Category: Our Family

It Starts with Enid Blyton

Another *new* “series”. I’ve finally started reading the bigger books to the children. I attempted to do this earlier, but Gunther’s attention span was not quite up to it. We have been living without a TV fairly consistently lately, it’s probably been out a total of three times over this past month, so our new family tradition has been to read these books aloud together. Sophia reads us her home readers (her reading is improving leaps and bounds, I hardly need to read the books to her first) and I read a chapter of our big book and maybe a couple of smaller books.

I am faced with a bit of a booky dilemma. I have far too many. A clear out is (again) definitely in order. These things are so hard, but I am feeling the need (again) to be more unencumbered by stuff and will (again) have to watch our stuff intake so that we inadvertently accumulate more before we head off on our round-Australia trip which is still very much on the cards.

And…actually…I can’t wait. My desire is to get out into this wide land faced only with nature alongside only my two children and my husband. I am a real family girl and, at the moment, this is all I crave!

The books!

We started with The Enchanted Wood which is actually the first in Enid Blyton’s Faraway Tree series. I thought this would be a good one to test the waters with Gunny’s attention span. There are beautiful illustrations, but not too many, at least one a spread, but the length of the chapters helped to stretch Gunther a little and he is doing well with the books we have now moved on to. Miss Enid definitely wrote for children. Some of the language I found a little tedious to read through, a lot of unnecessary detail (and the language slightly archaic) but the children latched onto each word and I think it really helped them to ‘see’ the pictures in their heads.

Next we read The Adventures of Binkle and Flip, another Enid Blyton classic.

They are two ‘naughty’ bunnies, who always get into mischief, but are well meaning and quite harmless. I like how Enid Blyton managed to create naughty characters who children could relate to without painting them as totally dark, but instead a mixture of clever, silly, dumb, inconsiderate, mischievous, loving, caring, helpful, bored etc. I really enjoyed reading this to the kids, but by the end was ready to head out of Enid Blyton’s ideal, imagined, rather fluffy world, into something slightly more real.

We are currently into the Swiss Family Robinson and I’ll report back once we’re done. I am so far loving the language, though occasionally it is a bit too mature for the children to grab onto, still they listen and remember the story line, which I quiz them on every now and then.

September 7, 2014
May Morning

May Mornings blow the air off the snow around about and bring the first, promising, chill of Winter.

I am thrilled.

A day begun well enough, with porridge and foggy windows which revealed hidden handprints and sifted the light through our bamboo forest. The kids often paint in their books in the morning and this morning practiced their target practice with the bamboo bows and arrows I made them. They actually work, but they will not last long, still totally renewable and not a milligram of plastic in sight! That’s my kind of toy. The later half of this day was spent in bed watching Pride and Prejudice as I’ve lately had the flu and was fading fast…so it actually ended pretty well too!

A capsicum from our garden – did not get enough sun to bloom red.

This boy cuddles legs. He injects love and sunshine into our lives.

This little girl loves the industry of painting, the only problem – her paints do not last long.

The ‘burbs.

Mm, here’s a handiwork. I’ve been making planters with coconut shells, this one’s new and is an ‘upside down planter’. Very nifty. I’ll see how it goes.

May 4, 2014
Painting the Bus – midway

So, I can’t quite say ‘phew’ with a brush to the past, as we are as yet only halfway.

These past few weeks we have been, shoulders first, forging into a fog of paint. Finally, though, the largest chunk is behind us, and with imperfections everywhere we have simply pressed on to three coats later.

Next to come ‘Deep Ocean’ strips across the top and bottom and our lovely, shiny chrome back on.

Above are all ‘before’ (or more accurately, prepping as this has been etch primed).

Following are ‘midway’ three coats of ‘Spanish Quarter Cream’ topcoat. Without the plastic (shame) it is sharper, but still naked. I can’t wait to dress it up!

This poor man has been absolutely hard at it and is pretty tuckered out and therefore he deserves his very own corner of our house to dedicate to his music. His ‘man corner’ in lieu of a ‘man cave’.

May 1, 2014
Soph Turns 5

I managed to pull together a small party for Sophia a couple of weekends ago. We always seem to be busy around her birthday. This past one we we traveled to Wagga and then Canberra in the weekend, so I deliberately kept the party size manageable.

I really love to cater a party all on my own. I like the food to all be complimentary and according to my tastes, I like to serve people new things that they might not have tried before, my version of food – and then I like the idea of getting the same when other’s hold parties.

However, reality intervenes and my ideal isn’t realised very often, so another great and equally good option is to ask people to bring something to share and few friends helped me out this time (thanks Julie, Keren & Fi – my homies!)

I think the kids loved it. It was themed ‘Magical Forest Party’ and they spent a lot of time running around in the trees.

Later in Young we had a small party with the other side of the family, which my beautiful SIL, Glenda, made so lovely, and Sophia’s thrown-together mushroom cake received a reincarnation as a Number 5 cake.

