Chicken celebration

Good evening loved ones. Spring has fully arrived. The fire place no longer burns in the evenings, but is now covered in puzzles. The girls have finally gotten rid of their colds. They can play in the sprinkler and play with buckets of water in the sandbox. Jacinta made soups in her outdoor kitchen with water even in the colder weather, but Genevieve can only play with water when it is warm. She is very happily making soups now too. Both girls love the huge aloe plants around the place, and especially enjoy playing with the green goop inside each leaf. Jacinta has been making aloe soup!

Spring energy is in the air, Jacinta can feel her little body growing into a longer, stronger one that can take more risks and act more independently. She loves preschool and doesn’t seem to mind leaving us at home for the day. “Daddy and I both need a day out of the house.” She will run down to the garden ahead of me to hunt for strawberries, sad if we come too quickly after. “When I grow up I am going to be treasure hunter. The only time I’ll stop is on the weekends, like daddy.” A few of the only seedlings that have sprouted are her alyssum seeds and one cucumber seed. The rats dug up most of the others. She proudly waters them each day and is starting to pot up extra seedlings too. She is very proud to row with her own paddle on the canoe. This weekend Matt took Jacinta and two of her little friends out on the dam in the canoe. She proudly told them all what needed to be done, (she never turns down an opportunity to tell you what to do).

Jacinta’s questions are growing in depth to equal her physical growth asking things like, “When does forever end?” Her songs are also growing in detail. This week she made up her first song in French. As she sung it to me, I saw what they mean of the folk soul of a language. When she presented it to me, it took her a few moments to begin as she had to dig deep inside to pull out a different side of herself. It was a quiet and beautiful song about leaves of different colors and sizes. I think she likes this different persona in both her mother and herself because she starts speaking little bits of French now, even when I forget and speak English. She says, “Ok, let’s pretend I only speak French and you only speak English.” We don’t get very far though 

To add to the new energy of the season, our friends popped over with a gift Wednesday morning: three laying hens for our newly built chook pen. Jacinta, Genevieve and I quickly got dressed after the phone call offering chickens. I had just bought our first 25 kilo bag of organic chicken feed the day before, so we found a garbage can and tipped it all in. We set up their water and food, laid wood shavings in their laying box and dusted the walls. Then came Anissa, Lily and Henry down the hill with a cardboard box full of chickens. What joy, it is a totally new life having our own chickens to care for. They are all locked up in their shady weedy chicken run, and lay eggs in a logical place for us to see. They can not escape or lay eggs in hidden locations. We get to eat them! Usually chickens stop laying when they are relocated, but our new ladies have been laying since the first day, so far at least. Jacinta and Genevieve can go to the chook pen alone, check for eggs, play, feed them, fill up their water, and even shovel their manure into a bucket for the garden. We have a great place for our kitchen scraps and a reason to go outside as soon as we wake in the morning. There are two black ones, “Horch,” named by Genevieve, “Madame Poule,” named by me, and one brown hen, “Brownie brownie oldie oldie moldy foldy weehah,” named by Jacinta. The poor hens, having such silly names. I’m guessing Jacinta will change her hen’s name weekly. The three roosters are going crazy trying to get into the pen, one actually made it in today. I had fun chasing him out.
Our friends stayed around for a while after the chickens had been welcomed. We celebrated all day long. We made our first smoothies of the season. The girls went off holding hands in search of lichen on dead branches, but needed some help. So I took the babies out and we all went on a treasure hunt. Other than one fight over a tree between Lily and Jacinta, we had a lovely time, rolling down the neighbors’ hill, picking flowers, climbing trees, stumps, fences and the hill. All the while, Anissa had brought her box of seeds and offered to plant as many as she could in my garden. A surprise garden, what a treat. When her little Henry started to cry for her, I decided to take the babies down to see the neighbors’ cows in the double stroller. This was a new sensation, taking two tiny people down the bumpy hill to find cattle. When we found the cows, Henry’s tears stopped and turned into giggles as he reached out to touch the cows. The girls eventually came barreling down the hill to join us. So we walked back towards the cows and to the bridge to toss pebbles into the water, to “go plop,” as Evie calls it. Having four kids to myself was really nice, for 90 minutes, perhaps as nice as Anissa’s 90 minutes of alone time planting. The children are getting old enough that we can do this. We are just figuring out how to take turns with the children. So far so good.

