arrived

Disregard Milly's expression (taken at the McDonald's drive through two hours into the trip), it was a good trip over. The first time we have driven with the kids at night, and we will be doing it again. They listened to the audio book of Harry Potter, read, coloured in, ate Maccas, then fell asleep after three hours so Michael and I were left with a peaceful (although very rainy) drive over. By Saturday morning they were frolicking and have yet to stop.

flower friday

A bit late due to travel - Sam took this one which gives an exaggerated sense of its height, but the self seeded Queen Anne's Lace in both the front and back is taller than I am.

secrets and joy

I have just had a phone call to deliver news that has filled me with joy. True, incandescent happiness. So while I am normally horribly cynical about photos of allegedly cute kids and fluffy animals, this really does capture how I feel right now. Details to come later.

something

Look at this lovely lamp which doubles as a bookrest. I have added it to my list. The list is titled "things by which I am enthralled, that I may neither need nor attain, but are worth writing down regardless."(it is from here, but I first saw it here).

disco

We at number 55 are known for regularly pulling back the furniture and dancing with abandon. Russell and Amber have had a special invitation to the disco, my parents have experienced it as well. It is not pretty, Michael and I break out our 90's dance moves, the end result being we now dance like old people; the kids dance like crazy people. It is exhilarating and exhausting and often ends in tears with stepped on feet or bumped heads. On Saturday, when furniture was pulled back in preparation for furniture moving there was an impromptu daytime disco and some dancing like an Egyptian.

taste of home

When mum sends the kids a package she invariably puts in a couple of packets of Fruchocs for me. What are these Fruchoc of which I speak?

Made by Menz, they are balls of apricot covered in chocolate, truly spectacular morsels. I didn't know they were an Adelaide 'thing' until I moved here for love, not realising I was leaving them behind. I may have reconsidered had I known. They are delicious, my all-time favourite chocolate. When friends come over they bring me a bag or two and don't expect me to share (true friendship indeed). Mum sent a package for the kids two weeks ago and amongst the craft, books and $10 notes were two bags of Fruchocs.

They are in a jar on my desk, not many left now but when we get to Adelaide at the weekend I will replenish the supplies.

at the moment I am...

listening to...

The Dan in Real Life Soundtrack. Kym commented on my post about Crazy, Stupid, Love and reminded me of this film, which I saw years ago and loved. Michael and I rented it last week and it was as great as I remembered. Subsequently I bought the soundtrack and we've been playing it nonstop since. Instrumentals and songs, all by Sondre Lerche (a Norwegian artist I had never heard of - which means nothing given my scant music knowledge). It also has Pete Townsend singing Let my Love Open the Door and our personal family favourite - the film's cast singing "Ruthy Pigface Draper" which is from a scene in the film. The kids and I sing it at the top of our voices, then fall about laughing and congratulate ourselves on being so immensely hilarious.

needlecraft

With embroidery hoops, hessian, a large needle and variegated wool I am teaching Milly to sew, which she calls "needling". She was initally confused about sewing versus knitting, wondering why we were starting with only one needle.

milly...

playing barbies in the park. The room has been emptied in preparation for the new lounge suite - more on that later...

flower friday

Oriental Poppy - Papaver Orientale - in the front garden bed. These need lots of winter frost for them to flower on tall stems. This year I think we only had two proper frosts so the flowers are nestled deep down in the foliage. Which is sad as they are so beautiful and usually they are standing tall in my front garden. Regardless, the flowers are beautiful, just stumpy.

lamp

My latest find is a lovely lamp with a porcelain and timber base from one of the local op shops which I don't really enjoy too much as it is cavernous and highly organised. I prefer a crammed in, don't know what you will find at the back of the shelf oppie experience. I drove past it to get to a friend's house for lunch on Thursday and was rewarded with this treasure for $12 (electrician tested too, which is always a bonus).

playing hookey

Playing hookey, wagging, skiving off, escaping, slack attack, truanting - whatever you call it, I am doing it. I should be in Sam's classroom helping him and 19 other grade 1 and 2s with their Literacy while Milly is at kinder. Instead I am shaking out my fabric and starting to sew. Bad Mother example #762.

I am also planning dinner - tortellini with sage and pumpkin in a brown butter sauce from the first edition of the SBS Food magazine Feast. It is a great recipe - have you checked out the mag? (a hint - it will work with bought wonton wrappers if you can't be bothered making fresh pasta, I'll let you know what I decide, will depend if I get too absorbed in my sewing)

(and playing hookey is my personal favourite term for it - reminds me of my US author centric Judy Blume, Paula Danziger, Paul Zindel teenage reading).

florals

I think it may be time to blow the dust off the sewing machine and start sewing all my vintage sheet loveliness into a summer-weight quilt. No promises, but something needs to be done as I keep buying them. My basket is literally spilling over and the bottom drawer is over stuffed. (top pic from here)

seven

We are all exhausted, too exhausted to write anything of note. But take heed - we have a seven year old in the house and he is very, very happy.

Best quotes of the day- after opening his present, sincerely declaring: "My dream came true!" and when asked what the best thing about being 7 was: "I'm not on the bottom of the clock anymore" Huh?

