learning things

in the past two weeks we have learnt two things. after looking after Dave's parents' dog for three weeks, we know we do not want a pet dog.

after working full time for two weeks (and i still have a week to go) i know that once i do return to work full time, we are getting a cleaner! :)

over the past two weeks i have spoken everyday to people, if not in most of these countries, then in all of them.

Zambia

Nepal
Jordan
East Timor
Papua New Guinea
Afghanistan
Indonesia

having to answer questions from Executive, try and be "diplomatic" in very frustrating circumstances with some of the so-called diplomatic corps has left me exhausted.
my brain hurts from trying to stay on top of each project, where it is at, what the current objectives are and where it needs to go next. thankfully colleagues begin to arrive back from leave next week.

it is times like this i think of kissing my kids on the head as they are sleeping at night, and the world seems right! i am grateful that i can come home and do things to relax...

on Thursday Dave was later home with the kids than usual. so i made this dress (free pattern here):

it is the first item of clothing i have made. i was really pleased with it as sewing - or even reading patterns - does not come naturally to me.

Mel took these photos while she was looking after Nicholas and Audrey.

Genesis 2:15

And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

together

another nice weekend together. pleasant and productive. on Saturday we went to probably my favourite place in Canberra. Lanyon Homestead. i can't believe that suburbia is now right at its front gate. i remember having to drive through bush to get there. i can't believe that i was telling David about when i was a volunteer guide at Lanyon - twenty years ago! i can't believe that i am refering to anything i did in my life twenty years ago! we had a lovely brunch and the kids enjoyed running around. we had a look at the vege garden, and came home ready for a mammoth weeding session. a couple of hours and we barely touched the job ahead of us!
David planted our vege seeds in pots - all but the asparagus. we missed the right planting time, so it will have to be next year. meaning another three years before we can eat it! :(
i spent the afternoon putting four coats on the wooden highchair for Audrey. hopefully David can attach the tray this week and it will be ready for her (i bet she wants her plastic one instead!!)
Audrey is growing so much. she talks a lot. i keep reminding myself i have to get her baby book started. she loves her teddy. we aren't original with toy names. she has "teddy". Nicholas has "puppy" and "humpty". i'd hate to lose any of them. Nicholas and Audrey love playing together. she calls him "Nah". she takes his hand and walks to either of their rooms and then wants to play whatever game he played with her the day before. Nicholas adores her. by the end of the day he torments her too. i can't believe he will be at preschool next year, but i know he is ready for it and will love it. other than playgroup and an hour in Sunday School, we don't really have the opportunity for him to play with other kids. last night i got so frustrated with him, over the usual kid misbehaviour, but compounded with being tired i scolded him more than necessary. then when he was asleep i felt like crying. he always tells me he loves me to the moon. then he gives me a "thumbs up" and says "that's our sign". i think i started that during swimming lessons, when he would look at me tearfully from the pool. i'd smile and hold my thumb up to him. now he says "i love you to the moon" sometimes followed by "mama, i want to marry you, because i love you." i can't imagine that the day will come when i am not longer the most important person in his life! (along with his da...) and something to share: i have read a lot about audio books lately. i found this site for free audio books to download. they include all the classics: Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, Alice in Wonderland, Beatrix Potter Collection, Seven Little Australians, Anne of Green Gables and so much more.

what day is it today?

i am home today - it was the only day in the next three weeks while i work fulltime that we didn't have anyone to look after the kids. i don't mind. a quiet day home is a good thing. :)

i am enjoying small things:

bags for collecting beach treasures.

finding new sewing inspiration in old Toast catalogues.

colour in our garden.

Alexander McCall Smith's latest audio novel - online.

illustrations in a new children's book i bought for myself. i mean for Nicholas and Audrey....

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am not enjoying another government who hides behind irrelevant and outdates conventions...

long and rainy weekend

one thing about the rain, and David being away, is that we are more or less housebound. in a good way. i wanted to go and buy sandals for the kids (not that we need them this weekend) but the rain deferred any shopping ventures.

the days seem long. and at night when the kids are asleep the house is quiet. Audrey has slept from 7pm to 7am uninterrupted the past two nights!

i have read - i am almost finished Wildflower (quite a depressing story in the end!) and have a new book waiting for me to begin.

and i have sewed. i put the next three blocks together so that all i need to focus on now is the stitchery. see the little feet in the picture? she insisted on standing on various blocks, saying "pretty".

and these quick and cute treasure bags - just waiting for binding and handles. the pattern is from Handmade Home and the idea is that the kids take them to the beach (or bushwalking) to collect things they find - made from window mesh, sand and dirt should fall through. we'll get to test them when we go to Merimbula in November.

one thing i hate is dishcloths, that smell awful and need to be bought regularly. i try to buy ones that can at least be washed once or twice. i came across some free patterns for crocheted dishcloths, and asked mum if she could still crochet. but she didn't know the stitches referred to in the pattern.

and look what was posted today. a KNITTED dishcloth! won't she be pleased i found this one? she can knit. :0)

i like this quote: "Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little" ~ Edmund Burke. i think this is a good approach to life!