Wednesday night Anissa and I went out to Bellingen for a meeting for a Local Food Network. It was not “local” for us, but we were looking for inspiration and ideas and that is exactly what we found. Bellingen shire is part of a “Peak Oil Transition Initiative” that aims to gradually wean cities off of dependence on oil and onto greener alternatives. Amongst other things, they want to be able to feed themselves when the trucks stop bringing food to the supermarket from afar, when petrol becomes so rare and expensive that food transport becomes a luxury item, as it was in the past. It was shocking to sit in a room with so many people who actually believe this is a real possibility and are taking action to wean themselves before all the chaos strikes. I still drive to town to do everything and can’t imagine what I would do. I think I could deal with living off the land, but I don’t know how we will fly across the Pacific Ocean without petrol. I can’t imagine it all actually happening but I admire people for taking action to reduce petrol dependence. They are forming committees for market gardens, teaching gardens, community gardens, transport, social support, seed saving, and education. It was in Bellingen, a very progressive hippy town, so its other worldliness was to be expected. It did the trick though. Anissa and I had a night out, were inspired and got a lot of ideas to bring back to our little food co-op, “Friendly Food.”

One idea was swapping labor, taking turns doing major work on each others’ gardens. So Anissa, acting quickly suggested we try it this weekend. Saturday Anissa and Craig brought their three children here and we shocked our terrace garden into shape. We weeded paths, weed-whacked, trimmed overgrowth, repaired a leaning terrace, added a new terrace, dug in new steps so you can walk safely down the terraces, and cleared out dangerous stumps. We all took turns with the kids in the sandpit, in the sprinkler, Matt took them canoeing, Keith took them on a lawnmower ride to collect cow manure for fertilizer, and Mary played with Genevieve on the swings. Sunday we went to their house to repair their chicken dome and move it to a new place in the garden. Anissa mowed the grass and weed whacked, Matt and Craig built a solar wax melter and I did a few small jobs but mainly entertained the kids. Both days were good fun, hot and full days. The kids are surely sleeping well at night. It would have taken weeks, perhaps months for me to do the terrace garden without this day. And all of the machine work, I can not do at this point in time. There is no doubt that many hands make light work, and it is a lot more fun too. I understand why there are so many television shows that you can watch people make major improvements on other people’s houses. It’s exciting to see it done, but perhaps even more fun to participate.

There have been so many tasks on my mental to do list that I ticked off this week. Making the terrace garden safe, mending a pile of clothes, re-doing the girls’ drawers for spring, organizing a messy accumulation of important papers, learning how to make pita bread, meeting up with a French lady in town and making fruit fly baits, all these things are done! Getting sick again wasn’t on my list, but I suppose it is my turn as the girls have stopped coughing. Matt and I wanted to take the girls on a canoe ride down the creek which runs through our neighbors’ farm and we did. They loved it! They seemed much more at ease in a small body of water, rightly so. They loved ducking under the low hanging tree branches and “plopping” dead branches into the water. I could not tick off, “get rid of our friendly cupboard mouse.” It is still here, making the girls giggle and search, and me scream when I come upon it unexpectedly.

It wasn’t on my list, but spending more time on my own was something I did this week. It is hot now, so Keith has filled up the spa. He took the girls for a little swim a couple times this week. Genevieve came back so tired, she actually told him she needed to sleep. (I gave her lunch first and she fell asleep in her chair.) The girls love painting with patient Poppy, and they had a chance to do so this week, while I cleaned the house. Before dinner they often seek out Keith to turn on a record and dance with them, tiding them over until Matt gets home or I finish dinner. I went out with Anissa Wednesday night, then went out again with my friend Trish after choir on Thursday night. What is going on? The girls had daddy two nights in a row and it all went smoothly, besides Genevieve’s recent surge of mid-sleep restlessness. Matt had to laugh when Evie one night after she laid down and submitted to the idea of sleep, she said, “The End,” and fell asleep.

I am just in love with these girls, they make me laugh, work harder, think harder, reach for beauty to share with them and sing more. I love their songs, the French songs they sing without me, Jacinta’s made up songs, and the ones she has silently learned in choir and surprises me by singing along with me at home. I love the sounds they make when they think they are in their own world, totally ignorant that anyone else is listening. I love the way they sing normal children’s songs like Old MacDonald. Genevieve starts this one off on her own, “Oink Oink, ee-i-ee-i-o,” hoping that we’ll all join in. Matt gets a kick out of Genevieve’s farm, she goes back and forth between a duck and a pig. Matt suggested a chicken….”NOoooooo,” she coyly replied. Jacinta commented this week that Genevieve is the nicest to touch because she is the youngest and her skin feels the softest. Jacinta may have a break down anytime her little sister comes near something she is playing, but hopefully this is a phase that will soon pass. I think they are as in love with each other as we are with them. They just have little power struggles from time to time, we all do I suppose.

