Connections
Good morning to you all. I suppose I’ll wish you a good morning rather than a good evening as I am the only one in evening now. Matt and I are sitting at the table, enjoying silence, coffee and doing our own things. He is drawing up plans to rebuild the girls’ furniture while all of us girls are in the USA this December. I am contemplating my great day and having a hard time thinking about anything before today. I woke up after a long nights’ sleep and played with the girls rather than cleaning or preparing to go out. This was a good start. Then I called my mom and found her at a family party and was able to talk to mom, dad, sister, step-dad, step-mom, step-sister, step-brother, step-grandma and my nephew all at once. What a way to start the day! I was feeling detached and far from my family so I picked up the phone. Of course I’d have to liked to join them at their summer pool party. Somehow just hearing their voices and knowing they were all in the same place enjoying each others’ company, I was replenished with connection to my family again.
Things got even better. Matt finished preparing the sand pit just yesterday, all ready for the final step. So today, Keith hooked up his trailer to get sand from the local cement yard. Keith, the girls and I got two loads of sand and wheeled it in wheelbarrows from the trailer to the sandpit. As you can imagine, the girls had the most fun, playing in the mountain of sand, shoveling sand, riding in the wheelbarrow, getting buried and finally playing in the sandbox. Two cows took this as an opportunity to moo and beg for molasses, associating Keith’s presence in the garden as a sign of sweet things to come. Eventually “Trouble Head Garden Eater” mournfully hung his head low and took the path back home. Keith probably did too much work as is his nature, as he could push twice as much sand up the hill as I safely could. We now have an overflowing sandbox which will give the girls another option for entertainment in the garden.
Things are looking great in the garden. Genevieve has not ripped up the hyacinths, although she did decapitate the two tulips. Jacinta is still singing her little chant, “I’m the happiest little girl in the world because the trees are flowering and spring is coming.” The nectarine and two plum trees are loaded with fruit. The girls and I pruned the branches and thinned out the nectarines, Evie thinning more than required. Jacinta pruned off dead branches and collected the plucked raisin-size fruits. Today I found two cups full stock piled in her bedroom, “to hide them from Genevieve.” I covered many of the tiny nectarines with fruit fly bags to protect them from last years’ fate. I don’t think we even got one nectarine. The bats, birds, and fruit flies all had a good time though. The girls ran back and forth between Matt in the sandpit and I in the fruit trees. Matt worked on drainage and added a thick layer of mulched macadamia nut shells before laying the weed mat. The citrus trees are all flowering again, which seems strange to me. Orange blossoms smell divine, apple blossoms are Jacinta’s favorite. Plant-wise not much is happening, but it has just started raining again so there is hope.
Speaking of rain, or lack thereof, we ran out of water one night this week and no idea what had happened. Matt yelled from the half-full bathtub, “Can you check the other taps?” I was busy making dinner so didn’t take him seriously. Eventually I got with it, and figured out that it was no pump problem, but an empty tank. It had slipped under all of our radar, assuming someone else had checked the level. The next morning Keith called the kind waterman, who we hadn’t seen since I was pregnant with Evie. Matt had to work, so he missed out on all of the fun. I actually got moving by 8am, a rare occurrence. I climbed down into the 5,000 gallon tank in my tall gum boots. I scooped up over a hundred buckets of water and passed them up to Keith, on top of the tank. He reached down to grab each bucket, pulled it up, tipped it out and passed it back down while watching the girls play in the nearby cubby house, answering their many questions and passing them things like frogs to entertain them while we worked. It started raining while we were working, the first rain in quite a few weeks. We emptied the tank to clean out the bottom, and after some quick hard work, we did it just in time. I crawled up the ladder out of the hole as the huge water truck rolled down the hill. Although the water stinks like chlorine, we are so grateful to have water again. Since we bought water, it has started to rain again, as it always does.
