Yes Thanks Frog

No news is good news

2011-11-05T09:34:00.000-07:00

So it's been awhile. Hi. Nice to see you here. Sorry I haven't written for so long. I'm a bit like that.

For what we've been up to since I wrote last, check out Nick's blog. He is a prolific picture poster too, so that's a bonus.

Long story short: we moved in with Grizzly and Sunny (and their village of kids) at the end of July. We laid out our tiny cob house plan, dug the foundation trench, laid down drainage pipe and gray water pipe, laid gravel, obtained truckloads of rocks from a local quarry, built the foundation, and started cobbing!... and then the rains came. We hung up a giant tarp to cover the building site and protect it through the winter, but it's too cold to cob now. So we're taking a cobbing hiatus until spring. In the meantime, it is an amazing place to hang out, all protected from the rain, interesting rocks everywhere. It looks a bit like an excavation site for a thousand year old house. Awesome. So that's what's going on with the cob house. Come spring, we'll be ready to cob. We have (literal) tons and tons of sand, clay and soil and a bit of straw. We have our two doors and myriad windows (we still need at least 3 little interesting windows for the kids' rooms). We have loads of people who want to help us make cob and throw it onto the walls. We're set. Just waiting on Mother Nature, and that's just fine.

Our free-range kids are loving life. We're taking a break from Village (where they took classes last year) due to financial and geographical constraints, and everyone is fine with that- it's nice to not have to be anywhere. There are lots of kids around to play with, and our kids are really thriving. We have a real village going on now. We have friends that come up to stay sometimes - our gorgeous friend Corry brings her kids and her dog and then camps out in the kitchen making amazing food for the crew and our village expands for a few days. Life is good. We have found that living with a lot of people is easy if everyone is honest and straightforward with each other all of the time. Everyone wants to be happy, so it works.

We spend most of our time at home, working on projects and getting into routines. Nick and I have discovered a wonderful dynamic: I am a really great starter of things and he's a very efficient long-term doer. I get interested in a subject that I know will enhance our lives (like sprouting, making nut milks, aromatherapy), get a bunch of books from the library and read 1/10th of each of them, buy the supplies we'll need, then get started. Then I kind of drop off. And then, if it was something Nick agreed was awesome while it lasted, he'll pick up the reins, make some improvements, and carry on. Every day, that guy makes almond milk for a huge household. He soaks and sprouts beans for huge batches of food to feed the village. He makes amazing raw vegan smoothies for the kids. He sprouts alfalfa and red clover and broccoli and fenugreek seeds so that we can have leafy greens with every meal. He's a dude. And he does it all with a smile on his face. Love that amazing man.

I am currently in the running for an office position at an amazing gentle birth center near our home (well, as near as anything really gets - we're way out there). It would be 3 days a week, and I would spend my days surrounded by pregnancy and birth and midwives and babies! I'm almost too excited and hopeful to mention it in case I don't get it, but I'm perfect for the position and it is perfect for me, so I kind of think it must be mine. I should know this week. Wish me luck!!

And in more news... Nick and I have a new venture. Check out our Etsy store and think of us for your holiday shopping! After I sign off here, I'll be working on some more items to add to our store, so check back often.

That's it for now. Lots of love to everyone out there!

Homesteading

2011-06-14T10:14:00.000-07:00

Another weekend up at the farm, and a lot of decisions were made. Good stuff.

So our home site is no longer our home site. We checked out the septic plan, and we would have been building on top of the leach field, or whatever it's called. Not awesome for a house (or for any structure that requires digging, since there are pipes down there). However, we already mostly cleared the area, so we decided to full-steam ahead and do a controlled burn of the felled blackberry brambles. Smoky work.

When one door closes, another opens. Turns out this area is going to be our animal garden! We plan to fence this area and put in a hen house and a goat shelter. In one of the "how to raise your own laying flock" books I checked out from the library, there was a picture of a happy chicken pecking at some huge zucchini. I'm excited to learn more about chickens and goats and their nutritional needs. I know the chickens will be stoked about the abundance of worms here.

Grizzly and Sunny (The Friends) had already cleared a bunch of poison oak, but it was seriously rampant. Grizzly decided to set out with the whipper snipper to avoid more contact. He was able to clear the whole proposed garden site and our new proposed home site, which will be right next to the garden.

Sunny and I spent some time turning over the ground in the little garden cage (DEER!). Hard work. Super hard. Clay!

Since the master plan is to extend the garden to cover this whole area (probably 6-8 times the size of the cage), and since we discovered how beautiful the area behind it could be for a home site (beautiful southern exposure), we decided that we should just get some kind of tiller in there and do the whole job at once. We'll need to improve the soil with some sandy loam and/or compost, so we'll till it in. Grizzly is working on securing a tiller, and Nick and I are looking into frugal fencing options. Grizzly had the brilliant idea to tie some cob work into the fencing for artistic/reinforcement/practice purposes. That will be our opportunity to discover our own perfect cob recipe! Exciting.

Sunny and I discovered (and have yet to explore in depth because we were without machetes) a Faerie Forest. Seriously, it's magic back there. Stoked.

My amazing uncle sent me this link to an article about an urban homesteader. How inspiring! I love that he read that article and thought of me.

So, what else is there in news from the home front? The kids were pretty bummed to come back, especially Eli. He did not want to leave the farm. I did my best to explain to him that we're going to spend a few days at home working on stuff for next weekend, and then we'll be back up there in a few days, but he was just plain sad. He woke up this morning telling me he wants to go back to Grizzly's house. In 6 weeks time, we'll be up there full time. Until then, we'll work on patience.

Negatives to Positives

2011-06-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

I started a post a couple of weeks ago about the troubles I was coming up against in the parenting realm. It was all negative and no hope or solutions. I just finally decided to delete it the other day.

Lately, my interactions with my kids have been a dream come true. Nate has been going out of his way to be helpful. His emotions have been so manageable for him, even when Maya has been super grumpy in his direction - usually he explodes right back in anger (or maybe passionate sadness?), but lately he has been really compassionate and able to just let it roll off of him. It has been amazing.

Maya is really an amazing person to have in my life. I have discovered that I take her for granted sometimes, because most of the time she is so easygoing and positive and sort of sets the tone; when she's not, I really notice because things get, well, hard. I'm working on being more attentive and affectionate with her during her happy, easygoing, seemingly well-adjusted periods so that she never feels like she needs to "act out" to get my attention.

Eli. He's a kid! The baby stuff is all dropping off of him, and fast. He is getting so good at vocalizing his feelings and needs and wants instead of doing the babyish demanding stuff. He is getting into doing things for himself, and that is super fun. He is just about 3 1/2, and he is figuring out just how capable he is.

Life is so good.

MACHETE!

2011-06-10T12:26:00.000-07:00

I already knew exactly where our home site should be, but Nick was a bit unimpressed by the blackberry brambliness of said location. But then, you know, we checked it out. And my place turned out to be the place. Well-drained, lots of winter sun, access to the septic tank, almost as much space as we feel like clearing.

Nick got right out there.

He carved out a path, then a big ring around the outside, then savaged the middle. He made it look easy. The kids watched from a safe distance. (The area in the middle is the cleared area. It was all more or less level with the stuff around it.)

Late in the afternoon, the littler two kids got hungry, and I brought them inside to clean up and eat. Nate seized the opportunity to ask his dad if he could have a go with a machete. And because Nick is awesome, he said of course. Check out my boy, the wilderness tamer. It looks like quite a feat.

Yes, I had to have a turn. And I'm a bit of a dork.

I haven't really ever spent any time on any project similar to this one. Like, not at all. I haven't "cleared land" since I was a little kid with a big stick in the "Ghoulie Forest" in my apartment complex. But it certainly looked fun. I went in hard, and after about 40 seconds I was pretty sure I was done for the day. Once I got into a rhythm though, it was really, really fun. Super rewarding, progress easily measured with the eye. I hacked for a few hours, using muscles I didn't know I had, until my hands could no longer grip the machete.

The next day, Nick got back out there and cleared for a few more hours. For the most part, the area looks like blackberry bushes shredded on the ground. We're hoping that when we go back, it will all be really deadened and flat so that we can clear it all out and start to level.

I decided to work on some steps down to our home site! The hill isn't super steep, but if we're spending all summer walking up and down, it will be a slippery slope. That was my day 2 project.

Can't wait to get back out there and hang out in the backyard.

Tornado

2011-06-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

On May 22nd, Joplin MO was hit by a devastating tornado. According to cbsnews.com, it was the "deadliest single U.S. twister in more than six decades."

That night, my sister Laura called me from the Joplin Walmart with a shaky voice. The roof had just been torn off while she and her family looked up into the eye of the F5 tornado that roared above them like a horrific monster. She didn't know yet if she still had a house, or if all of her loved ones were alive.

Since the tornado, Laura and her partner Toby have been working tirelessly to help their friends and their devastated city. The high school my niece was going to start at in the fall is flattened. Their grandparents' house is gone. Everyone in the city knows someone who is either homeless or dead. I'm floored at the destruction. Watching this video, I feel so incredibly grateful that my family is safe.

Laura had saved up a few thousand bucks to come out to Oregon/Idaho for a family reunion this summer. We were all (and I mean ALL - aunts and uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews, sisters and brothers-in-law, and my dear mom) looking so forward to seeing her and her girls, and meeting Toby. Most of us haven't seen her since at least 2005, and for a lot of the family it has been longer.

Laura's car was destroyed in the tornado. She'll receive an insurance check probably, at some point, but it won't help her get here next month. She had to use some of her savings to buy herself a new (to her) car which still needs a little bit of work before it can go on a long journey. Toby has been spending his days helping people who have lost their homes - doing handyman work (for free), transporting and storing things, trying to help people find things they need. As it looks now, they aren't going to be able to re-save enough money to replace what they have lost through this tornado. Without help, they won't be able to come out. According to Laura's calculations, they need about $1000 more to be able to get here (and back).

So here's the dealio. I want to help them out! I know so many generous souls, and there are so many people who love Laura that I know would be willing to help. Here's a list of what they will need in order to get here:

~ gas cards
~ restaurant gift cards
~ motel vouchers? They'll need a stop each way.
~ cash.

Any ideas, leads, or straight-up donations would be much appreciated!!

I love you Laura, and I can't wait to see you.

And now for something completely different...

2011-06-09T20:10:00.000-07:00

Things are better than they have ever been. Life is amazing.

We have been trying out how to make this happiness sustainable. We have been blessed to have not had to work very much since we've been in the US, and because of that time together we are learning and discovering the most interesting things, fully self-lead discovery. Nick thought that he didn't like to learn new things, but he is discovering new interests and ways to explore them. He is, truly, a new man.

The conversation about income had to happen at some point. We do still live in "the real world" after all. We only needed to talk a little bit about the subject to come to the conclusion that since life was feeling so just right already, our answer must be to be doing what we're doing already, but on a commercial scale. For example, we're loving getting into frugal, super wholesome eating. We are sprouting all kinds of legumes and our staples are fresh daily almond milk and wholegrain organic spelt bread. Nick loves all of his kitchen processes, and he loves sharing all of our amazing food with people. Surely we could find a way to do what we're already doing and find a way to make some money from it.

Our idea was to get a small farm thing going on. We both want to work, neither of us are averse to earning our keep, but it's super important to us to do this on our own terms. For us, we need to be close to our children, and the children could fully and happily participate in a small farm operation. We could finally start to grow our own and work towards the self-sustainability we have been talking about for years. Maybe we could even progress to an on-site cafe/restaurant - completely farm to table. Nick would love that.

I got very, very excited about this farm idea. The main obstacle was, again, the money stuff. So we don't have the money and we don't want to have a mortgage. How on earth were we going to find ourselves the 5 acres we decided we would need to start a small farm? We were optimistic that just the right thing would happen. We waited it out.

Enter The Friends. The Friends live on 5 acres in McMinnville. Between them, they have a bunch of kids and a huge desire to homestead, and not nearly enough time or human-power. They are looking for community, self-sustainability, healthy vibrant lives, and natural upbringings for their children. We mentioned our farm idea, and we spent a few weekends out playing with them, exchanging visions and ideas, and experiencing such peace while the kids were blissfully outside in fresh air and dirt for days. We all, almost shockingly quickly, decided that the very best idea would be that we share their 5 acres with them and do the farm thing there.

We will need a dwelling, and that money issue still exists, so we easily landed on cob building. Our research immediately reinforced that decision. (Check some of it out; I'll throw up some links at the end.) Cob is easy: anyone can do it and it is safe for kids. It is very cheap, being made from the soil we will accumulate when we clear the land, clay which is abundant there, sand and straw. It is a real physical effort which I can only imagine will mean that it will be incredibly rewarding. We can incorporate passive solar to efficiently use the sun to heat our house, solar panels for power, rainwater tanks for water. What an experience it will be. I mean geez, imagine designing your own house, quirks and all, from the earth up. Cob requires a good solid roof and a good solid foundation, and all of the information one could possibly need or desire is available on the internet. People who take on cob building projects clearly love the process so much that they have to share it all, because their stories are everywhere. The fact that so many people seem to add extensions to their houses every year makes me feel so excited to get started.

We already spent a weekend out there starting to clear the land. We go back out this weekend to really get down to business with land-leveling and gardening. I can't wait.

Stay tuned...

Meka's Cob Cottage

Another random 'building with cob' video

Cob Wiki article

greenbuildingelements.com

The Year of Mud

Nate the Night Owl

2011-06-07T10:08:00.000-07:00

We have finally let go of a "bed time" for Nate.

So many things have been changing around here. We have been implementing a lot of the parenting ideals we have aspired to since we became parents. One of those things has been to (finally) respect Nate's body clock and let him stay up with us until he's ready to go to bed. Most nights.

The thing that really made this easy was that Nick and I don't watch TV anymore! We have a TV, and it has never been hooked up to cable (or even the antenna), but we still downloaded shows that we wanted to watch, and most nights we were both home, we would watch some shows after the kids went to bed. Lately though, life has been super interesting, and we have been reading and talking and listening to music instead. When Nate started asking to just hang out instead of going to bed, we had no reason to say no!

Sometimes we do feel like watching a movie that we think might be too adult or intense for him, and we ask him to go read in bed instead of read hanging out with us. Now that we're showing him so much more respect, he is happy to head off to bed early when we ask him to on occasion, and he completely understands because he has no desire to watch a movie that is going to scare him. Win-win.

Usually he reads, if we're reading. Or he'll chat, if we're chatting. Or if everyone is kind of doing their own thing, he might get a bit more creative and build an epic marble run, or draw a picture.

Bottom line: Nate is rad and I love having him around.

Pictures!

2011-05-06T12:26:00.000-07:00

Finally, pictures!

This is from my birthday back in March. Our new roomie Jon had just moved in! Here are the kids watching him lighting the cake:

An adorable girl waiting for some birthday song singing action:

And Jon enjoying some delicious vegan cake!

Mom and Poppy:

Cold April day at the Oregon coast:

Cute boys chillin with a loved-up dog:

Nate working hard at OMSI (Exhibit A: "Thinking Tongue" protruding from mouth):

These are from up at our friends' place. They are on five beautiful acres and have six kids between them, so it's a lively group with us there too! Super fun tree swing:

Best dad ever:

FREEDOM!!!

He may not look too impressed, but he would sit there all day long:

Mmmm, waffles!

Magic eyeballs!

Thanks for checking out my beautiful family. Happy spring to you fellow northern hemispherians! Hemispherites?

Ahhh, spring...

2011-05-04T19:46:00.000-07:00

Phew, taking a minute (or ten) to sit down and post an update for our beloved family and friends who wonder what's going on in our lives!

The biggest change in the last few months is that our friend Jon has moved in with us! It is awesome having him here. We have the same kinds of thoughts on intentional communities (which is that we love them and want to be part of one) and have high hopes to be in a village-y sort of situation in the very near future. Our mutual friend has some land and a genuine desire to share it, so we're exploring that option and reading up on cob building, solar power, large-scale gardening, composting toilets, keeping a house cow, and breeding alpacas. We would love to grow to be self-sustaining as quickly as possible. It is all very exciting, and my sincere intention is to keep my blog all up to date, especially if we embark on any new big projects!

I am halfway through my first term back to school, and I'm loving being a student again. I definitely need to get a bit better at starting assignments closer to the time they are assigned rather than waiting until the day before they are due, but other than that I'm on the right track. If all goes to plan, I have one year of prerequisites to take and then I can start at Birthingway College of Midwifery!

The two older kids are still taking a few classes at the homeschooling resource center and they love them! (Eli isn't quite interested enough yet.) Between them they have Lego club, chess club, organic gardening, cooking, folk tales from around the world, detective agency, and other fun stuff. The families we know from that place are so wonderful. It's a good place to hang out!

Stay tuned for some photos!

Teaser

2011-03-26T09:20:00.001-07:00

I haven't written here for so long! I will... soon!

For now, here's a little bit of what's going on: We're all happy and healthy, and getting happier and healthier by the day. The kids are learning and learning and learning, new awesome things every day. They play and make art and sing and do yoga and go for walks and play with their friends and take interesting classes and read and play on the computer and cook and and and... It's busy stuff around here. Busy happiness. Life is good.

I am going back to school! I start classes next week and am really looking forward to it all. I'm way out of practice with the whole studying thing, but I'm sure I'll do just fine.

We are hoping to be growing our own food soon. I'm not sure what that will look like exactly, but we have high hopes to be on our own farm. Stay tuned for our manifestation process!

Happy birthday to Eli

2011-01-22T11:30:00.001-08:00

So now our baby is 3 years old! Hardly a baby anymore. Well, kinda. He's pretty babyish still, which works for me.

We went out to eat on his birthday, someplace with prawn dumplings and spring rolls and rice and veggies. His kind of food.

Then we came back to our place for some cake (we made a hobbity banana coconut pecan cake, wholemeal spelt flour, deliciousness) and presents.

My mom MADE this hoodie! She's awesome! Make me one, Mom!

He loved his little green remote control car. What's not to love?

First, getting the business of blowing the candles out out of the way...

Then back to fun. Check out the wheelie:

Christmas, Part 3: The Day

2011-01-12T20:42:00.001-08:00

Stockings, very exciting.

Because my kids are rad, they were totally jazzed by their new toothbrushes.

Here is our tree and our modest present presentation (we wrap with fabric and ribbon so there's no waste):

Presents!

Awww, soft new blankets bring so much joy.

Just what Maya wanted:

And so, of course, Eli had to get right into it.

As did Maya!

Boxing kangaroo (Aussie, Aussie, Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!)

The thinking tongue means she's really concentrating. Got it from Grandpa, methinks.

Just what he wanted!

New chess pieces, too? Must be Christmas.

This microphone was very well received.

Here's Nate giving Grammy a painting he made of the two of them.

And reading. You can hardly tear him away from books these days. He's so my kid.

Microphone (as if he isn't loud enough without it, hehe).

Boots! They all got new boots, and they all love them.

Princess Maya, feeling very proud and beautiful. It's a good feeling.

Adjustments:

And here's what I spent a big chunk of my day working on:

Phew, we took a LOT of pictures that day. Hope you enjoyed them!

Eli being adorable

2010-12-28T08:27:00.001-08:00

The walk

2010-12-28T08:19:00.000-08:00

One super cold day last week, we decided to walk to the shops to buy some baking materials. The littlies hopped into the wagon, and Nate pulled it almost the whole way there.

Best walk ever.

Look at this happy guy:

And these two lucky little siblings:

Christmas, Part 2: The City Tree Lighting

2010-12-28T08:11:00.000-08:00

There were some holiday crafts at the library (reindeer headgear):

Some super cute family moments:

Santa and Mrs. Claus (allegedly):

And a giant living Christmas tree in the park:

Christmas, Part 1: The Tree

2010-12-28T07:55:00.000-08:00

Reading and writing

2010-12-07T19:56:00.000-08:00

Nate is reading so much now. It's amazing to me that 6 months ago he was not at all interested in reading, and upon discovery of comic books, he decided he could read.

Writing, though, has been something that he loses patience with very quickly. For awhile (in the pre-reading days) we had him doing workbook stuff to get him used to writing, but he absolutely hated it. I completely dropped it.