Speaking of power struggles, Matt and I were able to see the US presidential debates in full this weekend. Me oh my, it was good to hear them both speak. Although I disagree with McCain’s policy choices on numerous issues, I do respect him and think he is an intelligent, well-traveled, well-spoken man. He surely succeeded in playing the experience card, repeating the phrase a few too many times, “Now Senator Obama doesn’t understand this, but…” McCain does have more experience, true, but he was belittling Obama a bit much. To me, Obama is also a very intelligent, respectable, well thought out man with whom I agree on most issues. He responded well to every one of McCain’s attempts to act like his experience in war, in Washington and around the world was going to make him the only man for the job. McCain’s great experience will prepare him for more of the same. Obama’s passion and experience will prepare him for innovation and change, which seems to be what we need. There are major differences between the two. So the skeptics that say, “they are all the same,” are terribly wrong. It’s hard to know who is telling the truth when they bash each other on voting records. Aren’t they supposed to vote on behalf of their constituents anyway? Sometimes they give in for the sake of the party or one part of a bill, so to tell what they really believe from that is difficult. All in all, I loved the debate. I’m happy to know both candidates are at least intelligent and have both stood up for some of the things I believe in. I sure hope for Obama’s passion and energy, but I won’t cry like I did when Bush got elected if McCain gets in. Well, I don’t know, he doesn’t seem to believe in nuclear proliferation, universal health care, or more equality in education.
To deal with the 700 billion dollar bail out, he would freeze spending for all but three things: military, veterans benefits and …one more thing, I forget. He is honest, no doubt but that says something to me about where his priorities are.

It seems so far away, and so important. But all I can do from here is wait for the next debate. For now, we’ll celebrate our girls and the chickens and the eggs we now have in our back yard. We had an eggy meal the other night to celebrate. Jacinta and I cooked for two hours straight while Genevieve napped. We made soufflé, strawberry cake, potatoes and asparagus. She tried out using a big girl knife and did very well under supervision. Another proud achievement she can stack in her little hat. She hated the soufflé and wouldn’t touch the asparagus, but we had a lovely time cooking together anyway.

We may not agree on everything, but one thing we all can do together and do well, is eat. We may not like every part of the meal, but hopefully enough of something to get by. Some or all of our food may have traveled thousands of miles to make it to our plates, but there is still some petrol out there to bring our food to us and take us to the shop to buy it. It may cause wars and cost a lot of money, but it is what it is until we change it.

Peace,
Shana

How ya goin?

Good evening. Today is our Spring Equinox and your Autumn Equinox. There sure seem to be some ugly economic problems and justified anxiety in the US at the moment. It’s probably not such a concern that the seasons are changing. It’s understandable, it seems like a pretty intense time. But just a few hours ago marked the perfect balance between light and dark, twelve hours of each. It’s time to let go of the things that aren’t working, move on to new ideas, to feel the balance of the dark and the light and search for such balance in our own lives. From here on out, our days will gradually overpower our nights as your nights will gradually overpower your days. You’ll laugh at what pagan hippies we are becoming, but we had an Equinox celebration with our friends last night. None of us had ever planned such a thing, so it took some major preparation. I am actually quite relieved. We didn’t dance around the fire or anything, but it was lovely to mark the season together.

Mainly we planned activities for the children, much safer to get them to do things we don’t have the courage to do. We set up a balance beam with ice on one side and flowers on the other, (Matt’s idea). I acted out a sprouting seed behind a curtain, while the children played the role of the sun and the rain. Anissa made “hairy caterpillars” with them, putting cotton balls in egg cartons with alfalfa seeds on top to be watered. The kids all brought “treasures” to decorate the nature table, surrounding the little handmade beeswax candles that Anissa and I made with our girls. Craig robbed his beehive for the occasion and brought containers full of fresh honeycomb for us all to take home. Sara dried and crumbled herbs to sprinkle in the fire. Spinach, asparagus and artichokes are all in season so we had a little bit of each, all home grown. We feasted on dishes, funnily enough, all containing spinach. Luckily it was dark by the time we ate so the children couldn’t see what color they were eating. We enjoyed ourselves, although it’s hard not to with a bright fire and stars above your head.

The weather has been good, warm enough to garden first thing in the morning. With strawberries to hunt and the nectarines getting bigger each day, I don’t have to drag anyone down to the garden. It is even warm enough to get wet, let the girls water the plants and play in the sprinkler. This morning I set Genevieve up in the sandpit with a big bucket of water and lots of little cups, quite a treat after being deprived of water play for a while. The mosquitoes are on their way, but not out in full force yet so we are making use of our freedom thus far. We spent some time planting seedlings, playing with dirt, planting new native shrubs and flowers, watering everything, bagging fruit in the trees as fruit fly protection, and of course, strawberry hunting. I spent a few hours in the dark planting potatoes, their sprouts were over four inches long so they could not wait any longer. My back was sore the next day from wheeling barrow loads of compost and mulch down the hill, but it was worth it, knowing such a task would have been impossible with the girls.

On the night of the full moon, Matt and the girls and I went out on the veranda to watch bats and to watch the moon rise. The bats are amazing here, their wingspan looks like it is surely over a foot wide. After a while we laid out a few blankets and Evie fell asleep looking up at the stars with the sound of large bat wings filling her ears. Matt played with his new camera snapping shots of anything he could.

