One more sleep
Good evening y’all. The cicadas would like to say hello to you also, maybe…by chance do you know why they actually call out so much? Are they really mating all the time? Or must they make noise in order to breathe? They aren’t that bad, it’s just the absence of my girls’ voices that gives them centerstage. The spiders seem to enjoy eating cicadas, it takes them quite a while to devour a single cicada. Matt watches them at night outside our kitchen windows, their webs are spectacular as are their rapid hunting skills. The last few days it has been pouring down rain so hard that you can’t even talk on the phone, but today was lovely and dry. We had a chance to play outside without having to strip down, bath and put on more clothes each time we came inside. There are many towns which are flooded in, but we are usually alright here on Coronation Road. It’s a pity for all of the tourists up here on holiday, waiting for good beach weather. Life could be much worse, couldn’t it?
Well, Jacinta has been riding on cloud nine for a few days in anticipation of her first day of pre-school. Every morning she wakes up the first word spoken is how many “sleeps” are left until she begins. Three more sleeps Daddy! Two more sleeps! Today we heard all day, “One more sleep!” We might normally say how many days are left, but Jacinta doesn’t yet have the full concept of what a “day” actually is. Aussies sometimes say, “I’m going to have a sleep,” or “have a swim” or “have a go (try this out).” Dear Jacinta is having a sleep, her last sleep before the big day. She chuckled as we wrote her name on her water bottle, her clothes, her backpack and even her pillow. Giddy with joy, as we were reading we stories, she said, “I’m gonna say “yay” in my sleep all night.” I’m so excited and hopeful for her that it will be as unbelievably exciting as she anticipates.
What will I do for six hours with only one child again? It’s only one day a week so I’ve tried not to plan too much, but just enjoy the silence and some time with Genevieve. I’ll probably tarry on as usual making bread, gardening, cleaning, listening to music, but just a little more meditatively. I won’t need to feign interest every other minute at a trick on the couch or weigh up exactly how much attention I am paying to each girl so neither suffers. Jacinta actually spends more time making sure I don’t look away even for one second than she spends doing her trick. She keeps her head awkwardly cocked throughout the whole gymnastics stunt. You’d think I never paid her any attention. Her jealousy isn’t too grand at the moment. It could be more of a developmental stage, this need to be watched and praised every moment of the day. She is more interested in Genevieve every day. She holds her hands now and helps her walk, celebrating the number of steps her little sister takes. Jacinta proudly retold the story that she held Evie in the wagon on the way down to the garden this evening. Oh this quaint little world I live in. To think I used to spend my days thinking I could save the world, I can’t even fully satisfy two girls. Growing older seems to be a good way to learn humility. I have a good laugh now thinking of how older, wiser folk must have perceived me a few years ago, ablaze with haughty life philosophies that everyone needed to believe. Perhaps given too many days with room for meditation I might think I can save the world again (:
Yesterday from the other room I heard Jacinta yell at the top of her lungs, “But I NEED the world!” The world to her is a large inflatable ball, a globe to throw around. She can find Australia and always asks us to show her America, sometimes France or Senegal. The other day we were reading a book about food around the world. Trying to simplify, I told her that Mexico was in America. She curiously asked, “Is that in North or South America?” It blew me away, she has no concept of North or South but a child’s ear for imitation and repetition. When I tell her little things about my travels or say a word that is obviously not English, she asks, “Was that in France or Senegal?” It makes me so happy to hear her make up stories and set them in Africa or in America. I may not be able to hold the whole world and all of the oppressed in my consciousness as I used to try, but I try to bring the world into my little girls’ imaginations.
