Long legs and blue hair
Hello there. The peace of the evening surrounds me. Three little flames dance in the candle beside me. Music fills my ears; vocal harmony balances me in a way that nothing else can. I have decided to write a journal every other week, based on my own need for discipline and the difficulty of remembering events and feelings over four weeks time.
We all need discipline, as adults we can form our own disciplines. Children need us to give them boundaries within which they can learn. Jacinta knows and follows the lines, but sometimes needs to be reminded where she stands, just in case we loosen up a bit. Genevieve continually seeks to determine these lines. She doesn’t see the line as a limit, more as a suggestion. She has started to verbalize her decision to cross a boundary. I took a balloon inside to prevent the grass from popping it and explained my action. Evie whined a bit, “why??? WHY???” She disliked my response and after some contemplation said very firmly, “I be naughty.” She went inside to fetch the balloon and brought it outside and gave me the look. I laugh now, but at that moment, of course I had to respond seriously. As I have said before, Genevieve’s will to experience is much stronger than her will to please.
Jacinta’s friend Lily has the same strong will to do, knowing full well the trouble she will bring upon herself. The other night Lily and her two brothers stayed and played late into the evening while their parents and Matt and I caught up. They played like angels, never fought, continually coming up with imaginative games and activities and cleaning up their messes (when reminded to do so). They played dress up and twirled in their costumes to Hannukah tunes (the official dancing music for all dancing the girls do). They drew big pictures together and truly enjoyed each others’ company. I was amazed that no dramas arose. Then it was clean up time and I found clumps of blond hair on the floor. It turns out that Lily had cut off a chunk of Genevieve’s hair earlier in the evening. Bummer, Evie’s first haircut done by a four year old who innocently explained her action, “Genevieve’s hair was getting too long.” Although I am a little angry, I know this is quite common. My mom tells me that I too had my hair chopped by a two-year old friend.
Since that night the girls have discovered the art of dress up. Jacinta loves to try on new things and help Genevieve dress up. Genevieve never alters her wardrobe though. She wears a purple kimono, a purple feather boa, purple fairy wings and tops it off with a hideous long haired blue wig, every time. Both girls love to gaze at their funny appearance in the mirror but even more, dancing to number one on the Hannukah CD.
Another shared love the girls have now is ice cream making. They do this with upturned bikes on the veranda, turning the pedals with their hands to churn the ice cream into the cup below. My sister and I used to do this as children. Is this a common practice? It’s funny how much of your upbringing you deem as normal and then learn that you were strange and are passing that beautiful strangeness onto your children.
As Jacinta’s legs sprout into long little stick legs and her baby belly thins out, she is getting speedy on her bike, dangerously so on the veranda. She rode to town on her bike with training wheels last week, once with Matt and once with me. We worried about the hill, but she rode slowly behind the stroller as I pushed Evie and made it down safely. The ride to town is no small trip for a little girl. I am amazed at Jacinta’s stamina on some days compared to her lack of it on other days. She always has the energy to lull Genevieve to sleep, every day she is home now. Jacinta now sleeps down in Evie’s bed with her every night. She says it’s because winter is coming and she wants to stay warm. They may bite and kick each other some days, but they always find space for their sisterly love to grow.
Growing older and being a mother I am learning to accept my inability to please everyone and everything. I am often “the meanie,” if there must be one and I am okay with this. We all try to make the girls obey but I am simply around the most, so enforce the most rules and hold to the rhythms of the day. Lately I have been making a concerted effort to stop doing things and lie down to tickle, cuddle and laugh with the girls. It makes a world of difference. It’s sad that I had relegated that role to Matt since he seemed more of a natural at it. Now we share the tickling job and Jacinta and Genevieve smile more. Saturday and Tuesday are our only days with no outings. Given the choice to go to dance class yesterday, Jacinta chose relaxing at home. She relishes peaceful days with no agenda: a good lesson for me.