Matt seems pretty happy: having a good job, lovely little girls and me , a kayak to release some energy and a new camera to fiddle with. If he gets home early enough from work and can see that I am in no great need, he puts on his massive black gum boots and runs down to grab the kayak. On Friday he got home in time to grab the girls and I to go canoeing. Dinner may have been terribly late, but it was worth it. Canoeing at dusk when nothing but dinner is left of the day. Matt finished up the chook pen yesterday, so complete that all we need now is grain, straw and some chickens. The girls and I joke about decorating the walls of the pen for the chickens,

I too am well, content, peaceful now, and very tired. Genevieve is still a terrible sleeper but she’ll grow up some day. Each morning she wakes before 6am, having slept the last few hours in our bed in hope of keeping her asleep until at least 6. Matt and I grumble around while she tries her hardest to will us out of bed. Eventually she gets me (or Matt sometimes) by saying, “Nappy?” “Drink of Water?” If that doesn’t work, she pulls on me saying, “Come on.” “get up!” She tries to dress me, “Jumpa? Slippers, socks?” I need to go to bed earlier but just can’t, so I am grumpy with her for waking. It’s not right, I know. Choir is good fun, I am also practicing my guitar more. I am feeling well connected to my family. My mom has just sent me a few cds of her piano music, and just today a cd of her reading stories to the girls. I hear my mom’s voice now any time I turn on her cd. My dad and Barb called today and we were able to spend Saturday with Matt’s dad and Carolyn.

After dance on Saturday, we took the girls out to Koala Park to meet Matt’s dad and Carolyn. It was nice to go on a long drive as a passenger. I was able to sew en route: a few screen sleeves to protect the fruit trees from fruit fly. Genevieve slept and Jacinta entertained herself pretty well. We don’t see Pete and Carolyn too much, so it was quite a special day, not to mention the animals. We pat koalas, fed kangaroos, held baby guinea pigs, watched quolls hunt, and checked out all the birds and reptiles. I don’t think I have ever fed a kangaroo out of my hand, what a thrill. Jacinta was able to feed crushed corn to a momma kangaroo and the joey in her pouch, it was beautiful.
One highlight was meeting their first chatty cockatoo. Over and over she said, “hello! How ya goin?” Supposedly she was shocked to hear an animal speak, but eventually she got used to it and now expects all birds to talk, hee hee.

Be thankful for the short journal tonight. Genevieve fell asleep in her chair at the table this afternoon, as I am falling asleep here at the computer.

Take care my friends,
Shana

Hey baby...What's your sign?

Good evening loved ones. If I take a really deep breath, I can imagine the smell of the autumn air surrounding you. I can almost feel the excitement/anxiety of the next few months leading up to the elections. I do wish I could join you in this excitement for change. But perhaps I would just get frustrated at the very real the possibility of electing another Bush/Cheney-like duo. I would surely be standing on a corner with a sign with my little girls, and have a bumper sticker on my car. But alas, an Obama bumper sticker here might be a bit silly.

The seasonal change here in Australia feels normal for the first time. I actually know what to expect and needn’t ask anyone, how cold is it in September? It’s the first whole year I have spent here, without going to the States for a month or two or three. This evening nightfall came and we did not shut the windows, the warm breeze is still creeping in the house. The frogs are all out to sing tonight. The bats are back. I didn’t realize they were a seasonal visitor, but I am learning that they only come if there are figs on our huge native fig tree. I miss going out each night to collect firewood, but now I make more night visits to the compost and hear the loud flapping of wings over head. Jacinta is excited to leave behind her footy pajamas, wear dresses with no pants beneath and eat spring and summer fruits. Genevieve will be thrilled to play with water outside once again. She is luckily learning to wear her hat, just in time for the dangerously hot sun to return in full force.

The hot sun shined its lovely face on us last Sunday, Aussie Fathers Day. It was the first time I have put sun block on the girls since last autumn. We went for a morning paddle on the river. This time Jacinta sat up front, Genevieve and I shared the middle bench and Matt did all the work from the back. Jacinta rowed quite well, but the relaxed little girl she is, she often suggested that we just float. We followed flocks of birds down the river, lovely entertainment for us all. We made it a little farther than our last outing, which was our goal. Snacks helped. Genevieve is no longer enamored with her life jacket, to say the least. Following our canoe ride, we spent some time in the garden and sandbox, bagging more fruit for protection from pests. We then prepared for a Fathers Day bbq. Keith’s son was meant to surprise him, but arrived much later than expected. After all the lead up, when he finally arrived Mary was about to serve lunch to a few very hungry fathers and children. She cut herself with a knife, instead of the avocado. So Mary and I, the two mothers left the men and children with a lot of lovely food ready to eat and rushed off to the emergency room. Although we were hungry and Mary was in a lot of pain, we made it in and out in an hour with no stitches. We actually had a nice time chatting and laughing while we waited on the inexplicably slow Macksville hospital staff. At one point, a nurse paced back and forth in front of our door chatting on her cell phone, “Yeah…it’s pretty slow…not real busy….no…not many people in here.” We had been waiting for a band-aid for over twenty minutes at that point. Eventually we got the bandage and made it home to eat.

