Sun in your ears
Good evening lovely people. I hear spring is taking its time getting started for you, surely hard after a long winter. It seems as if it’s hard to know what to expect with weather in the USA. Similar to my time in Senegal, thus far it’s pretty easy to guess what the weather will be each day here in Australia. In Senegal, every day you knew it would be hot, dry and sunny. I was only there for nine months though, I hear it rains the other three months of the year. Here it is pretty consistent, temperature wise. If it is summer, it will be hot, unless it rains, then it cools off a bit. If it is spring, it will also be hot, unless it rains. In the winter and autumn, it is chilly in the morning, and chilly in the evenings and warm in the middle of the day. If it rains in the daytime, you may keep the fire burning, but otherwise, you try and stay outside in the warm air. I actually dressed the girls outside in the sunshine a few times this week so they would stay warm. Jacinta was curious why we can’t all get dressed outside like she and Evie.
It’s hard to understand the unspoken rules of society, but Jacinta is learning them nonetheless. Why can’t she squat by the river in town to pee? The toilet is so far away!
“Why is that car driving on the other side of the road?” Traffic rules are good examples of rules that you just follow. You do not question them, you trust in their wisdom for your own well being and the safety of others. I love explaining these rules to Jacinta when she comes up with the questions. I feel as if it helps her to respect authority a little more. She is constantly testing out her boundaries, I suppose we all do this in our own way. She is starting to follow suit by assigning consequences to actions that we have chosen not to do. “If you don’t come over here, I won’t get dressed.” We use natural consequences to help Jacinta do what needs to be done, but she has taken them and turned them into threats, bribes. Another societal rule is that your parents are allowed to give you consequences, but you are not allowed to return the favour. It’s life.
Another part of life is death. I have mentioned before that I have comes to terms with killing creatures that diminish our quality of life: ugly rats, disgusting cockroaches and cute little mice. Well, we successfully trapped a few cute mice this week. As I don’t get much time without the girls in daylight, I have to dispose of the mice in their presence. Jacinta quite enjoyed covering the dead mouse with dirt under a young native bush in the garden. We apologized to the mouse, said goodbye and wished him well under the pretty tree. We try to tell the cute little mouse we see running in the door in daylight to stay outside where he can eat wild mouse food. They just don’t seem to listen.
Today we passed the cemetery and Jacinta noticed it for the first time, “Look Mommy, it’s a little city!” I told her as little as possible, but she dragged a few important answers out of me. “Why didn’t we put the mouse in a box?” “When people die, do we go all soft, like the mouse? When?” “We turn into dirt?” Later on today she was playing a chase game with her friends and rather than saying that she didn’t want to get taken by the fox she said, “If I go out there, I might turn into dirt!” I kicked myself for the explanation, but I can’t take it back. Death is a lot more in your face out here. She is quite confused on which things are okay to kill. Mosquitoes and flies, yes. Dangerous spiders, yes, harmless spiders, no. Insects that are eating plants we like, yes, insects that are not hurting anything, no. Last night she pretended to shoot Evie and me, and I had to explain to her that we don’t do that at our house. Perhaps I should not have gone into the whole thing about shooting meaning killing and killing ending in death. Yikes. I often regret what I say. So we spoke of the circle of life, already. My oh my.
Speaking of mortality, our beloved Keith/Pop has come to terms with his own. A few months ago he took a stress test and found out he had a few blocked arteries. An angiogram was scheduled for this Thursday. He has been taking it slow, which for Keith still means chopping wood, mowing a few lawns, slowly, only turning the compost once in a while, and playing hide and seek with the girls. He spent more time watching Westerns and researching alternative energy on the internet. I thought the angiogram was just a test, it was but they acted instantly upon the result. Keith came home the next day with two stents opening up his arteries, one of which was the main artery. His heart should pump eight times now what it was pumping before. His body is a bit out of whack at present, dealing with the surgery and major change in blood circulation. To see our Keith, the man who can and does EVERYTHING never asking for anything in return but to be loved, hobble and have to refuse picking up Genevieve for a cuddle, is shocking. But as I told Jacinta, Pop just had a tune up. The girls have no idea how lucky we are that Pop had his “tune up,” thus preventing a major heart attack. Our next door neighbour is Keith’s doctor. He too is feeling pretty lucky that Keith finally submitted to the stress test. We’re all feeling pretty lucky, but Keith is still in pain, feeling lucky, though very much humbled by his own mortality. He is on the mend and enjoys reading long stories to Jacinta and blowing up balloons for little Evie. Soon he’ll be up chasing them both and playing hide and seek again. For now, he just has to sit down to hold them.
