The great laundry re-pair.

It's been a while since I've posted, things have been SO busy lately. I thought I'd share a quick post about a holiday craft project that I've had ticking around in my head for a while. Well, in Christchurch at the moment all the talk is still about repairing, post-earthquake. But today, I have a bit of light-hearted frivolity for you.

Have you ever had a re-pair problem like this?

You get what I mean right? The odd sock pile.

No matter how you try to make sure that matching socks go in the same wash, they rarely come out again together. Drives me nuts! I also hate the random socks that then just float around and never get re-paired again. I could go on..but you get the picture. I know some people have an 'odd sock pile' or a drawer, that's not a bad idea, but I wanted something that was going to help me with the re-pair process. Not just leave it as 'out of sight, out of mind'. Also, our laundry is VERY small with not much room for another basket, box or drawer.

So, one night, I started to stitch. When I'd finished I showed this to Geoff. He was a bit concerned at first...

I think he thought I was advertising for his replacement! (hehehe) But he just really needed to see my creation in its intended context...:)

Context is everything!
This week there are twice as  many socks hanging on the lines. Sigh. But I have managed to successfully co-ordinate 4 re-pairings lately. Yes!! And my laundry wall is now both decorative and functional.
Gotta love that!

Turning Eight and the HALF-sleepover.

It was PARTY time in our house last week.
We've told the kids that they are allowed to have a party for their birthday every second year and then a very small group of friends in alternate years. By small, I mean 3 max.

2013 was supposed to be the 'off' year for Johanna. But this year she has (again) changed to a new school. That's 3 schools in 3.5 years, which is a lot of effort for one little person. It's hard work getting to know new people over and over again and then making friends and having to move on. So, I decided that we would have another party this year to give her the chance to have some of her (again) new friends over and for me to (again) meet the parents.



Now to figure out what to do for the party. I looked up some craft parties, rock climbing parties and cooking parties in Christchurch (all at offsite locations - bonus!) but the per-head charge was just not an option for us. Johanna really wanted a sleepover party, but we simply couldn't possibly narrow the guest list down to less than 14. And there was NO way I was up for that! So, I asked my trusty friend Google. And this is when I discovered the 'Half - sleepover' party. Brilliant. I've had so many comments from parents about this idea, I thought it would  be good to share the love. This is where I originally found it. I've tweaked it a little for our situation, but the basic concept was the same.

The Half-Sleepover

The idea is that you have the party in the early evening and the girls come in their pjs. You have dinner and do fun sleepover type things...but then they go home at the end! Genius right? Why didn't I think of that myself?

The party ran from 5.30-8.30pm on Sunday night, Monday was the Queen's birthday public holiday so that worked well too.

5.30pm 

We started off with some games. We did some X-box dancing and then played 'the chocolate game' (Fairtrade Whittakers of course).

6pm 

Dinner. I decided to give the blog suggestion a go. Instead of ordering in pizza (which is certainly easier, but not cheaper and definitely not healthier) I decided to try pasta and salad. It seemed to work pretty well. We basically offered two types of pasta and either bolognese or a basic tomato sauce. Then they could choose salad/lettuce with options of grated cheese, grated carrot, tomato or bacon. The lesson I learnt was...lettuce is wasted on 8 year olds. But they ate a lot of the rest and polished off a few loaves of garlic bread too.

     

6.30pm
Time for cake and presents. The cake was also SUPER easy. If it's not easy, I won't do it. I have no real love for baking, I know that's very un-Kiwi. Baking over here is a noun as well as a verb (as in "did you bring the baking?"). Up until now I've been packet queen, but I'm trying to turn over a new leaf, so I'm making a much bigger effort to make everything I can from scratch. Anyway, how's this for a good idea, an Ice-cream cone cake?! I can't take any credit for it, got it from Pinterest.

I had plenty of cupcakes so they all got one each. I decided to try a slightly healthier option (slightly) and used wholemeal cake/pastry flour and this recipe. I did the icing the regular way though. I also had to make gluten free cakes for one of the girls (resorted to a packet on that one!).

7pm
Movie Time. We had vanilla ice cream with sprinkles (in waffle cones), pop-corn and the birthday cupcakes while they watched the movie. The lounge room floor certainly looked like a Hoyts cinema complex by the end of it.