Matt loves days at home but they are few and far between, as is the nature of earning a living. Work is fine, he will be training for quite a while and learning new procedures. For most community service interactions there must be two people to ensure safety and also to write down all that is said by the clients and workers. So he is serving as the back up person on a lot of outings. What he learns is sad, yes, but certainly not unexpected. Our shire (county) has the highest rate of children being removed from their parents in New South Wales. He treasures his stable family, easy love, and time off even more now. Last weekend he mounted a beautiful little nature display table in our main living room. The girls and I had no problem covering it in treasures from outside and precious stones. This was the perfect place to put Genevieve’s beautiful blond curls and get over my annoyance. I cooked sea scallops in the shell for the first time last week. We were able to use the shells as decoration on the nature table. It is the perfect motivation for treasure collection on walks or gardening.
Matt’s newest project is bathroom renovation. We spent last weekend emptying out the bathroom storage shelves into our newly built outdoor shed. Matt took down the shelves and moved the toilet. Now he is reconfiguring the plumbing in order to move the sink and condense the bathroom. The goal here is to decrease the size of the bathroom and increase the size of the living room. Eventually he will relocate the wall and build in cabinets and drawers. This could be tricky without much time on his hands, but he never ceases to amaze me.
My latest project is fixing up the terrace garden. When you build garden terraces out of wood, naturally there is a lot of upkeep as the wood decomposes. It has been almost three years since it was created so now is the time. The weeds had crept in to stay, the path had risen by four inches due to soil run off and the walls had rotted in my top terrace. I spent about five hours this weekend fixing this problem and actually did it properly. Typically I do things half ass (unfortunate expression, excuse me), but this time I did it well, with shade cloth and everything. An added bonus was the piles of grubs (worms) I dug up for the chickens.
We now have ten chickens. Last weekend bought three young hens who are not yet laying eggs. They joined the five large hens and two bantam hens, entering at the bottom of the pecking order. They took the bullying for a few days, the bantam hens dishing it out too, just grateful to no longer reside at the bottom of the heap. They huddled in a corner for a few days, not even brave enough to sleep on the roost. But after a week, I am proud to say, they have made it to the roost. The snake must have smelled new chooks because he visited shortly after. Luckily the chickens clucked enough to get Matt and I out there to scare off the snake. He was determined though. Wish them luck. We are getting about three or four eggs a day now. Jacinta and Genevieve are thrilled that a bantam hen has started to lay and they get to eat baby eggs. They love their eggs for breakfast and love it when daddy cooks them.
Last Friday morning Matt made his traditional breakfast for the girls, toast fingers and soft boiled eggs. I left the house at 6am to attend a breakfast held by Zonta for International Women’s Day/Week. I was invited to speak/introduce other speakers because of my relationship with the Togolese family. It was an inspiring event to hear from interesting women: from highly educated African refugees to perky sixteen year olds with plans to uplift young girls’ body image. For a little while I got a lift for being recognized for my womanhood outside of motherhood. But then I came back to the ground and remembered why I chose to move across the world to live on land and raise our children, in search my role in a strong local community. Following the breakfast I had an even better morning with my Togolese friend Christine and her son while Matt and then Keith took care of our girls. I asked Christine to stop referring to me as a volunteer and just call me her friend. I think she will soon.
Christine and two friends of mine in the US are due to give birth in the next month. I watch her belly grow and think of my friends Maggie and Adriann and their growing bellies. I think of their drastically different lives and the lives their children will lead. The world is so big. They will all find their own forms of truth and beauty.
It has been a long while since we have had a community with whom we can share Matt’s music, at least here in Australia. Now each Sunday we drive 45 minutes each way to what we call “church or Ecofaith.” It varies each week, but now that Matt has joined we sing a few of his little songs. We sing a round called God is In All Things.
It goes round and round, the other line saying that All Things Are in God. The girls now hum this unconsciously throughout the day. The other song that’s stuck in their heads is “Though there may be many wells, there’s just one river.” I love this concept referring to God being One, and different people around the world all having different wells from which they access the Divine.
Of course there are many ways to experience divinity, beauty beyond comprehension, awe, intricate little webs in creation. I made bread last week and found divinity in the rising dough, in my little girls’ eyes as they rolled out their own bread and in their murmurs as they cuddled in the night. I strapped Evie on my back and dragged the kayak down to the river and found beauty beyond comprehension in the high tide and the crabs hiding in the mangroves. Matt and I lay awake in bed in awe a few nights ago watching a spider spin its web by the light of the moon. I am learning to let go of pleasing everyone in my life, but clinging to beauty that fills me with awe and love.
Peace my loved ones. I wish you a week full of awe and love.
