post in 3 parts - motherhood + milestones

today Nicholas and i went to his preschool to collect his enrolment pack. he met his teacher and she took him to see his classroom. i am really excited about his starting preschool next year. i was especially excited to read "Library day is: Tuesday. Your child will need a cloth library bag."
i already know which fabric i will use to make it. (very fuzzy pic) his preschool is lovely - such a big yard with lots of equipment and trees. and his teacher was immediately welcoming and friendly. i wonder at which point i will cry. i know i will definately be a "first day at school crying parent..."
and today was momentous. Nicholas finally put his face in the water at his swimming lesson. lots of high 5's from his teachers. :)

post in 3 parts - weekend away

time for r & r

phew. the end of the working week (i changed the days i worked this week to accommodate an international delegation that was arriving). it dosn't sound like much, but the work involved in managing one of these study programs is huge.
last night was the official dinner. the delegation of 16 were there, plus the ambassador of the country... a representative from foreign affairs and half a dozen of our senior management. it was a long day/ night and i was home at 11pm. now i can relax.
on Tuesday David's mum had asked Nicholas if he wanted to sleep over because he and Audrey would be there the next day. and apparently he said no, "because he wanted to go home and see mama".
this morning he told me he didn't want me to work anymore. not any days. i said i wouldn't work lots anymore, but that i needed to work just a little bit so that we had money to buy food and clothes. he then said i didn't need to because i have lots of money - and proceeded to go and get the small box David and i put our loose change in. i'd be lucky to be able to buy a newspaper with what was in there.
today he was misbehaving SO much. i guess the change of our crazy routine has been hard on him too. it made me feel justified in declining an invitation to dine at the Ambassador's residence tonight... it probably wasn't appropriate, but it really has proved to me that i am happy in my little home, with my family. during the dinner last night i was reminded of a scene in one of my favourite movies Girl in the Cafe, where a woman finds herself invited to a dinner during a G8 summit. surrounded by dignitaries from all over the world, she challenges them regarding the number of people that are dying of starvation while they dine and talk... David always finds this scene painful to watch, and i always say "good on her". i smiled at dinner last night, because i tied to imagine myself in such a situation. i told David when i got home, "don't worry - i wouldn't have done it".
on tuesday night i did something unusual - went to dinner and a movie with two of my closest friends. i think they know me too well as they actually approached David and said "Michelle is coming out with us on Tuesday". he didn't have a problem with that - it is me who likes being at home, knowing everyone is in bed asleep - just where they should be. thankfully the movie was at a mum respectable hour -7pm. i really enjoyed it - i bought the novel in 2005 while we were on holiday in the Barossa (with the same friends) but had not got around to reading it. mum did though. Time Traveller' Wife. i really enjoyed it, although i cried at the end - i put it down to tiredness! :)


i think mum would like the movie too. she and dad are home from New Zealand on Sunday. Yay! welcome home mum - see you soon. :)
now i am in a dilemma. tonight i finished the novel i have been reading, Remarkable Creatures
should i read The Time Traveller's Wife, or the new novel i have bought - The Hollow Tree??

paper craft

as usual there is a lot of craft on my mind. nearing Christmas, i want to make a few things - for gifts and for home...
but i am particularly inspired to do some paper craft. i have not scrapped in SO long. i have a little bundle, just waiting for me to make Audrey's first 5 years record book... then i remember i am still yet to do her first year photo album. and, with Christmas 2009 looming, i am reminded that i have not yet caught up on my Christmas album.
i was also inspired by this photo frame in the latest Toast home catalogue. i thought i would attempt a collage of old family photographs. but first i need to decide which ones to use... i also want to display the arrowheads i collected from the United States while there in 1995. i contacted my old archaeology/anthropology lecturer to ask his advice on framing them. he sent an informative email and wants to catch up, so hopefully Dave and i will be visiting him at his property just outside of Canberra soon. just a few more things to add to the pile of paintings, certificates and photographs waiting to be framed. so much to do, so little time...

i picked the right week to resume part time hours at work. a public holiday today means i have three days at home. there is so much going on at work, and i seem to be taking more and more responsibility for staff and projects. the last three weeks have yet again proved how important my family are.
last week, in the midst of a really stressful situation at work, Nicholas would not go to sleep at his usual time. it was 10pm and i was still trying to get him to go to sleep. my body ached like i hadn't felt it before - i think it was because i was stressed as it hurt from the inside out - literally, my bones ached. i told Nicholas to please go to sleep as i was tired and had to go to work in the morning. he lay in his bed and started to cry. he said "but i don't want you to work this many days and this many days" pointing to his fingers and toes. "when will you stay home with me?" and that was all i needed to give my self a reality check and put my priorities where they needed to be. i'll always do my best at work, and i take pride in the projects i am responsible for, but work is not my life. my life begins when i leave that office at 5pm. i am not going to get caught up in the rat race - the ladder so many strive to climb. it does not satisfy me. i am looking forward to the days home with Nicholas and Audrey, to swimming and gardening. i can't wait until we have a weekend at the coast (only a weekend, but time away as a family). i can't wait until Christmas - Audrey will be an age to enjoy it this year. (i have a new book of Christmas craft). Nicholas loves exploring and looking for fossils. i want to be in their world a little more. this is what satisfies me.

on something else entirely, my parents bought me a book last year called Exiles by Micahel Frost. it is a book that encourages Christians to embrace a dynamic, life-affirming, robust Christian faith that can be lived confidently in a world that no longer values such faith. (book blurb...)
this part resonates with me. i am by no means a die hard environmentalist or a greenie, but to me, this makes sense.
many Christians are "deeply concerned about the state of the global environment and are ashamed of the fact that Christians around the world seem unable to speak with one voice about the looming ecological crisis confronting us. They wish there could be a form of Christian environmentalism that offers a witness to our world about the need to care for our planet. In the absence of such a thing, many turn to movements such as Greenpeace to express their environmental disquiet. If we are to develop a genuinely Christian expression of environmentalism, it should arise from an informed, thoughtful, and faithful consideration of environmental concerns from the perspective of the Christian faith. As is the case with any moral question, a Christian approach to those issues must include as its central source of insight the biblical witness. Thios is not to say that he biblical understandingof the world cannot be expanded by subsequent insights into the nature of things; it is to say that a genuinely Christian ethic is, and must be, compatible with the witness of the Christian Scriptures...
It was Jesus who taught us to pray, "Your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven" (Matt 6:10). The idea that we ahve little or no responsabilty for the earth or its creatures because one day we'll be raptured into heaven is a misreading of Scripture. Regardless of one's view on the nature of Christ's second coming, it is imperative that we value what God values. God valued this planet and all its creatures by creating them and calling them good in the first place."

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.