This time of year

Sorry, its been a while since we last posted. No excuses really- we've been around, not particularly busy- just not posting!

So its 25 days until Christmas... a time of the year that I have never particularly enjoyed to be honest.
I have found it stressful, expensive and overall way too commercial. Around October, shops and malls start their advertising, lulling you into their stores to buy crap that you, and your loved ones, probably don't need.

So how do we make this time of year a more focussed, less commercial and ultimately more enjoyable time?

Well, I'm not entirely sure. But I do have some ideas.

Christmas means lots of things to different people. For us, its the celebration of the birth of Christ. Not the most important celebration of the year, but important nevertheless.
For us, it shouldn't be about the presents, the tree, the food. Not saying those things aren't great- though we don't really do a tree. (does a Kauri count? probably. It'll be the first time in years we will have decorated something).
So here are my ideas:

Less presents. Less crap. If you're buying presents, think about what they are, where they come from and whether they will actually be used/loved/needed. Try making something? Many people we know do baking for christmas- which can be good especially if its freezable.
In our family, we have started drawing a name out of a hat which means we only buy/make for one couple. So you still get presents, just less- but probably more awesome/personalised ones.
On a side note, those packaged christmas cookies are terrible. Does anyone actually like them? Cookie time cookies are yum and palm oil free.

If you don't enjoy it, don't do it. If the thought of putting up a tree gives you the cold sweats, perhaps reconsider why you do it. If it's important to your family, then maybe do it as a family, or delegate it to someone who wants to do it.

Food. Christmas food can be whatever you want it to be. We are lucky in NZ having Christmas over summer so we are more comfortable with the idea of a BBQ on Christmas day. Don't feel pressured into doing the big roast if you really don't want to. My family did an eggs benedict brunch last year and plan to do it again this year. It helps that my sister in law is a great cook and did a fantastic job, but you can do whatever works.

What helps you stay grounded at Christmas? Do you disagree with anything we've said? Please share your thoughts/arguements etc!

DIY Cleaning Products: Tips

One of the problems we have found with making out own cleaning products is that they tend to solidify over time (especially if the area they are stored in gets cold overnight). We are talking here about recipes that use soap of some kind (for us that means, dish washing liquid, hand wash, and laundry detergent). Commercial products contain ingredients to stop that happening but not when you make it yourself. Here are some tips to solve this problem:

• Make sure you use the right amount of liquid and soap when you make up the recipe 
• Always give the bottle a shake before using.
• If it gets really thick then pour the bottle into a mixing bowl, add a little boiling water at a time while mixing with an electric mixer on low or a whisk. When it looks like the right consistency pour it back into the bottle.
• Ecostore soap makes products of a better consistency than Sunlight Soap. 

Let us know if you have any other issues.

While I'm talking about this, I found yet another source of soap; Trade Aid. You can buy their soaps from Trade Aid stores or online and they only cost $3. As everything Trade Aid sells is fair trade so these are sustainably  produced (even the palm oil!) and the workers get a fair wage. More info here. I have not yet tried these soaps in a recipe but I don't see any reason they would be much different to the Ecostore soaps as they have similar ingredients.

Anybody found another good source of soap?

A shout out to those without motors

Neither of us are cyclists. Sure, we have a bike which we use casually and really need to use more often, but we aren't really cyclists. 
I have some serious respect for those who forgo their motored vehicle and head out on two man-powered wheels every day- especially in a city like Auckland where the motorists, well, aren't very accommodating to say the least. 


So here's to those who choose to power their own mode of transport, here's to those who take one car off the road and here's to those who brave the unforgiving traffic and help to make Auckland and other cities more cycle (and pedestrian) friendly. 


Here's a wee promise too:
We, as drivers, promise to leave lots of room for you when we pass.
We promise to take a breath if we get annoyed and remember that getting annoyed for being 30 seconds later is just plain silly
We promise to look out for you and be as courteous as we would expect you to be if we swapped places

As a footnote, big ups to organisations like Cycle Action Auckland who state that their aim is "to make Auckland a great place to cycle" and they do this by promoting shared road safety and advocating for an improved cycling environment. 

Some thoughts on being neighbourly

Since becoming a SAHM*, my reading list of blogs has increased quite substantially...

I went to one of my regular reads this morning (http://sortacrunchy.typepad.com) and came across her post about her neighbours and how she felt bad that she hadn't gotten to know them better.

It lead me to thinking about our neighbours and how I would only be able to give you perhaps 2 first names out of the 20 something people who live down our driveway.

Seems kind of sad doesn't it? Do we really live such insular lives nowadays that we never end up meeting the people who live a mere few metres away?

As stated in our last post, we don't have much longer living here. Perhaps in our next house we will make an intentional effort to get to know those living close by.

Walkslowlylivewildy.com has a post about 5 ways to connect with your neighbours- the first one in particular really got my attention.

"Go out your front door"

Seems so simple doesn't it? So often I feel like we rush out of our home without a second glance at our surroundings.

So with this in mind, my encouragement to all who read this is to go out of your front door, stop and look around. Maybe say hello to the next person walking by.

