Funky Family

Coal Creek

2010-04-01T22:31:00.006+11:00

On our way to Inverloch with Gord's folks, we stopped at Coal Creek, our closest local equivalent to the Mennonite Heritage Village. Actually, the two places are remarkably similar. I guess all that old-fashioned stuff wasn't that different, continent to continent! The pics tell the story - look out for smoochy couple shots of the tourists!

(Photo war with Auntie Ev!)

(Gord doing the can-can while belting out 'Doe, a deer...' from 'The Sound of Music.' Some people were left wishing they'd had their video camera ready for such entertaining entertainment!)

Healesville Sanctuary

2010-03-25T21:36:00.004+11:00

On Saturday (the 20th), Anne, Ev, Mum, myself and the kids headed to Healesville Sanctuary (one of the three Melbourne zoos), while Gord, John and Bill went four-wheel-driving with Brett, our next door neighbour. (Uncle Bill has videos, you'll have to ask him. Anyway, back to us!) While driving to Pakenham with Auntie Ev a day or two earlier, it became apparent that she didn't know what a wombat was, and I had a bit of trouble trying to describe one (was it like a warthog, she wanted to know? Yeah, kind of the same size, but more cuddly - hmmm, not so helpful!).

So it seemed like surveying a few Aussie animals was in order. I didn't get any photos of the animals, only a few of the Canadians, being by far the rarer species around here! However, Anne and Ev took home some snaps, or at least some memories, of kangaroos, wallabies, dingos, koalas, Tasmanian Devils, possums, sugar gliders, small crocodiles, emus, a platapus, echidna, wedge-tailed eagle, a sleeping, hard-to-see wombat, and many others! And caught some didgeridoo-playing and boomerang-throwing to boot!

Surveying the koalas...

The cutest koala!

Snap time!

Later that evening, we had dinner all together with my parents. (Nice earrings, hey Sharon! Thanks!)

Anne and Piper had made (another!) birthday cake for Piper after we got home from Healesville Sanctuary, so she was able to have a party with all her grandparents together... pretty special - you can see how much she was smiling! (The cake was a mother horse and a baby horse, a baking set I found just recently at IKEA and couldn't pass up, with these carousel horse candles - all a bit horse-mad around here!)

Canadians in Melbourne

2010-03-25T20:49:00.005+11:00

Alright, enough of catching up on photos from the last couple of months. Here's what you've all been waiting for: a glimpse of that unusual occurance - a Canadian or two in the Dandenongs!

Last Monday, this is what the kids and I were making...

... "Welcome to Melbourne" signs. Which Jasper rather accurately changed to "Welcome to Busytown"!

Then on Wednesday, Piper and I walked into the Melbourne Airport arrivals area just in time to see Gord's parents emerging from those grey doors, and a little later, Bill and Ev, his uncle and aunt. Gord had lost me in the carpark, after I thought I'd lost him on the freeway - a saga I won't go into now. All's well that ends well, cos Gord and the boys turned up after about five or ten minutes...

We took our guests back to our place for spaghetti bolognese...

Gord was adamant about helping his family reorient themselves as easily as possible. Hence, the following day, being a Thursday and all, we found ourselves at this place (to my bemusement!)...

Leading the youngest of us astray...

Are we in Steinbach or Pakenham??

Catch this, cos it doesn't happen very often!

And for their second dinner in Australia, John and Anne and Bill and Ev invited us back to their place - Gembrook Retreat just down the road. (Check out that new guest garden area, a last-minute effort to get the retreat spaces ready for international guests!)

February: Holiday in Geelong

2010-03-21T21:07:00.005+11:00

Gord is determined to take more holidays this year. Hence, we found ourselves in Geelong, a satellite city about an hour out of Melbourne (and more like two from our place, cos it's on the other side of the big smoke). The highlight for the kids was a trip to Adventure Park, which claims to be Victoria's first water theme park. It was fun, but will be better when the kids are older. Piper was barely high enough for a lot of the stuff, and both her and Jas were a bit freaked out by the huge amounts of water pouring periodically over the play structures! Still, lovely weather and good memories...

Piper's favourite part was the lazy river. She was too scared to go on it at first, and then by the end of the day, she was going round by herself!

This was the slide none of us went on!

Jethro and Eloi's birthday party

2010-03-21T18:48:00.004+11:00

Our friends Tim and Jacqui have a son, Eloi, who was born on Feb 14th, just a bit before Jethro, so they shared a joint birthday party. Jacqui's friend made this amazing cake:

A few games outside...

Jethro in his element, humping around outside!

The two birthday boys feeding the horse across the road (with Eloi's grandfather)...

Not happy about blowing out the candles!

Lara sums Jethro up...

December: Christmas Day

2010-03-18T11:38:00.005+11:00

The presents piled high...

The stockings filled...

Opening Canadian gifts...

Uncle Daniel...

Our gift to the kids - a paddle pool...

Gord with a vintage Jets cap from Sharon, holding a picture of the three kids (all around 9 months)...

More gifts!

My beautiful necklace from Sharon...

The after-math...

Christmas lunch, consumed at 7pm! (What can I say, it was a real laid-back day!)

Apple pie for dessert...

Bedtime (and a new footy!)...

December: Family portrait

2010-03-18T11:23:00.002+11:00

I'm finally catching up on a backlog of photos, and pulling together some long-overdue blogs. This photo shoot (thanks to Dad and Auntie Donna) helped us pull together a Christmas picture.

Jethro turns 1!

2010-03-02T08:36:00.003+11:00

The morning of Jethro's first birthday found the family gathered around the TV watching the Men's Finals hockey game of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver: Canada vs USA. Let's just say Gord yelled so much he made the baby cry, but other than that, I think Jethro had a good birthday! (We did stuff on Sunday and the previous week with my folks, which I may blog about but I don't have a good track record at the moment!)

Jethro is a sensitive, fun, happy fellow, enjoying bum-shuffling around, but also standing holding onto things. Walking is not far away, with some help from Gramma! He cracks jokes and makes us all laugh, he loves his siblings, loves being outside. He's pretty good at not putting every darn thing in his mouth! He likes his familiar spaces. He precious.

Christmas is coming...

2009-12-08T20:38:00.000+11:00

Bec and the kids turned the wood stove into a Christmas centerpiece - much nicer than the plant we bought for this purpose on the left. Was nearly cold enough today to contemplate stripping this all down and having a fire - odd Melbourne weather we are having.

Woodpile

2009-12-08T15:44:00.006+11:00

This is Gord's effort from two weekends ago - a couple of hours work, few bucks passed along, and wala! A picturesque pile of wood in the backyard. Gord threw Jethro in front of it for some photos, but I'm sure that was just a ploy to get more people to look at his handiwork!

(Jethro is sooo chubby - love it! Not crawling yet, that's why...)

We have two cherry trees in our backyard, which are fruiting - to our delight! Cherries for Christmas!

Washing day - washing the winter woolens in order to pack them away as we head into summer. An excuse for bubbles on the deck. I think the kids were interested for ten minutes and then I had to do the rest!

And Jethro didn't pull his weight at all! (Hey, nice blanket, Tam!)
Lastly, Gord took this shot of the kids absolutely loving shelling broad beans from our garden. Broad beans, if you didn't know, require two shellings, and they were giggling about shooting the inner bean out of the middle skin. Very funny, but you can't really get that in this photo - we kind of look stoned. Well, I look stoned and Piper looks maniacal and who knows what Jasper's thinking!

Love to you all - thinking of our many friends and family in between these very infrequent posts...

Solar hot water

2009-11-09T11:15:00.001+11:00

Australia is a land of much sunshine. So it only makes sense to use it to our advantage.

Thanks to a few generous solar grants from the state and federal government, we have a new 'you beaut' solar hot water system.

Its pretty clever in the way they've set it up. The water circulates through the panels and is stored in the 200 litre tank. This tank can store water close to boiling. When we turn on the hot water tap, the system either mixes the hot water down with cold water to a normal temperature, or the gas booster (the unit above the tank) heats the water as it comes out of the tank.

It means that we don't use any fossil fuel to store the water in the tank itself.

The panels above are on the north-facing section of the roof - the best possible placement in Oz.

Getting away from an electic hot water system also means that my brain has been ticking away on the possibilities that we could get a water radiator in the two rooms of the house that need it in winter... don't know if there are products that would allow us to cycle water through the hot water tank, but I'm assuming that I should be able to find something. However, that's a job for another day!

Terracing and crop circles

2009-11-09T10:39:00.000+11:00

What happens when you take one weekend, and then add:

5 loads of laundry.
2 hot 30+ days
2 visiting familys
2 mornings working on terracing
40 corn plants
1 engagement party

We ended up with:
1 finished set of garden beds
A lot of folded laundry
1 crop circle
A couple of full stomachs

In other words, it wasn't relaxing, but still very good.

The garden beds were very satisfying. After putting them off for a few weeks, they went up in about 5 hours of hard yakka. Then some compost, a bit of lime and blood and bone for good measure, layout out the watering hose, and then a token layer of pea straw over the top.

Come and get us summer, we're ready for you.

Bec, in the meantime, true to her emerging earthy roots, was in the top corner of the yard seeding crop circles in corn. The idea is that they will grow up into another garden feature/play structure for the kids. Piper already claimed ownership...

Finally a look into the corner of the yard, where last weeknd we put down a lot of newspaper and mulched up the raspberries, blueberries and blackberries. A berry good time of it as well...

Only a few more jobs to go this year - finish the steps into the back yard, get a pump hooked up to the big tap and get a few taps hooked up to it, a shade cloth over the deak, a few more for the kids to play under, a sand pit, play structure... sigh... suppose I'll be at it for a while yet.

Cup Day

2009-11-03T21:49:00.003+11:00

The Melbourne Cup - "the race that stops a nation," worthy of a public holiday. We all got frocked up and headed to the neighbours' place to join them in yelling at the TV for each race, and consuming much champagne and prawns in between! A few pics at the beginning of the day before the kids got grubby and we got silly (not that we did, really!).

Deck completion

2009-10-12T15:20:00.000+11:00

Finally, after a bit of effort, the deck in completed. Its been a long time coming, from when the first shovel fulls of dirt came out of the ground to create the space for the deck through to the final nail and coat of oil.

