~ 5.30 am : question time ~

5.26 am (or thereabouts)

Heavy footsteps.  Down the hall, down the stairs, right to my bedside (he's inherited the elephant like tread of his father and sister)

Mama?  Mama?  You wake?

(wee interlude.  heavy footsteps back to beside the bed)

He wriggles in.  
Moves into the spooning position for a "pwoper" cuddle.  
Shuts his eyes briefly.  Opens them again.
 
And the questions begin:

Where does the wind come from?

Why do volcaneys send out ash clouds?

Can ash clouds get in the house and kill you?

Why is a tree called a tree?

How will I know when I'm big?

How many days until Christmas?

If we get a dog and it eats the cats what will we do?

Why does the rain decide to fall?

Do dragons set fire to themselves?

Why is Christmas called Christmas?

What's the best way to fall down a mountain?

How many sleeps til Christmas?

Why are they called nostrils?

I know how the flower made ET die.  Do you?

Do you know what baby Jesus did?

How do bricks stick?

What is 55?

How do waves work?

What does just mean mummy?  I just don't get it.

So when is Christmas?

I'm not at my best at 5.30am but these are our best conversations.  In the warm fug of a snuggly doona, as sleep slowly loosens its grip, we chat. About anything he wants, wherever his questions take us.  

For an hour he has me all to himself while the house slumbers on.  

The responsibility, the privilege, the sheer wonder of parenting does not escape me.



♥

~ grateful for....being a mum ~

{Me - complete with glasses, stripes, smile and a brooch!}

I'm grateful for being a mum this week.

We had Mothers Day over the weekend and I was thoroughly spoilt with lovely cuddles, kisses, beautiful words and precious handmade gifts.

 

{bit worried about the weekend business - otherwise...awwww!}

I actually feel grateful for this every day.

That my road to motherhood was easy.

That I am blessed with 3 beautiful, healthy children and the opportunity to raise them here in this lucky country the way I choose.

I'm learning more every single day about what it means to be a mum and I'm so grateful that I'm here, right now, doing it every day.
  

♥

I'm linking with Maxabella who blogs every week about being grateful.

What are you grateful for this week?

~ the big girl turns 9 ~

Our beautiful Lily turned 9 over the weekend.

She was the baby who made me a mother, the one who changed the landscape of my heart and turned everything I thought I knew about myself on its head.

She's the one who has borne the brunt of my uncertainty and ineptness as I learn to be the best mum I can.

She made us a family, introduced us to that terrible fear when you realise that part of your heart resides outside your body and teaches us all the time.

{the red bike that goes faster}

{Harry's hat - cake #15 or so that we've made from the AWW bible}

I've been a mother for 9 years - it's amazing, challenging, tough and joyful - and it just keeps getting better.


♥

~ making connections ~

When we left WA (almost 7 years ago now) my heart was light and we moved with great anticipation.

We were coming home.  Bringing our little family back to where we belonged, where we wanted to raise our children.  Where life was good.

Not that it hadn't been good in the West.  Life was easy and breezy there.  Good times, happy times but we were a long way from our heart's home.

It's mostly the little things I miss - the lemon scented gums, the jacarandas in spring, not wearing socks.

Notably thought, in the first couple of years back,  I found myself achingly missing my mother's group.  That random group of women who met because we lived in nearby suburbs and all had babies (all girls) at the same time.  I know its not for everyone but we had one of those groups from a chick-lit novel.  We clicked.  We got each other.  We listened and talked and shared and learned and marvelled at the amazing transformation that motherhood had made to our lives.

I tried playgroups when we got back here; the hippy one nearby for which I had showered too recently to fit in, the one down in the posh end of town where I had the wrong clothes on the girls...it just wasn't the same.  The Doc ended up taking the girls to a dad's playgroup down the road and they all loved it. I cannot rave enough about what a fabulous concept dad's playgroups are and I wasn't even allowed to go.  And that was the problem - I was missing out.