Evie’s imagination might wander to queries on where her favourite objects are hiding. The straw wreath is high on the list right now. When spotted, she races to it and instantly puts it over her head. It slips down around her neck and she pushes her right arm through the hoop as if she is wearing a purse. Once she is appropriately adorned she’s off again to find a toy. She does the same thing with the large tambourine. Today Genevieve crawled under the couch to get a rubber starfish bath toy and went so far back that Jacinta had to guide her out. She knows what she wants and she WILL get it. Adult legs are among her favourite things. Sometimes she hangs on and just walks, using us as a walker. Sometimes she’ll just cling on and bounce with this awesome grin on her face. If we don’t pick her up (usually she wants to get up to see someone else or touch something up high), she’ll start to climb us. She wants to climb everything now. She can take three or four steps and is very firm on her feet now. She doesn’t say much, Jacinta says it all. But she does now say Da Da Da and Ma Ma Ma. Jacinta asked Matt why Evie only says our names. She had a good laugh coming up with a simpler name for Evie to call her. We’ll see how that goes.
The rain this week kept us inside a bit, but we still made it out to town, to garden, to visit some friends and go to the beach. Genevieve was just at the end of her mild little case of conjunctivitis so we waited for the rain to stop and headed for the salt water. Salt water is good for so many things, what a lucky place we live in being so close to this big purification pool, the ocean. It’s quite a fun form of medicine too! I feel so good when I can treat the girls’ at home without doctors and pharmacies, although I know there will be things that are out of my league down the track. I must give all the credit to a book, the best book for treating simple illnesses at home. My friend Kirsten recommended this book to me back when Jacinta had colic. It is called Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child: a Practical A-to-Z Reference to Natural and Conventional Treatments for Infants and Children. It is written by Janet Zand and a few others. We mistakenly bought the adult version first, Smart Medicine for Healthier Living by the same author, but really enjoy it also. Not only does it explain the reason for each illness, but lays out all options to help heal you using nutritional supplements, herbs, homeopathy, acupressure, diet and conventional medicine. I usually stick with diet and herbs, but I like seeing all of my options. Eyebright tea, breast milk, carrots, squash, cantaloupe (vitamin A), oranges and rosehip tea (vitamin C), washing hands and time got Genevieve through her first case of pink eye. Wonders never cease, none of us caught conjunctivitis in the process!
Matt took it easy on his knee and spent a lot of his time working, in front of a cricket test on television. Really, you don’t need to dedicate too much energy to cricket as it lasts for eight hours a day and goes for five days. He had his computer and his headphones out there and worked on his book, Originally Blessed. He is still contacting artists, theologians of all faiths, poets, cosmologists, musicians, and so forth to attract a wider audience. Every other day he is bubbling with joy in celebration of one more awesome person who has agreed to participate. He has already received a few pieces and is just beginning the editing work. He continues to read other books in preparation for telephone interviews, all the while Genevieve is crawling in and out of the room, tugging at his knees and Jacinta is popping in to monkey around on the couch and say, “Look at Me!”
We all need a bit of recognition. We need someone to be impressed with our work. Although I’m pretty excited to have learned how to make a shelter out of sheet metal this week, I need someone else to be impressed too. Maybe the chickens will suffice. There’s so much work I would like to do on the chicken pen, I honestly don’t know how to go about it. Cutting down trees, tearing apart metal, lashing it back together, roofing a chicken run, it’s all very complicated. Gathering the tools might be the hardest part. Thus, I must ask for help each and every time I want to work on the chicken pen. This is hard for me to do. Keith kindly worked with me one morning and showed me basically how to sew the sheet metal together with wire. Hopefully I’ll find time to get out there and do some more before I forget. I finally found the time to make laundry soap. It was easy enough. I’ll tell you next week if it actually cleans the clothes!
