Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas loved ones! It is indeed Christmas night. I am celebrating the end of a lovely, deliciously overwhelming day with you, faaaaaar away people who I miss more now than any other time of the year. This was Genevieve’s first Christmas, Jacinta’s first fully Santafied Christmas, and our third Christmas here in Australia. The day began with lots of presents, so many we took a few breaks to help Jacinta get through it without breaking down. Genevieve didn’t mind, she enjoyed eating the packaging and tasting each gift offered. Her favourite seemed to be the rubber snail, a bath toy that she’s been sucking since we opened it. Jacinta showed equal excitement for all of her presents, but by the end went to her room and went to work…making Christmas cards for friends and family.

So much thought and good will go into all of these lovely gifts, perhaps this explains why receiving can be emotional. Then for your three-year-old, there’s the question, “what will we do with all of this new stuff?” We don’t even have enough room for what we already possess and don’t really need. For lack of a response, I went down and unwrapped the gifts produced by ten days of absence from my gardens. What a harvest: buckets of beans and cucumbers, a few tomatoes, sweet corn, and strawberries. The rest of the day we played with our new gifts, enjoyed Mary’s great cooking, and ended the afternoon with a neighbourhood cricket game at the bottom of the dam in the rain. Although I shed a few tears for my family in America, I cheered up pretty quickly. You can’t spend much time wallowing in self pity when you have young children. Highlights were acting out the Christmas Story with finger puppets, singing Christmas carols, watching Jess dance dressed up like a fairy with her new ribbon dancer and tacky purple wig and seeing Evie smile, stand, click and clap.

Genevieve will be ten months old tomorrow. We thought she’d be walking by Christmas, but she must be waiting for something else. She shocked us with a fifth tooth last week. I only spotted it because she seemed really happy and proud all of a sudden so I checked her mouth. Voila, one more tooth on the top. Her favourite foods right now seem to be cherries, mangoes, corn and red beans. I spoke too soon last week about her sleep habits and claimed a Christmas present that wasn’t to be mine. Being in Canberra in a small apartment I couldn’t let her cry much, she must have known so she woke every few hours and ended up sleeping with us again. We have to start all over tonight, wish us luck. On a more exciting note, being in a small apartment in a city helped the girls learn to play together. Jacinta has stopped whining every time Genevieve touches her or “pushes me over” and is trying to help her walk. Although her grip is shocking, Evie has started to release objects too. She can now give things to Jess, not just take them away. This makes playing ball more fun. Jacinta is just starting to grasp how much her little sister looks up to her, and really likes that feeling of admiration. Who doesn’t love being admired?

Well, I can speak for myself : I love to be loved. I want to be loved, but I have developed a bit of a negative side in the tastebud battle with Jacinta. I’d heard rumours about this age when children develop their own opinions about food and reduce their palettes to a few safe foods. With all of my good intentions and intensity about food, it seems that I have turned mealtime into a scary thing, rather than a celebration of the earth’s abundance. I was trying the forceful method of giving her a broad palette so she was looking sad at meals, rather than excited. I won’t go into too much detail, but just say that Matt very gently helped me realize that I was serving up a plate of original sin and guilt rather than one of original blessing and joy. Given my desire to change things, he has been cheering me on to release her from my crazy food dictatorship, not in front of her of course. Although it’s hard to watch her refuse to try a beetroot burger and eat sausage instead, it’s also liberating to loosen my control and see her enjoy herself no matter what she is eating. She had her first sausage sandwich, and candy cane this week and I’m smiling writing this!

While in Canberra this past week, Matt worked at Hamperesque for his sister packing gift boxes and delivering them. It was fairly mundane work, but he gratefully worked his butt off to spend some time with his sister, for some income and an endless supply of chocolates for energy while working. While packing boxes, he prepared for his first interview for his book, Originally Blessed. On Thursday morning Matt spoke with Andrew Harvey over the phone. It was refreshing to immerse himself in a passionate subject. Later he will reduce their long conversation to a few pages of interesting dialogue. This is just the beginning of the work he will be doing for this book. He hears daily from potential contributors. It’s pretty exciting corresponding directly with people you admire from afar, even if it is to tell you that they do not have time to contribute a chapter. Most often the responses are positive, and come quickly via email. The hardest part now is ensuring that each contributor chooses a different chapter out of the twenty-six choices. It is good, gratifying work so he has no complaints.

I, too, found myself grateful for my work this week, exploring Canberra with my girls and resting to get through another round of colds. Tuesday we made it to the zoo for a long slow jaunt through the animals. It was Jacinta’s first trip to the zoo without a stroller and Genevieve’s first zoo experience when she actually noticed the animals. We saw a bear feeding up close, fairy penguins and monkeys being fed, baby zebras, baby monkeys and even saw a giraffe poop. Normally I wouldn’t mention it, but we were very close to its bum. Jacinta and I were amazed that this enormous animal pooped pellets, and a lot of them too. Wednesday and Thursday we relaxed at home, Jacinta with a cough, me with a sore throat, and Evie as happy as a clam. One morning we watched a movie, a seemingly harmless Christmas cartoon movie, thinking Jacinta would love it. Annabelle the cow dreamt of flying like Santa’s reindeer. Jess watched curiously, getting slightly sad at some parts, but held on until the end. The last second of the movie, Annabelle the cow had grown old and finally got her wish, magically transforming into a reindeer. Jacinta cried for twenty minutes.
Genevieve giggled and smiled and made it even worse. Maybe this is our punishment for depriving the poor girl of media for so long!

Continuing our exploration of Canberra, we went to the Botanic Gardens on Friday morning. Everything was native to Australia, and beautiful. There were goannas, parrots and lorakeets to be seen, quite nice for our morning tea on a bench! Unfortunately it ended in a tantrum when I had to forcefully remove stickers from Jacinta’s face to apply sunscreen. Eventually she got herself together and sulkily moved on. We found a nice tree to climb, a little waterfall and some stepping stones through shallow water. Jacinta, of course, fell in after crossing the stones ten times successfully, in her impatience to get by Evie and I. Soaking wet, she had another tantrum which continued all the way to the car. Later that afternoon Matt’s sister Allison and I took the girls for a short trip to the National Museum to play in the children’s section. It was a great museum, history, art, culture, science, and nature all in one place. We all had a lovely time, but it too ended in a tantrum.
Public tantrums are a real test for any parent. It’s a big choice, give in and give the child whatever they demand to avoid the embarrassment or carry out a child screaming bloody murder knowing judgements are being cast upon you from all directions. I chose the second option three times in one day, and it wasn’t too terrible, a little stressful, yes. I could say it was fatigue on one occasion, but otherwise it was just pure and simple, Jacinta being stubborn. Our girl can scream, her will is as strong as steel. She is infuriating some days, I understand why parents resort to smacking their children. It would make me feel better for a minute or so, but perhaps worse after that first minute, especially if I then contemplated her sweeter moments.