If anyone has any great ideas as how to engage your community, feel free to share your tips in the comments below.

Token baby pic. Wee man @ the Cascades

*Stay at home mum

Downsizing

In a few months or so, we will have to move house. As much as we would have loved to stay in our current place for a while longer, its just not a possibility. Which is fine, albeit a wee bit stressful.

There is one great advantage to having to move is that it gives us the opportunity to downsize our stuff.

We have too much stuff. There- its been said. We have far too much stuff for 3 people (and one of them is only little). A lot of it, in fact, the majority of it has been given to us at some point.

Its amazing what you can accumulate in a seemingly short space of time. Its also amazing how it, at times, seems to own you. Stacks of things that 'might be useful one day', books read only once, CDs gathering dust, piles of craft supplies which you really need some inspiration to use... stuff which you can't bear to throw out just because you might need it someday.

Herein lies our point: Give the stuff away. For free

There's something so nice about not making a profit on your wares. The rise of Trademe (and other sites) has meant that every man and his dog seems to want to make money off their stuff. It makes us wonder whether the time and effort you end up putting into selling some stuff on Trademe is actually worth it. 

It would be interesting to know whether the use of Trademe (and other similar sites) has affected such organisations like the Salvation Army, Hospice and other organisations which resell donated items.

Freecycle.org is a great website for getting rid of things (and acquiring things you need) for free. Freecycle say they are:

"a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (and getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills."

Essentially its a listing site for free stuff. Wanted and offers. Want something- place a wanted ad; want to get rid of something- place an offered ad. Such a simple concept.

We plan to use it to its full advantage once we find a new place and have to move. Admittedly, we've had more success using the 'offers' category than the 'wanted'- for the most part, if you have something going for free, someone is bound to want to take it off your hands. Anything more substantial (or in better condition) will be donated to the Sallies if they need it. [http://www.salvationarmy.org.nz/giving-back/family-stores/]

Go on, try it: give your acquired crap (or treasure) away.

The joys of Couchsurfing

The title sounds a little sarcastic, but it truly has been a joy to have been a part of the Couchsurfing network.

For those who are new to this concept, Couchsurfing is not a movement of people using their couches as surfboards, rather it is:

"A worldwide network for making connections between travellers and the local communities they visit" - www.couchsurfing.org 

Essentially, you open your home up to travellers who, in turn, share their experiences with you. If you're travelling, it means that you can stay with a local for a few nights and learn more about their home/way of life etc. It is almost the polar opposite of the type of travel where you stay in a tourist enclave and never see the locals.

At face value it sounds like it is the visitors who benefit from this scheme the most. In actual fact, Couchsurfing has opened us up to meeting a wide range of people, hearing a multitude of stories and has allowed us to give these travellers a warm New Zealand welcome. Even though it is against Couchsurfing rules to accept money, we do receive the occasional gift as a thank you.

Couchsurfing is built on the idea of mutual trust and we have had a great experience with it so far despite hearing a few stories to the contrary; luckily these are the exception to the rule.
Despite increasing globalisation, the idea of opening up your home to complete strangers is counter-cultural. But in the current global situation this is exactly what the world needs, more trust, less fear. In saying this, we are careful with who we host.

Here are a few things we have learned during our two years hosting people:

• The Nu Zullund accent can be hard to understand... especially when we both speak fast and slurred...
• Kiwi slang is also not easy to understand even for english speakers because NZ slang has influences from England, USA and Austrailia, as well as out own inventions. We spent an hour or so writing out some common slang for one of our (many) German couchsurfers after completely confusing her within 10 minutes of meeting her. 
• Respect the language barrier. We very nearly had a bad experience hosting due to this exact issue. We had just hosted people back to back and we felt pressured into hosting some more surfers (bad bad bad). This led to us not being quite as specific with time limits than we normally are. Essentially, we thought we had specified that they could stay one night- they thought it was ok to stay for a week... after they stayed a couple of nights (and got back really late each night) we made the step of apologising for the misunderstanding and clarified when they were leaving. Potentially bad situation turned positive and we have since learnt to be very specific with our information, especially when they do not speak English as a first language. 
•  The opportunity to have a hot shower and a warm bed crosses all barriers even if you really have nothing in common! 
• Hitchhiking doesn't seem nearly as bad or scary as we had previously thought. Most of our surfers do it at some stage during their time here and one couple even relied on it as their sole form of transport while in NZ. Not kidding- they spent a week hanging around marinas in Wellington and hitched a ride across Cook Strait on a yacht!
• Germans are everywhere! We have hosted more Germans than any other country and they all say "Wow, there are so many Germans here!"
• Maple butter is the best invention to ever come out of Canada. A lovely Canadian couchsurfer gave us a little pottle of it as a present and one of us (not naming names) has been craving it ever since.

We now have friends based throughout the world and many of them have offered us their couch should we ever travel near their city. Should we ever not be able to host, then we can instead offer to meet travellers for a coffee, show them around the city or just meet travellers at the local Auckland couchsurfing group for drinks.

We strongly recommend giving it a try. www.couchsurfing.org