This morning Matt took the girls on a walk into town, to celebrate the sunshine, exercise his knee and give me some time on my own. Two hours in the garden on my own is a dream. Now that I’ve learned not to make goals in these rare moments, I potter around and enjoy wandering from garden to garden doing little things. Today I found aphids on the citrus trees and had the time to spray them with soapy, oily water and rub them away. I was delighted to see the ladybugs were already at work eating the aphids. I found some wire fencing and a few stakes and made a little bean climbing fence. I had time to dig it in next to the seven little bean plants in search of something to climb. The other day I picked up a massive stack of newspapers to use as weed killer/mulch so I laid half of them down over weeds and created a few paths through the jungle. I glanced at bunches of cucumbers, pretending not to see them, so I didn’t have to pick them and feel bad that no one will eat them because we have too many. I picked some more green and purple beans, a few red cherry tomatoes (wishing there were more), a bunch of green tomatoes (knowing birds would get them if they turned red on the vine), some corn, a few strawberries and a very large pumpkin. I tied up a few tomato and cucumber vines and even planted some spinach and lettuce. Lastly, I found that the terrace we planted last week with kidney beans was alive with 42 new kidney bean plants after all of the rain! What a lucky morning.
Even luckier, I spoke to my sister this week about her plans to visit Australia! She hasn’t bought the tickets yet, but we’re discussing dates and lodging. This means that after over two years of living abroad, my sister and her family will be the first of my family to visit. I knew in moving so far away that it was going to be hard for everyone to come and find me, financially and just the difficulty of travelling so far. I had to come here for many reasons and they understand, but it doesn’t make the travel any easier. That said, Lecia, Ben, Kai and their new little baby will probably come out this June. This made my week.
To finish off the week, we were somehow inspired to clean the windows after a year of living here with massive dirty windows. It was good family fun being outside on the veranda, Jacinta with her own squirty bottle of soapy water, Genevieve hunting down all of the forbidden cleaning tools, and Matt and I excitedly scrubbing. I’ll admit, Matt has the touch, he’s a better window cleaner than I. He had to redo most of mine. How ‘bout I blame the kids? In any case, we can now see really well out of the windows. It’s shocking we could go for so long with dirty windows, but I suppose you can get used to anything after a while. It’s a whole new world out there.
Tomorrow we’ll wake up and there will be no more sleeps left, preschool will begin, another new world. We’ll be able to see out the windows, but there may be an angry spider shaking his finger at us for ruining all of his hard labour. Genevieve might get to play with the “world” all by herself. Soon my sister will come and visit our little part of the world. Life’s pretty good here. I hope your part of the world is just as peaceful as ours.
Peace,
Shana
Well, Jacinta has been riding on cloud nine for a few days in anticipation of her first day of pre-school. Every morning she wakes up the first word spoken is how many “sleeps” are left until she begins. Three more sleeps Daddy! Two more sleeps! Today we heard all day, “One more sleep!” We might normally say how many days are left, but Jacinta doesn’t yet have the full concept of what a “day” actually is. Aussies sometimes say, “I’m going to have a sleep,” or “have a swim” or “have a go (try this out).” Dear Jacinta is having a sleep, her last sleep before the big day. She chuckled as we wrote her name on her water bottle, her clothes, her backpack and even her pillow. Giddy with joy, as we were reading we stories, she said, “I’m gonna say “yay” in my sleep all night.” I’m so excited and hopeful for her that it will be as unbelievably exciting as she anticipates.