The girls bought Matt a coffee mug covered in sheep for Fathers Day. They wanted to buy him a sheep, as this is something we know he wants…someday. Jacinta understands now, “We will buy a sheep when our fruit trees are so big the sheep can’t gobble them up.” Every morning since, Jacinta asks Matt first thing, “Daddy, would you like a cup of coffee?” Since she can’t make it herself, she lovingly puts his mug out on the table and tells me that Daddy would like some coffee.

Babies need their mommies. Dads often feel like they can’t satisfy their babies. Understandable, they don’t have breast milk or that mommy aroma. Matt tried all he could, but just knew it could only get better as the girls grew up. Now that Matt is out of the house most of the day, the girls just can’t get enough. Jacinta’s only motivation to set the table for breakfast or dinner is to make sure that “Daddy is sitting next to me.” Matt had a day off on Monday and took the girls to the nearest zoo. Koala Park is 90 minutes away, a bit far for me but Matt doesn’t mind driving and wanted to spend the day out with the girls (leaving me to garden). They had a lovely time seeing Aussie animals, reptiles and monkeys??? They fed kangaroos, pet them, and just spent time in their midst. Today Matt was outside building the chicken pen and the girls would not leave him alone. They were meant to be planting with me, but they must have needed some daddy energy. Eventually I had to pull Genevieve away so Matt could continue his work. Good thing I did, he has just about finished the chook pen!

I was perusing the astrological birthday calendar on our wall today and had a good laugh at what was written about my character as a Leo. “There is nothing difficult or complicated about the Leo. He (She) is King, the boss, the leader. He knows he is better at organizing everyone else’s life than they are; they only have to accept it and all will be well.” This could be why they run from me at times  In the past I didn’t take much notice of people’s astrological signs. But as I age, I am starting to see wisdom in the signs, certainly in helping me to understand and accept people as they are. Jacinta is a Gemini, an air sign, and seems to fit almost everything that is said about Geminis. Matt and Genevieve have water signs. I am a fire sign, so we are only missing the earth sign to give us balance in our young little family. I was pondering my family. Mom, Dad and I are all fiery Leos, how could we all have been in charge? My dad and I seem to fit the bill quite well, the good and the bad traits. Mom possesses only the positive traits of a Leo, somehow escaping the negative bits. My sister is a different fire sign. Perhaps we all believed we were in charge, this is how we have gotten along for so long. If you think of it, send us your birthday so we can put you on the calendar and celebrate you 

A Gemini (May 22-June 22) is said to be adaptable, versatile and a good communicator, all true for Jacinta, on most days. Friday the plan was to visit her friend. We stopped in town for a few hours en route and eventually made it to Adelle’s house, who was not there. Instead we went to play at our favorite park. Upon arrival, Evie was sleeping so Jacinta went by herself to climb on the play structure. She saw me pull out my sewing and came back to watch and help. After a while she was cutting the grass with my scissors. She is a good observer, a silent one. A few minutes later she was standing on tip toe, clipping amazingly long pine needles off of a coastal pine tree. She snipped nature for almost an hour. We were at the park for almost two hours before she remembered where she was and that there was a play structure. The adaptability goes along with her musical ability. Matt and I are amazed by her songs, how she can fit words into a melody she already knows and make verse after verse fit into the same melody. In the car the other day she went on and on, ironically starting the song with this verse, “This is the end of my song because I don’t have any more to say…” She dug deep and found a few more verses to sing.

One negative Gemini trait is being inconsistent, easily changeable. Jacinta is very easily lead which is why we can give her a rule and know she will follow it. I can give her a jar of cookies, tell her she can have one and walk away. She will only have one and will not be tempted to sneak anymore. She loves rules and understanding their reasons. When we went camping a few months ago, I wanted to try a few different places. “Why can’t we stay here the whole time Mommy?” I explained my reasons and she took them in for process. This week she said, “Mommy, when I am ten, can we drive in the car and just stop wherever looks nice and camp? We’ll stay more than one night if we like it a lot and look somewhere else if we like it just a little bit.” One sad thing I see in the negative traits is “inability to control nervous energy.” She has always complained of a bellyache before preschool, all but perhaps three weeks. Her anxiety is starting to come out more, always in the form of a belly ache. In the past few weeks, both at home and at pre-school, she has broken down in tears after being in a large group of children for too long, complaining of a bellyache. I don’t mean to overanalyze my little girl. I am not worried, anxiety is not my thing. It just find it all of the sudden interesting to look at the similarities between humans born at a certain point in the year.

