Wear pink shoes!

“I want a life that sizzles and pops and makes me laugh out loud. And I don't want to get to the end, or to tomorrow, even, and realize that my life is a collection of meetings and pop cans and errands and receipts and dirty dishes. I want to eat cold tangerines and sing out loud in the car with the windows open and wear pink shoes and stay up all night laughing and paint my walls the exact color of the sky right now. I want to sleep hard on clean white sheets and throw parties and eat ripe tomatoes and read books so good they make me jump up and down, and I want my everyday to make God belly laugh, glad that he gave life to someone who loves the gift.”
~ Shauna Niequist

A is for ......

This is the first in the series of 'The ABC of Things I Love...' and since I am learning to love EVERYTHING in my life each post could become quite an extensive list of wonderfully loveable things. But I'm going to start with 10 things that are easy to love, that I can love without having to try too hard, and that by simply being in my life, bring me delight.  Here goes...
A is for the Alphabet - such a wonderful sequence of letters, and such a superb system for creating lists like these!
A is for Anika...the most delightful 7 year old I know and a simply adorable daughter.
A is for Avocadoes. Delicious and nutritious!
A is for Auckland. My adopted home city. So much diversity. So much to explore. Right on our doorstep.
A is for asana. The physical practice of yoga which has transformed my life.
A is for Art galleries..like libraries, these are national treasures.  It's time I visited the newly revamped Auckland one.
A is for April. The month I was born, and the middle of my favourite season, Autumn!
A is for Agapanthus.. I think some people think of these as a weed, but they're one of my favourite flowers, especially growing wild at the side of the road.
A is for Authors. Those incredibly talented people who have the gift of story telling and the dedication to put it onto paper.
A is for the Atlantic Ocean. Cold but invigorating!

LOVE your life!

It's been a long time since I posted here but I feel inspired to return to the world of blogging!  A week or two ago I was going through a bit of a patch of the blahs, a little bit down in the dumps, uninspired, discontent.  When I'm feeling this way the people I turn to are my Mom and my sister. They are the dear ones who know and love me the best and they never fail to pull me out of the doldrums, make me wake up and smell the sweetness of the roses in the garden my life!

My wise and loving mother wrote these words to me in an email and they have become my mantra:

“The clue is LOVE in capitals in every aspect of your life.

First to LOVE yourself and every part of you and all your beauty and talents, revel in them, your love of your family and of yoga and of cooking and of walking and and and….

Then LOVE every person that crosses your path and be glad of each and every encounter.

Life is very good.”

They were just the words I needed to read. To make me wake up and remember that Love and Happiness are daily choices that we make - not something that we randomly stumble upon but something we consciously choose.  And that the words we speak and the thoughts we think really do have a direct impact on the lives we live.  Happiness is LOVING what is right in front of you, right here, right now!

p.s. stay tuned for the next 26 posts - the ABC of Things I Love xo

2012... a year to Savour

At the beginning of 2011 I chose JOY as my word of the year.  And looking back I can honestly say there were a lot of very joyful moments, in amongst the many others.  What I learned most about joy is that it is always present and all that it is required to experience it is to Wake Up and Pay Attention.  Generally joy is in the ordinary moments which so often slip by when we are busy worrying about what happened yesterday, or wishing things were different today.  Joy is waking up to reality and seeing the beauty of what is.

A few weeks ago, I started to think about 2012 and what my word for the year might be. I thought about AWAKE..because the more awake I am, the more aware I become and the more joy I feel.  I thought about NOW...to remind myself that life is now, and I want to love every moment of it.  And then I settled on SAVOUR.   Because that is how I want to live in 2012 - savouring every moment and morsel that life offers me.  In order to SAVOUR, one must be awake and present.  Savouring cannot happen in the past or in the future.  We need all five senses to savour life.  Savouring is a full body experience!

I'll start by savouring everything I eat. Waiting until I'm hungry - and deciding what would most satisfy my hunger.  Then taking the time to prepare fresh, seasonal food - enjoying the colours, the textures, the smells.  Taking the time to sit down, give thanks and then savouring every mouthful of deliciousness.  Allowing my body and soul to be nourished and revitalised through the practice of mindul eating.  Turning every meal into a celebration!

As I learn to slow down and savour each meal, I'll practice slowing down and savouring each moment - allowing myself to really taste life and to be nourished by it.

I wish you all a wonderful 2012 - may it be a transformative year!

Heidi 20 weeks

I thought you might like to see a recent picture of our puppy...every time I open my blog page and see that funny little picture of Heidi in the previous post, I think 'I need to post a new one'!  And here she is at 20 weeks - isn't she beautiful!?

our new addition

One more sleep until we go and fetch the next addition to our family (or should I say our 'pack')!  Tomorrow Heidi, our 8-week-old German Shepherd puppy will bounce into our lives and no doubt turn it upside down!  The sparse amount of spare time I once had is going to be consumed by puppy training, puppy feeding, puppy playing, and eventually puppy walking (at least an hour a day is what German Shepherds need).  Any occasional half hour that I might have used for a random blog post is soon going to vanish!  So before I disappear, here's a picture of our adorable Heidi, taken at 5 weeks.

I hope to pop back every now and then with a new photo and an update on her progress. 

Soul Sisters may be about to become a doggy blog!

daily photo #29

Ok so I'm very far behind on my daily photo posts but I am going to go back and catch up soon!  Sarah is back in Cape Town now - we had a wonderful 4 weeks with her, and we miss her very much!  Here is a picture taken at the airport just before she boarded her plane back to South Africa, via Singapore.

daily photo #16

Today was Anika's last day at her Montessori preschool.  Next term she will join Talya in the Montessory primary class at Huapai District School.  She is very excited about the move and very ready to take on this new challenge! 