And this is how you fall asleep after a day traipsing every level of the Aquarium, keeping up with your big brother and his friend...

sam's birthday treasure hunt clue

everyday is wash day

My life as a happy housewife has so far involved spending anywhere between 20 minutes and 2 hours of each day randomly tidying and cleaning. The randomness is dictated by whichever corner of dust and chaos calls loudest. I repeat this three days a week. Two days a week I work. Weekends we all have a flurry of Sunday afternoon activity to restore order. I vacuum almost every day.

Not any more. I have designated days for jobs. Tuesdays is bathrooms and toilets, Wednesday is mopping, Thursday is dusting and putting away any washing that hasn't been already dealt with in a timely manner (this is my Achilles heal of organisation - I hate folding hate laundry). Everyday is vacuuming and laundry - such is the fate of a woman who lives with dark carpets and kids who change clothes on the hour.

So far the new routine working. At some point in the week, everything is clean once; although never all at once. My house being clean from top to bottom on the same day is a forgotten dream. I reassure myself that in the not too distant future my house will be spotless. Of course this will be a direct result of the fact that the children will be locked in their rooms painting their fingernails black and telling strangers on facebook how much they hate me. Until that particular silver lining of a terrifying future cloud, I love that we have a happy house of a happy family. And it is rarely clean from top to bottom.

workers

I may have shirked responsibility this afternoon during the shoveling of soil from trailer to veggie bed. I was put in charge of the weber kettle with the sole aim of ensuring the meat was cooked within the desired timeframe, unlike Fathers' Day when we had (overcooked) lamb for dinner instead of the planned lunch. These duties meant I was unable to shoulder any of the shovelling duties. I am well pleased though, we have lamb for dinner, the tomaotoes, corn and sunflowers are planted in the bed and we managed a quiet Pimms on the verandah while the kids were in the bath. Achievement!

story telling, story writing

So it goes like this...

Sit together, one tells a story, the other writes the story.

Then the writer reads the story back to the teller.

Swap.

Ice cream eating: optional.

Not yet being able to read or write: irrelevant.

green

Yesterday we sat on the back steps and shelled peas. The plan was to eat them with lamb cooked over charcoal. The observant among readers will note the absence of a third bowl for the peas as they went straight from pod to mouths. It is slow going but gradually the list of vegetables Sam enjoys eating (rather than grudgingly gags down) is growing. Peas are the latest addition.

flower friday

Bearded Iris in the back garden. The white have flowered and now it is the turn of the purple. This is a plant I like more for their foliage than the flowers (which don't last long) as I think they are best en masse and I don't have surplus garden bed to surrender to their glory. They are pretty strewn through the back beds though, and Milly likes them.

garden update

At this time of year I like to take photos of the garden beds and borders every couple of weeks. I use them to make a record of when things are flowering, fruiting, dying and growing; this in turn gives me a way to plan the garden and feel like I have a system (when in reality I am quite haphazard).

It rained last night so everything is dewy and perky in the sunshine this morning - perfect conditions for botanical photography. I managed one shot of the kids' veggie patch before my battery died. So here are the carrots, beets, radishes and silverbeet. Noone eats the radishes but the kids love to grow them. We will thin them out soon and each pick two each. Then we have a competition to see who can grow the largest, knottiest, ugliest radish of them all. By January they are revoltingly huge, last year the winner was Sam with a radish almost as big as his head.

Now that Loula is finally coralled the peas are popping up unhindered. In the background is the tin foil spider on its wire web - made when the sparrows of the neighbourhood were treating the bed as a avian smorgasbord. Weirdly, it has worked and they have found somewhere else to forage.

Once the batteries are charged I will be out there snapping the purple bearded iris, aquilegia, sedum, stipa, bonariensis .... the list goes on ... rest assured, even without photographic evidence, the garden is popping right now.

back to the routine

Holidays are over and Sam is back at school. I worked yesterday but today is the start of three "you and me days" (as Milly calls them) before I return to work again on Friday. We decided to celebrate by having a tea party morning tea. We set the table for spring, Milly picked flowers, and our centrepiece was a vintage zinc chocolate mould rabbit and egg (another gift from Amber).

Don't be fooled though - it's been a hectic morning, Sam was at the doctor at 8am after a sleepless asthma-ey night (no chest infection), I have reignited my push to get reports written as last week both the software and network failed me so the deadline passed me by. Luckily as I was not at fault, I have an extension but today really is the day.

jubilation beats melancholy

The last day of holidays is renown for the sense of melancholy it brings me. That I only work two days a week is irrelevant. There are many occasions when I actually love my work, but this is disregarded. Since I started teaching in 1995 the last day of holidays is gloomy and full of wist.

The best plan is for Michael to tease me about it and for me to take proactive action: find an activity that is completely distracting and foolproof (reading is good, sewing is not - too much potential for mistakes and frustration); surround myself with loveliness (the garden works a treat, my refurbished front room is another panacea); eat good food (a glass of wine or two never goes astray). In the evening if the disconsolation ovewhelms, go to a 9pm movie and escape before lying awake into the early morning thinking through the first days' lessons.

