Last official day of NZ summer

Rainy afternoon coffee with Kevin at The Apothecary. I love the antiques in this cafe and its adjoining antique shop. 

Gus in the window

God's provision

Our gift from God. 

SOLD!!

Before !  😁😁

After!! 😊😊

Social media!!

Always great to see pics of our kids. I'm very thankful for the many forms of social media. 

Happy birthday Devon!!

So true

Saw this on the wall of a classroom I was in today. So true. 

The artist

I had a very sweet thing happen today. A lovely lady from our church wanted to buy some of my stuff that I'm not taking to Canada. She loved this painting I did a few years ago. I'm so happy it will have a new home where it will bring someone happiness. 😊

Giving furniture a second life

In getting everything ready for MacKenzie's flat we took some of our old furniture and used chalk paint to give it a second life!!  This night table had quite bad water damage to its top but you'd never know it now. Annie Sloan's chalk paint is amazing!!!

Nighttime visitor

A hedgehog wandered across our deck tonight. The cats didn't seem too concerned. Only in New Zealand. 

Moving day

Today was Kenzie's moving day. It started with tears by me.... of course - and ended with her still sleeping at home. 😊😊

Stuff in her new bedroom. 

Their huge lounge! Room for many friends! 

And because moving day isn't busy enough, we decided to paint an old dresser and give it a facelift for her to take along. 

A corner of our yard

This is a view of one side of our yard as seen out of the upstairs lounge window. Just a view I want to remember. This really has been a lovely place to live in a big city. 

A trip to the city

A trip to the city to do some banking which we weren't able to do in the end because of misinformation. Oh well, we had a beautiful day to be in the CBD plus we got a new view of the harbour plus my absolute favourite city treat - a Milse bombed Alaska ice cream bar!  I also had to take a couple of pictures of the gorgeous desserts in the display case. 

Together again

Someone is happy someone is home. 

Adventures in archeology

Kenz came home from a two week archeological dig on Great Mercury Island. Not only did she bring home a heap of enthusiasm, passion and stories, but also a sink load of dirty clothes covered in historical dirt!!  

Sunday beaches

Sunday drive along Mission Bay and St Heliers followed later by a walk at Eastern Beach during a very low tide. 

This chair

This beautiful chair is in a beautiful home set in the beautiful countryside of west Auckland owned by a beautiful couple from one of the other Alliance churches in NZ. Today I was blessed to sit in this chair, in this home, on this property visiting with these dear people. Blessed. 

Uniquely New Zealand

This is one of my favourite places at our school. A nature walk where children can play, explore and get out of the hot sun!  When I'm on duty I walk through this area. It's beautiful and usually peaceful as children rummage around in the dirt for one of nature's treasures. 

One day on duty some boys were showing me a cicada they'd found that had just emerged from its 17 year underground development. They showed me the holes in the ground where the cicada emerges from. The cicada they held was a pale green and its wings hadn't dried yet so it couldn't fly. The shell in this picture is the exoskeleton of a cicada. They shed and they're everywhere. Children love collecting them. I couldn't find a cicada to take a picture of today but they're really ugly and noisy. They look like prehistoric flies. Uniquely New Zealand. 

At the end of the day

At the end of the day all that matters is God saying, 'Well done good and faithful servant.'

Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,

My archeologist in training

Photo screenshot from snapchat. 

MacKenzie is currently on Great Mercury Island for two weeks doing field study for her archeology course. It blesses a mother's heart to see and hear of her children so happy and loving what they're doing. The Uni team are excavating an old Maori village. Very cool!

Nature's treasures

One of my favourite things about going to the beach is finding nature's treasures. I like to find creative ways to incorporate them into my home. These beauties were from Eastern Beach today. 

Piha

One of the first places we went to nine years ago when we arrived. Stunning beauty. Pictures can't begin to do it justice. 

Decisions

Every day this week on my way home from work I've noticed a stunning picture in the window of one of my favourite stores in Howick. Today I went to look at it and I love it even more. Now to decide if I'll buy it. How do you decide whether or not to make a special purchase of something you love but don't necessarily need? Oh decisions, decisions. 

Morning glory

Morning view from our bedroom. 

That sky. Wow. 

Let's get Googley!

My day was spent getting 120 year five students set up with their google accounts and chromebooks. I loved it and so did they. 

Welcome

One of the reasons I wanted to do a photo a day this year was to document and remember the everyday things in our life here. What's more 'everyday' than the front door that welcomes us every time we come home. 

Staffroom Lunchtime PD

Haha. So today in the staffroom I was showing a teacher how to use the InstaWeather app and took this pic. Then I was showing her how she could put it onto her class blog demonstrating using this blog which is linked on my phone. So tonight when I went to see what picture represented my day, I discovered that this was the only pic on my phone from today and it's actually a rather appropriate representation of today, our first day back at school for the year. 

Back to school

My school bag is packed and ready for the first day of the school year tomorrow. The only difference this year is that I have zero stress. It's actually kind of weird. Since I'm only here for one term my principal has assigned me to cover teacher release and to continue with elearning support throughout the school as well as fill in where needed. It's a perfect fit for me this term, especially as I have so much to do personally with packing, etc. I've been so blessed to have spent 9 years working at such a great school.