Many many thanks to Matt who will always be remembered for his contribution (along with his fondness for galvanized nails!!)

The finished product gleaming under the cloudy sky...

And, as is so often the case, the next project lies in the background... literally, in this case, as we now want to build steps up into the backyard, as well as mosaic the wall and build in the pizza oven...

Lots of fun, but for now, a break!

A new Gumnut Guide

2009-09-27T21:38:00.002+10:00

Piper was enrolled as a Gumnut Guide earlier this month - the day after Mr McKrahn arrived, actually. (Gumnut Guides being the youngest age group of Girl Guides.) I was a Guide when I was a kid and got so much out of it. I can't describe the feeling I had, seeing her all dressed up in the uniform - some warm cross between pride and excitement and that feeling you have when you're introducing something really cool to someone...

More to the point, Piper really enjoys going, and I appreciate the influence of other caring adults in her life.

Deck work

2009-09-27T21:30:00.003+10:00

Matt and Gord have been working on building a deck out the back of our place. We (ha - that means Gord) cleared the space last summer and now it's finally coming together.

It's been pissing down the last few days, almost non stop (raining, that is). It's amazingly wet, which is fantastic, but not so fun for working. Even so, Gord (and to a lesser extent, Matt - he is on holidays, after all!) has been heading out there to keep pecking away at the work. Once he starts a project, he finds it hard to relax until it's done. And it's fun and exciting too!

Matt's birthday

2009-09-27T21:20:00.002+10:00

Gord's cousin Matt is out visiting us from Canada. A post about him is way overdue! Here's him on his 31st birthday, facing a trigger-happy Gord. The only reason he didn't flip Gord the bird was probably cos my folks were round and he'd only been in the country a couple of days! (Have to include a lot of photos for the rellies in Canada who are dying to get a glimpse of him!)

For Gramma & Opa - thankyou...

2009-09-08T14:20:00.000+10:00

Family update

2009-09-06T21:28:00.005+10:00

(Gord and Jethro today - we're celebrating the Saints grinding the Pies into the ground!)

Jethro is growing, but it's catching me by surprise because he has eczema and that's more what I think about when I look at him. Still, despite his red forehead, he's feeding well and chubbsing up into a boodgy bubba, just like he's supposed to do! And his eczema does seems to be settling down. Gord commented the other day that Jethro knows he's part of a mob - he's kept company in the back seat of the car by two other talkative gits, and entertained by them when he's lying on his playmat, and cheered by them at the end of the day when he's just about ready for bed. Fantastic seeing them build their own relationships with each other.

(Bit of Playschool watching!)

(Jasper the Ape-man, after an attack of the facepaint - on his legs!)

Jasper's a tremendous mimic - of Piper in particular. Here's he's doing a funny face of Piper's, one that's often pulled for the camera. He knows a few letters, and not surprisingly, these are P and I. I heard him saying them to himself over and over to himself just recently. He's like an echo of the eldest! And great fun...

While Jethro slept (for ages!) this afternoon, Piper and I sorted out all her clothes - somehow they had accumulated, and on top of this, we were trying a system where she didn't have to fold her clothes in her drawers, so it was total chaos and she had trouble finding stuff, of course. Anyway, I was bemused and perhaps disturbed by the MOUNTAIN of clothes that are now no longer part of her wardrobe. I was reminded that she's a part of this affluent Western life many of us take part in...

The clothes and a myriad of other bits and pieces from our household will get taken to the Really Really Free Market, an event a friend and I are organising where people turn up with stuff to give away and share. It's kind of a loose cannon event - not sure how it will go down - but here's to experimentation and challenging societal norm!

On a different note, on Monday (two days away), Gord's cousin Matt arrives from Canada to stay for a month, so September is semi-holidays mode. Gord's taking two weeks off, we're heading down to Lorne, and somewhere else too (not sure yet). Matt and Gord will work on building a deck out the back, and that, along with the terracing job finished with redgum sleepers, will really change the feel of the backyard, I reckon, just in time for my 30th bday dance party!

Much love to all!

(taken in my parents' front yard - September 2009)

Spring in September

2009-09-05T21:51:00.001+10:00

Spring is in the air here! Bulbs are blooming in splendiferous quantities, everywhere you look when you go for a drive out here in the hills and likewise in our own yard. Trees are budding, especially the ten or so fruit trees we ordered this winter which seem to have settled in (almond, pecan, fig, apple x 2, plum x 2, nectarine, peach, quince, grapefruit, and apricot - lillypilly, avocado and tahitian lime waiting till slightly warmer weather to go in).

Raspberry canes and blueberries are greening up; broadbeans, peas, silverbeet and garlic lead the way in the vege patch; broccoli (thanks Paul!), radish, rocket, and beetroot are in the ground ready to spring forth. Numerous natives and flowers in pots in the backyard wait to be planted...

And much digging (by Gord) is taking place in the backyard, shaping a piece of it into terraces for a salad/herb garden...

It's a definite delight to own a patch of ground and take responsibility for it and dream about it and plant stuff in it. I've never ever thought of myself as a green thumb, but now I can see that you don't really set out to be one, it just happens out of a continued relationship to some land. I'm enjoying how this part of myself is evolving, and I'd like to think that one day someone else might call me a green thumb, in about forty years!

A moving update

2009-08-26T17:24:00.004+10:00

Two videos of the kids, in the absence of hands to type with (I'm trying to feed a baby):

Feature wall

2009-07-08T21:16:00.003+10:00

Our rusty-red feature wall, and our loungeroom in process. Finally got some pictures up on the wall. The curtains will go eventually, and that particular rug probably won't stay there, but yeah, it's fun to keep adding to the space.

Jasper in pjs from Jeff and Sharon, meant for Jethro! Very cosy!

Haircuts

2009-07-08T21:02:00.005+10:00

Piper had been complaining about me brushing her hair, and Jasper's hair was getting pretty out there, like an eccentric professor! So it was time to head to the hairdresser's. This is the before shot...

Stephanie and Piper...

Jasper mounting the throne for the first time, totally unfazed!

And after... they look great!

Wood for winter

2009-06-08T21:53:00.003+10:00

Now that we have the you-beaut woodstove, we've had to pile up some logs to go in it! Check out my axe-action!

Gord says my posture is crap, but hey...

...look at that! Three-way-split, thankyou very much, so who gives a fig about posture! (Must admit, it was amazing splitting wood...)

Our efforts. Okay, make that mostly Gord's efforts! He and our neighbour, Brett, cut and hauled five ute-loads of logs from the state forest nearby - took them around eight hours all up. Now we're set for maybe six weeks, which somehow doesn't seem like much time... =)

Anna's engagement party

2009-06-08T21:11:00.004+10:00

My best mate Anna got engaged to Chris on the weekend, so we had fun dressing up and heading into Brunswick to celebrate...

The Happy Couple!

You can find us at...

2009-05-06T21:26:00.002+10:00

Just a note to say that while life is a bit hectic right now, and the camera left languishing, and my blog-posting non-existant, at least my dad is letting the world know what we are up to! You can check out his blog here: http://lightpathsupport.blogspot.com/

Or you can check us out specifically at these posts (on his site):

http://lightpathsupport.blogspot.com/2009/04/string-of-memories.html

http://lightpathsupport.blogspot.com/2009/04/easter-visit.html

http://lightpathsupport.blogspot.com/2009/04/harvest-picnic.html

http://lightpathsupport.blogspot.com/2009/04/birthday-horse-ride.html

http://lightpathsupport.blogspot.com/2009/05/lets-celebrate.html

Just letting you know, cos some of you aren't as tricksy on the internet as Lorna!!

Love Bec

Life with three

2009-04-01T22:47:00.003+11:00

Finally posting more photos! Sorry to all you who check this blog regularly! Life with three kids is great, actually - the transition seems the easiest so far - but our time is more accounted for. Always nappies to fold, dishes to wash, floors to sweep, kids to attend to. It feels quite manageable, between the two of us, but extra stuff, like blogging or crafting, needs to be squeezed out of spaces somehow! That said, we did manage to can five bottles of tomatoes tonight - tomatoes harvested from our garden! And more to do tomorrow... The homeschool stuff is rolling, now that I'm out of my pregnancy headspace - I'm really excited about all the possibilities, and how our life in general seems to be getting richer and richer. Hope to post more about this soon, or on the other blog. Love to all.

Brett, our next door neighbour, offered to give the kids a ride on his motorbike. They loved it, of course!

No more pacifier for this baby, after two days of him forgetting how to attach properly, and both he and I getting extremely frustrated! It's the little finger, or nothing!

Painting with Olivia, who live next door.

Jethro reaching for his new cardigan before it's even finished!

Piper with her friend Anja.

Jethro's new bed

2009-04-01T22:31:00.003+11:00

Check out Jethro's new bed! Installed last Thursday. He really will be cosy warm in the months to come! Ha!

Doesn't he look content?! (This was Gord's idea, everyone!)

A name chosen!

2009-03-09T22:08:00.004+11:00

We’ve finally settled on a name for our baby boy:

JETHRO ARCHER FUNK

Well, we can’t get away from our J names for boys! Just the way of it. Jethro emerged as a possibility, and we had a serendipitous moment when we discovered that the name means ‘abundance,’ a concept that has resonated a lot for us lately. And who knows, he might develop great organisational skills and live up to one of his namesakes!

And we had to get another ‘-er’ name in there somewhere! (Nah, just kidding, that was a fluke…) Beyond the obvious (meaning ‘bowman’), Archer means ‘geniune, bold, brave,’ concepts that seem to fit with Jethro’s direct stare and calm nature (as much as we can tell at one week old!). We certainly hope they’re values he can grow into. Ironically, Dad has been calling him Archibald while we were taking our time coming up with a name, which is, of course, a variation of the same root word.

We’ve lost the musical theme of Piper & Jas’s (Jazz’s) names, unless you count an oblique reference to the British blues rock band Jethro Tull. Instead we’ve picked up a pastoral theme: Jethro Tull, who the band was named after, was an 18th century English inventor and agriculturist, and the seven Archer brothers were well-known pastoralists and explorers in 19th century Queensland. One of the brothers was called Archibald, if you can believe that! Archibald Archer…

The combination of names lends itself to a number of different nicknames: Jet, Archie or, running with initials, Jaffa, and no doubt many more. This feels good, given we live in the land of abbreviated appellations!

