Month in Numbers for August

Another month has gone by and I almost missed out on my month in numbers for August.

Julie over at Notes on Paper is probably just finalising her post for a few days time for her September numbers and here I am only just doing August, but hey, better late than never!

I managed to capture only 2/3 of the communal counts:
How many people visited your house this month = 1
How many usually live here = 4 people + 2 cats

You too can join in with this data collection for yourself each month if you are interested. Julie has an amazing page over on her blog that explains all about what we are insanely doing each month.
It doesn't have to be anything huge, you could even just start with the communal count that Julie has started each month in conjunction with MiN.
For September we have to consider counting the following:

1. How far do you now live from the first school you attended?
2. How much does a pint/litre of milk cost where you live? How much did you buy this month?

It really is quite easy to count your month, just keep a little note book near the diary in the kitchen or on a notice board in your home communal area and add things to it throughout the month. You will be surprised the information you consider counting!

Month in Numbers for July

It took me until 3 weeks into July before I managed to post my June Month in Numbers! So I am doing well to get these up in the first week!
I happily read others that got posted and kept kicking myself to remember to sit and sort the post out for my first ever month in numbers.

Julie, however had no worries, she was just happy that we wanted to play along and express our life for the month in numbers.
I will give myself a break though, I was a little busy as my new month in numbers for July will show.

I managed 2 of the communal counts:
How many photos did you take = 101
How many did you get printed = 11, well that is how many pictures I got printed in July but they were not of pictures taken in July! Does it still count??

You too can join in with this data collection for yourself each month if you are interested. Julie has an amazing page over on her blog that explains all about what we are insanely doing each month.
It doesn't have to be anything huge, you could even just start with the communal count that Julie has started each month in conjunction with MiN.
For August we have to consider counting the following:

1. How many people visited your house this month? How many usually live here?
2. What was the earliest time you got out of bed? Is this usual for you?

So feel free to join in if you please, we look forward to seeing you maybe in September with Augusts numbers.
Happy counting 1 2 3 4 5 6............!

Month in Numbers

Over the last few months I have seen people write a post about their month in numbers.

I never thought anything of it much.
Happily read their post, loved some of the things they had aspired to do in that month and life just went on.
One day however I suddenly wanted to know more! What was this all about, why were they writing this stuff down and how were they doing it?
Up popped a link to Julie's place and suddenly I understood this whole amazing world in numbers so much more.

Now I am a numbers person, drives my husband mental that I know my credit card number and can just type it in when required, might also drive him mad because that makes it so easy to use online when I want to buy something!

I was intrigued, I wanted to join in and have a go, so I did.
So I give you my month in numbers for June 2013

Apart from deciding how to display the numbers for the month, it was a lot easier than I thought to gather information.
July is already being collected and I look forward to collect more over the next few months.
If you fancy a different type of blog post that shows what you have been up to then why not consider rushing over to Julie's Notes on Paper and start compiling your own month in numbers.

What are you doing in April?

When I was blog surfing a few weeks ago, I came across a blog telling you about a challenge for the month of April.
Info about it as written below:

The brainchild of Arlee Bird, at Tossing it Out, the A to Z Challenges to post the letter of the alphabet every day during the month of April, with Sundays off for good behavior. Since April 1 falls on a Sunday, that will be the day we start with A. Whether you go with a theme or freestyle, your post must match the letter of the alphabet for that day. Add your name to the list, grab the badge in the right sidebar, and when the Challenge begins, start by visiting the blog immediately after your own.

So what do you need to do to join in......you pop on over to the website for the challenge and you link your name in. Then everyday as they mentioned throughout April you post with the letter of the day. You also try and go and visit others to see what they are posting about.
The website gives you all the information you require to achieve this challenge. Lots of suggestions etc on what to blog about for the month, do you want to do a theme, a picture blog, a sewing related blog anything goes really in April.
Great way to find new friends etc

Will I maybe see you there?