When Jack came along I knew a couple of other mums having 3rds or 2nds with big gaps and we've created our own little routine.  On Tuesdays we meet at the local park.  We have a coffee roster.  We bring food.  The boys play and run and jump and we don't bother with craft (or healthy eating).

We chat and catch up.  We exchange idle gossip (the harmless kind).  We never finish a conversation.  We exchange parenting tips and mock complaints about our wonderful husbands.  We encourage each other in our exercise/study/craft/whatever plans for the week.

We leave refreshed, renewed and reconnected.

It feels good to be part of something again.  Something good. 

♥

~ the fine line between bribery and incentive ~

{maybe he'll be the next superfish!}

Jack had his first swimming lesson this week.

He was not all that enthusiastic about it.

We should have suspected this - he hates getting his hair washed, will NOT have a shower and has been telling us that swimming lessons are for "big 4 boys" (ie not big 3 year olds).

We have delayed a while - the girls both started at about 6 months in those classes that are all about the parents and the nursery rhymes are loud enough to scare the children.

But swimming started again this week (we go to an outdoor pool in Hobart - gasp!!) and we were determined that it was time.

Cunningly we took him to watch the big girls first - he was quick to spot the end of lesson reward - the jars of mixed lollies that the kids spend an eternity in front of trying to work out how to get best value from 50c.

{Miss Pat has an amazing collection of vintage pool toys}

 And it worked...he was a bit slow to warm up but by halfway he was shouting across the pool to me "this fun mummy" and proudly announced at the end that "me did evvything Miss Pat says, me get green snake now."

{floaties and a back float but solo!}

I'm sure it's called incentive

♥

~ random thoughts whilst doing the washing today ~

Where do all those odd socks go?

Why doesn't anyone else get lights vs darks?  (still missing the pink load)

Why do 6 year old girls change 4 times a day and dump everything in the wash?

Hankies really are better than tissues.

Why don't I turn all the clothes in the right way before washing? (I really get irked doing this when I'm folding)

How on earth did women of previous generations manage to have one washing day when I have 7?

Do I need to go back to work so my brain gets a better work out?

♥

~ things I've learnt (the ballet version) ~

Ballet concert season is approaching fast.

It's the Wizard of Oz this year (no, I never knew that was a ballet either).

It's been two years since the Nutcracker and I had forgotten the rehearsals, the make-up (on that sweet, soft skin - enough to make me cry) and the whole palava of it all.

This year Lady L is a clown (who knew there were clowns in Oz?) and Princess G is a farm girl (who has to dance with a "ridiculous" farm boy).  Thankfully my follicularly challenged girl is not to have a bun this year (sighs of relief all round).

So this weekend has seen me sew on my first ever press studs (amazing that I've got this far without that skill really) and do my first ever perfect ballet bun (even if I do say so myself).

{ta-daaa}

Maybe, just maybe, I can be an ok ballet mum even if I won't slather the make-up on and use glue instead of stitching on my sequins.

Maybe?

How was your weekend?

Learnt anything new?

♥

~ the dinner that makes me feel like a good mum ~

Princess G's turn to make a request for dinner

And she chose....ta-daaaaa!.....spicy salmon and rice.

One of the dishes I love to make for them because its easy, they love it, and I feel like a good mum. 

(how ridiculous to feel proud that they love and ask for healthy food....but Mondays can be like that)

We have been cooking this regularly for the last 5-6 years.  The girls  used to have just water and a tiny bit of soy with their salmon.  Now they love the spicy fish.  HRH LLJ is not so sure...yet.

It's one of those recipes on the favourites cycle of my limited recipe repetoire.  

We also regularly eat spaghetti bolognaise, lasagna, pasta carbonara,  tomato, mushroom and tuna pasta (spotted a theme here?), a pumpkin risotto, a pea and mushroom risotto, burritos, stir fries and roast chicken.  These are the things I can cook in my sleep and I know they'll eat.  They are meals the Doc and I can bear to eat too (with a tiny tweaking of an added rocket salad or some stir fried vegies).  

No cooking separate meals here (that manifests as Thai or Indian take-away smuggled in under the cover of dark).