So there you have it, probably our last attempt at naming a child, unless someone else wants us to do the honours for their child! Hope our kids can appreciate our choices once they’re old enough to have an opinion…

So now we are:

Gordon Funk

Rebecca Kate Funk

Piper Phoenix Funk

Jasper Sage Funk

Jethro Archer Funk

Piper turns 5!

2009-03-09T21:43:00.006+11:00

Piper turned five on the 6th of March, and in the midst of our baby-space, we tried to make it a special day.

Mum and Dad came round for morning tea, and Piper was able to open her presents, wearing her new favourite dressing gown from Savers that she bought with Dad. She'd wear it everywhere, if she could! Anyway, present number 1, a ballerina thingy from Pippa...

Some horse stuff from Gord and I...

Pink Barbie gumboots and Pink Barbie slippers from Pippa and Poppa. (My Mum took Piper shopping earlier in the week and this is what she chose. No surprises there!)

A ballerina t-shirt from Gramma & Opa in Canada.

And posing in it later on - man, she's getting to be a big girl! (The hat's still in use, Michelle! So are the skirt and coat!)

The other present Piper got (from her dad!) was getting to eat whatever she wanted all day! About two minutes after Gord announced the concept over breakfast, she says, I'm gonna eat some chocolate! And so she did! And goodness, by the end of the day, was she hyper! Hopefully it was empowering for her, and a reminder for me why we try and eat healthily, on the whole!

Lovely shots of Dad and Jas.

Later on, a movie night, watching one of Piper's favourites from the library: Spirit.

Meanwhile, Jethro had his first bath...

Cuddles on the couch.

The next day, Olivia, our neighbour, made Piper a cake, and the whole family came over to see the baby and sing Piper Happy Birthday - lovely!

New addition

2009-03-06T12:26:00.004+11:00

One day old...

Three kids together...

Getting some sun to ease the jaundice...

Gord and his boys, one sick (Jasper) and one sleeping...

Labour of love

2009-03-06T12:10:00.002+11:00

I'm finally getting to blogging, after a month or so where I felt like, the bigger my belly got, the less headspace I had for anything blog-wise or computer-wise. And hey, now I have something kind of interesting to blog about! Here's a bit of the story...

A Piper-and-Jasper totem pole, in front of the birth pool bits.

Labour's kicked in, midwives on the scene...

Resting between contractions...

Kids up, baby must be coming soon... Jasper really doesn't know what's going on!

Baby born - Piper thinks "piece of cake!"

Man, I look happy! I think I'm glad it's over!

And my reward: tea and toast in bed, wrapped up with a new baby...

Bushfire update

2009-02-13T15:33:00.003+11:00

Very briefly, an update on the bushfire situation. We are currently fine, although one of the (currently contained) fires is quite close to us. Gembrook was on alert and high alert earlier in the week, but all has been fine. Hard to believe that the devastation of Saturday will happen again, cos the weather conditions were just so extreme. Not nearly so extreme now, although changes on the weekend or early next week might put us back on alert or whatever.

This week has largely been about processing the stress of our weekend close call, driving home and realising the immense impact of fires elsewhere, and realising that Gembrook was somewhat in danger. It's stressful to have a bag packed by the door ready to go.

But the biggest sad thing was that the two people I knew who were missing were confirmed dead on Tuesday. Mel and Penny were the younger sisters of Luke, who I went out with before Gord. They were vivid in my memory, even though it's been a while since that time of my life... A bit of their story is here.

Anyway, I want to ring so many friends and family who have worried about us, but I'm running out of time before we leave this weekend, so this will have to suffice for now... Thanks heaps for your thoughts and prayers....

Love Bec

Bushfires

2009-02-09T22:03:00.007+11:00

Victoria had its hottest day on record last weekend, topping all meteorological records since white settlement, at 46.4 degrees celcius. This heat, combined with the previous week of hot forty-plus weather, combined with strong winds, led to the worst bushfires this state has ever experienced. Hard to imagine, but it's been brought home by our own experiences and the far worse experiences of others. So far over 130 people have died, and numerous properties, and even whole towns have been obliterated.

The government was urging people to stay home on Saturday, because of these weather conditions. Friends of ours were getting married at a campsite about an hour away at Neerim East, and had invited us to stay for the weekend. I just assumed we'd be fine cos we wouldn't be doing any driving on the Saturday. The couple debated moving the wedding to Melbourne because of the extreme weather conditions, but ended up changing the time of the ceremony to the morning. Those who drove up in the morning and left just after lunch managed to make it back, but those who left later ended up returning to the campsite, unable to get through on the roads.

The day became progressively warmer, obviously, and the heat of the wind was like a hairdryer blowing. At about 4pm smoke from a nearby bushfire began darkening the sky. The colouring in the photos above is accurate - that's what the air/the sky looked like. The sun looked like a hellfire ball, but then very quickly you couldn't see it at all as more smoke covered the sky, so that it felt like night.

Around 5pm all the guests had been gathered into the main meeting area, and everyone was to stay in this room. Pretty soon the power went out, but the camp staff rigged up one generator-powered light at the front of the room. We could see the glow of the fire over the ridge, but it gradually faded, and in actuality, the fire was much further away than it seemed. At 9pm the police came round saying they were attempting to clear the roads, covered in branches and debris brought down by the strong winds. They wanted to evacuate everyone in the area because of a predicted wind change at 5am, which would blow the fire, which had passed to the side of us, back in our direction.

(Choi & Naomi, a memorable wedding for them!)

Everyone settled down to sleep in the main room. At midnight the police came back saying the roads were clear, and everyone drove out safely to Warragul, a nearby bigger town with an operational evacuation centre. After registering that we had made it there safely, Gord and I decided to drive south to Korumburra and then back to Melbourne on the Sth Gippsland Hwy, given the direct route, the Princes Hwy, was closed. The fire had crossed it during the day.

We made it home safely at 4am, but the house was without power until the morning, and we'd had the floorboards in the loungeroom polished while we were away (what a crazy weekend!), so there was furniture and boxes in all kinds of odd places! Still, we found candles and were happy to fall into bed.

While we were driving home during the night, we started listening to the radio and realised that a whole lot of other bushfires had been ravaging other parts of Victoria, including taking out whole towns not that far from the outer suburbs of Melbourne. Whole communities have been decimated. Hard to believe. To the south of where we were for the wedding, the fire, blown by the wind, travelled 10-15km in 20 minutes. So many people were caught off guard, it seems, because the fires were moving so quickly. The news on TV aired a short bit with one couple who'd gone to the supermarket and came back to find their house gone. You don't go to the supermarket if you're on high alert. Their dogs were in the house.

What brought it home for me was that the two sisters of Luke, a fellow I went out with for three years before Gord, were missing, and are still missing at this point. In addition, both his parents' houses, in two different towns, are totally gone. Other friends in Long Gully and further east than Kinglake were fighting fires to save their places, and are currently fine. The place where we did the tantra course in Steels Creek, north of Yarra Junction, is pretty much totally gone.

We've had the radio on most of the day to keep up with what's happening. It keeps feeling real and then unreal, to me. What made it feel more real later in the afternoon was that our area received an alert about a fire to the north of us, so I ended up packing some bags, ready to leave. There's no way I want to be here if a fire comes through, that's what the weekend reinforced for me. For a while there we weren't sure if we'd be spending the night somewhere else, but in the end, the fire posed no threat, and here we are.

This weekend Gembrook could be on the alert again, due to weather changes, so it feels kind of ongoing, and certainly news and stories keep coming out, about survival or tragedy. It's draining in a subconscious way.

If you want to see what the news is saying, go to www.theage.com.au, one of Melbourne's newspapers.

Rubble update

2009-01-29T14:10:00.000+11:00

Three hours into the work and the first two layers are down. It will take a lot more cement than the three bags I had ready for this so we had to wait for another day... Now that its 43 degrees outside, I'm not in a rush...

I love the serpentine feel to the wall. So far, so good!

A barney with rubble

2009-01-26T08:47:00.000+11:00

Well, here goes. Were about to try and turn this rubble heap into a modest retaining wall... should be fun. :)

Experiment

2009-01-08T11:58:00.003+11:00

I've been blogging almost every day on my other blog, as an experiment for January, so head over there if you want to see a bit of what we've been up to.

Christmas Day (belatedly!)

2009-01-08T11:52:00.002+11:00

Christmas Day 2008 for me was:

~ waking at 6.22am, just naturally, leaving me just the right amount of time to finish knitting Gord's present (a wristband with a beaded design on it, like one he lost a couple of years ago, which I had also knitted for him! Betta not lose this one!).

~ cream in my coffee from the top of a fresh bottle of milk.

~ sitting outside in the glorious sun.

~ scanning Supper of the Lamb (read this book, everyone!) for ideas of what to do with our leg of lamb.

~ home made sweet chocolate bread. I was very happy with how these turned out, just wished the chocolate inside was a bit sweeter!

~ eating Minties and other treats with Pippa and Poppa.

~ hand drawn books by Piper, the story of Finding Nemo for Poppa (see pics here on my Dad's blog), and the story of Beauty and the Beast, with assorted lions thrown in, for Pippa.

~ a gift exchange between the kids, a felted mermaid for Piper from Jasper, and a monkey for Jasper from Piper, both from Local and Global, a fairtrade shop in Belgrave.

~ a very leisurely opening-presents space. Typical Ackland style!

~ Piper's favourite gift, a jewellery box. Yes, with Disney princesses on it. From my Uncle Mon. (Piper's outfit: top from St Vinnies, a thrift store; skirt by me, inspired by the top, made on Christmas Eve!)

~ handmade (but not by me) ornate Christmas stocking for the kids, filled with lovely things from Pippa and Poppa. (Dad blogged more about these here.)

~ a feast!

~ my attempt at carving the leg of lamb!

~ a pear tree with no partridge.

~ crowns from the bon bons, of course.

~ children oogling the ornate gingerbread house, made by a friend of my parents. (More about it here.)

~ feeling overwhelmed by all the sugar on the table at dessert time. The gingerbread house was actually full of more lollies inside! (This is Piper's photo).