We decided to watch Brave because I loved it! If you haven't seen it, do it. It's not a typical princess story, it's much more about a girl's relationship with her mum...sob. And, those gorgeous Scottish accents...

Anyway, I don't know if it was too long, or just that some of the girls had seen it before, but it didn't hold their interest the whole way through. On reflection, I think with 8-going-on-14 year olds it may have been better to put on a movie with 'real' actors instead of an animated movie. I overheard at least one conversation about it being a 'kids' movie - LOL ;)

8.30pm
Pickup time. We had a few moments of chaos at the end but we have table soccer and an X-box so all was not lost. And then they were picked up and went home to sleep. (*insert contented sigh here*)

The next party I'm due to organise is not until Tom turns 5 - which is November 2014. Now for a glorious rest.

And finally, here is Miss 8. All she wanted for her birthday was a cabbage patch doll. I remember desperately wanting one too when I was about her age. I found these retro dolls (twins, born in 1984 ;)  They're old, but still unused and in perfect condition. I felt a bit sorry for them having spent almost 30 years tied to the box and they've now been very enthusiastically adopted. I'm really glad that deep down she's still just 8. Thankfully, 14 is still a way off yet!

A Segue into bananas...#2

I love a good segue. I love the word, it's just a cool word. The only thing I like better than a segue, is this...

(Total digression, but did you know you can do a Christchurch red zone tour on segway?! If you're visiting, seriously check it out!)

Anyway, that pretty much ruined my segue so I'll start again. In my last blog post I shared a great recipe for Banana Nut Butter Choc Chip Cookies. Really easy and yummy. However, the issue concerning me today is with the key ingredient in my recipe, bananas. Specifically, the problem I have is with the bananas we eat here in NZ.

I won't discuss Fairtrade products at length in this post (a topic for another time, definitely) except to say that I love Fairtrade and I buy it wherever possible. In the absence of Fairtrade certified products, I look for other indications of ethical trading practice.

However, today I've been informed that what I thought was an ethical choice (in fact what I was TOLD was an ethical choice by the supplier) in my purchase of 'Dole' bananas, may not, in fact, be particularly ethical at all.
Have a look at this...

These are the bananas I buy every week. And this is what Dole claims on their own website.

Providing a safe, healthy, fair, and productive environment for all of our workers.

At Dole, ethical and fair treatment of our employees is one of our highest priorities. Working conditions in our operations are always designed to protect the health, safety, and well-being of all our employees. Our workers are trained and required to wear protective clothing appropriate to their activities. Health and safety programmes are also implemented.

We practice non-discriminatory policies and are an equal opportunity employer following the International Labor Organization’s principles. With a full-time, stable workforce in more than 90 countries worldwide, we strictly comply with applicable labor laws in each of the countries where we operate.

We have adopted the SA 8000 certification, a global social accountability standard promoting management systems that upgrade working conditions. It is therefore our policy not to employ children and to instruct our suppliers not to purchase from producers that do. We also work with credentialed trade union representatives elected by its workers.

That sounds pretty good right? Well, when you hit the ground and do some research the findings are quite different according to this OXFAM study which has just been released.

Despite claims to the contrary, many of the individuals interviewed by the Oxfam team confirm that children under the age of 15 are employed working long hours on the banana plantations.
There are existing OHS concerns, especially in relation to chemical spraying which is known to happen even while workers are in the plantations.
Together with unreachable quotas of production, intensely physical work with few breaks, minimal pay (sometimes below the minimum wage), worn out safety gear failing to be replaced, failure to pay overtime wages even though workers are expected to meet required targets or face suspensions, poor communication and lack of safety training and even military involvement in trade union affairs (?!), it's amazing the 'ethical' stickers ever made it to the fruit in the first place. By who's standard of ethics are they trading, I'd like to know?

I, for one, do not want people to have to work in these conditions in order for me to be able make my banana cookies. I hope you can see how completely ridiculous this is! These people work with blood, sweat and tears, every day for hours and hours, just scraping by...so that we can...what? Eat a banana? This particular quote from the very lengthy Oxfam report really got me cranky. Be reminded that this is the equivalent size of approximately 4 rugby fields...