Weight Lose

Although it is not been mentioned much I am making an effort to loose some weight.
I have joined Weight Watchers at work and am plodding along slow and steady.
But then in my mind it needs to be slow and steady to maintain, I find if you have a huge blow out of weight loss then you tend to put it back on again the next few weeks because you go back to eating normal again.
That is also why I am doing WW, I want to see how I am loosing weight whilst still eating normal everyday food, whether it be in the same portion as before or by making the portions slightly smaller. That way I know what is working and am not stressed out about having just had a chocolate bar or 3 lollies from the packet.

I am in awe of anyone who can loose weight via shakes and soups and then maintain that when they stop eating those set items.
I couldn't and that was a strength I recognised straight away.
This week I have still had a loss but not as great as previous weeks, but then I know there have been a few influencing factors and maybe next week will be different.
Seeing as this has only been a 3-4 week journey so far then I am not worried, I think you need that first month to encounter all the challenges that life throws your way. You see the differences in weight loss for each week and now know how to deal with it in the coming weeks/months.

So I am expecting nice things for the week a head, a nice weight loss and steady going. I know what went wrong in the last week and now what is good. So slow and steady will continue on, little steps by little steps.

Relay for Life

At the weekend I had the greatest pleasure of being part of the Cancer Society "Relay for Life".

If you don't know what this is then I will explain.
It involves teams of people spending 22 hours walking round a set track. It is done in a relay, so you are only required to have someone from your team on the track at all times, you don't have to walk for the whole time.
You then raise money by getting people to support you in this process, so people give you money for the fact you team is there not for a set amount of laps or anything.
You start the relay at 2pm on Saturday and it continues until 12 on Sunday. You of course pray for nice weather.
You pitch a tent and gazebo for the team and this is where you spend your time when not walking. The tent is used for sleeping because you are, after all, there all night, and let me tell you a few hours sleep is greatly received.

I got involved as it was something I had heard about and had at one time decided it was something I wanted to complete.
So this year I managed to get involved at an early enough time to be part of a team. I joined a team that was made up of lots of individual people who all wanted to take part. A lot of teams are made up of people who all work together, are friends, or even families.
The only requirement I had as a team member was that I had to raise $100, as each team must have a minimum of 10 people and then this way each team would raise minimum of $1000. Seemed fair enough to me.

So on Saturday I turned up at the field with my bag in tow. You have to remember you are walking all night, or at least some of the night, and the temperature can drop big time. So extra layers are well adviced, so is a wooly hat, gloves, extra socks, blanket, sleeping bag and pillow. I also took extra snacks even though the team were providing dinner and breakfast and some nibbles, and also some exciting drinks so I didn't have to keep buying things there.
We had a roster to follow as to who was walking at what time, in half hour slots, although you were able to walk whenever you wanted to, this roster just meant that we always had someone from the team on the track at all times.
My walking time varied but I got to walk at the following times 5, 8 and 11pm and then 3.30, 5.30, 7.30 and 11.30am
Although I happily walked at other times for the odd laps just because you either sit and watch everyone go by or you join in and walk a little for something to do.

They even had themed laps. Yes this was where you were expected to dress up for the laps. The themes for this year were

• Superheros
• Olympic Glory
• Night at the Oscars
• Around the World
• Raindrops keep Falling on my Head
• Circus
• Uniforms
• Jazzercise

I happily dressed up when it fell on one of my laps, which was Oscars, so the 2 of us pulled on pretty black dresses over the tops of our clothes because it was 11pm at night by this stage and it was cold! Although once you got walking you in fact stayed really warm. (Sadly I never took any pictures of the themed laps, but then I never really took too many pictures the whole time I was there!)

The walking itself was easy, you just plodded round the set track for the allocated time. All the tents from the other teams were set up inside the track all facing the track so everyone got to see you walking past. This caused quite a bit of noise because people were cheering at different times for different things.
At one stage there was a lone fire-fighter walking round the track in his full gear (All 22kg of it, with tank). I got talking to him and discovered that apparently his team had ditched him but because people had supported him to walk he decided to turn up and walk for a couple of hours anyway, honour his agreement with them etc. So I told him we had food and a seat if he required it and then everytime he passed by our tent we clapped and cheered for him, he would wave and smile. This went on for about 3 hours and I am sure it helped him keep going. I even got it annouced over the loudspeaker that there was a lone fire-fighter out there and I think he then got heaps more cheers as he walked round from the other teams.

