A job for Da
Hi there The past week has been full of excitement, more than normal. I am happy to report that Matt found a job and has already started learning the trade of a case worker. He will help elderly and disabled people find the services they need, enabling them to continue living at home. For now, he is shadowing different case workers, asking lots of questions and reading up on all the answers he’ll need to provide. It is a 45 minute commute to Coffs Harbour, which is just fine. He is overjoyed, more relieved than anything to finally be the one they chose and will pay to come to work every day. The girls miss him in the daytime of course. Jacinta in search of some daddy energy in the bedroom/computer room (his former office) asks a few times a day, “When is daddy going to come home?” Genevieve goes to the “office” door, sneakily slides it open, looks around and comes out disappointed. “Da?” Matt knows how lucky he is to have had the chance to spend so much time at home with our girls. The girls will now learn how lucky they were. They will have to learn to smash that time in before and after work and on the weekends.
The autumn season has settled in. Our colds have all gone by now, just a little coughing left in the evenings. The days seem short now, although with Matt gone all day long, they drag on a little bit. It gets dark by six o’clock, by which time we are eating dinner. When night falls, Jacinta proudly remarks, “It’s WAY past my bedtime,” feeling lucky for every minute she is awake in the dark. The temperature is quite pleasant all day long. In the spring and summer, I must get the girls out in the garden between 8 and 10am to avoid the intense heat. This is not easy. With the freedom of autumn, I took the girls down to the garden before lunch the other day for a few lazy hours of play and exploration. Jacinta lazed in the hammock with her dolls, while Genevieve played with chalk and busied herself visiting me in the dirt and exploring the shed and all of its junk. I found quite a few snails, of which Genevieve only ate one. Ooops! Jacinta made a pool for the snails, squished some slugs for me and transported a bunch of fat worms and rotten down logs onto the potato patch. We spotted tens of tiny green frogs on the citrus trees. Evie spotted and observed a few frogs independently, a few crickets also. She liked the worms too, but she tears them in half. Jacinta declared, “I love the garden. Can we stay down here all day Mommy?” She likes to declare newfound love for things lately, no matter how short-lived it may be. I’ll take it though, and hope it lasts at least until the heat returns.
Although I don’t have much to harvest in the garden besides a few cherry tomatoes and some cucumbers, it happens to be pecan, avocado, and guava season. The pecans and avocado trees are on our neighbours’ land down towards the river. They invited us to harvest as many pecans and avocadoes as we could manage. Keith, the girls and I took a few buckets and harvest we did. Jacinta and Genevieve sat on our shoulders pulling down a few nuts, but mostly enjoyed pulling the green husks off of the dry shells. It turns out that these green husks stain your hands black, and your mouth, if you are a teething baby like Genevieve. Our fingernails are all still black after five days. The pecans are sitting in a beautiful wooden bowl in front of me on the kitchen table, drying out before we can crack and eat them.
Besides a lucky harvest, the Macksville show (fair) was this weekend and it was sunny! It has a reputation for bringing rain. We watched wood chopping contests and checked out the cows, goats, chickens, and alpacas. Jacinta enjoyed petting calves, but Evie was actually frightened. This is strange because she will touch a bull, but not a tiny calf. I was more amused by the students from the school where Matt taught. “Hello Mr. Henry!” “Do you live in Macksville?” Children are always very curious about their teacher’s home lives. It’s unfortunate: now that they’ve discovered more about Mr. Henry, they will never see him again. They seemed like really nice children. Perhaps even more interesting for me were the produce contests: prizes for the biggest pumpkin, the nicest citrus fruits, the best canned goods, the best spun wool, the perfectly decorated cake. Jacinta and I decided we will cook something to enter in the baking competitions, just for the sake of getting her involved.
Surely Jacinta has no shortage of activities, she is quite busy these days. She is starting to learn her days by the plans she has: Monday is French class, Tuesday is pre-school, Thursday is playgroup and choir and Saturday is dance class. She loves dancing, being in a gaggle of girls running around. It takes her a while to warm up and realize just how fun it all is. Usually by the last ten minutes she figures it out and runs and smiles non-stop until class is over. Genevieve usually breaks through the door by this time. She stands in the middle of the room and bounces, bending her knees to the music.
Fortunately we have days with no plans and on such days Jacinta asks, “What day is today?” I’ll tell her that it is Wednesday. “No, I mean what HAPPENS today?” Last Wednesday Keith took the girls into town for lunch, leaving me to prepare for my friend Sara’s Blessingway. I had been searching for appropriate poems and songs for weeks and knitting squares for a blanket. So I spent a luxurious hour both swinging in the hammock down in the garden shed and knitting. I haven’t knit so constantly in a while, knitting deadlines aren’t usually my thing. Neither have I spent so many nights reading poetry in search of the “perfect birth poem.” After having spent so much time searching for a poem that praised birth and birthing women as beautifully and reverently as I wished. I should have written one myself. Perhaps I will. In any case, after a few late nights and a lot of fun planning, we threw Sara a lovely Blessingway. Matt took the girls to Craig and Anissa’s to play for the day while I had a long, lovely day surrounded by women. What a treat.