"A woman worker under Asiapro working as a deleafer in a Dole-managed farm in  Maragusan, said that she has to deleaf a 4.0-hectare land all by herself, twice a week. In order to keep her job, her grade must not go below 78 percent. Otherwise, she will be relieved from work. Thus, in order to meet the grade requirement, she sometimes works beyond the prescribed time and even when aerial spraying is ongoing. " 

The Labour and Environmental Situation in Philippine Banana Plantations Exporting to New Zealand pg32

It turns out that I'm not the only one who has a problem with this. Oxfam has mounted this media campaign today which has concluded with Dole deciding to withdraw their 'Ethical' labeling on their products. It's a win...right?! Well, no actually. I want the label back!

Dole, I don't want you to take the labels off, I want you to FIX the problems in your plantations with your workers so that you can legitimately leave your labels on. That is the real problem and this is what we want thank you very much. I am really pleased that you have stopped duping the public with your unethical 'ethical' labeling, but in the end - it's still just a label. I want your plantations to continue, I don't want these workers to lose their jobs, but I DO want you to start treating them fairly. What we want is changed practices in your plantations, and then I'll gladly start buying your products again.

Oxfam's campaign

But until you can show me that you've changed, I will be changing my supplier. For those of us in NZ, you can look out for All Good Bananas, which are certified Fairtrade (sometimes a little green, but still tasty). I can get them in my local New World and I did buy some just the other day. Slightly more expensive than the Dole option, but what kind of price are we going to put on someone else's fair and ethical labour conditions?

A Segue into bananas...#1

There are a number of things I've been thinking about doing with this blog. Sometimes I hope I'll be able to share with you some fun stuff (recipes, craft ideas etc) and sometimes some more serious topics. I think this post might be a bit of a combo, so stick with me and read on!

So, today in our stay-at-home-out-of-the-icy-wind day (see my last blog post), I decided that Tom and I would do some baking. I've been recently looking at changing the way we do food in our family (more on this later) and one of the things I'm looking for is snacks that will appeal to our kids that fit my criteria.
Last week I made 4 batches of muffins. Do you think there was one batch that appealed to EVERY family member? No. Batch #1 appealed to children #2 &3. Batch #2 appealed to children #1 & 2. Batch #3&4 appealed to children #1 & 3. ARGH! So today I've given muffins the cold shoulder. We're going with cookies.

Here are my criteria for home made snack food.
1) easy
2) quick
3) healthy
4) tasty

I finally found a cookie recipe that really does fit all categories! Yay! Here's the original recipe
on this blog but I changed it up a bit. Johanna is allergic to peanuts so I can't use PB in recipes that I'm trying to get the kids to eat. Anyway, here's my little kitchen helper giving me a hand. It looks like I'm also advertising Tupperware! (I do confess to owning a LOT of Tupperware.)

Banana Nut Butter Choc Chip Cookies!
INGREDIENTS
2 bananas, mashed

2 heaped tbsp almond butter

2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

1 1/2 cups steel cut oats

1/4 cup crushed almonds

1/4 cup chocolate chips

1/4 cup shredded coconut 

METHOD: Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a tray with baking paper (avoid using canola oil sprays). Mix together the bananas, almond butter, applesauce, vanilla, and spices. Add in the oats, nuts, chocolate chips, and coconut; stir until well combined. (I let Tom put some more choc chips on the top too :). Spoon onto tray and bake until golden.

My oven is annoying. It's old and it has limited temperature settings so we go from 160 to 190 with nothing in between. The result is that often things cook quicker and not quite as well because I'm taking it out before it burns at 190 (but 160 is too low!). Today, I baked these for 18 mins at 190 and it did ok. I just have to keep checking.

Anyway, they turned out really well and YUMMY! And ALL 3 kids ate them. Hurrah! They are a bit chewy and do taste of banana (so if you don't like bananas then probably give them a miss). Apart from the choc chips there's no sugar. I'm going to make some without the choc chips too, for later, so they are completely sugar free (with the exception of the fructose in the fruit.) I'll be writing more about refined sugar later and how I am going at giving it up! Yes, that's right. I have basically been completely refined sugar free now for over a month (apart from the the few times I have sampled my choc-chip baking lol).

And another tip for you, which I have only just recently discovered, is - nut butter. I've always liked peanut butter but it's not always practical in our family. However, other nut butters I've been trying out lately are very expensive. What I didn't realise until today is that it is SO easy to make your own. I've been using lots of nuts lately, as part of changing what we eat, and I had a whole lot of raw almonds on hand. I grabbed 3 handfuls, chucked them in my food processor and this is what I got. 