The relay started with the first lap being completed by survivors, it was a special time having all these cancer survivors, of all ages, walking round the track. A very special moment.
The other special moment was the Candlelight Lap at 9pm. All these paper bags were decorated in memory of someone lost and then a tea light candle placed inside and lit. We then all walked round the track in the dark with the candles burning. That too was very special. The boys and Steve managed to stay around for that and it was very difficult to explain to Ben what we were doing without getting emotional, even though I didn't have anyone really close to remember. However the boys did help decorate a bag for me and we did it in honour of a school friend, Alex, who died 22 years ago at age 19 of bone cancer.

The set up of the whole thing was very well done. They had coffee carts servicing our needs the whole time, yes they were there in the middle of the night, but then so was Subway too.
For $10 for 10 mins you could book a massage at certain times and I must admit that was lovely at 9.30pm to have a lovely quick leg massage to keep you going. They even had a group come and supply us with a free breakfast on the Sunday morning. Nothing better in life than walking round the track at 7.30am eating corn fritters and baked beans on toast, even though it wasn't piping hot, it went down so well.

The whole event was well coordinated and we were lucky enough to have good weather, although the rain stayed away the wind decided it wanted to join in and that made for a slight chill in the air.
The husbands of some of the team were wonderful coming in and cooking dinner and breakfast for us. Nothing better than suddenly being told that food was ready and not having to actually do anything to get to that point.
The boys and Steve were able to join in for the time that they visited with me but they went home for the night and then came back the next morning. However the boys were really excited about being there and would love to do it all next year. Having done it this year now, I can see how it would work with them present for the whole 22 hours and I am sure we can work something out for next year, even if it is in Grandma's camper van for the sleeping part during the night.

He loved every minute of being there, from joining in to playing ball with other kids/adults

So if you want to do something like this, then go check out the Relay for Life website and see if there is an event close to you. If the Hamilton one turns out to be your local one and you want to join in then let me know because I will be looking for team members for next year at some stage!

Challenge Update

I have a Challenge Page.
You will find it at the top of my page under the heading picture.
Here it lists all the challenges that I want to achieve. Ok I was trying to achieve them all in 1 year but that didn't come about, so now it is just an ongoing challenge that I am achieving.

So what have I achieved in the last few weeks?

#14 Help a Charity - I am completing Relay for Life in 10 days time. This will be raising funds for the Cancer Society. I will post all about this after March 3rd / 4th when I have completed it. However if any of you wish to support me in doing this then please go to their website and donate. Our team Is Wig Girls and you can register under Robyn Creighton.

#24 Clean out your closet and donate everything to your local charity shop rather than sell it on Trade Me - I have a bag sat behind my bedroom door at present that is being filled with things I am being brave enough to part with. As I go through each draw, shelf or wardrobe I am filling the bag.

#62 Write a list of things you would like to do or achieve before you die – ‘Bucket List’ - I have been thinking about this one recently as the Relay for Life is one of the things on my bucket list. So just need to sort my page out on my blog to show my Bucket List - Challenge Achieved


#89 Take baking to a person that you appreciate but pay for their services. E.g. hairdresser, doctor. Take it to your next appointment and simply give it to them and say Thanks - I achieved this one just before Christmas when I had a hair appointment. I made them some of my little Chocolate Christmas Puddings - Challenge Achieved

#90 Have a whole week with no TV - I achieved this one over Christmas whilst we were away for 3 weeks. We don't have a tv at the caravan, so couldn't watch it. Maybe not quite what the challenge was about and probably an easy way out of completing it at home, but hey this is my challenge so I get to make the rules! Challenge Achieved

Vegetables

Each year we plant some vegetables in the garden.
Usually tomatoes, courgette, pepper and lettuce.
This year we managed potatoes, garlic, tomatoes, pepper and courgettes.
Due to rearranging and flattening the garden then out normal veggie patch has had to be moved, so all the vegetables are growing in mishap places around the garden.
Although the courgette seems to be loving its new position.