Yesterday he was filling in the information on a family tree birthday card that my mom gave him. I commented that he has really neat handwriting (he does). He said, "I just want to practice writing a bit more so that it gets easier. I want to like to write."

Blew my mind. What a smart kid. I'm so glad I laid off.

Thankfulness

2010-12-05T12:40:00.001-08:00

Thanksgiving Eve

2010-11-24T09:04:00.000-08:00

I'm really excited about Thanksgiving. A day for being thankful, how awesome is that? I plan to spend the day focused on gratitude. Maybe we'll create some sort of tangible thing - I might steal an idea I heard about making a tree of thankfulness with gratitude leaves. Hmm, that would require some more autumny paper colors... A trip to the store might be in order later.

But first! I am getting the food prep in order. We have a giant turkey in the fridge, just waiting for some brining action. I've never cooked a turkey before in my life, but I'm guessing it will be hard to mess up this fresh pasture raised turkey. Plus, I'll have the help of my mom, who will also be putting together her mom's stuffing recipe in the morning before she comes over.

Today I'm going to make some cranberry sauce from the fresh organic cranberries we picked up at the Beaverton Farmers Market on Saturday. I have a big pumpkin to turn into puree for a pumpkin pie, and I'm going to make my first pecan pie ever. Yum.

Is it crazy that I'm already looking forward to the leftovers? Already looking forward to getting that turkey carcass into my stock pot? But much more than that, I'm looking forward to sharing a day of gratitude with my family and two wonderful friends that I was able to coax into spending the day with us.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!

OMSI

2010-11-20T12:09:00.001-08:00

OMSI is awesome.

The whole fam went recently, which is so much easier than me taking the kids on my own, because obviously they all want to go in different directions.

Maya had a lot of fun in the chemistry lab. She's into science, big time.

Here she is discovering that salt water is a great conductor of electricity:

And playing with corn starch slime, which was incredibly awesome:

Nate and Maya, swinging Eli:

The current exhibit is Identity, an Exhibition of You. It was really interesting and very interactive.

Here is Nate inputting his fingerprints to determine his "type":

And facial symmetry, which I find fascinating:

The problem with altruism

2010-11-15T19:55:00.000-08:00

I'm about to say something that you're most likely going to think is incredibly selfish. You ready? Here goes:

Let's all just aim to make ourselves happy. Let's just focus all of our energy on making sure that we are completely fulfilled in life.

What about everyone else? What about charity? What about Altruism? Won't people just loot and riot and rape and pillage? What kind of a monster is this Jen person?!

Here's the thing. People are, by nature, GOOD.

It feels *good* to help an appreciative person. And it feels really good to receive help from someone who is helping out of the pure kindness of their heart and the good feeling it will give them. It does NOT feel good to receive help or charity from someone who feels bound by civic or religious duty. It feels patronizing.

What are we teaching our children when we force them to get involved in "something that matters" by volunteering their time to charity? We are teaching them that HELPING PEOPLE SUCKS. When they decide they want to help, and we help them help, they come to an amazing realization all by themselves: Taking care of other people feels really good.

I can only imagine a world in which people grow up knowing that their own needs are vitally important, and they should make sure they get what they need. I think all of the power-hungry crap that goes on in the world is just major over-compensation for unfulfilled lives. We're trained not to trust happy people. They aren't working hard enough. They're delusional. Unhappiness builds character.

Happy people do really good things. People are, by nature, GOOD. We just need to make sure our own needs are met so that we can be GOOD, HAPPY PEOPLE!

Hey, painters! You should be painting! Writers, you should be writing. Humans, you should be taking leisurely walks in the fresh air, every day. If you're stressed out because you are constantly giving to others, you owe it to the world to carve out some time for yourself. THIS IS NOT SELFISH, IT'S VITAL. Don't have time? Of course you do. Pretend that it is an appointment doing something for somebody else, and you'll find time. I swear.

I want to live in a world full of happy people, where my peers are deeply fulfilled with their lives. There is nothing quite like being around a person who is doing just what they should be doing. There is incredible energy to be shared.

Let's start taking care of ourselves, because we don't want people begrudgingly doing it for us.

A day in the life

2010-11-13T12:07:00.000-08:00

Yesterday in the car, my kids and I had a really excellent conversation. We talked about what we would do or create if we could do or create anything. We talked about time travel and collective consciousness and "the big picture."

I mentioned that difficult experiences and people can serve as our greatest teachers. I said that every experience and person we encounter can be seen as an opportunity to learn. Nate joked, "So Eli is our teacher?" and I said, "Yeah, absolutely! Think about all of the things he teaches us: compassion, patience, tolerance, unconditional love, humor." Nate totally got it. He said, "I feel like my eyes are filling up with tears, and I don't know why!"

That's what life is all about! That feeling of meaning. We may not know why something touches us so much, or even be able to articulate our feelings. But we intuitively know when something is important. I was so happy that Nate got it.

Synchronicity

2010-11-06T18:23:00.000-07:00

You know that feeling when life is just screaming something at you? Like, it just keeps popping up, over and over, saying, "Pay attention to this message!!"

I used to think that this kind of stuff was coincidence. Now I prefer to view it as synchronicity.

My trend has been Peru, and Machu Picchu in particular, for a few years. I have been aware of it, and I have let it sit at the back of my mind, knowing that at some point I would be in the situation to go see it for myself. It's a strange feeling to look at pictures of a place you have never been and feel like you took them. Eek.

Lately, Mexico has been coming up more and more. And the Mayans. And for some reason, butterflies and their migratory patterns (to Mexico) has been the theme of my day.

I don't believe in coincidences anymore, but I'm not exactly sure what I do believe when it comes to this kind of stuff. Is *someone* sending me a message? Or is there a predetermined path for me? Or has it all happened already and I'm just remembering the whole thing? Am I really the only one who exists, and this is all my big elaborate dream? Or is there a chemical in the brain that makes things *seem* familiar or meaningful that actually aren't? In that case, why would it choose specific incidents? Like the migratory patterns of butterflies?

Race to Nowhere

2010-11-04T16:42:00.000-07:00

I went to the screening of Race to Nowhere yesterday. For Americans who went to school, are going to school, and especially who have children, this is a must-see.

Find a screening near you or pre-order a copy. This is important stuff.

Halloween

2010-11-02T16:31:00.001-07:00

I have always loved Halloween. I love autumn and falling leaves, I love spooky jack-o-lanterns and candles and eeriness. Half of me was looking very much forward to the kids experiencing Halloween, and the other half was unsure of the whole candy issue and how it would play out at our house.

Nate wants me to write that his favorite part was being with his friends, outside, trick or treating. It isn't every day that you can dress up and walk around outside with your friends after dark, knocking on everybody's door and being greeted with excitement and gifts. Pretty exciting stuff.

Vampire Nate and Tinkerbell Maya:

And the little Eli dog too:

The day after Halloween, the kids ate quite a bit of candy (for them; it is, of course, relative). In the evening we had some pretty serious sugar-crash fallout, especially with Maya who was an emotional wreck. The next morning, we offered them the opportunity to trade in their candy for a toy, and Maya was completely down with that. She and Nick took the mile-ish walk to the shops, she spent a long time deliberating and picked out a new toy (Rapunzel Barbie, a completely different kind of evil - but her hair changes color in cold and warm water so she was it). While they were gone, I disappeared her candy. She hasn't looked back.

Nate chose to keep his candy, and he agreed to only eat it when Maya isn't around in order to make it easier on her. We have found, however, that candy gives him a very short attention span, and he quickly forgets these promises.

From a homeschooling perspective, there have been a lot of learning moments. Lots of counting and sorting. Reading of labels. Discussing ingredients. Comparing and contrasting. Bartering and negotiating. And there has been a whole lot of discussion about how different things make us feel. Why do you think that chocolate makes you feel so thirsty? Notice how you feel really sad now, and an hour ago you felt so happy? It has been a pretty interesting experience/experiment.

I'm thinking we'll have to come up with something a bit better next year.

Guess who forgot to take pictures

2010-10-30T08:34:00.001-07:00

My trip was great. I didn't even leave the resort, but that was ok; I only had a very limited time there, and I was more than happy to be able to spend it hanging out with people instead of seeing sights. I would love to go back and see the sights, of course. I am bummed to have missed Chichen Itza and the other Mayan ruins, but I have the rest of my life ahead of me. Yes I do.

I remember every time I'm in a plane that is taxi-ing the runway that I am terrified of the takeoff. Conveniently I forget until then, so I have no dread until we're in motion. Then I'm like, "Oh yeah." And when we're making the final descent, I'm also pretty sure that I'm going to die. Every time. Each way to and from Playa del Carmen, I had three flights - 6 near death experiences. It was stressful. And I'm finding that over time, I am more and more fearful, even though I have spent a whole lot of time in the air. I used to find it all very exhilarating. Now, not so much

Needless to say, I made it alive. I witnessed the sunrise en route to Phoenix, and the sunset en route from Mexico City to Cancun. Long day, but it was pretty ok as I had a book to read and an iPod to listen to. What more could a woman want? I speak enough Spanish to understand where the signs are pointing me and when someone is asking me if I have any bags to check (NOPE!) or any connections, so the layovers were easy and carefree. I enjoyed the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) decorations all around the airport. (I enjoyed them immensely, actually. I could write a whole blog post about how awesome I found them, and how awesome I find the whole idea of Dia de los Muertos.)

Cancun was warm, rainy, and really humid (which turns my hair into crazy frizzy Gene Wilder hair - thanks to Melissa for pointing out the spot-on resemblance). My ride took me past myriad resorts and golf courses, all with impenetrable fortress-like entrances. My resort was 45 minutes away and appeared to be bigger than the sun.

Melissa said she would leave a message at the front desk for me with her room number, but lo and behold, she happened to walk up as I waited at reception to check in. I was given The Bracelet (the color of which determines one's class and therefore where one is permitted to eat and drink). We joined the others at dinner, hugs all around (I love hugs, and I give them away indiscriminately). I was thrilled to meet Melissa's husband-to-be and her brother's awesome girlfriend (I fell a little bit in love with her right away). And it was wonderful to see Melissa's parents who feel a bit like a second set of my own. I've known them for nearly 20 years.

We ate, we drank, we mingled and chatted, and then I went to my room (on the other side of the sun) to drop off my stuff. Walking into the room made me feel profoundly lonely, immediately. You have to remember that I spend a lot of time surrounded by people (especially children), so the big roomy luxury seemed a bit excessive without anyone to share it with. At least it did on that first night, hehe. King sized bed, huge jacuzzi tub, I could have lived there.

Melissa called the next morning while I was in the tub (I could have lived there specifically). We met and headed to breakfast. We spent the whole pre-wedding day together and with the brother, his lovely girlfriend, and the fiance. I do fifth-wheel well - when I'm comfortable I'm enough person to make up two people. We spent a long time in the bathwater ocean (I could have lived there too). The sky to the east, out over the sea, was almost purple with storm clouds. It started to rain as we were walking back to our rooms to get changed. The rain was warm. Incredible.

The wedding was beautiful. It was a casual, beachy thing. The bridesmaids wore purple dresses that made us "feel beautiful" which is perhaps the loveliest thing a bride has ever done for her bridesmaids. We were in a gazebo on the beach and there was a lovely warm wind (hello, Gene Wilder!). Declarations of love were exchanged, tears were shed. Life is good.

Post-wedding we drank, ate, mingled, and drank. At some point after dark we changed into swimwear and headed to the beach and drank some more. A resort security guard guy hung around to make sure we didn't get ourselves into trouble with the ocean and our alcohol. As my Spanish improves immensely when I have had a few drinks, I chatted with Aurelio (said security guard) and tried to convince him that since one of us was a certified lifeguard (or so I was told), we would be ok. He had heard this song and dance before. We negotiated wading up to our rodillos (knees - I had to ask while pointing). The rest of the night was a bit, um, foggy.

Melissa ordered me a wake up call, bless her. I was disappointed to find that I was still inebriated when I received that call, and hardly in a state to pack and travel. The rest of the day was a bit long and awful as I traveled back home. I got to my train station about 21 hours after I woke up, and even though I was wearing the warmest clothes I had taken with me, it was still a late October night in Portland and I was cold.

Eli was so sweet when he woke up and realized I was next to him. He said, "Hi Mommy" about 15 times and just hugged me and stroked my face. When the other two woke up, they ran in and we snuggled and loved eachother. It was great to be home.

It's getting so close.

2010-10-21T08:09:00.000-07:00

I leave for Mexico in less than 48 hours! I am so excited. Looking so forward to temperatures in the high 80s, swimming in the ocean (assuming that part of the Gulf of Mexico is swimmable...), and mostly hanging out with my bestie. Not looking forward missing the kids, and looking forward to missing the kids. If that makes any sense. Four days and three nights of looking after nobody but myself. Putting nobody to bed but me.

I'll be desperately missing my family by the end of it, and that will be pretty great.

But first I get to see Sam Harris, and that's going to be awesome.

No Makeup Day

2010-10-17T17:51:00.001-07:00

So I was on the elliptical, reading a magazine (yeah yeah, I know). There was a section about women accepting and even (gasp!) highlighting their "flaws". Like the chick with glasses getting, you know, really cool funky glasses and wearing lots of sparkly eye shadow. And the one with the curly hair just letting it be curly ("I rarely flat-iron my hair") and finding lots of creams and gels to keep her curls neat and tidy. There was a freckled woman talking about how she likes her freckles, so she rarely wears heavy foundation to cover them up; she mentioned how easy her post-gym routine is - just wash, moisturize, concealer, bit of blush and lip gloss, some mascara, and voila!

I've never been a makeup person. I have dabbled, but I always felt like a little girl playing dress-up, so it isn't something I make a part of my life. I don't even own makeup.

All this being said, I get it. I don't judge people that wear makeup, not at all. Unless they have lived under a rock, they have been sent the message - no, that implies that the "message" is subtle and implied - they have been TOLD that women need makeup to "accentuate features" or "hide flaws and imperfections". (We also need to shave/wax/laser numerous areas of our body to keep them in a permanently hair-free state, but that's a different blog post.)

Dudes? Not so much. I've never heard any guy say that he knows he doesn't *need* makeup, but his eyes just get lost in his face without a bit of eyeliner. He just uses a bit of blush to accentuate his high cheekbones. He knows he doesn't *need* it, but it makes him feel more beautiful. So it's okay, because it's his choice. Nobody is making him do it.

No, none of that. It's a woman thing. And for once, we have nobody to blame but ourselves; the truly diabolical part of the whole makeup affair is the fact that it is perpetuated by WOMEN. It isn't dudes putting together those "Stars Without Makeup!" shockers. It isn't dudes that care whether we are wearing makeup or not. It's women. Women wear makeup because it makes them feel better about themselves, because most of our role models are women who wear makeup!

I decided that I wanted to organize a "No Makeup Day", and found out after posting the idea on Facebook that, of course, it has already been done. There was a Blogging Without Makeup Day last May where bloggers posted pictures of themselves without makeup, which apparently was a huge thing for a lot of people. I have never posted a picture of myself *with* makeup, so I don't really get it. Some people from the Today Show went makeup free on No Makeup Day, and there was a *huge* difference in their appearances. Like UK television where the actors look like, you know, humans. Why can't this be normal?? I just don't understand.

The kids got some school pictures packets from Village Home where they take classes, and I noticed that there is an option to have your child's photos retouched. Just a little bit, to erase blemishes, or a jumbo retouch which whitens the eyes and teeth, removes flyaway hair, and clears the skin. I am completely amazed by this. Is this really where we're at? It is now a normal and acceptable thing to "improve" your *child's* appearance (by whose standards???) so that we will look back on our memories and see things the way they weren't.

What's wrong with looking like humans?

I'd like to change people's ideas of beauty, and that really does start on the inside. Hey, some cliches are cliches for a reason.

Watch this space.

Today was a good day.

2010-10-15T18:39:00.000-07:00

Non-parents (or at least unenlightened people) might not appreciate the goodness of today on paper. But it was awesome. And I'm gonna write about it.

This morning, Nate and I went out to buy a birthday present for his new friend whose party is tomorrow. First of all, I feel totally blessed (you know, in a secular way) to have met this family because not only are the kids wonderful (and coincidentally nearly the same ages as my kids), the mom is really nice and fun to talk to. Great combo. But I digress. We had a birthday present to buy, and the mom mentioned that the birthday boy might like a book of his own as the books in the family tend to be communal. So off to Powell's Books Nate and I went.

Can I make a side-note here about how much I love Powell's? I love Powell's. A lot. I have early Oregonian settlers named Powell going way back in the family history and I have always liked to think there was a connection between my ancestry and the bookstore that I loved and frequented as a kid. Maybe there is. Maybe I should look into that... Anyway, I haven't set foot in a Powell's in years (having lived overseas), so walking in today, even though it was a branch I have never been to before, really brought back memories of reselling my already-read Babysitter's Club and Christopher Pike books so that I could get my fix of new ones. And there was a Chinese food place that sold awesome spring rolls near my childhood Powell's, and my mom would buy us some when we went there. Good times. And then I would read my new books for hours upon hours.

Where was I? So off to Powell's Nate and I went, that's right. On the way we stopped at the coffee shop. I knew that they would have a "pumpkin spice" flavor of some sort, and I knew that Nate would love a Pumpkin Spice Steamer, and I always love a latte, so that was a pretty special and decadent (for us) first stop. Then to Powell's, which was awesome (as always - America really knows how to do a giant bookstore). After some looking, we found what I think will be a great and loved gift. Can't tell you, because the walls have ears.

Back home. Lazy morning. Nick spent awhile looking for jobs while we were gone and had finished his search for the day. We had nothing in particular to do. So we decided to go to the zoo.

I should tell you all that my beautiful, wonderful, thoughtful mother gave us the gift of Oregon Zoo and Portland Children's Museum memberships when we moved here. We have gone to both but not very often because, well, it was summer and they were crowded. No fun. But being a "homeschooling" family, we can visit interesting places during school hours and find them pleasantly deserted. So off to the zoo we went.

It was deceptively gorgeous outside. Clear, blue, still skies. Sunny and beautiful. Having spent the last 6 years in Australia, we under-dressed. In Sydney, if the sun is out, you'll be warm in a t-shirt and jeans (well, an Oregonian would - seasoned Sydney-siders would be wearing heavy coats and scarves). In Portland, not so much. We checked out the Cascade Trail, which was awesome. Black bears, bobcats, bald eagles, salmon, turtles, beavers, river otters, all native stuff. I have never seen that part of the zoo before, and it was really fun. And, unfortunately, cold. We decided to ditch the zoo (hooray for memberships!).

On the way to the car, Maya asked if we could go to the Children's Museum. As it happens to be right on the other side of the parking lot as the zoo, and since we have a membership there as well, why not? It is indoors (and heated), and that was our only real issue with the zoo. It feels really good to say yes. So we spent the next couple of hours at the Children's Museum, and since Nick was there too, we were able to let the kids wander rather than stick together. They had a ball, and there was hardly anyone there! Enough kids to play with, but not so many that they had to wait to do anything they wanted to do. Perfect.

We headed out of there at 3:30 or so. I realllllly wanted Eli to get a haircut. He had the Hasidic Jew curls thing going on at the sides, and I was pretty over it. No offense to any Jewish folk out there that enjoy rocking the curly cues, it just doesn't suit him. So Eli and I hopped out at the local cheap salon while Nick took the others home. He had a haircut (soo cute, should post pictures but I neglected to take any) and we walked home.

This part, I think, was my favorite of the day. For anyone who has taken an 8 block walk with a 2 year old, you can appreciate that you aren't going to get anywhere very fast. I knew this, and I didn't have to be anywhere at any particular time, so I was primed to enjoy the walk for walking's sake. Eli doesn't get a whole lot of opportunity to walk like a 2 year old, being the youngest in the family with two parents and two older siblings that inevitably have somewhere to be. And as much as I *try* to be mindful and present (and as many times as I have read Buddhism For Mothers, trying to absorb some new nugget of inspiration), it is really hard to let Eli go at his own pace unless it's just the two of us, which it rarely is. Today we walked the 8 blocks home, hand in hand, at a 2 year old pace. We jumped on crumpled leaves and compared the crunchiness. We ran across crosswalks like mad people. We talked about people and dogs and bugs and the big fountains at the park. We jumped off of, and then onto, curbs like it was the accomplishment of the century. It was wonderful.