Note on decorations: Not quite as many or exactly how I imagined these. They were supposed to be mushrooms, but Sophia had a hand in them and I don’t know what I’d call them now (‘Pretty, trippy, bally things’?). My favourite thing about these is that they are totally recyclable, in fact I’ve already recycled the felt balls into a necklace and the string into bracelets for some clay beads we made, only the paper tops had to go into the recycling bin, but I intend to get/make a paper making kit and then I can DIY it all!

Felt is a wonderful medium which can be almost endlessly reused/recycled and comes from a completely renewable source. I’m thinking of doing more around it (I get totally frustrated with all those craft projects out there which require buying plastic doovas which can only end up in the bin once you are sick of it. Anyway, watch this space, maybe during Uni break!!)

Our hoard: When did this happen? (Absent: Hector, Dulcie, Michael & Emerald)

Following face guaranteed when a Pinata is involved:

April 15, 2014
The Bus in Pictures

We have been working on getting the bus painted and sealed before Winter sets in, but it seems every time we go to do something we end up completely detoured and working on something else. We knew this side would be a problem and it has been. Henry has had to cut out a lot of the steel frame, which has been bent up and bashed a bit, he will have to weld in some new steel. Meanwhile, while we had the frame ripped out, he decided to refurb the fuel tank and retro fit the grey water tank and so we have been doing that all week. The fuel tank is red for speed…or danger.

The grey water tank is not finished yet. It was fitted out beautifully, but then we realised there was no drop between the inlet hole and the shower drain hole…and water doesn’t really flow uphill – according to the laws of physics…or so Henry tells me (not really, I’m not that dumb, promise!). So we will have to redo that.

Meanwhile, instead of getting depressed about it all, we installed the drain holes in the shower and basically one-third of all our plumbing. (When I say ‘we’ I mean Henry does about 85% of the work and I just pass him the drill.)

On the homefront (mostly only mornings and nights are spent at ‘home’) it’s funny learning more about your children as they change and grow over the days/months/years. Gunther has learnt that he really likes snuggling and so a few times Soph helps him bring his bed into the living area and he snuggles on the floor. Yes, I know, cute.

And Sophia is picking up photography, as no doubt all of her generation will, this was only the second attempt and, sure thing, I am in focus! However she asked me to do it one more time as my hand was ‘in the way’ (she’s already considering composition), but that third attempt – definitely not in focus.

April 8, 2014
Camping with the Ladies

I am part of a great group of buddies, the male half of which get an annual itching to go hiking for a few days. The itch occurs around January of each year and all at once a hike is planned, Henry dehydrates his famous spaghetti bolognaise and the women and children are left to figure out what to do. Alas, hiking for a bunch of ladies with tiny tots does not really figure into any equation and while we talk about ‘one day’ doing our own little hike, that probably won’t happen for a few more years at least. In the past the guys have hiked in and around the ACTs own Namadgi National Park and the Snowy Mountains, this time they decided to do a hike from the top of Clyde Mountain down to the Coast and so this was a perfect opening for mums and children to do their own little camping trip.

However.

It was the Australia Day long weekend and I think it is perhaps the busiest day for camping on the South Coast for the whole year, so good luck booking a place. We had to take our chances with one of the ‘first in best served’ campsites. I settled on one we have been to before. I arrived on Friday night in the middle of a steady drizzle, found a great secluded campsite (quite hidden, so it was one of the few remaining campsites left) and set up two tents on my own with wet kids to deal with. It was a bit of a saga, but nothing you can’t laugh about, KerenM had her baby to feed, KerenN got lost (actually we all got lost) and went all the way to Ulladulla and Julie arrived at about 9pm but in the end we all were fed with kids in bed by 10pm. Fiona and Jen arrived the next day and with kids we made 13. Girls, if you’ve never gone camping without the guys don’t let it phase you, it’s actually very easy, especially when you are all together helping eachother, which we were. Together we celebrated ‘Little Hannah’s’ birthday with a treasure hunt and cake before all the kids sort of caved to tiredness and had some meltdowns! We discovered ‘Mermaid Cove’ and even found an Octopus and a few fish together. We went to the beach often, the mums taking turns to have a dip, and the kids hardly able to be torn from either the sand or the water.

I was very impressed that we managed to pull it together and have a relaxing camping holiday without any men to chop our firewood and pitch our tents, though of course we were all pretty happy when they dragged themselves out of the bush a few days later to the comfort of our very pretty campsite. It was a great last hurrah to the Summer holidays and I’m so glad we all made the effort to get down to the beach together.

This is how dirty children can get when camping…not all of them do, I’m sure.

Just for fun, here are the boys pre and post hike. It changed their lives.