I don’t know whether rain in spring is expected in this part of Australia. I haven’t yet figured out a pattern, but spring comes in September here, and September is here. We haven’t lit the fire for over three nights and the days are growing hotter, hot enough for shorts and a t-shirt today. I noticed how lovely Genevieve’s little arms look after months of “rugging up” as they say here. Jacinta was thrilled to dig out her shorts this morning. I’ve even gotten the urge to do a little spring cleaning, after the children are asleep, yet another activity which is not reading. I want to sit and read Matt’s book, but do too much and am exhausted at the end of the day and fall asleep early. I do choose to keep myself very busy socially and doing things around our place. Someday I’ll calm down enough to read. I have made the time to read a bit on the US elections, and listen to tidbits on the news when my “informer” gives me a heads up. The choice of VPs is all very interesting, and bit shocking on the Republican side. Even more shocking and terrible is poor New Orleans. I feel furthest away when major tragedy strikes my country and an Aussie friend has to inform me.
Genevieve, the family member with the least consciousness of my home country, talks about “America” every day. Since Matt’s trip she thinks that he goes to work everyday in America. She says over ten times a day, probably with no idea what she’s saying, “Daddy…Merica…Moutons.” Translating, “Daddy is in America with sheep.” Nice image, aye? She doesn’t see many sheep but is very animal conscious. As she is the watch dog, she warned us of the bull a few times this week. She no longer calls him taureau, but yells out “Gahden Eatah!” every time he nears a gate. Jacinta renamed him “Trouble Head Garden Eater” because we have had to do a lot of fence checking and repairing in the past few days. I was so angry at him breaking in this week that I actually hammered in a few star pickets and tightened barbed wire rather than just complaining.
Back to Genevieve, she says so many cute words now, often parroting her loved ones, but more importantly communicating to us her strong will and exactly what she wants. Unfortunately, her strong will is not enough to prevent her from getting that damn cough again. Jacinta is over it, again, but Genevieve is coughing just before bed and in the morning. She had a few very rough nights of sleep, (also rough for her parents), but last night slept through again. Her demeanor was notably happier all day today, thanks to rest, perhaps for all of us. Sleep is just a nice part of creation. Imagine if we had to think and act all the time. I watched Jacinta sleep last night, so grateful for rejuvenation.
Matt was “on call” half of last week, and has one day left. Talk about lack of rest and rejuvenation. When he leaves a full day of work and all weekend long, he has this bag attached to him, packed with a computer, a cell phone and files. He has to be within reach of this computer and phone at all times and attend to all emergencies and scheduling changes for the people who service the clients (all recently released from hospital, or frail aged, or complex special needs). He is free from 10pm until 6am. Knowing this would be an unfortunate week he took the girls each out on the kayak one last time before his first day of being on call. It is amazing how comfortable they are on the water, sitting so close to their daddy. He and Jacinta followed feathers floating on the wind like little sailboats while Genevieve and I sat under the tobacco bushes, throwing berries into the water. They went slow and watched beauty in silence, even laid down and just floated for a while. It was a nice way to rejuvenate and prepare for a hard week.
The girls and I had a really “cruisy” week. This is a term I really like here, meaning going with the flow, letting things happen as they come up and enjoying them. Perhaps this is used in the US too, I can’t remember certain linguistic differences as time goes by. I suppose it’s bound to happen when you’re away from your country for over a year. In any case, we had a lot of fun just playing at home together and a lot of fun meeting up with friends.
Last Monday a few of my friends showed up with their children for French class. We have been waiting for three new friends/students to join us and they never showed. We watched the children play, and fight, and I decided, “I am not in the mood to teach these five today.” If it is just these two sets of siblings and another, they bicker and don’t pay attention. I don’t like teaching classes with so few children, all throwing their huge egos around. So my friends and I sat around and picked bindies (burr-like weeds spread throughout the grass) while the children played. This Monday the new children finally came, bumping up our class to eight children. My friend Zoe grew up speaking French so she helped out. We had a newly energized hour of French fun. For the first time, Jacinta asked a few questions in French this week, and didn’t seem to mind being corrected. She followed a complaining Genevieve out the door, parroting a phrase I have said over and over to Genevieve, “Genevieve, qu’est-ce qu’il y a?” (What is it Genevieve?) I giggled and smiled inside. I started doing some tongue twisters with the girls this week which make them giggle.