On Thursday Allison took Jacinta shopping and Jacinta was asked by a few different shopkeepers what she had asked Santa to bring her for Christmas. We haven’t played up too much of that whole “Be good for Santa” business, or ever asked her what she wanted for gifts. We try not to give her too many choices, because she’s three. She has enough else to think about. Never having heard the question before, she replied, “Nothing.” One of the shopkeepers pressed on, “Don’t you want any toys?” Jacinta replied, “I already have a lot of toys.” Ohhhhhhhh, my little heart melted away when Allison told us this story. We did not teach her this, she said it in our absence. She will learn very soon to want and come up with a list, but for now, this is our sweet little girl without a consumer culture. Later on in the week she was pressed by a young boy to come up with a desire. Excitedly, she said, “Decorations! Christmas decorations!” After opening up her tens of presents, the last one was Christmas ornaments from my mom and George. She got what she wanted 

Saturday Matt had finished working so he took his turn touristing. He took Jacinta to the Australian Institute of Sport to meet his dad, Carolyn and nephew Ben. They went on a tour and played some games. Allison, Genevieve and I cooked all day to prepare for our pre-Christmas Christmas dinner. Allison and I had almost as much fun as Genevieve, who slid around on the floor in slimy mango seeds and corn. Late afternoon we all went to Matt’s sister Louise’s house for dinner. Ben, Jacinta and Genevieve had a grand time playing together and opening presents. It was the first time the two eldest children realized that they were actually pretty lucky to have each other at a family gathering. They bounced around on their new ride-on bouncy balls, danced to the Wiggles, played Mr. Potato Head, tried to ward off Genevieve and dressed up in funny costumes, Jacinta the gaudy princess and Ben as a pirate. Although I had a nice time, I wished I were three too. You don’t notice family tension so much when you’re three, and you don’t sit around missing the family that lives half a world away. You play until you crash, without much thought of the past or the future and you can even fall asleep in the car on the way home.

Sunday morning we packed up and drove back to Sydney, the long scenic route. We saw a waterfall on the map and decided to go and see it. I find waterfalls just breathtaking, so powerful, so beautiful, so dangerous, yet so enticing. It was too cold to swim, but we hopped around on the safest rocks and marvelled at the water. Jacinta hadn’t really seen a waterfall. Genevieve surely hadn’t, so she was transfixed. We drove through beautiful forests, then next to the ocean, and finally into the city. I actually paid attention on the map for the first time. This must mean I’ve been here a while, to bother with navigation in such a crazy, twisty city. We finished off the day at our kind friends’ house with a nice dinner, good company and a comfortable bed. Christmas Eve morning we had breakfast with Genevieve’s godparents and celebrated the upcoming birth of their baby. After a good long trip, we made our way home. It was a lovely return. Mary and Keith always spoil us, helping us get ready to leave, then spoiling us with great food and company when we return. Mary even does our laundry while we’re gone and puts milk in the fridge! We came back to Christmas Eve dinner, put Jacinta to bed, then Matt and Keith ran outside to put together the new swing set together. Keith (Santa) had further prepared the area with a new cubby house (complete with a sink) and even put in a garden. Christmas morning Jacinta went outside to check on the carrots, cake and milk she had left for Santa and the reindeer. Lo and behold, “Santa brought me a park!” It was an intense day, week, and all the rest. I love leaving home, always coming back more appreciative of how life is here on 107 Coronation Road.

I hope you all had a Merry Merry Christmas. We are thinking of you, we just didn’t send any cards. Can we blame it on the children??? No, the garden!

Wishing you peace, joy and lots of love and rest in the New Year!

Love,
Shana, Matt, Jacinta and Genevieve

I already have a lot of toys

Merry Christmas loved ones! It is indeed Christmas night. I am celebrating the end of a lovely, deliciously overwhelming day with you, faaaaaar away people who I miss more now than any other time of the year. This was Genevieve’s first Christmas, Jacinta’s first fully Santafied Christmas, and our third Christmas here in Australia. The day began with lots of presents, so many we took a few breaks to help Jacinta get through it without breaking down. Genevieve didn’t mind, she enjoyed eating the packaging and tasting each gift offered. Her favourite seemed to be the rubber snail, a bath toy that she’s been sucking since we opened it. Jacinta showed equal excitement for all of her presents, but by the end went to her room and went to work to relax…making Christmas cards for friends and family.

So much thought and good will go into all of these lovely gifts, perhaps this explains why receiving can be emotional. Then for your three-year-old, there’s the question, “what will we do with all of this new stuff?” We don’t even have enough room for what we already possess and don’t really need. For lack of a response, I went down and unwrapped the gifts produced by ten days of absence from my gardens. What a harvest: buckets of beans and cucumbers, a few tomatoes, sweet corn, and strawberries. The rest of the day we played with our new gifts, enjoyed Mary’s great cooking, and ended the afternoon with a neighbourhood cricket game at the bottom of the dam in the rain. Although I shed a few tears for my family in America, I cheered up pretty quickly. You can’t spend much time wallowing in self pity when you have young children. Highlights were acting out the Christmas Story with finger puppets, singing Christmas carols, watching Jess dance dressed up like a fairy with her new ribbon dancer and tacky purple wig and seeing Evie smile, stand, click and clap.

Genevieve will be ten months old tomorrow. We thought she’d be walking by Christmas, but she must be waiting for something else. She shocked us with a fifth tooth last week. I only spotted it because she seemed really happy and proud all of a sudden so I checked her mouth. Voila, one more tooth on the top. Her favourite foods right now seem to be cherries, mangoes, corn and red beans. I spoke too soon last week about her sleep habits and claimed a Christmas present that wasn’t to be mine. Being in Canberra in a small apartment I couldn’t let her cry much, she must have known so she woke every few hours and ended up sleeping with us again. We have to start all over tonight, wish us luck. On a more exciting note, being in a small apartment in a city helped the girls learn to play together. Jacinta has stopped whining every time Genevieve touches her or “pushes me over” and is trying to help her walk. Although her grip is shocking, Evie has started to release objects too. She can now give things to Jess, not just take them away. This makes playing ball more fun. Jacinta is just starting to grasp how much her little sister looks up to her, and really likes that feeling of admiration. Who doesn’t love being admired?

Well, I can speak for myself : I love to be loved. I want to be loved, but I have developed a bit of a negative side in the tastebud battle with Jacinta. I’d heard rumours about this age, this is when children develop their own opinions about food and reduce their palettes to a few safe foods. With all of my good intentions and intensity about food, it seems that I have turned mealtime into a scary thing, rather than a celebration of the earth’s abundance. I was trying the forceful method of giving her a broad palette so she was looking sad at meals, rather than excited. I won’t go into too much detail, but just say that Matt very gently helped me realize that I was serving up a plate of original sin and guilt rather than one of original blessing and joy. Given my desire to change things, he has been cheering me on to release her from my crazy food dictatorship, not in front of her of course. Although it’s hard to watch her refuse to try a beetroot burger and eat sausage instead, it’s also liberating to loosen my control and see her enjoy herself no matter what she is eating. She had her first sausage sandwich, and candy cane this week and I’m smiling writing this!

While in Canberra this past week, Matt worked at Hamperesque for his sister packing gift boxes and delivering them. It was fairly mundane work, but he gratefully worked his butt off to spend some time with his sister, for some income and an endless supply of chocolates for energy while working. While packing boxes, he prepared for his first interview for his book, Originally Blessed. On Thursday morning Matt spoke with Andrew Harvey over the phone. It was refreshing to immerse himself in a passionate subject. Later he will reduce their long conversation to a few pages of interesting dialogue. This is just the beginning of the work he will be doing for this book. He hears daily from potential contributors. It’s pretty exciting corresponding directly with people you admire from afar, even if it is to tell you that they do not have time to contribute a chapter. Most often the responses are positive, and come quickly via email. The hardest part now is ensuring that each contributor chooses a different chapter out of the twenty-six choices. It is good, gratifying work so he has no complaints.

I, too, found myself grateful for my work this week, exploring Canberra with my girls and resting to get through another round of colds. Tuesday we made it to the zoo for a long slow jaunt through the animals. It was Jacinta’s first trip to the zoo without a stroller and Genevieve’s first zoo experience when she actually noticed the animals. We saw a bear feeding up close, fairy penguins and monkeys being fed, baby zebras, baby monkeys and even saw a giraffe poop. Normally I wouldn’t mention it, but we were very close to its bum. Jacinta and I were amazed that this enormous animal pooped pellets, and a lot of them too. Wednesday and Thursday we relaxed at home, Jacinta with a cough, me with a sore throat, and Evie as happy as a clam. One morning we watched a movie, a seemingly harmless Christmas cartoon movie, thinking Jacinta would love it. Annabelle the cow dreamt of flying like Santa’s reindeer. Jess watched curiously, getting slightly sad at some parts, but held on until the end. The last second of the movie, Annabelle the cow had grown old and finally got her wish, magically transforming into a reindeer. Jacinta cried for twenty minutes.
Genevieve giggled and smiled and made it even worse. Maybe this is our punishment for depriving the poor girl of media for so long!

Continuing our exploration of Canberra, we went to the Botanic Gardens on Friday morning. Everything was native to Australia, and beautiful. There were goannas, parrots and lorakeets to be seen, quite nice for our morning tea on a bench! Unfortunately it ended in a tantrum when I had to forcefully remove stickers from Jacinta’s face to apply sunscreen. Eventually she got herself together and sulkily moved on. We found a nice tree to climb, a little waterfall and some stepping stones through shallow water. Jacinta, of course, fell in after crossing the stones ten times successfully, in her impatience to get by Evie and I. Soaking wet, she had another tantrum which continued all the way to the car. Later that afternoon Matt’s sister Allison and I took the girls for a short trip to the National Museum to play in the children’s section. It was a great museum, history, art, culture, science, and nature all in one place. We all had a lovely time, but it too ended in a tantrum.
Public tantrums are a real test for any parent. It’s a big choice, give in and give the child whatever they demand to avoid the embarrassment or carry out a child screaming bloody murder knowing judgements are being cast upon you from all directions. I chose the second option three times in one day, and it wasn’t too terrible, a little stressful, yes. I could say it was fatigue on one occasion, but otherwise it was just pure and simple, Jacinta being stubborn. Our girl can scream, her will is as strong as steel. She is infuriating some days, I understand why parents resort to smacking their children. It would make me feel better for a minute or so, but perhaps worse after that first minute, especially if I then contemplated her sweeter moments.

On Thursday Allison took Jacinta shopping and Jacinta was asked by a few different shopkeepers what she had asked Santa to bring her for Christmas. We haven’t played up too much of that whole “Be good for Santa” business, or ever asked her what she wanted for gifts. We try not to give her too many choices, because she’s three. She has enough else to think about. Never having heard the question before, she replied, “Nothing.” One of the shopkeepers pressed on, “Don’t you want any toys?” Jacinta replied, “I already have a lot of toys.” Ohhhhhhhh, my little heart melted away when Allison told us this story. We did not teach her this, she said it in our absence. She will learn very soon to want and come up with a list, but for now, this is our sweet little girl without a consumer culture. Later on in the week she was pressed by a young boy to come up with a desire. Excitedly, she said, “Decorations! Christmas decorations!” After opening up her tens of presents, the last one was Christmas ornaments from my mom and George. She got what she wanted 

Saturday Matt had finished working so he took his turn touristing. He took Jacinta to the Australian Institute of Sport to meet his dad, Carolyn and nephew Ben. They went on a tour and played some games. Allison, Genevieve and I cooked all day to prepare for our pre-Christmas Christmas dinner. Allison and I had almost as much fun as Genevieve, who slid around on the floor in slimy mango seeds and corn. Late afternoon we all went to Matt’s sister Louise’s house for dinner. Ben, Jacinta and Genevieve had a grand time playing together and opening presents. It was the first time the two eldest children realized that they were actually pretty lucky to have each other at a family gathering. They bounced around on their new ride-on bouncy balls, danced to the Wiggles, played Mr. Potato Head, tried to ward off Genevieve and dressed up in funny costumes, Jacinta the gaudy princess and Ben as a pirate. Although I had a nice time, I wished I were three too. You don’t notice family tension so much when you’re three, and you don’t sit around missing the family that lives half a world away. You play until you crash, without much thought of the past or the future and you can even fall asleep in the car on the way home.

Sunday morning we packed up and drove back to Sydney, the long scenic route. We saw a waterfall on the map and decided to go and see it. I find waterfalls just breathtaking, so powerful, so beautiful, so dangerous, yet so enticing. It was too cold to swim, but we hopped around on the safest rocks and marvelled at the water. Jacinta hadn’t really seen a waterfall. Genevieve surely hadn’t, so she was transfixed. We drove through beautiful forests, then next to the ocean, and finally into the city. I actually paid attention on the map for the first time. This must mean I’ve been here a while, to bother with navigation in such a crazy, twisty city. We finished off the day at our kind friends’ house with a nice dinner, good company and a comfortable bed. Christmas Eve morning we had breakfast with Genevieve’s godparents and celebrated the upcoming birth of their baby. After a good long trip, we made our way home. It was a lovely return. Mary and Keith always spoil us, helping us get ready to leave, then spoiling us with great food and company when we return. Mary even does our laundry while we’re gone and puts milk in the fridge! We came back to Christmas Eve dinner, put Jacinta to bed, then Matt and Keith ran outside to put together the new swing set together. Keith (Santa) had further prepared the area with a new cubby house (complete with a sink) and even put in a garden. Christmas morning Jacinta went outside to check on the carrots, cake and milk she had left for Santa and the reindeer. Lo and behold, “Santa brought me a park!” It was an intense day, week, and all the rest. I love leaving home, always coming back more appreciative of how life is here on 107 Coronation Road.