All around, an exciting week. To top it off Genevieve peed on the potty (a fluke). She says “mommy” and “uh oh” very clearly now. She’s teething, a bit clingy and doesn’t let me sleep much, but we’ll get through it. On that note, I should sleep before she wakes up again.
Have a lovely week, enjoy the spring.
Peace,
Shana
The autumn season has settled in. Our colds have all gone by now, just a little coughing left in the evenings. The days seem short now, although with Matt gone all day long, they drag on a little bit. It gets dark by six o’clock, by which time we are eating dinner. When night falls, Jacinta proudly remarks, “It’s WAY past my bedtime,” feeling lucky for every minute she is awake in the dark. The temperature is quite pleasant all day long. In the spring and summer, I must get the girls out in the garden between 8 and 10am to avoid the intense heat. This is not easy. With the freedom of autumn, I took the girls down to the garden before lunch the other day for a few lazy hours of play and exploration. Jacinta lazed in the hammock with her dolls, while Genevieve played with chalk and busied herself visiting me in the dirt and exploring the shed and all of its junk. I found quite a few snails, of which Genevieve only ate one. Ooops! Jacinta made a pool for the snails, squished some slugs for me and transported a bunch of fat worms and rotten down logs onto the potato patch. We spotted tens of tiny green frogs on the citrus trees. Evie spotted and observed a few frogs independently, a few crickets also. She liked the worms too, but she tears them in half. Jacinta declared, “I love the garden. Can we stay down here all day Mommy?” She likes to declare newfound love for things lately, no matter how short-lived it may be. I’ll take it though, and hope it lasts at least until the heat returns.
Although I don’t have much to harvest in the garden besides a few cherry tomatoes and some cucumbers, it happens to be pecan, avocado, and guava season. The pecans and avocado trees are on our neighbours’ land down towards the river. They invited us to harvest as many pecans and avocadoes as we could manage. Keith, the girls and I took a few buckets and harvest we did. Jacinta and Genevieve sat on our shoulders pulling down a few nuts, but mostly enjoyed pulling the green husks off of the dry shells. It turns out that these green husks stain your hands black, and your mouth, if you are a teething baby like Genevieve. Our fingernails are all still black after five days. The pecans are sitting in a beautiful wooden bowl in front of me on the kitchen table, drying out before we can crack and eat them.
Besides a lucky harvest, the Macksville show (fair) was this weekend and it was sunny! It has a reputation for bringing rain. We watched wood chopping contests and checked out the cows, goats, chickens, and alpacas. Jacinta enjoyed petting calves, but Evie was actually frightened. This is strange because she will touch a bull, but not a tiny calf. I was more amused by the students from the school where Matt taught. “Hello Mr. Henry!” “Do you live in Macksville?” Children are always very curious about their teacher’s home lives. It’s unfortunate: now that they’ve discovered more about Mr. Henry, they will never see him again. They seemed like really nice children. Perhaps even more interesting for me were the produce contests: prizes for the biggest pumpkin, the nicest citrus fruits, the best canned goods, the best spun wool, the perfectly decorated cake. Jacinta and I decided we will cook something to enter in the baking competitions, just for the sake of getting her involved.
Surely Jacinta has no shortage of activities, she is quite busy these days. She is starting to learn her days by the plans she has: Monday is French class, Tuesday is pre-school, Thursday is playgroup and choir and Saturday is dance class. She loves dancing, being in a gaggle of girls running around. It takes her a while to warm up and realize just how fun it all is. Usually by the last ten minutes she figures it out and runs and smiles non-stop until class is over. Genevieve usually breaks through the door by this time. She stands in the middle of the room and bounces, bending her knees to the music.
Fortunately we have days with no plans and on such days Jacinta asks, “What day is today?” I’ll tell her that it is Wednesday. “No, I mean what HAPPENS today?” Last Wednesday Keith took the girls into town for lunch, leaving me to prepare for my friend Sara’s Blessingway. I had been searching for appropriate poems and songs for weeks and knitting squares for a blanket. So I spent a luxurious hour both swinging in the hammock down in the garden shed and knitting. I haven’t knit so constantly in a while, knitting deadlines aren’t usually my thing. Neither have I spent so many nights reading poetry in search of the “perfect birth poem.” After having spent so much time searching for a poem that praised birth and birthing women as beautifully and reverently as I wished. I should have written one myself. Perhaps I will. In any case, after a few late nights and a lot of fun planning, we threw Sara a lovely Blessingway. Matt took the girls to Craig and Anissa’s to play for the day while I had a long, lovely day surrounded by women. What a treat.
All around, an exciting week. To top it off Genevieve peed on the potty (a fluke). She says “mommy” and “uh oh” very clearly now. She’s teething, a bit clingy and doesn’t let me sleep much, but we’ll get through it. On that note, I should sleep before she wakes up again.
Have a lovely week, enjoy the spring.
Peace,
Shana
posted by Matt & Shana & Jacinta & Genevieve Henry at
12:23 AM
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