What will I do for six hours with only one child again? It’s only one day a week so I’ve tried not to plan too much, but just enjoy the silence and some time with Genevieve. I’ll probably tarry on as usual making bread, gardening, cleaning, listening to music, but just a little more meditatively. I won’t need to feign interest every other minute at a trick on the couch or weigh up exactly how much attention I am paying to each girl so neither suffers. Jacinta actually spends more time making sure I don’t look away even for one second than she spends doing her trick. She keeps her head awkwardly cocked throughout the whole gymnastics stunt. You’d think I never paid her any attention. Her jealousy isn’t too grand at the moment. It could be more of a developmental stage, this need to be watched and praised every moment of the day. She is more interested in Genevieve every day. She holds her hands now and helps her walk, celebrating the number of steps her little sister takes. Jacinta proudly retold the story that she held Evie in the wagon on the way down to the garden this evening. Oh this quaint little world I live in. To think I used to spend my days thinking I could save the world, I can’t even fully satisfy two girls. Growing older seems to be a good way to learn humility. I have a good laugh now thinking of how older, wiser folk must have perceived me a few years ago, ablaze with haughty life philosophies that everyone needed to believe. Perhaps given too many days with room for meditation I might think I can save the world again (:
Yesterday from the other room I heard Jacinta yell at the top of her lungs, “But I NEED the world!” The world to her is a large inflatable ball, a globe to throw around. She can find Australia and always asks us to show her America, sometimes France or Senegal. The other day we were reading a book about food around the world. Trying to simplify, I told her that Mexico was in America. She curiously asked, “Is that in North or South America?” It blew me away, she has no concept of North or South but a child’s ear for imitation and repetition. When I tell her little things about my travels or say a word that is obviously not English, she asks, “Was that in France or Senegal?” It makes me so happy to hear her make up stories and set them in Africa or in America. I may not be able to hold the whole world and all of the oppressed in my consciousness as I used to try, but I try to bring the world into my little girls’ imaginations.
Evie’s imagination might wander to queries on where her favourite objects are hiding. The straw wreath is high on the list right now. When spotted, she races to it and instantly puts it over her head. It slips down around her neck and she pushes her right arm through the hoop as if she is wearing a purse. Once she is appropriately adorned she’s off again to find a toy. She does the same thing with the large tambourine. Today Genevieve crawled under the couch to get a rubber starfish bath toy and went so far back that Jacinta had to guide her out. She knows what she wants and she WILL get it. Adult legs are among her favourite things. Sometimes she hangs on and just walks, using us as a walker. Sometimes she’ll just cling on and bounce with this awesome grin on her face. If we don’t pick her up (usually she wants to get up to see someone else or touch something up high), she’ll start to climb us. She wants to climb everything now. She can take three or four steps and is very firm on her feet now. She doesn’t say much, Jacinta says it all. But she does now say Da Da Da and Ma Ma Ma. Jacinta asked Matt why Evie only says our names. She had a good laugh coming up with a simpler name for Evie to call her. We’ll see how that goes.
The rain this week kept us inside a bit, but we still made it out to town, to garden, to visit some friends and go to the beach. Genevieve was just at the end of her mild little case of conjunctivitis so we waited for the rain to stop and headed for the salt water. Salt water is good for so many things, what a lucky place we live in being so close to this big purification pool, the ocean. It’s quite a fun form of medicine too! I feel so good when I can treat the girls’ at home without doctors and pharmacies, although I know there will be things that are out of my league down the track. I must give all the credit to a book, the best book for treating simple illnesses at home. My friend Kirsten recommended this book to me back when Jacinta had colic. It is called Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child: a Practical A-to-Z Reference to Natural and Conventional Treatments for Infants and Children. It is written by Janet Zand and a few others. We mistakenly bought the adult version first, Smart Medicine for Healthier Living by the same author, but really enjoy it also. Not only does it explain the reason for each illness, but lays out all options to help heal you using nutritional supplements, herbs, homeopathy, acupressure, diet and conventional medicine. I usually stick with diet and herbs, but I like seeing all of my options. Eyebright tea, breast milk, carrots, squash, cantaloupe (vitamin A), oranges and rosehip tea (vitamin C), washing hands and time got Genevieve through her first case of pink eye. Wonders never cease, none of us caught conjunctivitis in the process!