~ a spontaneous trip to Kurth Kiln Regional Park (about ten minutes drive away), just the four of us, while Mum and Dad relaxed at home. The kids had a splash in the creek and Gord was relieved to be doing something!

~ relaxing on the couch after Mum and Dad had left and after the kids were in bed, and watching not one, but TWO movies! Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and Burn After Reading.

A very good Christmas.

Climbing a stairway (to the back yard...)

2008-12-31T17:00:00.000+11:00

After climbing the bank into the back yard one too many times, we decided to cut up a large tree trunk from the Gembrook Retreat and create a bit of a staircase... its not perfect (one step is too high) but it sure makes getting into the back yard pretty simple...

Christmas Eve

2008-12-27T19:57:00.003+11:00

Christmas Eve: a day of errands and activity and anticipation. Last minute sewing - a Christmas skirt for Piper, and a rainbow headband. Last minute knitting - in secret in the library. Actually, a whole hour at the library, to faciliate said secret knitting, but also finding a whole pile of Christmas books to faciliate getting into the spirit of things. Cleaning up the house. Much gift wrapping, of course.

Making time for a treat, a Christmas movie - it was going to be Rudolph, but Gord accidentally downloaded a German version. So instead, Home Alone, a movie I enjoyed when I was younger - some quotes were still there in my head: "keep the change, you filthy animal!" A bit over the kids' heads, but Piper enjoyed the goofy get-the-baddies scenes. Laundry to be dealt with.

Buttery popcorn.

And then the arrival of Pippa and Poppa in the evening, right when the movie had finished. Very exciting, calling for some spinning about!

A Christmas pear tree, hopefully the first of an orchard in the front yard. A growing pile of gifts below, causing much anticipation. And finally to bed.

Pre-Christmas gathering

2008-12-25T08:56:00.000+11:00

For those who are interested, we gathered last Sunday at the Gembrook retreat center with a few familes to go over the Christmas story and share a meal.

Peter has written about the event here...

http://lightpathsupport.blogspot.com/2008/12/nativity-story.html

Small spaces

2008-12-24T18:02:00.001+11:00

We have a lot of small spaces in our smallish house so we need to come up with better ways of storing things.

We added a shelf and dropped the hanging rail so Piper could get at her clothes, and then a few days later while shopping for our Christmas preperations found some wicker baskets that fit perfectly, so no Piper's room is a lot (I repeat a LOT) more organised. I think Bec spent nearly 4 hours in there coming up with a workable solution to all her stuff!

Fire is nice

2008-12-24T17:59:00.001+11:00

By day, not much to look at...

But by night, its magic!

Have had the fire pit there for a week and I think we're on the third fire already... sharing this one with the neighbors.

Kookaburra sits on the new porch railing...

2008-12-24T17:55:00.001+11:00

OK, so its a bit hard to see, but Linda, our wonderful neighbor to the east is hand feeding raw steak to a kookaburra. These birds are used to this, and if she doesn't come quickly enough when they want a feed, make quite a racket till they get what they want!!

Table saw

2008-12-24T17:53:00.001+11:00

Yay - finally, a real manly tool - my new used 3HP 10 inch table saw.

Cast iron top, tilting arbor - looks like its a keeper. :)

Works on the go

2008-12-24T17:50:00.001+11:00

Dirt - lots of dirt. Its in the way of where we think our deck should go...

Here's a look at the interm results - about 1/3 of the way through the digging I imagine.

Sometimes, what you are to notice is what you don't see. Notice the down spout from the guttering - it used to go into a water tank there - which is not there, obviously. After setting up the water pump and the main rain tank (visible in the background), this one wasn't needed anymore. Really seems to open up the space nicely.

Say what? Gord's showing off the dirt again? Actually, its a record that I dug in some pipe to connect the water tanks on the house with the tank at the top - with a sump pump in the rain tank and gravity feeding a hose between the two remaining tanks on the house, its a cinch to plug in the sump and let it do all the heavy lifting (which gives me more time to dig out the deck!)

Porrige for breakfast

2008-12-11T10:48:00.001+11:00

Porrige for breakfast, for me, Piper and Jas - or Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear. And a bit of playing that story, too...

Christmas correspondence

2008-12-07T21:05:00.004+11:00

Here's Gord going about the arduous task of writing a few Christmas cards...

... always easier with a bit of fortification!

Gord and Piper today, holding lollies from Pippa! Mum took the kids this morning, so Gord and I got to go out for coffee. And then Piper got to go out with Pippa for lunch (and lolly shopping), so we were all pretty lucky today!

Here's the crazy fun kids of ours...

Water tanks do roll

2008-12-07T20:35:00.000+11:00

On Wed a few days ago our 20000 liter water tank showed up. The driver could not get the truck up the driveway, so we had to roll it from the front, up the drive and around to the back. Thank goodness that Steve was able to help out!!

Once we got to the prepared location, it was one two heave-ho and... well, nothing happened. We couldn't push it over on to its side...

Ah, but the driver was a clever little monkey, so with a few blocks under the lip of the tank, we rolled it up onto them and...

Bang, there it goes, with a satisfying thump.

Its now sitting pretty well in the corner with 5000 liters of water pumped up from the tanks on the house. We are pretty well good to go, once summer decides to start! (Its been pretty cool here for the last few weeks...)

Tung oil is a good thing

2008-12-06T11:22:00.001+11:00

No, I'm not talking about alocohol, that social lubricant... last night and this morning, thanks to a great sander and some stolen oil, the old bench that's beeen sitting outside the house is looking a whole lot better!! As importantly, this should stop or slow the decay that was taking place through the rain hitting unprotected wood...

Weeds R us

2008-11-25T22:43:00.003+11:00

This morning I got up at 5:20AM and by 5:30 I was out trying out the new weed pulling tool I picked up yesterday.

This is the second pass through the yard. The first pass I got rid of the cape weed, a large beast that pulled out easily enough..

This time around, its the smaller stuff, the ones that grow over the grass and kill it to make wqay for more weeds.

Jasper is a good little helper for me. Well, he watches for a few minutes until he's bored and then carries on...

The finished result is a wheelbarrow full of weeds and a pretty bare earth. The good news is that we've had about 3 inches of rain in the last week, so the grass should explode over the next few weeks, hopefully filling in all the holes...

So far, five wheelbarrows full. Probably another three left in the backyard...

OK, so I'm talking about weeds. Not too exciting... but hey, that's life.

Walk with me?

2008-11-25T20:28:00.005+11:00

Wanna come for a wander around the yard with me this evening? While the kids are reading books before bed?

Here's our resident mama, discovered amongst all the ivy Gord was pulling out one day! We are leaving her alone now, but I'm sure it freaks her out that a one-year-old can now come and peruse her nest whenever he feels like it! (we try to discourage this...)

Here's the second resident mama...

This is Piper's teepee. She and I planted sweet pea seeds around the base, so eventually they'll grow up and make it a real tent, but in the meantime, sewing a cover for this is on my list of things to do, and at the moment is being ousted by any make-it plans for Christmas!

Sweet peas coming up...

Two thirds of the vege patch, one bit kind of established, but pretty overgrown by grass and weeds; the other cut in by Gord from scratch last week... My man wields a spade like nothing else! We've planted: strawberries, spring onions, capsicums, tomatoes, beans, cucumbers and lettuce.

The most established (read: lightest soil) garden. Tomatoes, basil, pumpkin and zucchini.

Today's effort, while playing imaginary games with Piper: beetroot.

Today's other effort, this other seed that's growing! (another belly shot for you, Dar!)

And a little boy ready for bed.

Random life

2008-11-25T20:22:00.003+11:00

Playing Guess Who? with Caleb at Gembrook Retreat.

Showing off the results of an impromptu craft session: feathered crowns/hats.

More masterpieces being created...

And we made some boats to boot!

Last but not least, all dressed up to go to Ellen's 5th birthday par-tay!

Family shots

2008-11-02T13:49:00.005+11:00

Lawn maniac at it again, with the huge Gembrook Retreat lawnmower (11 horse power!)

The kids both love Gord's torch, or course.

Piper entertaining us at breakfast, wearing almost her full wardrobe, and dancing!

Jumbuck stew leftovers for dinner - yum!

Mermaid children.

A sneaky shot from Gord, taken through the window near the dining table, this morning. A wake-up story in the glorious sun.

Settling in

2008-10-29T14:25:00.008+11:00

Life in this new place...

> Spring in the air, sipping coffee outside, picnics on the long grass, appreciating the sun.

> Drinking way more tea and coffee than I have for a while!

> The legacy of those before us - these poppies, along with the rest of the house and garden...

> Reading Otherways, to try and wrap my head around what homeschooling might look like for us.

> Multiple trips to the grocery store and health food store to stock up.

> Enjoying this blog, and Soulemama, as ever.

> Numerous loads of washing on the Hills Hoist! Back to cloth nappies!

> More wildlife and animals - the cockatoo who visits the front yard, the kookaburras that cackle on the powerlines, the chooks and goats at Gembrook retreat, the king parrot that came and hung out for at least two minutes one time when I was hanging out the washing. He walked right up to where I was - he was about two or three feet away! That felt pretty special...

> Two kids sick with colds!

> Waratahs in my loungeroom.

Life feels good...

New house

2008-10-29T14:21:00.005+11:00

Okay, okay, enough of the 'beautiful nieces and nephews'! Sharon's sick of that! So would I be... Anyway, finally getting around to posting a few pics of the new place, so you can check out the mess!

The kitchen: biggest complaints are, there's hardly any bench space, and the benches/sink in general are very low... not that this is going to be a whinge-fest! Oh yes, must add, floors are frigid!

One corner of the loungeroom, which we have adopted as an eating area, probably to avoid the tiles in the one other place the table could go!

Unpacking...

Can you spot the girl amidst the chaos??

Backyard blitz!

Weeding manic... so is my Dad! Between the two of them, they've almost put in a full days work on the weeds already!

Looking back at the house from the top corner of the back yard. I love all this space! Will be great when the mower's fixed and we can get the grass down a bit - it's hard for Jasper to walk in it at the moment!

We almost have a view in the front yard, if it weren't for the trees and powerlines! We put wild bird seed on the stand and birds have been coming already, including a resident cockatoo.