How different from what I grew up eating.  I remember lots of grilled chops, grilled sausages, steaks, roasts, ham steaks with pineapple, liver  - -  always with loads of vegies and boiled or mashed potatoes.  We were a classic meat and more veg family.

So here's tonight's dinner:

{spicy salmon and rice}

{pear, rocket and parmesan salad}

And here's how you do it (I think I originally found it in a Delicious magazine years ago):

• 5 x 100g skinless salmon fillets (conveniently pre-packaged just like this at the Salmon shop in Salamanca)
• 1/3 cup light soy sauce
• 1/2 -1 teaspoon ginger from the jar (fresh is best...but so are other meals)
• 1/3 cup sweet chilli sauce
• Steamed rice, to serve 

I heat the oven to about 185.  I make little foil envelopes (separate ones for the plain soy and the others) and lightly close them (I open them up just as the fish is about done).  I combine the soy, ginger and sweet chilli sauce, pour it over the fish and then bake for about 10 minutes.

Serve with salad or veggies, drizzle some sauce over the fish and rice and gobble it up.

Huge brownie points for the fish (and the veggies).  

Minus points for the salty soy (it is light).

And clean plates all round.

♥

~ what are you? ~

HRH LL J and I had quite a chat as we were changing his nappy today (as you do).

About our family and what we do and how we describe ourselves.

"Me good boy mummy" he said.  "And you good mummy too."

 I love that about 2 year olds.  The certainty. The absence of doubt.  That qualifiers are not needed.   

 So unlike me.  And unlike zebras apparently.

 

 

 

 

I asked the Zebra are you black with white stripes? 

Or white with black stripes?   And the zebra asked me,

Are you good with bad habits?

Or are you bad with good habits?

Are you noisy with quiet times?

Or are you quiet with noisy times?

Are you happy with some sad days?

Or are you sad with some happy days?

Are you neat with some sloppy ways?

Or are you sloppy with some neat ways?

And on and on and on and on and on....

{Shel Silverstein}

So, what are you?

♥

 

~ musical beds ~

I'm feeling tired today

This is NOT a new feeling (by any means.  I'm not going there though.  The whole sad litany is enough to have anyone reaching for the anti-depressants, the gin or another blog to read).  In fact, things are so much better than they were 12 months ago that I don't feel I have the right to even mutter under my breath about it (except of course I do because that's what some mum's do - sacrifice sleep for love and then talk moan about it when anyone will listen).

[Just in case reading about someone's else's sleep woes might make you feel a bit better about your own lot in life here's a very brief summary. Princess G has barely slept through a night since birth.  She's almost 7.  She was having bizarre night terror type events that lasted started at 9-ish, lasted all night and that had our GP, the paediatrician, the web and the anyone else who would listen totally baffled.  We had tried eveything - including special permission to use a drug they use for airforce pilots with disrupted sleep cylcles.  And nothing.  Cue an amazing osteopath, a gradual improvement and a total reversal in my opinion of alternative therapies. We have our evenings back now and things are gradually improving all round.]

But the musical beds thing is getting to me.

The small people who live in this house can't seem to get enough of this game.

On and on and on...

Night after night...

The same old tunes....the same old game.

Things start well - we all love story time, they settle well, they are not serial get-uppers, the evenings are generally peaceful. 

But I could count on one hand the mornings that we all wake up where we went to bed. 

Princess G comes for a cuddle,  I move to find a HRH LL J a dummy, I choose the empty single bed, someone has a nightmare/needs a drink/wants a cuddle/is moving from the snoring and joins me.  I move again.  Someone wakes early and we go somewhere else for an attempt at sleeping past 5am.  And there in the KS bed the Doc sleeps (snores) through it all - simply opens the arms wider to cuddle any strays. 

Part of me already knows that I'll miss it when its gone.  That those precious, barely awake hugs are like gold.  That I'll long for those little arms around me and those sleepy endearments.

But for now I want to wake up in the vastness of that KS bed, just me and the Doc, and realise that I've slept all night and that I feel good.