Pre:

Post:

February 20, 2014
Persistence

Let me share and record here some words of Kevin McCloud which could easily apply to us:

“I did think that (So & So) wouldn’t get this far. I thought they were far too inexperienced and far too reckless with their money. But then inexperience and recklessness are the two main requirements for the classic, Eccentric Adventurer…and that’s who they are. They have that single-mindedness. They have the stamina to continually redefine what it is exactly that they want and they are always willing to have a go. Of course they’ll finish this place. Of course they’ll live here happily. It’s a beautiful house and it reflects the quirky, curvy people they are.”

I am finding new encouragement in Kevin McCloud’s Grand Designs. I see people there pursuing similar goals to ours. I see people undecided on the details because they respect their building enough to try to get those details absolutely right, there is a kind of love investment in their work. Sometimes the money and the time it takes to get those things right does not matter because the alternative is to either do it shoddily or give up and neither of those are options.

The ethos of these people inspires me. One guy: “It was never built as a money making scheme. It was built to be a sort of experiment in, you know, life.”

And that is one side of the coin. It is playing around with the options life offers us, it is also creating and investing something into this world that, hopefully, will prove worthwhile on some level. I like the fact that we are doing something different. I hate that it is taking so long, but all that disappears when we are on our bus, building it or discussing the details and redefining our objective.

Our living arrangements have recently changed, but our focus is still centered around our bus and getting it finished and finishing it well. Juggling parenting with this project is a major challenge, but we are hoping our new move into a rental in Young will enable more routine and some family time away from the bus. We are aiming for more structure in 2014 and embracing new beginnings.

I won’t pretend this last 10months hasn’t been difficult. It’s been bloody hard. I have felt (at varying times) trapped, frustrated, angry, irritated, controlled, disrespected and all sorts of things like that. At the same time Henry and I have drawn closer than we ever have before and even though I was often frustrated at him (and he at me) we have worked through every instance of that, communicated and moved on. We have held fast to each other as no one else was around to take our loads, so supporting each other through this tricky time has been incredibly good for our relationship.

I would not recommend living with other people (especially with young children) for such an extended period. Kids can be confronting and tiring, particularly to older people. Most people do need space, I’ve learnt that, at least!

February 10, 2014
Last day of infancy

Sophia’s launch into school means we enjoyed her last day of infancy (for lack of a better term – though I guess this is as correct as any). I thought it was important to do something special to mark this day and so we went along to Weston Park in Canberra. I am so glad this park remains, thriving well into the 21st century. It is a very solid park and has remained uniquely popular over many decades. I remember there used to be an old ‘mouse house’, a large cubby house with tunnels and nooks and windows in all sorts of places. I remember crawling through these along with hoards of other children, I was very sad to learn it had been torn down, but the decision to keep this water park was welcomed. I have a photo of me at my first birthday sitting in the central ‘bird bath’ and I took a photo of Gunther on his first birthday also in the bird bath. On this visit I noticed half of the bird bath had fallen (or been torn) off, the only significant damage done in all these years.

The wading pool has also been rejuvenated with a new path and sculptures and a slight redesign. When we were there we were the only ones (as ACT schools had gone back that day, we had one more day to go in NSW) and so explored the new features happily.

I only had my phone on me at the time (as it’s often welcome to have a break from lugging my big camera around), so phone pics are all I have today.

February 8, 2014
First Day of School

It took me a while to make the decision to send Sophia to school. I mulled over maturity issues and listening and obedience issues, I thought about her learning ability, about how clever she is, I decided yes then no then finally and definitively, yes again. When she spelt out my brother-in-laws name all by herself and wrote it down for him E-L-E-I-T (Elliot) I knew I had to send her. She was ready. That other stuff would have to work itself out.

Since that time at Christmas the enrollment process was a breeze, the teachers and admin staff all delightful and we found the right school for us. Funnily enough she is in the same classroom that Henry was in as a Kindergartener. Twenty-four years ago to the day Sophia walked up the same steps Henry walked up as a 5 year old, on his birthday.

We got her dressed and I packed as nutritious and exciting a lunchbox as I could think of. Gluten-free school lunches are a bit tricky. She had salmon, cucumber, carrot and mayonnaise rice paper rolls, seeds and dried fruit, a peach, cheese cubes and for recess natural yoghurt and berries.

Here she is, ready to take on the school.

And up those steps to her classroom. Good luck my big girl!

February 5, 2014
Camping at Christmas

Our Summer holidays camping, in which my hair bleached many shades lighter, we bonded with wildlife, relaxed in our new/old tent, read books, fried in the sun, adopted our summer skins,tried fishing, collected a couple of mussels, explored rock pools, ate only the foods we liked, welcomed cousins/family, went blueberry picking on a sweltering summer’s day in which my bag strap melted onto my top, drove down dusty roads, discovered elfin rain forest from the Gondwanan era & just enjoyed being a family all together and also, importantly, on our own, just us.

January 3, 2014