Here it is after having been growing for about 2 weeks

Dec 4th

Dec 4th

2 weeks later this is what it looks like...

Dec 18th

Can you spot the courgettes? There are 4 of them, they all have flowers on the end of them.

We have had so many courgette off this plant so far that I have had to take some to Judo to give away, cause we just can't keep up! It obviously loves its new position and has found some growth hormones from somewhere.
You only have to look at it to see it growing! Some of them are doubling in size in 2 days, you see one growing , think ok will pick it in a day or 2 cause it is just not quite big enough, you go back 36 hours later and suddenly you have a marrow instead of a courgette!
Man you have to be quick around here to get nice size ones!

This also means I have managed to achieve another of the challenges I set myself last year. Even though I didn't manage to achieve all the challenges throughout the year, I am still going to work away at them and slowly complete them.
So this post shows I have managed Challenge #43 - have a veggie patch and give something away from it.

But while we are on the sublect of Challenges, I did also complete #37 - pick some lavendar and place in your bathroom. I will take a picture for proof when I remember.
So 2 more completed.

Challenge #19 - Go to a Sunday Market

Like I promised over here, I finally managed to get everyone out of the door on a Sunday morning to visit the local Farmer's Market.
We were lucky as we managed to visit before the rain set in.
The market smelt great, all these different smells from food cooking and so many people walking around eating.
The many things I saw today were green lettuces or strawberries, there were at least 4 strawberry stalls and they were all bigger and fresher than the next.

carrots anyone, they were so cute

The boys are strawberry mad so we had to come home with some.

big red and so juicy fresh, picked from the field this morning!

The boys just couldn't keep their hands off the strawberries but then neither could we. I asked them to describe the market and they said the following although I think they were referring to just the strawberries they were eating at the time:

• Yummy
• Fresh
• So Ripe
• So Juicy
• Country Fresh
• Smell delish

There was also one or 2 bread and pastry stalls. One had amazing croisants with fillings and another sold my most favorite bread of all time brioche....!

In fact the brioche is tasting so sweet and fresh as I write this munching on a slice!
Today I am thankful for the world, for giving us the ability to be able to grow our own food. For giving us the sun & the rain, the cold & the warmth needed to grow these wonderful flavoursome goodies. Also for giving us the ability and know how to be able to do it.

100 Challenges Update

Seeing as I only have 23 days until this challenge should be finishing then I better do an update as to where I am up to on succeeding on completing these 100 challenges.
I currently have writen down that I have completed 7/100 on my blog, but I have gone through the lsit and I think this may have crept up by 1 or 2.

So here is an update:

#6 Baby sitting for no reason - I 'baby sat' or more like 'babies sat' for a friend one Saturday afternoon with her twin 6 month old boys. She was attempting to watch 3 soccer games throughout the day and had been out of the house since 9am with the twins. It was cold and so I offered to take them home and look after them until she has finished all the games she needed to watch for her other 2 sons.
It was a challenge to feed to both babies at once but I got myself nicely set up in the armchair, 1 baby each side and a bottle in each hand, not sure what I would have done if one of them wanted to move! Completed

#19 Go to a Sunday Market - everytime I see the sign advertising the Farmers Market not far from us then I think of this challenge but as yet I have not remembered to go and visit it with the family. What I need to do is actually mark it on the calendar and then I will remember to get the family organised to go to it.
Note to self - place on calendar when get home from work tonight!

#22 Teach someone a new craft - my cousin has asked me to teach her to quilt. I have accepted this challenge and will be assisting her one Wednesday. We were waiting until I had finished study for the year and for her to finish the job she is currently completing. So this challenge is not completed but is planned ready to go.