Beautiful view between our place and Jane and Steve's. Potatoes going in here? This photo doesn't do it justice...

So going well, but unpacking is slow. Dreams for customising the house are exciting, but we have to be patient about them too, which feels good, actually. Like good things come to those who wait, or whatever that addage is.

Thanks for thinking of us, and I hope to post again much sooner! Love Bec

Beautiful nieces and nephews

2008-10-19T17:19:00.001+11:00

Here's the grandkids, all together. Love this picture. You can see more pics, and more knitted hats(!), here.

Transition in NZ

2008-10-16T17:39:00.000+11:00

Feeling a bit weepy in our apartment in Auckland (just for one night). So much transition in the last few days. Hard to know that our house has been totally dismantled, and probably passed on, by now, even though it was always going to be this way… Makes it feel like it was never our place, even though we made it home for a while.

It feels surreal that the time has come to return to Australia. A part of me can’t believe that we’ll be there tomorrow, hugs all round at Tullamarine with Mum and Dad. It’s been so long coming, in a way. And yet it’s not like our time in Canada felt long, not when I reflect on it from this end of things. Moments felt long and I felt far away from home sometimes, but in its entirety, it seems like the time went very quickly.

The space on Waiheke Island was very good. Got a bit of the jetlag processed, although we’re all still going to bed early and getting up early. Constant sound of the waves. Lots of travelling around the place on the bus, which the kids loved. And I loved too. Time on the beach. Beautiful, beautiful overland hike, Piper walking all the way and Jasper in our arms. Good to spend time with the kids with little other distractions (of work or projects or social life, etc.). Exploring other towns – usually the cafes! The food! No internet, only now in Auckland. Instead, I deleted around 2.5gb of photos off my computer from 2007. We bought the camera just before Jasper was born in May, so we were a bit trigger happy! Felt great to declutter, even in my digital landscape.

(jetlag!)

(riding the bus)

Been drinking lots of coffee! Flat whites made by someone else for $4 here in NZ, which comes as a shock after being in Canada, but it’s so nice! Makes me feel at home somehow, or closer to home, all this brewed coffee available from everywhere.

The kids travelled very well, on the whole. Jasper really notices the transitions, needs more hugs, but so do I. He had a really crappy night’s sleep the night before we left, which was pretty stressful for us (he fell asleep around 6.30am!). But somehow we managed, got through the six hours at Vancouver Airport (we all crashed out on the nursery floor for an hour and a half, not that we slept, but it was lovely to be in a quiet, dark space). And somehow the interminable night on the aeroplane passed. How can thirteen hours on a plane pass, especially with tired young children? But somehow it did. It went well, but if I never do a long flight with young children again, I shall be very happy. The difference from last time to this, last time when we travelled with Piper, was that neither Gord nor I brought hardly anything for ourselves to do or read, etc., cos the reality is, you don’t get time to read with two kids! A bit of TV watching and that’s it. Felt good to be realistic – we’re getting to be real parents!

(Oneroa beach)

(Piper's shot of me)

(The picturesque walk!)

Anyway, I know this is probably only interesting to me. I’m just venting. Hope the photos balance my words a bit! Love to all, from this transitional limbo space. Lots of missing and sadness to process, and somehow squeeze some anticipation in there too… not sure how I can hold both…

Piper's creativity

2008-10-05T21:20:00.001+11:00

Piper's been so creative lately, I wanted to put together some photos to remember this time...

Drawing, almost daily, to the point that Jasper has learned to say 'colouring in'.

Top (clockwise): Jasper's creation, another of Jasper's creations, Piper's roses, Piper's horse and Piper's dinosaur bones...

Piper's prayer flag, of a playground, and love hearts.

A tiger, and a lion.

Chalk drawing: Piper was drawing a fish for the first time, she told me.

And a cat. I really love Piper's drawings, even if they don't always turn out the way she wants them to... She's so creative...

Week in the Life: Sunday

2008-10-05T21:07:00.000+11:00

Well, this wraps up my Week in the Life project. I've learned that lugging my camera everywhere pays off with unusual shots (and certainly a whole lot more photos to be stored on my computer!). For now I'm glad to put the camera down and get on with packing, but I would like to do this sometime in Australia - it really helped me look at my everyday life differently, and helped me feel more creative in the small moments...

My fave jacket, and fave colours...

I seem to like snapping shots of others snapping shots. Here's Pat, Dar and Jayden.

Jasper's farewell toy, which I might steal, seeing as I like squirrels!

Week in the Life: Saturday

2008-10-04T22:04:00.001+10:00

Visiting Marv & Tanell's quilt shop in the morning...

Riding in the chariot.

Almost bedtime, coming down with a cold (like my halo??).

Week in the Life: Friday

2008-10-03T22:23:00.000+10:00

In the Steinbach Library loo!

Look, Jasper makes it in again! But I couldn't resist this page-turner shot...

The inaugural Book Club meeting. Very exciting. Monica here taking a shot of Audrey and Michelle, who are pretending to be avidly interested in The Shack, a difficult feat. (Ha! That was a joke, everyone!). Very fun, lots of laughing, THE most bottles of wine I have seen on a kitchen counter in my whole time here in Steinbach this last ten months - at least four, and at least three open! Why are we leaving right now?? Next book on the list: Water for Elephants. I think I might read it even though I can't make it to the next meeting...

Week in the Life: Thursday

2008-10-02T21:57:00.000+10:00

Jasper was up early, so I caught this beautiful sunrise.

Cappuccino reward at Lacoka.

The day: bit of sewing, bit of gift wrapping, bit of having my diary drawn in by a little person. (Man, Jasper seems to make it into a photo every day hey!)

Week in the Life: Wednesday

2008-10-01T22:26:00.000+10:00

A colourful gift from Marv and Tanell.

ABC Melbourne radio while knitting in my PJs in the mid-afternoon. What else is a day off for (other than to finish off last-minute gifts!)?

Final countdown.

Week in the Life: Tuesday

2008-09-30T22:23:00.000+10:00

Early Morning Boy with Milk.

Farmer sausage at Main Bread and Butter (Piper's photo).

Lillies beneath Piper's roses, lillies that will last as the house falls into chaos and bareness.

Week in the Life: Monday

2008-09-29T22:20:00.000+10:00

I've been lugging the camera everywhere this week, trying to document these last days here. Monica emailed to say she was participating in Ali Edward's Week in the Life project, and I decided to jump on the bandwagon, even though the timing is kind of hectic (nine days left in Canada). I have an idea for a physical document I'd like to make, with bits and pieces of our life here, brown paper bags, square photos, not entirely sure yet. I wasn't really thinking of blogging the project, until the final product. But I love looking at Monica and Ali's photos, love the mundane-ness of them, and the beauty captured in the midst of the mundane, so I have decided to post just three photos a day, with minimal words, so that I can have the pleasure of seeing them evolve, but so that posting doesn't take forever, cos time is at a premium at the moment!

Anyway, without further ado, here's Monday:

Facing the week.

Dessert at Baked Expectations with Pat & Dar.

Osborne Village (Gord's photo).

Strawbale House

2008-09-29T12:05:00.011+10:00

Thought that it might be a good time to update the straw bale saga...

First up, the curves of the place. As is well known, the walls of a straw bale house are wide - all 18 inches or so. This means that the window openings present an opportunity to add a bit of character...

But, before we see that, see Mark busily at work getting the insulation in above the windows...

Ah yes, the ever-present smile. And doesn't Mark look like he'd belong in an issue of Mother Earth from the 70s?

Insert gratuitious family shot (which shows that I'm doing my job of minding the kids...)

Here you can see the curves around the window... this reminds me of something I said a bit earlier, when we were musing on the fact that the walls weren't going to be perfectly straight... I was wasxing eloquent about the natural, curvacious feel of the walls...and in fact, we don't call the front door our entrance...we call it the vagina....

Another smaller window open.

Fast-forward about a couple of weeks. Mark was fortunate enough to get some plasters to his house. They finished in a day what would've taken him a month. Very efficient. This means that the house should be weather-proof from the outside until the final coats can be put on in spring.

The feel of the house really changes when this is on - looks a lot taller, for one.

Note the curve of the fundation up to the wider walls.

And yes, the curves on the outside of the .. err.. side door.

Work work and more work... and still so far to go.

Garden Fresh Tomato Soup

2008-09-28T21:37:00.000+10:00

To use the last whack of tomatoes, I found a recipe for Garden Fresh Tomato Soup. Tried it out and it tasted good, plus I didn't have to skin the tomatoes, which was a bonus! Now Gord picked the last fruit off the vines at our place and Matthew's - guess I'll be cooking tomato soup again!

Here's the recipe for Garden Fresh Tomato Soup:

4 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
1 slice onion
4 whole cloves
2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons white sugar, or to taste

In a stockpot, over medium heat, combine the tomatoes, onion, cloves and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, and gently boil for about 20 minutes to blend all of the flavors. Remove from heat and run the mixture through a food mill into a large bowl, or pan. Discard any stuff left over in the food mill.

In the now empty stockpot, melt the butter over medium heat. Stir in the flour to make a roux, cooking until the roux is a medium brown. Gradually whisk in a bit of the tomato mixture, so that no lumps form, then stir in the rest. Season with sugar and salt, and adjust to taste.

A wander in Sandilands

2008-09-28T21:28:00.000+10:00

On Saturday what I most wanted to do was go for a walk in Sandilands. The air was crisp but the sun was warm, and the foliage, of course, is glorious at the moment.

Happy one moment...

And sad the next, just at the end! This is why I didn't want to come with two children by myself!

Is this the last glorious weekend?

2008-09-22T21:07:00.000+10:00

Birthday Baklava

2008-09-22T20:54:00.002+10:00

I made baklava for Gord's birthday, both cos he wanted it, and we wanted to use up the filo pastry we had kicking round in the freezer! I used this recipe, using almonds as well as walnuts (with inspiration from Nigella, of course, but I couldn't get hold of rosewater, hence I went with the cardamon-flavoured recipe). (For those of you who give a rats'!) It was very tasty, and there was plenty enough for me to be enjoying a piece as I write this, the day after (but now there's only one left!)