The girls have been busy as usual this week. Jacinta worked on her paper mache balloon with Keith, getting ready to use it as a piñata on her birthday. She spent a lot of time in her room with the door closed very seriously creating cards, rings, bracelets, books, hand warmers and bags out of paper, scissors, stickers, staples, tape, beads, crayons and markers. The second she leaves the room forgetting to shut the door, Evie runs in and steals all the forbidden items and runs out naughtily smiling mumbling with joy, “textas,” this is what they call markers in Australia. She’ll sometimes rip things out of Jacinta’s hands causing major sadness. It is understandable why Jacinta often says, “Mum, I need to shut the door.” One inspired day I actually took both girls outside on the playground to make cotton sheep. Jacinta took this new project and ran with it, gluing leaves around the edges for a border and gluing more cotton on as clouds. Evie didn’t destroy Jacinta’s work, but did fill the glue stick with woodchips. This was one time when Jacinta found the courage to laugh rather than scream in rage.
Playdough is another activity the girls can do happily together, most times. Genevieve licks it and makes it wet sometimes, but otherwise she doesn’t wreck Jacinta’s creations. Jacinta gets a kick out of Evie’s word for playdough which she repeats over and over, “Dough! Dough! Dough!”
Genevieve has been talking up a storm. Flies are great entertainment, “Fye! Fye!” she calls out shooing them away, giggling and giggling. “Buhfie” is another lovely creature she is learning to spot. “Fow” flowers are another object of admiration. I found too that “poo” can also mean spoon. “Pee poo,” accompanied by giggles and waving of hands means Pee yew! I actually remember Jacinta saying the same thing as a baby. I suppose it’s a fun concept, making a big deal out of something smelly. It’s usually her own bum though! She says, “Kih,” for clip and actually leaves ponytails and clips in her hair now! She still asks for a “Drih” when she’s thirsty, but her new favourite drink is fresh squeezed oranges from Sara’s tree. She has good taste! We all love it. We also all love it when Evie has a good nap and she has had a few this week! Jacinta is learning to play on her own while I coax her to sleep, her favourite activity is laying/playing in the hammock. On Thursday Genevieve napped so long that we actually had to wake her up. She still has a little cough, and is also cutting her eye teeth. It seems most painful at night, poor little thing.
Matt does pretty well working after a poor night’s sleep. Jacinta often calls out at the top of her lungs by 5 or 6 am, DADDY! I’M HUNGRY! COME GET ME! Of course he doesn’t appease her instantly, but tries to keep her from waking Evie. Good man, good man. He finished bricking the fireplace this week and it is now very warm. It looks like a real fireplace now, as if it has been here for ages. He is working on the book a few hours a night, unless there is really good TV on. One night he made baked apples so he could take a picture of them for his book, his only recipe in the book. He didn’t care to eat them, dried fruit and nuts aren’t his thing, so we had gourmet dessert cooked by daddy for a few days. Another lucky occurrence for the week was a work car! Matt was offered a work car and he took it! So I am now mobile, every day. We never hoped for this, but we are both very happy. For now, it’s easy enough to push into town when I have lots of time and the weather is dry. I suppose we’ll use both cars until gas prices get so high that no one can drive anymore. Perhaps then we’ll have to get a work horse!
Having lots of time on hand is rare for most people. I have had a goal of organizing four drawers: the girls’ overflowing messy drawers. It took three weeks to accomplish my goal. Although it feels good to finally do it, it seems pathetic that it could take so long to do such a simple task. It is indicative though of why I never get to the garden. I spent my spare evening time this week knitting for Jacinta’s birthday. She asked for a “belly warmer,” and a felted mushroom, strange yes, I guess she takes after me. She’s truly ready to turn four. As the day approaches, (two days left) we have received a few packages in the mail containing birthday gifts which must be hidden. This is excruciating for her, but a good lesson in anticipation and patience.
It is the weekend. Today I took the girls out all day for dance class and a visit to the Miles’ house so Matt could work on his book and Keith could rest. Tomorrow is Sunday and Matt will take the girls out for a few hours so I can rest and rejuvenate in the garden. I asked Jacinta, “Do you think it will be sunny or rainy outside tomorrow?” She replied, “I know it will be sunny.” “How do you know that? Can you feel it?” “Yep, I feel it in my ears. Tomorrow morning, the sun will come out of my ears!”
