So...a move in the works

We've been dreaming and working towards moving our family for a while now and finally everything seems to have come together.

We found out at the end of this week that our offer on place has been was accepted and we're moving to a little place called Beecroft Farm <3
We also signed papers for the sale of our house this last week...all the pieces are just slotting in.

So it looks like that is that, and in a few months we'll be leaving behind the only home our children have ever known, the place we held a wedding in and got married, the home I brought my first baby in to and the safe haven where I birthed and welcomed my next two children.
It's bittersweet  and we are leaving behind a lot of people and places we love, but at the same time we are following what we believe is best for our family and we can't wait to set off on our new adventure, the children are very excited and are looking forward to this next chapter of their lives!

Otherwise it just feels really weird knowing all this stuff is going to happen but not having much to do just yet...I'm really bad at waiting, so instead I'm entertaining the nostalgia and here are some snapshots from the 4 biggest moments of my life...all in this house where we live <3

I'll miss you home xxx

Ready for a wedding

 Signing all the legal stuff (whats up with this world, when the paper is more important than the people?)

 New Years Eve a few years later... the night before I went into labour with our firstborn

 Home safe and sound

Meeting our daughter in the middle of the night two years after that

And meeting our littlest in the early morning sunshine just a few blinks ago

27/52 - Health Rusks

1 kg self raising flour *
8ml baking powder
3ml salt
375ml digestive bran
375ml crushed all bran flakes
250ml sunflower seeds
350ml dried fruit (currants, cranberries, pomegranate arils etc)
100g chopped nuts (your choice)
100ml coconut
300ml brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
500ml buttermilk
500g melted butter
* if you don't have self raising flour add 3tsp baking powder and 1 tsp bicarb per kg

- Heat your oven to 140 degrees celcius
- Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl
- In a separate bowl beat eggs, buttermilk and melted butter until combined
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well.
- Roll into small balls and place into greased baking tins.
- Bake for +/- 50 minutes
- Turn out of tins and cool
- Break up the rusks and place on baking trays
- Dry in the ove on 80 degrees celcius for 4 hours or until your rusks are completely dry
- Store in a sealed container

26/52 - Dried Pomegranate Arils

I picked up some of these a while back in a store and fell in love, they are such a nice and tasty snack, not to mention being a nice alternative to the usual raisin/currants/cranberries etc to add into salads, mueslis, rusks, biscuits etc.  Unfortunately they are not very kind on the pocket though, so I was thinking there must be a way to make them at home.  I searched google but didn't come across anything myself so just decided to give it a go.

I begged some pomegranates from the outlaws and bought a few more.  Then I had fun learning how to deseed a pomegranate...don't you love youtube! 

 Then I visited my mother and sister who kindly let me use the dehydrator, between that and a bit of sun drying I ended up with exactly what I was looking for, perfect homemade dried promegranate arils, delicious!!!

25/52 - Lemonade

 I've been wanting to make some limoncello, which is an Italian lemon liqueur, in preparation for our next summer.  So I zested a bunch of lemons the other day to start infusing the liquor, and here you see it after just a day or two...it still needs to sit for another 45 days or so, I'll show you the finished product in a few months time!

Then I had a bunch of lemons without any zest to use up, so I made some lemon concentrate/lemonade.  all you do is use equal parts of water, sugar and fresh lemon juice.  Dissolve the sugar in the water, add the lemon juice and let it bubble away for a bit.  Store in the fridge and mix with water, ice, a few slices of fresh lemon and some mint leaves from the garden...yum!

So...some pics of the kids

I've been bad with the blogging, there always seems to be something else to do and despite my best intentions the blog gets pushed to the back of the line.
I finally got round to uploading a few pics from the last couple weeks  and I realised I've also been bad with taking photos, we've had some lovely outings and I hardly took any photos at all!  I especially regret not taking photos of our picnic at an acoustic concert we attended, it was really lovely, and we all had a great time, one of those days you wish would never end!

Here is a little of what we have been up to though!

Visiting friends and playing in their man made stream...yes, it is the middle of winter, and yes, it is has been warm enough to do this :)

 Pony rides

And while I try not force anything, I have been encouraging letter recognition and writing, so we had fun with chalk on the trampoline one afternoon

 And we've even done some workbooks

 The kids have been enjoying practising their sewing skills...even though they call it knitting because it uses wool :)

 And the littlest one loves the outdoors so much he will merrily wander outside by himself and amuse himself for significant amounts of time.  The other day I decided to follow him with the camera for a bit and soon discovered how he gets so dirty on these excursions, he has lie down in every patch of dirt he finds, cheek to the ground and a big smile!!

24/52 - Pickled Piquante Peppers

Also more commonly known as peppadews but as the term is copyrighted I thought I better stick to the old name. 
The peppers were harvested from our garden!