I hope you all had a Merry Merry Christmas. We are thinking of you, we just didn’t send any cards. Can we blame it on the children??? No, the garden!

Wishing you peace, joy and lots of love and rest in the New Year!

Love,
Shana, Matt, Jacinta and Genevieve

Library farts

Hello there  It is that time of year, the Christmas “busyness” has come both on our sunny and your snowy landscapes. Of course the heat of summer changes the mood of Christmas here, but another difference is that Santa really is the major player here. I remember the reminder often as a child, “Jesus is the reason for the season.” I don’t think that’s much of a concern here. There are stuffed Santas all over, skinny fake Santas standing on corners advertising anything from carpets to car-washing, lit up Santas on light posts, and plywood cut outs of Santa and the reindeer on roofs. Jacinta points each and every one out to us, otherwise I might not notice the psycho Santa reverence. I’m sure it’s the same in America, but there’s usually a bit of competition with nativity scenes and menorahs.

Another lacking is Hannukah, we don’t live near a Jewish community so we miss out. Mom sent me a Hannukah cd filled with songs I happened to know. Listening to it here in this place devoid of Judaism, made me realize that although I grew up Christian, my music teachers and Jewish friends and neighbours formed in me a very special reverence and familiarity with Judaism. This will be our third Christmas here. The heat is becoming normal, but Christmas in a place anywhere outside of your childhood wonderland can never compete.

Jacinta and Genevieve’s embrace of the upcoming holiday will eventually overtake me and make me fall in love with Aussie Christmas. We have the trees decorated and now gifts have started to accumulate below thanks to Mom and George’s huge package, filled with lots of tiny wrapped packages for each of the girls. Jacinta is filled with excitement and curiosity, but not yet wily enough to try and guess what’s inside. Genevieve likes the sounds of paper and just wants to eat the wrapping; she couldn’t care less about what’s inside. In the past I have spent weeks hand making everyone’s gifts, preparing me mentally for the season and deeply feeling the giving ritual through knitting or making pasta. This year, I can’t imagine finding the time to do such a thing. Also, I am getting older and realizing that although I may love to make gifts, it’s more about the receiver than the giver. I have to laugh at myself and know my family would have had a good laugh opening my packages of handmade pasta, herbal tea and applesauce on Christmas Day. Live and learn, yes, slowly. Perhaps one good thing for all concerned is that now I wouldn’t get those things through customs if I tried.

Instead of making a lot of Christmas presents I got ready for our week away from home. I did heaps of laundry. Normally this doesn’t deserve a mention but this week it rained a little bit each day. Storms come across very quickly, so I had a few loads out on the clothesline in the rain for a few days. I took Jacinta to a swimming lesson and the girls to our last playgroup until the school year recommences in February. We did some last minute Christmas shopping and card-making. Jess and I recorded all of the French songs and poems we do in class as a gift to her friends. Matt edited it all and pumped out the cds for us, making the children all happy to have their own recording to sing with at home. I do pity their poor parents having to listen to my teacher voice explaining the meaning of each song. Oh well. Hopefully they’ll still respect me. Our last French class of the year was fun. I took requests from each child regarding their favourite game or song. Every one of them wanted to play Hide and Seek, no surprise, except for Josephine who requested a simple game I had made up on the spot months ago. I’m so happy my friends trust me enough to teach their children a foreign language that they’ll probably never find to be practical.
Gardening is a much more practical skill to have in this land so far from French culture, but I’d never teach that. I am the student and will always be. I have learned quit a bit though in the past few years. My friend Michelle who used to help me in the garden all the time came for a visit last week and was amazed at how much I’d actually absorbed given the lush state of my gardens. I think gardening is one of those things that constantly humbles you as you marvel at creation’s magnificence and the small things you can do to influence it. Thanks to Michelle taking care of Evie and Jess for an hour up at the house, I was able to compost, mulch and plant out a whole new garden bed in the tepee in the rain. It was such a lovely purifying hour, to spend in solitude in the rain, in daylight even! Solitude in daylight is quite a gift to a work-at-home parent. Besides this lovely memory, I did a bit of work with the girls, mostly harvesting and eating purple beans, strawberries, basil for pesto, zucchini and cucumbers. The cows broke into the orchard and knocked down the tepee so they left a bit of work to be done in order to give the beans back their poles to climb. We also weeded borage, fed the plants, and played store in the mud hut. It was also time for the potato harvest, Keith and I loosened the soil and left the potatoes on the edge of the bed for Jacinta to discover and throw into the bucket. Evie emptied out the storage bin in her search for the littlest bite-size potatoes to shove in her mouth and cause us fear of choking. She is a determined little girl.

Genevieve is the spitting image of Jacinta as a baby without the constant smile. She has more of a serious discerning face that has to be convinced to smile, not such a bad quality. She is an outdoor baby who whines at the screen and tries to get out of the house if she sees anyone else leave. Once this week in a pinch to satisfy her, I put her in her stroller sitting up out in the veranda so she could watch Matt work. She stopped crying and cheered up. Evie’s ready to walk and whines out of frustration as she stubbornly clings to our legs while we move around the house. She took a few steps this week, standing up from a squat, taking a step and squatting back down slowly. Previously I wanted her to slow down, but I suppose her frustration is winning me over. Now I’m cheering her on. It’s unfortunate that I have to think about the ramifications of her newfound ability to reach up one shelf higher in our kitchen, thereby reducing my excitement for her growth. She is pretty darn proud of herself though, baby pride is so awesome to witness.

Genevieve learned this weekend to clap her hands together and make noise after months of watching her hands miss each other. She also started making clicking sounds with her mouth. I wonder if this came from the South African click she hears us sing in choir or just from within her. No matter, she loves the sound and so do we. Jacinta told anyone who would listen today that “Genevieve learned to click and clap.” Our big sister may be jealous at times, but also proud. I tell anyone who’ll listen that Evie has learned to sleep! She sleeps through the night now with no milk until daybreak. Hallelujah! What a Christmas present! She also sleeps better in the day, thanks to our realization that being that attached to the breast was actually affecting her negatively. She still has breast milk, but only a few times a day now. It’s hard not to kick ourselves for not attempting this with Jacinta. Live and learn, yes.

