the fruits of my labour

I don’t want this to be a blog about how or why I never post to my blog. So I won’t mention it, if you don’t. Moving on…

We got back from two weeks staying with my parents in Tasmania on Saturday. We had a lovely, relaxing and rather warm time. Some of the highlights:

Picking radishes with Grandpa

Observing the two frogs living (of their own accord) in Mum and Dad's dining room

Visiting the beautiful Tamar Valley

Admiring all the bees and bumblebees working hard in the lavender

Raiding the blueberry patch

Swims in the backyard pool, lovingly cleaned by Dad

Starting and finishing a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle

Appreciating the magnificent sunflowers

Other highlights included a  second second birthday party for Isobel (more on the first later), visiting the monkeys at Launceston City Park, sewing (yes, actual sewing!), spending time with family (of course), games of Uno and 500 and lots of good food and drink. It was a bit of a shock to come back to reality, but I’m excited about this year and what it may bring.

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

So two weeks ago I attended my first Brown Owls meeting. I wish I had an exciting excuse why ifor why it’s taken me so long to report back, but it’s just the usual day-to-day stuff, as well as my feeling a little under the weather. I won’t mention the actual weather, I’m trying to ignore it.

Anyway, I very bravely joined Brown Owls, and as a Sixer, no less. It is something I was much more likely not to do than do, but I am so glad I did do it, as I had a great time. I spent most of the night chatting and laughing with lovely ladies, getting nowhere fast stitching my name to be appliqued onto my Brownie uniform, which hopefully will be somewhat more flattering than my first Brownie uniform! I have made absolutely no progress since then, but I plan to get onto it before my next meeting. I met lots of lovely new people, including Amy, who helped me learn a new stitch (stem stitch – thanks, Amy!), Cath, Justine and Nichola, who were at my table. Many of the people there have blogs, some of which I have been reading for some time and some I have now subscribed to and will now also read instead of attending to the various household chores that await me.

I’m looking forward to my next meeting, where hopefully I will finally learn to crochet!

So here’s the sourdough I made out of that starter I showed a couple of posts ago:

It was really dense and chewy, as the recipe (from here) promised. And it was pretty sour. I’m not sure if the extreme heat we experienced that week made the starter more intense, or if the first loaf from a new starter is more sour than successive loaves, but Chris couldn’t handle it. The kids and I liked it, but I’d be happy with a milder flavour, especially if that means Chris will eat it. So I’ll see how the next one goes and report back here.

***

Something that wasn’t sour in the least, was the Sufjan Stevens concert Chris and I escaped the house to go see last week. Breathtaking. Hope we get to see him again one day.

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!

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: