what is important

i have to admit that i have deliberately avoided all media coverage of what has happened in Haiti. it is part of this new place i am at right now. i have chosen to avoid the things that before would preoccupy my mind. i haven't watched the news since before Christmas. it may only be for a season but i find these things overwhelming, and i need to work at getting my mind to a new place. this is not to say i am not saddened by what has occured. i hold my family closer. i try to be the wife and mother that i should be.
i know of one person who died in Haiti. i did not know him personally. we did not work on the same project, but Emmanuel worked with three of my colleagues. he and two of his three daughters died in their hotel during the earthquake. his third daughter, aged 2, survived because he lay across her. his wife, from New Zealand, was at work at the time and also survived.
i can't imagine what she is going through, but i am sure she is holding that little girl tightly right now. a tribute to Emmanuel can be read here.

a revelation

this week i seem to have my momentum back, my enthusiasm. it waned somewhere around October last year! it's nice to feel energetic and inspired again. confession: i think working part time might make me a better mum. it may have taken 4 1/2 years to come to this, and i certainly would not like to be working any more than i am (2 days would be ideal). a number of things has brought me to this conclusion, and finally, i am at peace with it!

this has been my first week back at work since Christmas time, and it has felt more normal than being home! i've managed to stay on top of housework, so hopefully that doesn't slip, because i come home feeling good, instead of burdened with mess. and before i went back to work and moved through each room in the house decluttering. not that people would probably notice if they came to my house., but i removed any excess photograph, candle and trinket from every bookshelf, buffet or other shelf. i really don't need 6 half burnt candles sitting on my bookcase waiting for the next time i want to light one! i still have to tackle Nicholas and Audrey's room.

Nicholas has asked to make lemonade today, so dad is bringing soda water later when he comes past our house and Nicholas has the lemons and sugar ready. it reminded me of this book, which i have been wanting to buy. i love making chutney's and preserves. i've only ever made a few, but i get a lot of pleasure out of them. cooking for anyone other than my family stresses me, but to me this is therapeutic.

and here is another book of handmades i am waiting on. i can't wait for it to arrive in the mail. :)

the party

we had brunch in the park for Audrey's birthday. there are a few little girls Audrey's age, so we thought it would be nice for her to have some friends to celebrate with her.

Melanie made the cake and Lisa took some gorgeous photographs ! i am spoilt!

happenings around here

H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y A U D R E Y! ! !

H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y D A D! ! !

holiday excursion to the Dinosaur Museum...

a building project taking shape...

and for me, a visit to my university anthropology/archeaology lecturers house. oh, how i miss it all...

and it is now countdown until i return to work.

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I trust in your unfailing love.

I will rejoice because you have

recued me.

I will sing to the LORD

because he is good to me.

Pslam 13:5-6

how does your garden grow?

quite nicely at the moment.

here is yesterdays harvest.

i keep meaning to take a picture of the raspberries on our vine, but we eat them too quickly!

i am SO loving this fabric. last night i cut it all up and began to piece together my quilt.

over the holidays i have been enjoying 'Little House on the Prairie'... if time wasn't so sparse i should have finished the book in a day. the thing i love about it, is that you can see that it is a collection of stories remembered and passed on to family. i like the window into some social history. like when the Ingalls family pack the wagon and head out to the west, with family arriving to farewell them:

"There was thin snow on the ground. The air was still and cold and dark. The bare trees stood up against the frosty stars. But in the east the sky was pale and through the gray woods came lanterns with wagons and horses, bringing grandpa and grandma and aunts and uncles and cousins. Mary and Laura clung to their rag dolls and did not say anything. The cousins stood around and looked at them. grandma and all the aunts hugged and kissed them and hugged and kissed them again, saying good-by."

or preparing a meal while travelling:

"While [the iron bake-oven] heated, she mixes cornmeal and salt with water and patted it into little cakes. She greased the bake-oven with a pork-rind, laid the cornmeal cakes in it, and put on its iron cover... The coffee boiled, the cakes baked, the meat fired, and they all smelled so good that Laura grew hungrier and hungrier."

it made me think of my own great-great-great grandparents, who were one of the first families to settle in northern New South Wales in the early 19th century.

my great-great grandmother (centre) and great-grandmother (second from right)

a book describes the settlement at that time, and names them: the Deaves, Freeman and Armitage families. episodes mentioned give me just a glimpse of what they experienced. when i was still in primary school we went to the region, and the mountains are high, the trees are massive.

"These were exhausting but exciting days for the newly arrived settlers - the Deaves and others who inadvertently were welding a scattered, half-baked community into a prosperous village. But a price had to be paid by these pioneers, the price of a few lives lost in the early struggles with the environment... in the month of July 1861... the youthful John Malone, seventeen year old son of Michael and Bridget, was busily engaged in felling a large tree near the creek, watched by his aunt... and young cousins. Suddenly the tree uttered a warning crack and commenced to fall swiftly. Mrs Blackford called to her children to come away, but tragically her fourteen year old daughter, Mary, ran towards the creek and directly in the path of the crashing giant... Mrs Sophia Deaves hurried down from her house, where she had been preparing the evening meal, to comfort the frightened mother, while the bewildered young axeman ran to fetch help from the menfolk."

"In January 1879 another of these settlers, James Armitage, applied to the Department of Public Instruction to have a school teacher appointed to the neighbourhood:

During the last 12 months the residents of the above locality erected a building for a school and employed a teacher at own expense... There was 17 children on the roll during that time and there will be an addition of 5 more in one month from date."

Hetty Annie Armitage (nee Freeman) my great-great grandmother

the Deaves, Armitage and Freeman families were bullock drivers and timber cutters right up until recent years. my grandfathers brother was killed the year i was born when a branch from the tree he was felling fell on him.

things of beauty

"The truth of faith has little value when it is not also the life of the heart" B. Manning

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my little family are all sleeping in. that's what holidays are for. and reflecting on beautiful things. i have read my morning bible reading~ about Noah, leaving the ark. about Jesus, calling his disciples.

i am enjoying a cup of tea and a chocolate filled croissant.

we had a New Year's email from friends in France. they spent Christmas with her family in the countryside and then returned home to Paris to spend New Year's Eve together with their two girls. it sounds divine. i wonder if Parisians appreciate all they have at their doorstep. perfectly manicured gardens, art, flowers, cafes, pastries, cheese. art. people selling foodstuffs from carts outside famous buildings and galleries - roasted chestnuts (which we ate while queuing outside the Musee d'Orsey) crepes that we bought at night and ate while walking back to our hotel. and did i mention art? on Monday David and i are going to see the exhibition of works from the Musee d'Orsey here at the National Gallery. i can't wait. it is not often we get to do this anymore. my membership lapsed long ago when i realised "spare" time doesn't really exist anymore!

meanwhile, while on holidays i am enjoying some embroidery. i take it everywhere with me in a little pouch that fits in my handbag. it is a piece for a quilt i am sewing. it is suitably called the 'French Revival Quilt'.
i am also planning to sew Nicholas a library bag. i foolishly gave him a choice of fabric - small soldiers or chickens. he says he would like one side to be the soldiers and the other side to be the chickens! not exactly complimentary fabrics. he then said maybe the handles could be the chickens. that might be a better option.

David has been amusing himself with a jigsaw puzzle while on holiday, so i need him to finish it in order to set up the sewing machine!one final beautiful picture: Heather and Rob gave us a couple of figs yesterday and i was reminded of this delectable picture i saw in one of my Christmas magazines: walnuts, cheese figs and a drizzle of honey!

Happy New Year!

praying for a blessed year of happiness, loving generously and contentment!