Matt worked equally hard inside and out this week. Inside he kept busy contacting influential spiritual leaders in the Creation Spirituality community regarding the book he is organizing and editing. He had a few major successes in obtaining interviews and essay contributions with amazing people from various religious and cultural backgrounds. This is unpaid labor, yes, but each new contributor is a major boost both for my Matt Henry and Matthew Fox, the writer of Original Blessing. With each “yes” comes an understanding that these individuals have been inspired by Matthew Fox and would love to share how they are putting this inspiration into action. For my Matt, it is a “yes” saying, “What a great idea to celebrate this work of literature and move toward the future.” So although Matt would have liked to be occupied with income related work, this soul satisfying work has kept him quite busy.

Besides that, Matt finished off the veranda with baby safe wire around the edges and fixed up the entry way to the house. Now Evie can crawl around with a little supervision and Jacinta can ride her bike around. We have just begun tasting the fruits of Matt’s labor and oh, is it lovely. Now we have a place to let both girls play with water, in buckets with no risk of biting ants crawling up a leg. Jacinta brought out pillows to rest on the bench after lunch and watch Matt work out in the yard. We scrubbed potatoes out there, ripped off basil leaves for pesto, shaved off soap corners, snapped green beans whilst Evie tried to eat the dirty potatoes, eat the basil branches and knock over the bowl, eat the soap shavings and tip out the green beans. Matt finished work on the veranda on Wednesday, just before French class. The pride he must feel as he watches our friends relaxing on the bench he made and the children playing safely on a deck he built himself must be even better than what I feel watching friends enjoy a meal that I’ve made. We are spending more time outside now and will have even more of a reason to be out there after Christmas. This week Matt and Keith also worked on levelling out a spot for a swing set, moving tractor loads of dirt to do so. This will be a big surprise for the girls on Christmas morning, thanks to Keith and Mary. Jacinta, full of questions, believed Matt when he called this new flat spot a “dirt veranda.” She and Evie had a lovely time jumping in the soft new dirt with Daddy and Pop, having no idea why all the effort was going into this one spot. Their innocence is awesome.

Saturday morning we travelled five hours in the car to Sydney. We joined a bunch of our friends for the evening and had a potluck Christmas carol sing along Christmas party. You’ll be proud to know that I watched as Jacinta ate her first “lollies” (candy) that day. She had a candy cane in the car, and some gummy candy things at the party. I smiled, although I may have worried a little inside that she’d forget her excitement for fruit. She even ate a piece of sausage because all of the other children were, and later asked what kind of animal it was. I guess I’ll feel I have done well as long as she knows that she is eating animal. She will not be delusional in thinking that we don’t kill anything to survive and hopefully, she’ll learn that the Big Bad Wolf is really not so bad. He just needs to eat, like we do.

Sorry for that tangent, anyhow, we had a great time eating and singing. Matt with a mandolin, old friends who sing and a beer in hand is a joyous thing to watch. He forgets his anxieties about his voice and just has fun. Jacinta jumped on the trampoline, made music and tentatively eased her way into a group of little ones. Genevieve enjoyed watching all of the big kids, trying to taste their toys, playing the maracas, and getting passed around. This gathering always makes me smile because it is the only formal thing we do that puts some Christ in Christmas. There are no gifts: just food and song with friends Matt has had since his days in his old church youth group. I think I could perhaps survive on food and music, both which involve people you love.
Sunday we visited our friends Jenny, Ted and JD and drove down with Matt’s sister to Canberra in a tightly packed car. It was so full I broke the tambourine shutting the trunk, oops! The wonder of it all was that both girls slept the entire three-hour trip. This gave us a chance to get caught up on Allison’s life and politics, which usually I would only get to absorb bits and pieces. It was so nice to be able to listen with both ears and learn a little more about the excitement going on in Australia thanks to the new government.

I’m not sure how big of a headline it is in the US, but over here the conference on climate change in Bali was a big deal, thanks to the US delegate actually caving to international pressure to come to the table and compromise on reducing carbon emissions. It turns out that our new Prime Minister played a small part in this effort, thus Australia is feeling pretty awesome. To convince the USA of anything internationally is rough, but our newspapers said that many of the less powerful developing countries were speaking pretty harshly to the USA, which is abnormal. The rep from Papua New Guinea actually said something like, “if you (USA) are not going to lead the way, then get out of the way.” No real numbers were agreed upon, but it was agreed to draft a new protocol. Perhaps it was all talk, but we shall see.

So here we are in Canberra, the capital city of Australia, living in Allison’s flat with her. Imagine taking on a family of four, in your apartment, what a kind woman. Matt is working for his other sister Louise all week, and I am taking the girls around touristing. Today’s outing was to the National Art Gallery and to the National Library. We played out in the sculpture gardens and picnicked on the lake for a while, spending a few moments with a black swan family. When Evie grew tired we ventured inside to visit the gallery and found an amazing Contemporary Aboriginal Art Exhibition. Jacinta was well behaved, Evie slept and we truly enjoyed the art work. Of course, I’d have loved to read the explanations on some of the works, but that’s asking too much of a three year old. She did very well trying to control her hands and innate need to touch everything. The highlight for her was probably playing hide and seek in the bronze pears outside the gallery. The National Library was big, “so big a giant’s head wouldn’t even hit the ceiling,” said Jacinta. It had about forty children’s books, but all good ones. We did well to get through two books before Evie had had enough. What did Evie think of the fancy library? Well, “Mommy wouldn’t let me chew on the books or make noise, so I farted really loud so we’d have to leave.”

We’ll be back in Macksville by Christmas Eve, but for now picture me driving round and round the roundabouts wondering where the heck I’m going. Eventually I’ll arrive somewhere with my girls, and it doesn’t matter when because we have all day. Wherever we end up we’ll probably move slow, look for nice sticks, pretty birds, and play hide and seek when we find something interesting. I hope you have time to move slow too this week. Merry Christmas! Happy Hannukah!

Peace,
Shana

I think Cuddly pooped on my pinky.

Hello there. I hear there is snow and ice in my homeland. Ahhh, it sounds so lovely from here. My mom said she had about five inches, almost knee high on Genevieve. It’s strange having a child that won’t see snow or experience real cold until she’s almost two. Right now she is at my feet tearing apart my bedside table, which for her is the ultimate entertainment, besides chasing chicks on her knees.

On a broader note, our new Prime Minister is moving fast to prove himself. As his first act of government, he signed the Kyoto Treaty, leaving the USA alone in their refusal to sign. Matt told me the other day that Australian power stations are actually the worst polluters per capita on the planet, so signing Kyoto is at least a symbol that we want to change. Who the we is, that’s a question. I don’t have the brain space these days to keep up on much but I heard that somewhere in Sydney they are about to spend oodles of dollars on creating a desalination plant, to make the ocean drinkable. It will use so much energy that it will need its own power station. This certainly demands more energy than installing rainwater tanks. The whole rainwater collection system is new to me, but it seems so logical, even in a place with low rainfall. We have a tank because that’s just what you do here, out in the country. But in town, about a mile away everyone has “town water,” which is your average city water system. In many cities, it was forbidden to have rainwater collection but that it starting to change.

