7. Having our kids grow up in the country.. If you haven’t worked it out yet, we are now living in a shed on a nice patch of dirt not far out of a lovely town in New Zealand. We feel so lucky to be able to offer a country childhood to our kids.

We have only been here a couple of months.. and often I think it’s far easier and more enjoyable for the kids than it is for the adults – especially mummy who has to soak and wash the three outfits they ruin daily, go round killing at least a hundred flies a day, and cook with a benchtop oven and camp stove – but the kids have enjoyed such a variety of experiences that they just would not have got in town.

In the last 2-3 weeks alone we’ve watched the tractors making hay bales (climbed all over hay bales), found out about clicker bugs (loved a number of poor clicker bugs to death), explored a local forest (hid rocks there too), meet a friendly eel (they don’t like cereal), played in the mud (hosed off all the mud), met some donkeys (and a baby donkey!), found out about mist (explored in the mist), and went to the local ‘field day’ show to see wood-chopping, animals and tractors galore.

The kids are just going to think this is normal, but for us, we know it’s a very different life than the one they’d have had if we stayed in our comfortable house in town.

Let’s just hope living in a shed doesn’t drive mummy mental in the meantime.. 😉