As if all of that wasn't good enough, we got home to find that Nick had prepared all the fixin's for pizza! We go all out with veggies and whole grain lavosh bread for the best pizza ever. Zucchini, red peppers, onions, garlic, broccoli, mushrooms, tomatoes... yum. Delicious pizza and company, warm baths (and clean hair all around!), and exhausted littlies into bed early after a wonderfully busy day.

Nate is heading off to bed now. That leaves me and Nick and a bunch of movies to choose from...

Money money money money

2010-10-10T17:28:00.001-07:00

I use Facebook. Yeah, I know, say what you want. But I do, and it has enabled me to keep in touch with people from the other side of the planet and to become reacquainted with people that I would have otherwise lost touch with forever, and this has been an awesome thing.

So Nick and I went to see The Social Network today. I find "success stories" fascinating. Computer nerds + right place + right time + good idea = BILLIONS OF DOLLARS. Crazy money. And the whole "intellectual property" issue is really interesting too.

I use Facebook, but do I think it makes sense for the creator to be worth over $10 billion? I mean, I appreciate that it is well made, it is addictive, it was a great idea, and some people put a whole lot of time and nerdiness into it. But for it to be worth $25 billion as a company? Crazy. I have made the same complaint about sports; one dude who plays basketball or baseball or soccer making millions of dollars in one year is insanity. Nick argues that there is that much money in the industry because people watch sports, so where else should the money go? Isn't it fair that it goes to the players?

Millions of dollars per year? For one person? When so many people have so little? I'm not saying anything new here. Not the first person to have these thoughts, I know. I just wanted to acknowledge the craziness.

I just want enough to live on. I'm not asking for a lot. Tons of people just want enough money to be able to, you know, feed their children. And this Facebook dude (who is like 5 years younger than me) has literally billions of dollars. Billions.

Penis reading

2010-10-09T11:18:00.000-07:00

I just read an awesome blog post called Routine Nose Removal at Authentic Parenting. It highlighted all of the cases that could be made for removing the noses of infants before they can cause any trouble, like "unhappiness and depression due to an ugly nose, and subsequent rhinoplasty" and "congested noses, especially in the small child, this can be a serious pain in the nose, because they are unable to clean or blow their noses". Etc. Made my day.

I know I come across as... I don't know, judgmental? High and mighty? I rarely judge *people*, but I confess that I often judge *choices*, in a big picture kind of way. Like the choice to circumcise one's child. I don't agree with the choice to permanently alter someone else's genitalia, particularly the genitalia of a helpless infant. It doesn't make any sense to me why that is acceptable in any circles. But I can also recognize that I have made some decisions that don't make a lot of sense, because at the time I didn't know any better and, more importantly, I didn't know that I didn't know better.

So hopefully people can see through the high and mighty and look at the actual message.

If you're up in the air about circumcision, or if you're pro-circumcision, or if you have never really thought about it, please just do a little bit of reading. Here are some great resources:

Circumcision Decision from Intact America

Publications from nocirc.org which address any possible question you may have about circumcision, whether male or female

Circumcision slideshow (necessary viewing for anyone who plans on subjecting a human being to this antiquated custom) from International Coalition for Genital Integrity

I recently posted a great article called Seven Ways to Reduce Unwanted and Unnecessary Circumcisions from Code Name Mama on my Facebook page.

So there's some penis reading for you.

It's he-eeere...

2010-10-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

At long (loooooooooooong) last, our stuff has arrived. As multitudes of friends and family have predicted, it was just like Christmas.

Gee we have a lot of kitchen stuff. And we brought all of it with us, not knowing whether or not we would be starting up the baking business again. I have more loaf tins and cake pans than you could shake a stick at (to which one should ponder on the need to shake a stick at any large quantity of anything). Utensils! Our awesome quality, super sharp knives! Big ole wooden cutting boards! Storage containers galore! And since it's all been sitting in boxes since December, it all got washed, and let me tell you, that was a project. I'm so thankful that Nick is a finisher, because I would have lost steam before that project was over. Actually, if we're being honest, I totally lost steam. But it's still done. Yay Nick.

The kids have been loving having a bunch of dress up stuff again, and being so close to Halloween (which they are rapturously excited for since they have heard plenty about it but never participated in) they are busy adjusting their outfits. Endlessly.

I am just thrilled to have my favorite jeans back. It's amusing to me that, while waiting for our stuff to arrive, I bought myself some chocolate brown pants and a charcoal grey t-shirt, only to find that I already owned some chocolate brown pants and a charcoal grey t-shirt that I had completely forgotten about. I guess I have a style. Who knew?

First Child Neurosis

2010-10-02T07:53:00.000-07:00

My pregnant friend recently asked me why it is that oldest children tend to have a higher level of neurotic tendencies than subsequent children. She has noticed a trend, and wisely wants to try to avoid it.

I thought about it. And here's what I came up with.

Our first children usually teach us how to parent. Right? Unless you grew up in a village or tribe of some sort, or into a big, attached, extended family to parents who had grown up in big, attached, extended families, parenting (the way that baby humans have evolved to expect to be parented) is pretty foreign. I spent my first pregnancy reading reading reading, but mostly I was reading about pregnancy and birth and breastfeeding. I figured that parenting would be pretty simple since I was gonna love the crap out of that baby and follow my instincts.

Nate's early days of infancy were spent largely on the couch. I didn't know how to use a sling (or a wrap or a mei tai or a [insert your favorite baby carrier here]), and it was clear that he preferred my arms to a stroller. The Baby Bjorn-type carrier just seemed so big for his little body, so mostly I held him. And he was heavy, so mostly I just held him while sitting down. His view of the world was my loving face and the wall behind the couch. I thought my loving face was all he probably wanted/needed in those early days.

Maya's early days of infancy were much different, because I had a toddler in the house as well. I didn't just sit around and stare at her all day. I put her in the sling and went on with my life. While Nate completely shaped my life, Maya had to fit in. Can you imagine the pressure of having to shape someone's life completely? You enter the world after 9 months spent in a lovely floating world full of movement and muffled noise and stimulation, and all of the sudden everything is still and quiet and everyone is looking at you expectantly. Yikes. That vs. *emerging into* a world full of movement and muffled noise and life. Continuum.

After Maya was born, I read The Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff, and it was all so clear. I had thought that I had done everything right for Nate and that he was "just one of those fussier babies by nature", but reminiscing on his early days made very clear the point that he had had to go through a huge shift when he was born, from a life of stimulation to, most probably, boredom and yearning for stimulation. I really, truly hadn't given the human infant mind enough credit.

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, here is the Wikipedia article on the Continuum Concept:

The continuum concept is an idea relating to human development proposed by Jean Liedloff in her 1975 book The Continuum Concept. According to Liedloff, in order to achieve optimal physical, mental and emotional development, human beings—especially babies—require the kind of experience to which their species adapted during the long process of their evolution. For infants, these include such experiences as:

* The infant being placed immediately in the mother's arms at birth, and from then on carried constantly in arms or otherwise in contact with someone, usually the mother, and allowed to observe (or nurse, or sleep) while the carrier goes about his or her business—until the infant begins creeping, then crawling on his/her own impulse, usually at six to eight months;
* Co-sleeping in the parents' bed, in constant physical contact, until leaving of their own volition (often about two years);
* Breastfeeding "on cue"—nursing in response to the child's body's signals;
* Having caregivers immediately respond to body signals (squirming, crying, etc.), without judgment, displeasure, or invalidation of the child's needs, yet showing no undue concern nor making the child the constant center of attention;
* Sensing (and fulfilling) elders' expectations that he or she is innately social and cooperative and has strong self-preservation instincts, and that he or she is welcome and worthy.

Liedloff suggests that when certain evolutionary expectations are not met as infants and toddlers, compensation for these needs will be sought, by alternate means, throughout life—resulting in many forms of mental and social disorders.

When Nate was a toddler, he required constant attention and interaction. Maya could play alone happily. Nate's world was all about Nate, while Maya was compassionate and more willing to contribute to the good of the tribe (er, family). Of course there are lots of factors, and I'm definitely not one to draw black and white conclusions. But do I think their early days contributed to these facts of their personalities? Most definitely.

I just plain knew more by the time Maya was born. I knew by then that humans are clean animals that don't want to soil their own clothes (including diapers), so they send plenty of signals to let their caregivers know that they need to relieve themselves. By 4 months old, Maya very rarely (maybe once a month) pooped in a diaper because she made it abundantly clear when she needed to go, and I put her on a potty. Nate's signals, by contrast, were completely unrecognized and therefore ignored, and he became chronically constipated until he was almost 3 years old. Looking back, I can clearly recognize that he was very aware of and tuned into physical sensations (such as sitting, albeit for only very short periods, in his own feces), but he was sent a message that he should ignore those sensations. I just didn't know better at the time.

So. What would I recommend for expectant parents who want to avoid the First Child Neurosis? Read The Continuum Concept. Read up on Elimination Communication (EC) through websites like Diaper Free Baby. But most importantly, be ready to use a sling! Find a babywearing mentor so that you're completely confident, and your baby's safe pocket will have simply relocated from your womb to your pouch.

Mondays

2010-09-27T14:52:00.000-07:00

I love Mondays!

At the totally reasonable hour of 10:00, Maya and Eli have a sibling dance class together, and Nate and I spend that 45 minutes hanging out. Today we read Calvin and Hobbes together for the whole time (except for the many peeks through the window to check up on the littlies' cuteness) which is something that we both thoroughly enjoy.

The weather is absolutely beautiful today. After we got home from dance, we spread out a picnic blanket and had some snacks out front in the shade. The kids did some easel art, rode bikes, ran around, I worked on Maya's scarf (yay for knitting!) and read a bit more Calvin and Hobbes. After a few hours of that, we wandered over to the playground and I pushed Nate on the swing while Eli and Maya ran through the fountains in their undies. It was sooo warm in the sun.

Now we're hanging out at home. Nate is playing a game with Bumma (Nick's mom) on the computer while they chat via Skype's awesomeness, Maya is watching, and Eli is chilling here with me downstairs while we wait for our food to finish cooking.

Maya has ballet at 5:00 which she completely loves. I'll take her while Nick stays home with the boys, and I'll get to finish her scarf and maybe start on Eli's. Then Nate has gymnastics at 7:00 which he completely loves, and Nick will take him while I get the littler ones to bed.

Mondays are great.

Here's my favorite Calvin strip of the day: Mom is in bed and jumps up when she hears Calvin yelling from the other room, "Mom! Wake up! Come quick!" She says, "What's wrong? What's the matter?" and goes into his room. He says, "Do you think love is nothing but a biochemical reaction designed to make sure our genes get passed on?" Mom, frazzled, replies, "Whatever it is, it's all that's keeping me from strangling you right now." Alone in his room, Calvin says, "Mom's midnight reassurances are never very reassuring." I love that kid.

Northwest Mothers Milk Bank

2010-09-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

I am very excited to be participating in Harvest, an event to benefit the Northwest Mothers Milk Bank.

What is a milk bank? From their site:

A milk bank screens, collects, processes and dispenses donated human milk as a community service, providing human milk to babies whose own mothers cannot supply the milk to meet their baby’s needs.

A milk bank is also a resource for health professionals and the general public in the uses and benefits of human milk, the standard in infant feeding.

While we're on the subject, check out this essay which explains why I'll never say, "Breast is best!"
Watch Your Language!
By Diane Wiessinger, MS, IBCLC
(Reprinted from the Journal of Human Lactation, Vol. 12, No. 1, 1996)

Feeling grateful

2010-09-21T13:54:00.000-07:00

Today is a good day. Here is a short list of things that I am thankful for today:

-- My lovely uncle sent Nate a couple of books: On Food and Cooking - The Science and Lore of the Kitchen by Harold McGee, and The Curious Cook - More Kitchen Science and Lore, also by Harold Mcgee. How incredibly interesting. Now we can make some souffles in the new little ramekins I just bought, and we can learn about how and why they work. These are volumes, so they will be references for years and years to come.

-- We discovered this homeschooling life without ever having had to experience the alternative. I am so grateful for that.

-- Kids learn all by themselves when they are interested. It just happens. I was just listening to Maya reading to Nick in the other room. Awesome.

-- We found an awesome community here! Everyone I talk to one-on-one has an incredible story to tell.

-- As Eli and I hung out at the little playground while the bigger two were in their adored classes learning things that they want to learn, there was a little girl running around with blue hair. I looked through a window to see a class full of completely engaged teenagers and a teacher with full arm sleeve tattoos. There are babies and teenagers and nursing mothers and people with disabilities and people who look "normal" and people who most certainly don't. I am so grateful to be able to be around such a variety of people.

-- My best friend is pregnant! Complete awesomeness.

-- I get to go to Mexico next month. What an awesome opportunity.

-- I have a cousin who homeschools her kids, and she is funny and intelligent and full of love, and she wants to have a craft day with us! Hooray.

-- I am learning to knit, and during the knitting club that Maya turned out to be not so interested in, I get to chat with a really cool woman while I work on a knitting project. And the kids are all happily engaged.

-- I truly love my family.

-- After the kids' classes today, they wanted to stay and play for a couple of hours! New friends, great weather, wonderful.

First day of classes

2010-09-14T08:15:00.000-07:00

Today we were all very excited for the first day of classes!

It occurred to me this morning that I hadn't paid any materials fee for the knitting club which must mean that we were supposed to bring materials. Crap. Luckily it wasn't an early start and we had plenty of time to make it to Michael's (craft store) for some knitting needles and yarn.

Maya wasn't quite sure what she wanted to work on - she decided she would just sort of get started and see where it took her. But she very quickly realized that knitting was going to be a lot harder than she had thought, so after a couple of minutes I sat knitting a small blanket for her doll Pearl, and she and Eli were off playing. I was actually quite pleased with that state of affairs. I would love to be an awesome knitter, make hats and scarves and gloves and blankets and stuff. So we'll continue to go and I'll continue to knit while the kids play. Or maybe I should show Maya how to finger crochet. Or maybe giant needles?

Meanwhile, Nate was in his first cooking class. It was an introductory affair, so it was in a classroom instead of the kitchen. They talked about kitchen safety and stuff, and they did some chopping to make a fruit salad to share. I look forward to seeing what else they'll get up to. He absolutely loved it and is so excited for more.

In the afternoon, Nate went to an organic gardening class. It is aimed at people of all ages, Nate's age up to adults. It was very hands on - they harvested some veggies and seeds, cleaned up some garden beds, and did a lot of talking in the classroom as well. He was soil-smeared and happy afterward. He told me all about saving bean seeds to plant the following spring.

During gardening, Maya and Eli had "Animal Junction", a song and storytime thing. The theme was bears, and they read some stories, sang a song, made a puppet, played a game, and went on a "bear hunt" around the campus. Eli was asleep in the Ergo on my back when we got there, but when he woke up he was really excited to join in. They were adorable.

So it was a hit! Tomorrow Nate has chess club and Maya has a science class, and they are looking forward to those. They're looking forward to everything, otherwise I wouldn't have signed them up!

It struck me when we got home just how much time there is in a day when you aren't filling it up with busy work (like school). After their morning classes, they wanted to stop at the playground on the way home (we walk right by it). We had 2 1/2 hours until the next classes, and the only thing we had to do was have lunch at some point in there. Plenty of time for the playground, and we were there for over an hour (and I was able to spend some of that working on Pearl's blanket). They have played for literally hours today (mostly Legos). Now they are watching a DVD. We had a long, leisurely pancake breakfast. We even took a trip to the craft store. There is so much time in a day.

Well, we're off to celebrate a wonderful day by getting some burgers with Grammy!

Lego table

2010-09-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

Check out our new lego table!!

We bought the table at Goodwill for $5.00, and a bunch of legos from eBay. It is very strong and sturdy, as illustrated by my boys:

Maya and I painted it, Nick and I glued the lego base boards to the top, and voila!

They absolutely love it.

What if

2010-09-12T08:39:00.000-07:00

What if all of the people born on this planet were born naturally? Not cut or pulled or vacuumed out, not born drugged to a drugged mother. What if they were given every chance to bond with each other, in love and peace, without the harsh lights and sounds and interventions of the "experts" in the room? What if new mothers were left to trust their own intuition and the knowledge of the women who they trust to support them through the process rather than being undermined at every turn? What if Birth wasn't Big Business?

What if all babies were allowed to consume the food that nature intended for them rather than a synthetic substitute? What if their bodies were made up of what they *should* be made up of? And their brains?

What if society didn't tell us that children were better off stuck in rooms full of other children the same age all day? What if everyone suddenly realized that children learn from their surroundings, and when their surroundings are children with similar life experience they aren't going to learn much? What if it was normal to stay in your community, surrounded by a wide variety of people you love, and know that they want you to be there? And to the same end, what if we actually respected, learned from and integrated the elderly members of our society instead of sending them away to be with other old people?

What if we still lived in villages full of people who genuinely care about each other and see it as their duty to look out for one another?

What if we didn't grow up in a patronizing system of punishments and rewards? What if we were encouraged to trust our own intrinsic sense of "right"? Would people, perhaps, take more responsibility for their actions and their place in society? While we're thinking that society needs to have governance on every aspect of our lives to maintain order, is it possible that that need is only there because we are trained not to be trusted from birth? Mustn't it be confusing to get a reward for a normal bodily function like going to the bathroom? Isn't it strange to turn a trip to the bathroom into a privilege rather than a right?

What if we were all encouraged to follow our talents and dreams, no matter what? Can you imagine how different your life might be? What if the 12+ years of our lives we spend at school were spent living and learning and being free rather than having to switch on and off your interest at the sound of the bell? What if we were encouraged to question everything rather than to blindly accept it? What if we were taught to *think* instead of *obey*?

I want jeans and chucks.

2010-09-10T18:16:00.000-07:00

Our stuff still hasn't arrived from Australia.

When we sent it, the estimate was 10-14 weeks. 14 weeks would have been mid-end July. At the end of July we called the moving company, and they told us that the boat was scheduled to arrive on September 9th.

Now apparently it is supposed to arrive on the 16th. Then it goes through customs. Then it gets sent to the moving company's warehouse to be separated into the different shipments. Then the trucks come and take them to their relevant warehouses. Then they call us to set up a time to deliver our stuff from the warehouse to us. I'm thinking we're not going to have our stuff for a solid 3 more weeks.

I miss my clothes. I know, it sounds silly, but I do. I miss having jeans that fit properly; this $1.50 pair that I bought here has worked well, but they are too baggy and too short, not the most flattering combination. I miss my Converse All-Stars. I miss having a bit of variety - we're still living with the clothes that we chose to travel around Australia with back in December when we packed all of our stuff up, with the addition of a few things we have had to pick up along the way (like neither of us had any long pants except for my eccentric fisherman pants, and mercifully my friend Mary handed me down two belts to hold up my ill-fitting jeans).

We packed for an Aussie summer and then an Oregon one, and now we are heading right into autumn much chillier and wetter than we're used to. I want the kids' gumboots and Nate's raincoat and our umbrella. And shoes that aren't flip-flops or trainers.

I want my stuff.

My court experience

2010-09-09T08:44:00.001-07:00

I may or may not have mentioned that I recently got a $287 ticket for rolling through a stop sign.

I was leaving a friend's house, driving through an area I know like the back of my hand. I approached an intersection, came to a *pause* at the stop sign, saw that there were no cars coming (or pedestrians, or bicyclists, or horse-drawn carriages), and turned right, continuing on my way. I was very surprised to see the flashing lights of a motorcycle cop behind me, even more surprised when he told me that I hadn't come to a complete stop (there was nobody around! Except for him, parked incognito across the street, waiting for someone to make the mistake I had made), and completely shocked when he wrote me a ticket. Then immediately I was angry. He said himself that I hadn't been driving recklessly (THERE WAS NOBODY ELSE AROUND!), so I couldn't understand the point of giving me a ticket. Other than the revenue. And that's why I was mad.

