We were invited to our Family Ministries (FM) Director’s home and farm on Sunday. They were farmers before the Lord called them to run FMS full time. Their children have since taken over the farm.

Ooooo I love their house! It’s set on a hill and the scenery from up there was just amazing. I just love the space!!! They had a sand pit, BBQ area, lotsa green for us to roll around on.

After the BBQ lunch, we took a walk around the farm to see their cattle, saw some apple trees, kiwi trees, chestnut trees and then walked even further up the hill. Took us almost an hour to walk up! James carried Sophie on his shoulders and at times we took turns. She walked a little bit too. But it was so nice, very tiring but the view was well worth the hard work of walking!

On the way back, we got to see how the cows are milked with machines. Sophie was very intrigued. I could see she was really trying to figure out how it worked. Silly me, I thought they still hand milked the cows so I told her she would get to do it again (She did it once in Melbourne last year). I hope she wasn’t too disappointed. At least she gotta eat a walnut off the tree! Hee… I never knew walnuts grew on trees. Sigh… so many things I donno.

You can see more pics on our flickr site.

Over the weekend we attended a YWAM conference in Tauranga.

In between the morning and nite sessions, we got to see Tauranga (a city about 40 mins from the base). We had a nice meal at The Coffee Club. Had my fav Lemon Pepper Calamari. The first time I had that was in Australia. When I saw that there was a similar outlet in Tauranga, we had to go!

After that we went shopping. It was my first real shopping trip in 3 mths!!! Poor deprived soul!! Hahaha… Matamata New World supermarket and Postie’s not counted ah. But the shops closed at 4pm! Faint. These people really know how to enjoy life! Ended up we didn’t buy anything but it was nice just to walk around.

Tauranga actually looks a little like Singapore because it is one of the country’s biggest export ports. You can see containers and boats. It has two marinas and waterfront dining. Very pretty.

After the shops closed, we drove to the beach at the foot of Mt Maunganui. Mt Maunganui is a small mountain that over looks the sea. Very pretty but we didn’t climb it although we did hear that there is a nice trail up the mountain. We just spent some time at the beach with the kids. They were very happy playing with sand and sea shells.

On weekends, we normally collect our lunch in the morning – veggies and ham and sometimes hard boiled eggs that we can make sandwiches with. A simple lunch. This allows the base to close the dining hall during lunch and the staff can rest.

But last Sunday, a few of us (the meat lovers!) decided to have a bring your own meat BBQ. Oooooo it was SO GOOD! The weather was perfect! One couple brought mussels and sausages and the rest of us brought real steak. You see, most days we eat minced meat – e.g in pasta or casseroles but no real meat/steak. Sooooooooo it was such a treat to have steak! And it’s sooooooooo cheap! We paid like NZ$15 for James and I to have 2-3 pieces of steaks each! Duh!

Ok James and I have discovered since we’ve been here that we are such foodies. It’s a Singaporean thing I think.

Over the weekend, our family was on weekend duty. What that meant was, we were part of a team to prepare dinner for the base as well as do all the clean up in the kitchen and main hall. There is a rotation for all the families and we only have to do it for two weekends throughout the lecture phase. It’s really not that frequent at all.

Last weekend, James and I decided that we would take the initiative to cook Chinese food! Most times it’s the school staff that will initiate the menu and we just help out in the preparation but this time, our school leader let us choose the menu. OF COURSE WE CHOSE RICE coz we only have rice once a week! Hahaha…

So together with 3 other girls, we cooked garlic oyster sauce chicken in the oven and stir-fried veggies served with rice. YUMS!

It was CRAZY! So stress! Never done it before. But my super husband is amazing. He never fails to surprise me with what he can do.

We followed a recipe book for the chicken. For the veggies, he just mixed a whole jar of black stuff that included oyster sauce and peanut butter (!). I had no idea what went into it because I was busy frying the veggies while he did the sauce. Oh… but so shiok to smell the fried garlic and onions, plus the smell of sesame oil that we took for granted back home. I loved doing the frying. I so miss that!

Well, it turned out to be a winner! We had great reviews, thank God! For us, we were just glad that it turned out edible! Hahaha…

P/s OH! Forgot to mention where Sophie was coz she is not allowed in the kitchen. We arranged with another family to babysit her and we would babysit their kids when it was their turn to cook. Worked out really well.