#23 Dessert only dinner with friends - this was achieved with a group of mum's from school, 4 of us went out one evening for coffee and dessert and believe me a full chocolate dessert plate is beyond dreams, especially as the restaurant had half price desserts on the night we went, it made obtaining a dessert plate each so much more easier. Completed

#39 Watch the clouds with your kids - never managed to achieve this on a blanket but on the drive to the caravan the other day the kids and I happily looked for shapes in the sky. We say dolphins, rabbits, ships and many other shapes that kept them amuzed on the drive over. Completed

#49 Spend an hour in silence - this was easily achieved when the family took themselves off to the caravan for the weekend so mummy could get her latest essay completed. They left Friday and returned Sunday, so I had hours of silence to myself. Completed

#65 Get old magazines, find pictures you like and stick them in a book - I have some great magazines and have found some lovely stuff I like, I just haven't sat and cut it all out yet, or glued it in or commented on why I like it. So half way there, maybe now I have finished my study for the year I can use 1 of my Wednesdays to complete this.

#68 Learn something new - this one can be quite liberal, I have learnt the art of mail art, although not sure if that was too easy a subject as not difficult to do, however I have just changed jobs and I am learning all about the business side of running a hospital, so am in learning overload at present, but I have also just completed my essay on law and ethics within nursing and that was also a steep learning curve. So I am saying I have completed this one and learnt lots recently. Completed

#89 Take baking to an appointment - I haven't done this yet but I ahve a Doctor's appointment next week and a hairdressers appointment 2 weeks later, so just need to plan it.

#91 Surprise your kids with a day off school - now I have done this with one of them although I am trying to remember if I did it with the other as well, sadly we did not have fun days planned just a day at home with mum. Although thye are both going to have 2 days off school in a few weeks doing lots of fun stuff when we fly to Nelson. We don't normally plan activites where they take days of school for it, so this trip to Nelson is going to be such fun.

#92 Organise a night away with you husband - this was achieved a few weeks ago when we went to Rotorua for a Family Anniversary party, the boys stayed with Grandma and we snuck off to a hotel for the night. It was well deserved. Completed

#96 Buy a song off the internet and sing it loud - I brought the Bruno Mars album from Digirama and it is on my phone, this last weekend at the caravan it was the only music we had and the boys sang it with me loud and clear all weekend. Completed

So there you have it, another 7 completed. My total is now up to 14/100. Still not a fabulous amount but I will try and work on it

Snail Mail

Snail mail what ever is she on about, I can hear you thinking?
Do we really remember what this is? Because I was seriously thinking this art had disappeared, poff vanished!

Do any of you ever really send any snail mail anymore? Come on now be honest, when was the last time you visited a mail box in the street to send something to someone? Ok so I can now hear some of you asking if the boxes are still on the side of the street? And I will sadly grace your question with a full answer of 'Yes' they are still there somewhere if you know the right places to look!

Now by snail mail I am not just leaning towards bills and cheques for paying someone, I mean fully fledged snail mail to a friend or relative, telling them about your family, an exciting thing that just happened or even god forbid a birthday card, welcome baby card or even if anyone remebers them a get well soon card.

Go check you address book now, ok yes the one on your computer, do you actually have address's for all the important people in your life? Do you even have the postcode for that address? Most postal services are pushing for postcodes nowadays!

Did you, big step here now folks, even send any Christmas Cards this year?

I can admit to sending out Christmas Cards and no I don't do it just to see how many I receive back but I was quite shocked at only receiving 3 this last Christmas! Have people just stopped communicating?

I am currently taking part in Blogtoberfest, where you blog 31 times in 31 days throughout October, in other words 1 a day for the whole month.

Anyone who signs up for this at Tinniegirl's Place can go and check out the blogs of others taking part too.

So this morning I have sat in bed and whiled away my time visiting blogs from all over the world.

One I visited was Staring at the Sea and she had a post on there about having just taken part in a Mail Art Exchange. Along the lines of decorating a card and envelope and sending it to someone who you have been given the address of. Like a swap I guess.

