the fruits of my labour

Oh, my poor neglected blog. But if it comes to a choice between neglecting my partner, my kids, my sanity, my home and my blog, I’m probably going to choose to neglect my blog every time. Poor blog.

I thought this one word meme (and my first ever meme) that I saw both here and here, might be a nice way to ease back into blogging….

1. Where is your cell phone? Bag
2. Your significant other? Close
3. Your hair? Neglected
4. Your daughter? Sleeping
5. Your son? Sleeping
6. Your favorite thing? Life
7. Your dream last night? Forgotten
8. Your favorite drink? Wine
9. Your goal? Balance
10. The room you’re in? Living
11. Your church? Unnecessary
12. Your fear? Irrationality
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Home
14. Where were you last night? Gym(!)
15. What you’re not? Bored
16. Muffins? Yes
17. One of your wish list items? Overlocker
18. Where you grew up? Tasmania
19. The last thing you did? Curry
20. What are you wearing? Jeans
21. Your TV? Busy
22. Your pets? Worms
23. Your computer? Dirty
24. Your life? Lucky
25. Your mood? Relaxed
26. Missing someone? Parents
27. Your car? Small
28. Something you’re not wearing? Socks
29. Favorite store? IKEA
30. Your summer? Coming
31. Like(love) someone? ‘course!
32. Your favorite color? Green
33. Last time you laughed? Today
34. Last time you cried? Recently
35. Who will repost this? Unknown

I will be easing back into blogging. I’m just going to take it one post at a time.

The photo? The kids at a bonfire with fireworks at my parents’ place in Tasmania. Just one of the things we’ve been up to in the past few months. This may have been taken by Chris. If so, thanks, Chris!

Lowlights:

• having nausea and a headache (and other delightful symptoms that come with a gastro-type bug) for six days straight
• trying to convince people that I was sick and not pregnant
• not having the strength to make hot cross buns or cook a fish meal for Good Friday (not that we’re religious; it’s just a tradition we like to uphold)
• entering the eighth week of having an unreliable oven and continually being told they’re “waiting on a part”
• finding out the property our rented house is on is going up for auction next month
• contemplating finding a new place to live and then moving (possibly my least favourite thing to do)
• not getting any sewing done
• eating too much Easter chocolate
• not getting any blogging done

Highlights:

• receiving a visit and some gifts from my parents on their way back to Tasmania after holidaying in Malaysia
• eating fish and chips by the river with Chris and the kids on Good Friday (above)
• watching the second series of Life on Mars with Chris
• eating too much Easter chocolate
• hearing Isobel say “mama” over and over again
• learning my sister Emily, who’s been overseas for nearly a year will be back home for a couple of months soon
• seeing the wonderful Wilco at The Palace on Wednesday night with my sister Anna

It was Isobel’s first birthday on Tuesday. Almost unbelievable (to me, anyway), but true. I so clearly the remember the moment I first saw her, and the joy, not to mention the relief, I felt at her arrival. I can still feel her skin against mine as we snuggled and slept under the covers in the hospital in an effort to raise her temperature. (Ironically, Melbourne was experiencing a heatwave at the time.)

But a year has definitely passed and we have all grown to know and love Isobel as a beautiful, strong, delightful and life-loving individual. At the same time I can distinctly remember life before Isobel, but cannot imagine our family without her. She brings joy to us all, and I dearly hope we bring joy to hers. Before I had children I never realised how much of a personality babies display and thought they were all pretty much the same. Both Elliott and Isobel have categorically proven me wrong and thrilled me in the process.

We celebrated Isobel’s birthday two weeks early on New Year’s Day when we were in Tasmania with my family. Here she is in all her early birthday party finery:

That’s not her wine, by the way. Here’s the cake I made:

It’s an adaptation of Nigella Lawson’s Strawberry Meringue Layer Cake, using blueberries instead of strawberries. I wanted something fairly light and summery and not too much for a baby (her first taste of cake!). Well, it didn’t seem to be too much. I think it got her approval:

Then last Sunday we celebrated again in Melbourne with Mum and a few of Chris’s family members. We had a lovely barbecue (using the barbecue Chris and I gave ourselves for Christmas), followed by cake and homemade ice cream.

Here’s Isobel reigning messily over her birthday lunch table:

And here is the cupcake “cake” I made:

Thanks to Anna for the photo. And thanks to Chris for all the shots of Isobel (I think). The above photo also shows a glimpse of the number one biscuits Elliott and I made together. Both the recipe for these and the cupcakes come from Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking, which I find invaluable, especially when it comes to children’s birthdays.