So I opted to go to court. I have a clean driving record after all, and I wanted this infraction off of my record so that it wouldn't affect my insurance rates. Plus I felt that I was acting in the *spirit* (if not to the letter) of the law - I had proceeded safely through the intersection. My brain works quickly enough to see that a street is abandoned without coming to a full 3-second stop. Surely the laws were written to keep people safe, right? Right??

I've never been to court before, so I didn't know what to expect. I checked in at reception and quickly realized that I was one of many people that would be pleading their cases at 4:00. I picked up a "Rights and Responsibilities" handout to read, as directed, and had a seat in the courtroom.

The handout explained that I could plead "Not Guilty" if I thought I wasn't, and this would lead to a hearing at a later date. I could plead "Guilty" if I was admitting guilt, or I could plead "No Contest" if I didn't want to contest the charge or go to hearing on the matter, but the outcome would be the same as a guilty plea. The judge explained to everyone as he entered the courtroom that he only had the power to reduce the fines by up to 25% in most cases, or if we had a clean record he could offer us a traffic class which would have fees of its own, but then the ticket would be dismissed.

On a side note, Nick brought up the excellent point that people with otherwise clean driving records probably aren't the ones that could benefit from a defensive driving class. If I haven't had a ticket in over 10 years, I'm probably doing a pretty decent job. Isn't it the people that get tickets all the time who need to take that class? I mean, if our aim is for safer roads and all?

The judge began calling us up in the order that we had checked in. What's your plea? Do you have anything you want to say? Each matter was over very quickly (except for the poor Vietnamese guy who wasn't sure what he had done wrong, but was happy to just accept the cop's version of events and settle the matter today so he wouldn't have to come back with an official interpreter). Almost everyone that was called before me had a clean record, and so most people happily took the traffic school.

My turn. He read me my charge, Failure to Obey a Traffic Control Device. What's your plea? Me: No Contest. He asked me what happened, and I explained that I had rolled through a stop sign, there was nobody else around, and how I was very surprised to have gotten a ticket when the officer himself said that I hadn't been driving recklessly. He said in a somewhat empathetic way, "Yeah, they'll do that. Your record is clean. Do you want traffic school?" The inner me wanted to go off about the fairness of the ticket: Weren't these laws designed to make the roads safer? Does it make sense to punish someone for not following the letter of the law if nobody was put in danger? This is really just a money spinner, isn't it? Who do I talk to about all of *this* stuff?

But instead of saying any of that, I replied, "Well, not particularly, but if that's my best option I'll take it." Snickers from the people behind me. He assured me that it was my best option. And so I thought oh well, I didn't make a point today, I was just part of the machine. I'll pay the maybe $40 for traffic school (that's what Nick had to pay for his "seatbelt class"), my record will be clean, and I'll just shut up and leave. I went to wait in the line for the clerk to give me my traffic school information. She did just that ($40, as expected), and she also gave me an invoice for court fees - $150, to be paid at reception on my way out.

$150. Ah. I see.

And what have I learned from this experience? I have learned to watch my back. I have learned that the officers who are supposedly there to serve and protect are actually making an opportunistic mint off of safe drivers who make mistakes. My focus is no longer solely on the road, the cars around me, and being a safe driver. I am watching the rear view mirror for flashing lights.

Here are some fun facts about traffic tickets that I got from this website:

Every year, 34 million speeding tickets are issued in the US. That's 65 per minute.

These tickets (and this is just *speeding* tickets, not rolling through stop signs or "making an illegal turn" like that Vietnamese dude) generate $5.1 billion in revenue per year.

According to research, a 10% drop in a city's economic growth results in a 6.4% *increase* in tickets issued.

Due to rate increases, insurance companies profit as well, to the tune of $10.2 *billion*.

And why is this ok?

Albert Einstein

2010-09-07T14:03:00.000-07:00

You know what I learned today? Albert Einstein failed the entrance exam to a Polytechnical Institute in Zürich because, despite exceptional marks in physics and math, he didn't score high enough in the language and arts sections. He clearly wasn't well rounded enough. For what? For school. In life, he seemed to do just fine for himself.

Valedictorian speaks out

2010-09-05T19:38:00.000-07:00

A friend posted a link to this valedictorian speech and it is worth watching. And her blog is worth checking out too.

If that doesn't work, here's the link

And here's her blog

Balance

2010-09-05T14:14:00.001-07:00

I'm kind of struggling right now with finding a balance between meeting my children's intellectual needs and meeting my own. I am completely aware that my growth is vital for theirs, and that seeing me interested in learning is an important social cue to instill their own interests in learning.

I'm an all-in kind of person. I get slightly obsessive about subjects and people that I find interesting and inspiring. You read my current book list, right? THAT'S what I'm into right now, and I could spend 12 hours today reading and it wouldn't be enough for me. But it would be far too much for my children, and this whole deschooling/unschooling issue is something that I can only share with them to a certain degree. When my passion (which is a much more acceptable word than obsession) was for food (the health issues, the politics, the creative and social implications), that's something I talked about all the time. I shared what I learned, and it benefited them, completely.

And of course I talk about unschooling and why I think it's important and what I think the problems with the institution of school are (not education, but *school* - it's a very important distinction).

The thing is, they aren't schooled. They haven't had their spirits broken. They can't feel the same kind of passion for the subject that I can, because they are coming from a completely different place. So while all of this is so very important for me, it's a non-issue for them. Of course, the fact that I grow from it is invaluable to them, so I need to continue to absorb everything I can.

So while I'm reading and blogging and learning and growing, they are off doing their own thing. Sometimes, a lot of times, that's perfect. I am just trying to find that discipline within myself to be able to stop what I'm doing and completely shift the focus to them when they need me, and not feel like my needs are being blighted.

If only I didn't need sleep.

Teenaged Me

2010-09-04T17:59:00.000-07:00

I so could have just fallen asleep in the sauna at the gym if it weren't for the dripping sweat feeling like bugs crawling all over me.

On the drive home, I considered whether or not Teenaged Me would like the me that I am now.

Teenaged Me was quick to snap-judge, so I'm not so sure she could get past the minivan. She was, however, intrigued by the idea that an extraordinary brain could be hiding inside an otherwise average-seeming person, and I like to think I might have that going for me. She too had a very healthy opinion of herself.

Strangely, I can't remember what Teenaged Me thought she might be doing as an adult, like, for a living. I think she still thought that you just kind of enter the workforce and be a worker bee if that's the class you were born into, unless you experienced some crazy, freak luck. I didn't realize until very recently that there are other ways to survive besides the full-time job that you don't particularly like. I thought that a job was a job. It didn't occur to me that there was an option to actually do what fulfills you. I'm sure Teenaged Me would have been suitably impressed by my baking company in Sydney. It was small, but it was *mine* and I didn't compromise anything.

Teenaged Me didn't really get adults though. She couldn't relate to them. So I'm sure she would have been distant and respectful and not really cared one way or the other.

Book list

2010-09-04T08:56:00.000-07:00

I've kind of overdone it with the whole book reservation thing. No biggie though, library books are free. And renewable. And re-check-out-able.

Here's what I've got now:

The Teenage Liberation Handbook by Grace Llewellyn. I started this quite awhile ago, but then I got distracted by The Red Tent and Committed. I read this awesome excerpt this morning:

The way our society is set up now, something's got to prevent visionary experience. Otherwise, ninety percent of the American monoculture would shatter. People who are fully and permanently awakened to the wildness and beauty in and around them make lousy wage-slaves. On the other hand, people who are not distracted by a wellspring of spiritual and sexual yearnings can assemble clock radios or automobiles very quickly, or focus their intellects on monthly sales charts.

Sorry, children of mine, I am not giving you the upbringing you are going to need in order to while your lives away in soul-sucking, mind-numbing jobs.

Here are the other books in my pile:

Instead of Education by John Holt
Dumbing Us Down by John Taylor Gatto
Teach Your Own by Holt and Pat Farenga
How Children Learn by Holt
A Different Kind of Teacher by Gatto

Nate is working through (with help) two of the Calvin and Hobbes books he got from the library. There are eight more waiting to be picked up. Plus Cosmos by Carl Sagan. So much information!

Committed (book review, sort of)

2010-09-04T08:10:00.000-07:00

I just finished Committed, Elizabeth Gilbert's follow up to Eat, Pray, Love. I was excited to read it because I recently saw the movie, fell in love with the Brazilian character, and had to find out what happened. So I did. And eh, it was ok. The story was very familiar to me - relationship with foreign-born dude, necessity to marry in order to secure resident visa for said dude. The book is mostly an anthropological study of marriage and the author's attempts to make peace with the institution since she was going to have to go through with it in order to stay with the man she loved. She was reaching for something that would let her give herself permission to marry, but she admitted that she was reaching which made the whole thing bearable.

My favorite part was her "prenuptial informed consent release" - the list of her top 5 character flaws, "just so I would be certain he had been fairly warned." I loved them because I could have written the first two and a half myself if I was, you know, eloquent. Here they are:

1. I think very highly of my own opinion. I generally believe that I know best how everyone in the world should be living their lives- and you, most of all, will be the victim of this.
2. I require an amount of devotional attention that would have made Marie Antoinette blush.
3. I have far more enthusiasm in life than I have actual energy. In my excitement, I routinely take on more than I can physically or emotionally handle, which causes me to break down in quite predictable displays of dramatic exhaustion. You will be the one burdened with the job of mopping me up every time I've overextended myself and then fallen apart. This will be unbelievably tedious. I apologize in advance.
4. I am openly prideful, secretly judgmental, and cowardly in conflict. All these things collude at times and turn me into a big fat liar.
5. And my most dishonorable fault of all: Though it takes me a long while to get to this point, the moment I have decided that somebody is unforgivable, that person will very likely remain unforgiven for life- all too often cut off forever, without fair warning, explanation, or another chance.

While she was highly ashamed of these traits, I find the first two and a half (you know, the ones that apply to me) to be quite charming. Go figure. I do tend to be very forgiving, even of my own "flaws". I am very impressed by the notion of acknowledging and addressing one's flaws. It's admirable stuff.

All in all, it was a decent read. Some of the marriage history stuff was interesting. Near the end, she goes into depth about the fundamentally subversive nature of marriage - the state can never control a relationship based on private intimacy which is why extreme leaderships (cults, communists, slave owners) have historically attacked personal relationships. She found solace in this, the idea that even though she and her partner were more or less being forced by the government to marry, it was by nature a subversive act. In my opinion, all of the justifications are unnecessary. You do what you gotta do, and if what you gotta do involves having your relationship recognized by the state, more power to you.

¡México!

2010-09-03T10:53:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my bestie Melissa for planning her wedding next month in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. I'm making my travel arrangements. Mine. My own. I'm going solo. It is so insanely exciting.

My last (and only) solo international flight was in 2002 when I flew home from Australia knocked up. I didn't yet appreciate what a treat it is to make that kind of flight by oneself. Since then I have made 9 round trip overseas flights, all of them with at least one child. One trip to America I even did as a solo parent with three kids, aged 6, 3 and 17 months. Whoever is handing out the awards for superhuman accomplishments missed me on that one.

So the prospect of going to Mexico without children feels so... free. Adult. Independent. I only feel a teeny tiny bit guilty because I'll only be gone for a few days. It will be my first time away from Eli, but I have done the separation thing before; when I came home to help my mom through her chemo, I spent a month away from Nate and Maya - she was only two months older than Eli will be - so three nights doesn't seem like quite such a big deal.

I only just looked at the map this morning to see where Playa Del Carmen is exactly. I had no idea. Depending on who you ask, it is a 40-60 minute drive from Cancún. The closest capital city is Havana, and it is only about 200 miles away from the Belize border. Three hours away is Chichén-Itzá, the spectacular Mayan ruins. I kind of feel like - how can I just go for a few days when there is so much to be explored? I'm thinking I'll have to get to Chichén-Itzá, even if it means spending an extra day. How could I not? I mean, it'll just be me. One backpack, one bottle of water. Nobody else's capacity for hiking or sightseeing longevity to take into consideration.

No checked baggage. No carseats. No games and toys and children's books. No complaining. No boredom. Ahhh, I could get used to that kind of traveling.

Fragile

2010-09-03T10:11:00.000-07:00

I had a good run there as a parent. Today I'm struggling though. I just had a tearful "can't we all just get along" breakdown. I'm out-energized today. I feel a severe lack of serenity. I'm surrounded by toys and things and yells and screams and bickering and laughter and energy and I want to be in a dark, quiet hole. All morning I have found myself putting things away, vacuuming, making beds, doing dishes, getting things in order, hoping that the order will penetrate through to my mind. I wonder why sometimes my family and the love that lives in this house is enough for me, and sometimes I feel so lonely, like none of it can find a way through, it can't penetrate this bubble.

And I *know* that my music choices aren't helping. I wonder why I do this to myself. I was the 10 year old kid who made myself depressing mix tapes so that when I was feeling down I could keep myself there, really wallow in it. I like to think that I'm not a particularly dramatic person (outwardly at least) but that is certainly dramatic behavior. Maybe I am supposed to be living in a time full of drama, and since I don't I find myself making my own personal drama. I try to keep it to myself, but I gave my kids a heaping portion this morning.

I am so lucky, though, that my kids get me. They love me anyway. I have created my own peaceful space downstairs this morning, and they are upstairs for the time being. Nate just came down to give me a hug and then went back up. If we were still in that motorhome, I would have had to go walkabout today, but we're in a house with spaces for people to be alone when they need to. I like that.

Okay. Emotions processed. Feeling better. Calmer.

I just read back the first line of this blog post and had to have a bit of a laugh at myself. Dramatic much?

Writing

2010-09-02T22:40:00.000-07:00

I was on a roll there. Now it's gone.

It's funny, I've never been much of a writer. Well that's not true. I've always been a prolific writer, but a very self-critical one. This is why none of my journals from before I moved to Australia still exist - I found them, read them and was so mortified by the complete rubbish they contained that I had to destroy them. Bummer. I'm sure I'd find them all really interesting now.

In high school English classes, I found the writing really hard because I was such a perfectionist. Each reading, I would make multiple insignificant changes and feel such relief, like thank goodness I didn't turn it in in that state, that would have been so embarrassing. Then I'd read through "one last time" and find more changes, and more, and more, and never really got to a point where I felt completely satisfied with my work. And then I'd get an A+ and wonder if I was too pedantic or if my teacher wasn't paying close enough attention.

I'm not sure what changed really. I never would have been able to write a blog back then. I spent a lot of Nate's early years on parenting forums, and in the beginning it would take me a ridiculously long time to write a simple post. I would read and re-read and wonder, does this make me sound smug? permissive? strict? hypocritical? judgmental? Regardless of my efforts, I have still been misunderstood so many times. Maybe I have learned that all of the proof-reading doesn't really help me avoid being seen the way I'm going to be seen. People see what they want to see, or what they need to see to keep their stories flowing.

Really, it's a whole lot easier to just write and not give a fuck what people are going to think. I need to write. I can see me in the future (because there are less distractions in the future), sitting in front of this computer, processing every thought that goes through my head. I feel like the more I write, the more material I have. I swear, people, there's so much atrophied brain in here. Parenting does wonders for the heart and for the soul, but it somehow manages to suck away my intelligence. Definitely my memory has suffered. And my focus. But every time I write, my brain wakes up a little bit.

To writing.

Ode to the Public Library

2010-08-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

I have read lots of bits and blurbs by John Holt, John Taylor Gatto, and loads of other unschooly-types, but I have never actually read an unschooling book in its entirety. So I thought I'd give it a shot.

Lo and behold, our library system is even more impressive than I could have imagined. Not only was every John Holt book that I searched for available (along with Gatto and The Teenage Liberation Handbook), I was able to request them for free (the libraries in Australia charged for the priviledge) and I received them within a couple of days. And I did it all online. AND they sent me emails to tell me when they were in!

There's more. Nate has discovered Calvin and Hobbes comics (which are so funny and intelligent and so perfectly illustrate why homeschooling is completely awesome, or would be for poor Calvin - I want to adopt him by the way), and he loves them. Today I was reading some to him, and he said to me, "Can I read this one?" And then he read it out loud to me. Wow.

True story: as I was writing that last paragraph, Nate came into the room saying, "Can you believe we finished all of those Calvin and Hobbes books?" So we reserved 6 more online. Just now. I LOVE the library.

Another tidbit of library awesomeness: the librarians are so awesomely helpful. I stopped in today to grab a few books about the brain and dreams and the subconscious for Nate (this is his newest interest - Why on Earth do we dream? Why does the brain do that? Is it like brain exercise? Or does it all mean something?). I didn't know quite what to search for. Turns out Dewey placed dreams and brains in the same part of the system and they were neighbors. Makes complete sense. Unfortunately, all of the books in the junior section were very elementary and anatomically based, and the ones in the adult non-fiction were more about dream analysis or brain training. He needs something written by a nerdy neurologist. You know, the guy who is so fascinated by the brain that he can't sleep at night wondering how it works. I'll have to do some online searching to find just the right thing. Until then we'll look at cross-sections I guess, which is pretty interesting too.

I'm after unschooling book recommendations! Please comment and let me know your favorites. Don't leave me hanging. I might even do some reviews here!

Up

2010-08-26T22:42:00.000-07:00

I wanted to write this post earlier today but I'm only just getting to it. And now I am decidedly sleepy and fairly grumpy. So it feels a bit hypocritical. But I'm not gonna let that stop me!! Maybe writing it can get me back into that place I was at earlier today. We'll see. Here goes.

Why all the hatin'? Why all the negativity? It seems like the vast majority of people I am aquainted with spend a huge amount of time complaining about their job and their spouse and their kids and their fat arse and office gossip and the stinky smell of mass transit and their lack of and their over-abundance of and and and, ad infinitum.

So you don't like it? Change it. Really. It IS that easy.

Here's what you have going for you (most likely, if you are reading this):

- Unlike 80% of the world's population, you have a solid roof over your head that you can count on to be there, every night.
- You are part of the 33% of people who can read and write. That is a big effing deal.
- You are in the lucky not-quite-half of people that aren't suffering from malnutrition or even starvation. Your food issues are, at worst, that you are overfeeding yourself. You'll live.
- One third of the people that share this planet with you don't have access to a safe water supply.

Can we have a bit of perspective, people? A bit of optimism maybe? A bit of acknowledgment of how blessed we are? Life really isn't that bad.

And if it is, if it really is terrible, change it. If quitting your soul-sucking job means you'll have to sell your house, then love the crap out of your mom's guest bedroom or your friend's couch while you start earning money doing something that actually *fulfills* you. It isn't work if you're doing what you love, and if you're doing what you're supposed to be doing then the money will follow. Ask any of those Law of Attraction gurus.

Afraid of change? I hear you. Maybe don't make any huge changes then. Maybe just work on your own paradigm. Maaaayyyybe just take a teeny tiny bit of responsibility for where you are in your life. Perhaps choose to focus on the good stuff. It really is that easy. Watch. "I just read The Red Tent (again) and the men in those days had multiple wives and they all slept in tents and got water from the well and the women were subservient and there were slaves and when they wanted to eat they had to make everything from scratch so when there was a famine they went hungry. Yikes. What an incredible life I have, sitting here on my red couch, blogging, drinking wine (that I didn't have to make myself), my three beautiful healthy children sound asleep upstairs. I'm safe and warm. I'm loved. I have an extra few pounds to get me through that next famine, hehe. Life Is Good."

This isn't how I envisioned this post at all. I was going to write about all of the qualities I admire, hoping to attract them my way: optimism, passion, compassion, joy, energy, earnestness (my favorite, I wish everyone was just plain earnest all the time), honesty, connection, humor, love, sincerity, drive. I wish that people were more connected to each other, more honest, more willing to share their feelings without awkwardness, without letting their fear of rejection get in the way. Without fear of judgment.

On a side note, I think judgment should have another "e" in it, judgement. The "dgm" combination is just so, I don't know, in your face.

Focus... flagging. Must... go to bed.

That's all. I'm out.