Dearest Sophie,

Precious little one, you are growing so fast that soon we don’t have to count your age by months but by years!

The past month you’ve started to make more sense in your scribbles and sketches and we are starting to realise that you are very creative and very good with your hands (just like Daddy!). It’s so exciting to see that development coz it’s really entertaining to hear your thoughts that go on in that little big head of yours.

You are not singing as much as you used to, maybe because I’m not home with you that much these days but still you will sing our conversations and make up tunes. I love it when you do that! It’s so cute and funny!

Your fav thing to do these few days is spending lots of time at the sand pit. You’ll hang around with the bigger boys as they dig trenches and build sandcastles. It’s so nice to see them being so sweet and gentle with you. Even when you get in their way, they just lift you up and put you somewhere else without being mean about it. It’s great that you are learning to play with different kids of different ages. Sometimes some are quite mean to you but it’s part of growing up and you’ve been pretty forgiving most times.

It’s cool to see how you are becoming more kiwi, ok, maybe not so cool to your grandparents BUT…. you are enjoying the outdoors so much! And you are happily walking around barefoot and have mastered most of the slopes and stairs around the compound. Hiak! Ok but at least no slang. Still talking like a Singaporean, like us. But you’ve picked up some Swedish.

This is a real precious time and I pray that it will have a significant impact on your life. Keep on growing!

Love lots
Mummy

I’m seriously quite exhausted.

I just put Sophie to bed and she was fighting bed time (she does this once every few weeks). I finally got her to sleep after tucking in her feet, hands, this and that. She’s got hundred and one questions just before she sleeps. And then she slept and I sat down in front on the com to rot a little before I start work on my research paper.

And after 5 mins, she called, Mummy Mummy. So I went in and she wanted me to retuck in her feet and hands coz the blanket came undone (duh!). I did that and just before I left, she said "Have a good rest Mummy!" Awwwwwwwwww so sweet…… I am tired and she said have a good rest.

This is why we have children ah? Heart melt.

The weather is turning cold but still there is lots of sunshine. We spent Sunday afternoon at a nearby lake (about 20 mins from our base) on a boat! It was lovely! We got to fish and our friend got to water ski.

Sophie and Micha were a little scared when the boat went really fast but they really enjoyed it when we slowed down and went into a little inlet. The inlet was beautiful, almost magical. James even caught a trout when we stopped for a little while in the inlet but it got away. So sad……

There are more photos of our weekend on flickr. Check it out!

This is Sophie’s first full figure drawing – with a face, dress, legs, one hand (hee). She even drew a scab on the dress. When I asked her what it was she pointed to her own leg and said that she fell down, referring to the scab.

The time that she has been spending with Matilda who’s five has been really good. Matilda draws really well for a 5 year old and Sophie’s been influenced by her. Both of them would just hang out and draw.

There’s a big problem that we have here – both of us don’t drive so we didn’t get a car. That makes us pretty much stuck on the base most of the time. There’s a weekly van run into town so we take turns to go. And on Sundays, the van also takes us to church.

What we’ve been doing sometimes is, we follow the van to town on Sun and instead of going to church, we spend some family time in town. It’s been really good for us. Last Sunday, we spent the morning at the cafe. Sophie had a little blueberry tart and her usual babycino with chocolate powder and a marshmallow by the side. That’s how they serve hot drinks here, with a little marshmallow by the side. Sweet.

She loved it and she’s been "upgraded" to sit on an adult chair, no need to sit on the high chair anymore.

The weather is turning and it’s really getting cold! It’s 9 degrees at the moment! Eeeks. It was just summer a few days ago.

It’s super cold today and I’m just happy to stay indoors.

Anyways it’s my first time witnessing the turning of weather. I’ve travelled lots but I’ve never experienced the turn of the weather before. Nice.

Sorry we’ve been so inconsistent in updating our blog. School has just been really busy!

But I’ve just uploaded more photos on flickr. Just click thru this picture to get to them. Enjoy!

Here’s a nice picture of Sophie and her daycare friends and teachers! Don’t they look lovely????? Hee.

They took a picture in front of the lovely sunflowers the day before a storm came by and swept away all the flowers!