Speaking of rain, we’ve had a few showers this week finishing off last night with a big bang. A great thunderstorm lit up the bedroom with lightening flashing every few seconds. The rain has brought back the mosquitoes in great number making life a little more interesting. The garden is loving the rain showers. Since I last wrote, we have gotten our first cucumbers and tomatoes. The cucumbers are significant since I have not bought any since last summer. Some veggies I will buy out of season like tomatoes, peppers, green beans and onions because I can not go without. Jacinta, Genevieve and I all shared the first beloved cucumber down in the garden. Another first is the purple beans, Jacinta’s favourite. What a lovely plant to watch, with its purple flowers, vines twisting all over each other, and finally the deep purple beans dripping off the ends like icicles. Watching this plant grow is almost as awesome as watching Jacinta excitedly eat beans in the garden again.

Having some munching options in the garden could be the reason that Jacinta dislikes missing a day in the garden now. Getting more than five strawberries means you have to stay away from the garden for a few days. This is the upside of neglect. So today after a few sick days, we picked over twenty strawberries! We also realized the apples were disappearing so they had to be ready to eat. Thus we picked the remaining four Golden Dorset apples and called it a harvest. They were very tart and crisp, and from our tree! That will make any apple great for me. They are a tropical variety, how else could you pick an apple at the start of summer?

How about getting colds at the beginning of summer? I suppose germs are germs and can come around any season of the year. It just seems strange in this heat to me. I enjoy having “lazy days” at home with the girls, confining ourselves to our own little plot of earth. Mary and Keith have been on vacation all week so it was just Matt and I and the girls. We made herbal cough syrup, vegetable soup, bread, and sage, thyme and licorice tea. Babies are so easy to please. Genevieve chugs her herbal tea in a bottle with no honey and will eat soup and any vegetable you put in front of her: even zucchini, onions, and squash. Jacinta, a discerning and normal three-year-old refuses soup based on its title, and most vegetables based on their color or texture. She will only drink herbal tea if it is sweetened with a huge spoon of honey. I gather she is normal, but I want so badly for her to keep her mind open. I have just realized that in my efforts to plant food openness in her, I am scaring her. So, I am trying very hard to be grateful for what good food she does eat and stop lamenting and tormenting her for not eating barley soup, zucchini, non-fried fish, and cooked green beans. She is only three. I just have so many food issues tied up inside, one of which is comparing her to a Senegalese child who would eat whatever came out in the big bowl at lunch and say thank you after filling her belly, whether or not she liked it. There it is, I’ve admitted my error. We are not Senegalese, we are American-Australians, yes, yes, yes. Wish me luck in chilling out or perhaps wish Jacinta luck at dinner time.

On our few sick days we read stories, drew pictures, and went through clothes and toy boxes. This is actually a task Jacinta loves, and of course Evie does too because she can pull everything out and play in the mess. Trying to ease the disease in sick children through cooking, rest, herbs and homemade medicine is rewarding, but of course a bit tiring. Even with the luck of having Matt at home to jump in and help out, I felt a bit crowded by the end of the day. I never thought I’d actually want to shake off extra cuddles and physical closeness, but it’s hot right now. Their colds have gone now, and I’m realizing it’s not sickness that brings on Jacinta’s need to drag on my leg, it’s her sister.

Jacinta is a keen observer. I think she is picking up on the soft vibes we emit for Genevieve and feeling injustice. Being three, unfortunately, is an important age to learn discipline. Of course Jacinta is praised for many things, but she feels harshness in our correction of her speech, actions, and manners. Right now we are all working on ridding the obnoxious, “WHAT?” from our speech. Matt, Jess and I all say it. Mary started working with Jess on it. Matt and I thought we might try too, so one option is, “I beg your pardon?” Another is, “Yes mum?” These are not very American expressions. What are we taught to say instead of “WHAT?” in the USA? I honestly can’t remember.

One of Jacinta’s recent methods of dealing with Evie jealousy is to overdramatize any pain she endures, especially pain caused by her little sister. Genevieve is learning to pull up on things and Jacinta is one of those things. “OWWWWW! She pushed me!” If she bumps her head on the table, or whacks her knee on the bed she’ll scream like a baby for a few minutes, and then follow the scene up by whining for the next ten minutes, milking us for all we’re worth. It’s hard to know whether to play into her game or make her buck up and deal. I try both ways, no reports on which seems better. In general though, I tend to scoff at her insecurity, if not out loud she surely feels it. I was a little sister. How can she not know how much we love her? She must. My God, if only she knew. She thinks I’m mean when I brush her hair and when I dress her, because I make her either stand up or sit still. I could say it’s tough love, but I’m not that tough. I guess every parent has to let the ogre out, otherwise the kids turn into little brats. Although, even with the ogre out, they might still be brats. We can only try.

Besides the few trying moments in discipline, of course we’ve had many joys this week. We spent two days out at a lovely beach just relaxing in sand, playing in rock pools, running, crawling, and swimming through shallow water, hiding in the shade beside little caves, picnicking, swimming in the strong river current. We enjoyed the first of the local watermelons and feasted on frozen blueberries. We often talk about things that might happen in the future, like going to school or sleeping on the top bunk. For a while Jacinta would say, “Maybe when I’m four.” Everything was going to happen when she turned four. Well this week, it became, “Maybe when I’m forty.” She asked me, “When do you think I’ll be able to reach the top shelf?” I told her she’d probably be able to reach it when she was about eleven years old. She disagreed, as she must, “Maybe when I’m forty.”