My step dad and my father in law have overcome major health obstacles, my big girl turns four on Monday, my sister is flying to Australia in two weeks and I get to garden tomorrow. I think that means there must be sun in my ears too. I hope the sun rises in your ears this week.
Peace,
Shana
It’s hard to understand the unspoken rules of society, but Jacinta is learning them nonetheless. Why can’t she squat by the river in town to pee? The toilet is so far away!
“Why is that car driving on the other side of the road?” Traffic rules are good examples of rules that you just follow. You do not question them, you trust in their wisdom for your own well being and the safety of others. I love explaining these rules to Jacinta when she comes up with the questions. I feel as if it helps her to respect authority a little more. She is constantly testing out her boundaries, I suppose we all do this in our own way. She is starting to follow suit by assigning consequences to actions that we have chosen not to do. “If you don’t come over here, I won’t get dressed.” We use natural consequences to help Jacinta do what needs to be done, but she has taken them and turned them into threats, bribes. Another societal rule is that your parents are allowed to give you consequences, but you are not allowed to return the favour. It’s life.
Another part of life is death. I have mentioned before that I have comes to terms with killing creatures that diminish our quality of life: ugly rats, disgusting cockroaches and cute little mice. Well, we successfully trapped a few cute mice this week. As I don’t get much time without the girls in daylight, I have to dispose of the mice in their presence. Jacinta quite enjoyed covering the dead mouse with dirt under a young native bush in the garden. We apologized to the mouse, said goodbye and wished him well under the pretty tree. We try to tell the cute little mouse we see running in the door in daylight to stay outside where he can eat wild mouse food. They just don’t seem to listen.
Today we passed the cemetery and Jacinta noticed it for the first time, “Look Mommy, it’s a little city!” I told her as little as possible, but she dragged a few important answers out of me. “Why didn’t we put the mouse in a box?” “When people die, do we go all soft, like the mouse? When?” “We turn into dirt?” Later on today she was playing a chase game with her friends and rather than saying that she didn’t want to get taken by the fox she said, “If I go out there, I might turn into dirt!” I kicked myself for the explanation, but I can’t take it back. Death is a lot more in your face out here. She is quite confused on which things are okay to kill. Mosquitoes and flies, yes. Dangerous spiders, yes, harmless spiders, no. Insects that are eating plants we like, yes, insects that are not hurting anything, no. Last night she pretended to shoot Evie and me, and I had to explain to her that we don’t do that at our house. Perhaps I should not have gone into the whole thing about shooting meaning killing and killing ending in death. Yikes. I often regret what I say. So we spoke of the circle of life, already. My oh my.
Speaking of mortality, our beloved Keith/Pop has come to terms with his own. A few months ago he took a stress test and found out he had a few blocked arteries. An angiogram was scheduled for this Thursday. He has been taking it slow, which for Keith still means chopping wood, mowing a few lawns, slowly, only turning the compost once in a while, and playing hide and seek with the girls. He spent more time watching Westerns and researching alternative energy on the internet. I thought the angiogram was just a test, it was but they acted instantly upon the result. Keith came home the next day with two stents opening up his arteries, one of which was the main artery. His heart should pump eight times now what it was pumping before. His body is a bit out of whack at present, dealing with the surgery and major change in blood circulation. To see our Keith, the man who can and does EVERYTHING never asking for anything in return but to be loved, hobble and have to refuse picking up Genevieve for a cuddle, is shocking. But as I told Jacinta, Pop just had a tune up. The girls have no idea how lucky we are that Pop had his “tune up,” thus preventing a major heart attack. Our next door neighbour is Keith’s doctor. He too is feeling pretty lucky that Keith finally submitted to the stress test. We’re all feeling pretty lucky, but Keith is still in pain, feeling lucky, though very much humbled by his own mortality. He is on the mend and enjoys reading long stories to Jacinta and blowing up balloons for little Evie. Soon he’ll be up chasing them both and playing hide and seek again. For now, he just has to sit down to hold them.