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two little teapots:

Nicholas feeling so grown up (and serious!) dressed for his Sunday School teachers wedding.

confessions

i should be doing the dishes. i have been working overtime to ensure the house stays "tidy". i won't say spotless, because that would just be silly.
but instead of doing dishes i did the "Who do you end up with in a Jane Austen novel?" quiz.
Intensely romantic, a lover of music, and completely devoted to making you happy, you're suited for Colonel Brandon. He has a tragic history concerning love, but couldn't help but fall for you, your pretty smile and your enthusiasm for life. Maybe he was a little older than you were looking for, and maybe he didn't seem too exciting at first glance, so you might have overlooked him in the beginning, but when you got to know him you found out that the tall, dark and romantic were your thing after all. Don't judge books by their covers! He'll play you melancholy piano music, read you poetry and go on long walks in the moonlight. Colonel Brandon is your mysterious, romantic match. Have fun! Income: 2000 pounds/year (approx. 1,200,000 today).
the quiz was actually on facebook. i have a confession to make - i am a boring facebooker (or whatever the term may be). i don't update my status, i don't (or rarely) write on walls. the only people i have actively sought out are my two best friends from the third grade. and it is lovely catching up with them. and then a dear friend, possibly the kindest and gentlest person i know, found me.
but a Jane Austen quiz? that tempts me. especially if i should be doing housework.
i am tired. i am nervous about the next month and what it may bring. my work is SO busy at the moment, and today the realisation of my manager, that the three full time staff members in my workplace will be away for over a month gave me chills. i tentatively approached him. "i could work full time if you need me to??" am i insane? obviously i am, as he replied: "that WOULD really help." before i knew it the papers were signed.
gulp. five days per week, shuffling children to willing (gracious, kind, patient, so good) family members... searching my heart for a double dose of patience as i will my children to a quick dinner and early bedtime each night, only to do it again and again and again. extra responsibility, a larger managerial role... clearly i AM insane. (it is only for a month i remind myself). so a Jane Austen quiz? yes please!

but it is not all woe - one of those colleagues who will be away has given David and i her theatre tickets. yay Bell Shakespeare! here we come. and in mid November i will be found with my family, sitting on the beach. bring it on.

busy, busy, busy -doing what?

gardening.
not planting seeds yet ... just spreading manure!

reading. am almost finished 'Wildflower':

"Stayed home all day - always plenty to do. I never catch up", she wrote in october 1994. She noted nights when huge bull hippos fed outsude her bedroom window and pearl-spotted owls were catching and hiding mice and twenty-four waterbuck were prancing across her garden.
How she loved this lake, its stillness, its peace. "Quiet day on my own," she wrote that October 1994. "Letter writing. Planting aloes and snipping plants. raining gently at night. grass green. Garden and lake looking lovely."

i also bought the first volume of Thomas Keneally's history of Australia. when i got home i thought i'd check the index in case one of my notorious ancestors featured. five generations back my maternal (great x 5) grandmother came to Australia aboard the 'Lady Penrhyn'. my (great x 5) grandfather arrived as a marine aboard the 'Friendship'. and guess what?! she is in there! 600+ pages... hopefully i will finish before volume 2 comes out in 2011!!

and we've simply been enjoying the outdoors.
working lots. many changes are in the air at work, and my area seems to be at the centre... exciting, but demanding.

parenting. i read this the other day. Choose to follow the examples of our pioneer forbears; live simply, live close to the earth and close to your loved ones. i like that. i think by the time your second baby comes around you realise how much is simply not necessary! yes, i'm all for simplyfying...

and to relax, some good tv - a wildlife documentary on Yellowstone National Park is featuring on ABC. and rightly predicted, Nicholas is loving it. his great-aunt has been sending wildlife animal flash cards, so he has been a sponge as far as information goes!
David and i have also been watching River Cottage. enjoying all of the ideas that come with preparing your own vegetable garden and living according to the season...