No added salt, sugar or oil. Just pure almonds. Ok, so you're going to have to process them for quite a while, but that's nothing more than press a button and walk away. They go crumbly to start off with (almond meal, also great for baking) but if you leave it long enough it will eventually turn into this almond butter. I gave it a stir every few minutes to keep it going. It's that easy (and yes, that bowl is Tupperware too ;)

Now, before you think I've finished with this post, I haven't. I mentioned before that there was both fun and serious involved here, right? Well, I've done the fun bit, now for the serious. And it involves bananas. But I think I'm going to post it as a new entry because I think it is really important and deserves it's own post. The segue begins here...

Waiting for the Antarctic blast.

Nobody likes a head cold. I've got one. I've been coughing all weekend and it doesn't seem to be letting up. I get one of these rounds every year and it usually lasts 2 weeks and means no sleep. Grrr. Anyway, it's lucky that I'm such a night owl I can exist on minimal sleep for a couple of weeks and crash after that.

So, today I decided that we would stay home and keep warm because the last thing I need at the moment is icy wind. And that's what we've got in Christchurch today. And it is certainly icy.

I could feel it in the air last night, the cold, southerly blast, sweeping in from Antarctica and settling down right on little NZ. At the moment the weather says it is 6.4C, with windchill 'feels like' 1C. It's supposed to be sleety snow showers this afternoon (I bet it comes just in time for school pick up, with my kind of luck). However, on days when I don't have to go out in it, I do quite enjoy an Antarctic blast. I love the snow and the cold and the options for staying inside and staying warm. I think I will be roasting lamb tonight ....mmm.

I noticed this morning that we can actually see a tiny fraction of the snowy southern alps in between two neighbouring rooftops out the boys' bedroom window. Very exciting! It's hardly mountain views, but it's my little piece of snowy splendour. I can look at snow covered mountains all day. Seriously. I know this is the fourth winter I've lived here now, but I'm still not tired of it yet.

But this week I find myself pondering a real Antarctic blast. Over the weekend, while attempting some recovery time, I read Endurance, by Alfred Lansing. It's the story of Ernest Shakleton's attempt to be the first to traverse the continent of Antarctica overland and through the south pole, after missing out on the glory of being the first man to reach the pole by 180km - in 1907. (A record that was won by Roald Amundsen in 1911). The expedition failed spectacularly. They never even made it to the continent and were ice-locked in the Wedell Sea, just off the coast for months. However, quite quickly the story changed from being a daring feat of exploration to a daring tale of survival, as Shakleton tried to negotiate his way out of Antarctica and keep his team of 28 alive in the process - after their ship was crushed to pieces by the thawing ice. 

I won't give away the rest (although you can find it out on Wikipedia if you really want to!) but I highly recommend it, a gripping read and I finished it in a day because I just couldn't put it down. I didn't know the outcome when I started it and so it kept me guessing all the way. I think one of the things that surprised me, even though I have read quite a lot of 'survival' stories in my time, is the capacity of human beings to endure. The odds were well and truly stacked against them at every turn. These men existed on meagre supplies, in sub-zero conditions, with little shelter from Antarctic storms other than a few tents and, at points, even without the tents! And remember, this was 100 years ago. It was long before they had access to high tech, light weight survival gear. Retailers like Kathmandu and Macpac certainly didn't exist. Some of them journeyed with no personal effects other than the clothes on their back, a single sleeping bag, a pocket knife and a bible. At one point, even the Bible had to go and a few precious pages were torn out and kept. They were beset by all manner of illness. Heart conditions, gangrene, extreme dehydration, hypothermia, sciatica, frostbite, chronic infections and blisters (such that the liquid inside them FROZE! Ewww!). I'm not sure what drives people to survive under such conditions? It is easy, when you are bitterly cold and exhausted to lie down and sleep....forever. What was it that caused them to wake up the next day and face the pain and the agony and endure some more? Is it just the sheer, stubborn will for survival? Fighting spirit? Rugged determination? Maybe it is that same spirit that filled their friends and neighbours back at home. While the expedition struggled on, England was at war with Germany. The expedition literally left as the war was declared in 1914. And we know from our history books, only too well, what trench warfare involved. You wouldn't wish that on your worst enemy. 