Lyrics

2010-08-25T11:09:00.001-07:00

The other day, Maya and I were sitting on the couch, listening to some music. A song came on that she likes, and she said, "Listen to this one." So I listened. And she said, "Listen to the words."

It reminded me of all of the times I have tried to share an awesome song with somebody who listened absentmindedly for a few seconds to a few bars and said, "Oh, that's nice." She wanted me to really hear the song.

I love that she really listens. We have that in common.

Planetarium

2010-08-25T09:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Nate and I used our new OMSI membership for the first time to take in a couple of shows at the planetarium. We were joined by our space nerd friend who wowed Nate with some of the spacey apps on his iPhone as we waited for the first show to start.

There was hardly anyone there, so we were able to pick out the best seats (as advised by the doorman) under the domed ceiling.

First up:

"Learn about the interesting stories of the constellations and others in this live presentation in OMSI's Kendall Planetarium. It is not just stars everyone can see in the night sky—planets, constellations, zodiac, shooting stars and satellites are all there if you know when and where to look. Navigate by the stars and discover how you can become a backyard astronomer."

It was awesome. Our current local night sky was illuminated above us. The presenter used a laser pointer and zoom to point out different features of the night sky - planets, constellations (with a graphic overlay to show how an abstract grouping of stars can become, for example, a swan), stars of all different sizes and ages. She briefly explained how Polaris is used in navigation which I found interesting - how many thousands of people have looked upon and relied on that star to find their ways across oceans and unfamiliar lands? - the thought of which brings me to cartography which I have always found so fascinating considering the historical absence of the tools we rely on today. She told a few constellation stories and showed how a lot of the characters from the same stories are in the same area of the sky which proves those ancient Greeks spent a lot of time looking up towards their gods.

We liked the first show so much that we decided to stay on for the next one, Journey to the Stars. Here is the trailer:

This one was great as well. The graphics had me a bit motion sick at times which was kind of awesome. Nate let out a few audible "whoa"s as we zoomed through the universe towards interesting stars and nebulae and clusters and galaxies. The narrator (Whoopi Goldberg) talked about the life cycle of our own sun and at that point I was really grateful to have not brought Maya - it stresses her out to consider the sun engulfing the Earth, and she isn't comforted by the assurance that we'll all be long gone by then.

There is currently an Einstein exhibit going on at OMSI, so I can see us returning in the very near future.

Angry school rant

2010-08-24T10:42:00.000-07:00

Forgive me for making an unoriginal argument, but doesn't it occur to the average parent that perhaps their children's curriculums are padded to keep the school days nice and long? Readying our kids for their future careers not by what they are actually learning, but by dumbing them down, killing their inquisitiveness, and institutionalizing them so that they will "happily" sit behind a desk for 8 hours a day?

I love this article by Daniel Quinn. I read it years ago, and I just reminded myself of it. If you're dubious about homeschooling, please read it.

So I was walking home the other day and a dude on a bike asked me about the townhouses we live in (are they nice, any available, great location, etc). I raved appropriately and mentioned that I love being so close to the library because of my kids. He asked what schools service this area. I told him I have no idea. Him: What, your kids don't go to school? Me: No, we homeschool. Him: Unmasked shock and annoyance. But you're going to send them to school sometime, right? Me: I don't know, this is working out pretty great for us. If they ever want to go to school, we'll address it then. Him: Exasperation and confusion, eye rolling at my eccentricity.

On the outside I tend to maintain the zen mother façade, shrugging off the judgement and pity that is directed at me and my poor, unsocialized kids. Sometimes I'm judging right back. Sometimes I don't care, it doesn't bother me because I know I'm doing the right thing for them.

But sometimes I get really angry! I want to scream, "Do you even know what your child is being taught in school?!" They are being taught not to question authority (no fun when you're smarter than your teacher and you know it). They are being taught to sit still so that they can spend the rest of their lives sitting still. They are being taught to follow the curriculum, not their own interests. They are being taught to play well with others, as long as those others are from the same socioeconomic background and are the same age. They are being taught that boys play boy games and girls play girl games and first graders are babies and sixth graders are bullies. They are being taught that if they plan on being "different", they had better bloody well have a strong enough character to not let it bother them that they are going to be made fun of constantly until they either graduate or drop out. Hope they can withstand the pressure and not end up committing suicide or killing multiple classmates and teachers in a violent rampage.

And *I'm* the crazy one for *not* sending my kids to school?

Now I'm not saying that all parents who send their kids to school are complete suckers. I know a lot of parents who have examined the issue very closely and intelligently and decided for various reasons that school is their best option. And I know a lot of kids who have chosen to go to school even though their parents know everything that I know and would prefer (and have tried to persuade) them to stay home. Some kids are strong enough to get through school intact. More power to 'em. It is some people's idea of hell on Earth to stay home with their kids all day every day. I know a lot of women who think it is degrading to be expected to be a homemaker while the partner is out "in the world", doing intelligent adult stuff. Personally, I can't imagine a more important profession than raising conscious, aware, intelligent, thoughtful human beings.

It just shits me to no end when people don't question their choices and blindly go along with what society says they should be doing. And then judge ME for making an unpopular choice. Why don't people think for themselves? Why don't they consider what they are doing? Why blindly follow?

Oh yeah. They went to school.

Unschooling in action

2010-08-23T10:19:00.001-07:00

Nate isn't a huge fan of writing, and he isn't a fluent reader yet. He finds it really hard. I have gone through stages of pushing him (hoping that he would get past some barrier and suddenly get it) and completely ignoring it (hoping it would just happen one day like in all of the unschooling stories I have read). Now I'm just following his lead with a few well-placed nudges.

He loves cooking, so I picked up a few children's cookbooks last time I was at the library by myself (ahhh luxury...). He delved right in, and because it's a topic he's interested in, he's actually putting forth the effort to read the recipes that accompany the tastiest looking foods.

This morning he picked three recipes he wanted to make, like, right then. I told him that we didn't have all of the ingredients and we would have to go to the store to pick them up. Right. Focus on. He got a piece of paper and started making a shopping list. Reading the recipes, working out what we already have and in what quantities, and writing down what we need to buy. Total focus. No frustration. No boredom.

"Aha" moment.

All praise Maya, queen of Sick.

2010-08-20T23:22:00.000-07:00

Maya woke up with a tummy ache today and was not at all interested in breakfast, except for a bit of smoothie. She was a bit emotional, but nothing huge. Then at noonish she was yawning a lot, so I asked if she wanted to lie down on the couch for awhile and have a rest. (Who wouldn't? You seen that couch? I'm in lurve.) She did, she joined Eli who was already sleeping there, and she fell right asleep. Unusual, and I finally realized that she wasn't well. I am, factually, the least observant person in the world.

After she woke up, she stayed on the couch for most of the rest of the day, even having another nap later in the afternoon (which isn't only unusual, but completely unheard of). She didn't eat, she didn't drink, she didn't go to the bathroom.

In the evening, she watched Swan Lake (the 1968 Kirov production) and started to look a bit sleepy again. I brought down her pajamas for her and helped her change. Now this is a person who likes to follow procedure - she doesn't like to skip a meal (even if we graze all day and none of the rest of us is hungry), she doesn't like to fall asleep fully dressed (even if she's in the car and we carry her up to bed) - so I asked her what she would like me to do if she fell asleep on the couch. Should I carry her up to bed? Should I wake her up for any reason? She thought it a bit silly that I would consider putting her in bed without having had her teeth brushed, so I suggested that we go upstairs, brush her teeth, then come back downstairs and she could cuddle up on the couch with the lights dimmed and fall asleep watching the ballet. She agreed. So upstairs we went, brushed teeth, went potty, etc. Since her bed was right there, I asked her if she would just rather go to sleep in bed since we're already upstairs, and she said, "Yeah, I think I should."

This little girl, this one who just turned five a few weeks ago, is so amazingly in tune with her body. She didn't complain once, all day long, except when I was urging her to eat her breakfast and not listening to her telling me that her stomach was hurting her (still learning here). Her body was using its energy to fight off whatever it's fighting off and didn't need that extra digestive load. She slept a lot because she was burning through a lot of healing energy and she needed the sleep.

Damn, this girl is awesome. Hooray for listening to our bodies. She's a major inspiration to me.

I hope she feels better tomorrow!

Who you be

2010-08-20T13:59:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about how awesome it is to just be able to BE who you are. You know? Sounds so simple, but imagine it not even occurring to you to have to try to be something or some way? Imagine not even having a clue about all of these societal "rules". Imagine not feeling the need to fit into a category, like "I am totally emo so I can't possibly like that new Miley Cyrus song or delight at the taste of a fresh strawberry, that just doesn't fit."

And equally important, imagine not rebelling against these rules by trying to be "different", going out of your way to make the opposite choice of the majority, just for the sake of going against the grain. That isn't being true to yourself either. That is still painting a picture of yourself based on society, on everyone else, on those "rules" we profess to hate.

I've always been really aware of the mainstream and the right wing and all of the dogma and hate and bullshit that goes along with trying to fit into that mold. But now that I'm older and wiser, I can see it everywhere, on both sides (as if there are only two sides, but you know what I mean). I would never go on a feminist forum and mention how much I love being taken care of. I would never talk to the whole foods community about the joy of the Wendy's frosty. I don't talk about how much I love Costco with my anti-multinational friends.

So that brings me to my kids. I love how much they are themselves. Just the essence of them. I love that Nate's favorite outfit is head to toe rainbow tie-dye, and he wouldn't even have a clue what the word hippy means. I love that rambunctious Eli's favorite pajamas involve Tinkerbell and lacey edges. And as a woman, I can really appreciate that Maya has no preconceptions that a girl should be weaker or slower or quieter or daintier or shorter or thinner. She loves Disney princesses and yes, I found disappointing at first, I'll admit it, because it didn't fit into MY parenting category. That, of course, has nothing to do with her. She is what she is. They all are.

2010-08-18T11:44:00.000-07:00

Maya took this of herself and I love it:

This morning we walked over to Village Home to pay for our membership and the kids' classes. It is crazy close. Awesome. Maya said this morning, "I wish we could just start our classes NOW." I don't blame you, kid.

It's a pretty good thing we've got going on.

Music at the library

2010-08-17T20:23:00.000-07:00

Today our library hosted Greta Pedersen, a local musician with a literacy slant, lots of songs with word play and such. It was aimed for 1-5 year olds so I was thinking Nate might get a bit bored, forgetting who he was for just a moment and thinking by numbers. I was wrong. He totally loved it and participated in everything without caring that he was the oldest kid there. I love that about him.

And just because we're talking about Nate, here is my current favorite picture of him:

Awwww. I love that kid.

She brought along a beautiful Appalachian dulcimer:

and played "Cat Goes Fiddle-I-Fee" or "Bought Me A Cat", not sure of the title. But we have been enjoying lots of folk CDs from the library and that song was on one of them, so it was fun to recognize it.

She was great and the kids (and parents) loved her!

2010-08-17T18:12:00.000-07:00

Finally, some pictures of our place, now that we have furniture! The walls are bare - our stuff is still en route from Australia so we should have some pictures to hang up in about three weeks. Use your imagination.

Here is our spacious, full-of-natural-light kitchen that overlooks a city block of community garden:

Our brand new awesome red couch. Eli is a testament to its comfiness:

Nick hard at work (about to upload these photos for me!) in our computer room:

View of aforementioned community garden from the computer room. The library is visible (brick building behind the big tree in the upper right corner) and the park with the fountains next to the farmers market (well, you can see the patch of grass and some flowering plants in the upper left):

Nate and Maya's domain:

Our ginormous bedroom with the bathroom through that door on the right and the walk in closet to the left:

After getting the couch and the two little ottomans (that double as storage cubes and tables), it finally feels complete! I love home.

Preparations

2010-08-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is our housewarming party. We haven't had a huge response so it might be a very quiet day. Nevertheless, I want to have everything looking all beautiful and perfect.

So where's our couch??

We found an awesome red sectional couch that was marked down from $999 to $699. Then it was $499, and an additional 10% off. Now that 10% has turned into 20%, so we're looking at $400 for a $999 couch. But the couch isn't in stock, and we keep hearing that it will be Wednesday, now Friday, now Monday, now "the middle of the week", and now the official answer is "Friday night or Saturday morning." Geez, I sure hope so! It would be very nice to actually have our couch before our housewarming party.

Classes

2010-08-11T23:29:00.000-07:00

This morning was the registration for the place the kids will be taking some classes this fall. Nate chose organic gardening, cooking, science labs, chess club, and lego club. Maya chose "animal junction" (an animal-inspired song and storytime for littlies), knitting, science explorations, science labs, and lego club. Eli can tag along for animal junction and lego club, and there is a play room too if that's what he wants to do. In addition, they'll take a few classes through Tualatin Hills Parks and Recreation District: ballet for Maya, gymnastics for Nate, and a sibling dance class for Maya and Eli which Maya's ballet teacher recommended after seeing Eli's interest in Maya's ballet class.

Hardly a stressful, academic schedule, but it is a whole lot of structure compared to what we're used to. I'm hoping that their enthusiasm for their chosen classes sticks around once the fall term starts. I so don't want them to feel burned out at all. I can't imagine that they would. What they'll be doing sounds like a dream - I would LOVE to take a bunch of interesting electives at a community college. Their classes are Monday through Thursday, and nobody ever has more than 2 classes (each class is an hour) a day. The earliest start is 10:15. The campus is two blocks away which is so awesome - I love walking where we need to go, not having to pack food, not having to anticipate what we might need so that I can pack the car up appropriately. In Sydney, we were at least 40 minutes from any sort of homeschool outing, so it's such a difference to be so close to the action. I love it.

Home!

2010-08-02T23:27:00.000-07:00

We have moved! We found a townhouse, two blocks away from the Beaverton Library, two blocks away from the Village Home Education Resource Center, two blocks from the spectacular Beaverton Farmers Market. It is unreal. We have been very, very busy. Shopping, furnishing, Ikea-ing, list-making, building, Goodwilling, Freecycling, stair-walking (we have three levels!), designing, dreaming.

I feel so excited that after 8 months of limbo (travelling and staying with wonderful, generous friends and family), we are finally in our own place. Now I'm planning a housewarming party.

Ahhhh. Life is good.

Ballerino Eli

2010-07-27T09:15:00.000-07:00

Maya's last ballet class of the summer...

They performed their ballet from A Midsummer Night's Dream, and all of Maya's descriptions of being "cheeky" fairies and hiding and giggling finally made sense. At the end, the teacher handed out rainbow skirts, wands and tiaras for some freestyle dancing. Maya took off her skirt to put on the rainbow one, so Eli grabbed her skirt and put it on. He had already been wearing her other pair of ballet shoes and dancing along at the side of the room. Here is some of their warm up:

For the freestyle, Eli desperately wanted to be in on the action, and I was thinking I might have to take him out of the room since he isn't part of the class and I was foreseeing him being excluded for "insurance issues" or something of that nature. But, mercifully, along came the teacher with a wand and tiara for Eli, and she said, "Do you want to dance with your sister?" He was in complete heaven.

My hero. The bow at the end might be the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life.

New Seasons

2010-07-10T20:52:00.000-07:00

So there is this awesome shop called New Seasons. They have all sorts of awesome, beautiful products there - loads of natural food groceries (including xylitol chewing gum which the kids were really excited about, since I wouldn't buy any other kind for them!), a cafe, a deli, and tons of beautiful homewares. I love going there. It is extremely aesthetically pleasing.

The other day I saw a flyer like this:

After Nate's Lego club at the library, I mentioned it to my mom and suggested we check it out. I'm so glad we did.

There were about four staffers dedicated to giving out samples of all kinds of ice cream, all different brands, all different flavors, lots of organic options. It was an ice cream lovers dream. I felt giddy. The kids were rapt. Much fun was had. There was even a dairy-free section where we tried a hemp mint chocolate chip (which was my very favorite), some rice milk "creams" (too rice-milky), and an amazing soy peanut butter and chocolate. Ooh, and a coconut cream cherry and amaretto.

I learned that Haagen Dazs have a line of "5 ingredient" ice creams, which, incidentally, is how I believe all ice creams should be made - just the milk, cream, sugar (or agave or rapadura or honey or whatever), eggs and the flavor. I tried mint, and it was divine.

Check out Eli and Maya snacking in their car trolley:

Here are Nate and my mom, deep in ice cream judgement mode:

And to top it all off, all of the sample dishes and spoons were bio-compostable. That's gotta bring a smile to your face.

Summer activities

2010-07-10T20:37:00.000-07:00

The Monday before last, Nate went to the first instalment of the library's fortnightly summer chess club. I stretched the truth about his age as the kids are meant to be from 3rd grade to 6th grade and he would only be going into 2nd, but a) we homeschool and I can pretty much say whatever I want, and b) I'm sure that age limit is there to protect the integrity of the chess. He can play chess. He might have been the youngest kid there (unless there were other truth-stretchers or kids bumped up a year), but he played four games and went 2-2, and the two losses were to the same kid who is clearly a chess genius ;o) He is very much looking forward to going again on Monday.

Nate's chess day is also Maya's ballet day! And here are some pictures of the ballerina herself:

She absolutely loved her first class. So did I. Her teacher was awesome - majored in dance in college and is now finishing her masters in teaching, so she is a Dance Teacher. She is also really, really nice and clearly very experienced. She kept those kids (all girls, bummer) busy the entire time and they were all just completely absorbed in the class. Because of the 4th of July holiday, there was no class last Monday which was disappointing, but it's on again on Monday and we're very excited!

And another one - Nate is doing the library's summer Lego club, called Brick Builders. A bunch of Lego lovers get together for an hour on Saturday mornings once a month and build Lego stuff. That was this morning. He seemed to keep to himself this time around, whereas last time he was in a group of other kids. But he was happy!

Homeschooling stuff SCORE!

2010-07-09T20:44:00.000-07:00

So I'm going to start up a family daycare. It's going to be all of the good and none of the dogmatic crap of all of the nice philosophies - Reggio Emilia, Montessori, Waldorf. Basically acknowledging that children are, you know, actual people. More on that later.

Anyway, I have been looking at sample childcare contracts and advertisements and stuff to work out what I want mine to say. The other day I did a search on Craigs List for childcare, but not knowing the site that well, I was searching goods instead of services. So I happened upon an ad for a crapload of awesome stuff that a homeschooling mom (who had run a family daycare) was selling. Loads and loads of resources and learning materials, including stuff that I had actually gone shopping for and not bought because they were too expensive new (Cuisenaire rods, 100s board with multiple sets of numbers). Children's thesaurus and dictionary, a rhyming dictionary, loads of space and constellation stuff, a music curriculum. And on and on and on. Art ideas galore, nature stuff, anatomy stuff. It was a score. I placed my (very substantial) order, recognizing that it was a bit of a coincidence (if you believe in coincidences, which I don't) to find all of this stuff so well priced, right when I'm looking into starting up a childcare.

We picked up our stuff today. It was a bit overwhelming at first, just because of the sheer volume (three boxes) and the lack of places to put it (we're still staying with my mom). I sort of organized stuff into "stuff aimed at the adult" and "stuff aimed at the kids" and left it at that.

After dinner, the kids started poking through and found the 100 board and a set of numbers. They decided to put the numbers in order from 1-100. Here's them at work:

After that set, they did the other set of numbers. Then moved onto one of the three sets of Cuisenaire rods. Ahh, the joy of math (when nobody is forcing you to do it).

Good times.

Bike safety

2010-07-08T10:03:00.000-07:00

One of my first priorities when we got here was to get bikes for the kids (because they wanted them sooooo bad), and that was made urgent by the fact that there are 15+ kids in our cul-de-sac who like to ride bikes around.

My cousin gave us one for Nate that her kids had grown out of (and threw in a little scooter that Maya loves!) and a good friend passed on a Little Mermaid bike for Maya (rapture) and a tricycle with a handle for Eli. Nate needed training wheels since he's never really ridden a bike and is verrry cautious. We happened upon a set of training wheels at a local garage sale for a whopping $1, so that was that sorted. Maya's needed new tubes in the tires and training wheels as well, and we took it to a bike shop for those. Bikes, tick. Then we needed helmets!