As usual, I had grand plans for Isobel’s gift from us. She really doesn’t need anything at the moment, but I decided to make her some things. We haven’t actually bought her anything. And I haven’t actually made anything for her yet, but I figured this is probably the only time we can get away with a late present. I’m pretty sure she’ll notice from here on in and she may not be all that understanding. Not that birthdays are just about the presents, but do kids really believe that? Anyway, she got lots of other lovely things from other people and I’ll be showing here what she eventually gets from us, as I make it. Don’t worry, though, I have started and I’m raring to go.

It’s hot. Really hot. It reached 41.2 degrees at 5:30 today and apparently won’t drop below 30 until some time tomorrow afternoon. I’m just trying to do as little as possible until then. Which is pretty frustrating given I want to act on all my usual New Year good intentions. I might be able to muster up the energy for a little sewing, but so far since we got back from our two week holiday to Tasmania for Christmas and New Year, I haven’t felt able to get stuck into anything. Not sure what that’s about, as there are so many projects I am dying to complete. The heat certainly doesn’t help. Neither does the fact that the place is a mess, but we are working on that, with more Freecycling, plans for more eBaying and the discovery of somewhere to take our excess recyclables (mostly cardboard boxes). One day we’ll be sorted and clutter-free!

The fact that I’m writing this post is a good sign, as this is one of the things I’ve really wanted to do, but have struggled to bring myself to start. Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on myself (yes, I should), because I also began, and have been nurturing, this sourdough starter since Monday:

I tried this once before and somehow stuffed it, and I thought it might be the same story this time, but it seems it might be OK, although obviously the heat has made it almost explode. If all goes to plan, I’ll be baking a loaf on Saturday morning, so hopefully I can report back with good bready news.

Despite the heat, Isobel has been continuing as normal. Last night she pulled herself up into a standing position for the second time that we’re aware of (the first time happened on holiday), much like she did tonight:

As you can see, she was pretty pleased with herself. A few minutes after Chris took this photo, she managed to make her way over to me, taking a few tiny, hesitant steps, while tightly gripping the bed. It was wonderful, but I cannot believe it is almost a year since she was born. I still clearly remember being heavily pregnant in the heat and giving birth to her during a heatwave, as though it was yesterday. But she’s not the tiny, helpless bundle she once was. She’s been commando crawling at the speed of light, taking on the role of the our second vacuum cleaner, which we obviously need, for no matter how often or thoroughly I clean, Isobel always manages to find something on the floor to put in her mouth. I don’t really understand how kids can decide they don’t like lettuce, for example, but are quite happy to eat whatever crap they find on the floor. Having said that, Isobel eats almost anything, which makes life easier for us, as does the fact that she may be one of the happiest babies who ever lived. She has such a radiant smile and beautifully big and shiny eyes. And unlike before, I now know how to make her laugh. Guess that’s what happens when you get to know someone.

Elliott, who is now three and a half and is very proud of this fact, is, of course, still developing, and he hasn’t stopped delighting us. He seems to be going through a “learning spurt” or something at the moment. In the last couple of months or so, he has become obsessed with numbers, letters, how to spell words, playing music, building, creating, pretending, drawing, painting and finding out how things work. It’s both exhausting and thrilling to be around him. We’re going to have to start hitting the library and/or the Internet more, though, because (surprisingly!) we don’t know everything and he seems to want to know everything! A very encouraging sign. Even if it is a little awkward to give an answer to, “How was I made?”, just as we’re tucking him in to bed. These kids certainly keep us on our toes!

It was my 31st birthday on Tuesday and Chris and I celebrated it last Saturday night with a simple meal of rainbow trout with thyme and roasted lemons, salad and crispy potatoes. And good wine, of course.

The next day, we celebrated again with the kids and Chris’s dad, with Jamie Oliver’s carrot cake with lime marscapone icing. The recipe is from this book and can be found here. I’ve had the book a while, possibly since my last birthday, and this is the first thing I’ve cooked from it. If this cake is anything to go by, I should cook more from it soon. Very soon.

Getting older isn’t so bad when you have good people and good food to get you through.

My god. I can’t believe it’s taken me over a week to get to write this post. Actually, I started it days ago, but only wrote the title and the first sentence, both of which I just changed completely. Anyway, last Sunday we (Chris, Elliott, Isobel and I) had a great time seeing Dan Zanes and Friends for a family sing-along last Sunday at Arts House’s Meat Market.