Another first was a haircut for Jacinta, she is four, yes. It was getting stringy and tangled, so we set up a chair outside while Evie slept. While watching birds, Jacinta sat still, eager to hold each piece of cut off hair that I handed her. She took pictures while I cut my own hair. She later asked if I could cut her hair every day.
She also liked one of her lunches so much she asked if we could have the same thing every day (rice and raw veggies). It’s funny how much she looks for things to love, she also knows how much I like her to love and appreciate her food. My efforts to work more savory foods and vegetables into the girls’ meals, reducing dairy, sugar and too many concentrated starches, worked really well. The general attitude towards food this week was quite positive, not whiny. I am amazed at Jacinta’s willingness to eat what she is given, now that I am making more of an effort to detach myself from the food. We started eating more popcorn, which is great fun for the girls and I to sit around the bowl and laugh together. Jacinta likes shaking paprika on it, along with butter and salt of course. Mary’s birthday was on Friday, so we had a lovely cooking day. The girls were incredibly anxious for Grandma Mary to get home from work. It was a long lovely day at home, a day of preparation.
My birthday was last week, but I received a few belated gifts this week, making the birthday last, something I love. My sister actually ordered gifts on the internet from an earthy shop in a town near Macksville, my clever sister sending me a paper plant pot maker and a “solar light ball.” Inspiring gifts. It was an inspiring week in general. Saturday I left the girls in the good care of Matt, Keith and Mary and drove to my choir director’s house to practice with a bunch of others to prepare to sing in a wedding, all African music. There were a bunch of people from the Bellingen choir I joined for the jazz festival a few years ago, including two Togolese men, refugees. These are the first refugees I have actually met in Australia, French speaking, and very nice. Luckily I learned from my training a few weeks back not to inquire into their past. Singing with this group was incredibly inspiring and soul-stirring, just the perfect harmonies, rhythms and drums. I was so high upon arrival at home I cleaned until 11pm. Sunday was a “Friendly Food” Co-op meeting at our place so there were children everywhere marching all over like ants, lovely food covering the table and good company. I guess these are the things I want in life. Lucky I found them!
It’s a good time in life for us. I wish you joy and gratitude wherever and however you can find or create it.
Peace,
Shana
Things got even better. Matt finished preparing the sand pit just yesterday, all ready for the final step. So today, Keith hooked up his trailer to get sand from the local cement yard. Keith, the girls and I got two loads of sand and wheeled it in wheelbarrows from the trailer to the sandpit. As you can imagine, the girls had the most fun, playing in the mountain of sand, shoveling sand, riding in the wheelbarrow, getting buried and finally playing in the sandbox. Two cows took this as an opportunity to moo and beg for molasses, associating Keith’s presence in the garden as a sign of sweet things to come. Eventually “Trouble Head Garden Eater” mournfully hung his head low and took the path back home. Keith probably did too much work as is his nature, as he could push twice as much sand up the hill as I safely could. We now have an overflowing sandbox which will give the girls another option for entertainment in the garden.
Things are looking great in the garden. Genevieve has not ripped up the hyacinths, although she did decapitate the two tulips. Jacinta is still singing her little chant, “I’m the happiest little girl in the world because the trees are flowering and spring is coming.” The nectarine and two plum trees are loaded with fruit. The girls and I pruned the branches and thinned out the nectarines, Evie thinning more than required. Jacinta pruned off dead branches and collected the plucked raisin-size fruits. Today I found two cups full stock piled in her bedroom, “to hide them from Genevieve.” I covered many of the tiny nectarines with fruit fly bags to protect them from last years’ fate. I don’t think we even got one nectarine. The bats, birds, and fruit flies all had a good time though. The girls ran back and forth between Matt in the sandpit and I in the fruit trees. Matt worked on drainage and added a thick layer of mulched macadamia nut shells before laying the weed mat. The citrus trees are all flowering again, which seems strange to me. Orange blossoms smell divine, apple blossoms are Jacinta’s favorite. Plant-wise not much is happening, but it has just started raining again so there is hope.