The girls have been busy as usual this week. Jacinta worked on her paper mache balloon with Keith, getting ready to use it as a piñata on her birthday. She spent a lot of time in her room with the door closed very seriously creating cards, rings, bracelets, books, hand warmers and bags out of paper, scissors, stickers, staples, tape, beads, crayons and markers. The second she leaves the room forgetting to shut the door, Evie runs in and steals all the forbidden items and runs out naughtily smiling mumbling with joy, “textas,” this is what they call markers in Australia. She’ll sometimes rip things out of Jacinta’s hands causing major sadness. It is understandable why Jacinta often says, “Mum, I need to shut the door.” One inspired day I actually took both girls outside on the playground to make cotton sheep. Jacinta took this new project and ran with it, gluing leaves around the edges for a border and gluing more cotton on as clouds. Evie didn’t destroy Jacinta’s work, but did fill the glue stick with woodchips. This was one time when Jacinta found the courage to laugh rather than scream in rage.
Playdough is another activity the girls can do happily together, most times. Genevieve licks it and makes it wet sometimes, but otherwise she doesn’t wreck Jacinta’s creations. Jacinta gets a kick out of Evie’s word for playdough which she repeats over and over, “Dough! Dough! Dough!”
Genevieve has been talking up a storm. Flies are great entertainment, “Fye! Fye!” she calls out shooing them away, giggling and giggling. “Buhfie” is another lovely creature she is learning to spot. “Fow” flowers are another object of admiration. I found too that “poo” can also mean spoon. “Pee poo,” accompanied by giggles and waving of hands means Pee yew! I actually remember Jacinta saying the same thing as a baby. I suppose it’s a fun concept, making a big deal out of something smelly. It’s usually her own bum though! She says, “Kih,” for clip and actually leaves ponytails and clips in her hair now! She still asks for a “Drih” when she’s thirsty, but her new favourite drink is fresh squeezed oranges from Sara’s tree. She has good taste! We all love it. We also all love it when Evie has a good nap and she has had a few this week! Jacinta is learning to play on her own while I coax her to sleep, her favourite activity is laying/playing in the hammock. On Thursday Genevieve napped so long that we actually had to wake her up. She still has a little cough, and is also cutting her eye teeth. It seems most painful at night, poor little thing.
Matt does pretty well working after a poor night’s sleep. Jacinta often calls out at the top of her lungs by 5 or 6 am, DADDY! I’M HUNGRY! COME GET ME! Of course he doesn’t appease her instantly, but tries to keep her from waking Evie. Good man, good man. He finished bricking the fireplace this week and it is now very warm. It looks like a real fireplace now, as if it has been here for ages. He is working on the book a few hours a night, unless there is really good TV on. One night he made baked apples so he could take a picture of them for his book, his only recipe in the book. He didn’t care to eat them, dried fruit and nuts aren’t his thing, so we had gourmet dessert cooked by daddy for a few days. Another lucky occurrence for the week was a work car! Matt was offered a work car and he took it! So I am now mobile, every day. We never hoped for this, but we are both very happy. For now, it’s easy enough to push into town when I have lots of time and the weather is dry. I suppose we’ll use both cars until gas prices get so high that no one can drive anymore. Perhaps then we’ll have to get a work horse!
Having lots of time on hand is rare for most people. I have had a goal of organizing four drawers: the girls’ overflowing messy drawers. It took three weeks to accomplish my goal. Although it feels good to finally do it, it seems pathetic that it could take so long to do such a simple task. It is indicative though of why I never get to the garden. I spent my spare evening time this week knitting for Jacinta’s birthday. She asked for a “belly warmer,” and a felted mushroom, strange yes, I guess she takes after me. She’s truly ready to turn four. As the day approaches, (two days left) we have received a few packages in the mail containing birthday gifts which must be hidden. This is excruciating for her, but a good lesson in anticipation and patience.
It is the weekend. Today I took the girls out all day for dance class and a visit to the Miles’ house so Matt could work on his book and Keith could rest. Tomorrow is Sunday and Matt will take the girls out for a few hours so I can rest and rejuvenate in the garden. I asked Jacinta, “Do you think it will be sunny or rainy outside tomorrow?” She replied, “I know it will be sunny.” “How do you know that? Can you feel it?” “Yep, I feel it in my ears. Tomorrow morning, the sun will come out of my ears!”
My step dad and my father in law have overcome major health obstacles, my big girl turns four on Monday, my sister is flying to Australia in two weeks and I get to garden tomorrow. I think that means there must be sun in my ears too. I hope the sun rises in your ears this week.
Peace,
Shana
posted by Matt & Shana & Jacinta & Genevieve Henry at
11:17 PM
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