I think I was looking forward to it more than anyone and I wasn’t disappointed. We all had a great time, although Elliott kept asking, “Was that the last song?”. I’m sure he enjoyed himself the rest of the time .

I will admit I kind of forced (in a kind and motherly way) Dan Zanes onto Elliott. I had had it up to the back teeth of The Wiggles (at least the one Wiggles CD we have) and had heard great things about Dan Zanes. I liked the idea of family, as opposed to kids’ music, and it’s really refreshing for kid-friendly music (not that I think there’s much music we listen to that isn’t kid-friendly) to be all about the music and not the licensed merchandise. And Elliott likes it too.

It was wonderful to see and be part of a musical experience involving people of all ages singing and dancing along. And I think it’s a good sign, when days later, we’re still singing the songs and not annoyed by the fact we can’t get them out of our heads!

How cute does Isobel look in this dress? OK, you don’t have to answer that (not that you were going to), I know I’m biased. I also know I’ve gone a bit crazy on the kid shots lately. But how cute is the dress? This was mine and it has a matching bonnet and cardigan. I’m not sure who made it, probably Mum or Grandma. Was it you, Mum? Whoever made it, it looks as though it was finished yesterday, not 30 years ago.

I love the fact that something created in another place and time, can find a new life in some other place, some other time. And I love that I can share things like this with Isobel. I never had a preference for a son or a daughter in either pregnancy, just a healthy baby, but it is nice to be able pass on things, mother to daughter. Sure, I can pass on all sorts of things to Elliott, maybe things I won’t or can’t pass on to Isobel, and I have and continue to do so, but I guess clothing and especially handmade clothing, is one of the most intimate things a person can share, so it seems extra special to me. Who knows, though, maybe if Mum had given me all these old clothes of mine when Elliott was a baby, I might have put him in a dress. That’s the great thing about little kids: they’ll wear whatever you tell them to. Usually.

I would like to think that something I make for Elliott or Isobel is treasured and used by another generation. I have a feeling that more and more people are going to start to value the handmade over the mass-produced. I know I am feeling that more every day.

The kids and I went to Healesville Sanctuary with my sister, Anna, the other day, which is really just an excuse for gratuitous cute kid and animal shots:

Our usual Wednesday afternoon outing was cancelled yesterday so Elliott and I decided we’d make popcorn and watch Finding Nemo while Isobel slept, given the weather was not conducive to much outdoor play. It sounded good to me and it seemed to sound good to Elliott. But once the popcorn ran out, so did Elliott’s interest in the movie. He doesn’t really have the attention span for movies yet, which I don’t mind. He is only three after all and I don’t want him to grow up too fast. Although it seems he may be more abreast of popular culture than I would have thought possible for a three year old, as he kept calling the movie Finding Emo.

The popcorn was pretty good, though. It’s called kettle corn and I made it following the recipe here. It must be an American thing, because everyone I’ve made it for asks me what it is and how to make it. The salty/sweet combination is really good and very addictive. And it’s gluten-free, which pleases my gluten intolerant friends, and much to the delight of my sister, Anna, it’s also suitable for vegans!

New growth:

Preparing to sow:

Spring cleaning (with newspaper and vinegar and water in a recycled Windex spray bottle):

It is amazing how much better windows and what’s on either side of them look when you clean them. I find it’s one of the easiest chores to forget about it, but I’m always really pleased when I’ve done it. And it certainly helps to have an enthusiastic assistant.

I’m really inspired to give the house a good clean this spring and my ongoing decluttering efforts have doubled. I even gave away a big pile of uni text books I’d been hanging onto for no good reason. I’m not sure why I get the urge to do a deep clean in spring. I don’t think it’s just because it’s the traditional thing to do. I suspect it may have something to do with the extra and stronger sunshine showing up all the dust and dirt.

***

Along with a change in seasons, we’ve had a change in sleeping arrangements. At almost eight months, Isobel had finally grown out of her bassinette. So we moved her into a cot and out of our room and into Elliott’s room. Now Elliott and Isobel’s room. She didn’t seem overly impressed with the move, and it was fairly bittersweet for me. Sad to no longer have her by my side, but it feels great to be able to read and talk before drifting off to sleep again. Isobel seems to be slowly getting used to the much bigger bed and the different room and roommate, and as usual, Elliott’s been a real trouper, despite the interruptions to his sleep.