Today I had the garden, sunshine, David Sedaris (a guaranteed fabulous, escapist read), the back garden and a diet coke (little early for alcohol) - quite the set up. It was just starting to work when Milly joined me and decided to practice her leaping. A little hard to fight the unrestrained happiness of a 4 year old.

Then it started to rain, we came inside and I need to start all over again...

vase (and a birthday present)

Last week I found this German pottery vase from the corner oppie for $10 and I am very happy with it. I see a lot of German pottery in op shops but always browns and burnt oranges and that is never going to work in my house. A white one is a rare prize. This photo also gives you a look at my birthday present from Amber - a beautiful origami ball made from pages of an old atlas. It arrived in the post a few days before my birthday and I was a little perplexed at what the box contents would be - it is the size of a volleyball and weighs next to nothing but has a lovely tactile sturdiness to it. A superb gift, as usual - she has never been known to get it wrong.

72 hours

It has been 330 hours since I left school for the holidays. In 72 hours my reports are due "on the network" - A phrase that is used every term and invokes a sense of doom - the implication being that I can have my reports written but if the network struggles on Monday morning then I will be deemed to have not met the deadline. Of course, the network struggles every term.

So I am about to retire to my office and not emerge until all reports are written. I am thinking that if I had a nice little house in the grounds of my sprawling residence (akin to the photo above) I would have retreated days ago and have them done.

Until then... Carol is able to produce high quality work, however, improvement in her time management skills could see her achieve this without the stress caused by her tendency to procrastinate. I challenge her to see what dizzy heights she could reach were she to make full use of the time allocated; at the very least she would experience a greater sense of satisfaction were she able to submit tasks with time to spare.

holiday

I think a tour of the bakeries of Europe could be my dream holiday. From Kilkee, County Clare in Ireland, to the ubiquitous boulanger in Paris, journey east to a German backerei. Iwould restrict my stopovers to only very beautiful establishments and have no need for pastries, just bread - in all its forms. All I would need to pack is a butter knife and as many lovely gold and blue rolls of Lescure french butter as I could carry.

In the meantime, I am wondering if it is worth the 2 hour return journey to Glicks Bakery in Melbourne for a loaf or two of Challah tomorrow?

blah kind of day

I had the kind of day that felt like absolutely no progress was made, exacerbated by the fact I kept thinking that I was on the cusp of achieving something. It would have been better if I had given up early and spent the day reading in the garden. Instead I rushed around purposefully, achieving nothing. We did manage a batch of thumbprint biscuits and finally discovered Lula's (aforementioned chicken) escape route (after a 20 minute stakeout). By the time a friend rang for a chat at 4:30 I was grateful to be rescued from myself.

good film

A required outing for my holidays is to see a film and after a false start (either 35 minutes late or 2 hours early, depending on your view) I saw Crazy, Stupid, Love yesterday. I laughed so much I thought I added marvelously to the 'crazy woman on her own in the cinema' allure I had going on. It was surprisingly busy and seems to be the date movie of choice for the groovy late teens - kinda cute seeing them canoodling. As for the film - completely loved it and all who dwelled in it. Ryan Gosling's abdomen was startlingly distracting and can not go with out a mention - it was akin to a piece of abstract art, I kept looking at it, thinking how amazing it was but knowing I would never want it in my house.

Go see it.

bangalow beauty

This was my major purchase on my trip away. Six lovely steel markers, bought in Bangalow. Actually this is an instance where it is hard to describe something that appeals to me in a way that convinces anyone of their beauty. You will either 'get it' and see how lovely they are. Or you will have furrowed brows and a cocked head thinking "Has she gone mad?" "What the hell are those things?" Or, as I predict will be my Dad's response: "Did she pay for them?"

Luckily I have never relied on the opinions of others to be convinced that my taste is splendid. I love them and this week we are hoping the weather warms up again so we can celebrate the arrival of daylight savings with an early evening game of boules on the back lawn using them as markers. What do you think of them?

fowl behaviour

Today's only agenda was the completion of some well overdue maintenance on the chook pen. Our two Isa Brown chickens live happily in their enclosure but our smallest chicken (Lula) has been escaping regularly. Part of her escape has been to pillage the seedlings and seeds lovingly planted in the small vegie bed. In truth, they were initially planted lovingly, by the third replanting we were grumpily sticking them into the soil muttering about chicken soup and rationalising that as the smallest of our chickens she is the least prolific layer and gives us smaller eggs - ergo she is dispensable. The only thing in her favour is that it could be argued that she has some innate good sense as she has repeatedly left the radishes alone, the only non-cloched seedlings that she ignores. Lettuce, coriander, rocket, peas, parsley, all devoured. Something had to be done.

At a family meeting to discuss the situation I channeled the Yorkshire Famer from Chicken Run and suggested we kill her off. No-one was impressed but my suggestion had the desired effect of the kids becoming highly motivated to do some work to help secure the boundaries and keep her enclosed. We had a few false starts but it seems that we have had some success. I am still expecting to wake tomorrow to see her scratching among the seedlings with her tail in the air as a kind of feathered F-You. Time will tell.