New Zealand Roadtrip - Part 1

 Today Kyle, Ally and I returned from a week long road trip in New Zealand. I wrote a few poems on the trip to remember certain details and describe it to people without long drawn out stories. These are the adventures of days 1 & 2. Let me know what you think!

Family vacation ready to start,

First things first pack up the car.

Lincoln Log to the airport he drove,

Hopped on a plane across the water we'd go.

Landed in New Zealand then for some news,

Our Jucy van blew a fuse.

Grocery shopping and on we rode,

Til we stopped for the night in our Jucy abode.

The Milky Way visible to me,

Most beautiful stars that I've ever seen.

Rocking van in the wind,

Sleeping warm and snuggled in.

A wake up view you may never know,

Cows and sheep wherever we go.

Passports fell out last night but nobody knew,

Til round the van we walked in the morning dew.

Seafoam green river rushed on by,

Walked past a red mushroom that caught my eye.

New Zealand cold and rainy day,

Beautiful rainbow in midst of the gray.

Along this great journey new memories to gain,

A creek in the crack of a mountain.

Wind so strong we were all over the road,

Lugging around our 3 person load.

Clouds and fog in the valley blocked our view,

Of the water beside us our journey still new.

We stopped to see a waterfall,

A tree on the road our journey to stall.

Selfies and singing were keeping us busy,

Til old Grizzly Adams chopped that wood in a tizzy.

Ate at Gibby's Cafe for lunch,

Dropped my coffee on the sidewalk in a crunch.

For a cave in the side of a cliff we stopped,

Then on to the beaches against rocks we propped.

Chased by waves, seafoam on my shoe,

Eerie sky, ocean cliffs what a beautiful view.

Pick up lines for fun and for show,

"There's no I in this Jucy, there is a U though."

Parked for the night not sure what to do,

Chubby Bunny it was, what entertains you?

Got ready for bed and hoped not to freeze,

It was the end of the day, time for some zzzzs.

Photography by my husband Kyle Grantham and a few by Ally Younes and myself.

Girls Day at The Grounds

Today I am extremely grateful to be blessed with such great friends. I don't know what I would do without one particular friend, and today happens to be her birthday! Ally is such an amazing, happy, funny, people loving, mature, enthusiastic, selfless young woman who is going to make a great children's pastor one day. I can't wait to see what all God has in store for her in the future!

Saturday we celebrated Ally's birthday at The Grounds of Alexandria by eating at The Potting Shed. After lunch we just hung out and walked around enjoying the beauty of the place and being together. I took lots of photos of course!

Our table at The Potting Shed

Flower Moment

Birthday girl photo shoot

Total babes!

Now for some photos of The Grounds!

Homemade Almond Milk & Almond Meal

Have you ever tried almond milk? I think it is delicious! It is dairy free and very healthy, but it's not cheap! Almost $4 per carton here in Australia when it's not on sale is too much to spend on milk twice a week. For this reason I decided to attempt to make my own. I looked at a few recipes on Pinterest, and created my own version. The good thing about it is almond milk super easy to make. 

Almond Milk

What you need:

• a bowl
• a blender
• a nut-milk bag or cheese cloth (bought mine at a health food shop)
• 1 cup unsalted almonds (not roasted)
• 1 tbsp vanilla
• 4 cups water
• 1-2 dates or raw sugar to sweeten (optional - I didn't)
• a container/pitcher to put your milk in

First you need to soak your almonds in water for about 6-8 hours. Drain & rinse. 

Place almonds, 4 cups of water, 1 tbsp of vanilla, and sweetener (if you chose to use it) in your blender.  

Blend for 1-3 minutes. 

Pour almond mixture into nut-milk bag over your pitcher. 

Squeeze bag with almond mixture and get as much liquid out as possible. If you want to make more milk like I did, you can place the ground almonds (that you just used) back into the blender and repeat the entire process. 

After you finish you can use the ground almonds to make almond meal if you like.

Almond Meal

To make almond meal you spread the ground almonds (leftover after making the milk) evenly on a baking sheet and place in the oven for 1-2 hours on 300 degrees with oven door open if possible so the humidity can escape. If you leave the door closed, it may take a little longer. 

Bake until it begins to get dry and brown. 

Remove from oven, and place the almond meal into a food processor to grind into a fine powder. Use almond meal to bake with or however you prefer. 

This is a delicious recipe for paleo almond meal cookies!