Parenting Crimes .......

The week has given me cause for reflection - in the photo above you can see my lovely Tom.( He is going flatting in January). This week he reminded me again how one of the hardest things to do as a parent  is to stand back and let your kid sort it out.  This week he had to find a work placement as part of his Polytech course. The work placement was due to start Monday and by Monday he still had not had any luck in finding someone to take him on. Getting into fix it mode I started thinking of favours I could call in. When none of them turned up trumps I got mad. Haven't I done so many favours for so many kids in the course of my work?? Look - I have Chloe here as proof of that. I was indignant that the universe had not complied with my request.  Fool that I am - the necessary learning was for Tom to persevere and find his own placement. At the 11th hour he did! And is now having a great time and a well earned sense of satisfaction that he made this happen without the help of his mother!!


A parcel a week has morphed into a phone call a week in  my house. Postage to the USA is horrendous and to send Rosies birthday presents cost an outrageous $52!!  What was even worse was the entire contents of the parcel were only worth about $20. The star attraction - a new bottle of perfume had been sniffed out as a prohibited item by the shrewd post office attendant. The box was cut open the offending item removed and the rest sent off. Still by all accounts the birthday passed very well and marked a new milestone in our house - that is not being home for the birthday. The first ever!!  Instead of making a birthday cake I made instead some homemade bread. It is the no knead recipe from Anabel Langbein.  Delicious.

Here's to a week of  trusting that our kids have all the qualities they need to figure it out. The trick is to to  know when.

Cheers Marg

Chloe and her Cake .....

Meet Chloe - here she is. Chloe as it turns out has been boarding with us for coming into the fourth month now. When Chloe first came my way I thought she was going to stay four days. But when she got off the plane with 2 enormous suitcases I knew that my ideas were mistaken. It is typical of the attention I pay at times to detail - which as you can see is very little- however somehow it opens up for a more interesting life. '

It has been a real treat having Chloe here. Among other things she loves to think about baking. Recently she bought a book with 500 cake recipes. At the rate of one a week that would take nearly 10 years to make all of those. As luck would have it a friends daughter had a birthdy recently so Cloe pulled out all the stops and tried her hand at one of the recipes.

The little girl was really happy with the cake and Chloe got such a buzz out of making it. It reminded me of all the little things in life that make a person happy - like making a cake for example and being really pleased with your efforts.

I've just finished my 4 week stint of travelling for work. I've had a week in Alexandra, a week in Cromwell, a week based in Wanaka and finally a week in Queenstown.  I bet you're feeling really sorry for me having to be in such a beautiful part of the country. You know I was worried about being away, worried about being alone in a motel room, worried about being worried but it was fine. even this last week when my lack of organisation got the better of me and I had no battery charger for by ipod or my cellphone so both went flat and my computer froze so I couldn't work on it and I hadn't packed enough of the right clothes and then permanently stained my one respectable top with ink from my pen and still had to look as if I knew what I was doing and you know what I was fine. Fine but tired so last night I did the unthinkable. I went to bed at 9.00PM. This morning when I was talking to Rosie on the phone and I told her that I felt like a real old lady going to bed so early she laughed and said - you are an old lady!! OF course how could I forget myself. IN the eyes of a nearly 22 year old I am ancient indeed.

So things to look forward to this week are
- staying home for the whole week
- going to book club and not talking about books
- cooking in my own kitchen
- sleeping in my own bed
- going to bed early if I feel like it.

Heres to a week of all the small things that make a person happy- no matter how old they are.

Cheers Marg ( 48 years old)