Don’t forget to enter my Valentine’s giveaway… you have until 8pm tomorrow evening! There are only a handful of entries, so you have a good chance of winning, and I will send internationally… so my dear American friends you are welcome to enter!!

Anyway, here is my week in review:

God: I have now finished reading all of Luke, I’m impressed that I have read a whole book of the Bible! I have now started on Acts, I’m hoping that there will be some interesting and helpful things that I will get out of this book.

Husband: Not much to report there… Mr Wonderful is being truly amazing and letting me focus on me in the evenings. He is putting aside his desire to get out running so that I can try and become healthier. And he is giving me lots of “break time” over the weekends! I love him and I’m so blessed to have him in my life

Miss Delightful: My big girl had her first afternoon alone at Kindy on Wednesday, apparently it went ok. They had to peel her off me when we got there, but within minutes she was having a great time. She came home and told Mr Wonderful all about the exciting things she got to do at Kindy. Mainly Music started up again this week so it was nice to catch up with some of the Mum’s, and Miss D was very excited to get back into dancing!

Friends: We were lucky to get to go to Waihi Beach with our awesome friends on Saturday. The kids had a fantastic time playing in the sand and the rock pools. We all came away with a little bit of sun burn, and I think we all slept really well that night! We love having friends that we can do activities with!

Eating: This week we went back to a few familiar recipes, Miss D wasn’t too impressed with some of our healthier meals, so we have gone back to meals we know she will eat. I have just been having smaller portions with more veggies. And again I survived another week without any stomach pains!

Exercise: This week was week 2 of my Ease into 5km programme. At the start of the week I thought I was going to die, but I didn’t! I can feel myself getting stronger, I’m not as red in the face and my recovery time after my run is improving! Mr W and I are still doing our push-up and sit-up challenges, I think we are doing well, it’s not easy but I think we are getting better!

Creative: This week I created some busy bag activities for Miss D to complete, I haven’t taken a photo of them yet so I’ll do that as a separate post. Since my creative challenge is a 2 weekly challenge, I have a few more busy bag activities to make this coming week.

That’s about it for us, don’t forget the giveaway and have a wonderful week… I’ll leave you with a photo of Miss D enjoying her new sandpit!

I found some cute printables that I downloaded. I honestly can’t remember where I got them from, I’m shocking I know! I will keep searching, if I find the website I will share it.

There were about 7 or 8 different printables, I chose to use 4 for now, but I might add some more later.

Here are my 4:

I bought some cheap frames from the $2 shop and painted them green and yellow. It was such an easy job and I’m happy with how it turned out!

This year I decided to share the love a bit further than just to Mr Wonderful and a few friends… I am having a giveaway! It is all “love” themed and some items can be passed on to others as gifts if you wish.

I am happy to post anywhere, so international readers feel free to enter! I’d really like to share some love with you too!

Here is what the winner will receive (all made by me, with ideas from a few places) -

2 Valentine’s Day cards (can be used any time though):

3 Heart Bookmarks (can be re-gifted):

Idea and printout came from Thirty Handmade Days

This one is just a bit of fun… a Naught’s and Crosses (or tic-tac-toe) heart game:

And I have 2 Valentine’s Day printables for the lucky winner too. These will be e-mailed to the winner and they can be printed as Subway art or turned into cards.

Kisses:

and I love you:

To enter all you need to do is leave me a comment with a little love… feel free to share a Valentine’s Day story if you have one! Extra entries can be gained by sharing the giveaway, either blog about it or post it on facebook, just let me know you have done so! Entries are open to everyone worldwide and they will close at 8pm on Tuesday the 7th of February (New Zealand time). Hopefully this will give me enough time to post the goodies to the winner!

Good luck!!

Dear Loveliest Lovely Girl,

Be at peace. Everything is so good.
You are so very loved.
xoxo
A message from your friends at the Brave Girls Club

And here is how my week went:

God: Again my quiet times have been done at night time, which seems to be working well. I am really enjoying reading each chapter of Luke, and every night I am amazed to find that the verse that stands out to me is usually something that Mr W (or others) and I have been talking about recently! This week I also started keeping a prayer journal, after each quiet time I write down at least 2 things to give praise for, and at least 2 things to pray for. It has been awesome to see in this week alone that God has had his hand in my prayers!

Husband: Oh my poor husband… he is the one that is missing out! I still haven’t started my date ideas… but Valentine’s Day is only 14 days away, so I better get thinking about something special!

Miss Delightful: This week seems to have gone really well, I don’t know if it is because we have kept busy or if things are starting to settle down a bit. We had quite a few play dates during the week, and by Friday I could see that she was needing a semi-quiet day, so we stayed home in the morning and had a short Kindy visit in the afternoon. This coming week our Music group starts up again and Miss D will go to Kindy on Wednesday (flying solo!), so things are slowly getting back into a routine.

Friends: Today we were able to invite over some new friends for lunch. They have recently moved to NZ from the UK and don’t know too many people. They have 2 little girls, one who is a couple of months older than Miss D. It was lovely to be able to welcome them into our house and get to know them a little bit more!

Eating: hmmm.. well I feel like this week has gone well. I haven’t been in pain during the night for over a week now, so I must be doing something right. I also haven’t been feeling starving at bed time, quite common last year! I don’t think we actually tried any new recipes this week, so I don’t have any yummy food to share!