I made it the day before Gord's birthday, in a bit of a mad rush before his cousin's wedding (why do I do that??). That's probably why I was hyper, hanging out with Matt, Sharon, Dar, Jeff and Gord at the nuptials! Then the next morning, I was making a gluten- and dairy-free cake for someone at house church, and Gord was whipping up some mini quiches (using up more of the filo!). We brought three dishes of food to the housechurch special brunch, in honour of some guests. Perhaps that was overkill, but they all tasted good! And so did all the other dishes!

Housechurch was busy, lots of people, and three birthdays to celebrate! Monica showed everyone how to draw labyrinths. Then when we got home, Scott and Leanne, friends of Gord's from his Winnipeg days, who he hadn't seen for five years, were waiting on the doorstep (not for long, thankfully, and yes, the visit was planned, they weren't just rocking up out of the blue after a half-decade!). I was wasted, unfortunately, and eventually crawled off to lie down with Jas to try and convince him to sleep.

Then, when I got up, Scott and Leanne were gone and Gord told me Shaun and Helena were coming over, spur of the moment. That worked out really well, especially the bit where, after a bit of visiting, Shaun whisked Gord away to the bottleshop - that was EXACTLY what he needed to perk him up and make him feel like he was celebrating his 34th birthday! See, my parents know him well! (see below...)

So yes, long story short, Gord's birthday: a fair whack of cooking, and three lots of socialising, culminating in a lovely relaxed (to the point of delirium!) visit with Shaun and Helena. There goes another birthday...

Here's the family man.

Birthday cards and fall foliage, beneath Piper and Jasper's creativity. Piper drew Captain Hook on her envelope, which was very cool, with a definite hook instead of a hand! I just drew flowers. Gord liked them =). Mum and Dad bought Gord a cordless drill as a present, and rather than send it over, they send a miniature cardboard version - very clever (Dad)!

But look closer at the card from Mum and Dad, yes, that one with 'Son' written on it - notice what's on the front? It's a pint of beer, a pleasant honey amber ale, by the looks of it. They know Gord too well! (See the cardboard drill set?!)

Birthday bonfire

2008-09-22T20:21:00.000+10:00

To celebrate Gord's birthday, we hung out child-free with his parents around a fire in their backyard. Ah, the serenity!

It's definitely fall time... I'm loving it!

The birthday boy, sorry, not the best shot in the dusky light...

Me sporting a freshly-made pompom, part of a secret project.

Holiday house!

2008-09-21T10:42:00.004+10:00

Want to drool over the holiday house we hired in New Zealand?? Four nights on Waiheke Island, a ferry-ride away from Auckland... right by the beach... now all we need is perfect weather!

That's heading our way in three weeks' time. And after that, one night in Auckland, and then landing in Melbourne the following day, the 17th of October. It's surreal thinking about it, and it's coming so fast...

Food for thought

2008-09-18T04:34:00.004+10:00

A favourite lecturer of mine from Whitley College, Simon Holt, was recently on air, talking about his book, God Next Door, and the whole concept of being neighbours. I enjoyed the podcast and thought some of you might too. (The podcast was at the bottom of the list on this page, but might have flipped over onto page two by now.)

I also appreciated the podcast with John Esposito on 'What a Billion Muslims Really Think'. Good food for thought all round. And how lovely to have a day off where I can indulge in simply knitting and listening.

Dreaming

2008-09-18T02:24:00.003+10:00

A friend from housechurch sent me this movie link. I really enjoyed it, so I thought I'd post the link here. Love to all, Bec.

Spiritual chess

2008-09-16T07:49:00.001+10:00

Got this in my inbox today. I don't often forward things on, but I do want to write more of my thoughts in here...

Wish this were true for me...

Tripping Over Joy
by Hafiz,

What is the difference
Between your experience of Existence
And that of a saint?

The saint knows
That the spiritual path
Is a sublime chess game with God

And that the Beloved
Has just made such a Fantastic Move
That the saint is now continually
Tripping over Joy
and bursting out in Laughter
And saying, "I Surrender!"

Whereas, my dear,
I am afraid you still think
You have a thousand serious moves.

Farming is an urban problem

2008-09-15T00:27:00.002+10:00

Reading something last night by Wendel Berry helped work out a little conundrum in my mind about the relationship between farming and the push from the cities to change the way that farming is taking place.

Berry simplifies it simply:

When the producers — the farmers — are going broke, it’s wrong to expect them to reform the system. In fact, there are too few actual farmers left to reform anything. So, as a practical matter, reform is going to have to come from consumers. Industrial agriculture is an urban invention, and if agriculture is going to be reinvented, it’s going to have to be reinvented by urban people. (italics mine)

This doesn't reduce the hostility that country folk might feel toward the urban tree-huggers who are 'telling em what to do', but it does explain why this is the way that large-scale change willmost likely happen.

When death comes

2008-09-15T00:15:00.004+10:00

There's much to be said for having reading books lying about the house in oportune moments.

The thoughts and emotions of our impending departure are stirring stuff in the depths. Last night I was able to put words to one of the deeper stirrings. There's an tension on the shoreline of my soul where the outside expectations of the world meet my hopes and dreams.

...what do I want to do/be?

...what do I feel others want me to do/be?

...how then, shall I live?

This tension is a fact of life, but against the backdrop of these questions, this poem is not so much about death as it is about living.

I've said enough.

====

When death comes

Mary Oliver

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measles-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it is over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

Housechurch @ our place

2008-09-10T10:36:00.001+10:00

On Sunday we hosted housechurch at our place. We fitted almost thirty people into the loungeroom! Crazy! We made prayer flags, a pretty wide-open activity, where we could individually draw or write whatever kind of prayer we wanted to express onto a piece of fabric. It was fun to do something creative...

Singing to start with...

Bev and Jas.

Right into it.

I loved how everyone could participate, even Jasper!

Mark, Tam, Simon and Kalem.

Here's our flags - an eclectic display of our individual expressions. Thanks for coming and participating, everyone!

Consuming the turkey

2008-09-10T09:49:00.000+10:00

Thought I'd post a few pics of the demise of the famous turkey that resided in our freezer for so long!

We finally defrosted it, and one morning Gord cut it down into a much smaller roast. We'd borrowed his parents' mincer, so here he is feeding the cut-off bits through. Have to admit, I was grossed out - dunno if that's a pregnancy thing, or my city-slicker heritage coming through, but it made me feel squeamish! The end result, the mince, was fine, it was just watching the bigger chunks get churned and squished down the funnel - euww!

Mince, glorious mince!

Anticipating the food!

The feast! Roast turkey with roast potatoes, roast beets, maple glazed parsnip, spaghetti squash (which is an amazingly textured vegetable, you should try it sometime! It really is like spaghetti!), homemade cravy (of course), brussels sprouts, vinegared cucumbers (Gord's favourite), balsamic-marinated mushrooms, and a salad that we didn't even touch cos there was so much other food! And then fruit salad and cake! Crikey!

Shaun and Zach came over to help us eat it all - thanks guys! Nice to hang out...

Four and a half

2008-09-06T11:34:00.007+10:00

We celebrated Piper's four-and-a-halfth birthday today, just for fun. She and I made a cake yesterday, and iced it today. It worked out that her friend Aimee could come over for a sleepover, so they had fun making a tent in the loungeroom, hunting for some lollies Gord hid, and consuming cake. All's quiet in Piper's room, so maybe they've even gone to sleep!

Aimee...

...and Piper!

Here's Jasper stuffing his face - he loved the cake. But actualy, he stuffs his mouth full most of the time, no matter what we're eating!

Gord and I are sitting down side by side with our laptops, something we haven't done for a long time. Both blogging - how's that! We have cups of tea we half-heartedly want to drink - just doing our bit to use up teabags in the cupboard. So it was chamomile for me last night, green tea this morning and now cascade mint, but what I really want is plain old Earl Grey! I didn't buy any today - very restrained of me! Gord is slowly plowing his way through the vanilla roiboos.

Okay, I take that back, that they'd gone to sleep! No yet...

So yes, furthering our efforts to deplete our food supply, we finally defrosted the turkey we got for free at Stuperstore when we first got here. Shaun and Helena are coming for tea tomorrow night, so they'll help us eat some of it. The rest, Gord wants to mince up before we cook it. It's not my favourite thing, finding old stuff in the freezer and eating it, but I'm being stoic. It helps having a list of what's in there - I should probably have done that from the start, then there wouldn't be so much old stuff in there!

In other news, our vegemite is ALL GONE! Sob, sob! Carolyn kindly brought over a tube in May, to replace a little jar Mum and Dad sent over earlier, and because we were going through it so slowly, I turned Mum down when she offered to bring some more over in July. However, I was not counting on pregnancy cravings for warm buttered toast and vegemite! I now resort to Grandma Wiebe's homemade peach jam, which is definitely delicious, but hardly salty! We had Grandma and Grandpa Wiebe over for tea this week, which is how we came by the peach jam (before that, I was resorting to plain old honey), and they told us that sometimes for dessert, they eat a spoonful of the jam right out of the jar! I think that's cute. Good to know you can still do fun things like that in your mid-eighties!

Anyway, I really need to go to bed, so ciao for now!

Strawbale House

2008-09-04T02:19:00.006+10:00

We all know the sayings and stories... houses should be built on the rock, not the sand, and the wolf was able to blow away the straw house very simply...

But, for a lot of good reasons, Mark and Tam are going against the prefab grain and building their dream (?) house out of straw.

That's Tam below, showing off her stuffing skills.

The majority of the building is somewhat normal - stud walls inside, typical basement, etc... its actually will have electricity and running water, plumbing etc... and, straw walls. R50 for those who care. 18 inches of the yellow stuff.

Here you can see the depth of the window wells. I believe they plan to tile them. You can imagine them full of plants - or cats, dogs, etc...

Speaking of dawgs, that's Mark below, who together with Tam, has built most of this tall two story building. He looks the part, don't you reckon?

One of the supposed benefits of straw bale building is that unskilled labour can help out. Cherie, Tam's sister, was out from Saskatchewan helping out with the raising of the walls. Not that I'm calling her unskilled - its just that the skills you use - shaping bales with electric chainsaws and angle grinders, or tying them to length with a giant bale needle, are the sorts of thing that most people can say they are skilled in.

