by Karyn Wills | Jun 21, 2011 | Childhood, Family, International, Kids, Motherhood, New Zealand, World Interviews, World Moms Blog Writer Interview
Where in the world do you live?
I live in Napier, on the sunny east coast of the North Island of New Zealand. After a major (7.8) earthquake in 1931 the centre of Napier was rebuilt in the styles of Art Deco and Art Nouveau and has become something of a tourist destination. http://www.artdeconapier.com/
There are plenty of wineries around too. 🙂 http://www.hawkesbaynz.com/Visit/Wine–Food/
(Come in February – the kids are back in school and the weather is warm and settled.)
And, are you from there?
I grew up in a country area called Tutira, 50km north of the city, on a sheep farm that my Dad managed. There were 75 kids in the school and 9 in my year group. I had to go to weekly boarding school, here in Napier, for my high-school years from the age of 12. (more…)
Karyn is a teacher, writer and solo mother to three sons. She lives in the sunny wine region of Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand in the city of Napier.
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by Karyn Wills | Jun 8, 2011 | Childhood, Communication, Family, International, Kids, Media, Motherhood, Music, New Zealand, Parenting, Toys
This started as a post about what happens when a mother gets ill, but still has a young family to care for. While we were busy doing research with a very nasty tummy-bug, Veronica published her post on taking her daughter to watch a game of college basketball, (NEW JERSEY, USA: Ladies of the Court).
It’s a lovely post about parents sharing their common passion with their child. The comments were great and they got me thinking – are our children genetically different to others? You see, during those few days when various ones of us were ill, the boys got to watch tv. This doesn’t happen in our house. Our kids aren’t allowed any electronic entertainment.
Before you jump to the conclusion that we are controlling hippy-freaks, let me reassure you that we have no electronic entertainment (for children) in our house for very good reasons. In fact, many years ago our eldest son was pretty much on a par with most other children of educated middle-class families. He watched educational tv and dvds every day, and he listened to loads of cds. He’d been to see The Wiggles on stage and a couple of other shows.
Then, a teacher suggested that a few of the behaviour problems we were having at the time might be due to over-stimulation. (more…)
Karyn is a teacher, writer and solo mother to three sons. She lives in the sunny wine region of Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand in the city of Napier.
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by Karyn Wills | May 10, 2011 | Breastfeeding, International, Motherhood, New Zealand, Pregnancy
Tonight was the last time I will ever breast-feed. It’s a significant end of an era for me. This month is the ten-year anniversary of falling pregnant with our eldest son. I have my body back. Permanently.
To put it all in context it’s 120 months in total: 30 months being pregnant (3.25 pregnancies); and 79 months of breast-feeding. This all leaves a grand total of 11 months in the past 10 years when I could call my body my own.
I don’t begrudge the boys a second of the time I’ve ‘shared’ with them, yet I also feel a great sense of relief that it’s all over. I suffer immensely from baby-brain when I’m pregnant and feeding.
I become incredibly good at prioritising as I seem to move in low-gear. I constantly look like a train-wreck and have been known to hide in my pantry to avoid the mess in the rest of the house. (more…)
Karyn is a teacher, writer and solo mother to three sons. She lives in the sunny wine region of Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand in the city of Napier.
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by Karyn Wills | Apr 7, 2011 | Humanity, International, Natural Disaster, New Zealand
At 4.35am, on the 4th September 2010, the city of Christchurch in New Zealand’s South Island was hit by an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale.
It’s epicentre was close to the township of Darfield, 40 km (25 miles) west of Christchurch. There was widespread damage and power outages, two people were seriously injured and one person died from a heart-attack during the quake.
Originally I wrote here: anyone who lives along the Pacific Ring of Fire might have thought, “that could have been us.” 90% of all the world’s earthquakes and 80% of all major earthquakes occur along the Ring of Fire, which extends from New Zealand through Indonesia and the Phillipines, through Japan along the Aleutian Islands and along the west coast of the Americas.
Then, on the 11th of March just off the coast of Japan a huge (8.9 )earthquake hit. The tsunami it triggered killed at least ten thousand people, and injured many more. It caused massive damage to the northeastern coast of the country. Perhaps more than anyone else in the world, people in Christchurch understood and empathised. (more…)
Karyn is a teacher, writer and solo mother to three sons. She lives in the sunny wine region of Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand in the city of Napier.
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by Karyn Wills | Mar 2, 2011 | Family, Hobby, Humor, International, Kids, Life Lesson, Motherhood, New Zealand, Parenting
I have a perfect pantry. I have matching jars. I have matching baskets. There are shelves on which certain things sit. Together. It is small and perfectly formed. It is organised. It is tidy. It is utterly gorgeous. And it is the only place in our house like it.
You see, we are all project people. We have great ‘start-up’ abilities and not such good ‘follow through.’ We do finish things, but it takes longer than anyone else – because we tend to go off on tangents. We think we can multi-task when all evidence points to the contrary. This creates an interesting home.
Our kitchen, for example, took nine years for my husband to renovate, and the rest of the house is a work in progress. We walk around piles of tools, and bits of wood are stacked next to me as I type. Craig is an archer. Archery equipment does not fit tidily in neat rows. There are a variety of things which fall on my head when I get too close to his archery cupboard. Most of them sharp and pointy. (more…)
Karyn is a teacher, writer and solo mother to three sons. She lives in the sunny wine region of Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand in the city of Napier.
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Where in the world do you live?