Another source of entertainment this week was the chicks. As a part of our gardening outing now, the girls and I stop in the chick pen to give them chickweed and play a bit. Sometimes Jacinta will just go down on her own and play (poor chicks). Evie can’t get enough, she’s in heaven down there, but I keep a close eye on her. She crawls fast enough to catch them and her grip would break their little necks instantly. That’s all we need, more dead chickens. With Keith gone this week, we have been caring for all of the animals. So not only do I need to feed my girls, but also the dog, the chickens, the chicks and Mary’s birds. It’s fun, but just four more tasks. Matt does a lot of it too. Jacinta loves putting the chicks out in their pen each morning. The other day she stayed down and played with them a little bit and came up on her own for breakfast. I reminded her to wash her hands before eating. She replied in the calmest tone ever, “Oh yeah, I think Cuddly pooped on my pinky.” My little farmer girl 

Evie doesn’t mind the dirt either, to the contrary. She’d chew the bottom of every shoe in the house if we’d let her. It is a strange fetish, perhaps it’s the rubber. She has started wearing shoes because she is standing and trying to walk so much. Little Genevieve has figured out which plants have little red strawberries hiding in them. So now she’ll stand up at the edge of the terrace and pick any strawberry no matter how white and eat and eat and eat. There’s gotta be some old saying about how bad white strawberries are to eat, but I haven’t heard why yet. People always have warnings about eating under ripe fruits and vegetables, but my kids and I haven’t ever gotten sick from them. I really would be interested in any hard facts on eating under ripe produce or rinds on melons. I’m sure there is some truth to certain fruits and veggies, but for the moment I think it’s all old wives’ tales. Last week we ate some fresh kidney beans, then I read on the internet that fresh kidney beans are poisonous. It didn’t say why, but we didn’t get sick, unless that’s where the cold came from…

Genevieve’s big task this week is learning to sleep. She had been waking almost hourly for milk and cuddles, out of habit. The community health nurse offered me a few good words and I grabbed them with glee: “there is physically no need for a baby eating solids to wake in the middle of the night.” She told me that a few hard nights would probably result in Evie sleeping through the night. We never had the guts to try it with Jacinta, but now my lack of energy in the day has given me the guts. The last few weeks we were rocking her in the stroller, and this week we are “training” her in her crib. Mary kindly offered her bedroom so Genevieve and I have moved to the other end of the house. I have my guitar and my knitting. I just sing her back to sleep each time she wakes, touch her through the crib wall and let her know I’m here. The first night was a bit rough, but honestly, listening to her scream wasn’t that hard given the potential reward. I slept so well in between her waking moments. Each night she sleeps better and I wake up more energetic each morning and have more love to offer the girls throughout the day. This can only be a good thing.
Matt is surely enjoying my two-thirds of the bed while I’m at the other end of the house. He wakes up early with Jacinta. They have breakfast, read stories and play while Evie and I sleep. I think it’s a good arrangement, at least for a week. Matt had a couple of days teaching and spent the rest of the week poking around for work opportunities, as usual. He took the girls out a few times and left me alone to do a little gardening and listen to the silence. He also built a really long bench on the front porch, about seventeen feet long, up against the house. So although we haven’t much of a guest room, there is now room for you all on our new bench. Come one come all!

Lately it has been taking me three nights to write my journal, given my lack of energy in the evenings. But I am hopeful that next week, I will be able to say I have a baby that sleeps. Again, wish me luck. I am already feeling hopeful and energetic, given my last two nights. I spent the week purging, going through boxes preparing to give away loads of baby clothes. I LOVE getting rid of things, but of course, giving them to folks who will appreciate them as we did. It’s slightly sad, saying goodbye to the sweet little outfits that warmed our little girls bodies for a short while. But as I wish for Jacinta, I’ll just have to buck up and deal, won’t I?

Another bittersweet joy I had this week was finishing yet another Barbara Kingsolver book, The Prodigal Summer. I hate finishing a great book, because it’s over. I never look to see how many pages there are or how many I have left because I don’t want to be saddened as the page numbers increase. The way this woman weaves a story, wow. I am by no means an avid reader but in my limited exposure to writers, I think she is just amazing. It’s as if she is braiding hair with strands of animals, plants, current events, society, culture, politics, and human nature all into a lovely readable story. I delve into America’s reality through her eyes and I love it. I have read everything she has written, and since I haven’t found another author to love, I am rereading her novels. This is surely a new me, rereading something. It’s not so bad 

Well, Christmas is coming quick. I just realized how close it was the other day and that we are going away for a week in just a few days. Matt will work for his sister Louise for a week in Canberra while the girls and I do some touristing. We’ll stop in Sydney to visit friends and be back by Christmas. Summer still doesn’t seem Christmasy to me yet, but I’ll dream of you all in the snow and hopefully catch the vibe. Let me know if you can recommend any good authors.

Peace,
Shana

I know everything, too

Hello there. December is here, and as I’ve come to expect, there is no snow or any chance of it. The crickets and cicadas are singing though! Sometimes you’ll drive through certain parts of the forest and the noise level skyrockets. It’s the cicadas. They leave their shells on trees, evoking great interest from Jacinta and a hungry Genevieve. This hungry baby is still roaming around on the floor while I write this evening, sucking on scraps of paper, rolling balls around, opening cupboard doors, and trying out new sounds. She likes the night life, we’re finding. I tried to tire her out in the carrier as the sun was going down. We went down to check up on the garden and eat a few strawberries. She came back bright-eyed and bushy tailed. Matt then took her out to get the newspaper and some chocolate. Back by eight o’clock, she seemed tired out. I nursed her to sleep, but that turned out to be a nap. She’s back up now, ready to party.

Genevieve had a fever last week, now she has a cold. It makes sense, her immune system was weakened by the fever so she was the easiest target. So far, none of us has caught it, but she is faring pretty well besides her wet sounding cough. She is smiling, curious, adventurous, and energetic. She is just entering that phase when babies learn to pull everything off a shelf or out of a basket or cupboard. The look of sheer accomplishment after she has finished her work of “emptying” is priceless. She especially loves taking the knob puzzle pieces out of their proper places and will not rest until every last one is out. I have a bit of fun with her, racing to put them back in before she can take them out again. She always wins. Babies are very good at getting what they want, perhaps due both to their persistence, helplessness and cuteness. When Evie is tired and hungry, boy do I run to keep her quiet. This week her favourites were big messy mango seeds and frozen corn and blueberries.

I didn’t cook much this week because we were out so much, although I did buy enough blueberries to feed us for a week. Blueberries are in season right now. One of our friends had a connection with a blueberry farm up the road, lucky. I froze them all for baking, smoothies and oatmeal. Jacinta woke up this morning worried that we had finished them, “Where did they all go mommy?” Perhaps she has gotten used to things disappearing while she’s sleeping, like chickens. Luckily we didn’t lose any more this week. In fact, Mrs. Red even started laying eggs for us again!

We didn’t get out in the garden as much this week, but in our few days of play down there we had a lovely time. We made flower crowns, weeded, played with the chicks, harvested garlic and picked flowers. The corn is high enough to make a good game of hide and seek so we all enjoy that. Genevieve likes to pull up on the stalks so she doesn’t get to do any hiding on her own. Hiding beneath the corn stalks are kidney bean plants, which I have discovered do not climb. They look like normal green beans, but once fully grown they can be peeled and are fat little kidney beans! Jacinta was thrilled by their colour and ate them just because they were pink beans. I am thrilled purely because I’ve been eating them all my life and have just found out how they grow. Jacinta actually wanted to stay down in the garden longer than I one day because she so enjoys selling me “baked goods” (mud cakes) from her “shop” (clay fort). For the time being Evie can’t handle being awake in the garden for very long so we either have to come back to the house or stop for morning tea and stories every fifteen minutes. Jacinta wouldn’t mind the latter option. We do often sit down on the dirt floor of the garden shed, hiding from the hot sun or sometimes the rain and play or tell stories. I have started making up stories about my parents’ childhoods, picturing them in their old playgrounds and piecing together little bits of things they have shared with me. This is a new challenge, now I’ll just need to gather some more stories from mom and dad.