As I ponder our Antarctic blast, blowing in from the south, I'm snuggled up inside. I'm in a warm house with plenty of good, nourishing food. I have a warm and comfortable place to sleep tonight. My biggest worry is a nagging cough and a chilly 20 minute school pick up. I wonder if I would have survived in Shakleton's Antarctic expedition? I very much doubt I would have survived more than a couple of days in the trenches. I'm not sure that our generation really knows how good we've got it. Although the thing that concerns me tonight is that there ARE people out there, in our city, in our country who do not have a warm place to sleep. They don't have food or friendship or shelter. Maybe the only thing driving them on through this Antarctic blast is that same will and determination to survive another night. I'm sure there are people in every city in the world in these situations, constantly. Many of them are children. Tonight my prayers are with them and I will hold my children just that little bit tighter. 

What else can we do? Why not contact your local city mission? Donations don't always have to be monetary, although that helps too. Recently the Australian Assylum Seeker Resource Centre conducted a winter coat donation drive. I'm sure there are other things we could think of if we put our collective minds to it. And maybe while my roast lamb is cooking, I really can 'afford' to spare a bit of extra cash to see that someone else is also well fed tonight. 

3.55pm update. True to form, the sleet started at PRECISELY 2.55pm as I was reversing out of my driveway for the school pickup. Of course it did :)

This is what we are up to about one hour later. It will be interesting to see if it continues overnight or if this is the end of it! 

The land of the long white cloud

Lake Tekapo, New Zealand.

I thought I might begin my blog with an introduction. I am, first of all, a Christian. I first came to know Jesus as my Lord when I was 14 at a youth camp (I will post more about that one day soon). Knowing Jesus has changed my life in ways that you can't even begin to imagine...unless he has also changed yours too!
I am a wife, married to Geoff, who also has a blog, here it is. He's a writer so his blog will be much clearer and more cognisant than mine! ha!
We both studied communications at university, back in the day. Geoff trained in journalism at Macquarie in Sydney, I trained in social research at UTS (still not completely sure what my degree actually was - but there you go.)
After studying I spent 3 years working for Christians in the Media, doing their ministry traineeship (MTS) working on campus with students for two years and I became the women and children's pastor in my 3rd year.
In 2004 we studied full time together at Moore Theological College, I completed a diploma of Bible and Missions and Geoff studied the 4 year Bachelor of Divinity. During our second year at Moore we welcomed our lovely miss Johanna Cate into our family. What a treasure! At the beginning of 4th year we were blessed with another gorgeous addition, by the name of Will. He's pretty awesome too :) And then our delightful, pesky, cheeky and fun little Tom arrived a few years after that.

After 2 very eventful years working in Sydney (Geoff was an assistant minister at two different Anglican churches) we moved across the 'ditch' to begin ministry in another Anglican parish in Christchurch, New Zealand. After spending 3 years there, we have changed roles this year and we're now working with the University of Canterbury, Christian Union (part of the national TSCF movement - which is also connected to the worldwide IFES movement.)

We love living here in Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud. It's a beautiful country, the landscapes are truly spectacular. The people are friendly and laid back and the cold climate suits us perfectly! We love Christchurch immensely, it is our home now. Here are a couple of snaps from recent holidays on the South Island. The first picture is Lake Tekapo and the second is Akaroa and Banks Peninsula. I still have to pinch myself sometimes when I realise that these places are only a few hours drive away from where we live! 

But it hasn't always been beautiful landscapes and blue skies. On February 22nd 2011 (also, our lovely Will's 4th birthday) Christchurch was rocked by a very shallow magnitude 6.3 earthquake right under the city. It doesn't sound massive on the richter scale, but it was one of the fiercest earthquakes ever recorded in terms of the ground-shake velocity. It wrecked our beautiful city (along with the 7.1 that hit the previous year and two subsequent 6.3s in June 2011 and Dec 2011) and caused havoc for thousands of people. 186 people lost their lives. It was a really dark day.