Shana
We all need discipline, as adults we can form our own disciplines. Children need us to give them boundaries within which they can learn. Jacinta knows and follows the lines, but sometimes needs to be reminded where she stands, just in case we loosen up a bit. Genevieve continually seeks to determine these lines. She doesn’t see the line as a limit, more as a suggestion. She has started to verbalize her decision to cross a boundary. I took a balloon inside to prevent the grass from popping it and explained my action. Evie whined a bit, “why??? WHY???” She disliked my response and after some contemplation said very firmly, “I be naughty.” She went inside to fetch the balloon and brought it outside and gave me the look. I laugh now, but at that moment, of course I had to respond seriously. As I have said before, Genevieve’s will to experience is much stronger than her will to please.
Jacinta’s friend Lily has the same strong will to do, knowing full well the trouble she will bring upon herself. The other night Lily and her two brothers stayed and played late into the evening while their parents and Matt and I caught up. They played like angels, never fought, continually coming up with imaginative games and activities and cleaning up their messes (when reminded to do so). They played dress up and twirled in their costumes to Hannukah tunes (the official dancing music for all dancing the girls do). They drew big pictures together and truly enjoyed each others’ company. I was amazed that no dramas arose. Then it was clean up time and I found clumps of blond hair on the floor. It turns out that Lily had cut off a chunk of Genevieve’s hair earlier in the evening. Bummer, Evie’s first haircut done by a four year old who innocently explained her action, “Genevieve’s hair was getting too long.” Although I am a little angry, I know this is quite common. My mom tells me that I too had my hair chopped by a two-year old friend.
Since that night the girls have discovered the art of dress up. Jacinta loves to try on new things and help Genevieve dress up. Genevieve never alters her wardrobe though. She wears a purple kimono, a purple feather boa, purple fairy wings and tops it off with a hideous long haired blue wig, every time. Both girls love to gaze at their funny appearance in the mirror but even more, dancing to number one on the Hannukah CD.
Another shared love the girls have now is ice cream making. They do this with upturned bikes on the veranda, turning the pedals with their hands to churn the ice cream into the cup below. My sister and I used to do this as children. Is this a common practice? It’s funny how much of your upbringing you deem as normal and then learn that you were strange and are passing that beautiful strangeness onto your children.
As Jacinta’s legs sprout into long little stick legs and her baby belly thins out, she is getting speedy on her bike, dangerously so on the veranda. She rode to town on her bike with training wheels last week, once with Matt and once with me. We worried about the hill, but she rode slowly behind the stroller as I pushed Evie and made it down safely. The ride to town is no small trip for a little girl. I am amazed at Jacinta’s stamina on some days compared to her lack of it on other days. She always has the energy to lull Genevieve to sleep, every day she is home now. Jacinta now sleeps down in Evie’s bed with her every night. She says it’s because winter is coming and she wants to stay warm. They may bite and kick each other some days, but they always find space for their sisterly love to grow.
Growing older and being a mother I am learning to accept my inability to please everyone and everything. I am often “the meanie,” if there must be one and I am okay with this. We all try to make the girls obey but I am simply around the most, so enforce the most rules and hold to the rhythms of the day. Lately I have been making a concerted effort to stop doing things and lie down to tickle, cuddle and laugh with the girls. It makes a world of difference. It’s sad that I had relegated that role to Matt since he seemed more of a natural at it. Now we share the tickling job and Jacinta and Genevieve smile more. Saturday and Tuesday are our only days with no outings. Given the choice to go to dance class yesterday, Jacinta chose relaxing at home. She relishes peaceful days with no agenda: a good lesson for me.
Matt loves days at home but they are few and far between, as is the nature of earning a living. Work is fine, he will be training for quite a while and learning new procedures. For most community service interactions there must be two people to ensure safety and also to write down all that is said by the clients and workers. So he is serving as the back up person on a lot of outings. What he learns is sad, yes, but certainly not unexpected. Our shire (county) has the highest rate of children being removed from their parents in New South Wales. He treasures his stable family, easy love, and time off even more now. Last weekend he mounted a beautiful little nature display table in our main living room. The girls and I had no problem covering it in treasures from outside and precious stones. This was the perfect place to put Genevieve’s beautiful blond curls and get over my annoyance. I cooked sea scallops in the shell for the first time last week. We were able to use the shells as decoration on the nature table. It is the perfect motivation for treasure collection on walks or gardening.