My mom had picked up a flier for a cheap bike helmet event at a local church, so we headed over. It turned out to be a completely awesome family bike safety event. There was a bike clinic outside where bike mechanics were doing free tuneups. There was a bike course set up for riding. I didn't realise all of that was happening, so we didn't bring our bikes. We headed inside for the $5 helmets.

There was a series of bike safety areas set up. First stop was talking about different helmets and what they are used for.

Nate thought the (American) football helmet might be a cricket helmet which baffled the helmet woman. I thought it was very cute. They identified the motorcycle helmet and the bicycle helmet.

Next step was watching a helmet in action. The kids packed an egg in stuffing and packed it tightly into the helmet:

Well, most of them did ;o)

Then they dropped them from a great height:

Nate's egg didn't survive the fall which gave the woman an opportunity to talk about how even helmets can't protect against all head trauma, so it's very important to be road-safe.

More stations involved general road rules and safety, and how to tell if a bike is in riding order (tight chain, sturdy handlebars and seat, all in working order). Then it was on to the helmet fitting:

This was great, because I've never fitted a bike helmet and wouldn't have known how to do it properly. The fitters were suitably impressed by the sizes of my childrens' heads (no toddler helmet for my 2 year old's noggin, thank you very much).

And here Nate and Maya are in action after we got home:

Ballet!

2010-06-08T10:16:00.000-07:00

So Maya has been interested in ballet for awhile now. Last summer when we were visiting the US, we watched some friends in a children's ballet performance, and the kids were mesmorised. (At one point, Maya inadvertantly pirouetted. It ranks among the cutest things I've ever seen.) She ended up feeling really sad that she couldn't participate though, so I asked her if she would be interested in doing a ballet class. I explained to her that ballet is a discipline and there are lots of rules, and if she took a class she would be doing what the teacher instructed. At the time, she wasn't interested in anything other than her own free-form ballet, so we didn't pursue it.

Then the other day, Nick and I went out to a movie, and while we were gone Maya apparently told my mom how much she wants to do a ballet class. So I did some internet searching and found a thread on mothering.com that suggested the parks and recreation summer classes. I looked, and out of the long list of pre-ballet classes at all of the different venues, there was one with availability. Nick is there now, signing her up - my driver's license is expired so I can't do it (lots of proving residency since it's a district thing).

So yesterday I asked my dear friend K where I could get Maya some ballet gear. K's girls do ballet, so I knew she would know. She had a look through the things her youngest girl has grown out of, and we came home with two pairs of shoes, two pairs of tights, a leotard, and a ballet skirt, plus a few hair pins and a hair net for a perfect bun! Wow. Score.

At the moment, Eli is rocking a pair of tights, shoes, the skirt and his pajama top, and Maya has a lovely bun, some tights and shoes, and a funky fluffy vest that she also came away with in the hand-me-down score. They, with Nate, are putting together some kind of performance in my bedroom.

Black holes

2010-06-06T19:00:00.001-07:00

Nate is completely into outer space at the moment. Particularly black holes. I am so thankful for our awesome library here that has an awe-inspiring amount of books on almost any subject imaginable. The juvenile non-fiction section had four books on black holes alone (well, four on the shelf - there could have been more checked out), not to mention the hundreds of other books on space, the universe, the Milky Way, each individual planet, all of the major planets, the dwarf planets, and all combinations therein. It has been really cool, and I have learned a lot as well. Now we're getting into Stephen Hawking. I see A Brief History of Time in the near future... And possibly a telescope too.

Eli is completely into anything FISH. We picked up a few fish books at the library and he will read them from memory (in his Eli-language that not many people can understand). My mom's cable has loads of on-demand programs and the capability to tape shows in advance, so there are a few interesting fishy things there too that he is enjoying.

Maya? Going with the flow, as usual.

Eli and the crocodile

2010-06-01T20:01:00.000-07:00

Before we left Sydney, we went to the Cultural Festival that was on at Rouse Hill Town Centre. It was pretty cool. We met a baby crocodile. It was beautiful. I love this picture, because Nick looks very wary:

The kids enjoyed some pavement chalk action:

Portland Children's Museum

2010-06-01T19:59:00.001-07:00

My glorious mother gave us memberships to the Portland Children's Museum and the Oregon Zoo! Since it has rained almost non-stop since we've been here (please don't raise this sore subject with Nick...), we haven't made it to the zoo yet. But we did go to the Children's Museum, and the kids loved it.

We love the Grasshopper Grocery, where the kids can shop for the essentials...

...or grab a meal in the cafe:

They did some face painting:

I loved Nate's face - I've never seen anyone paint a landscape on their face before :o)

Funnily enough, the current exhibit is about Australia! We put on furry tails and pouches and hopped around like kangaroos, and visited the little Aussie shop that actually had impressively authentic fare:

All in all, fun was had by all. We'll definitely be coming back on member appreciation days when they don't schedule group visits!

Pictures!

2010-06-01T19:43:00.000-07:00

Nick is completely awesome.

Because he's awesome, he put hundreds of photos on a flash drive for my mom a few years ago - all of the best photos from 2005 to 2008. We forgot. He found it today. Awesomeness. Seeing Maya's goofy little face brought tears to my eyes.

Here's Nate (looking a whole lot like Eli, about Eli's age) at the farm:

Another favorite of little Nate:

Nate meeting Maya for the first time:

Some of Maya's first smiles:

Oh geez, I could keep going for aaaages. I can't tell you how good it feels to HAVE these pictures! My beautiful babies! Happy sigh.

I have fallen off the blogging wagon...

2010-05-30T17:14:00.000-07:00

Time just seems to be rushing by. Have we been here for almost 2 weeks already? Does that mean we haven't talked to Nick's mom for like a week and a half? Bad Jen. Will call soon.

We discovered that we have, um, misplaced our, um, folder full of personal documents. We have our passports, because we had to travel with those on us, but our birth certificates (and certificates of births abroad) and marriage certificate, all of which are required in our quest for Nick's visa, are nowhere to be found. Not good. He is bummed. He was looking forward to getting all of that taken care of and getting his permission to work so that he could go forth and provide. Meanwhile, I was looking forward to picking up a part time night job and spending the days with the kids, catching up with friends, doing interesting Portland summer things. Instead, I'm looking for a full time job.

There isn't a whole lot out there (that doesn't suck) for someone without a degree. There are a whole lot of jobs I could be completely awesome at and would really enjoy (or at least learn a lot from) that won't consider me. I applied for a job at Whole Foods Market which would be cool for awhile. I'm seriously considering starting up an in-home day care with an AP slant; the economy is crap enough here that a lot of people who don't want to work think that they really need to and find themselves needing childcare. I love kids, and I think it would be something I would really enjoy. Maybe. But only if the families were awesome - I don't know how I would handle parents that had bad things to say about their kids or came from a completely opposite parenting direction. Hmmm, we'll see.

I signed Nate up for a couple of summer activities at the library - chess and lego building. He's excited.

The kookaburras have landed

2010-05-21T19:51:00.000-07:00

There is a big difference travelling with a group of people who are all over 2 years old. I haven't flown without an under-2 since 2002. It helped that Virgin Australia is an awesome airline and the flight had lots of empty seats. We managed to get 9 seats between the 5 of us thanks to the flight attendants who let us move around before the flight took off (and kicking a dude out of what should have been an empty row). We put Nate in a row of 3 to himself so that he could stretch out, and it was good that we did because when he projectile vomited, it only got all over himself and not on any neighbors. Other than that, it was an excellent flight.

So now we're working on adjusting to the big ole time difference. The kids are getting there - they woke up at 8:30ish this morning. Eli slept from 10:30pm to 11am - I'm loving the 12+ hours of sleep at night and no nap during the day, but not so much the waking up at 11am, because then I wake up at 11am too. I'm going to aim for 9pm tonight and see where that gets us. Nick was awake from 1:30am to about 11am and then slept until 2:30pm, so we'll see what his night looks like!

We went to the amazing Beaverton Library today. I bloody love that library. There is just SO MUCH THERE. So many books, so many books on CD, so many DVDs (we'll avoid those though for now after a few months of using TV as a quiet-keeper), so many toys for toddlers, so much space. Any topic you can think of and there are so many books. I asked the Children's Librarian about resources for homeschoolers and she showed me to the "Parent/Teacher" section which has all of the curriculums, workbooks, 'where your 2nd grader should be' books, etc. She also showed me where to find all of the homeschooling resource links on their library website. Cool. I picked up a list of all of the free activities the library puts on over the summer which includes a chess club for Nate (yay!) and lots of stuff for older kids.

Nick and I went to the local supermarket and were incredibly impressed by the food here (I knew - I have been here quite a few times since he was last here in 2007). We spent over an hour there looking at all of the incredible products available. If you're interested in organic wholefoods, this is a pretty incredible place to live. Tomorrow I will drag myself out of bed to get to the farmers market with my mom. Yes, it's going to be raining. This is the Portland metropolitan area, after all.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention our car situation. We looked extensively at 7-seaters and decided to get a Toyota Sienna (our first ever minivan - Nate saw it and said, "That's not very mini," which was an astute observation). So we looked online at a few and decided to haul ourselves into a few used car dealerships. Awesome fun. Before we made it that far though, a woman at my mom's work told her that her parents are selling their minivan to buy a new one, and since we've just moved here, might we be interested? So we're picking up our new (to us) Toyota Sienna from her tomorrow. Gotta love it.

Just a few more days in Australia

2010-05-14T14:58:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe we take off for Portland in 3 days. It doesn't seem real.

I have been spending a lot of time looking into things at that end. Homeschooling groups and activities for the kids, places to live, jobs. I was feeling a bit nervous about our social lives - we have spent the last 6 years settling into our current group of homeschooling friends, and it feels like we really belong there. Sure there's a lot on in Portland (at least the internet makes it look so), but what if they all think we're weirdos? What if we just don't fit in? What if the kids don't make new wonderful friends and regret moving from Sydney?

There are lots of homeschooling park days over the summer which is great. Worst case scenario, we spend some awesome days at some awesome parks and the kids play with lots of kids and no lasting friendships are formed - it would still be a lot of temporary fun. So I thought I'd look into some organised activities for the kids so that they could have interesting stuff to do and opportunities to meet people.

Here's one of those situations that could be looked at as a coincidence or serendipity or just that we have found the path we were meant to find, wherever you're coming from. I discovered Village Home Education Resource Center. Interesting because I am highly interested in the "village" concept - in fact, I cofounded a group in Sydney with "village" in the title! Village Home is a membership thing, and once you're members, loads of the classes and activities are free. And there are so many activities! Chess (Nate's current passion), knitting, arts, drama, foreign languages, lego robotics, math and English (if that's your thing, hehe), martial arts, hang-out groups, yoga, classes for adults. There is even a class to talk about and act out the Magic Treehouse series of books which the kids have been listening to on their iPod. The kids and I are so excited about this place. Some of the classes cost additional money, but it's cheaper if you volunteer - I'm hoping that means that Nick can do a sports class because I think he would love it (especially if it meant saving money!) - it seems like a lot of the instructors are homeschooling parents. And to top it all off, the main campus is in Beaverton, a block away from our favourite library and a block away from the farmers market we will go to every Saturday. It's amazing.

I'm also so excited about getting our own place. I miss having our own place. We are going to rent to start out with, and we're looking forward to a community pool, fitness room, playground and green spaces. I never really appreciated how wonderful apartment complexes in the Portland area are, but looking at them now is really exciting. Like a holiday unit.

I applied for a job the other day at a chiropractic/acupuncture clinic as a Clinical Assistant. It looks completely perfect for me and I'm hoping I hear back from them soon. I'm feeling like we had a date and I'm waiting the required amount of days until I call. I want to keep emailing, "Did you get my resume? Did you get my cover letter? Don't you want me??" But instead I'm waiting. We'll see what Monday brings.

Oh, one more funny thing. A delivery guy came to drop something off and ended up buying our car. Nick had put signs on it, but that was the extent of our advertising - we thought if it didn't sell we would just leave it here to use when we visit (not quite sure where we'd leave it), decided not to worry about it, and just let it work itself out. He's picking it up Monday evening.

Ode to my MIL

2010-05-01T00:19:00.001-07:00

That's "mother-in-law" if you don't know.

It came to my attention that in a recent post I mentioned looking forward to seeing my friends and family in America, and acknowledging that I was going to miss my friends here. I didn't, however, mention my family here, and that is a gross oversight.

As far as in-laws go, I came out pretty lucky. I am constantly hearing horror stories about in-laws, and mothers-in-law in particular. The problems that my friends mention are completely foreign to me. If Eli is wearing one of Maya's dresses (he loves Maya's dresses) and we're heading to Ann's house, she'll greet him with a genuine, "Don't you look beautiful. I love it!" When the kids ask if they can style her hair, there is no hesitation - out come the spray bottle and the comb and the elastic bands, and Bumma (as they call her, for "Big Mumma") is set up with an interesting hairstyle. She is always asking us when our next date is going to be, meaning when we're going to drop the kids off at her place and catch lunch and a movie; usually we'll return to a full, beautiful dinner (and we're sent home with the leftovers). She holds breastmilk in high esteem and if I were to tell her I was thinking of weaning Eli, she would reply, "Already?" She always respects our parenting wishes and treats our kids just like we do - like people. Regardless of how strange our parenting style might sometimes appear to outsiders, she would never make us feel like what we're doing is weird or silly, and she would always do what she thinks we would want her to do. That is incredibly valuable in any person in a child's life, but almost unheard of with mothers-in-law.

She would do absolutely anything for us, but even more important than that - she loves us, and it shows. Our kids absolutely adore her. So do we.

Thank you for being wonderful, Ann. I'm going to miss you heaps.

Gone baby, gone

2010-04-30T23:41:00.000-07:00

Busy week for us here! The day after I last wrote, Nick got a call from a woman on the Gold Coast who was very interested in our motorhome. She asked us to send through lots of pictures so that she could see the condition of the upholstery and benchtops (which were all in great condition) and decided to fly down the next morning to have a look at it. Nick met her and her mum (they were planning on going halfsies on it) at the airport the next morning, and they loved it and gave us a deposit. They knew that we had an appointment later in the week to have the registration sorted (and the last few bits and pieces fixed) so they couldn't take it that day, and they planned to fly back the following Saturday to pick it up.

Today is Saturday. They have just driven away in the motorhome, and we are in possession of a big fat cheque. Nate and I were sad to see it drive away, but now I feel elated that it's all over. It was really stressful, particularly for Nick who sorted everything out with the motorhome.

We are in possession of the kids' passports and... our tickets! We fly out on the 18th of May. 17 days from now. I alternate between overwhelmed and excited and sad and nervous.

Our next two and a half weeks will be spent saying goodbye to our beloved family and friends. We don't have a whole lot of practical stuff left to do which eases the stress a lot.

The countdown to beautiful Portland has officially begun.

Come on now

2010-04-24T01:37:00.001-07:00

Our stuff has been shipped! The kids' paperwork has been lodged! Our motorhome has been fixed and advertised, and we have have had two people come and look at it, and one coming on Monday. One of the two today looks very promising - he is in the process of looking at something like nine different motorhomes (some of them in Queensland) and he was really happy with ours out of the ones he has seen already. He should be, because ours is awesome (now that it's all fixed up).

So now it's just a waiting game.

Nick and I are keeping busy. We joined a local gym, along with the couple we're staying with, and we have all been going to the gym every day (not all together - I'm usually home with the kids while they go, and then I go alone which suits me perfectly). It feels great. I've also been eating really well, giving my body a bit of a clean out. I had a week of raw vegan, then today the kids and I had sushi for lunch. It was delicious. So were the (way too many) cookies I had afterwards. I realised that I have been too strict with myself. I don't have to eat ALL raw food ALL the time. If I don't have the occasional curry or sushi or cookie I'll go crazy and make up for it all in one sitting and then feel miserable. It does feel excellent to have so much actual nutrition in my diet though. How many people actually eat 5 servings of vegetables every day? I love Michael Pollan's advice: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

Getting there...

2010-04-16T00:43:00.001-07:00

We picked up our motorhome today! We just need to get it registered which should be relatively simple now that the place we bought it from have agreed to honour their website and include 6 months of NSW rego. As of Monday, it will be advertised in Gumtree (it is already), the Trading Post, RV Point, maybe eBay, and CMCA. The guy that fixed the back (and did a marvellous job, by the way) said that we should have no problem getting what we're asking for it. Fingers crossed!

We have also juuuust about finished packing. Just a couple of boxes with some loose stuff. We have sent the customs forms off to the shipping company which they should have received today, and hopefully they will pick everything up next week! I wonder if our boxes will beat us to America. Very exciting.

AND, we made it to the US Consulate last week. You know, I never used to agree with the term "Terrible Twos". Nate and Maya were so agreeable and easy to be around when they were two. Eli, on the other hand, is just like what the mainstream would have you believe all two year olds are like. And taking him to the US Consulate was just like what you would imagine taking a typical two year old to a consulate would be like. He shrieked in the security office. He ran under barriers into forbidden areas. He threw himself on the floor screaming in the quiet waiting area. He protested, vehemently, absolutely everything. Finally a kindly employee pointed out the toy area. Ahhhhh. $500 later, the US citizenship paperwork and passport applications are waiting to be processed... I didn't provide any proof that I have ever spent time in America. I didn't think I'd need to since I had to list all of my movements in and out of the US *ever* on their paperwork. That was tedious. Plus I have pages and pages of passport stamps. Not good enough. Luckily my high school got back to me with my transcript right away! That's four years down. One year to go. I'll call my middle school tomorrow as they don't seem to have an email address. (I know, right? Weird. It's 2010.) Then we can forward that info through and viola, citizenship granted.

That's just about it. Stuff shipped, tick (well nearly). Kids' passports sorted, tick (again, nearly). Motorhome in our possession and ready to sell, tick (um, nearly - it just needs a good scrub and some rego). If it sells in two weeks, we might be leaving the country in three!

I'm so excited, but at the same time I'm well aware of all of the wonderfulness I'm leaving behind. I tend to deal with things after the fact. I won't think about how much I'll miss all of my friends until I'm gone, and then I'll suffer dearly. But that suffering will be tempered by the excitement of being home and seeing my beloved "old" friends and family. I'm not sure if that's a healthy way of dealing with life - am I not mourning properly and pushing things under the surface? Or am I just incredibly clever? Maybe a bit of both?

Memories

2010-04-09T01:42:00.000-07:00

We have officially lost all of the data from our hard drive. The attempts to recover our photos and videos from our old computer were fruitless as well.

Gutted. Sick to my stomach, and such a strong sense of mourning. It isn't just photos we have lost, but access to memories. It's like we have allowed ourselves to mentally delete the shortcuts because we would always have the pictures to rely on to remind us.

I always loved to go through those pictures on random - snapshots of our lives over the last 6 years since we went digital. Our own personal highlight reel. There were always pictures that would prompt an "Awww, remember that?" or "Wow, I forgot all about that!" The hardest part isn't actually losing the pictures, it's knowing that because the pictures are gone, certain memories will just disappear into the ether.

Photographs have the ability to take you right back in time. It's like you can experience your children as tiny babies all over again. The picture delivers you to that moment that you first held your child and you can feel it, you can feel that baby in your arms, you can feel the pride and love and relief and intense joy all over again because you are there all over again.

I had to ask myself: what can I learn from this? There's the obvious: back up data! But on a deeper level, I think this is a (harsh) reminder to really be mindful of every moment. Be there. Live. Take it all in. If we rely on photographs to replace our memories, we are missing out on the richness of keeping those memories in our everyday lives. Before we know it, poof! It could all be gone.

On being homeless

2010-04-05T15:50:00.000-07:00

We miss having a home. We miss having our own stuff.

It's not the actual stuff we miss, you understand. Although we do have some stuff that we will happy to have back once we're in America (mostly the kids' toys and our photos and books), we can live without it quite happily. The issue is living with other people's stuff. People who don't have kids tend to have stuff that's in really nice condition.