This is a photograph of the city, taken from the hills, minutes after the quake struck. You can see the dust and debris from 100s of collapsed buildings. The reality on the ground was horrendous. It was hours before our family was reunited and before I knew that they were all ok. Cell phone coverage was down and so we weren't able to communicate and it was an agonising wait before they all got home, thankfully, safe. Needless to say, although Christchurch now feels like a ticking time bomb that could go off again at any minute (and indeed it continued to do so for the next two years - constantly! Even two earthquakes of the same magnitude hit us twice again) we felt that we needed - and wanted - to stick around and weather this disaster and help our friends and neighbours to pull through it too.
Countless people asked if we were going to move back to Australia. Here's the article I wrote for our church news sheet, in June 2011, outlining our decision to stay. And we're still here!

We love our new job, working with the students at the University of Canterbury. It's such a privilege to work with this group, they are enthusiastic, motivated, keen to learn and understand God's word - the Bible. We love teaching it and training people for a lifetime of Kingdom service. If you are a person who prays, please do pray for our work here in Christchurch. Our city is starting to heal, after the wounds of the past few years, but there is still a lot of work to do. Pray for us, that we will proclaim His message, clearly and boldly, as we should. Pray that people will come to find their hope and security in Jesus, not in the 'things' of this world which can so be so easily shaken to dust.

The Plunge

Ok, so here it is. I've finally taken the plunge. I've turned up for the party. 

I've been an avid blog reader for the past year or so now. Initially, I didn't really 'get' blogging. I mean, do you really want to spend hours reading about what someone else ate for breakfast? No thanks. (Although, now we have Facebook for that too. And Twitter. I still don't really get Twitter.)

I've since realised that blogs can actually offer a lot more benefit to the savvy information consumer than I had previously thought. 
I now follow craft blogs, nutrition blogs, christian blogs, photography blogs, quilting blogs, parenting blogs, advocacy blogs and well - just whatever takes my fancy. And I find blogs interesting. I like to get advice on how to create things, how to feed my family, to be encouraged to persevere in my life following Jesus, to work out how to take better photographs, how to advocate for social causes... I could go on. It's stuff that helps me and I enjoy it. And I am also really glad that other people have taken the time and effort to write the articles, design the patterns and work out the recipes and to make this information available to help people like me. 

And so in all of this I began to think, if I am helped by some of these things, that maybe I can BE of service myself. Maybe I shouldn't just be a blog consumer, but a blog producer too. And also, I've realised, it's a way to stay in touch and to keep on talking.

We don’t tend to take time these days to really talk to each other. To share, to live, to laugh, to love, to argue, to debate, to wrestle, to communicate, to bear with, to forgive, to be honest, to just…talk. And to listen. Talking and listening are fast becoming the lost art of communication in our crazy world. Instead we are replacing concern for others with ”RU K?” and meaningful discussions, debates and conversations with “no thnx, l8r” (...as an aside, I do confess to being one of those FREAKS who still feels the need to use punctuation and full words in txt messages. Sorry, can’t help it. Showing my age.)

Some might say, ‘but blogging isn’t talking’. And it’s not. But it’s something and it’s a start. I hope that this may open up the potential for more actual talking – real talking – when I do see you face to face.  For those of you I won’t see in person, it’s another way to keep in touch, to engage, to share ideas, to share wisdom, to share life.  And it’s a bit more substantial than a txt or a tweet or even a FB update.
Anyway, that’s the reason.


The plan?
Well, I’m hoping it will be interesting (although not everything I find interesting will be interesting to you – I know that well enough!). If it’s not interesting – inspire me! Give me something to blog about! I am going to attempt to write regularly on all kinds of topics.

I'm particularly hoping to use this blog to talk about life and how we can ‘do life’ better, together. Not because I think I have all the answers, but because I think we need to keep having the conversations.

It will be about fun (well, at least the things I find fun!). I am planning to share some of the cool stuff I've found around the traps, recipes, photographs and the like. Also some of my own crafty 'tips and tricks' and ‘how to learn from my mistakes’ because I think that’s way more interesting and useful to you than the “hey-look-at-this-swell-thing-I-made, I’m-totally-awesome” variety.


It will be about God. Because in the end, no matter who you are or where you are, you will only find complete fulfilment in your creator. And I want you to know that and I want you to know Him. And we will look at God through Jesus, in his word, together.  It’s just another conversation, but it’s the best kind of conversation to have – because it’s the only one that ever really, truly changes your life.

So, here it begins, 2013 is the year that I take the plunge. I hope you will join with me and pop in for a chat sometime along the way J