Some days Genevieve and Jacinta are feisty all day long, very snippy and snotty, other days they start the day peacefully. Jacinta is very possessive at the moment and screams if Genevieve comes near anything she is doing. Genevieve has learned to react similarly to her big sister, holding onto things with all her might and taking on “NO!” as her favorite expression. Certain activities are better than others for sharing: tea parties and popcorn parties on the floor are good for bringing them back to peacefulness. Playing with dolls and doing arts and crafts are terrible. If I am fully involved there is no problem, it is in the down time that it all falls apart. But hey, they have to figure it out. The teacher in me is too strong at times and I forget that they WILL figure it out given the chance. After all the fighting, Genevieve fell asleep on my back. I lay her down on my bed to sleep and asked Jacinta to cover her with a blanket. I left her alone to do it, and came back to peek a few minutes later. What loving care and gentleness she used to protect her little sister from the cold air, making sure every little bit of Genevieve was covered. I will try to remember this sweet moment next time I bother breaking up a fight.

Although there are a lot of sisterly battles, they both try to be polite. Even Genevieve in her cute baby voice now says, “Excuse Me,” “Please,” “Thank you,” and “No Thank you.” Genevieve loves the little blessing we sometimes do before meals and reminds us to do it now. “Bessing?” We sing it once. She then starts to sing, “Merci…” which is the Thank you song to Mother Earth. It is one we sing in French class, but now thanks to Genevieve has become the second song we sing at the table.
She reminds us to do a lot of things. The other day I was making pancakes with the girls and forgot to add the oil. Evie said, “Oil?” Thank you! She also remembered the cinnamon. What a helper. (Pancakes are such a versatile food, honestly you can use any ingredients you want and call them pancakes. I’ll put a recipe in at the end for those interested.) Genevieve also suggested a bike ride on Jacinta’s preschool day. I psyched myself up to ride uphill. It was a beautiful day and all the neighbors’ animals were grazing near the road. Beautiful horses, cows and birds all made us smile. We did spot “Trouble Head Garden Eater” (the neighbors’ bull) who had escaped once again into another neighbor’s yard. Later we helped Keith guide the bull back home that day. The next day the bull proved to us the true meaning of the expression, “stubborn as a bull.”

The cows, mostly the bull, do create a lot of extra work for us all. It’s strange though because we just love them. The neighbors have gone away for three months, and left their daughter to check up on the place every few days. They depend on Keith’s kindness to fix anything up that is left undone. Other than entertainment, their cows give us great fertilizer. Keith took Jacinta and Genevieve out on the mower the other day. He towed them behind in a little trailer to a big paddock full of dried out manure. It’s hard to believe Evie actually sat down that long, perhaps the gas fumes calmed her down. They picked up a few sacks of manure and then tipped them into the compost. Cow manure is a super nitrogen fixer to boost your plants but it must be dried out or it will burn them.

They have “Plant Fairs” every spring and autumn around here. I try to avoid them because I know I will buy too much and create more work for myself. But I couldn’t resist. Saturday I took Jacinta to Bellingen with me for the afternoon. Wide-eyed we explored the stalls at the plant fair. “Which flowers do you want to look at Mommy?” We took turns picking flowers to gaze upon. Eventually we found a few native plants I thought we needed and bought an ice cream to share. The plan was to find a nice shady spot to sit and eat but I came across a Local Food Network stall and got stuck chatting. To my amazement, after five minutes I looked down at Jacinta. The ice cream was dripping all over her hand. I told her she could eat it but she said, “No mommy, I want to find a nice shady spot to sit and eat with you.” That we did. After the plant fair we found a playground across a footbridge and played in the shade. Then it was time to go sing at the wedding. Not to mention how fun it was to sing African songs with such a fun group of singers, it was great to be a fly on the wall at this hippy/yuppie wedding outside on the grass near the chicken pen. Jacinta watched everyone carefully, especially anyone under four feet tall, and held my hand when we sang. Matt had asked her to take pictures, so I gave her the camera in hopes that she’d capture the diversity of the group, the drums, the Togolese men all dressed up in their traditional boubous. She took about fifteen pictures of my head. How sweet, she is four and loves her mommy so why would she bother taking pictures of anyone else?

While I enjoyed a day alone with my big girl, Matt enjoyed a day alone with his little girl. They played in the sandbox for over an hour, so long she actually napped quite happily following. Later on, he took her out on the dam in the kayak and then on a leisurely walk to town. Matt loves his kayak, loves the silence, freedom and chance to exercise out on the water. Today he worked from 8am until 5pm on the chicken coop and nearly finished it. He built this great “trap door” that opens up and turns into a ramp for the chickens to get down into the enclosed yard. It is made out of old sheets of metal on a wooden frame that Keith and I built. He turned our wooden frame into a chicken safe, child-safe chook pen which we may put to use soon. To celebrate his work, he went kayaking in the rain. He seems to have more energy lately. It could be that he’s trying to join us in our goal to increase our energy through better food and limit his chocolate addiction. Surely, he had a lot of unused physical energy pent up from working on his book. I think he used a lot of it today.