However, true to the rumours, you learn quickly, and the more hands you have, the quicker everything progresses.

Gratuitious shot of Jasper. This lad is so full of life is nearly scary. Not scary, exhilderating!

Piper loves going to the house. There are two large dogs on the place, and Piper has taken to acting that she is the puppy of these two dogs. So here, she's cuddling up with her 'owner'.

At this stage, the house is about to get wrapped in and out with stucco wire. This wire has to be sewed back and forth through the bales to tighten it, and then it gets stuccoed.

What's pretty amazing is that there's no moisture barrier between the bales and the elements. Which means that in winter, those 18 inches of straw have to handle upt a 65 degree celcius difference. Unlike wood, straw is not meant to absorb water, so whatever water gets in should be able to evaporate out in spring.

Working on the place at times feels more like a barn than a house.

For the detail oriented, here's a closer look at how the studs, window well, and electrical conduits all live together.

Its pretty fun to be able to work on a project like this. Its demystified some of the aspects of working with straw, and stiffened by resolve to build a load-bearing straw bale granny flat in Gembrook. It is a lot of work though!

Hopefully, we'll get to see this place when the stucco is on. Windows and doors went in last weekend, and hopefully most of the wire goes up tomorrow.

An update on the kids and some personal musings

2008-09-04T00:59:00.008+10:00

Jasper learns more and more each day! He can even climb into his high chair by himself now - check it out! I know it's an accident waiting to happen, but it's still cool!

Jasper often walks on tiptoes, as he has since he could first pull himself up onto the furniture. He copies almost every noise we make, especially Piper's noises! He knows where his nose, ears, hair and penis are - I think that covers the important bits! One of his favourite pastimes is reading, particularly this book (thanks Ali and Paul!). First thing in the morning, he pulls it out while blearily rubbing his eyes, and then is very happy to sit on my lap and hear the familiar words. He can say 'dump truck' and 'tractor'. His eye is caught by bulldozers and aeroplanes. Wonder if he'll realise it when we actually climb into one and fly into the sky. He's plain cute!

This is Jasper and his first ever painting. I wish I'd taken a photo of him in the act - he has such an intent, serious, impassive look on his face!

Last week, he officially weaned himself. It corresponded with him sleeping through the night consistently. I fed him one night before bed, and then he slept through. No middle-of-the-night feed. Then Gord got up with him in the morning. No little morning feed - usually it was one in the night or one in the early morning. That day was my day off, so Gord took the kids to Sharon's and his mum's, as usual. When he got home around dinner time, I chased Jasper round the house, asking if he wanted 'boo-boo' but he just said back to me his word for 'book', so a book it was! His favourite book, of course. Then I went out that evening and Gord put Jasper to bed. He slept through, got up. I didn't bother offering a feed, cos he wasn't asking and my body couldn't really sustain keeping up production with so long a gap between feeds, and we were down to one boob anyway. On the whole, it feels nice to have a bit more of my body back, just in time for another little one to ask a lot of me. But it's kind of sad too - a definite growing up moment. He's no longer a baby.

And Piper is thinking about life in extraordinary ways. This is part of a disjointed conversation with her last night around bedtime (and after, as she continued to come out periodically to go to the toilet or tell us "one more thing"):

Piper, tearfully: "I really really wish I could be a baby again." And then I think she said something like, "cos then I wouldn't have to be so helpful." Goodness, do I push her that much, I thought?!
I said, "Sometimes I feel like that too."

Then, when trying to think of something good to dream about, I suggested she could dream about being a baby again, or being a mum with a baby of her own.
"I don't like being a mum," say Piper, "cos then I have to do all the work and I don't like doing all the work."
I think I repeated myself - "sometimes I feel like that too!"

Later, Piper asks, "What's underneath a swimming pool?" And so we had a conversation about concrete and how hard it is.

And later again, she says, tearfully again, "I'm really sad that Goofer (Jeff and Sharon's very old sick dog) died, cos she really loved me and I really loved her." And then she had me in tears. I was already kind of emotional that she wanted to be a baby again, something about such a genuine understandable desire that can't ever happen, not really. And then the truth about Goofer, who truly did love her, and who she truly loved, and who I chose to hardly engage with at all. I was in tears about her deep capacity for love, especially of animals. She teaches me so much.

Eckhart Tolle has a line in his book, A New Earth, that struck me this week:
"Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness."

I certainly feel that having these kids around is leading me in the right direction, even though I dig my heels in so often, and sometimes feel like too much is being asked of me. But that statement ranges far wider: all the experience I tag with the word 'regret' or 'hard', all those experiences were, in obvious and subtle ways, working for my good. So becoming pregnant with Piper only six months into a new relationship was the most helpful thing for me at the time. And sitting in the circle of a disintegrating PUCN group, facing everyone's angst, was the most helpful thing for me at the time. And living by myself with an older woman for a year, one of the most pear-shaped experiences of my life, was the most helpful thing for me, somehow, in ways that are perhaps yet to be seen! And an angry father was the most helpful thing for me. And the nerve-wracking Tantra weekends were the most helpful thing. And coming here to Canada, away from familiar supports and places for so long, was the most helpful thing for me...

These experiences, and of course all the golden ones that are easier to remember, have shaped me into this beautiful person I am today, with this strong desire to become more aware of myself, so that I can live with a greater capacity to love, especially love for my children. I'm thankful for who I am today and therefore thankful for all these rich experiences.

It truly is a powerful thought. Perhaps it is for you too...

Deleted post

2008-09-04T00:36:00.002+10:00

I just deleted a short rant I'd posted a couple of days ago. At the time it served its purpose, helped me get some angst out of my system. But last night I was reading a bit of Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth. He was talking about complaining, how complaining serves one's ego because essentially when you complain, you feel you are right and someone or something else is wrong. This just strengthens the ego, strengthens my ego, which is not my aim in life. Instead I want to cultivate awareness and forgiveness, looking through the unawareness of others, not reacting to the ego in others.

So there, no more complaints, at least for now! Just a desire for genuine change, in myself and others...

New addition coming soon!

2008-08-29T12:05:00.002+10:00

Well, not yet, but I will, sometime around end of Feb/early March. Should be fun!

Surviving the Zipper!

2008-08-23T04:19:00.008+10:00

I haven't been taking many photos lately, which is why I haven't posted much lately, I think, as well as the simple fact that sometimes I'd rather climb into bed! However, Darlene just sent through a few pics taken on her camera, so I thought I'd get my act together and get in touch, albeit in this indirect, distant kind of way...

We are going well, although somewhat low energy. Gord's had an ear infection for two weeks now, and I'm sure he's about to become a biological hazard to society, cos he's been taking antibiotics and they don't seem to be doing much, so either he should take more, and wreck his gut, or he should stop, but then the bacteria could mutate and become some kind of chimera that we have to deal with as a global epidemic... well, maybe not that bad, but man, antibiotics for that long (and longer!) can't be good. Maybe he's just trying to be in solidarity with my Mum, who's also on antibiotics on the other side of the world. They obviously deepened their relationship when she stayed with us in July!

Man, okay, I'm in a slightly silly mood! Just had a lovely space where Piper's at a friend's princess dress-up birthday party, and Jasper's asleep in bed. I tried to sleep too, but I kept thinking too much... Friends of ours just had a baby, Zoe Rose, and I've had fun shopping for a present for her off Etsy - you can check our gift out here (don't look, Ali and Paul!). I hope they like it. I think Etsy is so cool - i love that you can search through the vintage stuff, and now I'm kicking myself that I didn't pick up stuff from the thrift store here and set up a resale business, cos I probably could have made big bucks! People here don't seem to value vintage stuff in the same way that a big metropolis of crafty, cool urbanites do (read Melbourne!). (Hope I'm not maligning anyone with that statement...)

***

Just got back from Mark and Tam's place, our friends who are building a strawbale house. I filled in a tiny section of wall, retying the bales to make them fit, a very time-consuming process. Gord's been there all day. Hard work, but it seems like you don't have to be an expert to do it, although that might make it easier! Anyway, it knocked off my silly mood and now I just feel tired, but in a good way! Piper had a ball, pretending to be a puppy, with two big real dogs as her mum and dad, and Mark and Tam as her owners. She wanted a leash and everything!

Anyway, now the kids are in the bath to get rid of all that hay and I'm thinking about baked potatoes for dinner. Gord loves side dishes, and wishes sometimes I'd make a few more, rather than just focussing on the main meal (not that I do all the cooking round here). But Mr Lover-Of-Variety (in his women too, if we weren't part of a relatively monogamous society! - all I'm saying is he's a relatively normal man!) won't have to worry about side dishes tonight!! Tonight I can do side dishes!

Maybe that silly mood wasn't so far away... Anyway, photos, yes, that's what I was actually going to post here, so here's us, lately:

Piper and the neighbours' cat.

Playing dress ups.

Kittens at the miniature horse farm.

At the parade, with Darlene.

Look, look! This is us getting off the Zipper! We were at Gimli for the Icelandic Festival, and after a lunch of fish and chips, Pat was urging us all to go on this ride, which zigs you round every which way. Gord was adamant that he was not up for it, so I went on with Darlene, and then again with Pat. I wasn't laughing as hard the second time around, and I did need a little relax on the beach to gather myself, but look at Pat, breathing a sigh of relief to be off! I've never seen anyone so green as he was! I think I did well in comparison!

Here we are at the Midway (the theme park).

And here's the kids sitting near the laden crab-apple tree, underneath the washing line, gathering and eating apples. The simple pleasures of summer. We've also been enjoying a fair few tomatoes and a capsicum from our little garden. Anyway, might sign off here. Love to all.

Trying out Goodreads

2008-08-14T01:37:00.001+10:00

Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I'm loving reading this with my four-year-old daughter. It's a first for both of us: the first time we've read a chapter book together, and the first time either of us has read or heard this story. An iconic American classic that I somehow missed during my childhood, perhaps because I grew up in Australia.

View all my reviews.

Steinbach Town Parade

2008-08-05T13:11:00.004+10:00

Well, after a month of "virtual" silence, and comments from both Matt and Dar, I have undertaken to post some pics! The other thing that has facilitated this post is the return of our camera, which Gord left on the street after the town parade on Friday. Thankfully Steinbach is a town full of Mennonites, and someone rang up tonight saying they'd picked it up.