I'm tired of constantly saying no. "Don't climb on the table. Don't jump on the couch. Don't bump that into the wall. No textas on the carpet!" Of course we talk about all of the whys, and we explain (over and over it seems) why we don't want any marks left on the walls and why some people have issues with their couches being used as trampolines. But it's really boring! I just want to have a home again where the kids can be free. Our stuff is never so precious (with the exception of books) that we feel the need to adjust their natural play in order to protect it.

I'm so grateful that we have been invited into this home to stay for as long as we need to. We have so much room (a whole level to ourselves!), a big backyard, and a few extra adults around which is fun for us and for the kids. They very rarely say anything to the kids (or to us) about the house or their stuff, but they put a lot of effort into their house looking nice. We totally understand. We want to be out of here before any permanent damage is done.

Study

2010-03-27T16:21:00.000-07:00

I want to study!

I am currently enrolled in the Certificate IV Applied Science (Nutrition) course through Australian Institute of Applied Science. I have been enrolled since I was pregnant with Maya, and I have completed... one subject. And what have I learned? That I am crap at distance learning. I have no discipline when it comes to managing my own study.

When we were deciding which of our possessions to ship to America and which to find new homes for, I was undecided about my textbooks and workbooks. Should I just face the fact that I'm not going to complete the course and find someone who would use the stuff? I listed it all on Freecycle, and then backed out.

I'm so passionate about nutrition! I just can't imagine not learning as much as I can and really being a part of the movement.

So I'm back onboard with studying. I would like to be a Holistic Nutritionist. After my stint with The Laughing Planet Baking Company (my own whole foods baking business), I thought I would start that back up in the States. It was fun, it was rewarding, and I can see that if I would have put more time and effort into it, it would have been very successful.

I'm not sure now if I want to do it again on its own, or if I would want to do it in conjunction with a Holistic Nutrition practice, or if I want to do it at all. My original recipes will come in very handy in that kind of practice, and it is the recipe development that was my favourite part of the whole affair. Maybe I could outsource the baking? Hmmm, lots to think about.

But I do know I want to study. I just need to work out a way to organise myself!

Aaaarrrggghhhh, immigration again.

2010-03-23T22:10:00.000-07:00

I'm absolutely kicking myself, for a few things: a) Not checking into Nick's immigration stuff before we went travelling, and b) Letting his bloody permanent resident status lapse in the first place! How easy it would have been to remove the conditions on his conditional green card before it expired in 2005 - then he would have gotten a 10 year visa! But we didn't, and now it looks like we're going to have to go through the whole boring, pedantic, expensive process again. FFS. I wish we would have just had a bit of foresight. I mean, in 2005 we had no idea that we would be moving back to America ever. But you know, it makes sense to take care of things just in case. We have some enquiries in via email, and we'll make some phone calls tomorrow. Sigh.

At least there is some relatively good news regarding the motorhome: Nick has arranged for the place we bought it from to organise 3 months of NSW registration. So there's that off the list of things to do. We should have it back from the shop next week sometime, and then we can actively sell the mofo.

I'm busy filling out forms for Maya and Eli to become Americans. We plan to lodge the forms next Tuesday and then we'll just wait on their passports to be sent. At least they're automatically eligible so we don't have to apply for anything.

Back to paperwork...

To Do List

2010-03-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

We have been working on a few things that need to get sorted for our overseas move. Yesterday we went over to Nick's mum's place and got our boxes ready to ship. It didn't take as long as we thought it would and it's exciting to have that done. We almost sealed a box with all of our passports inside. Now we just need to, you know, ship it. Quotes to get, shipping to sort.

There are also some immigration/citizenship things we need to take care of. Nick's permanent residency needs to be renewed. It is like 5 years expired though, so I'm not sure how easy that will be. Nate's US passport is expired, and Maya and Eli aren't yet American citizens. Forms to pick up, fill out and return.

And then there's the motorhome. It has been in the shop for a week now. We knew it would take a little while, because they had to send their quote through to the insurance company, get an approval, and then do the work. Here's where things start to get complicated. Nick rang today and they have only just sent their quote through to the insurance company. Annoying. We can't sell it until we have it, and selling it is our major concern at the moment. It looks like we're still a long way off having it back.

The registration runs out on Monday. Nick learned, through hours on the phone today, that it isn't even in our name, so we're going to have a hard time renewing the registration. Plus there is a lot of extra crap to do because it is registered in Victoria and we need it to be NSW. There is an engineer's report to get, a weigh station to visit, a blue slip which I had never even heard of, and we're still figuring out why it isn't ours. Kind of scary to spend many many thousands of dollars on something that you find out months later doesn't really belong to you.

We still have three kids though, so doing anything takes a bit more time than it would if we could completely dedicate ourselves to the task. I'm glad for the excuse to stay sane with our regular routines - Monday at the park with our friends; Friday, storytime at the library and a sushi lunch; in between, opportunities for enriching conversations and catch-ups with dear friends.

Oh but there's a lot to be done.

Settling in

2010-03-15T03:32:00.000-07:00

We went back to our regular Sydney Monday park play day today, and it was fantastic. The kids were really looking forward to seeing their friends, and I was really looking forward to seeing mine. We got there at lunch time and stayed until after dinner. I plan to do the same again next week, because it is just so much fun to be there after the sun sets.

The kids have really settled in. When we got home, they went straight into their train set which we left here at our friends' place, completely absorbed for hours. All the next day, same thing. They have been doing a lot of that - PLAYING, completely absorbed. It is wonderful. Maya is getting the space she needs. They have a nice big bathtub to use, proper beds to sleep in, and loads of choices of things to do. It's good to be back "home", no matter whose home it is.

Our motorhome is in the shop and our hard drive is with the data recovery specialists. I hope to be able to report tomorrow that all of our photos have been recovered. Fingers crossed.

Reflections

2010-03-09T14:40:00.000-08:00

We spent another wonderful night with our Gold Coast friends. More lovely hospitality, more play time for the kids, more delicious (and gargantuan) coffees, more yummy food, and more adult conversation after the kids were asleep. We left much later in the morning than we had planned to, but the kids just kept looking so engaged - walking by the window clearly absorbed in some kind of expedition, sporting back packs and torches (and in Maya's case, a hobby horse and cowgirl hat). Eventually, though, we tore ourselves away - I think it was nearly 11am. And very soon into the drive we lost another hour, thanks to our border crossing into NSW and Queensland's distrust of daylight savings time (wouldn't an extra hour of sun every day age the paint on their houses that much sooner?).

We had a stop to make in Ballina for a potential buyer to have a look at our motorhome. Then we were really underway. We were hoping to get to Coffs Harbour or Port Macquarie for the night, and we'd finish up the last 4-6 hours of driving the following day.

It was all bittersweet. I really adore northern NSW. It is absolutely gorgeous. Driving by the turnoff to Byron Bay without stopping seemed like such a shame, but at the same time it would take a really oblivious or selfish or strong-minded person to be able to thoroughly enjoy a place when half of the group really would rather not be there. I was taunted by blue skies and temperatures in the low 30's - ahhhhh, what a day for The Pass. But on we drove. On, past lush farmlands and fertile rolling hills and inviting little villages. And it was ok, because I too can feel the excitement about being back in Sydney.

At around Coffs Harbour, Nick and I had a great, reflective chat about our trip. Coffs was really our first stop in our travels, and it was great. The weather was perfect, the beaches were nice, the city was interesting, the free camping was abundant, and we were thinking we had made the best decision of our lives and might very well spend the next year feeling just this free and happy.

We made our Top 5 lists for our favourite travelling experiences.

Nick's:

5. Great Barrier Reef (in the moment it would have ranked higher, but thinking about it afterwards and being a bit disappointed by the lack of colour at the reef knocks it down to number 5)
4. The pool at Adventure Whitsunday
3. Mt Warning (or more specifically, the way he felt after our climb was all over)
2. Free camping here at Coffs Harbour
1. Lake Mackenzie at Fraser Island

And mine:

5. Byron Bay hinterland, including but not limited to The Channon Markets
4. The Mt Warning afterglow
3. Protesters Falls
2. Lake Mackenzie, which was unbelievably beautiful
1. The Pass, my favourite beach

As we were debating how far to drive yesterday afternoon, Nick was looking in the Lonely Planet for dinner suggestions. He saw that on Tuesdays from 4:30, Mike's Seafood in Port Macquarie does a buy one get one for $1 fish and chips special, and a tasty fish and chips for that matter. Sounded good to us. We headed into Port Macquarie at around 6 (with our bodies on Queensland time at 5), found a place to park the motorhome, and found Mike's. We took our dinner and our picnic blanket to the waterfront which was clearly the popular choice - there was a brass band playing songs from The Beatles and Grease, loads of people sitting around enjoying the music, a mad flock of rainbow lorikeets chirping about the fruit trees, and a bat migration filling the sky. The fish and chips were great (and generous!) and the atmosphere was the perfect ending to a trip I hope to remember as mostly wonderful.

We ended up driving down to Taree for the night, and this morning we only have a few hours to drive. We'll be in Sydney by lunchtime. The sky is crystal clear. It is a beautiful day.

Unlucky streak? Unfortunate, at least.

2010-03-07T17:12:00.000-08:00

It started with things slowly happening to the motorhome. First it was the house battery and battery charger, which wasn't cheap to fix. We broke a key and had to get a new one made at a locksmith's. We popped some screws out of the awning and it hasn't been quite right since. There was the ding on the back bumper from backing into a tap, yet to be fixed. Then there was the broken lid on the bathroom vent - whenever it rained, it rained in our bathroom. We got that fixed. The leak upstairs was a big one, but Nick fixed it (temporarily) with duct tape. So then we developed a new leak in the back. It's not as bad as the first one, but still. Now our house water pump has gone, and we have no running water. Also, there is a fuse up front blown (I hope it's a fuze anyway) and our chargers, light and radio aren't working. And our rego runs out this month. Aaarrgghhh. We don't like not having running water, and all of this is making us even more eager to get back to Sydney, where we can check the motorhome in for repairs and not have it be our only home.

So we drove. We left Cairns on Thursday after our pancake breakfast, and drove to Bowen, a good effort. Friday was Bowen to Rockhampton, and we watched the scenery changing. Saturday we hoped to make it to the Sunshine Coast, but with the cooler weather (the first two driving days were hot and sweaty) the kids were quite happy in the car, so we drove straight to the Gold Coast. Straight to Treasure Island again for us. We decided to stay for two nights so that we could have a nice day off driving. The kids spent Sunday enjoying the kids club activities and the pool.

It's not just the motorhome though. When I was opening up the hard drive to put some pictures on my Kuranda blog post, it gave me an error message and froze up. We were unable to open it again. I figured I wouldn't worry. We would take it into an IT person to check it out. The data - an emotionless, technical term for all of the thousands of photos we have taken since we moved to Australia in 2004, three children's baby pictures, 6 years of life, Christmases, birthdays, overseas visits - had to still be there.

We took our little hard drive to a "data recovery specialist" this morning, and he was unable to recover said data. Ever the optimist, my first thought was, "So he couldn't get into it, but at least he didn't get in to see there was nothing there!" He gave us the contact details for Australia's data recovery people for our brand of hard drive, and we'll call them once we get to our friends' place. Then we'll have to do something that makes me really nervous: We will have to send this little box that contains so many memories off in the post to some computer geeks who don't know us and don't particularly give a shit about our photos. Dear computer geeks, please please pleeeeeeease recover our data.

Kuranda

2010-03-07T17:01:00.000-08:00

It's taken awhile to get this post up! I was waiting on some hard drive issues so that I could post some pictures, but things aren't looking too good on that front. I'll just have to post without them.

I was really keen to venture around Cairns a bit. I've mentioned that Cape York was at the top of my list of places to go, and also up there was Cape Tribulation, the Daintree, perhaps Cooktown, the Atherton Tablelands, and Kuranda.

It's tough though, when you're travelling not just for yourself but with a family to consider. Maya has been getting increasingly frustrated and unhappy with our life in this motorhome, so we promised her that after we got to Cairns we would turn around and head back south to Sydney. As close as we were to all of the places I would have really loved to see, her happiness (and my promise to her) was much more important. I plan to live a long, fulfilling life during which I can return to Australia at some point and finish seeing it all in a Land Down Under Finale. I'm cool with that.

Kuranda was just so close though, a day trip from Cairns. I expected the kids to really like the butterfly sanctuary, and I liked the idea of a quaint little rainforest village up in the hills. I had read about the Sky Rail, a cable car system leading from Cairns up through the mountains, over the rainforest canopy, to Kuranda, and thought it sounded amazing. There is also the Kuranda Scenic Railway which looked cool.

After our big day at the reef though, I just felt a bit overwhelmed and decided not to bother going to Kuranda. I was a bit teary and down, bummed out that the trip was really going to be over soon and we were missing so much, and bummed out that we were spending so much more money than I thought we would be, and bummed out that travelling with three kids was turning out to be way harder than I anticipated. The Sky Rail and Scenic Railway were expensive too, more so than I thought. So I was going to scrap the idea. But my lovely Nick said who cares about the money? It's something you want to do, so forget about the money. Those of you who know Nick know what a big deal it was to hear this from him. He's frugal. He suggested that I just take Nate and Maya, and he and Eli could spend the day together collecting our underwater photo disk from the city and playing in the pool. A day without Eli... I have spent lots of days without Eli, but none in the last 10 weeks or so, and it made me a bit sad, and it made me feel a bit guilty how great it sounded to just go up with Nate and Maya. So that's what we did.

A bus took us to the Sky Rail terminal in the morning. Maya was a bit apprehensive after an unwise rollercoaster choice at Movie World - she was worried the gondola was going to go really high and really fast, herky jerky all over the place. She was also coming down with something (which I didn't know at the time) and that made her extra sensitive. When our gondola left the station, it appeared that she was going to be panicked for the whole hour-plus trip, but she quickly realised that although we were indeed very high, we weren't going to go too fast, and the ride was going to be smooth. So it was all ok. Nate LOVED it. I was glad that Nick wasn't there, because he isn't great with heights - I am generally fine with heights and the thing still made me nervous. He would have had to close his eyes.

We got off at both of the two stops along the way to check out the little rainforest walks. The Barron Falls station had a guided walk with an Aboriginal guy who pointed out some special trees and plants and their medicinal uses. One had a bright yellow sap which is waterproof, so it's good to seal cuts and sores. It is also used in art, and he said, "If you use this as lipstick, it will last for weeks! Wouldn't it be lovely to see - yellow lipstick!" Maya thought that was wonderful. Back at the station, under the platform, was a model of a cassowary and two chicks. He told us that if we see chicks in the wild, they will be with their father. The mother lays the eggs, and then she's gone. The father sits on them for 50 days, not leaving to eat or drink, and then brings up the chicks. Interesting, these differences between species. Apparently there is a woman up in the rainforest there that has been feeding some cassowaries so we had a good chance at spotting some. I asked if they are tame or if we should be wary, knowing that cassowaries are very cautious, solitary birds. He said we'd be fine, just to mind we didn't approach any chicks or we could get ourselves into some trouble. Alas, there were no cassowaries to be seen.

At the Kuranda station, we were faced with the option of taking the courtesy bus to the end of town - a whopping kilometre or so - or walking. I suggested we walk, and then we could check everything out as we walked by. Maya's complaints after walking about 20 metres (she was getting sick, remember) quickly changed my mind, and we headed back to the bus station. The driver told us that Kuranda is a lot bigger than people expect - it has schools and its own hospital, and two pubs! He drove us the short distance and we got off at the other end of town where we could meander back to the station end to catch our train at the end of the day.

First stop: Butterfly Sanctuary. We had read that if we wore red, we would have a good chance of attracting butterflies to land on us. In Are We There Yet?, a wonderful book about a family travelling around Australia, the mum has a butterfly land on her blue top. Nate decided to be safe and chose blue shorts and a red top. Maya wore red pants and a yellow top with flowers on it. She was the lucky one - a butterfly came to check out her flowers. It even stuck around after her initial reaction of trying to brush it away! She giggled.

The place was small, packed, and almost dizzyingly hot and humid. We weren't there for more than 20 minutes or so. There were lots of beautiful butterflies, but for the most part they kept to themselves.

Our Kuranda visitors' guide mentioned an ice cream stand selling homemade, tropical fruit ice cream. This was our next stop. The sign boasted great ingredients - raw sugar, fresh cream and milk, local fruits and nuts. I read all of the flavours out to the kids - there were some tropical choices like mango, passionfruit, coconut, rum and raisin, and then all of the regulars like chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. Nate chose mint chocolate chip, which I was happy to see was not bright green. The ice cream vendor (who was quite a character - I could have stayed and chatted for ages if the line behind us hadn't been so long) told me all about the high quality peppermint oil they use in that flavour; he was clearly proud of his work which is always wonderful to see. Maya chose lemon. He gave her a spoonful to try first since it is very tart, "Made with lemons from my own tree!" She loved it, so that was her flavour. I asked the man what his favourite is and he announced without hesitation, "Coconut ruff! I've already had two doubles this morning!" "I'll take one," I replied. After a short chat about the area of Sydney we're from (he did some naval stuff in Quakers Hill, our neighbouring suburb, many years ago) and his proclamation of the benefits of fresh ice cream to one's complexion ("I'm 68! You'd never guess, would you?"), we retired to a bench to enjoy our ice creams. They were all magnificent. The coconut ruff - chocolate ice cream with shredded coconut and little chocolate chips - was so good I could have had two doubles myself. I gave a little soapbox speech about why it's always good to choose quality products even when they cost more, and how they have to cost more because they are quality, blah blah blah, and the kids nodded their little heads, absorbed in their quality ice cream cones.

There wasn't a whole heck of a lot to do in Kuranda. We could have had lunch at one of many places, but we had packed our lunches. The little village, it was clear, only existed for the tourists who came to visit. It woke up at 10am and went back to sleep at 4 after the last coach had left. My Lonely Planet suggested that you make Kuranda a day trip as there is really nothing to stay overnight for. We walked around the markets, checked out all of the touristy items for sale just like in any other touristy area of Australia. There was a candy kitchen with free demonstrations, but they were inexplicably closed for the day. There was another sweet shop with all kinds of homemade fudge, but they seemed to be the only other shop that was closed. My day of gluttony and excess wasn't to be.

Soon we had exhausted the village. We were uncomfortably hot. Maya's tolerance level was low. We decided to check out the historic train station, hoping it was air conditioned. We stopped at a supermarket for some cold juice to take with us, and headed to the station with two hours to spare before our train was due to leave.

It wasn't air conditioned, but it was at the bottom of the village and well shaded, so it was still a bit of a relief. We had no trouble passing the time; the kids listened to stories on their iPod and I read my book (the first decent book swap find of these travels!). We checked out the charming gift shop, and the kids took lots and lots of pictures and videos, which hopefully sometime I'll be able to post.

Our train journey home was long and slow, but interesting and beautiful. There was a commentary track that talked about the building of the railway line, early life in Kuranda, and general knowledge of the surrounding areas. More nice views.

Back at the train station, our bus was waiting for us, and it was glorious. It was the nicest bus I've ever been on, and the air conditioning made me want to cry with joy.

I'm glad we went, but only because I would have felt like we were missing out if we hadn't. We wouldn't have been after all. But the ice cream was magnificent.

Good hair day

2010-03-02T16:38:00.001-08:00

Yesterday Nate and Eli and I took advantage of the courtesy shuttle and hung out at the big Stockland shopping centre for a few hours, just as long as we had to until the shuttle was due back. Maya wasn't feeling well (and had her second fever of our travels, maybe because of the close quarters?), so she stayed at the tourist park with Nick while he moved us into OUR VILLA. She is the dearest little sick person - curls up in bed and chats through her stuffy little nose, drifts off to sleep when she needs it, looks at books, listens to her body.

The shoe curse is still with us and has now taken my recently aquired black thongs. The toe strap snapped on the Great Barrier Reef boat. I haven't even had them for two months! Haviana is going to hear from me. In the meantime, however, I needed a new pair of shoes to wear. I borrowed Nick's new mock-crocs for the trip to the shops, and am now the proud owner of some $6 pink thongs. Pink? It was the only plain pair (like, without bedazzling or sequins or bows). Nick said it's like being married to a 12 year old. I've never been a pink person, but now I have a pink bag and matching pink shoes. Who am I???