Exercise: This week I started and finished the first week of my Ease into 5km programme! It was hard but good at the same time! I went out for 3 run/walks in the evenings, 2 of them I had a friend join me. I also went for another 11km bike ride on Saturday morning, I thought I was going to die because my legs hurt so bad from the running… but apparently biking uses different muscles! Needless to say, but Saturday night all the muscles from my hips down hurt! But I survived. I think that I travelled about 20kms during the week, well over my goal of 15kms! I did get a bit sad on Saturday when I weighed myself as my scales said I had gained weight… but I know that I have only been working hard for a week and I feel so much better already even if the scales don’t agree!

Creative: I created my clear toy storage bags during the week. They were really fun to make, and I think I am going to make a few more! I am now starting the next challenge on my list… this one doesn’t involve any sewing!

I look forward to seeing what the new week will bring my way!

To begin with I used an old cardboard box that we had, I cut it into rectangles.

Then I wrapped the fabric around each rectangle and popped them in the dresser drawer. I love how tidy it looks… and I can see exactly what colours and patterns I have!

Now I just have to figure out how to organise my scraps of fabric… I think I have more of them!

Here is the recipe… it was super easy and really tasty. And neither Mr Wonderful or I missed the meat at all, and Miss D ate all of hers too!

Thai Peanut Bowl

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1 piece of ginger, peeled and grated
1/2 cup frozen shelled edamame beans
2 cups frozen stir-fry vegetables
1 tablespoon chopped peanuts
2 spring onions, sliced
Rice (cooked)

Directions:
1. Cook rice according to directions.

2. In a pan, saute peanut butter, lime juice, garlic and ginger for 1 minute. Add edamame and vegetables and cook for 12 minutes until vegetables are tender.

3. Pour over the rice and top with peanuts and spring onions.

Note: This could be served with pasta or noodles if you didn’t want to do rice.

Anyway.. the first challenge was to make some clear toy storage bags. I followed Ashley’s awesome tutorial over at Make it, Love it.

I love how they turned out.

So far I have made 2, a big one and a small one, and I have enough material to make a couple more! I’m going to use them to attempt to keep Miss D’s toys a bit more organised, and I thought I would turn a couple into “quiet time bags” filled with little goodies/activities that can be played with when I need Miss D to be entertained!!

I still have 3 days left before I start my next project, so hopefully I can get a few more made before then. I was definitely faster on the second bag than the first!

Here it is if you are interested in making it yourself… it was really good!

Herb Crusted Lamb with Roasted Vegetables
Ingredients

Roasted Vegetables
2 large potatoes, peeled
2 medium kumara, peeled
2 large carrots, peeled
1/2 cup Eta Balsamic Vinaigrette

Herb Crust
3/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs
2 Tbsp chopped rosemary
2 Tbsp chopped chives
2 Tbsp chopped parsley
grated zest of 1/2 lemon
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 Tbsp olive oil

Lamb
400g package Silver Fern Farms Lamb Leg Roast (I couldn’t find this so I just bought some lamb leg steaks and it still worked well)
1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard

Directions

1. To make the Roasted Vegetables, preheat oven to 200°C. Cut vegetables into 2cm pieces and place in a single layer on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Drizzle over a little olive oil. Roast the vegetables for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and pour over Eta Gourmet Balsamic Red Wine Vinaigrette. Return the vegetables to the oven and continue cooking for a further 5-10 minutes or until tender. Cool to room temperature.

2. To make Herb Crust, mix all the ingredients together to make a paste. Season.

3. Remove the Silver Fern Farms Lamb Leg Roast from the pack and dry meat with a paper towel. Place in a baking tray. Spread the Dijon mustard on the upper surface of the meat. Pat the herb mixture on to form a crust. Allow to stand for 10 minutes

4. To oven cook: Place in a pre-heated 200°C oven. Cook for 30-40 minutes, until cooked to your liking; for medium rare 30-35 minutes or medium 35-40 minutes. Allow the meat to rest for 5 minutes before slicing.
To BBQ: Preheat a lidded barbecue to 200°C. Place tray in the centre of the barbecue and close the lid. Turn off the two inside burners and leave the two outer burners on. Cook for 30-40 minutes, until cooked to your liking (for medium rare 30-35 minutes; for medium 35-40 minutes). Allow the meat to rest for 5 minutes before slicing.

Serve sliced with the roasted vegetables and a fresh green salad.

I have been working hard this week, Monday evening I went for my first run followed by the push-up challenge. Tuesday Miss D and I walked around the Zoo with friends (we got passes, so will be going LOTS!) and in the evening Mr W and I did our first sit-up challenge. This evening I went out for my second run with a dear friend and then did the days push-ups.

I can tell you now that my abs, my arms and my legs are so so so very sore! I will be surprised if I can walk tomorrow! hehe. But it’s all going to be worth it… I signed up for a Triathlon today! It’s the same one that I completed last year but I am doing it later in the year this time, which means it won’t be here, but we will have to head up to Auckland. I don’t mind though, it means my parents can come cheer me on without having to travel! And this year I have been blessed with a friend joining me, so we can train together and she can get me out when I’m feeling lazy!

So tomorrow I will just do my sit-ups, Friday will be another run and the push-ups and then Saturday I’ll get out for another bike ride. It means that I am doing something every other day, and that will continue for the next 8 weeks!

In other fantastic news, I am waiting to see a specialist about my stomach pains. I had an appointment for the end of May, but today I got a letter in the mail from the hospital asking me to come in early April! So much sooner. It means I just need to get through the next month and a half, and hopefully the specialist will figure out what is going on.

Now I am going to attempt to make my way to the bedroom (very slowly), I’m going to curl up in bed and read one of the 3 books I have to read!