However she enjoyed this project so much that when she discovered this next project she thought 'why not?'

It is a project where, starting today Oct 9, you plan to send 1 piece of snail mail each week for a year. To find out more about it check out their Facebook Page or read more about it here.

You do not sign up to a list, you do not get given anyone special you have to send too, you just do this because you want to, because you want to send something to people you know, you want to try and remember to send birthday cards throughout one whole year.

If you are a creator then why not buy a bunch of blank postcards and decorate the front and send 1 to a friend or relative. Maybe you have some fun paper and can get creative making the envelope instead.

If you find a photo of someone and you think they would appreciate a copy then copy it and send it to them, via snail mail, not as an attachment!

See a poem you know someone would like, then print it out and send it to them telling them it made you think of them. Or even just put pen to paper and write something to someone...!

The mail man, he does still exsist, he still comes round to your house 5 or 6 days a week. Ok like mentioned previously, he may only drop off bills and fliers advertising things, but how much more fun it would be if there was something bright and colourful and personal in amongst those bills?

Also remember, you may have not been to a post office shop for a while but they too still exsist, they even still sell those stamp thingys that you require to send snail mail. they even have pretty ones with special pictures on occasionally to commemorate a special time or promote something special that is happening. Maybe you can try and send things with pretty stamps on rather than the boring generic everyday ones.

 When I was younger, ok who am I kidding here I still love it now, I loved receiving things that had interesting stamps on. Special ones that were only for that week or month.

So have fun with this, run with it, create more work for the post people. If you want someone to send something to, then leave me a message. Always happy to receive things, even if it is just a note saying "hope your day was good?" surrounded by an exoticly created envelope.

Have fun.

Challenge #3

I have finally finished another challenge. Really should get more of these done as I do only have 4 1/2 months left and I have well over, well almost, most of them to complete!

Anyway, a few weeks ago I managed to finish #3 - Buy some wool and knit a friend a scarf.

Started the scarf not really knowing who was going to be the lucky person to have it, but then decided that the perfect person was my mum for Mother's Day.

As I have already mentioned, I have lots of challenges left to achieve. Now I am not about to set myself a challenge to achieve my challenges, as otherwise I may be going in circles, but seeing as my study does not start again for another 2 weeks then I will try and use my Wednesdays to plan and achieve the challenges I have to complete.

Challenges

I have managed to achieve 3 more of my 100 challenges over the last few weeks, which when you put it that way is not very many at all.

The first I achieved was challenge #31 - walk on the beach in the dark and take your shoes off and paddle in the water.
Whilst at the caravan for Easter I dragged the whole family down to the beach one evening at 7.30pm. They all thought I was crazy but they had fun. The boys were a little aprehensive when we first got there as we made them turn out their torches. But this allowed them to look around and see the lights from the boats out at sea. After a while they were happy without their torch. Although they were not too sure about the water, so we sadly did not take our shoes off and have a paddle, but I am accepting that I have achieved this challenge as the boys actually enjoyed this mission and even learnt things from it. They thought it was weird that everything was louder at that time of night when there was no other nioses around. they enjoyed walking on the beach and finding things. They enjoyed being able to see the stars in the clear night sky.

I also managed to achieve challenge #88 - have a family meal by candlelight.
The boys wondered what I was doing when I started setting the table with tablecloth and candles.
However when it came to dinnertime, they were the ones who wanted to turn off every light in the house!

The 3rd challenge I have managed to achieve is #59 - read a magazine that you normally wouldn't read.
This one has been hard to achieve. Not that I read loads of magazines just that I couldn't come across anything that didn't interest me that I wouldn't be happy to casually peruse through at any time. Now I probably could have managed this with any magazing really because I do not have a regular one that I would normally read, so anything classes as "not normally read".
So I ended up reading 'The New Zealand Classic Car Magazine'. Although secretly coming from a family where my dad and brother were into motorsport, this is as the challenge says not one I normally read, but I had no problem reading it as motorsport is something I have grown up with and actually enjoy, so an easy read for me, but not my normal read!