Matt’s newest project is bathroom renovation. We spent last weekend emptying out the bathroom storage shelves into our newly built outdoor shed. Matt took down the shelves and moved the toilet. Now he is reconfiguring the plumbing in order to move the sink and condense the bathroom. The goal here is to decrease the size of the bathroom and increase the size of the living room. Eventually he will relocate the wall and build in cabinets and drawers. This could be tricky without much time on his hands, but he never ceases to amaze me.
My latest project is fixing up the terrace garden. When you build garden terraces out of wood, naturally there is a lot of upkeep as the wood decomposes. It has been almost three years since it was created so now is the time. The weeds had crept in to stay, the path had risen by four inches due to soil run off and the walls had rotted in my top terrace. I spent about five hours this weekend fixing this problem and actually did it properly. Typically I do things half ass (unfortunate expression, excuse me), but this time I did it well, with shade cloth and everything. An added bonus was the piles of grubs (worms) I dug up for the chickens.
We now have ten chickens. Last weekend bought three young hens who are not yet laying eggs. They joined the five large hens and two bantam hens, entering at the bottom of the pecking order. They took the bullying for a few days, the bantam hens dishing it out too, just grateful to no longer reside at the bottom of the heap. They huddled in a corner for a few days, not even brave enough to sleep on the roost. But after a week, I am proud to say, they have made it to the roost. The snake must have smelled new chooks because he visited shortly after. Luckily the chickens clucked enough to get Matt and I out there to scare off the snake. He was determined though. Wish them luck. We are getting about three or four eggs a day now. Jacinta and Genevieve are thrilled that a bantam hen has started to lay and they get to eat baby eggs. They love their eggs for breakfast and love it when daddy cooks them.
Last Friday morning Matt made his traditional breakfast for the girls, toast fingers and soft boiled eggs. I left the house at 6am to attend a breakfast held by Zonta for International Women’s Day/Week. I was invited to speak/introduce other speakers because of my relationship with the Togolese family. It was an inspiring event to hear from interesting women: from highly educated African refugees to perky sixteen year olds with plans to uplift young girls’ body image. For a little while I got a lift for being recognized for my womanhood outside of motherhood. But then I came back to the ground and remembered why I chose to move across the world to live on land and raise our children, in search my role in a strong local community. Following the breakfast I had an even better morning with my Togolese friend Christine and her son while Matt and then Keith took care of our girls. I asked Christine to stop referring to me as a volunteer and just call me her friend. I think she will soon.
Christine and two friends of mine in the US are due to give birth in the next month. I watch her belly grow and think of my friends Maggie and Adriann and their growing bellies. I think of their drastically different lives and the lives their children will lead. The world is so big. They will all find their own forms of truth and beauty.
It has been a long while since we have had a community with whom we can share Matt’s music, at least here in Australia. Now each Sunday we drive 45 minutes each way to what we call “church or Ecofaith.” It varies each week, but now that Matt has joined we sing a few of his little songs. We sing a round called God is In All Things.
It goes round and round, the other line saying that All Things Are in God. The girls now hum this unconsciously throughout the day. The other song that’s stuck in their heads is “Though there may be many wells, there’s just one river.” I love this concept referring to God being One, and different people around the world all having different wells from which they access the Divine.
Of course there are many ways to experience divinity, beauty beyond comprehension, awe, intricate little webs in creation. I made bread last week and found divinity in the rising dough, in my little girls’ eyes as they rolled out their own bread and in their murmurs as they cuddled in the night. I strapped Evie on my back and dragged the kayak down to the river and found beauty beyond comprehension in the high tide and the crabs hiding in the mangroves. Matt and I lay awake in bed in awe a few nights ago watching a spider spin its web by the light of the moon. I am learning to let go of pleasing everyone in my life, but clinging to beauty that fills me with awe and love.
Peace my loved ones. I wish you a week full of awe and love.
Shana
posted by Matt & Shana & Jacinta & Genevieve Henry at
12:19 AM
1 Comments:
Shana,
My sister and i use to flip our bikes upside down and pretend to make ice cream too! Only we used the big wheel most of the time i think. I MISS YOU GUYS!!!!!
Caroline
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