Speaking of rain, or lack thereof, we ran out of water one night this week and no idea what had happened. Matt yelled from the half-full bathtub, “Can you check the other taps?” I was busy making dinner so didn’t take him seriously. Eventually I got with it, and figured out that it was no pump problem, but an empty tank. It had slipped under all of our radar, assuming someone else had checked the level. The next morning Keith called the kind waterman, who we hadn’t seen since I was pregnant with Evie. Matt had to work, so he missed out on all of the fun. I actually got moving by 8am, a rare occurrence. I climbed down into the 5,000 gallon tank in my tall gum boots. I scooped up over a hundred buckets of water and passed them up to Keith, on top of the tank. He reached down to grab each bucket, pulled it up, tipped it out and passed it back down while watching the girls play in the nearby cubby house, answering their many questions and passing them things like frogs to entertain them while we worked. It started raining while we were working, the first rain in quite a few weeks. We emptied the tank to clean out the bottom, and after some quick hard work, we did it just in time. I crawled up the ladder out of the hole as the huge water truck rolled down the hill. Although the water stinks like chlorine, we are so grateful to have water again. Since we bought water, it has started to rain again, as it always does.
I don’t know whether rain in spring is expected in this part of Australia. I haven’t yet figured out a pattern, but spring comes in September here, and September is here. We haven’t lit the fire for over three nights and the days are growing hotter, hot enough for shorts and a t-shirt today. I noticed how lovely Genevieve’s little arms look after months of “rugging up” as they say here. Jacinta was thrilled to dig out her shorts this morning. I’ve even gotten the urge to do a little spring cleaning, after the children are asleep, yet another activity which is not reading. I want to sit and read Matt’s book, but do too much and am exhausted at the end of the day and fall asleep early. I do choose to keep myself very busy socially and doing things around our place. Someday I’ll calm down enough to read. I have made the time to read a bit on the US elections, and listen to tidbits on the news when my “informer” gives me a heads up. The choice of VPs is all very interesting, and bit shocking on the Republican side. Even more shocking and terrible is poor New Orleans. I feel furthest away when major tragedy strikes my country and an Aussie friend has to inform me.
Genevieve, the family member with the least consciousness of my home country, talks about “America” every day. Since Matt’s trip she thinks that he goes to work everyday in America. She says over ten times a day, probably with no idea what she’s saying, “Daddy…Merica…Moutons.” Translating, “Daddy is in America with sheep.” Nice image, aye? She doesn’t see many sheep but is very animal conscious. As she is the watch dog, she warned us of the bull a few times this week. She no longer calls him taureau, but yells out “Gahden Eatah!” every time he nears a gate. Jacinta renamed him “Trouble Head Garden Eater” because we have had to do a lot of fence checking and repairing in the past few days. I was so angry at him breaking in this week that I actually hammered in a few star pickets and tightened barbed wire rather than just complaining.
Back to Genevieve, she says so many cute words now, often parroting her loved ones, but more importantly communicating to us her strong will and exactly what she wants. Unfortunately, her strong will is not enough to prevent her from getting that damn cough again. Jacinta is over it, again, but Genevieve is coughing just before bed and in the morning. She had a few very rough nights of sleep, (also rough for her parents), but last night slept through again. Her demeanor was notably happier all day today, thanks to rest, perhaps for all of us. Sleep is just a nice part of creation. Imagine if we had to think and act all the time. I watched Jacinta sleep last night, so grateful for rejuvenation.