♥

~ student free and fancy free ~

It was a student-free day today

(I am philosophically opposed to these so if you're a teacher stop reading now.  I really think that teachers should be able to complete their professional learning in a dedicated week either before school starts or in one of their other holiday times. Do I need to point out now just how many weeks of paid holidays teachers get??!!  This may well be pure jealousy - my paid job was one with no paid holidays, no sick pay and we had to do all our professional learning in our own time.  Or it may just be that I believe they are paid to teach and we only get 40 weeks or so of school term and that my children benefit from routine at school)

Anyway....

We went to the beach.  In the sunshine.  On a wintry day.  We collected shells.  We wandered.

We shared icecreams, laughs and made some lovely memories.

 

Maybe I am in favour of student-free days after all.

♥

~ house of the book ~

We love books.  We love libraries.  
We have "too many" books (still debating whether this is, in fact, possible).  We certainly have more books than shelves.  
We love to read.  Some of us live to read.

It's one of our "things"

I can't go to sleep without reading something.  Lady L is usually to be found curled up reading one of the 5 or 6 books she has on the go.  Princess G has just got her chapter book "licence" and HRH Little Lord J asks for books more than ABC2!  The Doc is so caught up with work reading that he's lapsing a bit but get him on holiday....

So here's a quick look at what we're reading.

 HRH LL J (2 and quite a bit now) reads anything.  You can tell Peepo is a favourite from the mending down the spine but the numbers and robots get a good go too - and anything by Pamela Allen.

 I've been waiting for this for soooo long (its the final installment of the Earth's Children saga by Jean M Auel).  Read the first one about 25 years ago.  This one is a huge disappointment.  I'll make it to the end but I'm skipping lots (and I never do that).

 The Doc is reading for work.....yawn

 Lady L (8) has just raced through all the Harry Potter books and loved them to bits.  This was the choice from school library this week. ??? We made the Lemon Delicious.  It made her happy.

 Princess G (6) has just graduated to chapter books.  She is loving that she is big enough to read these on her own.  I think the Moody part of this is right up her alley (!)

And the beautiful rainbows I made when we moved all the furniture just recently.

What are you reading and loving?

♥

~it's the journey, not the destination~

Who knew, when I trotted out a pithy and witty speech about this for the Grade 12 public speaking competition, that it would become my mantra?  Certainly not me - I was headed for University, a career, travel...

Life as a (mostly) SAHM to three littlies was NOT on my "to do" list.

The joys of a 3 minute walk to the shop taking 45 minutes because you have to investigate every gutter, fallen leaf, dead bug on the way, the hidden pleasures of singing that one song over and over and over again with different voices, the utter thrill of discovering how playdoh feels mushed into 100 different surfaces were not known to me.

So yes, my life is not quite as I imagined it.

It's slower, richer, more rewarding.

And every day I learn more about my capacity for patience - -sometimes as I mutter ..."its all about the journey...not the destination" but  more often as I revel in their achievements alongside them - thanking someone for the blessings of this life.

And so to today's lesson...

Cooking - one of those activities I love to share with my kids...we learn, we laugh, we have time together and from it we create something yummy. 

Or so the plan goes.

Often its derailed by the fights over who gets to break the eggs, the first turn of the sifter, the first lick of the spoon...

Or at 5.30 pm, when speed is of the essence and I'd really rather they just watched tv,  the "me help mummy" and "I'll peel the potatoes" (from Lady L who bless her heart wants to help but hates having dirty hands and is so determined to get it just right that it takes 20 minutes for each spud)

But today was a good day.

We took turns, we shared, we listened to silly songs turned up loudly and sang along, we didn't spill anything all over the floor and 20 minutes later the smells were amazing.

Ta da!!

And we gobbled some down quickly while they were warm.

And they were divine. 

Lucky we did, as it turns out.

10 minutes after the shot was taken and we were enjoying playing outside and finishing off our first ones, Piccolo, our gorgeous but devilish kitten, took it upon herself to sample the top of every single one.

Aaaargh....

(cue: the mantra)

♥