We did a big shop, anticipating our full villa kitchen! Plenty of room in a full sized fridge for lots of fruit and veg - it all needs refrigeration up here in Cairns. All the fixings for an Indian dinner and a pizza dinner for the two nights we're here. An oven! Yay! We'll be baking cookies today.

It was so nice coming back to our villa. Yesterday was really hot and insanely humid, so we kept the air con set at 24 degrees and the overhead fans on low, and it was so nice in here. The villa has two bedrooms, one with a queen bed, one with two bunks, and the couch folds out into a bed as well. It isn't big, but it is a lot bigger than our motorhome, so we're feeling a bit luxurious and spread out. We brought in all of the toys and books and the kids really got into being less cramped.

We have also had the telly on a lot. The kids haven't watched any TV for weeks, but they have watched movies from our hard drive in the motorhome, and it's been the same things over and over. It's been nice for sick Maya to just chill out watching stuff she hasn't seen before while the boys hung out at the water park with Nick.

I loved taking a shower yesterday afternoon without having to pack and tote everything I would need off to a public shower, and without dripping with sweat on the way back to the motorhome. I washed my hair and noticed that last night it was all dry and silky smooth and relatively straight. Due to the humidity, I have been sporting a frizzy fro framed by some Maya-like ringlets since like Brisbane. But yesterday I was inside all afternoon.

Last night I heard the weatherman announce, "The humidity today was pretty atrocious, and it will be more of the same tomorrow." I'm really appreciating the opportunity to hang out inside.

We have clocked 5000 kilometres, which means it is time for a minor service to maintain the warranty. I'm hoping that won't be too expensive, although we have completely abandoned keeping track of the budget as of last week. We spent an insane amount of money with the reef tour, our trip to Kuranda (which I'll write about soon), and now the villa. Since we have been in Queensland we haven't been free camping - it rains at night and our windows let the rain right in so we have to close everything up, and then it becomes stifling inside with no power to run a fan or air con. All of the accommodation charges have really added up.

We will be heading back south, recharged and ready for the motorhome once again, and we won't be spending any more money on tours or theme parks or fancy accomodation or anything big like that. So we're giving up on the budget thing. We're no good at it anyway.

Great Barrier Reef

2010-03-01T20:27:00.000-08:00

The check-in area for our Great Barrier Reef was just like an airport, with each of the major tours having their own counters. It was weird, and it was our first clue to just what a huge business this reef thing is.

Here's another illustration of the scale:

We cruised out of Cairns, into the big blue. The boat met up with its pontoon which just sits out at the reef permanently, and this is where we spent the next 4 1/2 hours.

There were lots of things to do - glass bottomed boat tours, a semi-submersible boat tour, a "touch tank" where people were allowed to molest some starfish and sea cucumbers, which were carefully counted at the end of the day before they were returned to the sea. Apparently they are a delicacy in some Asian countries and have been known to disappear into Asian tourists' bags - we were told that the bigger, football-sized ones would be worth $5000-$6000. Here is Nate returning it to its home after what must have been a stressful day, as far as sea cucumbers experience stress:

There was a children's pool which was enclosed but fish could swim in and out of:

And there were little landings for snorkellers to launch themselves from. I took Maya and Nate to snorkel first thing while Nick sat with sleeping Eli on the big boat. Unfortunately, we just couldn't get their masks and snorkels to work for them. Maya was happy to abandon the task and hang out in the children's pool, but Nate got quite frustrated with all of the failed attempts - there was either water getting into the mask or into the snorkel, or too many bubbles in front of his face (I have no idea what that was about). Nick couldn't make it work either when he came out to the pontoon, and eventually Nate decided he would give up trying and enjoy some other stuff. It was a hairy time there for awhile, with a grumpy kid, but it all worked out.

Here are some pictures from the semi-submersible (the colour reminds me of The Abyss):

Turtle! Dude!

Nick and I did some snorkelling, one at a time obviously. We opted not to hire the stinger suits after we discovered that there haven't been any stingers spotted at this area of the reef this season, but I found that I was still a bit nervous. I'm a bit of a nervous ocean person really, especially when there are genuinely things that can kill you, or at the very least make you very uncomfortable, floating and swimming about.

And Nate managed to find a bluebottle :o( He was just swimming from the snorkelling platform to the children's pool, right along the side of the pontoon, a distance of about 10 metres. It wasn't a big - what do I call it, sting? contact? But it hurt him, and it left a few small welts on his leg. The staff onboard knew exactly what to do, of course. The sweet lifeguard sprayed the area with vinegar and gave Nate some ice to put on it, and then she did the most helpful thing of all - she told him that she has seen grown adults cry from the pain, so he must be really, really tough. He loved hearing that and promptly reported this to Maya after the lifeguard had walked away.

We splurged (when haven't we lately, really?) and hired an underwater camera. The camera place transferred all of our photos and videos to a disk for us, but there is no disk drive on our little computer! We'll have to find a computer to transfer them over to a memory stick so that I can see them and upload any amazing ones.

I'm disappointed to report that all in all, the experience was a bit of a letdown. Because of the pontoon, it doesn't really feel like you're going out into the middle of the ocean (well not the middle, but you know what I mean). It feels like you're just going to another resort. And because the staff go to the same place every day, they already kind of know what's going to be out there. Sometimes there is a bit of variety - sharks and turtles come and go after all - but there are residents there that the staff have named, like Wally the Maori wrasse, which gives the feeling of jumping into a giant aquarium. For me, the draw of the reef was the wildness of it, but it didn't feel that way at all. On the flipside of that coin, it did feel very safe which is the feeling you want with kids around.

The buffet was good though :o)

Cairns

2010-02-27T13:09:00.000-08:00

For those of you who suspect we are just travelling from pool to pool up here in Far North Queensland, you will be amused to hear that we spent a bit of time in the city yesterday at the.... pool. This is a special pool though, not just any old pool. It is the pool at the Esplanade, right on the water so that hopefully people won't feel like they are missing out with the fact that Cairns has no beaches. It even has lifeguards.

We walked to the marina to check out where our Great Barrier Reef tour will be leaving from. We stopped to tame a crocodile:

And then we walked around a bit. I had Eli on my back in the Ergo and we were both just dripping in sweat. We passed a million and a half cafes and restaurants, but we had our mind set on the air conditioned luxury of the Cairns Central Shopping Centre. I knew they would have sushi.

Long before we got to Cairns, Nick spotted an advertisement for Cairns Coconut Holiday Resort, Australia's first and Queensland's only 5 star caravan park. The activities and amenities sounded magnificent - loads of activities for the kids (huge play areas and pools, water park, movie nights, pancake breakfasts), free shuttle bus into the city.

After our big drop in morale, this place was the only thing keeping Nick motivated to come to Cairns. So we were disappointed (understatement) to find that on top of the $30something they were charging for a powered site, they wanted to charge $15 extra per child. That's a bank-breaker, that is. So we decided to stay at another place while we were doing the touristy stuff, and maybe stay at Coconut for just one day to enjoy all of the kiddie stuff.

You might remember that we got into Cairns really early, so we thought we'd just stay at Coconut that first day and move on to a cheaper place for the rest of the week. We were delighted (understatement) to learn that this month's special is... kids stay free with adults if you stay for two nights! Conveniently, Eli isn't quite 2 years old this week (it's only a white lie, right? It's not like they check ID), so we are just paying what we would be paying at any old place.

But here's the thing - we had mentally prepared to spend the extra for a night because it was worth it to us. So we have decided to shell out for a villa for two nights (it's gotta be two for that kids free special) before we head back south. We'll have bedrooms and TV and a full kitchen with our own big fridge and an oven, a spa bath, ahhhh. I am looking forward to it (understatement). We can give the motorhome a good scrub so it's ready to go for our trip back.

BUT FIRST... The Great Barrier Reef. We leave in 45 minutes! I can't believe it. We chose Sunlover for our tour - Nick actually liked it best before he discovered that it was one of the cheaper options. I'll tell you all about it, I promise.

More swimming!

2010-02-26T13:19:00.000-08:00

Check out this cute happy jumping-in-the-water kiddo:

Nick got some great pool and water park pics yesterday:

We're off to check out Cairns today. The place we're staying has a courtesy shuttle to the city. Our kids love any sort of bus ride, and we love not having to find a place to park the motorhome in a city! It looks like there are a whole lot of awesome things to do and see around here.

We will also be booking our Great Barrier Reef tour today! Nate is uber excited for the snorkelling. There are soooo many different tours so it's a big hard to know which to choose.

Quick tracks to Cairns

2010-02-25T20:38:00.000-08:00

Poor Maya is ready to go home. This morning she had a little meltdown, declaring her hate for "this tiny motorhome". We told her we were just going to get to Cairns, and after we were done in Cairns we would turn and head back to Sydney. She was happy to hear that, and seems to be willing to enjoy the rest of the time travelling instead of resenting it all, as long as we're heading back soon.

We left Airlie Beach, aiming for Townsville, about 300 kilometres away. On the way, we drove over Burdekin River and I so wish I would have taken a picture of it as I have never seen a river that colour. You know the brown that a river turns when it is flooded? This one was almost orange, like clay. It was huge and bizarre, and for some reason it scared the crap out of me.

Townsville was odd, like a work in progress. It seemed deserted. We had our lunch at The Strand, the centreish area on the water. Water that you can't go in, due to stingers and... wait for it... crocodiles. We're in croc country. There was a netted-off area for stinger-free/ croc-free swimming. We just stayed at the playground.

The kids were happy to keep driving, so we scratched our plan to stay for the night and moved on.

At dinnertime, we stopped in a small town called Cardwell (which Lonely Planet claims has a population of 10,000, but we couldn't for the life of us work out where they were all hiding their houses. There didn't even seem to be a grocery shop). We treated ourselves to grilled fish and chips - local barramundi, sooo delicious - and had a picnic near the crocodile infested water overlooking Hinchinbrook Island. Here is the warning sign:

The warnings seem so mild.

Here was our picnic view:

The kids were, again, happy to keep going, so we decided to push on to Cairns, only about an hour and a half north. Nate had fun snapping pictures in the backseat:

We didn't quite make it and stopped for the night at Innisfail. We left early this morning for the rest of the drive, and it was so beautiful. Very rainy, very dark dramatic clouds obscuring the tops of the very green, jungle covered hills all around. Here's a shot from the moving vehicle:

We are really in the wet tropics now. I'm so looking forward to seeing more of Cairns.

The kids love to swim

2010-02-25T20:22:00.001-08:00

We have been doing a lot of swimming! At the place we stayed at Airlie Beach, the pool was incredible, and we went swimming most mornings and late afternoons. How could you resist this?

The kids loved the two waterslides:

Eli is fearless. He jumps in and even swims to the surface. Nick discovered that. I'm not one to wait and see if they make it to the surface on their own. That's what dads are for. I took a few videos of him hopping in, but they disappeared from the camera! Here's the best photo:

Maya and Nick:

So of course Eli wanted a turn:

Nate attempting what appear to be one-handed handstands:

Nick would have packed the pool up to bring with us if he could.

That's how the other half live

2010-02-24T21:28:00.001-08:00

We were blessed with wonderful weather for our cruise around the Whitsundays.

Our day started out with a courtesy coach picking us up from our caravan park. Five nights there and we didn't move the motorhome once! On to Abel Marina to hop onto The Voyager.

Now that we're out of the peak tourism season, a lot of things either aren't running or are different to their usual. Our tour was one of them, but it was a good change. The big, new boat was being fixed up, so we went out on the older boat. As one of the crew said, "Same head, different hat." We got the same tour, just on a smaller older boat and at a cheaper price. I'm not complaining.

We "set sail" and stopped first at Daydream Island to pick a few more people up. Off again, and onto Hook Island. We disembarked and marvelled at all of the colourful tropical fish in the clear waters just under the pier. One of the crew threw in some bread for them (and gave some to the kids to do the same) so we could get a really good look. There were even a few Maori wrasse down there, which are very distinctive, big blue fish with huge lips. We got into the Coral Viewer, a semisubmersible, and headed out to look at the fringing reef. There weren't a huge amount of fish on the reef (that we could see anyway) but the different varieties of coral were more interesting and beautiful than I would have thought. Spaghetti coral, stag coral, plate coral, brain coral, elephant ear coral.

Back on shore, we walked to the resort for a bit of snorkelling. Now as I have mentioned before, it is stinger season, so we were all given lycra stinger suits to wear in the ocean. Even little ones for the kids (well you would hope so!). How cute are they? Maya reminds me of Cathy Freeman circa 2000:

We fitted the kids with life vests so they could float around with their snorkelling gear, not having to worry about the swimming part. Most of the group headed out with some of the crew to feed the fish, so Nick went to have a look while I stayed shallow with the kids. Maya looked incredible, floating face down, kicking around - she didn't come up for air for ages! Eli didn't like the sensation too much and wanted me to hold him. After awhile, Maya and Eli were ready to get out (and into the resort pool), so Nick and Nate went out to the fish feeding together. Nick was surprised how nice snorkelling was. He hadn't thought it would be anything special. Nate was so high on the experience afterwards that it was all he could think or talk about. He is very much looking forward to snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef.

Once we got back on the boat, we headed for Whitehaven Beach. It was voted (by whom I'm not exactly sure) as one of the top 10 beaches in the world. With all of the hype, it was anticlimactic getting there. Nick wonders how a beach can be in the top 10 when you can't even swim in the water without a special suit on. It did have the necessary components: white sand, tick; turquoise bath water, tick; free from development, tick. It unfortunately also had loads of leaf litter all over that white sand which really took away from the scenery. It was fun to watch all of the little fish in the shallows though, and at one point I could see a dark thing about 10 metres away, moving in our general direction - so I stood up and found myself looking at what looked suspiciously like a small shark. It was pretty cool.

Our next port of call was Daydream Island again, but this time to get off and have a wander around. The kids posed with the mermaid:

We enjoyed a smoothie at the bar, a swim in the lovely resort pool, and a play at the cool playground.

Nate snapped some pictures on the trip back home, including this candid one of Maya and me making funny faces:

It was a good day, especially the snorkelling. It was fun (and shocking) to see the multi-million dollar mansions and $6000 per night resorts on Hamilton Island from our boat. The scenery was beautiful - tropical islands popping up out of the clear blue sea. It was something to do once, to see what all the fuss is about. If I ever go back to the Whitsundays, it will be to stay on Hamilton Island.

Long overdue... PHOTOS!

2010-02-22T21:34:00.001-08:00

Waaaay back at the Gold Coast, we lost our camera case which also housed the cord needed to upload photos to the computer. Remember that? I certainly do, because my blog has been seriously short on photos for a long time! I just checked and saw that the last photos I posted were of our Mt Warning climb back on 27 January. Yikes! I am in the process of remedying that situation now, starting with this post.

If you're interested in the pictures, have a look from 3 February onwards. Hopefully I'll get it done tonight! That would make way for the new photos we'll surely be taking tomorrow...

I'm so excited. We have been hanging out at the caravan park, waiting for our camera cord to arrive, before booking anything that we would want to have photos of. (Coincidentally, I have been fairly ill for the last few days with a throat infection, but I'm on the mend now.) Now we have said cord and have booked our Whitsunday Island Adventure! One day on the sea, enjoying the beautiful scenery, with a few stops along the way for snorkeling (stinger suits included!). The kids are so excited, and so are Nick and I! And I'm so glad we'll be able to take photos.

I asked Nate the other day what his favourite thing about travelling has been, and he said Fraser Island. Cooool, I'm so glad I didn't just go by myself!! In particular, Lake Mackenzie - and I discovered that Nick did take a few photos before the camera died! I'll upload those in the appropriate post, post haste. Maya said that her favourite was the Great Barrier Reef. I said, "But we haven't seen it yet" to which she replied, "But I'm going to love it!!"

Nick has the kids in the pool and I'm going to now go make us some vegetable soup for dinner. Just what the doctor ordered.

The Whitsundays

2010-02-19T23:09:00.000-08:00

20 February, 2010

Would you believe we're finishing up our eighth week on the road?

Due to our low morale, we have blitzed central Queensland. We stayed for one night in Rockhampton and did the obligatory drive around town, but we really did it no justice. Ditto Mackay, which looked like a really lovely tropical city - all we saw was the dodgy caravan park, a shopping centre, and a motorhome handy man who did some waterproofing on the leaky seals. (They still are leaking, by the way. Nick just checked with a hose. Leak 1, motorhome handy man 0.)

Now we are enjoying some *sun* in Airlie Beach! Nick washed all of the bedding today while the kids and I hung out in the lagoon pool with two waterslides and a shaded kiddie area. It was nice to know it was going to dry, and dry it did. Bummer about that leak though, but there will definitely be someone who can fix it in Townsville... right? The only RV repair shops in Rockhampton and Mackay were all booked out with the weekend coming, so we'll have to call ahead to organise something in Townsville. We neeeeed to get that fixed. There is visible water damage up there.

We don't plan on going anywhere at the moment though. We have booked in for 4 nights (at the price of 3 which works out to a ridiculously low $30 a night! For the Whitsundays! Crazy!) Nick has just gone to the office to talk about booking some kind of day cruise. We really don't know what exactly we should be seeing around here, but we have heard that Whitehaven Beach (I think that's what it's called) is The Best Beach In The World. That sounds pretty special.

So morale is back up. I have to admit, it was a bit higher before Nick just tested the leak and found that it wasn't fixed. The sun is still shining, we are at a resort that Nick has been looking forward to for weeks, and we are on paradise's doorstep. Honestly, the ocean is turquiose. We are surrounded by palm trees. Tomorrow, we may spend the day cruising around the Whitsundays. Nice. This is the life.

I just wish I felt better :o( I'm a bit under the weather. Throat, ears, and a cough. It makes the pool feel not so good. I'm here blogging instead of taking Nate back to the pool. Bummer. I think I need to get off now and help Nate alleviate his boredom.

Sheila

2010-02-19T23:07:00.000-08:00

19 February, 2010

We have a lizard! Nick and I noticed her around about a week before the kids spotted her, and when they did they were so excited. She's just a little skink and for awhile hung out under our fridge - quite a feat as there really is no "under". Now she seems to be in the little-used grill, because she pops up from behind it occasionally, typically when we are doing something with the fruit basket which is above the grill. Nate held her for a bit today, and then Maya did (squealing all the while) and then Eli did (also squealing) and then she jumped! She was outta there. Nate is good with her though, quite calm, and she'll happily hang out on his arm for ages. Sometimes days go by without a Sheila spotting. Nate and Maya have drawn portraits of her. It's all very cute.

Okay, so I wanted to write about Hervey Bay.

We stayed at the Scarness Beachfront Holiday Park. It was absolutely beachfront - the steps Duedown to the sand were a few metres from our motorhome. This was the first caravan park we stayed at that was right on the beach, and we were excited about it because getting all of the sand off before getting into the motorhome always sucks a bit - now we would be able to walk straight into the shower! Awesome. And to boot, the area we were staying in has the safest swimming in Hervey Bay. No stingers, very calm waters, very shallow.

On our first night there, we went for a walk on the beach but not a swim. Just a short walk away was a playground, so the kids played there for awhile. And that was the last time we ever went to the beach. True story. The next day it rained all day long, and we stayed in. The day after that we went to Fraser Island. And the next morning, we were off. Funny stuff.

I'm always paranoid about keeping the screen door closed, especially at dusk. On our first night, it was very windy and Nick pointed out that there weren't likely to be any mozzies out in that kind of wind. He was right. We even had dinners at the camp kitchen, after dark, and there were no mosquitoes. It was a nice hiatus. Bonus.

One more thing of note is the bat colony! Wow, there are a lot of bats at Hervey Bay, and they come out at dusk. As we sat at the camp kitchen eating our dinner one night, there appeared in the sky a bit inland of us a huge group of bats, all flying south. The group just didn't stop either - as far as we could see behind them there were bats. Thousands upon thousands of bats, all flying south in a large line. It had to have been at least 10 minutes of solid bats. Some broke free from the group and came to check out the trees above us, but they all continued on. We saw this the next night as well. It was incredible. I Googled and found that this is a normal occurrence.

So that's that.