As a little farewell to her old friends, we baked some cupcakes and took them along for afternoon tea.  The children sat in a circle and ate their cupcakes in complete silence!  Here's a picture of Anika after presenting Fale, the head teacher with a parting gift.

daily photo #15

After a night of heavy rain, high winds, thunder and lightning Sunday morning dawned bright and relatively sunny.  We headed off to a 3-year-old birthday party (Pirate's Ahoy!), and afterwards paid another visit to our sweet puppies.  They have grown so much in the week since we saw them!  It is going to be tough choosing which little girl will be ours (we pick on 24th July when they are 5 weeks old).  Here's one of the little girls.

daily photo #14

I spotted the green lipped mussels in the supermarket today and decided that Sarah needed to experience this New Zealand delicacy.  I cooked them in a creamy garlic white wine and tomato sauce and we ate them with spaghetti.  Glenn and I thought they were delicious but Sarah wasn't convinced (she's not a big fan of shell food and these didn't change her mind!).

daily photo #13

New Zealand is in the grips of a 'classic winter storm' (according to the papers) and it's set to be a wet wintery weekend.   But the best thing about being stuck at home, with nowhere to go is that the kitchen beckons.  Today we made pizzas for dinner.  I tried a new pizza dough recipe which Sarah had found - 500g self-raising flour (we added a little wholemeal flour as we didn't have enough white), 1 340ml bottle of beer, 1 tsp salt - mix, knead, roll out and spread with your favourite pizza toppings!  Bake in 190degC oven for 15 minutes. Molto Delizioso!

daily photo #12

It was another grey day, with not many photo opportunities. The sun made a valiant attempt to shine this morning but by the afternoon the storm clouds had rolled in once again and the rain came down in horizontal sheets.  But rain or shine, New Zealanders love their coffee.  We were out and about this morning and stopped for a flat white at The Coffee Club in Henderson.   My first ever soul sisters post included a photograph from the very same place!

daily photo #11

Today can be described in many ways and most of them begin with w - wet, wild, windy, wintery... and as my cold had really taken hold we decided it was a perfect day to be at home, with some knitting! 

For lunch we had a delicious roast pumpkin and bulgur wheat salad with a sundried tomato dressing and I remembered to take a photo before we gobbled it up...

daily photo #10

Today we ventured over to Devonport, an historical village on Auckland's North Shore. There are many quaint shops to explore there including Wild and Woolly Yarns which is bursting with beautiful yarns and inspiring projects to tackle. It is very difficult to leave there without committing to one or more knitting projects! (We did).  After our purchases we stopped at Little & Friday a quaint little cafe in Takapuna.  Their display of cakes make choosing extremely challenging. In the end Sarah and I chose to share a lemon cake and Anika had a jam and cream filled donut which was smothered in powdery icing sugar. We sat ourselves down outside at a lime-green painted crate to devour these divine creations along with their superb coffee.  The red moose was our table marker. If this was our neighbourhood cafe I'd be there every morning!

daily photo #9

Today was cold and windy, and I seem to have caught myself a virus. So after our Monday morning yoga class, we came home, made a pot of soup for lunch and watched The King's Speech on dvd.  What an inspiring movie about finding your voice (although I seem to be losing mine).
I didn't take any photographs (I meant to snap the soup but it got eaten before I a chance!).

daily photo #8

Last year our 12-and-a-half year old German Shepherd passed away and we've recently started thinking about getting a puppy. This afternoon we went to see a litter of beautiful German Shepherd puppies who are now two and a half weeks old (3 boys and 4 girls). They are just starting to find their feet and stagger around. Their mother, Andi, was happy to let us hold her puppies - she had such a lovely nature. Here's a photo of one of the boys in Talya's arms.

p.s. we've decided to get one of the girls - she'll be coming home mid August!

daily photo #7

Every Saturday morning Talya plays soccer in a mixed under 8's team called the Norwest Sharks.  This morning they were up against another Norwest team called the Sabres. The Sabres were a skilled and aggressive team of under 8 boys and the Sharks defended well but lost the match 2-5.  Talya played goalie for the first half and attack in the second half.  Here's an action shot, taken by Sarah.

daily photo #6

This morning dawned bright, clear and very, very cold!  There was a thin layer of ice on the car's windscreen as we drove to school - the first frost of this late start to winter we are having in Auckland.  After dropping the girls at school, Sarah and I headed out past Helensville through Kaukapakapa to the Kaipara Coast Sculpture Gardens - a 'unique sculpture trail set in a tranquil, rural garden oasis'.  More than 60 sculptures by artists from all over New Zealand are on display.  It was a perfect day to wander through the beautiful gardens, breathing the fresh clear air and taking in the display.  Here is one of my favourites 'Kereru' by Darryl Fagence, created in stainless steel and ruby lustre on glass.  The kereru is also known as the New Zealand pigeon.

daily photo #5

For the last eighteen months my husband, Glenn has been restoring a 1965 Ford Mustang Convertible. Every moment of his spare time is dedicated to this project! Yesterday he took the day off work to do a few errands, including getting a wheel alignment done on the Mustang. It was a beautiful clear sunny (but very cold day). Here's a picture of the car, almost ready for its 'big reveal'.

daily photo #4

The temperatures have plummeted again! The day started off grey, showery and cold but by the afternoon the skies had cleared and the sun was shining. Sarah and I had a delicious lunch at The Falls in Henderson, before doing a little bit of shopping at Kathmandu - they have a huge winter sale on now. Afterwards it was time to fetch the girls from school. I took this photograph of the water tanks at Talya's school - brightly painted with the school emblem and motto - 'Together we learn, care and grow'. It's a great little school!