A busy couple of weeks

Finally, some time to scratch up a blog post. The last few weeks have been chaotic and very full. Largely in part as I had a birthday and by some stretch of luck the celebratory hoo-ha appears to have stretched on for a good fortnight or so.

Firstly, a few lovely gifts that came my way. This little cat came all the way from across the seas to live at our place. Anyone guess what he is for? I found one just like this a few months back at a second hand fair, haggled a bit, kept looking, came back to buy it and while chatting to my friend and waiting to be served, saw him snaffled up before my eyes by someone else. The horror! So, I was very happy to see the return of the one that got away.

This vase which is fantastic for people like me with allergies as it looks glorious even without any flowers. And would you believe this massive milk glass jug that my stepmother ferreted out of her cupboards for me? She was given this by her Aunty Betty years ago, thought it was pretty ugly and stashed it in a cupboard for a few decades. Having seen my collection she knew where it belonged. It is massive and I have never seen another one like it. Happy days. The funniest thing is while I think this is the best possible present, she felt terrible regifting this jug she has never liked and  so bought me another present as well!

We have of course all been watching The Block every night, hence Liongirl's need to build her own "Block" with her crusts.

We received some gorgeous parcels from some bloggy pen friends in far away places , 

and after initial enthusiasm and then some rampart disorganisation, we finally returned the goodies. (Lea yours is still coming!)

There have been vintage Fisher price family holidays,

a birthday cake picnic for me,

some colourful painting,

making discoveries within the depths of all those workbooks brought home at the end of last year,

and even more startling finds uncovered from the depths of school bags. This one fills me with equal parts pride (that he wanted to run for school council and did this all completely by himself) and our usual parental concerns that the force is strong in this one and we really need to make sure he never crosses to the dark side. (Is it only me envisaging Dr Evil's voice "under my control there would be absolutely nooooo problems...."? ) Luckily, he was non plussed about losing to one of his mates.

The kitchen art wall  expands daily (unlike the painting of said walls which remain firmly back at the undercoat stage),

This hat came home the first week of prep.

First she delighted in sharpening EVERY pencil in the pack, then had the brilliant idea to empty out ALL the shavings ( Noooooooooo) and then glue them down into a rainbow. (Phew).

And sometime after Christmas we made a start on painting the TV/family room. My god those primed mdf walls make Betsy look like a poor sallow creature. Is it a creamish brown? or a brownish cream? Either way it is not a good look.

Despite about two months passing by, it remains firmly at the half baked stage. Occasionally, if we are not completely buggered at 10 pm one of us will venture in there to fill some more holes or slap on some more undercoat. We have actually finished painting the laundry and the sewing room but there are no Ta-dah photos as we have then dumped stuff in those rooms in order to paint this one.

There is a bit of a deadline now though as we finally chose a new lounge and ideally need this room and the lounge room to be finished within 8 weeks before it arrives. As well as working around an eighth birthday party, Easter, school holidays, the school fete and minor surgery on my painting arm, all in the same time frame. Gosh, makes me wonder what all those Block contestants are losing the plot about. Really, they don't have to deal with kids, jobs or celebratory occasions. They just get to paint those white walls ALL day. Lucky buggers.

Anyway, back soon with part two of this post which is all about the best present you can give a worn out mother of small children, and how to make your birthday last at least two weeks.

8/52

a portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014 inspired by Jodi

He : is at that special age of almost eight, where there is room in his head for both duplo mobile animal rescue centres, and Voldemort. 

 She : has moved up a class in dancing and has added singing and acrobatics to her tap and ballet.

7/52

a portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014 - inspired by Jodi

He : whiling away a Saturday afternoon fossicking for treasures in the backyard with his metal detector. At the going rate of ten cents per nail, we have a flurry of other children lobbing in to earn some pocket money while clearing our yard of nails and other building detritus. The eldest Menace brother has been over twice already and taken home about eight dollars. 

She : was very quiet in the bath one night. When I snuck in to check on her, she had sorted and organised every last bath toy into those unfinished shelves. I shudder to think how she reached that top shelf!

6/52

a portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014 inspired by Jodi

He : accessorising with a skink ( as you do) . This one came to visit with the Menace brothers but my boy has been known to spend an afternoon upside down inside our compost bin making pets out of the skinks who live there. I plan to refer back to this photo when thoughts of boarding school resurface. 

She : Showing me her stick on earrings that were a must on a trip for Yum Cha. Due to food issues we eat out infrequently, hence the need to frock up.

A whole new world

Last week was about new beginnings. After eight years of mothering, both my birds flew the nest.

Those fuzzy days of naps, double prams, frighteningly early starts, Maisy books, sipper cups, soft rabbits that were never allowed to be washed, Bonds wonder suits, dummies, thumb sucking, swim nappies, sandpits and stick collections are fading into the distance as a new, vast world opens up.