I can’t imagine what I’ll do with my pent up physical energy as the girls grow more independent. I’ll probably miss being needed so much, but I may grow a few more veggies. The lovely attachment is no doubt better than a few zucchinis, but luckily I have a lot of passions to act on once they don’t want me around as much. The bats are flapping their wings telling me to go to bed and stop pondering. I shall join my family in sweet dreams. Good night.

Shana


Versatile Pancakes (good if you are trying to diversify your grains)

1 or 2 eggs
1 banana
¾ - 1 cup milk (any kind (cow, goat, soy, rice, oat)
2 Tbsp oil
Blend wet ingredients first

1 cup flour
(combine any number of grains:ground nuts, wheat, cornmeal, rye flour, rice flour, etc)
1 tsp Baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt

Mix wet and dry ingredients. If it is not thin enough for you, add more milk.
Fry in a little bit of butter. If you make them small, you can use them as snacks.

Powerful wings

Hello there. The rains came and gave us a few lovely indoor days. Jacinta and Genevieve are not used to being inside for long, not growing up in the cold Midwest. But I LOVE being stuck inside as it diminishes the overwhelming choice of what to do in a day. Hard rain and kids with colds mean reading stories, singing, organizing toys, rearranging furniture, getting rid of things, cooking, nut cracking, relaxing inside, and running laps of the house to release pent up energy. Another good energy release for the girls is “Poppy time,” one day painting to their hearts content. Keith is much more patient with the mess than I will ever be. The rain pounded down noisily on the tin roof, the tank overflowing from the first day of rain. The gardens surely enjoyed the rain, still damp after a full day of warm sun and wind. The hyacinths have finally died, having lost their color and wilting before Genevieve picked them, amazing! Jacinta is bewildered by their short life span. Bulbs are a bit like that, a lot of work for a quick pretty show. Perhaps this is why they are such a thrill.

I sometimes ponder the amount of time I spend preparing food and how quickly my efforts are either consumer or snubbed. This week I realized for the first time, how truly worth the effort it all is. Since we have started trying different types of milk, diversifying grains and focusing less on fruit and home-baked goods but more on veggies and dips (pumpkin spiked salsa and guacamole), the general attitude of the day is more stable, more easily anticipated. There are also less dishes as I am not baking as much. For once, I am trying to transition slowly and not go cold turkey on normality as I have done in the past.

But honestly, I now understand what an addiction sugar is. The girls don’t beg for food near as much, they play more and actually enjoy the food they are given. They don’t eat just to make it to dessert, because there often is none. Yet on Thursday at playgroup where the sugar flows freely, Jacinta tried a bit of everything she was allowed and asked for more every ten minutes. For the remainder of the day she was disengaged and whiny and said flat out, “I don’t want lunch. I don’t want anything that is not sweet.” I’m sure you could say that it was just the shock to her system, but she used to be like this more often, not just on playgroup days. Matt, Keith and Mary all have made a major effort to go along with the changes and since we are all working together, it is going really well. Most importantly, the girls don’t know there is any major regime change. It is what it is. I might be spending even less time preparing. But we are getting more good energy from our food, which makes the whole day better.

Speaking of good eating, tonight Mary made corned-beef. This is something I loved in America, especially on a Rueben sandwich, covered in sauerkraut, swiss cheese and dressing. Here there are no Rueben sandwiches, not a big deal as I wasn’t eating beef for a long time. It’s often served with chutney on bread. What a let down this was when I tried it at a restaurant a few months ago! Sauerkraut is not something common here, but you can find it in a can at the supermarket, made in Belgium. Mary actually made a special trip to buy me sauerkraut, in addition to cooking the whole meal. I ate half the can, just couldn’t get enough. Until today, I didn’t realize I was homesick for sauerkraut. Funny, things that you didn’t know you loved until they weren’t there. Needless to say, I will start making my own. Belgium is a bit far to go for fermented cabbage. I don’t expect anyone to eat it, it will be a “Momma thing.”

Genevieve now understands this concept and will back away from things she is stubbornly trying to do. It’s like a self-assurance, “a Momma thing,” it lets her off the hook. She can give up trying to poke her horn into whatever it is that she shouldn’t be doing. She can watch closely and learn, better to imitate the next time. Even with her cough and her sore gums, she ran pretty hard all week long. She slept well in the day and terrible at night. One night at 1am she broke into new speech territory, noun+ verb. After a nappy change, she sat up and said, “Grandma……make soup! Poppy….paint!” Just shows how much is being processed in their sleep.

Jacinta woke up each morning this week, climbed up and sat down on top of the wooden rails three feet above her bed. She then called out to either Matt or I, depending on who she felt really needed to see her trick that day. She tries out reaching for different light switches to see if she has grown taller in the night. Matt had to start a new wall marking system this week, not merely where her head is, but now the height of her outstretched arms. Yesterday she exclaimed, “I’m five meters happy!”