Matt took it easy on his knee and spent a lot of his time working, in front of a cricket test on television. Really, you don’t need to dedicate too much energy to cricket as it lasts for eight hours a day and goes for five days. He had his computer and his headphones out there and worked on his book, Originally Blessed. He is still contacting artists, theologians of all faiths, poets, cosmologists, musicians, and so forth to attract a wider audience. Every other day he is bubbling with joy in celebration of one more awesome person who has agreed to participate. He has already received a few pieces and is just beginning the editing work. He continues to read other books in preparation for telephone interviews, all the while Genevieve is crawling in and out of the room, tugging at his knees and Jacinta is popping in to monkey around on the couch and say, “Look at Me!”
We all need a bit of recognition. We need someone to be impressed with our work. Although I’m pretty excited to have learned how to make a shelter out of sheet metal this week, I need someone else to be impressed too. Maybe the chickens will suffice. There’s so much work I would like to do on the chicken pen, I honestly don’t know how to go about it. Cutting down trees, tearing apart metal, lashing it back together, roofing a chicken run, it’s all very complicated. Gathering the tools might be the hardest part. Thus, I must ask for help each and every time I want to work on the chicken pen. This is hard for me to do. Keith kindly worked with me one morning and showed me basically how to sew the sheet metal together with wire. Hopefully I’ll find time to get out there and do some more before I forget. I finally found the time to make laundry soap. It was easy enough. I’ll tell you next week if it actually cleans the clothes!
This morning Matt took the girls on a walk into town, to celebrate the sunshine, exercise his knee and give me some time on my own. Two hours in the garden on my own is a dream. Now that I’ve learned not to make goals in these rare moments, I potter around and enjoy wandering from garden to garden doing little things. Today I found aphids on the citrus trees and had the time to spray them with soapy, oily water and rub them away. I was delighted to see the ladybugs were already at work eating the aphids. I found some wire fencing and a few stakes and made a little bean climbing fence. I had time to dig it in next to the seven little bean plants in search of something to climb. The other day I picked up a massive stack of newspapers to use as weed killer/mulch so I laid half of them down over weeds and created a few paths through the jungle. I glanced at bunches of cucumbers, pretending not to see them, so I didn’t have to pick them and feel bad that no one will eat them because we have too many. I picked some more green and purple beans, a few red cherry tomatoes (wishing there were more), a bunch of green tomatoes (knowing birds would get them if they turned red on the vine), some corn, a few strawberries and a very large pumpkin. I tied up a few tomato and cucumber vines and even planted some spinach and lettuce. Lastly, I found that the terrace we planted last week with kidney beans was alive with 42 new kidney bean plants after all of the rain! What a lucky morning.
Even luckier, I spoke to my sister this week about her plans to visit Australia! She hasn’t bought the tickets yet, but we’re discussing dates and lodging. This means that after over two years of living abroad, my sister and her family will be the first of my family to visit. I knew in moving so far away that it was going to be hard for everyone to come and find me, financially and just the difficulty of travelling so far. I had to come here for many reasons and they understand, but it doesn’t make the travel any easier. That said, Lecia, Ben, Kai and their new little baby will probably come out this June. This made my week.
To finish off the week, we were somehow inspired to clean the windows after a year of living here with massive dirty windows. It was good family fun being outside on the veranda, Jacinta with her own squirty bottle of soapy water, Genevieve hunting down all of the forbidden cleaning tools, and Matt and I excitedly scrubbing. I’ll admit, Matt has the touch, he’s a better window cleaner than I. He had to redo most of mine. How ‘bout I blame the kids? In any case, we can now see really well out of the windows. It’s shocking we could go for so long with dirty windows, but I suppose you can get used to anything after a while. It’s a whole new world out there.
Tomorrow we’ll wake up and there will be no more sleeps left, preschool will begin, another new world. We’ll be able to see out the windows, but there may be an angry spider shaking his finger at us for ruining all of his hard labour. Genevieve might get to play with the “world” all by herself. Soon my sister will come and visit our little part of the world. Life’s pretty good here. I hope your part of the world is just as peaceful as ours.
Peace,
Shana
posted by Matt & Shana & Jacinta & Genevieve Henry at
10:49 PM
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