My big bird moved up to the big school, at the top of three flights of stairs into the world of grade three. He disappeared into this safe and familiar world with barely a backward glance. He has friends who are happy to see him, a new teacher who probably knows him already and a routine that provides the predictable comfort that holidays never can.

My baby bird tiptoed into her new class, full of pride, excitement, a few nerves and only minor issues with the seams in her socks. While the teacher is new, the room and the teacher aide are like old friends she simply hasn't seen since she was two and visiting every day with her brother. And while she hasn't been there for three years, when I asked if she needed me to show her where the toilets were she scornfully told me that she remembered herself.

To have both your children happy at school is a miraculous gift for which I am very grateful. And for me, as I slowly exhale, it feels like maybe I can just sit down, enjoy a hot cup of tea and allow myself a moment of pride that we made it.

Parenting small children is immense, all encompassing, exhausting, miraculous, hilarious, relentless, incredible, magical and mostly involves much less sleep than I ever could have imagined. Parenting has taken my lofty ideals of the mother that I thought I would be, and scattered them with the winds. It has brought me to my knees,  and then slowly built me back up again, stronger, wiser, humbler and endlessly grateful for small victories.

So, as one door closes, I am hit with a sprinkle of sadness,  a dash of relief and a generous dollop of excitement that a new door is opening. It's a whole new year and I have lots of plans.

And this was my first finished project. My favourite vintage fabrics, mod podge and a Kvissle wall rack from Ikea. This is phase one of a grand plan to finally get organised.

5/52

a portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2014 - inspired by Jodi

He : asked if he could dig out the overgrown garden bed underneath his bedroom window. A short while later with hacked up plants strewn around the yard he announced that he was having MAN- FUN and could I please bring him some refreshments. Yes, those were his EXACT words. (makes me think of Bear Grylls having tea with the Famous Five ) 

She : started prep this week and has settled very well so far. This was the trial run on the weekend before school started as she was so excited to try her full uniform on. For the real day the uniform was ironed and the hair was (miraculously) in plaits. 

Summer holidays

Sometimes, the pictures all fall into place, but the words do not. Our summer holidays were hot, slow, long, fun, full and at times very, very challenging. In our house the wonderful lack of routine that would generally create a relaxed holiday instead creates all sorts of trouble.

However, as I look at this bundle of pictures that have captured the last six weeks, it is a stark reminder that no matter how grey the day, there is always colour to be found. Above would be Roboboy's lego mini figure avatar that seems to end up in all sorts of odd places, including this bowl of florist beads the kids chose from the markets, just add water and they grow.

The stack of books my boy read this last few weeks. The only problem now is where on earth do you go from Harry Potter? (tips welcome).

The simple things are the best -  birthday parties with hills and large pieces of cardboard.

Floral arranging sessions. We walked the streets sampling all the blooms on the footpath.

We spent our usual amount of time under the hose on the trampoline.

We played jewellery shop cafe's,

Hot chocolate with marshmallows anyone ?

and built extravagant paediatric hospitals,

created storyboards for the three little pigs,

organised rooms and shuffled furniture to give my boy a desk of his own,

spent hours and hours in construction at the Ipswich Art Gallery

And after more than a year away, we finally made it back to our favourite beach.

As the years pass and we come back here time and time again, the memories just build and pile up atop each other. This is three years ago,

And the exact same spot now.

We made mermaids,

and just like previous times we have come to Moffat beach, there have been some milestones passed.
Like the catching of her very first wave,

first sand dune slide,

and most excitingly, the first bike ride without training wheels. Just like that she was off, haring down those paths to the sea that she knows so well.

We rode all the way to the Mr McGee tree (it was perhaps a little too far in hindsight) and we climbed to the very top ( well not me, I was down the bottom taking photos). The view was amazing.

There was also the usual rock hopping,

tidal creek paddling,

After a swim in the ocean pool at Kings beach, we stumbled across a man snorkelling in one of the tidal pools. As is our way, we of course had to find out what he was up to. He was catching some rare fish and when he left he gave us his leftover bait so we too could hand feed the fish.

So late that afternoon we trotted back with our buckets and nets and hand fed the fish with our raw prawns. We even managed to catch a few for our collection. Then of course we tipped them all back in, squealed at the sight of an eel where our toes had just been and rode our bikes home. I love that we now have another new favourite spot to go back to next time.

It always astounds me how much my children remember from all the other visits to this very beach. This time when we got to a particular spot, Liongirl asked me to play the rock stacking game we played there once, more than a year ago. This time we made beach houses for the crabs, with stones for the windows and doors, a path up to the front door and a seaweed mat.  I wonder if next year we will come back to this spot and do it all again.

She and I spent an afternoon together exploring. We found six sea cucumbers and a nudibranch. Not a spectacular colourful one, but amazing just the same.

We were either at the beach, riding our bikes, eating calamari and chips or in here for the entire seven days.

Summer holidays, we think we did you justice. Now it's time for the relief of that old familiar routine of school.