The Baynhams

WooHoo! It's holiday time! We have gone away for a week to recharge our batteries. It's winter and it's chilly but the sun is shining and the local beach comes with a random armchair...?! 

I think I'm going to like it here!

It's school holidays! Yippee, a chance to abandon early alarms and chill out. Our kids go to a school with very strict rules regarding uniforms, hair colour etc (Which I 100% support) On the first day of holidays though, I am very happy to let the girls put temporary hair colours in as I know that they will be washed out in time to return to school. Rhiannon decided to go purple this time and it looked so amazing on her. She would love to have it this colour every day but I told her she would need to be home-schooled or change to a school with more relaxed rules. She quickly agreed that she can cope with it being a "holiday only" colour for now!

AAAARRRGGGHHHHH!

She's done it! 

Passed her driving test first time. 

Now she can drive solo with her red "P" plates....

My hair is turning grey just thinking about it.....

A beautiful new bridge has been opened up in Newcastle. It is a pedestrian walk high along the coastline. On one side you look down at the roaring ocean, and the other side, the city of Newcastle. 

The bridge has silhouettes of soldiers reminding of all of those who gave their lives so we would be able to live ours so freely. We went for a walk as the sun was setting low in the sky and it was so beautiful. 

I can see this being a new favourite weekend walk. 

Mr B found this note attached to his favourite mug in the work kitchen this week....

Not a happy Welshman :-(

This blog writing is more challenging now that the kids are getting older and there are not as many opportunities to take cute snaps of them. Instead I have to find other willing participants. Thank goodness for Murphy! 

Another lovely winter evening walk. A great way to clear our heads before heading inside to Merewether Surf House for hot chips and pizza! Bye bye weekend, you always go too soon!

 

I had a craving for a pumpkin, cashew and parmesan dip this week. I searched Google for recipes and found this very simple one. It was very easy to make. I had one kilo of pumpkin so I quadrupled the other ingredients. It produced so much dip I thought we would get fed up of it but it was lovely down to the last morsel! I held back a small portion and made it extra spicy for Byron and decorated with some sliced fresh red chillies! KaBOOM!

We are watching the last few days of Autumn slip away. Winter is on its way and soon these trees will be bare. For now I am enjoying seeing all the beautiful colours. So gorgeous!

Jeez, Murph has it tough some days. 

The stress of working out which ray of sunshine to sit under....!

Every now and again I think it's really important to stop and pay attention to our own needs. It's easy to get caught up caring for our kids and juggling work and family commitments and sometimes we can burn out because we are not making time for ourselves.

I am so fed up with the migraines that come in clusters month after month. Recently I have tried many natural therapies and ideas to see if I can lessen the frequency of my headaches. One of the therapists I have come across is a beautiful friend who is a kinesiologist. I don't pretend to know much about this therapy but many of my friends have spoken very highly of Bernadette so I decided to have a session with her. It felt good to take time out and focus on myself.

One of the things Bernadette encouraged me to do was to create a phrase that would sum-up what my goal was. She helped me to put together the words "I commit myself to myself" Luckily she wrote it down because by the time I'd driven home I'd forgotten it!

I decided to put the words onto an image and then use it on my phone as my wallpaper. Now everytime I reach for my phone on a busy day I get to see these words . They make me slow down a little and take a few deep breaths or a swig of water to stay hydrated.

Just little baby steps but hopefully in the right direction...

These were my joke gift at last our Christmas girls night out! 

We had a giggle with them on the night but then they got put in a drawer and forgotten about. Until today that is! I was using a new steam mop but annoyed by the footsteps I was leaving everywhere until I went a got out my gorgeous hot pink footwear and the rest of the cleaning was a breeze.

Thanks Pauline!

The weather is really cooling down now and all walks now include jackets,
including Murph!

Have you seen the pretty photos of apple pastries popping up on your Facebook feeds? I seem to have seen them a lot recently and when I clicked the links to see how easy they were to make I couldn't resist! Here is my first attempt and I was really pleased with them. The pastry didn't cook fully through on the bases but because of the apricot jam you use to "stick" them all together it almost tasted like an apple custard tart. Yum! 

Here is this years May Altar. A tradition that I follow from childhood. For more stories about it you can read here...