I was equally excited yesterday, for different reasons though. The other day I popped an email to my Senegalese host brother who has lived in France for over six years now. He replied with shocking news. Not only is he engaged, but he also published his first book! Oedipe le batard des deux mondes, by Massamba Diadhou. I remember Massamba and his younger brother Chiccy playing writing games, ten years ago. They passed a journal back and forth, adding on pages at a time to one really long, detailed story. It was a secret though, they never shared the stories with anyone. So now, Massamba has written a 250 page novel about a bastard child of a Senegalese woman and a French humanitarian doctor who goes to France in search of cultural understanding, of himself, and of course, his parents. I logged onto Amazon.France and ordered Massamba’s book along with a few French children’s DVDs. Bursting joy and anticipation for my friend’s recent success made sleeping difficult.

Difficulty sleeping, poor Evie. She whimpers almost every fifteen minutes. It’s amazing though, she makes it through the day as if she has had a good sleep. Yesterday afternoon, my friend Anissa picked the girls and I up in the rainstorm and drove us out to her place to spend the afternoon and evening. Genevieve napped for about 15 minutes total, until 5pm when she crashed for 45 minutes and woke up for dinner and Matt’s arrival. She loves going out and seeing people, both girls do. Good thing! She has started telling strangers in town about her friends. This weeks’ litany of people always started with “Shelle (Michelle)? Rory? “Ayan?” nodding all the while.

Our friend Michelle asked the other day in an exasperated tone, “When will you all just elect someone?” In other words, Australians hear almost as much, minus the obnoxious political advertisements, as Americans hear and it is not even their election. I enjoy the discussions on the news, but compared with the Aussie system, we do have an incredible amount of hooplah before the election actually happens. Just this week, here in the New South Wales state government (our state), the premier (Governor) resigned. The next in line sacked the person below him, then the parliament sacked him. There is already a new premier from the opposing party and work is going forward. I do not presume to know which is better or more democratic, it is simply a difference in systems, and one is quicker and less expensive.

Matt keeps up on all the news and world happenings. He downloaded Obama and Clinton’s speeches from the Democratic convention. I’ll admit I broke down and cried hearing Obama’s speech. I realize he is a politician. Whether or not I can take him at face value, he claims to desire the very things I dream of in the USA. Just hearing him speak made me ten times more proud to be American than I have felt in the last eight years. As I write Matt is keeping up with the Sydney Swans, making sure they win 
It was a busy work week, there are lots of sick people at this chilly time of year and Matt has more cases than he really should. But he had “Flexi-time” on Tuesday morning. We took the girls out on the Taylor’s Arm River in the canoe for the first time. It was quite peaceful, given what Evie usually does. Water, birds and being off balance might have provided calm. What a treat: carrying the canoe down the hill, walking through muck (falling in wasn’t very fun with Evie in my back), and pushing off into a big river with Matt and the girls. I didn’t row much, but kept Genevieve happy and safe while Matt and Jacinta rowed.

No longer on call, Matt is allowed to leave the house without his computer and cell phone. Freedom! Full of physical energy, he attacked the chicken pen today. I was able to join for a little while, while Keith worked on making a kite with Jacinta. Matt actually took a break to work on the kite too, but not for long. It’s hard to sit inside when there’s a massive project that has been sitting undone, staring you down through your front window, for over six months. Perhaps by October we could have spring chickens! We shall see.

I actually rented a movie with the girls the other day. Ok it was a bird documentary, Winged Migration., which for some dumb reason they renamed Travelling Birds here, as if people don’t understand the term Migration. Jess and I watched eagerly for a while, after all it was the first movie she ever saw. It put Genevieve to sleep after the initial excitement of all the birds. What a majestic film, birds are magnificent, gifted with the sense to know when and how to travel thousands of miles.

Today my step-mom Barb was en route to the hospital where her mom was trying to overcome some severe health issues. Barb drove about an hour each day going back and forth caring for Molly. Today she saw an egret flying overhead en route, as dad explained it, extraordinary. She began to cry, knowing that this meant something. She arrived at the hospital and Molly, her mom, Grandma Molly to us, had left this world. Molly was and is an amazing woman, and will leave a great hole behind. Luckily amazing people do more than leave a gaping hole in their wake. They create so much beauty in the world that lives on and inspires beyond their bodies, it just takes a while to get past the hole.

This evening Jacinta was laughing with Mary and Keith, wondering about the future. It started with Mary gasping at the weight of Jacinta as she picked her up. “What will we do when you’re fifteen?” Mary asked. Jacinta went on and on, wondering, “What will we do when I’m 50?” Well, given that Mary and Keith are over 60, we just laughed and made up stories. She went on and on, finally topping it all, “what will we do when I’m 177?” Certainly we will all be part of the earth, hopefully enriching the soil, helping some tree grow. Keith told her we could all row to Taylors Arm then.
Hopefully Grandma Molly is dancing in the Manistee forest in Michigan, surrounded by her family.

Peace to you,
Shana

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