Matt was “on call” half of last week, and has one day left. Talk about lack of rest and rejuvenation. When he leaves a full day of work and all weekend long, he has this bag attached to him, packed with a computer, a cell phone and files. He has to be within reach of this computer and phone at all times and attend to all emergencies and scheduling changes for the people who service the clients (all recently released from hospital, or frail aged, or complex special needs). He is free from 10pm until 6am. Knowing this would be an unfortunate week he took the girls each out on the kayak one last time before his first day of being on call. It is amazing how comfortable they are on the water, sitting so close to their daddy. He and Jacinta followed feathers floating on the wind like little sailboats while Genevieve and I sat under the tobacco bushes, throwing berries into the water. They went slow and watched beauty in silence, even laid down and just floated for a while. It was a nice way to rejuvenate and prepare for a hard week.
The girls and I had a really “cruisy” week. This is a term I really like here, meaning going with the flow, letting things happen as they come up and enjoying them. Perhaps this is used in the US too, I can’t remember certain linguistic differences as time goes by. I suppose it’s bound to happen when you’re away from your country for over a year. In any case, we had a lot of fun just playing at home together and a lot of fun meeting up with friends.
Last Monday a few of my friends showed up with their children for French class. We have been waiting for three new friends/students to join us and they never showed. We watched the children play, and fight, and I decided, “I am not in the mood to teach these five today.” If it is just these two sets of siblings and another, they bicker and don’t pay attention. I don’t like teaching classes with so few children, all throwing their huge egos around. So my friends and I sat around and picked bindies (burr-like weeds spread throughout the grass) while the children played. This Monday the new children finally came, bumping up our class to eight children. My friend Zoe grew up speaking French so she helped out. We had a newly energized hour of French fun. For the first time, Jacinta asked a few questions in French this week, and didn’t seem to mind being corrected. She followed a complaining Genevieve out the door, parroting a phrase I have said over and over to Genevieve, “Genevieve, qu’est-ce qu’il y a?” (What is it Genevieve?) I giggled and smiled inside. I started doing some tongue twisters with the girls this week which make them giggle.
Another first was a haircut for Jacinta, she is four, yes. It was getting stringy and tangled, so we set up a chair outside while Evie slept. While watching birds, Jacinta sat still, eager to hold each piece of cut off hair that I handed her. She took pictures while I cut my own hair. She later asked if I could cut her hair every day.
She also liked one of her lunches so much she asked if we could have the same thing every day (rice and raw veggies). It’s funny how much she looks for things to love, she also knows how much I like her to love and appreciate her food. My efforts to work more savory foods and vegetables into the girls’ meals, reducing dairy, sugar and too many concentrated starches, worked really well. The general attitude towards food this week was quite positive, not whiny. I am amazed at Jacinta’s willingness to eat what she is given, now that I am making more of an effort to detach myself from the food. We started eating more popcorn, which is great fun for the girls and I to sit around the bowl and laugh together. Jacinta likes shaking paprika on it, along with butter and salt of course. Mary’s birthday was on Friday, so we had a lovely cooking day. The girls were incredibly anxious for Grandma Mary to get home from work. It was a long lovely day at home, a day of preparation.
My birthday was last week, but I received a few belated gifts this week, making the birthday last, something I love. My sister actually ordered gifts on the internet from an earthy shop in a town near Macksville, my clever sister sending me a paper plant pot maker and a “solar light ball.” Inspiring gifts. It was an inspiring week in general. Saturday I left the girls in the good care of Matt, Keith and Mary and drove to my choir director’s house to practice with a bunch of others to prepare to sing in a wedding, all African music. There were a bunch of people from the Bellingen choir I joined for the jazz festival a few years ago, including two Togolese men, refugees. These are the first refugees I have actually met in Australia, French speaking, and very nice. Luckily I learned from my training a few weeks back not to inquire into their past. Singing with this group was incredibly inspiring and soul-stirring, just the perfect harmonies, rhythms and drums. I was so high upon arrival at home I cleaned until 11pm. Sunday was a “Friendly Food” Co-op meeting at our place so there were children everywhere marching all over like ants, lovely food covering the table and good company. I guess these are the things I want in life. Lucky I found them!
It’s a good time in life for us. I wish you joy and gratitude wherever and however you can find or create it.
Peace,
Shana
posted by Matt & Shana & Jacinta & Genevieve Henry at
11:37 PM
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