of kindness.  It doesn't have to extravagant at all.  Something is simple as a listening ear or a coffee may just brighten someones day.

What random act of kindness are you going to do today? 

Saturday Adventures

Today was an awesome day!  Grandparents and I went into Kerikeri for some shopping and not the food or clothing kind.

First we hit up the TAB and Papa asked me if I wanted to make an investment then when I said I only had $50 he said oh never mind give me that and I'll pay you back and borrowed my $50 lol. He makes me laugh but I love that ever since I was a kid I've always known that he has bet on the horses! It's his thing.

After the TAB we hit up bunnings and stocked up on herbs and vegetables for the garden.  LOVE the variety of things that they have there and soo glad that we were able to pick up things for our garden and I can't wait for them to grow so we can eat them all.

We picked up Coriander, Lettuce , Basil, Lemon Grass,  Tomatoes and Cucumber from Bunnings and then when we went to the Kerikeri markets I also got some strawberries.  I'm the only one who eats them soo hopefully they grow like crazy I'll be having strawberry everything.

After our trip and shopping spree at Bunnings we then went to the Kerikeri markets to pick up some vegetables to freeze and throw into the freezer.  I love how everything there is all organic and locally grown and super affordable.  I love all of the things we came home with.

Another awesome day here in the far north! I'm enjoying being here and today I got to learn how to plant my own vegetables, herbs and fruit hehe!  Soon I'll be off and being some farmers wife.