Piper and I went in the parade for Body Driven Sport, Pat's bike shop. I got it into my head that I wanted to dress up as a clown, and Pat & Dar obliged me! When Piper saw me putting face paint on for dress rehearsal, she decided she wanted to be in the parade too. Here's our practice run...

Day of the parade: our friends Mark and Tam.

Jasper and Gramma.

Free freezie...

Darlene and Jayden.

Pat.

Here we are - it was hard to keep up with everyone on bikes!

I loved watching Piper hand out "suckers" (lollipops), picking some kids and handing them out personally. She really enjoyed the whole thing, and I was impressed with her stamina, walking what ended up being around five kms, by the time the day was done. She's ace!

This fellow and his wife live opposite Gord's parents on the highway, breeding these cute cute cute minature horses.

Zach in the big pill.

Gary, Gord's brother, the "busted" drug pusher.

More vintage Gord and family!

2008-07-03T07:59:00.004+10:00

Happy 13th Birthday!

Gord the cake decorator...

Finished product.

And another! He's doing the next birthday cake at our house!

Teenage Gary, hanging out with the typewriter. I guess that's kind of like playing computer games these days...?!

Gary and the Gary Mobile!

Sharon, Gary and Gord.

Sharon, sweetie, that really is too much makeup! Someone should have told you!

Not sure what's going on in this picture, except that there's much excitement over some money, so that must make these children Mennonite!

Gord the Undertaker! Can you look any more sombre?

A typical dinner.

Gord pretending to have caught some big fish - look closely and you'll see he's not actually holding them up, but standing far back, so that it looks like he is! sneaky!

Church band practice: Gary on drums, cousin David on guitar and Gord looking on.

Dad.

Backyard fun

2008-06-27T06:33:00.004+10:00

This was last week's purchase: a sandpit and paddle pool and some toys to match. It's made our backyard a bit more fun for the kiddos...

And here's our vege patch...

...complete with thrifted scarecrow!

Tomatoes, rhubarb, capsicum, basil, thyme, oregano, sage, thai basil, mint, I think that's about it...

Piper's friend Aimee came round to play earlier in the week, and she and Piper had great fun slinging sand at each other!

Last but not least, here's a photo of a different order: our friends, Mark and Tam, in front of the frame of the (ENORMOUS!) strawbale house they're building. Gord's stopped by at least three times! He might be envious... =)

Falcon Lake

2008-06-15T11:37:00.012+10:00

Last weekend we headed to Falcon Lake, about an hour's drive east of Steinbach. We rented a cabin with Pat and Dar, and their next door neighbours, Dale and Shannon. Other friends, Jason and Shannon, were staying in a cabin behind the one we had, and other friends, Garth and Wendy, were also close by! (That's twelve kids altogether!) So we made the most of Saturday arvo/evening, which is when we were all present and available. Bit of a BBQ, etc.

Here's our cabin...

We had the cabin to ourselves the first night, and then slept in a leaky tent the other two nights - it wasn't too bad, actually, except for rolling over the second morning, and a whole puddle of water that had seeped through the sleeping bag rolling onto my thigh - that's one way to wake up!

Chillin' out, reading How Jesus Became Christian...

Piper's hiphop!

Piper and Tobin in the wagon...

The kids were mad, wanting to go in that freezing water, Jasper especially!

He still wants more!

Watch out - explicit content in this post!

Pat and Dar hanging out...

The kids are only nudey-rudey cos we thought it was way too cold for swimming and didn't bring their bathers to the beach. Lack of decorum or modesty didn't stop them getting wet though!

Jasper, Jayden and Tobin

Dale, Pat and Gord...

Paparazzi! Dar got some nice shots of us - thanks mate!

When Gord's away...

2008-06-12T12:59:00.005+10:00

When Gord's away:

the coffee maker goes untouched - it's green tea 4 me if I want a caffeine hit in the mornings. So much easier to abstain when no one else is partaking of that bitter dark delight!
there's less dishes, and they never pile up too much.
I had a crack at mowing the lawn for the first time here in Canada.
not a single slice of bread has been consumed in this house for the last three days.
I'm so much more tired!
I'm grateful for my friends and family here in Steinbach (and further afield).

Dinnertime - a late dinner, actually. This arvo the kids and I headed into Winnipeg to pick up Gord, only to find that his flight had been cancelled. He's supposedly turning up tomorrow afternoon. I am knackered, although part of that is my own fault. While Gord's been away I have:

planted veges and flowers
cleaned out the fridge
sorted through all Piper's toys, coming up with a whole garbage bag of stuff to take to the thrift store!
unpacked from the weekend
done a few loads of laundry
pulled together a gift for a friend
gone shopping
made soup
mown the front lawn
kept the house tidy and the dishes done
done the kids!

Seems like a lot, but also not all that much either, but I am done in! Must remember how to relax! Now I'm off to make a cup of tea, and some toast, so I can sit down and watch another episode of Love My Way - bring on the Aussie drama!

Getting outside!

2008-06-05T02:29:00.003+10:00

After the wintry scenes of the last post, I felt compelled to provide a weather update! These photos are from around three weeks after that bike race, no snow in sight, but still no leaves. It's been a very long dry grey/brown spring. It's only been in the last two weeks that leaves and blossoms have appeared everywhere, and that warrants a whole new post. But anyway, here's a few shots of us finally able to play outside in shorts!

Spindly tomatoes...

Almost all the linen cupboard on the line!

What a cutie pie!

A walk to the thrift store!

Now which toy will I choose?

A pit stop on the way home...

Sandilands bike event

2008-06-05T02:15:00.005+10:00

I'm a bit behind here, but these are some photos from a bike race that Pat and his mountain-biking group organised at the beginning of May (I think). We went to help a bit with the food/BBQing. The snow didn't stop the riders! It was held in Sandilands provincial park, a half-hour drive from Steinbach.

Dar and I.

Jasper did well in the pram for a while, and then got really bored...

Pat all geared up...

Gord and Pat's Dad working the BBQ.

Loveheart snowflake!
Flippin' frenzy!

A couple of days later we were back at Sandilands with Pat, Dar and Jayden, walking the biking trails (well, Gord and Pat rode some, Dar and the kids and I walked some), taking down the signage.

Morden Back 40

2008-06-03T13:49:00.008+10:00

Yesterday we turned up in Morden for the Back 40 folk festival. A few people from the house church we've been hanging around were going, so we took the opportunity to see a bit more of the Manitoban countryside. I like folk, I've decided, despite not chasing it up much in my life thus far. Lovely to go with friendly people, and have various social options (and sunny/shady options!). Even Pat, Dar and Jayden turned up after Pat's mountain-biking race. Emma and Abby, Dale and Monica's kids (aged 8 and 6), looked after Piper the whole time, seemed like! Meaning they supervised her at the playground and the kids tent - a novel idea which meant the day felt so relaxing for Gord and I! Beautiful day, all in all, a highlight, kind of a rareity... hopefully summer will bring more spaces like this...

The shady spot.

Mark, Simon, Tam and Brenda.

Princess Piper! At the face painting tent, she asked for Barbie! Oh dear, it's the long, fast road downhill from here, I feel! Anyway, to the painter, that meant pink cheeks and red lips!

Statement of Belief

2008-05-29T01:21:00.005+10:00

We've just started going to a local house church here in Steinbach. I wrote about how I found out about it here, and Monica wrote some lovely stuff about our conversation we had with her and her husband, Dale, the first time we went, here. Last Sunday we went for (only) the second time, but the topic was personal belief statements! Talk about daunting, esp. with people I hardly know!

I was actually really impressed by how the group seemed able to hold a diversity of views. It felt like people were listening, really interested in what others were saying, and I think that's all you can ask and hope for, with a conversation like this. Right afterwards, I felt resentment at having to sit through and be part of a fairly intense space (intense simply cos there were such a wide range of views, and this always has the potential to be the cause of division), but as my adrenaline faded, so did this emotion.

In the end, I really appreciated having thought about what I currently reckon, having had to articulate something. I wouldn't have done so, had it not been for this external motivation. For those who are interested, I said something like this (although this is more verbose!):

When I thought about the whole idea of my personal belief statement, two experiences came to mind, experiences which, for me, are two sides of the same coin. One was being in high school and telling my friend that I thought she was going to hell. This was not malicious on my part, but simply based on my understanding of the biblical text at the time, and my understanding of her lifestyle. It seemed a simple, straightforward equation.

These days, I'd never say something like that! Who knows what will happen at the end of this life? I certainly don't, and if there is some kind of judgement scene, I can't presume to know God's criteria for judging, not the extent of Her grace. Anyway, the bottom line is, my understanding of the bible has changed over time. Something that once seemed so black and white now seems very grey.

The other experience that came to mind was giving birth to my two children. I know God was present during my labouring and giving birth, present in the awesome miracle of new life drawn from my own body, present in the face of my children as they looked back at me in those first minutes, and indeed as they look back at me now, if I have eyes and the gentleness to see it.

And yet, this experience of birth, despite being held in common by so many around the world and through the ages, is totally not included in the bible. There's mention of a few important births, but certainly no labour stories and nothing from a woman's perspective. And it isn't confined to giving birth - unique female experiences such as menarche and menopause, and the whole gamut of life in between - these moments of Holy Transformation go unnamed and unnoticed in the biblical text.

But I'm a woman, and I'm made in the image of God, so God must encompass these things.

So where does this leave me?

I know that my reading of the bible has changed a lot over the years. So in any given moment, I hold a healthy sense of doubt about how much of the text I actually understand correctly/in its entirety (if this is even possible). There's gaping holes in my understanding.

There's also gaping holes in the bible's descriptions of God, limited as they are to mostly male imagery, and totally lacking a female author. Not to mention that any attempt at describing God will always be fumbling, and will always fall short. (Though this is not to say that these attempts are pointless - we need them.)

So I hold the bible lightly, very happy to engage with the stories but not willing to make sweeping theological statements, especially with regards to others, and certainly not willing to take it as the final word abot God.

No doubt this current belief statement will change also. This is the only thing I'm 100% sure about: that change will occur! I simply hope I have the grace to flex and bend with the changes.

(image from http://sacredbirthing.ath.cx/sblive/)