Children love to hear stories. I first learned this being a child, then teaching in a classroom, and now with my children. Moving from picture books to purely oral stories has been a gradual process as Jacinta’s imagination has blossomed. She’ll happily take a made up story over a picture book anytime now. Sometimes she’ll request the same story the moment I finish telling it, “again, again!” she’ll ask excitedly. No doubt children like repetition. Storytelling language must be universal because in French class I can tell a story and have complete attention. Although the words sound different, I show them the story line in gestures and they take in what they want. This week we had a lovely class singing, counting, running, jumping, hiding, playing games and telling stories. Later on I overheard Jacinta excitedly telling Matt about a “game” we had played with birds, when I had thought handing out toy birds was merely a method of getting across the meaning of a song without translation. Everything can turn into a story or a game for little people.

If only I could use story telling or a game to make it easier for Jacinta to learn to say “sorry.” I have tried, but she is as hard headed as her mother. She has learned to whisper “sorry,” but only when she truly feels it necessary. On Thursday when she whacked Genevieve in the face with a cloth, she didn’t deem it necessary. Unfortunately I did. So, a long while later after spending time in her room while her friend Nickolas and I had lunch, she came out to play dolls. She then asked me to remove Evie from their play area and I told her that Evie had come for her “sorry.” Jacinta then, for the first time, asked me to leave the room so she could do it. I hesitated because I had been strict on her all day long and thought I should give a little. I appointed Nickolas to listen for the apology, since he’s so good at saying sorry. He had actually tried to teach Jess how to say “sorry” just a few minutes prior. He’s an honest child. “NO!” he informed me, “Cinta did NOT say sorry.” “Louder Cinta! I can’t hear you.” She actually said it then. Nickolas, Genevieve and I heard it.


Matt worked all five days at the school this week, so the girls and I spent most days out with friends, living it tough (hee hee). Monday we had swimming lessons and shopping, Thursday we had a birthday party at the beach and Friday pre-school orientation. We made a whole day out of our days into town for lack of a second car while Matt was at work. Keith lent us the car one day, and my friends helped us out the other days. One morning we were sitting in the car with Nickolas while Sara ran an errand. Out of the silence Nickolas stated very seriously, “I know everything.” I burst out laughing but my girls had no reply. He repeated himself, “Cinta, I know everything,” just to be sure she heard. She did not laugh or make fun of him, she merely replied with all of the confidence in the world, “I know everything too.” Oh, to be a three year old, so proud and self assured. I asked them if they thought Genevieve knew everything also and they both quickly replied, “No!” as if it was a silly question. Perhaps we’ll have to ask Genevieve when she is three years old.

Matt has been working at the school long enough now to get to know some of the students and teachers. His students KNOW they don’t know everything, they are not three, but adolescents. As with any job, once you start to form good relationships it starts to feel comfortable. Matt’s teaching a few periods of sport each day, which is nice to be either outdoors and/or physically active. It is now the end of the school year so he is also proctoring exams, much less fun.

Besides school Matt spent some time playing with his girls, reading, mowing the gardens, working on websites and paper bricks. What are paper bricks? You can use old newspapers, shred them, soak them and press them into a mold to make fuel for a fireplace. He’s been doing this for a few months now, in all of his spare time  He will install a fireplace before winter comes, yippee! Today Matt worked a bit on the veranda, making handrails and cleaning up. Just as the veranda project is finishing up, we’re realizing the need for a shed, somewhere to store big things we don’t use all of the time, like winter rugs and extra chairs. It’s funny when you actually hit these points of insanity together, realizing that being crowded is about to push you over the line. So like a good accumulator, you build a shed. No calls yet for Too Many Photos, but we found a few places in town to advertise for us, a travel agent and a gift shop.

Right now Matt is pushing Evie back and forth in the pram outside the window on the new veranda. She has given up. After taking all of the magnets off the fridge, eating all the frozen blueberries off the island, pulling up on our legs over and over, Genevieve has fallen asleep, once again. We can’t ask for much more in life, we’ve got it pretty good.

Jacinta had a few hours to formally check out pre-school which she will begin in January. She had friends here almost every day and played herself ragged. I must say she is good at taking time out if she needs it. Most often it’s in the form of a long lazy sit on the toilet (she has a reputation) or just playing something that no one else wants to play. She painted and drew tens of pictures, cutting each one into pieces to give out to her friends, mostly rainbows. Out of the blue she said to Matt the other day that “I am colorey.” He had to dig a little to find out what she meant. It’s that she loves colors. My friend Trish brought her some new pink beads, which reinspired Jacinta to bead some jewellery. Her patience astounds me at times. Sometimes she’ll bring me a finished necklace and ask for the final knot. More often than not, I will spill all the beads before successfully tying the knot. Thursday Genevieve grabbed onto Jacinta newly finished bracelet and rather than tearing it out of Evie’s hand or yelling, Jacinta stayed calm and just watched the beads fall. She and I picked them up and then without any drama, she re-strung them. Her calm and patient nature helps her in the chick pen, but the normal three year old in her eventually comes tearing out. It makes her chase the poor chicks incessantly, picking them up for a cuddle or to “play upside down games” with them. Hopefully they will live long enough to join our small lucky flock of hens. We shall see.

We shall also see if we can keep total materialism out of Christmas for Jacinta. It seems to get harder every year as people stress the Santa and “what do YOU want for Christmas???” aspect of the holiday. For now, she is just excited and enamoured with Santa and the idea of some stranger bringing gifts from afar. At the playgroup family Christmas party, she and Lily sat waiting for Santa on a log at the beach a full two hours before “she” arrived. Luckily they gave up and played after a while. We all had a great time, moms and dads and kids included. Although I complain about Jacinta at times, I feel her strong heart reach out from time to time to remind me how full of love she is. After opening her gift (which Santa accidentally left in the car, she pulled out the rainbow-colored headband. She didn’t compare it to anyone else’s gift, she just vowed that she would wear it every day. She thanked Santa. Later on she asked me why big people don’t get presents from Santa. She accepted my dumb explanation that Santa knew the big people really just enjoyed watching the little people open presents. Hours later, she told me she’d share her headband with me. Just writing that brings tears to my eyes. I’ll try remembering this during the next battle of the wills.

Happy December to you all. Enjoy the chill in the air and whatever love you find.

Peace,
Shana