All posts tagged: lifestyle

Giving the gift of: Skiing

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For some reason my kids have ended up with a passion for hobbies that are both expensive and very much unsuited to inner city living. Miss 10’s passion for horseriding can be fulfilled any time of year, and summer was perfect timing for Mr 8’s Monster Slide birthday experience. Miss 8, however, has settled on skiing. Now I’m pretty good at organising most things, but skiing in the middle of summer is a little out of my league. Where we went Thankfully Snowplanet  is only a 30 minute drive north of us. What’s more they aren’t terribly busy this time of year so it’s easy to pick up a ski pass deal on Grabone. What we did We snapped up some $15 all day ski passes. You had to buy passes for a specific day so we chose the Monday after Miss 8’s birthday. It meant everyone taking a day off, but that made it feel all the more special and – given we still had to pay for boots, skis and other bits and …

monster slide

Giving the gift of: Monster Slide.

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There’s nothing Mr 8 likes more than water play, so what better experience to buy him for his birthday than tickets to the Monster Slide Festival. What 8 year old boy wouldn’t want to spend the day riding a 300m slip and slide! Where we went The venue for the Auckland Monster Slide event was changed from a central location to Whitford – a good 40 minute drive away. Still, the venue change was well communicated and was made for safety reasons. Plus they moved it to a vineyard which sounded like a fabulous idea. What we did We bought a family pass which gave 2 adults and 3 children 6 slides over a 6 hour period. I didn’t opt to upgrade to the queue jumper pass – in hindsight it would have been money well spent. How it went We arrived at 10.45 ready for our 11am entry. There was plenty of parking and the vineyard setting looked magnificent. Opening was delayed due technical problems but by 11.30 we were registered and in the …

Giving the gift of: Horse Riding

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Miss 10 is mad on horses – which is unfortunate given we live in the middle of a big city. So as part of my commitment to #givepresence instead of presents I decided the perfect experience to give her for her 10th birthday would be a horse riding experience. Where we went I chose Horse Riding Auckland for our experience. They offered a few different options most attractive of which was the opportunity for a mini-trek around their farm. They were also really easy to deal with, responding quickly to my request with all the information I needed. What we did I opted for a ½ hour horse riding lesson for all three kids, then a ½ hour mini-trek around the farm for Miss 10 who is a more experienced rider. Total cost was $135 which I thought was pretty reasonable for a private booking. How it went The horses were saddled and ready to go when we arrived which meant we could get straight into it without any mucking around. The kids were fitted …

My 24 hours of ‘Yes’

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If you’re reading this because you think I’ve come up with some new found way of finding happiness or fulfilment, then you might as well stop now. Truth is, my 24 hours of ‘yes’ was born out of guilt. I’d been a bit harsh on Miss 10. Two days running she had organised a playdate with a friend, and 2 days in a row I’d had to say no. While the first ‘no’ was based on a very legitimate reason, the second ‘no’ was not one of my proudest parenting moments. No amount of telling her I was wrong, apologising or offering to fix the situation by magic-ing up an instant playdate seemed to help. Apparently all I ever say is ‘no’. In a moment of madness, I turned to Miss 10 and offered to make it up to her by giving her ’24 hours of ‘yes’ – for 24 hours I had to say ‘yes’ to anything so long as it was within reason, and so long as each request only had to be …

Giving Presence, Not Presents

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Sometimes life unfolds a series of small and seemingly unimportant events that end up having a significant impact. I’d just finished a rather long and involved discussion with the children on their upcoming birthdays – all three of which are in February. I felt exhausted – having just got through the toy-fest that is Christmas I now had more presents and parties to organise. I made a cup of tea, flicked open a magazine and found an article about a theory called Stuffocation. Author James Wallman believes we are moving  away from the debt and stress of materialism – where we use stuff to declare status – and moving towards “experientialism” where we focus less on what we have and more on what we do. The book has given me the words to explain the changes that have been happening in our household (which you can read about here) in the last year. That same day I got an invitation from a Facebook friend to a Monster Slide Festival. At that moment I realised I …

The Downside of Downsizing

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One week in to my decluttering project and already the difference is noticeable. So far I’ve: Gone through all our clothes and got rid of all the kids clothes they’ve grown out of, and any clothes I had to honestly say I’d never wear again Cleared a whole 12 cubby bookshelf by getting rid of CDs, DVDs and books that were no longer of use I don’t even want to think about how much money is tied up in all that stuff. It’s been a real trip down memory lane so it feels a little ruthless and hard-hearted to discover these memories only to have to expel from the house and from my heart. Thank goodness I still have my mind. It takes a special kind of ruthlessness The rules of decluttering are a great guideline, but they don’t prepare you for all the hard decisions that need to be made. For example, I’ve got rid of all of our CDs except this one. My husband and I met at a Mighty Mighty Bosstones gig …

Downsizing for Beginners

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It seems like we spend our whole lives upsizing – bigger houses, bigger cars and bigger responsibilities – until one day we realise it’s time to downsize. Perhaps because the kids are gone, or we realise we no longer need, want or can manage that big house and all of the stuff that goes with it. But what about choosing not to upsize in the first place? There’s no denying our houses are getting bigger. The average size of a NZ house in the 1970s was just 107m2. Kids shared bedrooms and everyone shared one bathroom and one living space. Today it’s not uncommon for new houses in this part of the world to be 200-250m2 – that’s a whopping 90m2 per person. Buy stuff. Keep it. Buy more stuff. Keep that, too. Buy more space. If the size of our houses is increasing, then it follows that the amount of stuff we own is also increasing. A study in the US of 32 dual-income, middle class families highlights just how much we clutter our …

Downsized living in an upmarket neighbourhood

Downsized Living in an Up Market Neighbourhood

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Once upon a time we had it all. We both had successful, highly paid jobs. Our kids were happy and doing well at school. We lived in a beautiful inner city suburb and were about to sign off on a renovation that would turn our modest bungalow into a beautiful family home. Life was good. Busy and stressful, but good. Then burn out hit. And this time it was bad. After four weeks of sick leave and a lot of counselling I was only just able to hold it together through a full day at work – and only if everything went to plan. We had a decision to make. If we wanted the beautiful house I was going to have to find a way to stay in a job that was eating away at my soul. The alternative was to quit my job and put the renovation on hold. Two weeks after I finished work my youngest daughter turned to me and said “Mummy, you have time to hang out with us now and I think that’s …